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

I am presently at Pete's getting this installed...

 

Only fifty bucks and it's a million times better than the old one!

 

What was the old one, Toyota or something else?

 

That was the aftermarket one that got guillotined by a busted glass stovetop at the scrapyard and was spliced back together...

 

Automatic infrared night vision!

 

@shakerhood

These women rescued these newborn kittens from a barn after the mother died, and they brought one to the Import Nats last Saturday. They were 4 months old as of May 11th, 2024 and @Stitchgirl90 could not resist holding him...

 

This was another older kitten who was at the show, in his own space-age cat carrier!

 

They look like cute kitties.

 

@6 gearT444E
@ABA180
@ColoradoTJ
@Just_A_Guy
@Lt. Dangle
@shakerhood
@Speedytech7
@steelcity2
@TnShooter

In November 1990, my parents bought their first brand new home. It was already built, and since somebody had it built and chose all of the options, my parents didn't have any choices beyond the color of the shutters. My parents sold the house in June 1996 when we moved to California. The guy who bought the house from us still lives there (I've met him).

Anyway, in about 2007-2008, I decided to email the builder (the now-defunct David Cutler Group, which was still around then) and ask about getting a sales brochure for our specific floorplan. The model my parents bought was the Dunhill, which came in at just under 2,800 square feet not including the basement. All I had to do was give the woman at Cutler the physical address of our Dunhill, and this arrived in the mail days later. It was one of my most prized possessions for many years, but I thought I'd lost it forever until my dad found it while cleaning the basement last month!

 

The first floor was was very well laid out, but it did have a pointless wet bar in the family room. Our specific house had diagonal hardwood floors in the foyer, living room, dining room, and powder room. There was also hardwood in the hallway outside the powder room. The kitchen had ugly vinyl tile that was prone to cracking, and I believe the laundry room had linoleum. The family room had carpet, and the aforementioned wet bar was good for filling up my fish tank, but that was about it...

 

The house had 4 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, and a half bath. My room was located at the back of the house, next to the hall bathroom. For years, I remembered this house as having three bedrooms because I never went in the front guest bedroom. My grandparents slept in the guestroom next to mine when they visited. My parents would rearrange their bedroom from time to time, and for a while their bed was in the sitting room. For some stupid reason, there was carpet in the master bathroom, and to make matters worse it was pink carpet! Once again, the house was already built when my parents took delivery. They put with colors they didn't like because David Cutler gave sold them a $240K house for $220K; Cutler pocketed the original buyers' deposit when they backed out of the deal...

 

This was my bedroom...

 

@ColoradoTJ
@Lt. Dangle
@shakerhood

I was terrified of loud noises when I was a little kid, due largely to having autism. Things I was scared of due to the loud noises they made included the heavy-duty pressure-flush toilets in most public restrooms (especially if they were automatic flush), the burglar alarm at the aforementioned house depicted in the floor plan above, certain motorcycles and outboard boat motors, and even air-conditioners. Until about 1994, David Cutler Group used Comfortmaker-branded Snyder General HVAC equipment in their new homes. Like most houses around here, the air-conditioner was located on the side of the house opposite the garage. That was a big house and it only had one unit, so it had to be a 5-ton/60,000-BTU unit (largest size you can get for residential). I don't think they had scroll compressors in 1990 anyway, but the round Snyder General units definitely had noisy reciprocating compressors. Combine that with the fact that it was a massive 5-ton unit, and that's pretty intimidating to a small autistic kid. Like most houses in America, it had a straight-cool A/C and a natural gas furnace; I have little to no memory of the furnace in that house, and I remember spending hours playing in the unfinished basement, so it must not have freaked me out that much. The furnace was definitely quieter...

Anyway, my fear of loud noises was so bad that I refused to be anywhere near that side of the house when the A/C was running. In June 1994, my uncle bought me a Power Wheels Jeep when I finished preschool; I was so afraid of that damn air-conditioner that my dad had to walk beside me when I drove the Jeep all the way around the house.

The funny thing is that I can be right next to even the noisiest air-conditioners and I could care less; I've such an HVAC nerd that I know what a heat pump sounds like when it goes into defrost!

 

@ColoradoTJ
@Lt. Dangle
@shakerhood

From about 1987 or 1988 until 1994, my aunt and uncle owned a house in Olney, Maryland. The house was originally a decorated model, and they bought it brand new; I guess there was no gas there when they built the homes, because it had a heat pump. It was a rather odd house from what I remember. It was a 2-story colonial with 4 bedrooms, but only had a 1-car garage despite being fairly large. One of the guest bedrooms was actually just a loft with a closet, and had a half wall overlooking the family room; I think it was never intended to be a bedroom and my aunt and uncle just stuck a bed in there. The house had a finished walkout basement, and the basement was the only way to access the backyard from inside the house. There was a sliding door with a balcony off the breakfast nook, but it did not have any stairs down to the yard.

These were narrow lots, so the heat pump was located in the backyard rather than on the side of house. It was definitely a York, because I remember it had the distinctive shape and the stamped "YORK" corners; I believe that would have been a York Stellar, but I don't know for sure. It was a monster unit, I'm guessing a 4-ton at a minimum base on the size of the house and the fact that it was in the DC suburbs.

So, I was terrified of the damn thing. My aunt and uncle bought the house new before I was born, and I was five when they sold it, still terrified of central air-conditioners.

In 1993, we went there for my cousin's 5th birthday. While we were lined up in the backyard to hit the pinata, I kept looking nervously at the heat pump then at my mom, who kept reassuring me that it would not turn on. One time in 1993 or 1994, my mom and my aunt wanted me to go into the backyard to play with my cousin; I refused to do so because I was afraid of the heat pump. My aunt had to shut off the unit to get me out the back door. My aunt did not actually turn off the heat pump, but rather just adjusted the thermostat; I forget whether it was spring/summer or fall/winter, but it was a heat pump so it ran pretty much all year. The thermostat went above or below the set temperature, the heat pump came on while my cousin and I were playing out back, and I ran into the house crying as soon as it came on; I ran through the sliding door, up the basement stairs, and into the kitchen where I clung onto my mom for dear life.

One time, there was a bug/entomology show at the community center in that neighborhood. My mom and my aunt took me and my cousin to it. This was one of those huge places that had a pool, a gym, a banquet hall, etc...

A couple of the A/C units (I'm assuming also heat pumps) were located behind metal fences directly along a walkway; I pointed this out to my mom and expressed concern that they would turn on. My mom told me not to worry and brought me inside.

My fear of air-conditioners was totally gone by 1998.

 

In the early 1990s (I'm guessing 1992-1993), my parents went to look at new homes in our area just for the fun of it. For those of you just tuning in, I was born in California in 1989; I am what you might call a "Navy Brat". My dad was in the Navy from 1982 to 2007, and moved A LOT! We moved from California to Pennsylvania in 1990 and lived here until 1996. We moved back in 2005 and my parents decided to stay when my dad retired in 2007.

The specific neighborhood we were looking at that day was a townhouse development, and they had a decorated model with highly detailed scale models of the homes; I had a 1:18 scale white Porsche 911 that I'd brought with me. This model turned out to be just the right size for the model neighborhood, and I took my beloved Porsche for a spin around the neighborhood before pulling into the garage of one of the houses. I am telling story right now not because of the model car (which is amusing in its own right), but because it's those damn air-conditioners again; I was no more than 4 years old (probably 3), and I have vivid memories of this. The houses had the ubiquitous York Stellar condensing units not unlike the 1993 York heat pump that I scrapped last month, and when the sales lady was showing my parents a spec home or two, I remember being scared of the A/C units because it must have been warm out and they were running.

 

@Lt. Dangle In 1994, my aunt and uncle bought a bigger house not far from the Maryland house, but in Northern Virginia. This house was a huge brick 5-bedroom place, and it also had a heat pump, specifically the original Trane from 1981. The heat pump was located on the side of the house, surrounded by trees and bushes. In the summer of 1997, my mom and I flew out from California and spent a decent amount of the summer there. My cousins built a fort in the trees and bushes around the heat pump, and I was absolutely terrified to go in it because I was afraid that the unit would turn on. The funny thing is that older Trane and General Electric units are not very noisy at all, so I was afraid for nothing.

Also, for the record, my aunt hated heat pumps due to their poor performance in cold weather but the first three houses they owned all had heat pumps (located in Georgia, Maryland, and Virginia respectively). Their current house not only has 2-zone central air, but gas heat as well. Their guesthouse, located above the garage, has a heat pump.

 

Nice house. But not to elderly or handicapped (injury) friendly.
All the bedrooms and full baths are upstairs.
Unless you want to sleep on a couch and bath in a sink?

 

Awww, tuxedos are so fun. Then again you know my love of cats.

That's amazing a new house for 220K. Granted it's different places, but in 2004 my house was 200K (and it would have been 240-250K on the open market). 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, living room, kitchen, small hallway and closet, small breezeway, one car garage that I can't get either vehicle under the door. Half an acre as well so it's not like I got a huge piece of land. Total space is about 1200 feet..though at least that one bathroom is huge, honestly bigger than my bedroom.

That house looks sweet, but those skylights..never liked em. My bathroom had one and I said "first time it leaks or I have to do that roof, it's out"..it leaked a couple of times before I got rid of it, probably 2017.