Retirement Home... or Summer Getaway?

[Northern Maine Land Man]

The word "seasonal" when describing property is simply whether the town plows the road in winter. That's it. The word "seasonal" has no bearing on the building whatsoever. There it is. Be forewarned. When I bought my home, built in 1885, it had no insulation - none. We used a lot of oil that first winter at 85 cents a gallon. Then I had Bonsey Brothers put install blown in insulation. That is great stuff and they do a good job.

The term "three season home" is like a three season jacket. It is entirely dependent on the person describing it, nothing more, nothing less. There is no standard.

As to foundations, many year round homes in Maine are on "posts and piers". The wind blows right under them and the floors are very cold. They are hard to heat.

People from away tend to think we have building codes and building inspectors. Some towns do. Many towns do not. If you want to build a straw bale house with a sod roof you can do it in many places in Maine. The following tale is an example of how some municipalities in Maine think:

"Some have asked what I'm going to be doing in retirement. Well, I applied for a building
permit for a new house. It was going to be 100 ft tall and 400 ft wide, with 12 gun
turrets at various heights, and windows all over the place and a loud outside
entertainment sound system that was going to entertain the whole neighborhood. It would
have parking for 200 cars, and I was going to paint it snot green with pink trim.

The City Council told me; "Forget it...IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!"

So, I sent in the application again, but this time I called it a 'Mosque'.

Work starts on Monday.

I love this country. It's the government that scares the wits out of me."

End of tale.

[seniorblues]

Let's leave aside the nineteenth century houses for a moment. Here's what I don't get.

I understand that a lot of houses are build as part time residences. What makes no sense to me is why someone building for that purpose would still not super insulate it, not just for payback in heating costs, but for comfort. Who wants to hear and feel the wind whistling through the house on a chilly evening?! I thought that the spike in oil prices in the 70s would have been a point of no return for house design in cold climates.

Even if you only plan to live there for 2 - 3 months, what about resale value?

And how come I haven't seen any photos of Maine houses for sale that have insulating shades? Not one out of hundreds.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

I bought a post and beam "camp camp". A camp camp in Maine is a camp with no insulation and intended to be used from about May through October. These camps can be used from the end of March through Thanksgiving if you keep the stove hot. People can improve these camps for year round use, but only if they spray foam or otherwise insulate the underside.

I have seen camps jacked up, rolled on rollers back off the site and full foundations put in. Then the camp is rolled back on rollers and placed in the same spot where they were built originally. That remedy is expensive, but plenty of people in Maine know how to do this.

[seniorblues]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

I bought a post and beam "camp camp". A camp camp in Maine is a camp with no insulation and intended to be used from about May through October. These camps can be used from the end of March through Thanksgiving if you keep the stove hot. People can improve these camps for year round use, but only if they spray foam or otherwise insulate the underside.

I have seen camps jacked up, rolled on rollers back off the site and full foundations put in. Then the camp is rolled back on rollers and placed in the same spot where they were built originally. That remedy is expensive, but plenty of people in Maine know how to do this.

Those are pretty far removed from what we're looking for. I'm concerned with somewhat larger houses that look like they're year round but don't appear to have been designed with energy efficiency in mind. I love the ones that have a nice view to the north with huge windows in every room. Yes, you can't design every room to face south and also get the views, but you get the feeling that the builders never gave solar orientation a thought.

And some of the wood stoves look more decorative than duty. Maybe my Vermont Castings is overkill in Maryland, but come on . . . .

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by seniorblues

... And how come I haven't seen any photos of Maine houses for sale that have insulating shades? Not one out of hundreds.

In our travels, we have lived in homes where we had heavy 'curtains'. My Dw made them starting with a wool blanket, and attaching a sheet on either side. [often those curtains had stenciling on them somewhere that read 'USN' ]

I think part of what your missing today is that we live in an era of cheap mass-produced stuff.

I began building our current house in 2005. We fully intended to have heavy curtains here. We have had them before, so without really thinking about it, we assumed that we would have them again. The cheapest windows that I found to install are triple-pane, argon-filled, low-E [whatever that means]. After installing these windows, we simply have not had any need to make and hang curtains.

Today the big box stores market amazing and incredible stuff for really cheap, that simply has never existed before.

At no other time in history, could you buy windows for your home, that would perform as well as today's cheap windows.

Our house has a lot of window space, and yet not a singe curtain.

On days like today, it has been very bright outside. Only 20F and the wind is blowing, but it is very bright. Our home gets a good deal of solar gain through these windows.

As the sun sets low, we will have to build a fire in our woodstove for tonight. Whereas, if we had single-pane windows from a century ago, and a poorly insulated house. It would all be different.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by seniorblues

Those are pretty far removed from what we're looking for. I'm concerned with somewhat larger houses that look like they're year round but don't appear to have been designed with energy efficiency in mind. I love the ones that have a nice view to the north with huge windows in every room. Yes, you can't design every room to face south and also get the views, but you get the feeling that the builders never gave solar orientation a thought.

I see houses around here that started their 'life' as a trailer, that somebody built a roof over. Then they extended a porch out on one side. A year later a porch got added on the other side. Then the porches got walled in. At some point a wall was dropped and the trailer was pulled out [hopefully], but not always.

A one-room camp becomes a bungalow with screens. That get walled in. And someone adds an open car port. that a decade later gets walled in, and then converted into a bedroom.

The apartment that our inlaws moved into this winter [after their house sunk into the ground] has two bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and a dining room. There are no two rooms that have floors on the same plain with each other. Every room you step-up or step-down when you go into them. Their 'dining room' I think only recently had board put up over the window screens. I bet it was recently an un-heated porch with window screens on three sides.

My point is that with some of these homes, there was no clear 'design' before they started. The end product has no relation to what was first built.

... And some of the wood stoves look more decorative than duty. Maybe my Vermont Castings is overkill in Maryland, but come on . . . .

Some folks like 'form over function'. I know a lot of people who like that, and that is okay. This world is a big place, there is plenty room for all of us.



I prefer 'function over form'

Our woodstove sits in the dead center of the house, directly underneath a ceiling fan. It also heats water, which circulates to a thermal-bank in the basement, and through our radiant heated floor. The fire can die-out and there is still heat in the thermal-bank keeping the floor warm for another 10 hours. Our woodstove is ugly as sin, but it functions real good.

The only thing it does not do for us is it has no oven for baking. That lack should be corrected for in the next woodstove we have.