Brian from Baltimore,MD

[insaneintenti0n]

I have a 1947, 1 1/2 Story 1,235sqft Single Family home. Or that's how it's listed. Been there a lil over 2 years now. It's a mostly finished basement. Laundry room & Game room with lots of wasted space for a hall way. The top floor is a bedroom with 10x8 walk in closet and a bathroom. So, more wasted space.

For AC we have window/wall units. On the main floor: one in the living room, one in the dinning room, and one in the kitchen. On the top floor: One wall unit. I don't mind the heat. I won't turn the air on unless its >85. Though, my wife prefers it much lower. Summer bills are around $150, $200 max.

For heat we have a gas boiler for hot water radiators. I hate it. I think it's the worst idea ever. At least it's on a programmable thermostat. Bills are around $300-$350 in the dead of winter. I usually let it come on in the morning to heat the whole house, then i supplement in the afternoon with portable electric radiators, or heat dishes.

In the past two years we've replaced all the main floor, and top floor windows. Originals were a metal frame. These are PVC. We did 8 last year, the other 8 the beginning of this year. So we haven't seen how it'll help with bills for winter yet.

We converted what we could over to CFLs. Though, we just bought a new ceiling fan that doesn't accept the bulb size we currently have, so we'll have to search for those bulbs.

The ceiling fans get used some. (2 in the living room - it's a double wide, was a bedroom/living room, but at some point the wall was removed and it's just one room now - dinning room, kitchen, upstairs bedroom (even the walk in closet - it was listed as a bedroom, and it could be, it's just small, and you have to cut through the master bedroom to get to it), and the main floor bedroom) I just haven't found the right way to use em. I didn't grow up with any, so i didn't even turn em on the first year i was in the house. Now they're pretty much on if we're in the room (for summer anyway) Winter, sometimes we run it to circulate heat, sometimes not.

Our kitchen was extended out. The extension is over air, no basement underneath. then I found out the floor wasn't insulated. So in winter, the section of flooring (real tile too) on the extension was at least 20 degrees colder than the rest of the floor. I've since added some insulation under, but i'm still not happy with it. It needs to be sealed.

The best thing we could do for summer (trees on the side of the house that gets the sun in the evening...) isn't doable. There's a driveway on that side (luckily NOT asphalt), so not much gr*** to even plant anything. Plus, it figures that that's the side of the house with 'most' of the windows.

So yea, that's enough of my random ramblings. We've done the easy stuff. We have to replace our roof in about 5 years, so we might look at solar shingles, just for the hell of it.

And a random picture

[Daox]

Nice to see you here Brian. You found the forum. Its not officially launched yet.

Your house and lot look great. Looks very well kept up (or you've done tons of work). In either case, good job!

Which way is south in your picture?

[insaneintenti0n]

The front is south.

The forum link is in the About page.


We've done SOME work. The two dogwoods were there already, so we just trim em. The garden on the right has been rebuilt. There was an evergreen to the left of the garden, but it's now gone and replaced with this:


Outside of the house was pretty well taken care of (until we put in our offer, then they let the gardens grow wild, and the pool sit). Inside... 2 dogs, 2 cats, and heavy smokers... left room for improvement... but we're getting there. Most of the main floor is done.

BTW, this site is great. Cool talking to people i already know about stuff other than cars, lol. This has become our second hobby.

[dremd]

Beautiful house.

Welcome!

[SVOboy]

Wow! Lovely place! Thanks for hanging out,

[insaneintenti0n]

Daox, man... you've had this site up for 10 years now? Congrats.

I guess I'm stopping in to say hi. I browse occasionally still, and get the emails so I skim them.

From my house perspective... I'm equally efficient and not. I run a ton of fridges/freezers for varying hobbies (wine/beer... eating), and have a fairly automated/smart home, so there's lots of pieces drawing constant extra electric (and the ecobee... actually cost me FAR more on its first winter in my house), but... appliances I can/have replaced are low energy usage (LED bulbs and the like), extra insulation, etc.

I can't convince myself to pull the trigger on Solar. Roof age being part of it (<10 years till being replaced). Houses not built to support that extra weight. (I've moved, I'm in an early '90s house now). And still waiting on tech to match 'my' wants.

I'm still tinkering with gardens. Started over, scaled down, but far too many rabbits in my neighborhood... and apparently squirrels stealing things too.

Car wise.. the 25mpg Scion is gone, and replaced with a '17 Prius Prime. So, again, more electric, but... FAR less gas (2000-3000 miles per tank).


Anyway, Hi again! I'll swing back through in a few years

[Daox]

Yep, we've been around for a while now!

Thanks for popping in and giving an updated. Its always interesting to hear from older members.