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(and it happened just last year for all our area & its surrounding states even eg. Irene,
Irene was the one that got us too, might have even been five days. Lost a few nice trees too. The scary part about that was there was a thousands in town that didn't have electric for up to 10 days. They would not have been prepared for something like that if it were winter. No generators, no fireplaces.
^^^mine was out for a little over a week (7 plus days).
We have no power, no water for a few days then we got a generator (1st year in the house).
Candles still though every night to save energy off the generator used to run the fridge & water pump (thinking on getting a manual pump too for JIC).
So... I know I can actually live without electricity... but not without water or heat for the matter.
^^^mine was out for a little over a week (7 plus days).
We have no power, no water for a few days then we got a generator (1st year in the house)
LOL, same here. Generator was on the "to do" list but didn't get to it yet. I was cooking on the grill. The neighbor on the other side of the street had power so I was taking this giant cooler over on the lawn mower to get water so we could flush the toilets and filling jugs up jugs for drinking water.
Other than the water to flush the toilets to me it wasn't no big deal because I've gone on numerous canoe trips down the river that have lasted 8 days.
I am so envious of you. I didn't discover swimming until relatively late in life. Now I couldn't live without it. (literally -- we all know about the aerobic and cardiovascular benefits of swimming). May I ask what is so annoying to you (and the other folks in this thread are welcome to chime in) about a pool? Is it the maintenance?
Living here in Japan, I pay about $150 a month for membership in a swimming facility for my wife and me, and it is the best use of my money that I could imagine. I would kill (well, maybe maim ) to have my own pool back in the States.
I'm guessing that you're not a regular swimmer?
Yes, mantenance, slow leaks you can't find, finding dead critters in it, the fact that it takes up yard space and can only be used certain times of the year and just the general liability of having one with kids around. My dad had it put in when I was young and says the best two days of his life were the day he got the pool and the day he sold that house 30 years later..haha.
You are right about it being good exercise though, and I wouldn't turn one down if it was available. I was on a few local swim teams when I was a teen and of course hung out with my friends at our pool all the time but I was never a fan of the sun or getting my face wet.
I rather have the pool.
A pool would give me much more enjoyment to swim in when it is hot out.
A fireplace would do nothing for me, except take up valuble wall space.
I would never light it, as I am afraid of a fire, nor want to have to get wood, or what ever is neede, cleanning a flue, no thank you.
A fireplace to me, other than the look of it, is a waste. I could do without it.
Personally, a fireplace hands down, We put in a high efficiency fireplace about 4 years ago. If we care to, it will heat the whole house. There is no heat lost up the chimney as it has outside combuston air. We love sitting in front of the fire and watching the lazy controlled flame dance. We will never be without a fireplace.
We also have a neighborhood pool, which we use maybe 5 times per year. I travel a lot and almost never use the motel pools.
I can't imagine not having a pool. I'm not saying that just because we're in the AZ desert (where, IMO, it's a "must have"), because we had a pool in TX and NY too. These days pool maintenance is minimal, particularly if you have a good in-ground cleaning system. Nothing beats coming home, jumping into the pool and unwinding after a long day.
We've had fireplaces in the past and have one now too. We've never, ever used them. Heck, I don't even know how to use ours. For us, it just takes up space.
Swimming pool. Absolutely. We have 2 fireplaces now and never use them. One has gas logs, but is in a room we rarely use. I think in the 6 years we've lived in the house, we've used it maybe 3 times. The other one is in our main family room. We tried to use it a few times, but it doesn't draw correctly, and the room is so small, that when we did use it, it got so hot in the room that we couldn't stand to be in the room with it. We haven't used it in about 5 years. All they do is take up wall space that could be better used for furniture placement. We've actually talked to a contractor about ripping the one in the family room out.
Now a pool would get used all the time. We tried to find a house with a pool, but there we couldn't seem to find one we liked. Most all of our neighbors have pools. Hubby swims almost every day. It would be nice if he could do it at home. I enjoy swimming for exercise as well, but I hate having to go to a health club to do it. We live in a part of the country where we could use it almost half the year. When it's 105 degrees, a pool would be wonderful.
Thankfully we have both, but if I had to choose I'd say fireplace.
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) to have my own pool back in the States. 
