They stopped hiring apprentice and journeyman carpenters 15 years ago.  Houses now are built by illegals who never had an hour of training.

Nice refocusing (and new banner), Tom.  (Topical/thematic blogs by community members is a direction we would like to go in, esp. for organizational and featuring purposes.)

When my wife and I were getting ready to move here from LA 3 years ago, we visited one model home and said, "Nuh-uh."  Did some online research re: older neighborhoods (actually discovered Oleander and Westchester thru the Californian), and so when we came up with a realtor, we saw 10 houses only in those areas in one day.  Came home, and made an offer on our 1952 Westchester ranch house, and started reading Dwell and Atomic Ranch.  Heh.  Anyway, we're not DIYers, but we had the exterior paint redone and the narrow kitchen totally redone this summer, and now we can entertain like we like to.  Looking forward to your new blogging efforts here.

Tonw

There are still jobs for journeymen,  but they have to travel long distances to get to them.

I've moved into a house that appears to have been built in the late 40's or early 50's.  It has hardwood floors, rounded ceiling in the living room, a separate small dining room and a detached garage with SLIDING doors!  I almost feel like the Cleaver family here.  Unfortunately the floor furnace went out the week after I moved in and the owner is having a dual pack installed.  In the meantime, I've been without heat for tha last two weeks...and wouldn't you know we would start with the frosts right now.

Anyway..the windows all have molding around them (double hung of course) and the place really has charm.  As soon as I can feel my hands again I'll get the rest of the boxes empty and start to enjoy "this old house."  I had the same feeling about the Oleander area..I love all the houses there with the exception of the "bungalow" style built with rocks.  Not my cuppa tea.

Sounds like a very pretty place.

Tom..my apologies for not thanking you for taking a break from politics.  I remember that you said after the elections you would break away and so you did.  Thank you so much for bringing a really interesting topic to the table. 

About the driveway.   I discovered a really interesting thing.  It's two strips of concrete out to about 3/4's of the lot.  The sidewalk is the same way.  The part Mark mentioned that has a date stamped in it is an extension added later that meets the curb and forms the drive in part...as is the sidewalk to the curb.  I started looking around the neighborhood and they're all like that.  Why would the builders have stopped short of the street?   I doubt curbs and gutters were put in when it they were built so would they have had a wider street then?  Anyone know about the customs in that time?

(by the way..this is the second time I posted this..the first one disappeared and I DID put in the code letters.)

Thanks Tom.  As for the mantle..no fireplace so no mantle.  I'm actually wondering what I'm going to do with the stuff I had for the 12 foot mantle I had in my last house.  I had collectable glassware on it and for this season..all kinds of villages, elf, santas, and snowmen.  Now I have no place to put any of them.

I checked out zillow and it said the house was built in 1940.  WhooooHooooo..as Mark said..it's older than I am !.

If it was built in 1940, that explains the coved ceilings in just the living room and no other rooms. It was built during a transitionary period.

I agree with Tom about your hybrid driveway. The curbs and gutters were most likely added later and needed joining to the existing driveway. The vents above the stove and bath tub were common. Most of the homes of that era had large fans mounted above them, with a switch. Over the years, these fans were removed and plywood was put over the vent panels (on the top side). I'll bet that if you look in the attic, you'll find this to be true. They let an awful lot of heat out during the winter. My friend's Father modified the plywood panel above the stove with hinges, so it sould be opened in the Summer and closed during the Winter. He also put the old fan back. He found it laying in the Attic, tossed over to the side. He did, however, leave the one in the Bathroom sealed.

Theirs was a neat Cottage. It was built in 1932 and had coved ceilings in every room in the main house. The Utility room (no coved ceiling) was attached, but you had to walk across a breezway to get to it. It didn't have a fireplace, but it had an arched front door and an arched picture window in the living room. Get this, the glass in the window was actually cut in a rectangle, but the arch at the top was framed over the glass on the inside and outside, to make it look as though the glass was cut that way. Nobody realized it the window was broken and needed replaced.

Tony...you could be right about the vents being sealed.  with no furnace I've been turning the oven on very low (not while sleeping though) and the kitchen warms right up.  If the vent was open I'd probably be able to tell.  Same with the bathroom.  The owner had told me the vent didn't work very well and I might have to crack the window for the shower...I noticed with the little electric heater the bath got warm quickly too.

Good news here...the dual pack was on the roof when I got home.  It's supposed to be hooked up tomorrow when they run the gas and electric to it.

I wonder how many of those old arched windows were framed around the rectangle?    I always wanted one of the houses like that.  I'll bet replacing the actual arched glass would cost a pretty penny.

Yea, I'm the same way with old buildings. I guess they built the atched winows that way back before they figured out how to cut arched glass. As I said before, rebuilding the wall with an arched window frame was the majority of the work.

(lol).........Try going through Airport Security with a 4 foot long single flute drill bit, in a clear plastic tube. When the Security Agent asks what it is, you tell her "It's a Gun Drill". Poor woman turned white as a sheet and I thought her knees were going to buckle. After about 25 minutes, they let me through and I asked the flight crew if they'd put into a forward closet, so it wouldn't get bent.

A gun drill is used in a special machine for drilling very deep holes. Think about how the hole is made through a rifle barrel, or how hollow rear axles for race cars are drilled.............

I think what you're talking about is a drill bit that is welded to a long shaft. They can be used for drilling through fire blocking AND the top plate, in a wall cavety, to run wire...Is that right? I've got a 6ft one with a 3/8" bit on the end.

Tony, you're right about the bit I was talking about. I'd never heard of the one you're talking about.  I did some metal work in college, but never anything that cool.  What were you doing with that sucker?

I'm an Engineer in the Medical Implant Manufacturing Industry. I can take drill a hole through a bar of 316 Stainless Steel or 6Al-4V Titanium to a depth in excess of 180 times the diameter and maintain less that .004" of total runout. There are only a few people in the world who can actually do this. I've been doing extreme deep hole work for years. This is actually my forte'. I'm also very well versed in many processes using high alloy materials.

I was actually carrying the drill to a Vendor's shop, to teach them to drill in this manner. They were going to manufacture some parts for me. The drill was special, in that it had a custom grind on the cutting tip. I ground it myself.

The water heater I complained about has now been turned up and I have scalding water.  Which is fine with me.  The problem now may not be a problem, but what makes the kitchen faucet shudder when the hot water faucet is turned on low?  When I turn it on higher volume it stops.  The hot and cold faucets are mounted on the backsplash with a single spout.

It makes a heck of a racket.  Any ideas anyone?

Nancy,

Did this "shudder" occur BEFORE the hot water heater was turned up? If so, it's the way the pipes are mounted in the wall. The hot water pipe might be loose and bouncing around a little in the wall. When pressure is relieved, it can cause a pipe to vibrate if it's not strapped down tightly.

If it DIDN'T occur before the hot water heater was turned up, it could be that the water heater is now producing a small amount of steam. This isn't common, but it can happen with older hot water heaters and galvenized pipe.

Tom,

High precision Machinists are paid very well. The cost of living around Memphis is around 20% less than Bakersfield, and, with a few years experience, they make between $18 and $23 bucks an hour, plus GOOD benefits. Medical, Dental, Vision, 401K, etc. The paid vacation starts at 2 weeks a year + 1/2 bonus day per month (that can be saved up), if you're not late for work or leave early. At 5 years, they get 3 weeks. At 12 years, they get 4 weeks. This is also working in an air conditioned, clean (Clean like your kitchen) shop. Medical Devices aren't manufactured in the old typical greasy, dark machine shops. Our factories are cleaner and better lit than my kids' schools.

These trades require a fairly high level of math skills. Some of the machines have 10 axes of movement and are Computer Numerically Controlled. They're also machining superalloys.

See Tom, if B.C. would build a SERIOUS technology program and Cal State would assemble a REAL College of Engineering (Biologics included), and the two schools set and worked toward a common goal, things would change. With the world demographics heading the way they are (the population is getting older), the demand for Orthopedic and Spinal Implants is, and will continue to grow.

The Staff positions in the industry (Engineering, Marketing, Accounting, Information Technology, Legal, Business Management) earn between 48K to over six figures per year, depending on experience and performance. This doesn't even take into account the Executive Staff saleries. These incomes could be floating around in the local econemy. When people have money, they spend money.

Crap, think about it like this...............Memphis is nasty humid in the summer. It's like 92% humidity and 90*. In the winter, we have periodic snow and ice. Sometimes, we have ice storms that shut everything down. It takes 8 hours to get to somewhere that LOOKS different than it does here. Because of the humidity, ther are LOTS OF BUGS in the warmer months also.

Warsaw, Indiana is the Capital of the Orthopedic Manufacturing Industry, with Memphis recently running second. It's got about 34,000 people, and is a good hour from Ft. Wayne in one direction and South Bend in the other. If you want to go to a REAL city, it's 2 hours south, to Indy. In the winter, it gets down into the single digits regularly. They have a lot of snow and ice. Summer is nice, but it only lasts for about a month and a half. It takes about 6 or 7 hours to find somewhere that isn't Corn Fields or Dairy Farms. It's flat as a board. There are NO mountains. There is NO beach. There are, however, lots of lakes. The trouble is that if you live on a lake up there, the wind blowing off of the lake in the winter will deposite a nice 4 inch layer of ice against the back of your house, deck, yard, .....................With all of the cold, there's nowhere to even go Skiing.

I truely believe that Bakersfield has a much better location for quality of life. These days, with the Generation "Y" workforce coming, quality of life matters a lot.

The shudder didn't happen before the heater was turned up so the temp must have something to do with it.  I don't have to turn hard, it's still a bit soft, but I have to make sure it IS all the way or it drips.  I don't have a regular drip but the washers could need replacing.

If I turn the volume up the shudder stops immediately.  I'm thinking I might have to turn it down just a tad because it really could scald someone who wasn't expecting it.  Ack..never, ever in my life have I had a problem with a water heater..until one went completely out.  Now I know why people say living in an old house has charm and character..but also many, many problems.  Trouble is, it's a rental I'm not one to bug a landlord for little things that I can fix myself.  I've already bought a new cookstove, (to replace an ancient Wedgewood) a new toilet seat, a wireless doorbell, and sprayed for bugs around the front porch.

I'm the kind of renter I always wanted when I had rentals.  :-)