Andy's Discussions

Just a quick update: I ended up doing the job myself. It was a pain and took way longer than if I'd hired someone, but I saved a bunch of money and had no luck finding anyone who could do the job quickly. After the work was done, someone I know recommended Walt's Plumbing at (425) 747-2790. Haven't used him, though, so I don't have any direct recommendations.

We put Trex on our deck six years ago, and aside from the natural (and, in my opinion, desirable) surface weathering that El_Gato_Negro mentioned, it's still as good as new. I also live in Washington, so it's gotten plenty of rain in the last six years. If we ever build a new deck, I'll use Trex (or equivalent) again.

I used Angie's List (www.angieslist.com) for a recent project, and it was helpful finding good contractors when I couldn't get recommendations from people I knew personally. As a previous poster said, they charge a subscription fee. But if you're doing a significant project, the cost of the subscription is negligible compared to what you're going to spend on the project itself.

I don't have any experience with the green options you mention, but I thought I'd mention one more that is a lot less intrusive. A couple years ago we had a new roof put on our house, and the installer offered to put in solar-powered vents in the crawlspace. Basically it's a solar panel attached to an electric fan. When the sun shines, the fan runs and sucks hot air out of the attic/crawlspace. It's supposed to keep the crawlspace a lot cooler than passive vents, which keeps the rest of the house from heating up so much, which lowers the load you put on your air conditioner. The nice thing is that the crawlspace heats up the most when the sun is shining, which is exactly when the fan is going. I'm pretty oblivious to this kind of thing, but my wife swears she's noticed a difference in our home's temperature.I can't remember the exact price, but it was cheap (sub-$200) and installs in a regular roof vent hole.

Here's a link to the thread Robin references:http://www.zillow.com/forum/site/ViewThread.htm?tid=1910

I'm with sas912. It sounds like you intend to live in this home, rather than fix it up and re-sell it to make a few bucks. If that's the case, I'd just slow down on the fixes. Do you really need the driveway to be re-poured this year, or can you wait a couple years? Can you live with old ugly cabinets for a little longer? (We've been living with ours for nine years...) Slowing down will reduce the drain on your sanity and your wallet. And, aside from your desire to be done, there's no rush to finish everything now. As long as the house is all fixed up by the time you sell it, you'll still get a nice price for the home, hopefully recouping the money and sweat equity you've put into it over the years. Hang in there!

From a purely financial standpoint, it sure sounds like it's worth it, as long as your enlarged home is similar enough to the homes around you selling in the $180K-$200K range.But I'm assuming you'd be doing the addition not just as an investment, but because you actually need the extra space to live in. It's hard to put a price on that, but there are financial benefits to staying in your current home. If you move to a larger home, you'll have to pay real estate agent fees, closing costs, and moving costs. Also, how much is it worth to you to stay in your current home? Do you love where you're located? Do you like your neighbors? Are the schools good? That might be worth a lot of money to you as well.Major home renovations are never easy, but be sure you're taking into account more than just the up-front cost and the amount you'll be able to get back when you sell.Good luck!

Not sure if this belongs in Community News, but see this link for a good map of Williams College (which is one of the major attractions of Williamstown).http://www.williams.edu/home/campusmap/

One other very easy thing we've done to save energy is to buy energy-efficient blinds for all our windows. From the research I've done, the best ones are the light-blocking cellular blinds, sometimes called honeycomb blinds. All the trapped air in the blinds acts as a good insulator. And, apparently, the light-blocking blinds are best because they're made with mylar, a plastic/metallic material that reflects heat well. Whenever we don't need light from the windows (like at night, when we're out of the house, and in rooms we rarely use), we keep the blinds shut. Even though we have double-pane windows that help insulate the house, that extra layer of insulation helps keep our heating and cooling costs a lot lower.

It may depend on where you're located, but for the two basement projects I've done here in the Seattle area, not only was it recommended to use treated lumber for the floor plates, it was required by code to use treated lumber for _all_ studs that come in contact with the external walls. Internal walls can use untreated lumber for studs, but everything that's next to the foundation walls should be treated.