cribs yo ........

amy and i looked at a house on saturday that we found meets all our requirements and is in our price range so we made an offer.

our offer was accepted and we paid a "good faith" deposit pending a professional house inspection.

we'll be making settlement on oct 9th ... so we qualify for the $8000 first time home buyer credit. nice!

i'll take pictures during the house inspection and post them.

Nice! Congratulations, Mike! I hope that this goes well for you!

That's great news!

So when is the housewarming party?

it is great news. this is something i thought i'de never have the opportunity to do in my life ... i destroyed my credit in my 20's. i'm still cleaning it up ... but being responsible is paying off. never thought i'de say something like that either.

so now i'm just super obsessed about 2 things ...........

how much work is the basement gonna need? strip the walls, parching, sealing, epoxy bottom 3rd and floor, soundproofing, more electrical outlets, more duct work to get hvac into studio, carpet ....... aaaaaaaah!

the front of the house is red ... the front living room is green. not happy with that ... too chistmassy. but what color am i gonna paint it?

if i'm this obsessed now ... i'm gonna go nutz my first week there ... and thats 2 months away!

i'm just trying to stay chill. theres more important things to deal with than the nonsence that endlessly cycles thru my head.

but i am real excited!

Awesome! Good luck on the remodeling stuff. We had to do that with our house when we first got it. Took a couple years, but it was so worth it.

It'll be frantic, it'll be crazy, but in your first couple of years especially, you can really make the place your own, man.

that was always the hard part, where to put things, what colors/rugs, who gets the bigger bedroom...such massive decisions to throw at you all at once, but almost 10 years into it, our house has turned form a spic+span no-dust anywhere dream to a normal "junk" all over the place place that serves it's purpose. I was like you mike, killed any chances of a mortgage long ago in my 20's and finally 10 years ago we bought this house. It was not the finest, but the neighborhood is fun, quiet, and never in my 9 years living there has anyone been robbed/vandalized.

the biggest bonus was the huge 3 car garage where I threw all my music junk and noone cares how "messy" that area gets

certianly is RED isnt it!?!?!?!






this is the living room. amy looks overwhelmed! i'm just digging all the woodwork.

I like it

I do, too! Very nice!

That's so wonderful, Mike! It looks like a really cool space. I'm not familiar with anything in Pennsylvania, but in what part of town is this place?

phoenixville is a socially awkwardly cool town ... blue / white collar / rich and working class all mixed together. in most parts of town, the affordable blue collar homes are in the middle of the blocks (like ours) and there are 700K to million dollar estates on the corners. its a decent neighborhood with a mix of all kindsa people.

pxv was a ghetto with a lot of abandoned estates and run down homes in the 80's and 90's. this town has made a big turnaround in the last 10 years.

and all these people get together and have a good time on bridge street, the main strip of town, on the first friday of the month. music / art / movies at the colonial / partying ... its real cool.

we are basicly 4 blocks away from our apartment (big move ... right?). were 3 blocks closer, 2 blocks south of bridge street. we're right next to a catholic church (and i dont know jeebus) and a 300 feet away from the fire department.

chek out all this stuff ..........

http://www.aroundphoenixville.com/

madmike wrote:

....we're right next to a catholic church....

I'm right next door to a Korean church of some kind, right across the street from a Uniterian church, a block away from a Catholic church, and a block away from Lake Washington. They have me cornered!

i dont know jeebus.

the priests are a buncha drunks and other accusational things.

the congregations have been known to be hipocritical and stir up witch hunts.

but the nuns are just downright fun!

I'm always afraid of bursting into flames if I walk into a church!

Seriously, I don't disparage anyone's choice of faith, as long as they don't try to push it on me.

Chowderboots wrote:

I'm right next door to a Korean church of some kind, right across the street from a Uniterian church, a block away from a Catholic church, and a block away from Lake Washington. They have me cornered!

OH NOES CB TEH CHRIST PEOPLES IS COMING FOR U!!!!



Seriously though, ya, I hate it when people try to force their religion on me. What I really want to do some time is just mess with them. Like some day I want to get a friend or 2 to dress up in robes and where huge pentagrams around our necks and walk by one of those street preacher guys trying to convert people and talk about sacrificing babies and worshipping satan and stuff.

It makes me happy when people find a good place for themselves with religion, but I couldn't ever get into it. There's a place for spirituality in my life, but not for religion.

Meh...proselytization always just turns me off to whatever religion encourages it. What a hammerwilly.

from your picture you posted Mike, that rowhouse is so very common of a thing to see here in Pittsburgh, I almost would say you bought a house on "Butler St", which is in our Lawerenceville neighborhood filled with thousands of houses that look the same from the same time period (U.S.Steel) mill workers houses from the 20's30's.

as far as churches etc, in Pittsburgh...hahaha I'll bet there are 200 just in the city and suburbs of every denomination

i think its typical of any pennsylvania steeltown ... bethlehem, mannyunk, conshohocken, pxv ........

i prefer not to look it as a row home tho. it is a double .... and its got the breezeway between us and the other house. the basement and first floor are seperate (so my band practicing at 1a.m. wont rumble the neighbors house too much.).

... and i just tell the pushy religious freaks that satan is my mustard!

i've always wondered why those people still think that their belief has the market cornered on god, everyone else is wrong and if they are wrong, that they are gonna burn ... how close minded ... i dont think god wants that.

just live a good life ... thats all god wants.

If there is a god...if he's watching...I hope he likes what he sees. I hope he likes chaos.

hey Mike, you got an AMISH community in PXV?


Religion in Pittsburgh is a joke, and how people tend to believe that "their religion/GOD" is the ONLY one to believe in around here and the wondrous and fruitful experiences you will have just by talking to GOD....

to me religion was invented by the free masons to keep the rebels under control so they could set down a bunch of simple rules:

you go by the rules or you DIE ...well naturally they used to torture and burn people regularly, so the FIRE=HELL and death thing became commonplace.



some of the best ones are:
them> "talk to god, he will help with all that ails you"
me >> doe's that include paying my bills, fixing me when I'm in the hospital, or allowing me enough money to eat? ---oh brother....

them> "god has a purpose for everyone"
me >> and is my purpose in life to be poor, unhealthy, and not able to live in a house because I have no job to pay for it??...uh how long do I have to wait for god to send me a message....

them> "sinners will go to hell"
me>> we live in hell, what could be worse? ( HELL is a man-made-up item for the past 1000's of years, to scare people back then into conforming to the dictators rules.....who has been to hell and back to tell the tale with a scientific explanation )

me > how come I talk to god every day, go to every church sermon, but I am still poor, have massive health issues, and cannot get ahead in life"
them> "have you donated to the church fund lately?" ---fu**ing losers all of them.

me> my 9 year old daughter was just raped and murdered by a church going criminal, so what happened?
them> the murderer was committing a SIN, which is a HUMAN fallacy, God cannot control HUMAN nature and Human rules...uh huh s u r e ....

and the BEST ONE!!!!!>>

beyond "MY" god, there is no other religion that has a god, they use mine....

to me all religious stuff is just salespeople collecting money for their specific cause, not to "HELP" anyone or anything......

I can find more "EARTHLY" things to believe in my life, than worry about how much I'm gonna pay to the church this week...fu**ing losers.

I feel you. All these arbitrary rules go against the grain of human nature...yick. These values are what's estranging people from themselves. My life works itself out without god's had to guide me. Being free allows you to be human and take the blows of life yourself. It allows you to make your own decisions about what's right and wrong. My ability to explore all parts of life and accept them can't be hampered by the morals that don't fit me. This way, I can find my own values, not repress them.

Interesting discussion, although I believe we have steered MadMike's original topic off course. This might do better in the Rant Room.

And even though I wholeheartedly agree with what has been said, again, I don't mind if anyone else finds comfort and solace within the church. I will refrain from expounding upon the subject so as to try not to knock the main topic off again, but believe me, I could write an entire book on my experiences and views that brought me to where I am today.

... and yes, there is an amish community here in phoenixville ... but they dont live here. they live in lancaster. they come into town on saturdays for the farmers market and during large community get togethers to sell their goods. they do this all over eastern pa.

they are extremely nice people and have more appreciation than most for the fact that people have their own spiritual beliefs. their way of life is ok for them ... they understand its not for everyone.

and i'de rather do business with the amish than anyone else. they put their agenda right up front ... we worked hard to bring you this product / we want money for it, and they are honest in their business transactions.

weird ... but actually really cool people.

That does appear to be true.

Plus, they make an awesome line of in-home heaters that look like fireplaces! When Linda and I build our new master bedroom here at the house, I'm putting one of those heaters in our room!

we have 2 furniture chains over here, one is called "mattress discounters", and "mattress factory", well the first company uses "genuine hand crafted AMISH frames", and company #2 does not ( made in china ), well around here, the mattress discounters has almost put mattress factory out of business in 5 years, just for the fact that you are right Mike....ANYONE who knows about the Amish beliefs knows they make a quality product.

ahh ... the american free market system.

eric. those amish people you see in those commercials making those nice heater systems ... they arent amish. take a good look at their clothes. amish dont wear polo shirts with their suspenders. and amish people dont make those things. dont get me wrong ... they are nice. i think the first identifier that their not made by the amish is the fact that they are mass produced. then theres some other small details like their constuction contains plastic, veneer and electronics.

and bari. if this joint does sell true amish bedframes, they would cost thousands. just remember ... amish furniture is almost all oak and they use just the solid wood finished; no veneers, stains or polyurethane coatings. every piece is handmade and different in some kinda way. again, i'm shure the stuff is nice but .......

amish dont get involved in marketing and mass production / distrobution. if a product is being sold in a retail chain, by t.v. marketing or on the internet ... i would question its "amish" authenticity. shure, people trying to market something as "amish" is very possible and probably lucrative ... what are the amish gonna do? sue? beat you up?

if you were determined to buy an expensive product ... piece of furniture for example, and you wanted handmade amish stuff ... go to lancaster pa and get it. if the dood named asob is selling an all oak unfinished chest of drawers out the back of his horse and carrige ... you can be pretty sure its handmade amish.

again ... not dissin on the products out there. just questioning the marketing.

Is it possible that those fireplaces are Mennonite as opposed to Amish? They have some similarities, but Mennonites wear mass-produced clothing (often polo shirts and jeans for men, neck-to ankles, brightly colored dresses and bonnets for women), fly in planes, work with power tools, etc. and often get confused for Amish. Maybe the folks who build these products are a different group entirely?

Nice house & congrats. Looks like it has a lot of character, nice !


Now you need a mudbucker bass to shake them walls!

thanx dog.

i got plenty of watts in speakers ... i'm looking for a new amp now to bother the neighbors. looking for something tubey sounding with some definite neighbor rumbling capability.

ya know what boots ... i think the best way to tell is to buy one of these puppies and rip it apart. even if it was made by mennonites, i think it would still be all solid wood.

i still suspect that they are made in china. dont know ... i dont have one.

but i do know that they have stopped running the commercials in this part of the country. that is kinda telling me something.

madmike wrote:

thanx dog.

i got plenty of watts in speakers ... i'm looking for a new amp now to bother the neighbors. looking for something tubey sounding with some definite neighbor rumbling capability.

ya know what boots ... i think the best way to tell is to buy one of these puppies and rip it apart. even if it was made by mennonites, i think it would still be all solid wood.

i still suspect that they are made in china. dont know ... i dont have one.

but i do know that they have stopped running the commercials in this part of the country. that is kinda telling me something.

Madmike--might I recommend Carvin amps? They're cheap, lightweight, rackmountable, and sound great. The Mono Block is probably the best solid state amp I've heard. $650 for one might be more than you're willing to spend, but it's got a blue status LEDs! It isn't an insignificant amount of money, but if you had an amp like that, what more would you need? It's got a hell of a lot of power and a lot of flexibility.

I guess that Carvin is a really solid name and Bugera is not a name I'm familiar with at all, which leads me to trust it a little more.

$650 is exactly what i'de be looking to spend. and carvin makes great products! but i'm really looking for a tube preamp.

i trust a limited name brand for an amp thats $650. not $1100.

iddid be really nice if i can find a used all tube amp for that much ... but i'm not holding my breath.

i just dont wanna spend money on another solid state amp that i just find comming up short in the tone i'm looking for. nothing rumbles better than tubes.

i'm finding the markbass tube preamp heads are getting really good reviews. i'm just having a tuff time with that orange. yuk!

Hmm...well, I can think of a few tube amps you could get in good condition on eBay. You could find vintage Sunn or Fender Bassman for that price and it'd probably be plenty loud.

as a suggestion, I also use a Carvin CT400 400x2@8ohms amp. by itself it is nothing, but add a mixer for EQ, and a gainiac tube pre, and viola...instant tone

the ganiac's clean channel is very clean, and only adds bass+treb if you so desire with no hiss noise...the distortion side is, well.....extremely distorted ( many people strive for that tone, but not me ).