Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with house

what's a schedule a?

crazylegs — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:28:57 -0800

What the heck is a "Schedule A" in real estate? This question is referring specifically to real estate in Canada, I don't know if it's different in the US or elsewhere. What does it mean when a property ad says "Schedule A required"?

Canada jokes involving the phrase "schedule, eh?" prohibited.

How to cleanout a clogged vent stack?

mmascolino — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:42:00 -0800

Help me best attack a clogged vent stack. I've been in my late '30s house now for two years and the two bathroom vanities (located one on top of each other) have always drained slowly. I've cleaned out the traps and snaked periodically and that has always helped somewhat but never to the point that I could truly claim victory.

I've finally gotten around to going up on the roof to peer into the vent stack openings (I have three of them and they are all fairly large (3.5" diameter pipe). None of these pipes are covered or screened which seems like an oversight to me. I do have very large trees in front and rear of the house so who know how much stuff is down there.

Anyways, two of the the three pipes are clear. In the not clear pipe, I can see standing water. Using a manual snake, I can make it down about 11 feet before I hit an obstruction (or a piece of pipe that I can't navigate). Of that, about 7 feet of it is standing water.

I tried the snake for some time, but clearly I was unsuccessful. Besides calling a professional with a professional snake, is there anything else I can try? I've thought of trying the garden house with a straight line high pressure nozzle but haven't bought one yet. Is there any safe enzymes or bacteria that I can put down the vent stack that eat away at the (presumed) organic material that is blocking my vent? I do have a shop vac but due to roof design it would be tough and dangerous to get that up there.

Thanks in advance for all your suggestions.

How do I stop construction workers from waking me?

Elminster24 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:45:12 -0800

Noisy Neighbors Filter: The construction at the house next door is waking me up every morning and they start before 8am. How early can residential construction in Chicago begin and what can I do to bust them if they violate that start time? The house that is adjacent to my walk-up is having construction done and it is waking me up early every morning. It is driving me absolutely crazy (I'm writing this at 8:30am btw).

I am no lawyer, but someone had told me they could not begin before 8am, so I went over one morning and asked if they had an early start permit and they said no and that they would wait till 8 and were generally very nice about it (of course they didn't really speak english well so not sure if they fully understood). Then their boss came by a little later and I could hear him talking to them out my back window once I went back inside and he was generally upset with the situation and started making calls to find out what the deal was with the start time. It sounded like it was indeed 8am. I also heard the tail end of a comment about how "its not a big deal because this is the only person thats complained so far."

My question is...does anybody know definitively what the earliest residential construction start time is in Chicago? Also, if they are violating this, what steps can I take to resolve the situation with the city? I'm sick of trying to talk to these people and now want to do whatever I can to get them busted for starting early and making my morning hell. Hopefully I can either get their permit revoked or get them fined.

While I don't typically get out of bed till 8:20am and realize I probably won't get them to hold off that long if the start time is indeed 8am, I'd at least like to hassle them and let them know I mean business. And this waking me up before 8am has GOT to stop.

Also, I don't believe talking to the neighbors themselves is an option...I don't think anybody is actually living there now, just some investor who's flipping a house and has people working on it all day.

What do I need to know about closing on a house?

kate blank — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:27:40 -0800

What do we need to know about closing on a house? We're in Canada. So, we're closing on our first house on August 8 (yes, it's 08/08/08). We've never done this before, so I wonder what we need to know/do. I read this thread about what can go wrong, and it was helpful, but I also wonder what else do I need to do? We have a mortgage, we have a down-payment, we have home insurance, we have money for our closing costs (but how much will they be, exactly? And who tells us that, and when?) and we have a lawyer to do a title search.

What I would really love is a website that says THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO so I can do everything on the list. Google wasn't all that helpful in finding one (particularly for Canada, and I would, of course, like a Canada-specific list as I am sure some thing vary between here and the US and the UK).

How low an offer should I take for my house?

Mom — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:56:45 -0800

How low an offer should I take for my house? 2 family house.

Bad: Has some knob&tube wiring, crappy, beat-up garage, kitchens haven't been renovated. Close to noisy road. 1 really awful neighbor that the city will take to court for basically being a dump. Built @ 100 years ago; I'm the 3rd owner.

Good: Has gorgeous period woodwork, pretty good location. Close to the ocean, shopping, bus lines, recreation, university. Replacement windows, insulation, recent roof.

Put it on the market at 325. Under contract at 305, buyer bailed out. Gave realtors 1 month extension of contract, reduced price 10% to 293.

There are are @ 50 2-family houses on the market, many more 3 & 4 family houses, and few buyers. Rents will cover my 1st & 2nd mortgages on the house. I have a new house, sick of being a landlord, would like to have cash to buy more land, and generally have better cash flow. Have negotiated an offer to 285.

My real question? How bad do you think the market will get? How bad do you think the economy will get? My town is healthy, real estate market is soft but hasn't really tanked. I tend to be quite pessimistic about the current state of affairs.

Thanks for your advice.

Hardwood Installer Recommendations in the GTA

kate blank — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:13:04 -0800

I'm looking for recommendations for a hardwood floor retailer/installer in the Greater Toronto Area. We're closing on a house August 8, and the first thing we want to do after we close and before we move in is replace the existing laminate floors with hardwoods. About a month and a half ago we contacted a highly-recommended retailer (Darmaga Hardwoods in Richmond Hill) and they came and gave us an estimate, we left a deposit, etc. Fast forward to this week and they've lost my estimate, file and deposit and won't do the job. (I could happily go on and on about that but it's not really relevant.) We're closing in less than a month and now that Darmaga has screwed us I've got to line up another hardwood installer in a jiffy. Any first-hand recommendations? I'd also love suggestions for installers to avoid.

This won't be a terribly high-end job -- just getting oak floors, upstairs and down (no stairs, though, they'll remain carpeted). The house in on the west side of Toronto.

How do I move back to New Orleans?

ultraultraboomerang — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:03:38 -0800

How do I move back to New Orleans? Or, in light of the economy here and elsewhere, should I stay in Baton Rouge and suck it up? I moved (reluctantly and luckily) from New Orleans for a job about a year before the storm. I've been an hour down the road in Baton Rouge for four years, and I just never made friends with this town. Also, I never made friends in this town. I'm paid pretty well for what I do, but all I do is go to work and come home. My boyfriend is in NOLA, and that's starting to be a problem, now that I'm getting sort of old for that kind of arrangement, especially when it costs $30 in gas just to get there and back.

I work in academia and could almost certainly get a similar job there at about a 20% pay cut. When I sell my condo here I'll end up with about $10k profit when all is said and done, which will be a nice cushion but is not enough for a down payment on anything (my current mortgage was no down payment, but since people bought million dollar houses with those and defaulted, I'm unlikely to get another one even though my credit is excellent). I have around $30k in retirement but I know I shouldn't even think about tapping in to that. (Right?)

So how do I do this? I make a good living here but have literally nothing else. Moving to New Orleans is risky for the obvious reasons, but it's the only place I can imagine having an actual life, with friends and a real boyfriend and things to do. Should I stay here and suck it up, having a weekend boyfriend, until something miraculous happens? Should I even be thinking about buying real estate there? (Obviously I'll be looking at the higher ground, probably Metairie.)

I guess I'm just looking for thoughts on the New Orleans economy in general (as perceived from inside and out), and thoughts on whether or not it's worth the sacrifice, in the midst of this economic clusterfuck, to give up a decent job and a decent (but boring and isolated) life to take a chance at a real relationship and a life that includes some friends who live in the same zip code.

Central air conditioner issues on a rental house in Texas.

Ufez Jones — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:45:38 -0800

Air conditioner puts out more water than cool air. Ideas on what two renters can do? The Texas summer is obviously too much for our new rent house to handle. With the thermostat at 78 degrees, it puts out at least 28 quarts of water per day (14 gallon bucket emptied twice, sometimes three times each day). While that's good for the herbs in the front, it's not so good for the internal temp of the house - the cooling cycles are long and do little to bring down our 80+ degree house to the thermostat setting. It also makes a loud noise when starting, almost like someone is kicking the housing unit. This is a central air-unit, not a window-based.

Being renters, there's not much else for us to do other than replace the filter (done when we moved in) and call the landlord to send someone out to inspect it, which we have already. The technicians said the Freon level was fine and cleaned debris out of the unit and while that helped somewhat, it obviously wasn't sufficient, as our most recent electricity bill was $lots.

To hone it down to something specific, we'd like to look for terms/questions to pinpoint to our (granted, a bit batty) landlord. The leakage is a major concern, as is the cost of the electric bill.

Getting the fuck out of Dallas isn't an immediate solution.

Plug-in LED lights for house outlets that make pretty colors?

arimathea — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:45:28 -0800

Hive mind, do you know of a cheap, plug-in LED light that will wash the wall above it with pretty colors? I seem to recall having an LED light that plugged into the wall and washed through different colors. I'm not talking about the Mathmos lights although those are similar; this one actually was more of a "wall washer" light and was fairly inexpensive, but the names I seem to recall for the company don't come up with anything any more.

All we are is (saw)dust on your desk

littlerobothead — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:45:43 -0800

Help me figure out just what the hell is up with our new addition, bugs, and sawdust! My wife and I have been in our lovely 1913 bungalow (in the 'Inner Banks' of North Carolina) for close to a year now. Other than the normal issues (floors that need to be refinished, difficulty maintaining an even temperature) the house is in great condition. The previous owners undertook lots of professional renovations in nearly every part of the house. One of the nicest additions is an enclosed sunroom/office on the back of the house where before there had been only yard.

It's framed in with vintage reclaimed timbers, and otherwise constructed of standard construction materials. It has a vaulted "club" ceiling, with panels made of OSB that looks like cedar but probably isn't. My work area is in a corner of the room near the back of the house, with windows both in front of and to my left.

Over the last few weeks, I've noticed little piles of wood shavings on my keyboard and desk when I go back to the office in the evenings. I suspected termites in the wood above, but a poke around yielded nothing. But everyday the little pile of wood was there. Now, in the last five days or so, I'm finding little bugs that look like ants belly up on my desk amongst the wood bits. I should say that our yard is rather heavily wooded, and I'm sure this has to do with bugs of some kind, I'm just not sure which ones or what to tell an exterminator. These little wood bits look awfully big to be from termites. I seriously doubt that it's a mouse, because there are no other signs of such rodent (and I've had them in other places, so I know.)

Anyone experienced anything similar in a newly constructed part of a house? Anyone reading this and having an "aha" moment? Thanks!

Liquidating an estate in the USA... in today's economy. Shouldn't we just wait a while?

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:33:00 -0800

How should we handle liquidating assets in an estate in the USA right now? Assets consist primarily of a stock portfolio and a house. My father recently passed away, leaving behind an investment portfolio worth about $650,000 and a house valued at $300,000. This will be split 6 ways; four of the inheritors have expressed a preference to liquidate everything straightaway and wash their hands of it.

Aside from the emotional issues the other 2 inheritors have with rushing into this, we are wondering financially what is the best way to handle this given today's market conditions. My understanding is that housing prices are very low, and we can all see what's happening with the stock market. My first reaction is that now is an extremely bad time to be liquidating any assets from a strictly economical perspective; this view is what I am asking for your feedback on.

None of us are very experienced in financial matters; we plan on searching for a financial advisor next business week, but in the meantime I would appreciate any informed advice about how we can best retain the value of these assets as we decide how to handle the estate.

Specifically:

1) Should we sell the house now and take what we can get, or is it likely that we could get more value from holding on to it for a year or so and possibly trying to rent it in the meantime? I think that there are two factors that would contribute to the house being sold under value: today's market conditions, and the desire on the part of the executor of the will to sell the house as quickly as possible regardless of any loss. At least one of these seems avoidable, but if the market is expected to worsen, it would be an advantage to sell it now. No one plans to live in the house, but there are local family members who have offered to help with its care and administration if needed.

2) Same as above for stocks; I have not yet seen the contents of the portfolio, but am inclined to believe that after the November elections, there is a good chance the economy will be positively affected. We also know that the portfolio consisted of low-risk stocks aimed more at stability and long-term returns. Should we wait and see, for this or any other reasons, or should we cash it in now in case things get even worse?

3) The biggest concern: what happens if the 6 beneficiaries disagree on the questions above? One of the four who wants to eat the whole cake now will have power of attorney by Monday. If the two of us strongly disagree with his opinions on how to handle the assets, what happens?

More important background: the 4 who want to take the money and run are all 40-something homeowners who are married with 2 or 3 kids apiece, have Masters degrees, are stably employed in long-term careers, and generally already have all the security they could ask for as far as I know. We (the other two) are in our early twenties, have bachelor's degrees, are employed but with very modest salaries, and are unmarried. I think these differences are serious and, without being selfish, I feel that given that they have so much more security, our needs for the near future should be prioritized. The people who left this inheritance were there to support them when they were our age, and we no longer have any sort of safety net. Side question: is this incredibly selfish of me? I realize that they are probably looking forward to using their share towards their children's college tuition and their retirement funds, but the fact is that a few thousand dollars lost by liquidating sooner than necessary could mean a lot more to the younger beneficiaries. We are not sure why they want to rush into liquidating everything immediately when none of them have any immediate need for large sums of cash that we know of, and certainly no one was anticipating this to happen now.

Again, we will look for a financial advisor and are going to speak with some attorneys in our local network as well, but appreciate your advice in the meantime.

Fun activities for a couple at home

the_dude — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:35:25 -0800

RelationshipFilter: Help me find some good time activities to do at home with a prospective girl friend. Although I'm not very young, I didn't have many relationships -and you can read the gory details of a previous on on ask.MeFi- in the past and I'm a bit inexperienced in this field.

I've been getting pretty close with this girl recently. She's very relaxed, fun and cool in general. She seems to be interested in me as well but is trying to take things slow.

Nevertheless, being the summer, there's not much to do here. She mentioned just going to my place to chill. That's where the problem starts.

My place is pretty dull and bland; a classic urban lonely guy's apartment if you ask me. I've lived in dorms for the past 8 years of my life; I'm more comfortable when I'm either alone or just with lots of people. I rarely spend any quality time at home; I either read or surf while I'm at home.

What I'm worried about is if I invite her to my place; it just might be awkward. Would hive mind recommend some activities for just two people? Any cool games for the Wii or PS3 that's *casually* fun? Board games? It might not be the case and we can just talk for hours as we do most of the time but a few ideas would not hurt.

Thanks everyone in advance. I've always been critical of such questions since it reflects a sense of insecurity but I think hive mind is friendly enough to embrace me as I'm.

Help me not die in an electrical fire.

quin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:44:45 -0800

What is wrong with my electricity? Lights started to flicker, circuit breaker didn't trip, circuit started to buzz, now afraid the house is going to burn down. What I believe to be the offending circuit is now turned off.

The story. A couple days ago, I noticed some lights in the bedroom flickering. After some investigation, I thought it was due to a weed wacker being used outside (our house is wired weird, so this made sense). Didn't notice again until tonight. Computer was off, lights were flickering in the bathroom. Turned off lights, everything seemed fine, turned lights back on, and the bathroom lights and the bedroom lights started flickering (have compact fluorescent lights and a mercury vapor light for a tortoise). Turned off bathroom light, turned back on again, this time the whole area of the house went dark, then lights started to flicker and come to life. Lights continued to flicker for a good 30 seconds after the bathroom light was flipped off before coming on fill power, like the couldn't get enough draw to fire.

Moved on to phase two of testing, unplugging non-essentials, but leaving lights on because they seemed to be an indicator of the problem. Turn off circuit, turn back on, no flickering. Turn on Mercury Vapor light and could hear the circuit making buzzing noises, but the circuit did not trip. Manually tripped, unplugged mercury vapor light. Reset circuit, nothing comes on. Reset circuit again, nothing comes on.

So now that circuit is off, and I'm a bit freaked out. Husband says its probably fine, I'm afraid that maybe we started a fire in the wall. Can that happen since we were quick to shut it down? I'm also concerned that the circuit breaker didn't trip, so if its not limited to that circuit, could the house burn down? And what could possibly be wrong that the circuit didn't trip?

¡ORALE!

phaedon — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:03:04 -0800

I want to get a bunch of friends to drive down to Mexico and rent a house for the weekend. I live in Los Angeles, and I'm looking to rent a house by the beach somewhere in Baja, Mexico for a weekend trip. Has anybody had any good experiences doing this? Specific recommendations are totally welcome.

House vs. apartment. Are the costs of maintaining a house roughly less, the same as, or more than levies on a comparably sized apartment?

lottie — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:20:39 -0800

House vs. apartment. Are the costs of maintaining a house roughly less, the same as, or more than levies on a comparably sized apartment? I live in and pay the mortgage on a large Sydney apartment (condo, for the US readers) with quite steep quarterly levies of $1000 which cover the maintenance of security parking, pool, spa, sauna, gym, gardens, and a caretaker who we can call at certain hours of the day to report trouble with any of these "trimmings". All very lovely, but $4000 a year is a lot to pay for facilities I can only occasionally make use of. In addition, the body corporate consistantly threaten to introduce eye-wateringly steep "special levies" from time to time to pay for building maintenance. So much so, that I fear missing an apartment meeting because I might miss the chance to know why we're paying an extra $1000 this quarter or other. It happens from time to time, and I'm scared of it.

I have begun fantasising about selling up and buying a similarly sized free-standing house. Doubtless this house would defnitely not have the pool etc that the apartment has. Indeed, it would not even have secure parking, but I figure it might be cheaper in the long run, and things like paint colours externally would be all my choice.

So, am I kididng myself? Do homeowners spend as much on annual maintenance, above and beyond mortgage etc as apartment owners do? More? Is the apartment saving me money because other people are fussing over the business of running the place, leaving me happily ignorant of the day-to-day demands?

Any thoughts about the relative merits? I know this isn't a simple comparison, but perhaps some of you have weighed up a similar thing.

How expensive will fixing the floors be?

bumpybear — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:31:38 -0800

What's the cost and effort involved in fixing floors attacked by termites and fungus in the bay area? We recently looked at a house that has extensive subterranean termite damage to the floors in the kitchen, living room, and bathrooms.

It sounded like whoever bought it would need to first get rid of the termites then redo the floors including joist replacement

How much would this cost in the bay area?

Would it be possible to kill the termites first and then slowly remodel (and would we have to live with holes in the floor until that's done)?

Would it be possible to do the floor demolition and reconstruction ourselves, given that there's no basement to access it from? Or should we pay a contractor to do that, and how much might it cost?

Thanks!

What is the tune I can't remember?

Frasermoo — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:32:10 -0800

Help me remember name of 1994 mainstream (super popular) dance track. I'm jonesing to hear an old house anthem. I remember spinning with it in 94/95, and sure it had 'bomb' in the title. A huge tune for the dance scene, I'll probably remember it in the morning, but I'm gonna test the hive and see if someone can nail it. Then I'll find it online and hammer it until I go to bed. I can actually picture the release I played (dark purple label) but other than that I am super-blocked.

How difficult is a water softener install?

hijinx — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:37:16 -0800

Much like my last question posted here four years ago about OS9, I am being flummoxed by hard water. Or more specifically, the level of difficulty wrt installing a water softener. How hard is it? This is all before I RTFM which came with the softener, but I want to get a feel for what I'm getting involved in... hopefully from someone else who has done this.

Our house has an old (10 year old? maybe?) water softener that is rented. Thus, all of the hardware is in place for such a device. We went ahead and bought a new water softener outright, so once the rented one is gone we'll be putting in the new one.

My skill level with plumbing is low. I've replaced a gasket on a bathroom faucet handle once, I've removed and cleaned pipes under the sink once or twice, I've jiggled toilet handles 50 times, but that's it.

With my skill set and the existing hardware seemingly in place, can anyone provide a feel for how difficult a task this is? If it's too hard, we'll get a handyman. But I wouldn't mind avoiding that cost.

A few questions related to Trance Music.

wildrain2008 — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:03:08 -0800

A few questions related to Trance Music. 1) What are the best clubs in NYC to listen to Trance, Progressive House and or Goa/Trance? Webster Hall used to have a rave room but that's dead..

2) I'm diving into the world of creating dance music myself, I got a few applications like Ableton Live and Floops, now I need a good starter keyboard. What's a good model that won't eat my wallet?

3) What is the biggest and the most up to date source for raves, and similar Trance music related events online today? Most of the stuff I find is from like 2005 and going back.

who built what where near?

striker — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:14:59 -0800

How can I find houses by interesting architects in my area? It seems like every couple of months I come across a story about someone who bought a house that was designed by a frank lloyd wright 3rd gen second cousin disciple. How can I find out what interesting architects have built around me and where those houses are? I'm already noting interesting properties in case they ever come up for sale via the drive by method, but I'd like to know what else is there that I'm missing. I see these stories and they're always to houses I'd never seen or noticed. Recent architects are easy since I can visit their websites and see the projects they've done. I'm more interested in the 20, 30, 40, 50+ year old homes. I'm in the Oklahoma City area.

How can I get rent back from a room I need to leave

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:27:20 -0800

Scary roommate situation. I want to leave and I'm trying to figure out if I have any way of getting my money back, which I really need to help me get another room. I moved into a room in a 2BR apartment on the 1st of June with a pair of strangers who are husband and wife. Yesterday (the 4th) I woke up to my roommates having a screaming physical fight which included banging in the hall so much that my own bedroom door popped open. I believe that opening was accidental (rather than purposeful at me) but still it was additionally scary.

After 10 minutes husband left the house still screaming angrily and the wife was sobbing in their room for at least 50 minutes after, real sobbing that didn't stop. She wouldn't respond to me and I didn't know what to do for her.

For me it was clear I should leave and take with me my valuables and things that I care about. So I did that, leaving with my large bags, and spent the day wondering how to leave the room and how to get my rent money back which I really need to find a new place. I have spent the night at a friend's place which is not someplace I can stay more than a night.

What they have is two things from me, $450 deposit check and $485 cash I gave on the 1st of June for first month's rent/utilities. They had not cashed the check, so I stopped payment on that after I left their house yesterday morning. So that is safe. Although I'm afraid that will anger the husband more if he finds out I stopped it.

I already know I was stupid to give them money without a lease. I was desperate for a place to live after my previous place for June cancelled, so I moved in this place without a lease.

After I was safely away from the house I left some upset voicemails on the wife's machine (I don't have husband's number). She left me sad messages saying what happened had nothing to do with me and I should please come back, this is my home. That implies to me that she thinks it's okay what happened. Also I'm scared of the husband now. I dont want to sleep in the same house with him especially with a door that doesn't lock or even really latch strongly (old house, not in good repair).

I don't know best approach to try getting the money back. I am clear that I have no legal claim to the money or proof that I gave them money whatsoever. I want to find a way for them to give me part of the 485 back, and I want ideally to get access to take away the rest of my stuff, but the money is much more important than the stuff left behind which is just my air mattress, lamp and smaller items. Also I don't want to be inside the house with the husband.

I'm going to need a roof over my head.

All.star — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:55:19 -0800

My husband and I are moving to Charlotte, NC in August. Any tips on finding a (rental) house? I've done numerous searches on the internet for single family homes for rent (I'm looking for something small, like a two bedroom/one bath). I've found lots of houses that look nice from the pictures posted, and seem relatively cheap, in the $650 - $900 a month price range. I'm wondering if these rents are low because they're in crappy neighborhoods, or if that's really about the average amount people pay in rent in Charlotte.

Is searching the net for rentals a good way to go, or are there any companies in Charlotte I should go through, or use newspaper ads (I'm in Michigan now, and won't actually be able to look at houses until July)?

Are there any recommendations on specific neighborhoods I should look into, or stay away from? We don't have kids, so being near to a school isn't an issue. I want a quiet neighborhood, low crime, etc.

And finally - are there any other smaller towns around Charlotte, especially between Charlotte and Concord, where the rent for houses isn't going to be hugely expensive (as in over $1,000 a month)? We'd be interested in houses in that area too, but I'm afraid rent will be even more in those areas.

Thanks!

How to find a house boat to rent in london?

YouRebelScum — Thu, 29 May 2008 08:32:04 -0800

What's the best way to look for a house boat to rent in London? I've been checking the usual suspects, Loot, Gumtree, but there don't seem to be many options popping up, unless I'm missing an obvious subcategory. Is it just because they're few and far between, or is it that I'm looking in the wrong places?

What does a star on the side of a house mean?

i love cheese — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:45:25 -0800

Is there any meaning associated with stars on the sides of houses? On Virginia's Eastern shore, I saw a bunch of houses with 5-sided stars like this one on their sides. Most were black, but some were more muted colors. Do they mean anything? These weren't flags, like those hung by Blue (or Gold) Star Mothers. I haven't seen any similar stars around DC or its environs (but I may not have noticed).

Best software for newbie DJ

wildrain2008 — Mon, 26 May 2008 19:52:35 -0800

Best software to start mxing and creating my own dance tracks? I've always been a fan of music especially downtempo/triophop/chill/trance and progressive house. I have some extra cash in my "hobbies" account and would love to start creating and mixing my own dance music and who knows where that will lead..

What is the best software/website/guide to start off with? The only stuff I've played around of the years was acid pro to fix mp3s that sounded a bit off.

All advice is welcome.

PS. one f my favorite dtemp hubs is www.somafm.com "fat free"