Building a modern home in the woods • Hacker News Board

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#321

Post by clinton_woo » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 9:44 PM UTC

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…

Sounds cool, like a fantasy. How far is the house from stores like groceries and other necessities? Must be out of the city I'm guessing? So you'd have to do a long drive every now and then to buy things?

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#322

Post by m_ke » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 9:45 PM UTC

glxxyz wrote: post #312

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #210

First comment from my partner was “I don’t know if this is the Parasite house of an Apple Store” :-). But really, so many weird decisions here that make no sense: why would you put your kid’s bed next to your bedroom in a new build? Why the bathrooms next to the bedrooms for your kid? Why cement floors and no floor heating? How did you end up at 400A/96kw of service (my car charges slower than that!). Why not buildin…

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.

That's not true, if you have spacers behind the wood it should dry properly and last a long time. See https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-001-t...

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#323

Post by njarboe » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 9:52 PM UTC

pbuzbee wrote: post #259

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…

Yes, I'm also looking at buying a house in California, but I too am afraid to buy a home anywhere that could realistically burn in the next 10-30 years. It's a shame since it rules out many of the best (and more affordable) areas of the state.

Almost everywhere in California could burn in the next 10-30 years. Huge fires around LA every year. The Oakland hills fire burned down thousands of homes. Santa Rosa burned twice in three years. Santa Cruz, etc. Maybe somewhere in the central valley or the Mojave desert would meet your requirements.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#324

Post by sbradford26 » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

wrycoder wrote: post #187

rhacker wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny how removed we are from reality. Even if $15/month might be cheaper than a propane bill, it would be far far more expensive against the planet to heat it with gas/coal burned at a factory 100 miles away, converted to electricity, then converted back to heat inside the spa water heater.

I think that an air/water heat pump on the tub, with say a COP of 8, would be less expensive to operate than propane or straight electric. But, I couldn't justify the capital expense. (Small hot tubs are electric.) I like my wood/propane mix for heating, because it's immune to power outages. At some point I'll get too old to cut/split/haul wood, though, and will have to figure something else out. I'm not sure why the…

So in NH I am paying just over $4.20 a gallon for propane and about $0.18 a kwh for electricity. With those prices a propane heater for my hot tub would cost more to run. Also a heat pump heater for the hot tub would optimistically get around a 3-4 COP in warmer weather and 2-3 in the colder weather but either of those would lower your price to heat it considerably but the capital expenses neglect those savings.

Source: https://www.amsenergy.com/fuel-cost-calculator/

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#325

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 9:54 PM UTC

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…

[deleted]

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#326

Post by kccqzy » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 9:56 PM UTC

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 also did. Another ridiculous thing was that the article initially claimed no fossil fuels, but the one thing they couldn't live without was wood-burning fireplaces. I mean don't they both generate large amounts of carbon dioxide?

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#327

Post by celestialcheese » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 9:59 PM UTC

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…

Is there a difference with manufactured vs prefab in the resale process in the eyes of lenders?

That's what has always steered me clear of doing this. If you need to sell, I've learned that manufactured homes are not lendable by many institutions. Maybe this new class of modular will count as "Stick built" for lending purposes. They seem really nice.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#328

Post by glxxyz » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 9:59 PM UTC

lcvw wrote: post #271

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…

400A is an absurd number. I live in the northeast have a heated pool, electric water heater, and am putting in heat pumps and it all runs off a 200A. 100A is the standard hookup in my area. I have no idea what this person is doing (are they heating the pool in winter??) but those numbers are absurd. Also a propane pool heater is far cheaper then electric, converting propane to electricity is really crazy when you cou…

My rural home never uses more than 4kW (and even that's rare), so under 20 amps. I can't imagine needing 400A supply without building a machine shop or something.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#329

Post by brailsafe » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 10:02 PM UTC

zucked wrote: post #13

Thanks for this - I have what you might call champagne taste on a beer budget. I've always wanted to live in a small, but highly efficient house in the woods. You know, something that looks like it came from an architectural magazine. But I am consistently blown away by what even pre-fab homes cost. I clearly don't have the budget that the author does, but the process felt eerily similar to mine so far. It's never me…

5.287 acres fwiw. I hope they add some of these details.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#330

Post by brailsafe » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 10:03 PM UTC

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.