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Building a modern home in the woods

johnnyrodgers.is

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Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#41

Post by jakewins »

Aeolun wrote: post #36
thex10 wrote: post #32

> Geothermal wasn’t viable on the slope and with the space we had to work with, so we switched to an air source heat pump for exchange. The bigger issue was that the energy demands for the house, which included hot water heating for the pool and hot tub, outstripped the electrical supply we could get on a rural residential build: 400A. We eventually settled on supplementing our electrical generation with propane, whi…

400A?! My house can make do with 60A, and my previous one with 40A Do they use 350A to heat a swimming pool? Talk about a waste of energy.

Are you in EU? Recall North America uses 120VAC, so a 400A service is equivalent to 200A in the EU

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#43

Post by jypepin »

newhouseb wrote: post #34
fartcannon wrote: post #7

Leaving out the actual financial information makes this post a little useless. Before I can imagine it, I want to know if I can do this or if I need to be a trust fund baby.

I would guess construction costs for this home would be around $2MM including labor, materials and management overhead, but excluding land. Source: am finishing up a home at a similar finish-level at a similar size, although not quite as fancy as this I don't think.

this seems accurate

source: We're currently working with an architect on a similar project.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#44

Post by mritchie712 »

newhouseb wrote: post #34
fartcannon wrote: post #7

Leaving out the actual financial information makes this post a little useless. Before I can imagine it, I want to know if I can do this or if I need to be a trust fund baby.

I would guess construction costs for this home would be around $2MM including labor, materials and management overhead, but excluding land. Source: am finishing up a home at a similar finish-level at a similar size, although not quite as fancy as this I don't think.

I thought you made this username for your "new house". I was wrong.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#45

Post by germinalphrase »

yawnxyz wrote: post #14

whoa that is a mansion, not a "modern home" I had the opportunity to stay very nice place up in BC last summer — at the price of constant fear that we might need to hop in the car and leave everything behind at any second. And this was in a fairly big town (Kelowna). I can't imagine what the risks are for living in a place like this is...

Were you concerned about fire?

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#46

Post by cableshaft »

codingdave wrote: post #29
blakesterz wrote: post #2

Cool story! I didn't notice it in there, maybe I just missed it, I would be worried about animals getting in the house, I wonder if they designed it to be animal proof? Being up in the woods there, the house must be under constant attack from the woodland creatures. Animals being anything from bees and ants and assorted bugs to squirrels and chipmunks and maybe bears. I have a SMALL woods behind my house and find all…

I had fears of that when we moved into our house surrounded not only by woods, but wetlands and farm fields. We were pleasantly surprised how little problems we've had from creatures. We do see animals of all kinds wandering on the property - deer, squirrels, rabbits, racoons, opossum, coyotes, owls, hawks, eagles... you name it. The tracks in the winter are even more evidence that we are surrounded by wildlife. But…

I live in a suburban city and I've had all of those either in our backyard or just beyond our back yard over the past couple of years (except the eagles). Squirrels, rabbits, an opossum, a skunk, mice, owls, hawks, toads have all been in our backyard before. Deer and coyotes just beyond our back fence. Raccoons I've seen in the neighborhood but not from our backyard. A couple times now I've taken pictures of hawks chilling on our back patio. I have a bird feeder so the birds might attract it.

The dogs freak out whenever I inadvertently let them out with animals in the back yard (happened with the skunk and opossum), so I've had to rush out and put myself in between them and the animals to keep them from possibly getting attacked or attacking they animals (they did get skunked).

We have a tall fence and do our best to repair holes and gaps, but it doesn't seem to matter much except keep deer and coyotes out of our yard (at least so far).

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#47

Post by danachow »

jakewins wrote: post #41
Aeolun wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

400A?! My house can make do with 60A, and my previous one with 40A Do they use 350A to heat a swimming pool? Talk about a waste of energy.

Are you in EU? Recall North America uses 120VAC, so a 400A service is equivalent to 200A in the EU

Most residential electrical service in the US is 200A or well below that. Especially if you have a place with gas heat, hot water, dryer, range you do not need that much. But even with electric appliances and a typical pool heater, 200A is plenty.

400A service in the US is the purview of the very wealthy for their Taj Mahals - which is obviously overrepresented here - but that's a fucking distorted view point if you think it's the norm.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#48

Post by Splendor »

asjldkfin wrote: post #38
ttul wrote: post #3

TL;DR wealthy, privileged white couple in Canada build dream home in the woods thanks to extensive societal advantages which they enjoy. Film at nine.

It's amazing how much bitterness and jealousy can be encapsulated in just one sentence. It's almost poetic.

I guess we can file yours under "callous indifference". Someone complains about the societal issues that allow a couple to build a SECOND mansion like this in the woods while millions of people are homeless and your response is to paint them as "jealous".

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#49

Post by carabiner »

claudiulodro wrote: post #25

The way to do this if you're not wealthy is to get a cheapo plot of land on the Oregon/Washington coast ($<100k for up to .5 acres) and put a manufactured home on it. It's way simpler, cheaper, and the construction on manufactured homes has improved a lot over the years (they're framed with 2x6s to survive transport, and this makes them sturdier and better insulated than most traditional houses). I did it and it's be…

Yeah where can I find land like this within 30 minutes of Seattle/Tacoma?

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#50

Post by MezzoDelCammin »

"The bigger issue was that the energy demands for the house, which included hot water heating for the pool and hot tub, outstripped the electrical supply we could get on a rural residential build: 400A"

Am I the only one who almost spit out his coffee when reading this paragraph? I mean, building a remote home in the middle of a forest is a cool idea, sure. But then end up feeding the whole thing with 400A worth of electricity? And when the current is too high, end up supplementing with a propane generator?

Am I missing something? As a European, I'm used to way more modest figures for family homes - maybe 400V @ 25A plus gas for heating.

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