RW>  RW>> The people doing the building don't want to live in those little
 RW>  RW>> shacks.

 CH>  True of shacks but I'm talking about 2k to 3K sq ft. 3 to 5 bdrm/3
 CH> to 4 bath...etc.

 RW> Those are shacks. 5000 square feet is a minimum for them.


 You're joking. ? 5K square feet? Well we don't want or need a house
that big...  anyway.

How are you defining shack? To me a shack is a house poorly built and
in need of repair no matter HOW big it is. Or also called a dump.

I'd rather have a small well built home than a big house anyday.
Easier to keep up with. :)
.........

 RW> That's normal for California. You can reach out and actually touch
 RW> your neighbor.

Ick. There's some subdivisions like that here in Orlando. And you know
here's a funny thing. SO many  areas named WInter this or that for
some reason . Winter Springs, Winter Gardens, Winter Park, WInter
run...

By the way, seeking Israeli toasted couscous- we found it at "Fresh
Food Market in South Orlando.. coming back north, passing a
subdivision named 'Winter Run' there's "Texas Avenue". No kidding!

.....

 CH> anyway but still the closeness of these big houses to each other
 CH> gives you the feeling of ' a bigger shack'.

 RW> Here in Texas, we have lots of room to waste. My lot is 89 x 125 w/a
 RW> 1450 sq ft cottage and some out buildings on it.

 That- is an affirm. Did you read about that company starting up with
teeny little two room houses? :) To use as motel rooms / short term
rentals. Talk about extremes. One end huge boxy 3K sqfters to teeny
1000 or less..  I think the tiny are going for something like 60K.

"We have a lots of room to waste" is a sad statement. Do you know why?
I bet you do. I don't want to get into it unless you do. HINT: humans
think the land is all for them. To heck with the rest of life forms...
ohokay I'll shut up now.

.....
 CH> looks. Very deceptive in fact. These houses go up in five months.
 CH> That's fast. The ground has no time to settle before the slab goes
 CH> down. Crack crack crack...

 RW> Wouldn't settling mean that they bulldozed and/or leveled the land
 RW> before they built? I thought Florida was as flat as it can get.

 Settling means after bulldozing letting the disturbed ground settle
down. And no not all Texas or Florida is flat, actually builders built
IN little slopes and such to help with drainage... in Texas anyway.
The ground is different in
the DFW area as you may know. It's clay. Sand is used though pre sodding.
((The development our house is in was
built on a fill. There are ponds in the center..a swamp that is.
.....

 CH> When we first moved to our Development in 2003 we were oen of the
 CH> first houses there. A neighbor warned us about the plumbing. The
 CH> builders hire the cheapest they can find. Sure enough we had plumbing
 CH> problems. Got it fixed by the same company (this all under warrantee)
 CH> but it wasn't a good fix. Hubby ended up fixing it himself which I
 CH> must say was a better fix. (Involved sealing around the toilet in
 CH> upstairs bathroom)... Sometimes it pays to do it yourself as long as
 CH> you know what you're doing.

 RW> That's a wax seal, so it's not hard to do.

 CH> He's got electronics exp so wried a missing bulb socket in the
 CH> utility room. It's amazing all the little oops that go undetected
 CH> during inspection!

 RW> I doubt that they inspect for what's supposed to be there as in
 RW> fixtures, rather, they inspect wire routing and hook up to the mains.

 CH> OH there was the gas leak from the stove nobody noticed. I smelled it
 CH> and finally when the plumber came to do that fix on the toilet he did
 CH> too and THEN we got the leak fixed. Funny that. Nobody noticed it
 CH> during inspection. hmm. Not even me but at that time I wasn't
 CH> looking.

 RW> Maybe the gas wasn't on when you inspected it?


C: yeah that occurred to me except that the plumber said he had noticed
it too but didn't say anything. It was only when I demanded it be
checked that it got fixed. Sheeze. :( I think "inspection" is for
paper work only. They figure you're so happy to be getting a house you
won't notice anything til it's too late (past warrantee.)
....


 RW> Been there and done that with our rental in California. Not being
 RW> there and having an agency take care of it wasn't what we expected
 RW> either. They didn't care about the property, just their 10% cut from
 RW> the rent. Not to mentin that they wanted us to use their handy-man to
 RW> fix things. I already had a taste of that when they cut the grass. $75

 Thanks for the confirmation on our doubts. IIRC the idea of renters
paying a deposit came about when some renters would damage the
property deliberately and sue the owner? So the deposit is supposed to
protect the owner from fraud? If you wreck the place e you don't get
your deposit back. Of course the Deposit has to be deep enough to
cover for say replacing floors/carpeting (the usual- most often
damaged items. Plumbing/fixtures and walls needing painting...)


Oh Now what builders do is spray paint everything inside the new
home/rental unit. So in doing that they replace the carpet no matter
what. Such waste! But that's how it these days. It's cheaper to be
wasteful.

Oh. If you buy a new home with crapeting, and want to lay wood floors.
Prepare to remove paint from the slab underneath.

.........

 RW> We were just told that there's a 'burn ban' that took affect
 RW> yesterday. No rain for quite a while here. My yard is turning yellow.

 We had a sprinkle last evening. One of those quick showers with
thunder and lightening. Clears up , sun just about to set, long enough
to dry it all up. Feels like Texas  (The weather has been just
about the same this spring, only dryer HERE, not Texas. In the 90's
too....

.......

... The moon isn't waxing, it's dusting and vacuuming.

--- PPoint 3.01