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02-23-12, 10:22 AM | #1 |
Infrequent noob
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: 1000 Islands region, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 402
Thanks: 37
Thanked 20 Times in 19 Posts
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My "10 year project": rebuilding an efficient "tiny" crooked house in Canada
So, I have taken on a giant new project ... in the form of a tiny house.
It needs a ton of work, and my nebulous, non-time-framed goal is to make it far more energy efficient than it is now, on a tight budget. It's a ~580 square foot beauty - a bank reposession (the previous owner passed away with an outstanding home line of credit). Some parts of it are even structurally sound! (The real estate ad called it a "true" handyman special. You know they're not joking when they add the "true" adjective.) It will not be hard to make it more efficient than it is now: the original building is about 100 years old, poorly insulated, leaks air like a sieve and has single pane windows. It needs to be gutted, which makes it an ideal project for eco-renovation:
The rear bedroom addition (left side of photo) is on concrete footings down to bedrock, so it's level & square. It's the only part of the house that is level & square. Three of four friends with lots of building/reno experience have said they would just knock it down and start over. But that's not in the budget. The tilt & crooked issues will be an attempt-to-repair and/or "just live with it" exercise. Why did I buy such a sparkling gem of engineering? I have little idea what I'm doing, but learning curves are fun. Also, the lot is great and in a nice location, and the price was right (essentially, I paid for the lot - the house was free). I started this thread now because I just saw that a local environmental group is putting on a presentation next month about passive house design. I'm not pretending I'm going to rebuild this palace to heat it just with love, sunshine and a couple of candles, but I definitely want to make it much better than it is, and ideally better than average. Since it needs to be gutted anyway, why not?
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