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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

#391

Post by notatoad »

standeven wrote: post #178
nickhalfasleep wrote: post #6

0 words about forest fires or preparing a defensible boundary and setback. Their insurance is going to be fierce .

Pemberton is quite rainy, so forest fires aren't a huge concern. Once you get to the other side of the Coastal mountains (the interior), fire is a much bigger concern.

here's an article from this summer when there were four out-of-control fires burning in the pemberton region. pemberton is definitely less of a concern than the other side of the mountains, but there is definitely still a risk. and that risk is only growing.

https://www.squamishchief.com/local-news/pemberton-area-fire...

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#392

Post by Tiktaalik »

vonseel wrote: post #217
subpixel wrote: post #207

This reminds me a lot of time I spend reading Dwell magazine a decade ago. Since that time, I've moved past the point where building such a house is impossible for me financially, but I've also moved past the point where such a house is attractive to me. I saved up a lot of back issues of Dwell thinking I'd refer to them when building a dream home, and in a move a few years ago I threw them out. It felt exactly like…

Yeah, it blew my mind that having a pool was so important to someone in a cold place like Canada. We have a pool in Texas and while it was installed with propane heating 30 years ago, the heating has really never been used as it’s not efficient to do so. I can’t imagine how much it would cost to heat a pool in the author’s climate.

In the central and eastern parts of Canada the summers can get scorching hot and humid and a pool would be lovely to have.

In this particular part of Canada though, more known for its mild summers, not so much. In Vancouver there's honestly maybe only two weeks in july when it's hot enough when you'd really appreciate a pool. Now this is a bit inland, so maybe it gets hotter, but still, yeah it's a luxury that is not gonna be used often.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#393

Post by Tiktaalik »

brailsafe wrote: post #330
runjake wrote: post #264

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?

Would be nice if they were a little more transparent about these numbers instead of being incredibly vague. Salaries in Vancouver have not kept up with housing costs.

Your typical senior coder in Vancouverite can't afford a decades old teardown trash house let alone this. haha.

This is less due to poor Vancouver salaries and more due to a basket of real estate issues, but yea the salaries aren't that great either.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#394

Post by gautamcgoel »

adamcharnock wrote: post #122

I've done this in Portugal, but on a smaller scale and pretty much with only my own labor. I purchased 6 hectares (15 acres) for mid-5-figures. I've built an A-frame studio house for around €10k (excl tools), and installed a 5kw solar system for about another €10k. The house has air conditioning and underfloor heating (water-based, heated using wood from the land). I've also brought a 50-year-old tractor and started…

One question I always have when people build houses with large windows: don't you worry about someone smashing the windows and stealing stuff when you're away?

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#395

Post by revnode »

a2tech wrote: post #385
hinkley wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: I saw someone else building a cabin with similar windows recently. They are double pane, they are just some sort of frameless unit, held together by the strip of black material around the edge. Whether they work probably comes down to how well the installer seals around the edge of the window. And while the sliding glass doors look like they are single paned, look at the quadruple reflection. Isn't that usually…

Yes, I'm sure those are at least double pane. Modern windows (especially high end) can be both energy efficient and nice looking. Same goes for their concrete walls--its quite likely that they have insulation in wall cavities or embedded directly in the concrete itself. That being said--I'm sure it still costs a pretty penny to heat in the winter. Its just probably not as bad as you might think.

> Modern windows (especially high end) can be both energy efficient

Yes, compared to other windows. Compared to a well-insulated wall with external insulation and 6" of interior insulation, they're not great.

Good windows are an R5. A well-insulated wall cavity can easily be an R30.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#397

Post by altcognito »

potatolicious wrote: post #363
glxxyz wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That exposed wood with no rain protection will age terribly. I've seen quite a few houses for sale with this sort of design that probably looked good new too.

Growing up in that part of Canada I have some worries about that flat roof. "Rural BC north of Whistler" is the sort of area to expect snow, and structures need to be designed to clear said snow...

As someone else pointed out, even your roof holds up, the water is likely to pool somewhere and eventually the water gets in.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#399

Post by throwaway22032 »

gautamcgoel wrote: post #394
adamcharnock wrote: post #122

I've done this in Portugal, but on a smaller scale and pretty much with only my own labor. I purchased 6 hectares (15 acres) for mid-5-figures. I've built an A-frame studio house for around €10k (excl tools), and installed a 5kw solar system for about another €10k. The house has air conditioning and underfloor heating (water-based, heated using wood from the land). I've also brought a 50-year-old tractor and started…

One question I always have when people build houses with large windows: don't you worry about someone smashing the windows and stealing stuff when you're away?

You'd need to have pretty small windows for that not to work. Or they could just drill a hole in the wooden walls.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#400

Post by altcognito »

Ekaros wrote: post #276
mips_avatar wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

These are usually pretty small spaces. So heating them isn't that much of an problem. And going from 22 to 80 for a few hours a week or day isn't too wasteful. Hot tubs are also rather small.

A sauna? Sure.

But a hot tub? There are very, very few bodies of water that you can submerge comfortably in that doesn't end up being a non trivial amount of energy to warm up, much less keep warm.

To each his own I guess.

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