how did you all get tied up with this uh TI system
oh did you already dial one
yeah i just dial one
we're being recorded already
yeah
okay uh we're supposed to be discussing our homes
yeah but what what uh what did you uh are you with TIer or how did you get tied up with this
oh it's a uh long story but uh let's discuss about our homes um what kind of home do you live in
uh i guess a typical home here is without a uh uh basement i guess that's the classical uh
raised style
yeah uh we have something here we have something here you may not have up there which is a well we we were phasing them out is the wood shingle roof i don't know if you had it when i first got here
uh-huh my parents live huh
where did you got get there from
from New Jersey
all right
uh
i new you didn't have a Texas accent
right no i i'm my accent's gone i've practiced a long time to get rid of it uh
uh-huh uh-huh
the the wood shingle roofs are phasing out here they're very they're good for air-conditioning you know they they
i hear you
it's you it's very shocking when you look inside the attic and on a dry day
and see a hundred little or thousands of little light wholes you know
i would imagine so
it it's very strange and then when of course when it rains then it then it then it stretches
uh-huh
and does a pretty good job but uh the the fire hazard has is
uh-huh
uh-huh i would imagine
phasing that kind of construction out it it's so
so what kind of home do you live in
oh it's a rent it's a multistorey
uh last year uh luckily
oh a colonial style two story
no colonial is not the word had they use here uh that's
multistorey is what they call them
a multilevel it's called multilevel
okay
it it it's not it's not really that typical it's a custom home
uh-huh
uh i live in Arlington actually this i'm working tonight actually in Dallas uh
uh-huh uh-huh
at TI here
oh you work at TI
oh yeah
so that's how you got hooked up to this
oh yeah
you know you know you can converse with the person for a while and get to know them before you punch the one you don't have to get started on the conversation right away
oh yeah your right your right
well anyway um well uh
how many calls have you made uh have you
oh i don't know several eleven twelve thirteen i guess
oh really everyone everyone's higher than i am
well i haven't made the calls mostly i've just uh i answered them i live in a two story type colonial here in Maryland
yeah that that i heard i know those words from the east when i was there but that they don't use that word here
yeah well most the homes here are two story because uh they stack them up since the property is so expensive at least in the Maryland area where i am
do you have a basement
yeah
oh yeah that's typical up there to you know
yeah well like i say the land here and depending on where you are and how crowded it is the land bays go up and here a little old measly quarter of an acre goes from anywhere from four to five thousand to a hundred and some odd thousand depending on where it is
oh yeah no the land is much cheaper here
and if you're in a fairly decent subdivision which i guess maybe i'm in a fairly middle-class subdivision then
the general trend is to put as much house as you can on a quarter acre it took me a long time to get used to it coming from down south up here
big big houses on little bitty postage stamp lots
yeah
but uh that's the general way they uh
they build them here so you get about a twenty two hundred to three thousand square foot home depending on whether you include the basement or not
yeah
uh on about a quarter of an acre or less about ten thousand square feet
yeah the lots aren't very big here either in the Dallas uh Fort Worth area
uh-huh uh-huh
uh but the basement there just aren't any basements i don't know of anyone ever even thought of putting a basement in here
huh
well they use slab foundations or do they use block foundations or the little
uh it used to be a pier and beam where they would drill piers and and the first you would have a crawl space underneath your house but that's phased out in the last twenty five years where it's all slab
crawl space
okay slabs are easier and quicker to pour and lay i guess
yeah
and uh they they say that the the reason they don't put pier i think it's cheaper like you say but uh the soil does move a lot here and they say that you just couldn't uh
uh uh-huh
put a basement in the soil but i'd think they just to me i don't know really know why it wouldn't work i think you can put a basement in anywhere it's just not not popular
i see what to dig out for it
yeah really
do you have high water tables
no no it's not very high some of the water here
so it's just a matter they just don't do it
yeah this is Dallas there the water's down two thousand feet
uh-huh
well of course down there you probably don't have land as quite as much a premium so you can sprawl a big rancher out
yeah i guess it's the style i really don't have an answer here because of the tornado i always thought tornados uh i thought people would build a lot of storm cellars you know or shelters you know but even that is not uh popular at all i don't know i don't know of anyone doing that uh
yeah yeah
uh-huh
uh i don't even see it in the newspaper where people advertise that they have storm cellars or anything they just don't have them period
uh-huh
i understand well uh you say you live in a ranch style house yourself
yeah it's it's multilevel yeah like my garage i have uh uh a bedroom over
well now
is it like a split level
split level yeah
in other words you've got some bedrooms above say a garage area and then the living room dining room area is halfway between both you go down steps to your garage and maybe a family room down there and you go up the steps to your bedroom
right
right exactly
right
right right
okay that's what they call a split level up here and a split foyer is where all the steps are at the entrance way
if you know what i mean
yeah yeah
that's a split foyer type and then uh a colonial is where they stack it on top of each other and you pretty well have most of your living space on the first floor like uh
a family room or uh you know something like that and the dining room area and a living room and maybe a a kitchen with a possible little eat in area or somethi ng like that
what's your typical heating up there in Maryland gas or
well uh you i've been through two or three different things of them first house i came up here had gas heat with electric stove then the second house i owned had gas heat and gas stove and uh
uh-huh
um even gas water heater whereas my previous home it had electric water heater anyway and then the house i'm in now is all
yeah
uh electric it even has a heat pump
oh really
yeah and uh
well heat pumps nice up there it would probably work pretty well
well heat pumps do work pretty well up here it's taking them a few years to get the bugs out of them but uh
yeah that's true
they they finally seem to work quite well and i would imagine down where you all live heat pumps will work quite well or maybe down there all you need is just air-conditioning that's all
well they should yeah because it's warmer in the winter or you have less of a winter down here of course it's a short winter but it does get down to five degrees uh occasionally
uh-huh uh-huh
uh-huh uh-huh
but uh i don't really know if heat pumps are that popular yet i guess uh i don't i haven't been that close to it in the newer homes
well i would imagine all you need is just air-conditioning
yeah we we have heat uh some have air-conditioning units i i i have an all electric house but uh it's fifty fifty there's a lot of gas houses here uh because it's so popular
uh-huh
oh that's right you're you're in the oil state so i would imagine there's plenty of gas around so that's the way to go for heat
oh yeah
people i think probably prefer natural gas for for heating
yeah
uh-huh i would too because me i like gas heat i love it
i don't i'm an engineer and i don't like the danger of it i've seen too many houses here blowup and i think yeah and i just think
oh really
when i had i had uh a gas uh
uh fireplace you know i had and i saw the way it was constructed yeah it went over my daughter's bedrooms you know over the garage i thought and there's there's just too many fittings in this thing to leak and so i just disconnected i never did hook that sucker up so i just took it out completely
uh-huh gas logs
uh-huh
uh-huh
although people love gas here but i i'm ultraconservative on safety and i just don't don't want it
uh
um-hum uh-huh
well i don't mind electric heating and and the like it's okay i mean i i like gas heat because it's so nice and warm but when it comes to cooking i cook i just absolute think a gas stove's the best that money can buy
yeah well i've heard people
you just can't beat cooking on gas
yeah i've heard people say that i and i
that flame man is hard to beat because you can regulate it and i mean you you want to turn the flame down on the stove you turn it down right now you don't have to wait for a cool down time which you have to rely on with uh conventional stove or or a warm-up time i mean it's instantly there
yeah
yeah
right
and that kind of response is quite uh quite effective i think for cooking
oh yeah no i i've i've known people love it for years and uh but uh we've done without it for twenty years here and and uh
uh-huh
yeah
well i've done without it too but i sure prefer it my wife does too
yeah yeah no i i haven't i haven't really noticed uh i don't miss it you know with our of course i'm against i'm just i'm one of the
yeah
uh-huh
a million people that uh is against uh gas
well do your houses down there have porches or are they just pretty much like just a front door and that's it
no
no there's not much in front there's no sitting out front you know there's no like like in the east when i was young
uh-huh
uh-huh uh-huh
of course it goes way back we used to sit out front i had a porch up front but no there's not a porch
yeah aren't they nice
yeah yeah oh yeah
they're sort of coming back up here in the east
i i i wish i had that you know
front porches are they're not very big but they're kind of coming back
right i i think the old ways in a lot of uh ways should come back uh
uh-huh uh-huh
uh-huh uh-huh but i really love a screened in porch outback man i just eat that up
but no the
yeah no that there it's not popular here either screens in screen in is not that that's so that's uh
huh
well don't you all have mosquitoes down there
not like not like you have up there no
really
it's too dry it's so dry that it's uh
that's surprising
Dallas is super dry
hm
how far are you guys from the coast down there where uh
uh what is it uh
uh three hundred miles yeah
oh are you that's a pretty good piece then
yeah
i didn't know you were that far inland i knew it was a ways but
our our weather is like we have a we have a the warm raining season is now is April
uh-huh uh-huh
and a little bit of May an then it goes into super dry all summer then you summer with a hurricane season but
uh-huh uh-huh
uh-huh
well tell me uh do your homes down there pretty much have garage disposals and things like that
yeah yeah they have everything
they do are y'all on septic or y'all have public sewage
no public there's essentially no septic not in Dallas Fort Worth though you have it in the out lying areas but uh
uh-huh
oh they use one and two car garages or just one car garages or carports
two two
no not carports uh it's essentially garages
okay so they do go garage because i lived down south for a long time carports were real popular in certain areas where i
yeah not Dallas uh Fort Worth is you know the two car garage and certainly all air-conditioned uh
used to live
uh-huh uh-huh
uh uh two thousand square feet is probably i don't know if that's average or not
about how much floor space
yeah that sounds about average i think all over the country
yeah uh i i think so too there's a lot of swimming pools here i don't have one uh
yeah
oh really i don't either i hate to clean the rascals i had a i had a pool outback behind my previous house one of those
