Starting a new home

[hunterridgefarm]

Also we have install the exterior tankless water heater, this is just the box it mounts in but it looks ok. One pic if from the inside and the other is from the outside.

Scott,

I have been keepingup with your thread from the beginning and your house really looks great!!

I am trying to decide on the tankless water heater (with gas)or regular tank heater (electric). The guy who sells them says there great, my contractor is pushignme towards the regular tank.

How did you decide on the tankless?

David

 

[sr160009]

Scott,

I have been keepingup with your thread from the beginning and your house really looks great!!

I am trying to decide on the tankless water heater (with gas)or regular tank heater (electric). The guy who sells them says there great, my contractor is pushignme towards the regular tank.

How did you decide on the tankless?

David

Several reasons,
1. unlimited hot water
2. Energy savings
3. less trouble (10 year warranty)
4. takes up less space

I am taking all of the nessary steps to make sure my house is the most energy efficient house I can have without sending a fortune. If you are going tankless, go with the gas model. I have not hear good things from the electric models enless you don't need very much volume of water. Most of what I have hear is it doesn't heat the water very well.

I am going to be running 2 tankless water heaters due to the long runs to each of my faucits. The other tankless will be placed in the attic.

 

[sr160009]

Well the Insulation Guys have started to spray the foam isulation. I am doing the sealed attic with no ventiation, which keeps the A/C unit under a controled enviroment. I am also filling up the wall space which is a 2x6 exterior walls. The Foam has a R value of 3.82 per inch, so the walls are going to be a little more than R21 and under the roof may be a little more than that because he is covering the rafters. They have almost finished the walls and are going to start on the roof today. Here is a couple of pics I took yesterday.

 

[sr160009]

The insulation has been finished, and I am very pleased. I was up there on Sunday and we had all of the windows opened and it was very cool in the house. It was cooler in the house than it was on the porch. Here is a few pics of the foam insulation.

 

[sr160009]

Also we have found a front door that my wife likes, it is a mohogany wood door. We got a steal on it as well, we paid $699. for this door. All of the mohogany doors we looked at started at $2000.00. We have not installed it yet, we are going to put another door on the house for right now because we do not want to damage this door with all of the construction going on. Here is a pic of it

 

[rox]

SR16009,

your home looks fantastic!!!! That foam insulation looks awsome. And I totally, totally love the front door. That was really a steal! I noticed how nice your stone matches the roof and the short roof connectiong the garage to the hosue also gives a very smooth transition.

Notice how few comments you get similar to "have your contractor change this or that etc" It is a credit to your builder that noone here is offering improvement/rework suggestions.

We are all jsut along for the ride and honestly your home is coming out great. Can't wait for more progress and pics actually.

Oh jsut one thing before I go, did I mention about those special dryer vent boxes to you? They fit int he studs and then whatever model dryer you get you are able to attache the exhast vent and +++ any dryer will fit flus to the wall. Did I bring that up or not?

 

[sr160009]

SR16009,



Oh jsut one thing before I go, did I mention about those special dryer vent boxes to you? They fit int he studs and then whatever model dryer you get you are able to attache the exhast vent and +++ any dryer will fit flus to the wall. Did I bring that up or not?

Thanks for the compliments, we are very proud of how it is coming along. No one has mentioned the dryer exhaust and I really have not thought about it much. I will let my contractor know and what he has in mind.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've been reading some reports about whole house insulation and encloseing the attic space with the living area. From what I've read and understand, it's cheaper to heat and cool a home this way. It's allot more money, but it also looks like the way things might go. I haven't done it myself, or even seen it done in person, so I'd be very curious to hear what you think about it after you've lived there awhile.

Do you know the difference in price compared to if you'd have insulated with fiberglass?

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[sr160009]

I've been reading some reports about whole house insulation and encloseing the attic space with the living area. From what I've read and understand, it's cheaper to heat and cool a home this way. It's allot more money, but it also looks like the way things might go. I haven't done it myself, or even seen it done in person, so I'd be very curious to hear what you think about it after you've lived there awhile.

Do you know the difference in price compared to if you'd have insulated with fiberglass?

Thanks,
Eddie

I am kinda curious myself to see how everything is going to work. I read up about this type of system and finally convenced myself this is the way to go. The price really was not as bad as I first thought. The Foam cost $10,600 and my contractor told me it would cost about $4200 with the fiberglass. Also consider I am going to use a 4 ton A/C unit with the foam and I would have to use a 6 ton unit with the fiberglass. That is saving me about $3500. Yes foam is still more expensive, but if you are planning on living in the house for very long I believe this is the way to go.

I guess we will find out how well this system works.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks. I never thought about using a smaller AC unit with foam compared to fiberglass. That price difference really puts the two systems closer together.

Eddie

 

[rox]

SR160009,
Here is the recessed dryer box I was suggesting
dryer vent pipe, dryer vent hose, lint trap, dryer vents, dryer venting, dryer lint, dryer vent kit, dryer vent box
Make sure and look at the video.
A bit of discussion
Space-saving ideas for behind washer & dryer - Laundry Room Forum - GardenWeb

On my last home we built, quite lovely, I was always annoyed that I never could get the dryer flush against the wall. Plus I knew I was not getting a good exhaust kinking the connector flex exhaust pipe. My soution was to build a noose around the flex pipe and I lifed it up as my husband pushed the dryer back. Anyone who follows these forums has had me suggest this before so sorry for the repeat, but it is such a great idea I re-offer it in case you did not read toher posts.
Again a most lovely home you are building!

 

[Tororider]

Just got up to date on your home building, looks great! I am hoping to build on our property in a few years so I love learning from everyone else's experience. Out of curiousity have you or Eddie ever heard of or seen insulated concrete forms? I don't know if they are necessary or used much down south, but I am looking at them if I build. Supposed to be wicked effecient for insulation.

Keep the Pictures coming.

I love this site!

 

[sr160009]

Rox,
Thanks, that is a great idea. I may use that as well.

Tororider,
I have not seen the foam concrete forms used. What I have heard though, that they are the best solution on effency and are the stongest way to build a house. There is a thread in the project area of someone that is building a ICS foam form house. You may want to ask them some questions about it. I have followed it somewhat.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've been hearing about them, but won't comment either way on them. Those who like them, seem to really like them, but those who don't, really don't. For me, it's still new technology that's gonna take some time to prove itself. When I spend allot of money on something, I don't want it to be an experiement. I also don't like to spend allot of money on something that might not return that investment. Wether it's selling it, or the return on energy efficincy.

Stick built homes are the standard and you know exacly what you get. The additional costs of modifying that can be substantial with a very mininal return. From what I've seen, allot of "new technology" homes cost way more then they are worth to build. If you have the money, it could be allot of fun, but if you are on a budget, it's not something I'd mess with.

There was an show on HGTV where a family built a massive 11,000 sq ft home from concrete. It was a total disaster. He had millions when he started, but was broke by the time it was done. He could have easily built the house from wood, but thought he'd save money going with concrete. It didn't work out that way.

Eddie

 

[sr160009]

Update,

We finally received our bathroom window and the transom window that will go in the kitchen. They look very good, we are really happy with them. Also the garge doors are hung and the garage is pretty much done. The rock people are coming back this week to finish up on the outside and the fireplace. Also we are going to dry wall it in this week, so everything is going to look a lot different.

Also we have painted most of the house, the cedar we just sealed for a more natural look.

Here is a few more pics.

 

[Tororider]

sr160009,
Its coming around. That window is beautiful! Did you get it locally or order it somewhere? Keep the pictures coming, they are great.

 

[sr160009]

sr160009,
Its coming around. That window is beautiful! Did you get it locally or order it somewhere? Keep the pictures coming, they are great.

The window came from Custom stained glass windows & lamps with beveled glass window . It looks like they did a great job, they can make anything you want.

 

[sr160009]

Update,

I made a trip to see what we progress we have made. All of the exterior rock has been completed and the rock under the kitchen bar has been layed as well. The gas company has finally ran the gas lines in the house so we can install the fireplace. Also we are waiting for the sheetrockers to get the house drywalled. I sorry I forgot my camera this time so I don't have any pics this time. I will try to get some pics tomarrow for Ya'll.

 

[UpstateNYMarine]

Wow...just got up to speed on your project here...it looks great. Still funny to see how ya'll do things there in the south. My soon-to-be-bride and I just finished building our house here in upstate NY. Wedding planning and house building at the same time is enough to try your patience. Let me tell you. But on to the subject your house looks great. And great use of all that space. I'm not sure if they finished your sheetrock completely or not but we went with recessed lighting almost everywhere. We have them all on dimmers now and it we love it. Especially for watching TV and whatnot, you can turn them down to just the right amount of light. But my other suggestion is a bit late now that I see your garage is done. For ours we went with the attic trusses so there is a second story we love it. But the big thing was planning a "drive-thru" garage. On the front we have a 16' door and a 9' door then directly opposite the 9' door we have another 9'er. Since we did this I don't know how I could live without it. It allows for getting the tractor/4-wheeler/anything out the rear of the garage without having to shuffle cars around etc. Especially come winter time up here. We get snow sometimes that won't even let you pull out of the garage. I'll get some pics on here but keep up the good work. Its all worth it in the end. Its beautiful.

 

[sr160009]

Wow...just got up to speed on your project here...it looks great. Still funny to see how ya'll do things there in the south. My soon-to-be-bride and I just finished building our house here in upstate NY. Wedding planning and house building at the same time is enough to try your patience. Let me tell you. But on to the subject your house looks great. And great use of all that space. I'm not sure if they finished your sheetrock completely or not but we went with recessed lighting almost everywhere. We have them all on dimmers now and it we love it. Especially for watching TV and whatnot, you can turn them down to just the right amount of light. But my other suggestion is a bit late now that I see your garage is done. For ours we went with the attic trusses so there is a second story we love it. But the big thing was planning a "drive-thru" garage. On the front we have a 16' door and a 9' door then directly opposite the 9' door we have another 9'er. Since we did this I don't know how I could live without it. It allows for getting the tractor/4-wheeler/anything out the rear of the garage without having to shuffle cars around etc. Especially come winter time up here. We get snow sometimes that won't even let you pull out of the garage. I'll get some pics on here but keep up the good work. Its all worth it in the end. Its beautiful.

We are going with the recessed lights in the living room and kitchen, but that is it. We do have a room above the garge that we are going to use as storage right now. We may turn it into a game room for the kids later on. I like the idea of a drive though garage but the layout of my place just was not right for one, but I do have the drive though on my 40'x40' shop.