Sierra Club finds mercury in hair of Minnesotans

Madaman wrote:

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Finally, some good points instead of bombast.
I am using the figures given to me by the Building Inspector assigned to the remodel by Saint Paul -- I had no insulation contractor. I was the General Contractor, and I personally installed the insulation. Yes, I did caulk around the bypasses into the attic you mention.
The house lacks a chimney -- I tore it out. The 93% furnace exhausts through a sidewall, as does the power-vent hot water heater. Removing the chimney opened up the floor plan on two floors, and removed a potential repair item from the future. Mine is the only house on the block with no chimney.
A neighbor has had his refurbished house listed in a local parade of homes (not THE Parade). There is beautiful restoration work in that home, but I know from a sales brochure that the house is basically unimproved -- heating octopus in basement, small fuse box, and probably only newspapers in the walls for insulation.
Maybe I am just crotchety, but that superficial approach occurs to me as the proverbial "Lipstick on a Pig." It is certainly easier to repaint walls, install fancy light fixtures and switches, and stain some moldings than to live elsewhere for a down-to-the-studs rehab. What troubles me is that the "paint rehab" probably has equal market value with the more fundamental rehab done here.
Thanks for dropping the insults, and getting real. That matters!

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Madaman wrote:

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Finally, some good points instead of bombast.
Thanks for dropping the insults, and getting real. That matters!

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40for60 wrote:

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I may have some preconceived notions about you from past experience,

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jw in the grove wrote:

<quoted text>If you plan on staying your improvement will be the way to go, the lipstick on the pig looks great and probably even sells better but the new homeowner will pay greatly. I live in a newer house , it does lack the character of the old house which i miss sometimes, but utilities were actually half of my old house even though my new house is about twice the sq. ft. The newer houses even have to have a air exchanger as they are so airtight.

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Madaman wrote:

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You are right -- I did the rehab planning to stay indefinitely. I THOUGHT I was accumulating a lot of sweat equity, but the market bust wiped out every potential cent of that.

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and another thing wrote:

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What do you expect when you buy a fixer upper in a crap part of town. You forgot the first 3 rules of real estate, location, location, location.

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Madaman wrote:

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It wasn't a "fixer-upper" when I bought it. Eleven years later, there was a fire which required lots of repairs. I chose to go beyond simply repairing the damage, and performed a down-to-the-studs rehab.
Find another way to mock someone who made their home as energy-efficient as possible.

and another thing wrote:

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No, I'm mocking you because you act like an expert on homes and yet you don't answer the question of why you bought a home in a crap neighborhood to begin with.