My 3 year review of living in our house | General Homesteading Discussion | Forums

J,moe and roli had asked me how I feel about our house after living in here for awhile, what would I change, cost to build, etc

First things first the cost break down

tile and sinks ect 1803.21

appliances 2595.85

hot water tnk 1292.94

material 8496.35

equip rental 392.04

electrical 2323.93 includes 750 for pole

plumbing 2101.24

cement 5105.24 includes 725 for pump truck

labor 8933.26

windows 1386.75

metal roof 1899.89

gas rough in 520.8

ground work 4500

misc 7739.46 This would be paint, pine we kept going and picking up, ect, things that don't seem alot when you get it but it adds up to alot, wish I could break it down more, but I didn't save receipts

total 49090.96

now this doesn't include the 2000 we paid for the block last year, or the 8000 for groundwork to build up the pad, water and sewer hook up, so total would be 59090.96

significant savings would be had in the labor, plumbing and groundwork

we took a flat field and built it up to berm around the house, if you could find a site that has a hill and dig into it, you would save about 2/3rds of that price, hell you could even rent a excavator and do it yourself

labor, if I wanted to build it over a year instead of 3 or 4 months, that line would have been zero

Plus, my wife wanted the 300 dollar basin sink instead of a cheap 50 dollar unit ect.

What would I change?

The roofline, when we originally thought of it, the idea was to open the top windows and allow natural convection suck the warm air out of the house and bring in cool air through the front windows. The reality is with the washer/dryer, ect in the way to get up there to open and close the windows is a pain. Besides the fact it takes a 12 foot step ladder to reach them which we keep along side my dads shed, if a rainstorm comes in you need to be able to get up there quick to close the window or else rain will get driven in through the opening. I could install a awning over the windows and keep that from happening I suppose.

The storage we built in the bedrooms up in the roof is the same issue, getting up there involves going outside and getting a step ladder and crawling up there.

I would have just gone with a traditional roofline and installed solar tubes for lighting in the back rooms. Plus, there would be cost savings in this with material and labor. Hand framing that roofline was very labor intensive versus just having trusses delivered and nailed in place in a afternoon.

Another issue we have with the roofline is that the front flatter part of the roof doesn't shed snow, we have to get up several times a year and rake off the snow. Wouldn't be a issue down south but here where we get 100 plus inches of snow a year, it is a issue.

I would have pinned the walls to the footing instead of depending on the slab to keep the wall from kicking in.

I would have replaced the sliding windows in the living room with sliding glass doors which would have allowed in more light and made the patio more of a outdoor living space. Believe it or not it would also have helped with heating in the winter. The way the windows sit and where the sun is on the horizon during the winter the daytime sunlight hit's the backwall and we don't get to utilize solar gain that much on the thermal mass of the floor.

I would have installed the earth tubes which was in our original plans, I wanted to tie them into the footing drain around the house but when we were backfilling the house with all activity it totally slipped my mind.

Here is the basic concept, through convection hot air escaping from the house draws in cool air through the pipes that have been buried in the soil, The earth maintains a constant temperature below 4 feet of 52 degrees, so you could utilize all natural air conditioning, it also works in the reverse during winter time. Instead of your woodstove sucking in 10 degree air from the outside, the earthtubes prearm the air to 52 degrees.

I would have made the island bar smaller, it takes up a large amount of floor space.

I would have moved the bedroom door on the left up front to match the door entry in the other room

I would have moved the bathroom doorway over to where the fridge is

this would have given us more options as far as laying out furniture, as it is all we can do is put a couch against the wall due to the doorways in the corner and the woodstove

I would have made the shower more normal size, the large one is nice, but it takes up a lot of floor space, with a small home like this, space and storage is a premium.

The idea after our daughter moves out we are going to open up the wall behind the couch and actually have a living room. Plus it guarantees she can't move back in. Bonus!

If I had the money I would have spray foamed the whole house instead of using rolled insulation but the quote we got was almost 5000 dollars, I couldn't justify it being almost 10 percent of our build cost.

Performance energy wise is outstanding.

We have a on demand propane h2o heater, propane dryer and propane stove and we use about 8 gallons of propane a month.

Our electricity bill runs us about 90 dollars a month which to people might sound expensive but we pay high electrical costs here in Maine, our "normal" home before we moved in was averaging 300 dollars a month. I would safely say that when our daughter moves out our electrical bill should drop a lot.

Firewood we use about 1/2 to 3/4 cord of wood a season. Rinkus dropped us off 2 cords 2 to 3 years ago and we burned through well over a cord of it this year due to it being so dry after sitting there so long. Lesson learned don't stockpile so much firewood. It feels good to know we can basically pick dead fall off our 9 acres and heat our home for the rest of our lives.

That's all I can think of right now, anyone have any other specific questions?