trinacriabob

maid

Balthy has a penchant for older things, houses included. :AH-HA_wink: You make some good points. I remember driving around ATL when I first moved there and, in some of the intown neighborhoods, they have those ALL BRICK homes with the 12:12 (or higher) roof pitches, with dormers and all kinds of other projections, that are beautifully detailed and you think "Wow." In your area (I only know North Jersey around Teaneck), they would have those homes in Forest Hills - Queens or Jamaica Estates - Queens and they too hit the "Wow" factor. However, they are frumpy on the inside. They smell musty. The amount of light let in is depressing. The house plan that "breathes better" and is more interesting is a more recent phenomenon. It used to be that room plan geometries were very rectilinear and formal, and I find that boring. And, unfortunately, that same formality is still sought in the Southeast, for example, and appears to thrive in New England as well as a "saltbox" colonial. In the West, the "5-4-and a door" colonial just would not sell. Here, the market demands real varied geometries, both on the outside of the house and in the rooms. (Interestingly enough, so does Florida, as I can see in the floor plans builders are doing down in that area). Simply put, the idea is to get the craftsmanship of old with the conveniences of new. It creates a challenge either in lining up the subs to pull it off OR it makes for a very expensive house! What we are talking about can be found in new construction of houses that are on slopes overlooking Lake Tahoe but then, people who commission those homes could put dollar bills on their toilet paper rolls.

Friday

I guess I'm conservative with cars...DUH. Well, I think about the rental cars out there. Once put into service, they don't know who will be driving it and how and I think they change the oil the very first time at around 7,000 miles, per the owner's manual. When I got my new car, I drove it real "easy" the first 1,000 miles or so, mixing both city and highway driving. Then, I took it in for a "break in" oil and filter change at about 1,500 miles and then returned to a regimen of changes every 2,500 miles or so. The car has been awesome. I really believe that any "impurities" in the oil or the engine will be flushed out with an early oil change and that things will seat / seal properly. At $ 29, why mess with "should I/shouldn't I." At any rate, I would do both of these upon getting a new car. But, do you need to? What is your input?

xenophobia

You're not kidding! I DETEST the older housing stock that people regentrify/refurbish. I LIKE the newer suburbs just fine, and always have.

Boy, the first place is unbelievably white. LOL. I've never seen it, really. Is it tucked away or near I-25? I guess it's affluent, right? How much will a nice house set you back in Greenwood Village? Is the second place near Castle Rock or Castle Pines (Castle something)? How's that compare to Greenwood Village for housing? Is DEN really a likable place to live? How cosmopolitan is it? I remember the beauty of The Front Range as being dramatic, but that it seemed dry. For some reason, extreme green (like ATL) seems to have a pacifying effect on me. Some parts of the West are just too brown and it almost puts me in a bad mood.

Benito Mussolini

It's very "weiss" and, at that level of household income, not much "weisser mull." Seriously, though, when you posted your Calais picture in a driveway, it looked like it was in more of a Sunbelt location. Where was that? Ok, folks, I live in the foothill suburbs of Cali's capital city, which itself I find distasteful and boring -- a serious miss in city planning since it ought to have been laid out in grand style a la Pierre L'Enfant -- that's why I live a ways out. But in two weeks, I will put my stuff in storage and be based out of Portland OR, especially while I go to Europe for a month and a half. Advantages: the area itself is nothing special but, in less than 2 hours, one can be at the waterfront in San Francisco, on a beach at Lake Tahoe, in the upper part of the state such as Mt. Lassen, Chico and all those towns, or in the pissy "Wine Country," which is pretentiously boring as hell. Beautiful areas are even closer in the Gold Country, as near as 45 minutes away. Disadvantages: there are a lot of stupid people in the north central part of the state with the better labor pool living in So. Cal. or the Bay Area. The mountain areas have rattlesnakes, bears at higher elevations around Tahoe (Bear Xing signs, seriously) and the lower elevations of the Sierra have one of the highest concentrations of mountain lions in the West (I still get weirded out that a woman went out for her nightly run on one of the state park trails by the American River in 1994 and never made it home - she was ambushed by a mountain lion and killed). I guess the thing that gets to me the most is that it's not Walnut Creek (Bay Area) or Woodland Hills (So. Cal.), either of which would suit me just fine.

megalomaniac

There was a thread once as to what nationality people are...and I have a good memory.

C'mon, Delta, don't tell me you don't speak Italian fluently?

economical

intimidating

I am motivated by my sense of aesthetics (usually toward a midsize coupe) so this means it's WANT-driven and, then, it has to fulfill my NEEDS: durable, affordable in terms of purchase price, fairly economical to operate and service and has "road trip" comfort.

Der Deutschen sind grundlich...(sp?)

tunnel

I know, but it's the "nature of the blues." Remember the first 2 years of the car: they had the Glacier Blue Metallic and the Sapphire Blue Metallic. The former was easy on the eyes and worked with the gray interior well. The latter was really deep and rich (almost too much so) and worked with either gray or tan interiors. The current Midnight Blue is so limousine dark that it starts to straddle the black. My question is, then, why bother? I like any metallic shade of blue toward the lighter third of the spectrum (see my 1984 Cutlass Brougham in the Olds pix at the top of that forum). That was the nicest color for the mid-1980s Olds and they ran it about 3 years. I would have to say that the Light Quartz Metallic on the Lucerne should be shared with the other 2 vehicles they purvey.And, the split folding rear seat....you know it's standard on both the base GP and MC. Either offer it free of charge or make it a stand alone option. Where I live, I have no use for a package that includes heated seats. Sometimes they just don't think.

I have a stockpile (they had a sale) so there is no picking up the wrong box. It's a canister with foam. You should try some!

Amish country boy

You are one of the few that likes the seats. They are, however, part of the set up with the wrap around dash. The "wraparound" thing is a turn-on with me too -- could it be our...ehm...ehm....occupation? I think they used the combo of seats and dash to elicit the adult go-kart sensation to the extent they could. Right...ON THE FENCE is a good way to put it. They didn't have to cramp the rear or flatten the roofline to the extent they did; in fact, I wonder how many previous GP customers were lost as a result of this that might have bought if the ergonomics were like those of the 1997-2003 car. They could have still have a kick-ass styled car with a few less drastic strokes of the pen...or AutoCAD puck.

Right, Frank, they are excessively firm...and over a long-ride, it becomes a big trade-off between the "cockpit relationship" which is awesome and this "wedged into your seat" astronaut sensation that can get tiring. The longest I've had to pilot a GP is Las Vegas to Los Angeles and, after about those 4 hours, you need to decompress. Don't they "test market" or "focus group" changes? On the other hand, I've taken a LaCrosse/Allure from the Albany area all the way to Mt. Tremblant (one hour north of Montreal) and I will say that the seating made for a more relaxing drive.

road kill

skank

You twalkin' to me? At 5'-10", I am NOT complaining, given that my Dad and Mom are both 5'-4." Still, unless the GP is used by what is mostly a coupe customer, it can be painful for taller people when occupying the rear seat.