Our new build from heck (insert expletive here)
Kathy
4 years ago
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4 years agocpartist
4 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (13)OK, I have been neating my homes with a woodstove for over 18 years. First in PA and now in VT. Wood IS work. You must cut or have it cut to length, stacked, aged, and then you must bring in the wood regularly to burn. I can heat my home up here with 3 cords that will cost about $135 per cord. About $400 for the entire season! I do have oil as backup and I used 250 gallons last year. That's for hot water and backup heat when we were away. I happen to LIKE wood stoves! I like the fire you see when relaxing in front of the stove. The lazy flames that can lower your blood pressure. A pellet stove has a much too "busy" fire for me. It's like watching an oil burner in action. I like the fact that when the power goes out we will have heat AND hot water as we just put a kettle on top of the stove. I don't have to worry either about pellet prices or if the local stores will run out in February as they have done in the past. My home is 1,200 sq ft. I purchased the smallest unit Regency makes and it does the job quite nicely during a Vermont winter when it goes to minus 20 at night. But a 75,000 BTU stove will be WAY too big! You'll either have the windows open all winter or you'll always have a "cold" fire which causes creosote. My stove is rated for 800 to 1,000 sq ft. We don't heat the bedrooms directly as the heat will find it's way there. We want to heat the living areas. So the small unit does the job nicely. So you may want to look at a stove that heats up to 2,000 sq ft. That's a medium sized stove. And in all my years of using a woodstove, we've never seen a termite....See MoreThe quilt from heck (sp)
Comments (23)We had the bike ride yesterday. While we were waiting for the riders to get there and sign I was chatting with some of the other ladies in the club (also sewers). I showed them the areas of the quilt I was unhappy with and they both said "that is nothing, you should see some of the thing my machine does". Then it turns out the winner was her husband (purely luck of the draw with rider numbers). She was very happy with it. Then while chatting with some of the riders when they came back in, I found out one of them was familiar with long arms. He agreed with my assessment of my machine and just getting caught up in the transition of ownership. He said a good internal cleaning should help, but since they are coming out with a new Voyager perhaps a deal could be struck for a new one. That was encouraging. beverly...See MoreDo we love our new build homes because we need to?
Comments (34)We "built" the house we live in now, tract home in new neighborhood, with some customization. House conversations with friends and neighbors always have regrets in there. Bump-outs, boneheaded designs we should have caught, upgrades that should have been made, upgrades that aren't worth it... the list goes on. Based on our experiences here, I already know there will be design / decor issues that will have D'oh! moments. It's impossible to think about EVERYthing. I think we've hit all the major points, and have enough flexibility to change in the future. Our lives changed quite a bit in the 6 years since building (the once large pantry is now crammed because I now do the majority of grocery shopping at Costco and that not change for at least 15 years for example). I can't see into the future, but we learned from this build, and kept the evolution of our family in mind with our design. 1) The architect/draftsman is only as good as the information provided. They don't know us, or live our lives, ( I wonder if there'd be a benefit to having separate design consultations with the clients, much like relationship counseling, to get a really clear picture, lol), which is why we rely on their education and expertise. 2) The reason copy editors exist: to catch the technical mistakes writers make, and can no longer "see" due to closeness to the project. Same reason med errors occur. I think when we originally like a design, then look at it, dream about it, obsess over it, we can't "see" the flaws or potential problems that others might. Hence all the floor plan critique posts here. I think too, that online and builder plans lull us into a false sense of security- "they design and build houses all the time, they're experts, hundreds of people have bought the design, what could go wrong?!" We found that customizing our builders plan threw them for a loop, and didn't realize it would do so, until after the house was built, and weird things weren't right; towel bar location, depth o linen closet, outlets, etc. 3) We are often playing on tilt. We're all living SOMEwhere, right now, and designing a new place to live, with many features that we love (or would love to have) or without the ones we loathe, those HTOD, that we obsess over in our current or past homes. Finally, the same way any artist of any medium does, we aren't always satisfied with the end result of a project. Sometimes you just have to be DONE, even if to your artists eye, you could have kept going. Having said all that, I know there's going to be some regrets, but hopefully -I believe- the joy will outweigh them!...See MoreHere goes..newbie new build exterior help and interior feedback please
Comments (33)To piggyback on Virgil's comment...could you design the empty nest space on one floor with separate climate zones so that later on you can completely close off part of the house unless you have guests. This makes perfect sense. Specifics I'd care about: - Place everything you and your spouse will need once you're "empty nesters" on the first floor ... and make sure it's elder-friendly. - This is an ugly thought, but it's realistic: It's easy to consider you and your spouse living in this 4000 square foot house together as empty nesters ... but one day one of you will be widowed. Will 4000 square feet still feel okay then? - Put the kids' bedrooms upstairs, but make sure you can close off that space when no one's using it. Be sure you have at least one bedroom that can hold at least a queen bed so that visiting adult children (who bring along a spouse) can be housed comfortably, and think about a room that could become a grandchildren's room. - This upstairs space might one day be needed for a live-in caretaker (who could be a child or grandchild, or could be a paid caregiver). - Lose the loft and instead make the basement a kids' hang out space. - A completely different thought: Design the house so that you have two bedrooms upstairs for your younger children ... and a one-bedroom apartment (with a separate entrance PLUS a lockable connection to the main house) for the older boys. My mom has this set-up in her house, and it has proven itself very flexible over the years. In her case, the one-bedroom apartment is connected to the main house with a breezeway. Initially an elderly relative lived in the apartment. Each of us kids took turns living in that bedroom. It's been temporary housing for a number of people. Now my mother lives in the apartment, while my brother and his family have the main house. Heck that double bedroom might not even get a year or more out of it before the boys are off to college. I say that because it may be another year or two before the house is built. Yes, realistically, the oldest boys will barely ever live in the house ... but assuming they're going away for the traditional college route, they'll be home for holidays and summers. They may or may not come home after college, but they're not likely to stay long. My oldest has been out of college two years now, and as I think about her high school classmates, only one is still living at home with her mom ... and it's because she is a single mother. I know plenty of empty nesters living in 4000+ sq.ft. houses and none of them are overwhelmed. Eh, I bought my current 2400 square foot house from an empty nester who was overwhelmed both with the upkeep and the cost of the home. I know a couple other people who would like to downsize ... but they can't unload their large houses and/or can't find something small and manageable for the same cost now. I do know one retired guy who stocks grocery shelves part-time literally because he can't afford his oversized house ... neither can he sell it. As for maintenance and upkeep, well, if one can afford to build such a house, they will probably still be able to afford it 30 years later. And also afford the help to clean it. Totally disagree. Speaking hypothetically, definitely not pointing at the OP, whose financial situation I don' t know: pretty much anyone can borrow to build a big house ... but that doesn't mean the individual can afford to retire AND maintain the big house. No one wants to discover too late that he cannot afford to travel, etc. in retirement because of the necessity of maintaining a big house. I have always told my husband that I wanted a home where all the kids would have a bed to sleep on when they chose to come back home to visit. Yes, I always want to have a space for my kids ... but at 4000 square feet, you have space for other people's kids too. Remember that an average house in America today is 2400 square feet; you're looking at practically double that size. I agree that's important too, but a few thoughts on that. How many will be moving far from home and how many will be staying with you at the same time? This is more unpredictable than your own health. With four kids, will they live nearby and visit but never stay the night? will they move far away? will they likely come back to visit at the same time? will they send their kids to stay with you two weeks every summer? Other thoughts: - That's a lot of garage for anyone. - I like the connection between the laundry and the master closet. - The master bath could use improvement. - You're devoting a huge amount of space to bedrooms ... but not nearly as much to eating space. Fast forward a decade or two: imagine four children, spouses and grandchildren ... you don't have anywhere to feed even half that group! And, in my experience, you're more likely to have family for a day /a meal than for overnight. - The placement of the toilet in the shared bathroom seems to be very much "out in the open". I get that this bathroom is designed for sharing, but it could be better....See MoreUser
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