CF Bulbs

I'm as green as the next guy, but I just can't bring myself to replace all my light bulbs in the house with CF (Compact Fluorescent) bulbs. Sorry, dude, they just don't look right! I'm sure they'll get better as they advance the technology, but until then, try just replacing some of the less critical bulbs. I just replaced the outside lamp post lights with three of the candelabra style bulbs, as well as the outside front door lights. I'm going to replace the outside garage bulbs, the outside deck bulb, and the 4 bulbs in the garage, as well as under the stairs, in the boiler room etc.

After all, they do use less electricity, they're good for the environment, and since I'm not doing any relaxing in those areas, hey, may as well help the environment!

Cold Room Above Garage

This is a problem many people have. I built my house only two years ago, and checked that it is insulated to code (for MA) which is pretty stringent. However, I still had cold rooms above the garage. Let me briefly explain the layout.

My house is reasonably big (around 5000 sq ft including a fully finished basement). The design includes a three car garage, over which is situated the master bathroom, a dressing room, and a closet, plus part of the bedroom sitting area. Through two winters I had always noticed that the Master bedroom was slightly cooler than the rest of the house, and the bathroom, dressing room, and closet, much cooler, maybe 10 degrees or so. This is obviously annoying since my wife uses the dressing room first thing in the morning, and I (being and old guy) sometimes get up during the night to use the bathroom, or else go shower first thing in the morning in the icy cold!

So, what to do? Why should the area above the garage be so cold when the ceiling of the garage (i.e. the floor of the closet/dressing/bathroom) is insulated to code. Well, first of all I didn't think it through all the way and decided to buy a small in wall heater like the one shown from thermalinc or a similar company. This was maybe $200 including a thermostat, but when I asked for the electrician to install it he said it would be tricky, given that I did not have a sufficient dedicated breaker in the box to handle that. That's to say, I had never considered that it draws around 13A on it's own, and would required a 15a or 30a fused box. So, in the end it still lies in my garage waiting for a likely installation.

But, never fear, gentle reader! The answer was simpler! I solved it in two ways -

1. The loss of heat was due to a space between the insulation and the floor. That is to say, the beams of the garage consist of 12" thick wood, but the insulation roll is only around 8 inches thick (R33) leaving a 4" gap. Now, since the side of the garage was exposed to the elements through only an external garage wall and siding, this gave plenty of room for the air to circulate in that gap, leading to a lowering of temperature and very cold floor tiles in the bathroom. So, I contracted a local insulation specialist, Bruin, to blow fiber into the gap between the insulation and the floor. In order to do this they had to drill small holes in the garage ceiling, 2 per beam, per garage bay, and blow the fiber into that gap, then sealing up the holes. In other words, they actually blew the insulation beneath the existing rolled insulation, eliminating the gap between the floor and rolled insulation, and incidentally increasing the R value (insulation value) by about 12. Cost? $1700. Ouch! But there were two guys working on it all day, so I suppose I can't complain too much...
   
   
2. The second 'fix ' was to redirect the heat to the required rooms. Since each area has it's own heat outlet from the furnace, I was able to adjust the outlets (simply close them slightly) in the warmer areas, creating a stronger flow to the colder ones. Since the insulation was not leaking heat any more, this extra heat to the cold areas was retained and I now have a very warm above garage area. The dressing room and closet are about the same temperature as the Master bedroom, and the bathroom and toilet are actually noticeably cozy to walk into.

So, that was the answer to my insulation problem. Given that many people experience the same, I hope all are able to resolve their insulation issues as well!

Mydeco Interior Decorating Site

This site is very clever. I love it! It's still in Beta right now, and some (if not all) of the functionality is available in other client (PC) based software, but what I like about it is that it's completely web based, and some of the 'coming soon' functionality (like being able to take a picture of your own room, and then using the software to 'paint' the walls etc.) is very unusual.

Anyways, check it out and see what you think, it's called mydeco and it ROCKS!

Roll Out Gutter Nixed!

Well folks, it was a beautiful but brief friendship. The Roll Out gutter from Rainguard worked - but with a few problems -

• It did roll out as advertised (see picture) but it does have difficulty across obstacles and non-downhill slopes - so that where snow, or the edge of a path etc gets in the way, the roll fills up with water, and made me somewhat nervous about whether this might cause a back up at the top of the downspout eventually.
  
  
• It sprang a leak. It was very minor, appeared in one of the creases of the tube, but this then caused a reduction in pressure so that the tube did not fully roll out.
  
  
• Aesthetics - I've got to say, it just didn't look nice! Even if I had used a white elastic band, there's just no way that a platic roll looks good nestling at the bottom end of your downspout!

So, I took the tragic step of removing both roll out gutter extensions, and am even now mourning the loss of my $32 (plus shipping)! Right now I'm back to using splashblocks, and I will continue to look for a solution to my problem of water around the foundations.

By the way - why not just extend the downspout away from the house? Well, it feeds to a landscaped area, and beyond this is a path. I would dig a trench but I don't really want to have to dig under the path or remove the stones to do that - yet...

Roll Out Gutter extension

I Recently purchased two roll out gutter extensions from rainguard. They were pretty cheap ($16 a pop) so I liked that, but will they work? Well, this is mid February in New England so when I first put them on a week ago it was cold but sunny for 3 days, then it proceeded to snow for the next two. The upshot is, I don't even know if they work yet (I'll update as soon as I get a good chance to test them), but here's a few thoughts right away -

• They are easy to fit, just take them out of the plastic box they come in, stick the supplied sealing tape around the downspout, then slip the open end over the downspout, and secure. They supply a black plastic tie, but in both cases, this broke, so I used an elastic band instead.
  
  
• They look kind of goofy sticking to the end of my gutter downspout. Not sure I like the look of them especially with the elastic band I used.
  
  
• I didn't think about the snow! For them to roll out, they would need to be free of any impediments - and the snow covering them is bound to make things difficult, when the snow melts of when rain comes. Will the water collect at the bottom and cause a problem? Watch this space...

Building a Home

Have you ever thought about building a home? I don't mean actually digging the foundation and doing all the work yourself, that's way too much work for your average person. No, I mean buying a 'custom' or 'semi custom' or even a 'Build to Plan' home from a Builder, then being involved in the process from the moment you sign the contract to when you walk through the front door of the finished home for the first time. It's VERY satisfying, I think more so than simply buying a pre-owned home, but there are some pros and cons to consider -


Pros -

• You get closer to your 'ideal' home as opposed to someone else's ideal
• You may be able to affect or influence the design, build, and finish of your home
• It's clean and tidy on day one, with no damage to fix up
• You can get the builder to build in or prepare the home for subsequent additions
• In a rising market, your home may be worth more than you pay for it on day one.

Cons -

• No matter how carefully you plan, not everything will be perfect!
• The level of influence you have (or want!) may be limited
• Basic items such as towel rails/curtain rods etc will generally have to be added by you
• You are at the mercy of the builder pricewise for anything not agreed upon in advance
• In a falling market your home may be worth less than what you agreed to pay for it on day one, plus you may be stuck with your previous home!
• You have to wait 6-12 months for your home to be built

So, here's few of the pros and cons of building a home as against buying one pre-owned. In subsequent posts, I'll examine our building process from start to finish, and point out some things to look out for!

Winter Ice Melt - Caution!

Look Out! Potassium Chloride, and some of the ice melt products have the potential to damage your front step, if it has a cement top. I put some Potassium Chloride on my step, and literally two days later thought better of it and swept it off. The result? Well, see for yourself, it ain't pretty. So, take it from me - use a good old fashioned snow shovel, and use an ice melt that is safe on cement steps, or you'll have an expensive repair job come spring. Look up 'Safe Salt' or 'Step Salt' or 'Step Ice Melt' or similar, and make sure it doesn't damage cement steps BEFORE you use it!

Buying a home - Random Thoughts

Ok, first off, just to get this out of the way, here's a few thoughts about buying a home. Guess I'm going to try some bullets here -

• Location, Location, Location? Actually, I know everyone goes on about this, but IMHO, it's waaaaay overhyped. It's always expressed from the point of view of reselling the property, and, sure, that's important, but what's more important is that you be happy there! So, think carefully about what you want from life, before you think about what you want from your home. Are you still single? Or attached and thinking you'd like to get more serious? Or newly hitched and thinking about a family? Or deep into it and thinking about the looooong term? All of those situations may affect what you think is a good location to buy a home.
  
  
• Fixer Upper or Just Like New? Again, I think this has more to do with what you have going on in your life than in the specific home. For example, if you have a very demanding job that takes a lot of hours, don't try and buy a fixer upper, it takes a LOT more time than you think, and a lot more energy. On the other hand, if you are not fully focused on your job 100% of your day, then a fixer upper can be nice, and very satisfying to make it 'fixed up' over a period of time. Oh, and if people tell you that you can't do it, or the work is too complicated - ignore them - if you have a modicum of common sense and the will and patience to give it a go, you CAN do it!
  
  
• How much to spend? Short answer - more than you think you can afford but not more than you can really afford. Houses are a great investment and they always seem like a lot of money, especially when it's your first or second, but honestly, you will very seldom regret buying a house 10 years down the road. If you don't know how much you can really afford, try doing a budget on a spreadsheet. If you don't know how to do that (which I've found to my horror that many people do not!) then that'll be something I tackle here, very shortly.
  
  
• Hidden Value? Since this is a home blog site, one thing you should look for is hidden value. I went to a friends house yesterday and she had converted her attic. It was a small house, but the attic conversion added maybe 500 square feet of really great, warm, play space, and incidentally about $100k onto the value of the house! So why didn't the people she bought the house from convert it themselves? Well, mostly people get into a routine of where they live, look at the space in a certain way, and don't see the possibilities. You aren't hampered by that, so go ahead and look! Every space is an opportunity to find hidden value, whether unfinished, or just configured badly. Think expansively about those spaces, and what you want from a home, and you can mine that hidden value after you move in!

Ok, that's enough for now - I'm sure I'll do more but for now that's enough to think about...

Buying a Home?

Buying a House? Your first, or second, or more? Big or Small? Old or New? In Town or Far Out? So many options, and such a lot of fun. Actually, maybe more like a mixed blessing. It's both one of the most satisfying and frustrating things I've done. I've bought lots of houses in my life, from moving around a lot, both here (in the States) and in England (where I was born). But the one thing that is pretty much the same is that it can be a big headache - after all, it's the biggest single purchase most of us will make in our lives. So you probably want to try and get it right, huh?

So... I'm not going to go too much into the whole process because, let's face it, there's lot's of hungry Realtors out there very ready to help you, for a 'small' fee :-) But, in the next few posts I'll go through some easy tips and mistakes that I made in each of my different types of home purchases - maybe you, dear reader, will be able to avoid the mistakes I made!

First Post

So this is my first post on Handy Home Guy. I built a house a couple of years ago (well, didn't build it myself, but you know what I mean) and since then have had a lot of fun adding stuff to it, building stuff, changing stuff. I wanted to write a blog, and since being handy at home kind of comes naturally to me, and I enjoy it, I thought I'd give this a go as my first blog!

Here's the house in question...