lloydalter's Profile

I have a tankless, cross connected to my hot water radiator system so it was a lot more money. I have found a number of issues:

1) Unless you oversize it, it is hard to run more than one appliance at once. No showering with the washing machine on.

2) there is annual maintenance, flushing the unit. I was not informed of this by my vendor and after three years I had a $ 700 rebuild.

3) If you have a teenager who likes long showers, they never run out of hot water and you don't save anything.

4) if I had the option to do it all over, I wouldn't. The savings are not worth the aggravation.

Jane and Weston was a solid blue collar part of town where people worked for the railroad and then Kodak. They closed and it has been problematic since. But the housing stock is solid and it will soon have a high speed train going straight downtown (albeit smelly diesel instead of electric). The average price of a single family house just hit 780K in Toronto, and Weston is where families will have to go if they want a house that isn't out of town. Good timing, it will be hot in a few years.

Now if they would only put the Control key back there where it was on my old Kaypro II all would be well in the world.

I am doing this completely from memory and may need correction, but the UK and probably australian systems use what was called a split perimeter loop wiring layout; instead of running a pile of wires back to the fusebox like north americans, they ran a high capacity wire around the space and the fuses were right at the outlet. So you have to be able to turn off the power at the outlet to change the fuse.

I think you have it backwards. Wood is a renewable resource and can be sustainably harvested; two hundred year old barns are a treasured part of our cultural heritage landscapes. The National Trust for Historic preservation has a Barns again program,, there is a national barns Alliance to preserve them, people all over the countryside are desperately trying to stop the tide of rich city types buying up these classic structures to line rec rooms and build trendy suburban houses out of them.

Barns should be barns, restored and repurposed, and tearing them apart and doing this is not greener than sustainably harvesting wood.

While my day job is writing for TreeHugger, my night gig is being president of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, where I spend my time trying to make people realize that this stuff belongs in barns, not rec rooms. I sometimes feel it is a lost cause.

I should note that I do not think Wolfgang Winter and Berthold Hörbelt had anything to do with the cathedral of crates; it was on the original post that I referred to and was able to source the cratehouse to them but not the belgian jupiler building.

a Kaypro II; I still have it and it still works, and Wordstar is still the best word processor ever.

Every Canadian has one too. The newer "cordless" designs with the detachable base are wonderful. They use far less energy than cooking on the stove as well! Can't write any more- off to make tea.

If you look at the US Steel site they say very clearly:

Consistent with United States Steel Corporation's ("USS") policy over the last two decades, USS reiterates and reminds that COR-TEN® steel sheet products should not be sold when the intended use is for an architectural application, such as roofing and siding. USS has consistently maintained this position because of the risk of corrosion from factors beyond the control of the COR-TEN® steel licensee (e.g. improper design, fabrication, erection and/or maintenance).

Reasons

* The tight oxide skin of COR-TEN® Steel reforms after abrasion from snow, ice, sand, dirt and hail.
* Acid rain also causes the skin to reform.
* As the skin reforms the product actually becomes thinner and eventually will be perforated.

Application

* Special attention must be paid to the drainage of storm water to prevent staining of surrounding structures, sidewalks, and other surfaces.
* COR-TEN® Steel must be kept free from debris such as leaves, pine needles, etc. These waste products retard the wet/dry cycle necessary for COR-TEN® Steel and corrosion is accelerated."

As an architect, when a manufacturer says don't use something, it is lawsuit city when you do, no matter how nice it is.

yes yes yes! I love their stuff and they are a great addition here. Of course I was also desperate to see Muji and when I saw it the night of the Apartment Therapy party at henrybuilt I was incredibly disappointed. I hope the same thing doesn't happen here too.