Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with residential

Where to look for unconverted industrial space in London?

Spanner Nic — Fri, 17 May 2013 07:56:31 -0800

I would like to buy unconverted industrial/office/non-residential space in London, like a warehouse or a school hall, to transform it into live-and-work artist studios over a few years. The state of dereliction does not matter too much, nor does the location, but how can I actually find some for sale? I doubt most of these things make it to mainstream websites, as Zoopla/Rightmove hardly have two handfuls of commercial properties for sale at a given time. Any clue?

Halifaximiles? Savannahoos? Knoxvillains? Minneapolice?

heyho — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:31:05 -0800

If people living in Laos are Laotian, then are those in Taos Taotians? Residents of Chicago are called Chicagoans; this one I know for sure. Those in Houston are known as Houstonians, and denizens of Boston are called Bostonians.

So what about people living in Dallas, Miami, Juneau? Helena? Buffalo? Hong Kong? Sydney? St. Louis? Kalamazoo?

This is something I worry about endlessly, of course, and I haven't found a way to search for a proper list. I know I'll kick myself in five minutes for this, but what the hell is the search term I'm blanking on here? Residents, collective names, adjectives, cities, abbreviations, nicknames... I'm seriously stuck, and I know I know the term for this! Clue, please.

Foundation Theory: To touch, or not to touch?

halfbuckaroo — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 19:32:27 -0800

ADA Residential Design Filter - Exterior Hardscape - The Sheltered Walkway. Can it touch the foundation, or not? I'll keep it as short as possible. House built in 1955 with poured basement floors and solid cement block foundation walls which are exposed at least four feet and in some places eight feet above the existing grade, which will not fundamentally change. No wood or siding materials anywhere in or near those exposed areas. Basement is dry - foundation was done right - no/little evidence of shifting or settling and no attempt to make or disguise repairs. The inspector was giddy about it. The floor drains work, and are clear all the way down the sewer lines to the city lines.

Existing roof is being replaced with steel roofing system for fire insurance purposes and to extend the eaves 36" out from the existing wall line (no/little eaves now.) These will be guttered and the runoff directed to a cistern away from the house. I understand that the new steel system will weigh one-third to one-half as much as the existing roof, and shouldn't affect the foundation load in any negative way.

I would like to run hardscape right up to the foundation, forming a sheltered pathway under the eaves to the accessible entrances, I understand that it should slope away from the foundation, and ideally be semi-permeable. We are not proposing a solid concrete slab - more like interlocking pavers laid over sand and gravel.

My friend the contractor, who has been at this since the seventies, will have no part of it. He insists that it will be at least six inches away, and prefers twelve.

My friend the architect designed it to touch the foundation, and I would assume he and his engineers know what they are doing. Planning, approval and permits were issued based on his designs.

Google searches are inconclusive - about equally divided between "must not touch" and "of course it can touch."

Can someone patiently explain to me the logic of having six-twelve inches of dirt between the pavers and the foundation? There will be no foundation plantings.

The contractor and his employees need the work, and while he can be contrary, he's usually right more often than not. I can't imagine him just making it up out of whole cloth for no reason. Is this a case of too set in his ways, or is he "saving me from a big mistake?"

tl;dr - So, give me some ammo here, hive mind. Logic tells me to tell the contractor that he either does it the way it was drawn, or he's off the job. Or, should I have the architect play hard ball on him, i.e., if it's not done to spec, he's red-tagging the permit? Or, should I listen to what the contractor suggests?

Note: architect is LTF, contractor is LTF (and BFF's dad), beneficiary of updates is my mom. Emotional involvement level:117/100. Rational decision-making level: 0.3/100.

What are a homeowner's responsibilities on a construction project?

zagyzebra — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:38:34 -0800

As owner, how involved do I need to be for a full residential restoration construction project? I am in the process of forecasting the duties and amount of time (on a daily basis) I will need to be involved in the restoration of my historical home. It's coming down to its studs. I've got an experienced contractor who I trust 100%, and his subs, by all accounts, are also professional and do good work. But I've never been through this before, and need to forecast this for both time management and insurance purposes (it's a long story).

So those of you homeowners who have done extensive construction projects, could you please weigh in on examples of what you had to do on a daily basis and approximately how much time daily and/or weekly you spent on the project?

Any reason I shouldn't let people use my house as a canvas?

komara — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:27:57 -0800

What is the legality of commissioning graffiti art for a residence? Here in New Orleans we have lots of skinny shotgun houses with long flat sides exposed to the street. I've often fantasized that if I owned one I would commission some of the more talented graffiti artists who have done work in this area to adorn the side (for example, something like this piece from Reader). Aside from concerns that some jackass like Fred Radtke will come along and helpfully eradicate the art without my permission, are there legal concerns? I frequently see businesses with murals painted on the side, but never any residences. I'm assuming most of it boils down to the need to paint over the art before selling the home because you can't rest assured the next buyer will want that kind of display, as well as the fear that some other uninvited artist may see it as a target. However, maybe there are some city ordinances of which I am not aware that prohibit this sort of thing. Any insight into why this isn't done more?

Help me be a better residential architecture nerd!

thisjax — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:50:20 -0800

Is there a specific name for the style of roof/eaves on these houses? Does this fit into a specific architectural style such as period revival? I grew up near and constantly drive past houses in 1960's-ish suburban subdivisions that have a roof segment (excuse my lack of proper architectural vocab) on the facade of the house that is straight on one side and concave (bell-cast?) on the other. It's a common enough configuration that I'd imagine that it has a name.

If it helps, these are all (Google Street View) images from houses in the Greater Toronto Area, although this style exists all over the place.

How much for a unique house?

electric_counterpoint — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:13:04 -0800

How much does it actually cost to commission an architect to design an "interesting" home? [First, let me apologize to the architects who might be reading this: my job, too, involves a lot of questions from people who misusue terminology, bear wild misconceptions, and just generally don't understand the basics. Still, I tried Googling, I swear!]

I'm curious about a ballpark figure. I'm sure the price is variable, but I wonder (aside from the obvious, like the size, the location, and the architect's reputation) what the variables are? I'm not thinking of hiring this generation's Frank Lloyd Wright or anything; I'm just curious about how much "extra" it would cost to build a one-off home that looks a lot different from the standard American styles (I've paged through a couple issues of Dwell recently and liked a lot of what they featured). If this is too broad a question, could you show me some examples of recent, interesting houses and roughly how much they cost the owner?

As you can probably tell, this is just idle curiosity. Still, I think building a home someday, somewhere is on my list of far-off life goals, and I'm starting to wonder just how far-off it'd have to be.

Residential Electricity

allelopath — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:25:35 -0800

Residential Electricity: Is it possible to measure current flow through romex in a non-invasive manner? I am trying to identify which of 5 wires is on a particular circuit. The wires enter and exit this certain space in such a manner that I cannot determine their source or their destination. The wires are typical (for US) household romex 120v/15a. I want to cut one of these wires and put on outlet on that line. If I could measure current non-invasively, I could turn off the circuit at the breaker box and then I identify the wire I want. Is there a tool to do this? If not, any other suggestions?

A Very Brady Question

punkfloyd — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:57:48 -0800

I want to know more about Brady Bunch-era American house designs. I have always been fascinated by circa 1960s American residential archictecture. The Dallas-area neighborhood in which I was raised had a bizarre mix of split-levels and ranch styles with native and non-native stonework, balconies, overhangs, fountains and water features. Each house made a bold, if not exactly timeless, design statement. I'd like to know what inspired this form of design and what led to its demise. Any online resources?

Responsible mail server use on a residential network?

Wild_Eep — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:51:14 -0800

How do I send email from a linux box from my residential cable modem connection? I've got a box running CentOS that fires a shell script every day. (The script backs up a friend's webserver via rsync) The log from the script is a text file that I turn into an email message. I want to send the message to my friend (at a gmail address).

When I send the messages, I get replies from gmail reading "The IP you're using to send email is not authorized."

It's implied that they want me to use my ISP's (TimeWarner) SMTP server, but I can't use that directly, mail relay restrictions and all.

I figured I could solve this problem by setting up Sender Policy Framework information for my domain. So I used I set up a TXT record for my domain with the appropriate SPF string.

Still, a few hours later, no go with GMail. Tried sending to another email address and found that my IP was listed with SpamHaus. Jumped through the requisite hoops there to attempt to remove my IP from their list.

I'm sure there's an obvious solution I'm overlooking.

Garage Sweet Home?

B-squared — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 14:20:40 -0800

My partner and I are thinking about buying an old mechanic's shop and converting it into a home, but we need a little visual inspiration. Where can I find images (books, magazines, websites) of garages turned living spaces? And, does anyone have advice about commercial to residential remodeling?

Is it safe to live directly underneath a large number of radio and/or cell towers?

lorimer — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 03:24:04 -0800

Is it safe to live directly underneath a large number of radio and/or cell towers? My friend wants to move into a building where she would be living on the 20th floor (there are 21 floors) and all along the roof are a LOT of antennas. (This building is on a hill and is the tallest point anywhere around.)

Other mefi threads contain good, long debates about this issue but they are all from the perspective of someone living beside, rather than right below, the towers.

I don't know whether the antennas are radio only or radio and cell. From googling the building address I assume at least some are radio (since one result is a report of a company being cited for moving their radio tower from another building to this building without a permit). According to cellreception.com, there are no *FCC-registered* cell towers there, but that site says "The FCC does not require every antenna structure to be registered, and the map may or may not list all the towers in the area."

Thanks for your thoughts, pro or con, or any advice about researching building addresses to see what antennas are on them!

Business loophole in residential zoning?

tommyD — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:22:15 -0800

So when is a business not a business? This relates to zoning regulations, and what seems to be a way around a prohibition of businesses in residential neighborhoods. Our little town has R-1 zoned neighborhoods where no more than two unrelated people may live in a residence, and a business may be operated in a residence only if the owner of the business lives there, and only the owner’s immediate family may be employees.
But what happens when a corporation buys a house and rents it to disabled folks (or their guardians, more likely), and another corporation then provides caregiver services to those who live in the house, but both corporations are owned by the same person?
The owner does not live in the house, and the employees of the caregiver service are not the owner’s family members.
Is this defacto, a single business, or has the owner found a valid loophole around residential zoning rules?
And what if the corporation that owns the property rents to the corporation that provides the caregiver service rather than the service’s clients?
There is a whole ‘nother issue regarding federal law and discrimination against disabled folks, but I’d rather leave that for another day…

Available treatment facilities for mental illness

unsigned — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 15:25:04 -0800

MentalHealthFilter: To try and sum up a fairly long and complicated issue: My brother, 23, is diagnosed as bipolar. It's been an uphill battle ever since he was admitted to the psych hospital at 11/12 years old. Although his diagnosis and medications have switched many times, nothing seems to work. It's only getting worse and more dangerous. He currently lives with my parents and it's pretty much hell. He is verbally abusive to my mother, horribly so, has physically attacked another brother, damages belongings and the house constantly, his theft now includes family members' credit cards as well as cash, and people who probably shouldn't know where they live, do.

My mother has always been a supermom in the sense of finding resource to keep my brother afloat. I know that the only reason there is any sort of thread from him to hang by, is because of her. But, of course, this is not anything that he is grateful for, because, he constantly reminds her that he never asked to be born in the first place and will never forgive her. There is only so much someone can do for someone else.

Based on research and readings, I know that mental illness and chemical addiction need to be treated together more as one disorder rather than seperate, and that a combination of drug and behvorial therapy are needed for best results. The problem is that most of his treatment has been outpatient day programs, geared only for drug treatment, or only for mental illness, which makes it very difficult for him to get the intense treatment that I think he needs right now.

So, finally, my question: What are (or are there) other treatment options for those without the means to send someone off to the fancy rehab places all the celebs go to? They are in CT and he has Medicaid and SSI for his disability. Is there any way to get payment asssistance for long-term residential treatment, or is this sort of treatment reserved for the rich and crazy only?

Seeking free 3d models of office and residential buildings to download

signal — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 15:53:59 -0800

Where could a young, devilishly handsome architect find free 3d models of office and residential buildings to download, preferably in 3ds or DXF format? Trees and vehicles would come in handy as well.