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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

#401

Post by twobitshifter »

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?

I have a full pane glass door into my shop. I’m definitely replacing it for this reason. Someone could absolutely break in by other means and there’s other windows big enough for a person (by regulation), but somehow a big door full of glass seems too inviting.

That said many stores have big glass windows and their best goods out front. But on the other hand, other stores also have security doors that enclose everything when it’s closed. I might be being too paranoid, but the same concern applies to even locking your door. A locked door only keeps the honest folks out is what they say, so should we do away with locks completely? Obviously people find some utility in them despite their inherent weaknesses.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#402

Post by twobitshifter »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #384
dan-robertson wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The choices don’t seem particularly shocking to me, so I don’t understand why they seem so obviously bad to you. For placement of bedrooms, I think the question is where else to put them. I guess they could have the office/4th bedroom next to the master instead but what the rooms for is obviously somewhat subject to change. For the bathing part of a bathroom being near bedrooms seems logical. There appears to be a sm…

> or placement of bedrooms, I think the question is where else to put them. I guess they could have the office/4th bedroom next to the master Do I really need to tell you why it’s better to not share a bedroom wall with your children? :). If I had a choice, I 100% wouldn’t.

Sound insulation is a possibility and when your kids are young they often need attention in the night.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#403

Post by analog31 »

adamcharnock wrote: post #173
georgeoliver wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool! Do you have some references/links for the floor heat system? How big is the house? I'm mostly curious about the cycle time. We install floor heat in our homes, typically with a gas-fired boiler.

So the floor heat system is somewhat unusual. Details are: - The house is 5x7m. The heated area is about 2.5x7m - There is no concrete base. The system [1] I used was designed to receive concrete, but I decided against it. - The floor heats up in about 30 minutes, but the water temperature is substantially higher than normal (because lack of thermal conductivity due to lack of concrete) - The flooring is large plywoo…

>>> Edit 2: If I was to do it again with more time and patience, I would pour in sand. It has about the same thermal properties of concrete, and is way less permanent.

I did something similar when building a fence. The "proper" way to set the posts was in concrete, but I calculated how many bags I'd need, relative to my own strength and patience. Instead, I poured sand in, got it wet, and shook it to make it settle. The fence has held up for almost 20 years. The last few posts I ran out of sand and used dirt. They've held up just fine too.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#404

Post by magicroot75 »

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…

And why not just rent one for a week? Do we always need to build and own things?

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#405

Post by daydream »

KaiserPro wrote: post #333
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.

it _looks_ like its carborised, ie slightly burnt, so it should last pretty well.

The exterior does look like shou sugi ban wood which (done properly) should indeed last for a long time.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#406

Post by porknubbins »

dan-robertson wrote: post #387
porknubbins wrote: post #297

This house and lot are incredible and I would love to build a modern home in the woods, but I feel like this article was missing a disclaimer somewhere "Step 1 be rich" - even though land in Canada may not be super expensive this project was clearly in the one to several million dollar range.

Sure but step 1 is reasonably attainable for lots of people working in tech in North America. It seems like a ‘have (two?) good tech jobs for a while and get a bit lucky’ money rather than ‘inherit some enormous fortune’ money.

Yes its not an outrageous amount, I was just expecting something more diy/homesteading from “Building a home in the woods” then it was more hire contractors and an architech and build a massive modern house in the woods.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#407

Post by nhoughto »

Interesting write up, a not comparable example as my house build was nothing like this scale or cost (I imagine), but during building our house it was interesting to observe where problems came from and how they could be fixed.

The architects -> engineering -> builder handoff is obviously the most lossy, tons of context/intent/purpose is lost in these steps, and normal way incentives align doesn't help with each group being sympathetic to the greater mission, the more they care or clarify etc the more time things take / cost incurred. It is natural to assume everyone is thinking the same as you and will be motivated because you are paying them, but they rarely are, they care less about the result than you do so staying on top of the details you care about throughout the process is a must.

What worked great for us was to have the builder part of the architecture design process and inject their learnings of how to actually build the thing along the way, rather than trying to bolt it on at the end. This isn't normally the way things work as normally architectural drawings are a primary input to a tender process to find a builder.. so is a bit cart before horse but we already had a builder so could avoid that.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#408

Post by lariati »

chimen wrote: post #167

What's modern about that house? Ridiculous amount of electricity required, flat roof in an area where snow is expected for a big portion of the year, heated outside pool, very remote but VERY dependant on electricity, internet and TV must be fun. It all starts kicking in pretty fast once you move in and realise your kids grow up alone because there's nobody in their age group for miles, no days when you feel like doi…

It is modern as in modernist style of design.

I don't get it though either. That style is for flexing and showing off to other people. In that location I would want a baddass log cabin.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#409

Post by cma »

burmanm wrote: post #261
cromulent wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> why not heat the pool with wood. It just has that sensation that electric heater doesn't provide.

Is this some kind of new homeopathy? Wood memory gets into the water making two types of heat have a different sensation?

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#410

Post by PostOnce »

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?

Not any more than you worry about someone kicking in your shit-tacular cheap door, or drilling the lock out. Homes aren't often fortresses; you'd build differently if you lived in an unsafe, unstable area. Lots of homes in America have no property walls or fences, either--probably the supermajority of them. I assume that's also true for Canada, especially in uh, the woods.
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