Split Level Homes
In a split level home, the living spaces are provided at different levels. There are different styles of split levels and they all do not provide a comfortable and meaningful home for most homeowners, particularly families with older members and children. Those among us, who do not mind going up and down steps, a few to several times a day, in a staircase with inadequate risers and treads are the exceptions.
Split Level Houses Were Built For The Wrong But Obvious Reasons
According to Robert Gerloff and Jeremiah Battles, authors of Split Levels, the birth of split level homes can be attributed to the following reasons:
- First, home buyers were demanding more square footage in houses, but lots weren’t getting any wider. Stacking the bedrooms over the garage was a simple way to squeeze a larger house onto a lot.
- Second, home buyers were looking for houses with a more substantial presence. Ranches, however efficient, just didn’t have the same emotional appeal as the traditional two-story Colonial, or even the story-and-a-half Cape Cod. Splits look more substantial.
- Third, and most important, builders in the Midwest were seeking ways to minimize the costs of excavating full basements.
Disadvantages Of A Split Level Home
Real estate agents are good at highlighting the positives of any home, whether it is a split level home or a ditch in the ground. These are a few disadvantages of a split level home and I would not recommend that any home buyer consider buying a split level home.
- Uneven heating and cooling in split level homes is almost a certainty.
- Going up and down the poorly designed staircases will become tiring, its only a matter of time.
- Typically, the kitchen is small.
- It’s hard to bring in groceries in a split level homes.
- The laundry area is located far away from the bedrooms.
- The poor design does not make sense outside the context of the builder or the subdivision developer’s bottom line.
- Gutters are located at a height and cleaning them is difficult.
- Roof is difficult to inspect and repair.
- Curb appeal is poor because of the asymmetric front elevation.
 A traffic signal was not desired at this midblock location in downtown City of Bedford, Ohio Midblock Crosswalks
- Technically, midblock crosswalk is located away from an intersection.
- In practice, a marked crosswalk located away from a standard signalized intersection.
- At the intersection of two roads, where sidewalks are present on opposite sides, a sidewalk technically exists between those sidewalks, even if the crosswalk is not marked.
- Motorists must yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk but pedestrians are required to yield to motorists at unsignalized midblock crosswalks.
Today, the so called broadcast journalism in the United States reached a new low. The NBC and ABC television channels have earned the distinction of being the lamest lamestream media in the world. Referring to the kind of television we now see in America, as the mainstream media, is an insult to America.
I turned on the idiot box in the morning, ABC came on and George Stephenopoulous was talking about the tornadoes. Soon after, the coverage shifted to London, where Robert Robins and Diane Sawyer, made a customary reference to the tornadoes with a faux sad face and started yakking about the royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Here’s the scope and the damage caused by the tornadoes:
- Number of tornadoes=160.
- Number of people dead=300 (210 in Alabama, 33 in Mississippi and Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, 5 in Virginia and 1 in Kentucky.
- Number of States affected=7.
- Jerry Mays, Mayor of the small town of Phil Campbell in Alabama said,
We’ve lost everything. Let’s just say it like it is. I’m afraid we might have some suicides because of this.
I switched to NBC, Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera were in London covering the royal wedding. As far as I am concerned, the wedding is a personal celebration between the parties involved. I couldn’t care less about the wedding. Are there Americans who give a hoot about the royal wedding given the tragedies in Southern America and our country hanging on the precipice of insolvency?
On the flip side, I reckon I must be naive and wrong. The royal wedding was a juicy ratings opportunity for the corporations. There is a market for everything, particularly in our country. And the rich are more human.
 Snapshot of Federal Reserve Website on April 19, 2011 What is the Federal Reserve? Its the central bank of the United States of America. What does the Federal Reserve do? It provides the United States of America with a safe, flexible, monetary and financial system. How does the Federal Reserve provide the nation with a safe, flexible, monetary and financial system? In a press release dated April 2011, the Federal Reserve proposed a rule under Regulation Z of the Dodd Frank Act that would require creditors to determine a consumer’s ability to repay a mortgage before making the loan and would establish minimum mortgage underwriting standards 
To paraphrase Patrick McEnroe, the Federal Reserve cannot be serious. I don’t know if President Obama deserved the Nobel Prize for Peace but the Federal Reserve definitely deserves a new Nobel Prize for Comedy. Can the Federal Reserve get more comical than this? It is insulting to the people of the United States that public comments are invited over this proposed rule.
Winston Churchill supposedly said about us that, “Americans always do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else”. One can hope that Churchill is right.
National Debt Versus Federal Budget Deficit
The national debt is the total accumulated indebtedness of the U.S. government and this stands at 14 trillion. The federal budget deficit, the difference between what the government spends in a given year and what it takes in stands at 1.5 trillion. At that level, for every $1 the government spends, it must borrow 43 cents.
 US National Debt
 A Solution For Bouncy or Shaky Floors Nailing the floor joist bracing may be a ‘Rainy Day Job’. If the nailing is inadequate, it should be completed when the floor is not loaded.
 LAN does not have a valid IP configuration Dell Optiplex 380 with Windows 7 OS & Broadcom Netlink Gigabit 57780 Ethernet Chipset
- Click on the Start button at the bottom left corner.
- In the Search Box, type Device Manager and press Enter to open the Device Manager window.
- Click on Network Adapters.
- Make sure that the Broadcom Netlink Gigabit Ethernet Adapter is working properly. If the adapter is not working properly, you may see a yellow icon with a question mark.
- Go to the Start button again.
- In the Search Box, type View Network Connections and press Enter to open the Local Area Connection (LAN).
- Right Click on the Local Area Connection icon and click on Properties to open the Local Area Network Properties window.
- Click on Configure button to open Broadcom Netlink Ethernet Properties window.
- Click on the Driver tab.
- Note that the Broadcom Netlink Adapter Driver hasVersion 12.1.1.1 dated 6/20/2009. This driver should be updated.
- Click on Driver Details. Note that the driver, k57nd60x.sys, is located at at C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\k57nd60x.sys
- Go to Broad Ethernet NIC Driver Downloads and find the network driver for Windows 7 operating system.
- Download the network driver zip file to your computer.
- Unzip the downloaded file.
- Find the newer k57nd60x.sys driver, Version 14.1.0 dated 12/10/2009 from the downloaded files.
- Copy the driver file and paste it in the directory C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS.
- Restart the computer.
- Restart the modem by turning the power off and then on after 15 seconds.
Voila, you should be able to the connect to the internet now. The dudes  at Dell technical support informed me that I have to reinstall the operating system to ensure that there is no software conflict 
I hope this fix worked for you and you avoid paying a computer company for software troubleshooting. Cheers.
 White Stains In A Wet Hollow Block Basement Things Of Note
- According to a real estate agent, basements constructed with hollow blocks are common in the Cleveland area while in the Cincinnati area, basements are typically constructed with poured concrete.
- The height of the bottom layer of hollow blocks is about half that of the upper standard hollow blocks. Using a standard hollow block would have probably resulted in a higher basement wall integrity.
- This was a newer home, it was built in 2002. I think the probable cause of this water penetration in this basement was poor rain water drainage.
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About  I am a Civil Engineer from Louisiana State University. The compound word, Americaneer, is a combination of the words, American and Engineer. |
