PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

@Just_A_Guy

I'm guessing that the sewage for a family of six (two parents, four kids) in a 6,000 square foot house with at least one bathroom per resident would be a few hundred dollars a month?

 

Ha. I think they charge smog abatement for newer ICE vehicles as well that don’t yet require a bi-yearly smog.

 

No idea.
Don’t have cable TV and I don’t go to the movies.

 

Depends on the state and how much everything gets used. But probably.

 

Great movie. Highly recommend. Look it up.

And by great, I mean it’s so stupid you will watch it and hate me for recommending the movie. Then you’ll realize it’s exactly where our society is headed.

 

My friend has a wife and four kids, is very wealthy, and owns a 7-bedroom 2-story home in West Virginia. There's no gas in that area so it has heat pumps, an electric water heater, and electric cooking. He says that his electric bill is not particularly egregious, though I'd imagine his water and sewer bill is higher than my parents' house...

 

Part of the problem is population density, most smaller towns had municipal water decades before they had sewer. Back then you had cesspools, there were at least 3 for the house I grew up in. When one would get slow you dug down and swapped pipes to another.

As more folks built - and washing machines and more frequent bathing (folks "need" 3 full baths now in a 2 bedroom house now) became more common those cesspools weren't adequate or sanitary any longer.

 

I was born in California in 1989, I lived there for a year, and then I went back for two years (1996-1998) due to my dad being in the Navy; I'm glad I don't live there any longer, for numerous reasons...

 

Oddly enough, in high school we had a field trip to a sewer treatment plant.
Being the “wise guy I am” I knew field trips were not mandatory.
The trip would have taken the better part of the school day. I chose not to go.

1. I didn’t want to go.
2. I only had to go to 2 classes that particular year. And I got out earlier to go to my job.
Which meant I would not have been able to go to my after school job.
I worked all through high school. At that particular time (senior year) I had just gotten a job at the local lumber yard.

I kind of wish I went on that field trip now.

 

Using 100 gallons per day per person = 600 x 30 days = 18,000 gallons per month.

Using @TnShooter numbers below, if a unit is 1000 gallons, our example above would be 180 units.

27 units of water was $26 = .9629/unit x 180 = 173.32
27 units of sewer was $46 = 1.703/unit x 180 = 306.66

Raw Total 479.98

This doesn't count the various taxes, fees and surcharges that are often on utility bills, it would be a safe assumption that $550 - 600/month could be possible.

 

Treatment plants are interesting places with a lot going on, I have been in both municipal and industrial.

Some Municipal plants use bacteria to help break down the (biological) waste, industrial plants use chemical and mechanical systems to remove contaminants (metals and chemicals).
By the way, the toilets do not go to an industrial WWTP, they go out of the building to the municipal.

 

Well, if one is as rich as my friend, I'd say they see a $600 water and sewer bill as a literal cost of living. He paid cash for his house, too...

 

The funny thing about growing up poor is that no matter how far you get away from being poor the memory still remains. The habits of conserving, being thrifty and saving stick with one as well.

 

Ask him?

Were you really born in CA? I don’t think you’ve mentioned it

The state has its downfalls, but really unless you’ve lived there as an adult you don’t have much of an argument as to what life is like there. It’s not all bad like you read on the (biased) interwebs.

 

I can agree on the CA statement.
My uncle is from Tennessee (like me).
He moved to Los Angels 11 years ago.
He loves every thing about it except the taxes.
He doesn’t hate it enough to move back to Tennessee.

He grew up in a small town and hated it, and from a young age was set on getting a good education and moving out of Tennessee. I grew up in a rural town outside Knoxville.
I didn’t hate it, and I didn’t know any different.

I went to L.A. a few years back.
It was WAYYYY too busy for me. Overwhelming.
Wether was AWESOME. And believe it or not, the scenery was also nice.
Topanga to Malibu was beautiful.

But I can’t see me ever moving there.
I just like the slow paced rural areas like I grew up in.
Plus, I don’t need a translator here in Tennessee.

Evidently my accent and is strong.
And I use terms that are unfamiliar with those west coast folks?

 

I feel like I might need a translator in your neck of the woods haha

 

My dad was in the Navy for 25 years (1982-2007). He met my mom in college (1980 or 1981: I forget) and then joined the Navy fresh out of college. He went on a couple of deployments before marrying, but he was primary stationed at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California. My parents married in April 1988, and I was born in March 1989; I was born at El Camino Hospital (not far from the base, and rather fitting for someone who's as crazy about Chevy trucks as he is about Toyota trucks). My dad was transferred NAS Willow Grove here in PA in 1990 and we lived here until 1996, then moved back to NorCal and lived there until 1998. My dad was transferred to Norfolk in 1998, and my parents bought a house in Virginia Beach, where we lived until 2000. He was transferred to NAS Whidbey Island in 2000 and we lived in Oak Harbor, Washington from 2000 to 2002. We moved to Northern Virginia in 2002 and lived there until 2005. My dad spent a year or so getting his masters degree (paid for by the Navy), and then worked at the Pentagon. We moved back to Pennsylvania in 2005 and have been here ever since.

 

You don’t have to be rich to pay cash for a house.
Rich folks don’t always pay cash. Some don’t even own a house.
They rent and put “house money” towards other higher yielding investments.

A house you live in IS an expense.

The home I own was never the one I had set in mind to buy.
But that’s a different story for a different day.
Circumstances forced me to buy my current home.

 

i get the reference, we are getting closer ever year...

 

Every day. I thought that movie was idiotic (pun intended) at first. Then the years passed lol