I am so glad I found this forum a couple weeks ago. So, I want to say thanks to all those who have posted lately. Your posts saved our project!! Jared in Lake Havasu City, AZ

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Reading

Posted to Off-Grid by Patricia in Florissant, CO on 4/20/2008 12:54:56 PM

I purchased and downloaded a bunch of books from the bookstore.  Thank goodness I am retired so I have the time to read.  I also read a lot of books when I go to Colorado for the summer. I already have so many notes and worksheets.  I am rather impatient and once I start a project, I will not stop until it is over.

I am building my time line as I go.  I combined everything into one workbook with many worksheets.  I believe it will be easier to keep track of everything.  We are going to try to build what we can with the cash on hand and when we can.

Complex

Posted to Off-Grid by Patricia in Florissant, CO on 4/16/2008 2:32:26 PM

Not ordinary, unusual, different, etc. That describes my husband and me.  We just don't fit the norm.  How?:

1.  We retired in our early 40's

2.  We have no children

3.  We want to have a summer & winter home (snow bird)

4.  Our summer home is in Texas, no mortgage

5.  We are planning to build a new winter home in Colorado.

6.  To make it more difficult, we have no utilities (off-grid) to consider

7.  We stay in CO for the summer months in our travel trailer.

8.  We want to build the house in stages.

9.   We are going to try to build without taking out a loan.  So we need to stretch every buck.

This leaves me totally puzzled on how to plan.  Do I plan a house designed for our liking?  Our preferences are bigger rooms, less bedrooms.  It seems when you increase square footage you also increase the number of rooms.  I purchased Punch Software to help with the home design. 

First Question: Do I design what we would like or do I design for what will sell in the future?

Second question: Can anyone tell me the approximate cost difference between SIPs and wood frames.  Saving time is not important to us.  Cost and quality are our biggest importance.

Grant's Forum Posts: 280 Journal Entries: 17 Interview Answers: 164 Average Forum Rating: 3.95 Send Private Message Grant's Selected Image 8/9/2008

While overall saving time may not be important to you, getting to dry-in within a reasonable time frame is ALWAYS important.  You want to be able to construct your walls and roof and get your doors and windows on quickly enough to not cause moisture problems in the building materials.  In such a harsh environment and being reliant upon site-generated energy sources, you need to keep your energy consumption as low as possible.  It is MUCH cheaper to build for energy efficiency than it is to pay for more energy generation!  SIPs, ICF, and other such alternative envelope structures provide for a tighter, more energy efficient envelope so that you can spend less on energy generation.  With an off-grid construction investing in energy efficiency almost ALWAYS makes sense (and cents). regards, Grant

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Kinder

Posted to Off-Grid by Patricia in Florissant, CO on 3/31/2008 6:15:02 PM

I am on a kinder level for building my house.  I had a jump on some things.  Our 40 acres are paid for, survey is done, well location/permit is done, Well driller is hired, engineer hired to do the perk & soil tests. Then I bought The Owner-Builder Book.  I had already an excel spreadsheet & a worksheet for most items.  I was using Punch Professional Home Platinum ver 4.5.1 to design my house plan.  In addition, I purchased the Punch software version 12.  So I am reading everything I can find and learning how to use the new version of Punch.  I am most worried about getting the energy systems we need at a reasonable cost.  We have no utilities (off grid).  Our property is at 9,200 feet and can get up to 8' of snow.  Then the temperature can be 25-30 degrees below zero.  Selecting appliances is difficult.  Do I use propane or diesel?  Do I use a broiler or a furnace?  Do I use solar or wind generators, or both?   I plan on doing the management.  I am good at organization and management.  My husband will do some of the tasks.  He even made a small air tank to use with his air tools.  That should come in handy since we won't have an electric source.  I am very lucky to have a husband that is handy in a lot of areas.  I would like to hire a designer/engineer to review our plans, a master electricians for initial advise & an inspection after everything is complete.  Here's the catch.  We live in Texas most of the year.  The home we want to build will be in North of Divide, CO.  Since we only spend the summer in Colorado, we will have to do the work in stages.  We decided to rent a storage unit in which to put items that we buy along the way and items we find on sale.  We are going to try to build without a loan.  This why planning is so critical. 

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A winter picture from our RV on November 2006

Steven's Forum Posts: 12 Journal Entries: 74 Interview Answers: 105 Average Forum Rating: 3.18 Send Private Message My Construction Website Steven's Selected Image 4/16/2008

Howdy Patricia! We're also building off-grid not too far from you (as the crow flies, anyway) and plan to go with a wind turbine for our primary source of power.  If you poke around you can find some excellent wind maps on the web (I downloaded mine over at the NREL site); looking at the Florissant area I see that you're generally in the Cat 3 area.  That's good enough for wind power, and of course depending on exactly where you are it could be even better. Solar up there out to be excellent as well. Hope that helps, and good luck! Steve

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