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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

#261

Post by burmanm »

cromulent wrote: post #255
mips_avatar wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll find a hot tub/sauna in most Scandinavian cabins.

Yeah, but wood-heated right, and emptied before it goes solid.

No, a lot of saunas in Finland are electric heated. But they're still only 3*16A at most (and usually a lot less, but that depends on the size of the sauna). I think mine is ~7kW and still heats the sauna to high temperatures, just takes a bit more time.

I still don't get though, if living in rural area, why not heat the pool with wood. It just has that sensation that electric heater doesn't provide.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#262

Post by cols »

rootusrootus wrote: post #253
cols wrote: post #168

Beautiful house and there was a day I would have been extremely jealous but... I live in Oregon and in 2020 chose to (was not officially in an evac zone but the smoke was awful) evacuate when the horrible Beachie Creek and Lionshead [0] fires ripped through the Santiam Canyon. Houses that my wife and I had looked at possibly purchasing were torched, as well as some of the most pristine ancient forest I've seen [1]. M…

Funny, I've actually considered buying property in that area now that it's been cleared of houses. With a bit of planning, it should be possible to make it more resistant to another wildfire roaring through. I'd still build myself a couple of contingency plans anyway, of course, and buy good insurance.

Good luck to you! It is truly beautiful out there, even still. If you clear out an acre or two around your house and have some kind of fire line you'd probably be fine. I'd be concerned about the road to your house and how accessible it is to a major hwy.

Several folks died after being trapped on North Fork Rd and it's not hard to see why. It's a super tight, two lane road that goes for miles and miles. After the fire started, there were apparently miles of treefall up and down the road. No way you get out from that even on a dirt bike.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#263

Post by dleslie »

cromulent wrote: post #257
dleslie wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Pemberton, no less. An outdoor pool, _very_ large windows, open/not-enclosed outdoor patios, etc etc. They've basically planned to heat the outdoors when it is below 0C a few months out of the year; and most of the year it's below 18C. And all that exposed, non-insulated concrete. The thermal mass they have to heat is practically unbounded. Bonkers. They're going to have a hell of the time with the weathering on t…

Single-glazed windows, by the look of it. I was expecting triple.

... Yuuup.

I knew a person who tried to put in triple-glaze, in New Westminster, BC, and it took a special lien on the property along with special approval from the Province because they weren't allowed by the building codes at the time.

That was ~10y ago, so maybe it's changed now.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#264

Post by runjake »

I did not know software engineers could get this rich. It seems outlandish. That house must have cost a fortune. Or am I just way under-paid compared to the rest of you?

Also, who checked off on the flat roofs in that location?

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#265

Post by shtopointo »

DeRock wrote: post #260
shtopointo wrote: post #125

Google "climate change site: https://johnnyrodgers.is/ "

I did that and found: https://johnnyrodgers.is/On-Earth I honestly cannot connect the person who wrote the above with the one who designed and built what is an absurdly inefficient unnatural mansion in what used to be some pristine wilderness. Talk about cognitive dissonance.

Yup...

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#266

Post by second--shift »

intrepidhero wrote: post #56
MezzoDelCammin wrote: post #50

"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 e…

I'm from the US and I was shocked they needed 400A plus propane. We draw more current then you guys because our voltage is lower but still, 200A services are pretty standard for large rural homes.

as a heads-up, most electrical mains in the USA are 240v; they are wired two circuits in series for most residential applications. But you'll find a 240v plug in most homes; it's the industrial heavy-duty looking plug.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#267

Post by rexreed »

There's a fetish for tiny homes, a fetish for semi-off-grid living, a fetish for impractical homes in impractical places. YouTube is full of these projects. Curiously many tiny homes and impractical off-grid home projects seem to be abandoned and turn into half-built or mostly-compromised results. I'd attach some links to those YouTube channels, but I don't want to send them any traffic because at this point it has become less about the home and more about the fetish.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#268

Post by second--shift »

CalRobert wrote: post #66
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…

The book How to Build a House, by Larry Haun, is a great read if you want to try this yourself. irishvernacular.com/ also has a guide to building a lovely, modest, warm home yourself (with friends, admittedly) for <50k .

He has a great series of VHS tapes (wow getting old) uploaded to Youtube, just search his name. Highly worth a watch

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#269

Post by mikeg8 »

deltaonefour wrote: post #249

Kind of off topic, but anybody know how I would gain the skills of building a house from scratch without quitting my day job as a developer?

First step is to thoroughly understand the building process and sequence of construction as well as all the materials, fasteners, tools, etc. Then for building, start small with a chicken coop or shed with relatively low risk if the build goes south. Going from zero to house without serious supervision from experience builders is a recipe for a failed structure.

Check out Larry Haun's books as well as the Essential Craftsman Youtube channel where he films an entire house build. Also the Build Channel with Matt Risinger is great for more advance topics.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#270

Post by hinkley »

dleslie wrote: post #156
nostromo wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A heated pool for a single-family home in the wilderness seems particularly decadent and indulgent. It looks like they wanted a California house, with flat a roof and giant windows, in the Canadian Wilderness. But there's a reason houses in the mountains look the way they do. This house looks as out-of-place as a ski chalet would on the beach in San Diego. In any case, it looks as if they have enough money not to car…

In Pemberton, no less. An outdoor pool, _very_ large windows, open/not-enclosed outdoor patios, etc etc. They've basically planned to heat the outdoors when it is below 0C a few months out of the year; and most of the year it's below 18C. And all that exposed, non-insulated concrete. The thermal mass they have to heat is practically unbounded. Bonkers. They're going to have a hell of the time with the weathering on t…

Only if it doesn't burn down first in a forest fire.
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