Stop the office AC overload: Study shows women are more productive when it’s warmer

[laylalex 7,285]

1 minute ago, Steeleballz said:

 

  I guess I could live in a 500 sq ft house, but I'd need a 1000 sq ft garage. 

The sleeping platform adds another 80 ft or so, which helps. And with the very high ceilings, it doesn't feel as poky as it sounds.

[Steeleballz 7,550]

1 hour ago, laylalex said:

It's really not bad at all, and it made me think about what things I actually *need* as opposed to what's nice or merely decorative. My old home in Pasadena was huge, five bedrooms, and I spent a lot of time filling it up with useless junk because I thought it would make me feel better about my life. Surprise, surprise, what I really needed more than lots of space and a pool and built-ins and an Aga in the kitchen was my husband around. When it's just you and a cat (and occasionally your sister, and sometimes your husband) rattling around in 4500 sq ft, it feels like the structure's going to eat you alive, or has already eaten you alive and you're buried inside it. When I first moved out, I moved to a 800 sq ft 1 bed, and that felt okay. I'd gotten rid of almost everything in the house, I just didn't want it around to remind me of my failures. Moving up here from the Valley, I had the chance to live in a very nice and very small place for very little money, which up here means something. But the next place is definitely going to be at least 1000 sq ft. I don't really need anything more than that. If we have kids, we will have to reassess whether we even want to stay up here.

 

I'd like to say you couldn't pay me to live in a big house again, but I'm not a fool. You could pay me!

Well, that's the difference I think between Houston and here in Berkeley/SF -- when you start getting bigger, it just gets prohibitively expensive for a lot of people. Could I afford to rent a bigger place? Sure! But I like having a little space all to myself, with a little garden and a firepit and a bit of grass to stretch out on right here in the city. It's not for everyone, but it's right for me.  Alex grew up in a huge and draughty old barn of a house (hate it) but in London lived in any number of poky little flats for the most part, so it doesn't bother him too much to live smaller.

 

   I think it depends on how much stuff you have, how big your family is, and how much time you like spending at home.

 

  Nowadays, the 3rd one is big for me. I like my home time now. It should be comfortable. I can drive a beater and I can work in a box and I can put all my junk in the garage, but I want to enjoy my house.

[Boris Farage 353]

1 minute ago, laylalex said:

I suppose the universe will unfold itself in the way it wants.

With only 500 feet to unfold in, I hope the universe packed lightly.

[Steeleballz 7,550]

1 minute ago, laylalex said:

The sleeping platform adds another 80 ft or so, which helps. And with the very high ceilings, it doesn't feel as poky as it sounds.

 

  That's good, 'cause it sounds pretty poky.

 

  I used to rent a 400 sq ft studio in Hawaii years ago. It was OK, but I didn't spend a lot of time there. My tastes have change since then though. 

[laylalex 7,285]

2 minutes ago, Steeleballz said:

 

   I think it depends on how much stuff you have, how big your family is, and how much time you like spending at home.

 

  Nowadays, the 3rd one is big for me. I like my home time now. It should be comfortable. I can drive a beater and I can work in a box and I can put all my junk in the garage, but I want to enjoy my house.

Well, it's just been me since November, with Alex on Saturday nights/Sundays. And we can always open the French doors to the little deck outside and it brings the outside in, when it isn't too cold/rainy. I use the fire pit frequently too, and I have some nice Adirondack chairs out there to chill in. I keep it tidy and have become kind of ingenious about how to make the most out of it. I don't *need* to live like this, but for the past 10 months it has felt good. 

 

2 minutes ago, Boris Farage said:

With only 500 feet to unfold in, I hope the universe packed lightly.

Well, I did.  He didn't. We have a lot in storage at the moment. 

3 minutes ago, Steeleballz said:

 

  That's good, 'cause it sounds pretty poky.

 

  I used to rent a 400 sq ft studio in Hawaii years ago. It was OK, but I didn't spend a lot of time there. My tastes have change since then though. 

Yes, my tastes did too. I thought the idea of a massive house sounded AMAZING but in reality, I hated it.

[Boris Farage 353]

6 minutes ago, luckytxn said:

Heh. I am about to build a new bathroom for my wife and she wants it all so we may be approaching that. Right now I am planning on ripping out the wall to the sitting room and making her bathroom and her new huge walk in closet and making a nice bedroom entertainment area with TV and such. It will make the bedroom a bit more than 500 ft. I am estimating close to 950 ft. for our main bedroom now. Lucky for me I can do most of the work myself but will need to hire a helper probably. Oh well we need to help the economy.

 

Good that you are handy. I admit I am hopeless with such things. Were I in your situation, I'd phone the general contractor and just point. "Make that bigger. I'll be back in a few hours."

[luckytxn 2,264]

3 minutes ago, laylalex said:

I used to own, but since I'm bouncing around at the moment renting makes sense. Once we work out where we want to be -- Bay Area or elsewhere -- we'll buy again. I am tempted to move back down to where my family and most of my closest friends are in SoCal, but I kind of like it here. I suppose the universe will unfold itself in the way it wants.

I used to bounce around because I was an over the road trucker and was home only 4-5 days every 4-6 weeks so I would just buy acreage and rent it out as pasture and have a place on one of them to stay at when home. After marrying I sold my properties and bought a wore down house and remodeled it into a hair salon for my babe that we also lived in the back rooms. She saw I was handy that way and bought a cheap wore down property and I remodeled it into the house we live in now. I ripped out all the walls except load bearing and made the 3 bedroom into 2 bedrooms and such. Since then she has bought several more properties with her own money and I or someone remodels them and they are rent houses to make income. So if I don't have a house I buy just land somewhere. I knew that social security wouldn't be around when I got old so I made sure I wouldn't need it.

[Steeleballz 7,550]

Just now, laylalex said:

Well, it's just been me since November, with Alex on Saturday nights/Sundays. And we can always open the French doors to the little deck outside and it brings the outside in, when it isn't too cold/rainy. I use the fire pit frequently too, and I have some nice Adirondack chairs out there to chill in. I keep it tidy and have become kind of ingenious about how to make the most out of it. I don't *need* to live like this, but for the past 10 months it has felt good. 

 

Well, I did.  He didn't. We have a lot in storage at the moment. 

Yes, my tastes did too. I thought the idea of a massive house sounded AMAZING but in reality, I hated it.

 

   I'm not saying you need massive. You certainly will want extra space. There will be times when you need the other end of the house to be out of hearing range.

[luckytxn 2,264]

2 minutes ago, Boris Farage said:

 

Good that you are handy. I admit I am hopeless with such things. Were I in your situation, I'd phone the general contractor and just point. "Make that bigger. I'll be back in a few hours."

Heh yeah but that contractor will charge an arm and a leg and I keep firing any contractor I hire for incompetence. I grew up learning to do everything by my dad and while going to college I had to work to earn my way. It was pay as you go back then.

[Boris Farage 353]

1 minute ago, luckytxn said:

Heh yeah but that contractor will charge an arm and a leg and I keep firing any contractor I hire for incompetence. I grew up learning to do everything by my dad and while going to college I had to work to earn my way. It was pay as you go back then.

 

I can afford an arm and a leg. I cannot afford a broken thumb from missing the nail. Especially on my fountain pen hand.

[laylalex 7,285]

3 minutes ago, Steeleballz said:

 

   I'm not saying you need massive. You certainly will want extra space. There will be times when you need the other end of the house to be out of hearing range.

Yes, and that's why we think a 2 bed is a good idea. I don't want a lot of space, but I want enough space. With a 2 bed, he can go hang out in his study and I can be... anywhere else.  

 

The 500 sq ft studio is only until we get the new place. His lease is up at the end of the month, we wanted to move in together, and he's leaving the country for work on the 1st, with a wedding and vacation to follow the next week (I'm meeting him there). We won't be back until the 21st. So in reality, it's probably only going to be 2 weeks. I can lump it and if not, there's always a hotel.

[luckytxn 2,264]

Just now, Boris Farage said:

 

I can afford an arm and a leg. I cannot afford a broken thumb from missing the nail. Especially on my fountain pen hand.

Yeah I can actually afford it now to hire someone else but it hard to let old habits die. I do need to hire help and do hire contractors now and again as I am getting old and the arthritis is  in advanced stages now. Never thought anything except death would hold me back but here we are.

[laylalex 7,285]

1 minute ago, Boris Farage said:

 

I can afford an arm and a leg. I cannot afford a broken thumb from missing the nail. Especially on my fountain pen hand.

I almost forgot -- thank you for the rollerball recommendation! I got him a Mont Blanc and he loves it. When I mentioned it was on the recommendation of someone on the internet, he pretended to take my temperature and asked if I was feeling quite myself.

[Boris Farage 353]

3 minutes ago, laylalex said:

I almost forgot -- thank you for the rollerball recommendation! I got him a Mont Blanc and he loves it. When I mentioned it was on the recommendation of someone on the internet, he pretended to take my temperature and asked if I was feeling quite myself.

It's nice to hear. There are many out there who are just unable to master a quality fountain pen. A quality rollerball is a decent compromise.

[laylalex 7,285]

5 minutes ago, Boris Farage said:

It's nice to hear. There are many out there who are just unable to master a quality fountain pen. A quality rollerball is a decent compromise.

Lol, it's me who can't handle the fountain pen. He said fountain pens (1) are a bit poncey and (2) remind him of his poncey roommate from school, who was never without one and had a special fountain pen box for his many pens.