Help Me Pick Out My New House...

Pale Rider wrote:

Southern Man wrote:I like 7 better- curb appeal, classic style. No pawn shop windows.

Rule #1 when moving into a new house- pump the septic tank.

Tiny house though... TINY, tiny, tiny, tiny. No fire place. I'd HAVE to build on. Hell man, 900 square feet is HARDLY any bigger than this stupid apartment I'm in. It doesn't have any trees around it for privacy either. I think I still like number 6 best.

You are better off with a wood or gas stove than a fireplace.

Southern Man wrote:

Pale Rider wrote:

Southern Man wrote:I like 7 better- curb appeal, classic style. No pawn shop windows.

Rule #1 when moving into a new house- pump the septic tank.

Tiny house though... TINY, tiny, tiny, tiny. No fire place. I'd HAVE to build on. Hell man, 900 square feet is HARDLY any bigger than this stupid apartment I'm in. It doesn't have any trees around it for privacy either. I think I still like number 6 best.

You are better off with a wood or gas stove than a fireplace.

Number six has a full basement with a propane forced air heater. That's the best thing to have. The fireplace is just gravy. Who doesn't like a fireplace? If by some stroke of sheer luck or act of God, number six is going to be mine.

Who needs a fireplace when you have one of these:

I have one at my cabin- direct vent. It has a coaxial intake-exhaust through the wall behind the stove. I have it mounted on a natural stone hearth and a cultured stone backdrop. Its all the beaty of a fireplace but none of the heat loss, a lot less expensive than a chimney, and much more convenient.

I used to have a wood buring unit without a fireplace. That went through the wall to an external masonry chimney. That was a neat unit becasue I could clean the chimney from the outside trap door- no dirt in the house at all. But you could do a triple wall pipe chimney instead.

Southern Man wrote:Who needs a fireplace when you have one of these:

I have one at my cabin- direct vent. It has a coaxial intake-exhaust through the wall behind the stove. I have it mounted on a natural stone hearth and a cultured stone backdrop. Its all the beaty of a fireplace but none of the heat loss, a lot less expensive than a chimney, and much more convenient.

I used to have a wood buring unit without a fireplace. That went through the wall to an external masonry chimney. That was a neat unit becasue I could clean the chimney from the outside trap door- no dirt in the house at all. But you could do a triple wall pipe chimney instead.

Excellent. I do like those. I had one almost exactly like that in this house I rented up in Montana. The house had very little insulation and was colder than hell when the fire went out, but when there was a fire, that stove would boil you right out of the house. Great heat. I know what you mean. Fire places are quite inefficient when it comes to putting out heat. They're more for looks and ambiance than anything else.

When I lived in Upstate NY it routinely got to 10 below. We had oil fired hydronic heat which was awesome. The 2x4 walls were cold but we had perimeter baseboard. I increased the attic insualtion from 3.5" to about 12 and the difference was immeadiate. I got a vermont castings wood stove and put it in the fireplace, and that would keep the 1400 sf home toasty without the oil going on. The only problem was keeping the chimney clean, which was a huge job since I had to move the stove out along with the chimney connector.

I had a smaller wood stove in the basement as I described ealier. Much easier to clean.

Well at least you can start up a nice pawn business in your new house.

Southern Man wrote:When I lived in Upstate NY it routinely got to 10 below. We had oil fired hydronic heat which was awesome. The 2x4 walls were cold but we had perimeter baseboard. I increased the attic insualtion from 3.5" to about 12 and the difference was immeadiate. I got a vermont castings wood stove and put it in the fireplace, and that would keep the 1400 sf home toasty without the oil going on. The only problem was keeping the chimney clean, which was a huge job since I had to move the stove out along with the chimney connector.

I had a smaller wood stove in the basement as I described ealier. Much easier to clean.

Definitely a good idea to have at least a foot of insulation in the attic. It gets damn cold up in Wisconsin too. I've seen it not get above twenty below for weeks on end when I lived up there. Wood heat is cheap and very efficient.

Southern Man wrote:Well at least you can start up a nice pawn business in your new house.

...... ...... I'll no doubt get rid of the pawn shop windows, for two reasons, one, they lose far too much heat, and two, I don't want that much window for people to be gawking into. If I have a project going on in there, which I no doubt will, I'm going to want to keep it under wraps.

Wisconsin is colder. You might as well be moving to frickin' Canada. I was on a west facing hill though and the wind was constant. I did see 24 below- once. Mostly it was minus 10. But it was so quiet, in the spring you could hear the snow melt- no kidding.

No doubt you'll have a nice snowmobile up there, and cross country skiing out your door. I lived on a hill, and was planning a rope tow for alpine sking through my and my neighbors back yards.

Wood warms you twice: once when you harvest and split, again when you burn it.

Just insulate over the windows, with some cool looking shutters on the outside. Then you can open up the pawn shop in the spring.

Southern Man wrote:Wisconsin is colder. You might as well be moving to frickin' Canada. I was on a west facing hill though and the wind was constant. I did see 24 below- once. Mostly it was minus 10. But it was so quiet, in the spring you could hear the snow melt- no kidding.

No doubt you'll have a nice snowmobile up there, and cross country skiing out your door. I lived on a hill, and was planning a rope tow for alpine sking through my and my neighbors back yards.

Wood warms you twice: once when you harvest and split, again when you burn it.

Just insulate over the windows, with some cool looking shutters on the outside. Then you can open up the pawn shop in the spring.

Up in Wisconsin you can go to the wood mills and pick up a bundle of wood that's the trim off of lumber for $10. It's almost a ton of wood. It's already split so to speak, so all you have to do is run a chain saw down through it to cut it to length. Fast, easy, burns hot and long, and it's cheap. You can save some serious cash buring that all winter.

Hmmm... maybe I'd better rethink the pawn shop. It actually doesn't sound like too bad of an idea...

Wow there were several hardwood mills where I used to live and that's the first I've heard of that type of deal. I use to get trimmings from a pallet factory. Most of the pieces were the right length, 4x4 or 6x6 oak and ash. Lots of sawdust in a load though. No bark. It was still green and you'd have to stack it like cribbing to dry it. Loads into the stove neatly though.

What can I say... "Wisconsin." Everything is cheap up there, except income and property taxes. Those about the highest in the country.

Years ago they used to GIVE those bundles away just to get rid of them. Then people started to catch on about it so they started charging ten bucks for a bundle. I used to get free ones. Hard wood too. I plan on burning the same stuff when I get back.