The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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caseydog said:
It is different if two people just decide to divorce, or one says I want out, but nobody else is involved. I could still be friends under that kind of circumstance. But, when there is a third person involved, it's just too weird to stay friends.

CD
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My oldest brother divorced his second wife, and they went out of their way to stay civil, because they had joint custody of their kid.

He remarried...she remarried. All that was nearly 20 years ago, and now, the four of them are best friends and (until recently) would hang out together, in and out of each other's houses, etc. People who don't know them are surprised to find out that two of the four were married at one point.
 
caseydog said:
Vinyl siding is very popular up there, it seems. You rarely see it in North Texas, but do see it in Southeast Texas. I don't see it on beach houses these days. It is not a great hurricane material, to say the least. They use Hardie-Plank down their. It looks like wood siding, but is fiber reinforced cement.

My neighborhood is all zero-lot-line houses, so vinyl wouldn't meet code. Since the houses are so close, one side of every house has to have no windows, vents or other openings, and all the materials have to be fire-rated. If one house goes up in flames, they don't want a "domino effect" to happen, and lose five houses. On my side of my street, the East side of every house is the firewall side.

CD
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Here's my embarrassing shutter story:

We never had shutters on our house growing up. I'd only ever seen shutters in old movies where, you know, they weren't just for looks, they actually were functional.

When my wife and I were looking at buying our first house, in 1997, the realtor met us to show a house, and I noticed the shutters like what I have on our house now.

When we got into the bedroom, he was pointing out the closet or whatever, and I went over to the window and opened it up and started pulling on one of the shutters. I was really looking forward to shutters I could slam shut on a stormy night.

"Hey, are these things broken? I can't get them to shut!"

:laugh:
 
TastyReuben said:
Here's my embarrassing shutter story:

We never had shutters on our house growing up. I'd only ever seen shutters in old movies where, you know, they weren't just for looks, they actually were functional.

When my wife and I were looking at buying our first house, in 1997, the realtor met us to show a house, and I noticed the shutters like what I have on our house now.

When we got into the bedroom, he was pointing out the closet or whatever, and I went over to the window and opened it up and started pulling on one of the shutters. I was really looking forward to shutters I could slam shut on a stormy night.

"Hey, are these things broken? I can't get them to shut!"

:laugh:
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Here goes another Atlantic divide - we have our shutters on the inside!
 
epicuric said:
Here goes another Atlantic divide - we have our shutters on the inside!
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How can they protect the windows from inside? That's what they were used for over here. Are they used for something different over there?

CD
 
caseydog said:
How can they protect the windows from inside? That's what they were used for over here. Are they used for something different over there?

CD
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Ours are not to protect the windows - we don't get much flying debris over here! They are for security, although only found on quite old houses. We only have a couple of windows that still have shutters, the rest have gone over the years. Not sure on the full history of shutters , but I'm sure Bill Bryson would know - I've probably learnt more about my house from him than any other source.
 
epicuric said:
Ours are not to protect the windows
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We don't have shutters but we do have steel grills as a security precaution. Many older Thai houses have shutters (internal) mainly because they don't have glass windows.

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epicuric said:
Here goes another Atlantic divide - we have our shutters on the inside!
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I was interested to see if the humor in my story made it there. This might explain better:


"Shutters"

"Shutters"

Shutters here, on any house built after probably 1950, are purely decorative, and they're fixed to the siding. As you can see, there's no way those "shutters," even if they were on a hinge, would cover my windows. They're just there to be pretty.

Now my story might make a little more sense. :)

Morning Glory said:
They don't look like vinyl...
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...and yet, they are, just like the siding on the house.
 
Yorky said:
We don't have shutters but we do have steel grills as a security precaution. Many older Thai houses have shutters (internal) mainly because they don't have glass windows.

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What happens if there is a fire? Those types of shutters now require the ability to be opened from the inside here, though they can have locking mechanisms of some type.
 
Lullabelle said:
This morning was my brother's funeral, it was a lovely non-religious celebration of his life. He was taken too soon, really going to miss the big man :cry:
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Oh, very sorry to hear this! :(

I wish there was something comforting I could say, but I just hope you and your family are feeling better soon.
 
TastyReuben said:
Oh, very sorry to hear this! :(

I wish there was something comforting I could say, but I just hope you and your family are feeling better soon.
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Thank you. He had been very poorly for a couple of years, this year his health declined pretty quickly. He is now at peace and no doubt having tea and cake with our mum.
 
Lullabelle said:
This morning was my brother's funeral, it was a lovely non-religious celebration of his life. He was taken too soon, really going to miss the big man :cry:
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Sincere condolences - never easy to lose someone we love. Peace to you in your time of sorrow. Sending a virtual hug!
 
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