Help with Broderbund 3-D Home Architect Deluxe 3.0

[GaryM]

I had seen many examples of this airlock, usually in New England. If you watch This Old House, there was an episode set in the Bunker Hill area of Boston where an airlock had been built onto the front of a Brownstone. Of course they removed it to "expose the origional entryway". They said the airlock had been added during the 70's energy shortage.

[egon]

Pat:

We used to call that type of entry " The Porch " . Almost all farm houses had them .

Egon

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I remember it being referred to as a 'vestibule' at church. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Egon, We enclosed an open front porch when we lived in Ohio. Helped a lot. I think of the front porch as all the slab in front of the house covered by porch roof. In this instance, the airlock entry will be a small part of that.

Patrick

[egon]

Pat:
Terminology. What you refer to porch I think of as veranda.

The old farm houses usually all had a back porch [ actually room ] which was usually used to enter the house. The front door may have seen years without use unless there was veranda attached.
The porch varied in size and was used to change/store work clothes, storage etc. It may or may not have been heated and was usually where the basement steps were located. The basement's were not the basements of today. Many having only dirt floors, beam supports, perhaps a furnace, cold storage area and minimal head space. The porch was designed for farm use. Insome cases newborn animals that were having problems were kept there for a short period.

Town houses were designed a little differently with most having a very well used front door.

The passage of time has changed all this and at times what is labeled as new is actually old but with a different name.

There was one ethnic group that built exspecially environmentally efficient homes and stoves.

Egon

[Pat]

Egon, I don't care what it gets called really (some call it a stoop and don't forget Florida room, lanai, etc.) or if it is a new or old idea. My interest is in what it does for me, either aesthetically or functionally. The open front porch we enclosed in Ohio became an airlock entry and a generous walk in closet. Great place for shucking heavy winter garb on the way inside. Kept from losing all the heated air when us kids ran in and out and in and out and...

I have slept on a couple unheated back porches, in the 50's in OK and 60's in SOCAL. My grandmother kept her ice box (actually used ice from the ice house up the street a block and a half) on her back porch. Had a double bed there for cooler sleeping in hot summer WX with no A/C but got evap cooler later which didn't do too good some of the time (Duncan, OK.)

Many porches (replace with favorite term) have a shed roof, so I suppose you could make a case for calling them sheds?

Cold storage? Root cellar? My wife's relatives in Iowa have basements. The earth temp a few feet down is something like 50-55 degrees and with no insulaltion the concrete walls make a lot of condensation during humid summer WX. When first walking in it feels refreshing but seems "clammy" fairly quickly. Water is dripping off the overhead pipes etc.

Cool tubes (uninsulated air ducts that draw in outside air, pass it through a burried "pipe" and bring it indoors) would work well in Iowa if you took care to allow for draining condensate and had a way to flush with bleach solution to kill the mold, fungus, etc. that would grow and constitute a health hazzard and source of musty odors.

Only one!? I wasn't aware that one ethnic group had a corner on any thing relating to energy efficiency or environmental sensitivity. You may have a favorite but it is unlikely they are unique.

Front versus back door: That is how we tell if it is a stranger or known friend. If someone rings the front doorbell it is quite likely someone who doesn't know us. Much "friend" traffic comes up the sidewalk between the house and garage and comes through the sun room to the back door.

Our new house will actually have two front doors and two back doors(not counting the sitting room door to the back porch from the master suite.) The shop joins to the house and will have a door on both sides which mimic the front and back doors of the house proper. I think the back door will not get too much use by arriving traffic as it will open on a back porch that is over 10 ft above the ground below and is a fair walk from the driveway.

I wonder what your "interpretation" of that situation is?

Would Eskimo/igloo qualify as ethnic group in question with energy efficient low impactr housilng?

Pat

[egon]

Different locations; different names; different circumstances Pat.

The igloo is not what I was refering to And I will not mention Nationalities but there were very decidedly some homesteaders who had better cold weather building methods than others.

Egon

[Pat]

Egon, I wouldn't expect condemnation, but praise of a nationality couldn't hurt. We can discuss this further at the Sons of Norway lodge meeting next week.

Patrick

[egon]

Pat ; praise of one could immediately be construed as condemnation of others. It's a can't win thing.

Egon

[Pat]

Egon, I knew a guy who refused to tell or listen to jokes. His claim was that all jokes belittled someone and that he refused to participate. Other than this, he was a pretty normal guy that was good at his job and enjoyed life. I once told him a joke that started like this: An entity of indeterminate species, origin, background, appearance, sex, size, and demeanor enters, by some unspecified means of locomotion, an establishment that sold liguid refreshment and the proprieter says...

Watered down to this extent the "funny" wasn't funny, except for my obvious attempt to avoid making any recognizable butt of the joke. In "real life" do you assiduously avoid all ethnic references? Lets see now... Anyone want to go out to a resturant where they serve lots of pasta dishes, often with sauces containing tomatos or perhaps bake those round flat pieces of dough with tomato sauces and cheese, spices, and various topings? Maybe we could just stop and pick up some take out ("take away" for Angliophiles) from either the place where they cook beans twice and roll them up in flat bread or where you eat with sticks.

Egon, I have no need or desire to denigrate anyone based on their ethnic origins but I think PC is PoppyCock not Political Correctness. Most things, taken to excess, are bad and PC is no exception. In matters such as these I tend to take cues from those paragons of virtue such as John Cleese, Grahm Chapman, Eric Idle, and their associates.

So, do you suggest doing nothing so as to avoid doing something that might be mistaken by someone with some particular agenda as beinig potentially offensive? Hmmm. There are folks who way before SARS wore "flu" masks out of reverance for all life. They didn't want to inlhale any organisms that their bodies defenses would kill. Do you wear a flu mask to avoid spewing your contamination into the common air that we all breathe or do you demonstrate callous disregard for other persons who are breathing the earth's air?

Conservation of resources is a current topic of interest to PC types. Do you strive to reduce your personal oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. Do you burn or cause there to be burned on your behalf, carbon based fuels that result in oxygen depletion and carbon dioxide emissions? What about your personal habits... do you refrain from activities that cause you to consume more oxygen than your basal metaballism requires and thereby deny extra oxygenation to others?

Gee, I never thought of you as an unfeeling uncaring selfish lout before, dereft of proper consideration for others, mindlessly consuming oxygen and contributing to global warming through your excess carbon dioxide production while diverting your attention from these REAL issues in some misdirected show of political correctness where you think you atone for your grievous transgressions by avoiding naming any nationalities building practices. This is the moral equivalent of working up a sweat furiously bailing the Titanic with a thimble.

//SOAPBOX MODE: OFF//

It rained. I had to stay in for a while. I think the automagic tranny in my Ram 3500 broke as it does everything except go. Luckily it happened at about 35MPH a hundred feet from my driveway.

Pat