RE: Stonehenge Features, or Easter Eggs?

["Sullivan, Glenn" <gsullivan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My parents built a house in Amherst, New Hampshire, USA...

Because of the temperatures in north eastern US, and the cost of oil at
the time that they built their house, they built it far "tighter"
than a
standard house.  2x8 exterior walls instead of 2x6, 2x4's inside,
instead of 2x3's, and all interior and exterior walls heavily insulated.

This, coupled with electric heat in each room made for a very efficient
combination.

They did run in to one unique issue, about two or three times a year,
that took them ten years to figure out, but they finally solved it about
three weeks before selling the house.

You see, every time that they started a fire, about a half-hour into the
fire, the house would develop a horrible sulfer-ish smell.  It would
start at the front door, and work it's way toward the living room, but
would eventually permeate the entire house.

Turns out, when the sheetrock guys were hanging board in the stairwell,
they put the tip of a sheetrock screw into the exhaust gas pipe for the
septic system... The "stink pipe" as it is referred to here.

During normal day to day living, this was no problem.

But on cold winter days, when the entire house was buttoned up tight,
and my parents lit a fire, the house was so starved for any kind of
ventilation to feed the fire its oxygen that it started pulling the
sewer gasses in through this pinhole.

And if my brother hadn't started "playing" with the fire, gotten
in
trouble, and been sent to his room, we never would have found the
source... As he was walking up the stairs, he caught the first strong
whiff of scent, and started smelling the wall until he found the
wallboard crack where it was bleeding into the room.  An expensive
stairwell remodel job later, and the smell was gone.

Somehow I get the impression that's not the kind of hidden stuff you
were looking for, but it jogged my memory...

Glenn Sullivan, MCSE+I  MCDBA
David Clark Company Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Grimshaw [mailto:stuart@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2004 8:05 AM
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Stonehenge Features, or Easter Eggs?

I was reading this on Dilbert:

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/house3.html

Does anyone have a Stonehenge Type feature in their house? What about
easter eggs, are there any secret combinations of events that trigger
some hidden feature of your house?

--
-S