digitS'
Garden Master
Mine is also an older home, @aftermidnight . It's from 1901 and looks like something one might find on the Montana (or Manitoba) prairie ... in olde photographs 
.
Annette, only the ceiling was insulated when we moved in the 1990's. We added more insulation to that, had the walls and floor insulated, covered the exterior with siding, and installed new windows. It had natural gas so the electric water heater could be replaced with that heat source.
The local utility company rates this "an energy efficient home." Well - yay! However, air conditioning (yes, it is hot here in August!) is only a window unit in the living room. The open doorway between the living room and kitchen is currently hung with Christmas lights. In August, DW finds some attractive fabric and I put up a temporary curtain. The living room can be like a refrigerator but kitchen heat will be excluded.
When winter outdoor temperatures won't rise to something reasonable like 14°f (-10°c), I put that curtain back up. The room built to the south in the 1960's has ONE furnace vent! Then, they put in baseboard electric (!). Okay fine, let the furnace shoot a little heat out there -- during the spring, it's a pleasant place. That electric heat is not coming on and doors are closed between that room and the rest of the house. During those cold days, doors to the main bedroom are also closed and the furnace vent in that room is opened only a little. The doors will be opened at night when we are in there. That room will be around 60°f (16°c) along with the south room and utility area, 24/7 .... I use all that cool space for my Indoor Mile winter walk! ... and to sleep overnight in whichever happens to be DW's current favorite flannel sheets and winter comforter.
I wish the interior of our home was as attractive as yours, Annette. Remodeling was done on the bathroom and one ceiling was replaced about 5 years ago. That bathroom could use another remodel! Interior walls are lathe and plaster covered by who-knows-how-many layers of wallpaper, then paint. The South Room and kitchen have wood paneling. The kitchen also has a 3-wall mural at ceiling height .
In 1967, Montreal hosted a World's Fair. "Habitat" was built ... I thought it was an awfully strange looking apartment building but was smitten with the entire idea of room modules, assembled into homes. Yeah! ... maybe I wouldn't make them outta concrete but ...
Nearly always, the first rooms to be remodeled are the kitchens and bathrooms. I bet that they are extensively changed about every 20 or 25 years, on average. Other rooms probably receive nothing but paint and new flooring for probably twice that long. I wish that the rooms in my home would have been assembled with that in mind and could be replaced as units. Renovators of old buildings in the center of our cities are using this idea of modules.
I'm trying to convince our DD and DS to take us on as renters in a NEW home on this lot. I'd truly like to start over and maybe it's possible. I've liked how the floor plan works but popping rooms thru exterior walls and replacing them as units would require sooooo much more productive construction days than me spending more than 8 hours replacing a landing at the bottom of the basement stairs!
digitS'
wow! did this turn into a reno rant, or what?
.Annette, only the ceiling was insulated when we moved in the 1990's. We added more insulation to that, had the walls and floor insulated, covered the exterior with siding, and installed new windows. It had natural gas so the electric water heater could be replaced with that heat source.
The local utility company rates this "an energy efficient home." Well - yay! However, air conditioning (yes, it is hot here in August!) is only a window unit in the living room. The open doorway between the living room and kitchen is currently hung with Christmas lights. In August, DW finds some attractive fabric and I put up a temporary curtain. The living room can be like a refrigerator but kitchen heat will be excluded.
When winter outdoor temperatures won't rise to something reasonable like 14°f (-10°c), I put that curtain back up. The room built to the south in the 1960's has ONE furnace vent! Then, they put in baseboard electric (
!). Okay fine, let the furnace shoot a little heat out there -- during the spring, it's a pleasant place. That electric heat is not coming on and doors are closed between that room and the rest of the house. During those cold days, doors to the main bedroom are also closed and the furnace vent in that room is opened only a little. The doors will be opened at night when we are in there. That room will be around 60°f (16°c) along with the south room and utility area, 24/7 .... I use all that cool space for my Indoor Mile winter walk! ... and to sleep overnight in whichever happens to be DW's current favorite flannel sheets and winter comforter.I wish the interior of our home was as attractive as yours, Annette. Remodeling was done on the bathroom and one ceiling was replaced about 5 years ago. That bathroom could use another remodel! Interior walls are lathe and plaster covered by who-knows-how-many layers of wallpaper, then paint. The South Room and kitchen have wood paneling.
The kitchen also has a 3-wall mural at ceiling height .In 1967, Montreal hosted a World's Fair. "Habitat" was built ... I thought it was an awfully strange looking apartment building but was smitten with the entire idea of room modules, assembled into homes. Yeah! ... maybe I wouldn't make them outta concrete but ...
Nearly always, the first rooms to be remodeled are the kitchens and bathrooms. I bet that they are extensively changed about every 20 or 25 years, on average. Other rooms probably receive nothing but paint and new flooring for probably twice that long. I wish that the rooms in my home would have been assembled with that in mind and could be replaced as units. Renovators of old buildings in the center of our cities are using this idea of modules.
I'm trying to convince our DD and DS to take us on as renters in a NEW home on this lot
. I'd truly like to start over and maybe it's possible. I've liked how the floor plan works but popping rooms thru exterior walls and replacing them as units would require sooooo much more productive construction days than me spending more than 8 hours replacing a landing at the bottom of the basement stairs!digitS'
wow! did this turn into a reno rant, or what?
.
