Insulating a house costs $10k? No thanks! (living room, kitchen, insulation)

[Need_affordable_home]

Originally Posted by DaninEGF

Hi NAH

Your costs estimates for heat are a bit high I think. Of course...all depends on what you heat with and area of the country. But up here in far northwest Minnesota, I have a new 3500 sq ft home (ranch w/basement) and during last years cold snap when we hit 35 below zero and were below zero for several weeks, our worst heat bill for a monthly period was around $280.00 and that was with heating with gas and keeping the house at 69F. Of course, too we have good insulation and good windows.

Ill be very happy if I spend up to $200 a month on heat. My bro was in Austrillia and spent $100 a month to heat his rented studio and it wasnt even quite freezing outside! Doing the math, it comes out to about a thousand a month to heat a 4 bedroom house! Now you can see why its a very big deal! Id still like to know what others are paying for their heating bill and why is it so high for some people?

NAH, I have read many of your posts and I truly admire your ambition but I would seriously re-think the two home idea in your recent e-mail. What if one home has a roof leak, or both homes. You just cant let water come in just because you may not live there. Mold forms and that is a health hazard. You will have to have heat/water, etc regardless if you live there or not. An old house you are looking at willl not last long. I would look for one home witih less fix up and enough insulation/good windows for northwest PA. You mentioned in a prev posts about how mild it is in Oil City per the lastest forecasts. Yes that area of the country has been very mild this winter, but normally it is much colder than that. Trust me, you will be suprised in how much extra expenses crop up that you dont realize now. You mentioned self-employed...how about health insurance/dental insurance. You need that because if you dont and get sick, boy watch out it costs a fortune.

Well it depends how expensive heating is where ill be relocating to. I need a big house anyway for my stuff. Roof leak? I patch it! Mold? Scrub it away!
Not last long? 100 years old and still standing! It depends on the price and how much id save fixing the house myself. Ill pay for all expenses with the money I make self employed.

Originally Posted by Siouxlander

NeedAffordableHome: Do you have children? If so, not insulating your house as well as the plan you have for the plumbing, etc. would all be considered grounds for having your homelife investigated by state employees.

No and I dont ever intend to have any.

Originally Posted by SpeedyAZ

I would answer your question but I don't live in that type of climate.

Ok, I'm going to pretend for a minute that your plan works. You get your 2 homes for cheap, save a bunch of money on heating, and skimp out of other things. What are you going to do with all this money that you supposedly will save?

In a nutshell, save it for retirement like most people are doing.

Originally Posted by SandyCo

Water, electricity, and heat are basic necessities. Don't expect anyone to visit you if there are none or very little of these amenities!

And ill have all that in at least one house. It may be cheaper to have two houses, the bigger one without everything but enough that I can use it for my needs and the small house to meet all my needs cheaply.

Originally Posted by cleosmom

The poor innocent fish get no heat?

Just as an FYI, I live in Southeast Idaho and 45 degrees is tropical temps, makes sense you were only wearing one layer.

Of course ill make sure the water doesnt freeze. Goldfish are cold water fish and they like it cold, just not ice! 45 degrees isnt too bad, this is how cold its most of the time in the northeast.

Originally Posted by elfyum

Ummm...Right NOW in Oil City it is 27 degrees - TWENTY SEVEN - with a "real feel" of 18 - EIGHTEEN!!! And it's only early Jan!!! NAH ya know we love ya, but...are you smoking something???!!!

27 degrees is only 5 degrees below freezing treshold. I know how much you hate cold. Im sick and tired of the endless Florida heat and want 4 seasons. We run the a/c almost 24/7 in Florida! I want 50 degrees, not 80!

[joee]

I've been reading several of need affordable home posts, so if your a readin affordable.

seems you got some of the basics of redneckin down but ya ned a lil fine tunin, now as ya know tha aint no problem on earth that a redneck caint solve geven a lil time, balin wire, an what else might be layin round.

so lessin you self in these har picters an youl have it all doun to a fin art.

http://boortz.com/more/funny/redneck_pics.html (broken link)

[CandyApple]

What about renting a storage shed for your stuff? Or building one on your property? Or a garage that holds your things instead of a car? That would be cheaper than buying a whole house for your belongings. Just take out stuff when you're using it and put your toys away when you're done with them.

Stuffed animal collection? Just put up shelves and stow them out of the way, or put hooks in the ceiling and hang them from there. Jigsaw puzzles? Put 'em away when you're done or glue it together and hang it on the wall. Don't know about where to put the gym equipment, though.
---
Don't houses already come insulated? And aren't there different options for insulating them? Couldn't you do a partial insulation one year and add to it bit by bit? I like the idea of putting dirt on the roof. I'd grow grass on the roof of my house if I could- I think it's pretty. They have that for the visitor's center downtown here in Anchorage.

Dome houses cost that much, huh? I don't really know, so I'll take your word for it. How about hay bale construction? That's supposed to have good insulation. BTW, are you planning on having a house built, or are you going to buy one already made?

I want to ask, does anyone know how much this will reduce heating bills every winter?

Depends on the house. Why don't you look up in the phone book someone who does that kind of thing, and ask? Maybe it would be under contractors, maybe insulation, maybe heating/cooling. I really don't know how much, but I'd think that's the main reason why people do it.

I don't know how much heating costs in my apartment; the landlord pays that. My rent is $750/month, so it would be less than that, I'm sure .

[Siouxlander]

I'm starting to think NAH is pulling our legs. lol

My 12 year old was reading this and dying laughing!

[j33]

Sioux - I agree. Some of these posts seem intentionally obtuse. I wonder what exactly the agenda is here? Perhaps as someone above mentioned, he is writing a book on how to wind up people on messageboards. It makes for an amusing diversion though even if it is in jest.

[poprocksncoke]

NAH
I don't know how you are getting your calculations for the heating bills.
But, keep in mind that the insulation factor is not just for winter.. Keeps your house cooler in the summer as well.
You may think that layering up in the winter will be suffice, but you can only take off so much clothes in the summer before you get a heat stroke. Even if the "average" high temp is only in the 70s-80s.... think about how hot your car gets just sitting in the sun. I wouldn't want to be in a house stuffy like that.


And.. my apartment is almost 900 sq ft, and my electric bill is about 60.00 a month. So, if you figure that you can spend almost 200.00 a month, then you can afford to get out of the Oil City dump, and get into a better city

[tallrick]

Be creative, this is a great solution!

http://www.wasteoilburners.us/

You can have your heat and save money too. I know a friend in MN who has a homemade version and gets his fuel from the local transmission shop. It's easy!

[pkoons]

I think the last thing we need to tell this guy is to "be creative."

He wants an entire room in his "large home with no heating, A/C or plumbing" devoted solely to jigsaw puzzles... do we really want to tell people like this to flex their imaginations any more than they already are?

Not to mention that he is talking about spending his excess money on "good food" when his favorite restaurant is Arby's!

I've got an idea... hibernation! How about burrowing deep enough below the Earth's surface that you can't feel the cold? Building a time machine to skip each winter? Creating weather control systems out of household junk?

Why are we all addicted to encouraging the wacky ideas of NAH???

[mystree]

Why are we all addicted to encouraging the wacky ideas of NAH???

Although I would never recommend no heat or water,having wacky ideas isn't necessarily a bad thing,sometimes it takes wacky ideas for a good idea to come to fruition (sp.)...Just think of what some people thought of the wright brothers....crazy fools think they can fly like a bird..scoff..scoff.

[ExNYC]

Maybe your town or state offers tax incentives for adding insulation which would offset the cost of it.