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Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house

sbs.com.au

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Re: Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house

#141

Post by throwaway173738 »

bluGill wrote: post #128
bombcar wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://structuretech.com/attic-inspections-sealed-access-pa... Is a MN inspector and they cover it. Attic access has to be weatherstripped - cheap ass builders just seal it. I ain’t buying’ no pig in a poke. If it’s new construction I can inspect before completion (and you should); if it’s used, I am breaking the seal and crossing the streams. Attics got way too much “fun” to discover.

> Attic access has to be weatherstripped - cheap ass builders just seal it. True. > If it’s new construction I can inspect before completion (and you should); if it’s used, I am breaking the seal and crossing the streams. Attics got way too much “fun” to discover. Don't do this! you can't see much anyway. At least not without walking up there and that disturbs your insulation. Everything you care about is about the r…

Things like rodents entering the house are a big problem and will only be evident by inspecting spaces people don’t clean.

Re: Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house

#142

Post by themadturk »

tenuousemphasis wrote: post #50
alnwlsn wrote: post #41

Reminds me of an estate sale I went to one time. Unassuming place, one of those tiny postwar homes about the same size as the one in this article - but with at least double or triple the density of this train layout in the basement. The owner must have been a very thin person, as the narrow winding paths around the basement in places measured no more than 8 inches, and the widest parts were only about 2 foot wide. In…

Sounds like he was neuro divergent and his wife made him keep his obsession in the basement.

I've always looked at basements as a natural place for train layouts (no, I do not have one -- neither a basement nor a train layout). Trying to put such thing together among the usual furniture, people moving about, possibly toddlers found outside of the basement would be nigh impossible.

Re: Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house

#143

Post by cjbillington »

averageRoyalty wrote: post #115
cjbillington wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Melbourne property prices actually haven't recovered from their 2022 peak, and that's before adjusting for inflation. I believe rents are down in real terms as well. Things have been crazy for a long time, but I am actually optimistic for Melbourne specifically - the construction rate is up and the state government has been decreasing the power local governments have to block or delay development. If this continues,…

Population growth rate in Victoria has been 1.9% YOY average for 20 years, with no sign of slowing down. Even if they hit their targets, demand will exceed supply. The Victorian government has also failed significantly on public housing. The wait time is about 20 months (10 months is VicGov's target, it was 14 months 3 years ago) and they're currently looking to demolish many existing options without many short term…

I don't think there'll be any significant drop on a sub-decade timescale unless there's some kind of financial crisis, but the ideal kind of trend is prices stagnating or growing slower than wages, which is the case right now - and the question is whether it will continue.

I think there is a good chance it will, as long as a change of government doesn't deliberately dismantle the current approach. Yes there's population growth and yet prices have been stagnant or declining the past few years and construction has picked up. That's a good trend!

I'm not familiar with the situation with public housing but am happy to accept if the government has failed there. But this seems like a separate failure rather than an indictment of their approach to increasing supply generally which I think is working.

Re: Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house

#145

Post by lynx97 »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #99
lynx97 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Without his brother to care for him, he perished in the same house. Great example why you always need to strive for independence as a disabled person. If your family tries to directly or indirectly slow that process down, they are a danger to your well being. -- signed, a blind man

Independent in the context of modern capitalism means attaching to more and more support nodes as everything that was serviced by family/clan in the past is replaced by individual entities that can be activated with cash transactions. (Everything except actually caring for you as a person, those require a strong third place).

I take a cash transaction over my patronising and frankly borderline crazy mother every day. This iddealisation of family has to stop, it is a cruel lie.

Re: Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house

#146

Post by xboxnolifes »

averageRoyalty wrote: post #116
bombcar wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is insane? I’ve been staring at valuations so long that $1,000 a square foot in SoCal doesn’t seem “that unreasonable”.

Heads up, the rest of the world don't know what a "square foot" or a "SoCal" is.

Heads up, the rest (most) of the world has access to Google to figure it out easily. Same way Americans convert a square foot to a square meter, or tatami, or whatever.

Re: Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house

#147

Post by Swannie »

Oh yeah... he "found it"...

How would a buildings and pest inspection have missed it?

Or, maybe he found it during inspections, knew he would never convince his wife to buy the house on the strength of the train set alone, but did managed to convince on the strength of the house... now he has to sell the lie?

Re: Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house

#149

Post by bombcar »

xboxnolifes wrote: post #146
averageRoyalty wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heads up, the rest of the world don't know what a "square foot" or a "SoCal" is.

Heads up, the rest (most) of the world has access to Google to figure it out easily. Same way Americans convert a square foot to a square meter, or tatami, or whatever.

To be fair we can also google Australian house prices ;)

Maybe we need an international standard for house overpricedness - median hourly per square meter or something.

Re: Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house

#150

Post by m463 »

chrismorgan wrote: post #52
m463 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better scrupulously check keywords when hiring engineers to work on this. "bringing it up to code" might also be as ambiguous as "engineer"

A relative who is a manager sort in the medical software field told me yesterday about hiring hundreds of medical coders straight out of college. Apparently that doesn't mean software developers, but people who have swallowed a large catalogue mapping medical products and many-digit codes.

With model railroads code may also mean something specifically different.

For example, HO scale has for example both code 83 and code 55 track, corresponding to 83/1000" high and 55/1000" high rails. You can make choices depending on looks/proportional accuracy or possibly size for more robust operation.

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