07-15-2008, 06:40 AM
In answer to question, I've lived in multi-generational housing since I moved here!
But it works best if there's an ohana or separate quarters. It's a shame that the ohana's are not allowed on ag land unless you have a farm. It's just a way of sharing the house with relatives without having to share the ktichen. Sharing a kitchen is one of the hardest things, because standards of keeping it clean, washed up, etc.. vary so widely.
In the 70's, I lived in Washington and Mendocino in areas where nearly everyone used wood stoves for heat, and many for cooking. At the time, I didn't drink coffee ... but I well remember how hard it was to wake up in a frigid house and first job is to start a fire. Of course the kindling was already ready and the wood dry if you had your act together. Not always the case.
The pressure to stop burning wood in fireplaces, in California, is old, goes back more than ten years -- so long I can't remember. People were trying to cut down on heating costs by burning wood, and it created heavy air pollution.
One of those deals where because burning wood seems more "natural" than burning oil that it was hard to grasp that it can cause pollution as much as auto exhaust. The wood smoke had gotten to the point where there was a chronic brown bowl of smoky haze -- and this was back in the 90's.
We had a wood-burning fireplace in our 1930's house in Oakland, but we only used it occasionally. We had a gas furnace for the real heat. Also we never burned pine or fir, only oak and madrone, which burns hotter and cleaner. It matters what fuel you burn. Like the guava wood sounds good, from the description.
Burning trash and yard waste are both prohibited here! It's legal to have a fire in the imu, but green waste is to go to the transfer station if you can't compost it. So the County does care about putting wood combustion into the air.
Neighbors need to be careful about where their smoke goes, if they burn wood. My neighbors burn and the first thing, trades bring it in my window and bam, my house is choke with smoke. REALLY unpleasant.
I have a solar hot water heater. It doesn't make hot water in periods of consecutive rainy days. Basically when it's raining, no hot water. Same with the one I had in Hilo. I'm amazed at the stories of getting solar hot water in all sorts of conditions. Don't get me wrong, I love having it, and most of the time it works!
But it works best if there's an ohana or separate quarters. It's a shame that the ohana's are not allowed on ag land unless you have a farm. It's just a way of sharing the house with relatives without having to share the ktichen. Sharing a kitchen is one of the hardest things, because standards of keeping it clean, washed up, etc.. vary so widely.
In the 70's, I lived in Washington and Mendocino in areas where nearly everyone used wood stoves for heat, and many for cooking. At the time, I didn't drink coffee ... but I well remember how hard it was to wake up in a frigid house and first job is to start a fire. Of course the kindling was already ready and the wood dry if you had your act together. Not always the case.
The pressure to stop burning wood in fireplaces, in California, is old, goes back more than ten years -- so long I can't remember. People were trying to cut down on heating costs by burning wood, and it created heavy air pollution.
One of those deals where because burning wood seems more "natural" than burning oil that it was hard to grasp that it can cause pollution as much as auto exhaust. The wood smoke had gotten to the point where there was a chronic brown bowl of smoky haze -- and this was back in the 90's.
We had a wood-burning fireplace in our 1930's house in Oakland, but we only used it occasionally. We had a gas furnace for the real heat. Also we never burned pine or fir, only oak and madrone, which burns hotter and cleaner. It matters what fuel you burn. Like the guava wood sounds good, from the description.
Burning trash and yard waste are both prohibited here! It's legal to have a fire in the imu, but green waste is to go to the transfer station if you can't compost it. So the County does care about putting wood combustion into the air.
Neighbors need to be careful about where their smoke goes, if they burn wood. My neighbors burn and the first thing, trades bring it in my window and bam, my house is choke with smoke. REALLY unpleasant.
I have a solar hot water heater. It doesn't make hot water in periods of consecutive rainy days. Basically when it's raining, no hot water. Same with the one I had in Hilo. I'm amazed at the stories of getting solar hot water in all sorts of conditions. Don't get me wrong, I love having it, and most of the time it works!