What Have You Done That Has >"TOTALLY CHANGED"< Your Home?

[arizona98tj]

We built a new house six years ago, paid cash for it. Should have built a bigger one I guess. This fall, we started on a new 20'x26' sewing studio for the Mrs. Waiting for the last layer of mud to dry so we can sand and paint, lay the flooring, install the woodstove and get her moved in. Happy wife, happy life!

 

[oosik]

Went from firewood heat when we built the house in 1982 to electric heat now.

Much simpler, cleaner and more even heating.

 

[fishheadbob]

Good read. Our house is circa 1840; when we bought the farm in 1979 the house was a throw in. Total gut with new wiring, insulation, and drywall replacing horsehair and lath. Copper pipes. Well #6 hit 3 springs so there was finally adequate water (bathing in the creek anyone?). Just beginning latest round of window upgrades. Electrical service from 60 amp to 200. First went to central wood heat with oil backup, currently running geothermal (great). Large addition, another bedroom, new 3 car garage, and on and on.

 

[Diggin It]

All of the above. Literally. New windows and doors, insulation, heating changes , etc. Plus a few more things like vinyl siding over the concrete block and metal roof. It was concrete block, shingle roof, doors with a lot of glass, steel frame casement single pane windows and not an ounce of insulation of any kind.

It's now vinyl sided with nearly three inches of foam board (inch and a half outside, 3/4 inch inside) and drywall added (exterior walls are close to a foot thick overall), metal roof, several inches of insulation in the attic, thermal windows and doors ..... and on and on and on ...

All new wiring and plumbing too, plus all LED lighting.

I was going to start a similar thread, but I'll add this here.

Digging through old files and papers, I pulled all the bills for propane. The first year or two before I got a lot of the work done, I was burning close to 700 gallons a year. That started to come down as progress was made.

I'm down to getting 200 gallons that will sometimes last more than one year.

I'm giving up on the wood burning though after this Winter, so we'll have to see what happens.

This year, I've used very little heat over all. I still have most of that last 200 gallons from last Spring and I've only have one wood burning day. I'll get another 200 after the first of the year so I'll have some in case the generator needs it.

 

[Langanobob]

Got a Wife ...My home is "TOTALLY CHANGED"

Best change ever!

All we did was get rid of an old woodstove and replace it with a modern high efficiency stove. Made a surprising difference, not to mention it looks better and has a much nicer glass door.

 

[lman]

Installed geothermal heating. Built 56' X 40' barn.

 

[dlctcg]

Our house was is a total rehab (parts still in progress)...

Visually, esthetically & layout function wise I would say sliding 4 large steel I-beams into the first floor ceilings to be able to taking down all the interior walls on the first floor... Opened then entire 1st floor plan up.

Comfort wise I would say retrofitting the entire house (1st & 2nd floors) with hydronic radiant heat & installing central air throughout... however I don't think either of those would have made us as happy if we didn't spray foam all the vaulted ceiling areas & spay foam (flash & fill) all the exterior walls when they were open.

 

[Diggin It]

I would not spray fill any cavity unless I knew for absolute certain I'd never want to get into it again. Sure would be nice to have an extra outlet or light switch right there. Oooppss.....

 

[EddieWalker]

This is a fun thread. I like reading what others have done.

For me, my back porch was originally 12 feet wide and 9 feet deep. I tore it off and built a new roof that is 24 feet wide and 16 feet deep. It's night and day more useful. We extended the concrete out past the porch for a raised metal fire pit and then I built a small 12x16 foot inground pool that's 3 feet deep for wading and floating. It's only 3,000 gallons, so I drain it in winter.

I added a wood stove and absolutely love heating the house with wood!!!

I'm replacing all the carpet and wood flooring with tile. We both love tile!!!

We didn't have a master bathroom and used the hallway bathroom. I added on 12 feet to the back of our bedroom and created a master bath with a walk in shower, toilet room with a door, and a big walk in closet with the washer and dryer in the closet. This also doubles as a whelping room when we have puppies. Having the laundry all done in the closet room really made it a lot easier. It's just the two of us, so dirty clothes go in the hamper, to the washer, to the dryer to the hanger all in the same room!!!

When I did that addition, it gave us 3 toilets. It surprised me how nice it is to have them with just the 2 of us living here. One is upstairs, and now we each have one to use at the same time, downstairs. After my wife went through Chemo and Radiation for Colon Cancer 3 1/2 years ago, she needs a toilet with short notice, 24/7. I never use "her" toilet because she might need it!!!!

Big surprise was from a client of mine who wanted a smaller refrigerator. She hated how her 2 year old LG fridge stuck out from the wall. She bought a new one that is cabinet depth and sold me that one for a very good price. Too good to say no. This Fridge has the freezer on the bottom that slides out and a massive door on the top. It does not have a water dispenser on the door, but it does make ice. The fridge that we had was the type with the freezer on the left, and the fridge on the right with a water and ice dispenser on the freezer door. That water dispenser takes up a lot of room. But the layout with the fridge on top us massive. We put everything into it from the old fridge and there is still a ton of room in there. It's crazy how much more room is in there and how easy it is to see everything. She put a filtered water jug on the top shelf and there is still empty space on the shelves!!! The old Fridge is in the shop now, which brings us to 3 garage fridges. One for eggs, one for drinks and one for extra space that we're not really using yet. It will fill up in time, but it's nice to have the extra space for stuff.

Next year we are going to add a 3 car attached garage. We are both very excited about that project!!!

 

[dlctcg]

I would not spray fill any cavity unless I knew for absolute certain I'd never want to get into it again. Sure would be nice to have an extra outlet or light switch right there. Oooppss.....

That's the nice thing about a Spray Foam Flash & Fill install... in a 2x6 wall cavity close cell foam is sprayed to meet a minimum of half the wall R-value & the rest of the cavity is filled with insulation; in our case this only required about 2 - 2.5" max of Closed Cell Foam & the rest was filled with Roxul (rock Wool). I can easily snake a wall to add stuff, do it all the time.