The shower is on the slab adjacent to a daylight basement that is heated. Yes, that wall faucet controls the shower. I think the wall containing the pipes insulated, but there are a lot of windows on that side. The sink is indeed on a deck, just outside the main living area of the house. Again I think the wall insulated but there are a lot of windows on that side.
Both the shower and the sink are south facing. The area where the deck sink is gets a lot of sun.
Unfortunately no shut offs inside the house for either, which seems like a major oversight by the builder. I don’t want to knock holes in the walls in the main living room or basement rec room to install internal shutoffs unless absolutely necessary.
It gets down to at least 20 degrees F here occasionally every winter, and will next week. Brief stretches in the teens aren’t that unusual. It rarely gets colder than that, but it happens every now and then. It hit 8 in 2022, and the record low is 6.
Seems very likely the walls are insulated (which wouldn’t be the case only if it were pretty old) from your description. If it survived 8 in 2022, probably not an “absolutely necessary” change. If basement has drop ceilings, you can poke your head in there or go to the attic to see where the plumbing comes from: 1) floor/basement ceiling up thru wall or 2) across first story ceiling (if no 2nd story), down thru exterior wall. A 2 story house with no basement might be more likely to run water in ceiling 1/floor 2 to keep it in conditioned space rather than thru the top of 2nd story in the attic, but that is just a guess. If you have a basement first floor plumbing might run in basement ceiling. Having access to those runs by way of a drop ceiling gives you an easier option to install a cut-off if you wanted extra freeze protection.
The basement has a finished ceiling. I greatly prefer that to the drop ceiling in terms of appearance, but in this case it’s not helpful for finding the plumbing.
Same. When I get around to finishing the basement I am not sure exactly what I’ll do in areas with pipes. I’ve looked at some stamped metal plates as opposed to the standard foamish panels, but haven’t decided.
I considered purchasing a house with drop ceilings in the basement, so I went through the same exercise. I did see some of those stamped panels as well as some wood look panels, which I like better than the standard foam. However, if I were going to do this I might try this type of product:
They are designed to easily clip on a drop ceiling:
What’s an appropriate number of slides for a one hour meeting? My manger seems to think it’s about 40, with most slides containing multiple tables of numbers.
10-12? I think a good slide has about 3-5 minutes worth of content to discuss for a general presentation. If it is something like experience analysis where you need to go through many cuts of data, 40 could be appropriate assuming that 75% of those are “normal” experience where you can spend about 15 seconds saying “here are the 45 year old tracking as expected” and move on. You could also argue that should just do into the appendix, but sometimes it is hard to tell the story without that 15 second nod.
You will realistically get people to remember at most 3 things from a meeting. So, 11 slides? 1 intro, 3 for each important thing (problem, resolution, impact of resolving the problem), 1 conclusion. The rest of the material should be put in a separate, 30-page document and distributed as supporting of the major conclusions of the meeting.
If you have that much to discuss, split it over several meetings, all referencing the same packet of underlying material.
Yup. One objective, three key points max per meeting. Call them out explicitly. Hand feed this to management.
If your objective is to get to a decision, and you know what the right decision is, give them three options. Put the one you want in the middle of the range along with reasonable enough alternatives either way for them give them the impression they are making the call.
Set the stage for all this on a very clear, concise agenda slide. 1) our goal is X. 2) Review options/support. 3) Decide on X. 4) Determine next steps.
Put the objective in the meeting invite.
Your meetings will be much more effective with these things. Get rid of “discuss key assumptions” fluff meetings, even if that is what was requested. - all you will do is end up with another meeting.
I think that one should also take into consideration what the goal of the meeting should be (and yes, a singular goal for the presentation) and knowing your audience well.
I agree completely with the “3 things” . . . and the 3 general categories you present as the starting point for how to structure one’s thoughts.
However, I’ve been in situations where the “problem” was already well understood and its reiteration can be part of the intro.
I’ve been in situations where the problem has been addressed with a specific resolution that the audience was well aware of its details . . . again something that can be part of the intro.
So . . . if the goal is to help the audience understand the problem, find the 3 key elements that will do that and drill into that and have questions/concerns for the resolution as part of the conclusion.
If the goal is to decide on which of a couple of potential resolutions to implement . . . well, focus on the salient features of two or three of the best solutions.
My boss and I have quite different styles on meeting materials. I would go with maybe 6-8 for a one hour meeting. He would want 15, and they tend to be wall of text style.
40 is something else. I would be looking at my retirement spreadsheet too…