Downsizing the House

First off, how about an update on the rain totals first brought to you by Rob over the weekend. It turns out that Wisconsin Rapids ended up breaking a daily rainfall record on Saturday AND Sunday. The record daily rainfall in Rapids on Saturday (the 13th) was 1.32 inches. The record daily?rainfall on Sunday (the 14th) was 1.37 inches. We didn?t break any records in Wausau but the 2-day total was 1.90 inches. The far north was the only spots not getting in on the action so much. The two day rain total in Rhinelander was only 0.39 inches.

Even after receiving almost 2 inches of rain, we are still over 4 inches below normal for the year in Wausau. So?.we could use a few more days of rainfall here in October before the ground freezes. It looks like more is on the way this week, but it will not be as heavy as what we just experienced over the weekend. A big storm moving into the Great Lakes region on Wednesday?will stick around for Thursday and most of Friday as well. Right now it looks like a quarter inch of rain could fall on both Wednesday and Thursday, which is a decent amount.

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Following up on the solar panel investigation from last week. I see at least one person commented about the irony of cutting down trees in order to put solar panels on my house. I agree that it would be a trade-off, but I think it would be close to a wash as far as future benefits to the environment go. In any case, I won?t be cutting down any trees. If I want to power my house with solar, I will probably just end up moving to a more sunny location. In the meantime, I might only put one or two panels up, just to test out the whole process. Even if I don?t get maximum power for our latitude, it would still help out a little.

In other news, I will be in Arizona soon?and I am going to try to visit FirstSolar. I hope I can get an interview and a tour of the factory. Maybe I can provide blog readers with the inside scoop on the future of thin film panels and FirstSolar itself.

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In my continuing coverage (some might say crusade) of the American expansionist and consumerist attitudes and how it has led to (most likely) an expensive and unsustainable infrastructure, I have often remarked about the seemingly disastrous policy of continued home-building, road-building, and commercial real estate-building, even as there are millions, millions,?and millions of empty houses, empty strip malls, and ever increasing miles of highway.

Too many McMansions?

Something else has occurred to me as well. Individual houses might be over-built in aggregate square footage. This dawned on me after talking with more than a few?friends and acquaintances. The main theme is that they are older, they don?t have as many?kids in the house, they might not have as much money, or they might be retiring. Some own McMansions. Other just added on to their house. Now they want to downsize. The upkeep or the cost of the house is making them reconsider what they have. I am lucky that my house is small-medium size and fits us fairly well. It is not too large, costly, and unwieldy. I would build a smaller one, or move into a smaller one,?if I had the money right now, but ours is ok-sized for our family size and lifestyle. My ideal house would be a little smaller and more technologically advanced. I would rather have a bigger yard/garden and a smaller house.

Back to the point, considering the demographic changes and the ongoing recession, it is not likely that the market for big homes will be very good for years to come. People are having less kids. Real incomes for most people are on the decline. Not as many people will want a real big house that is expensive and time-consuming to maintain (IMO). The one small saving grace for the large home market might be the increasing numbers of adult children living at home due to the poor job market for college grads. In closing, I think it is another good sign for the future, that people are starting to downsize their houses and focus more on other things in life. Houses are nice. But it is not the actual building or the size of it that makes a home.

Have a fine Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Environment, Rainfall Reports, Records

Source: http://addins.waow.com/blogs/weather/2012/10/downsizing-the-house?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=downsizing-the-house

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