DIY Renos

The insulation grant is off! I cancelled it because the company wanted to spray foam it, and the Hydro company let them specify the pink fibreglass into their contract - which we never saw. I talked to our Hydro folks, and the gal said that none of the 3 approved contractors in the city handle the Roxul insulation (fireproof because its made of stone slag into fibres), no chemicals that cause harmful fumes, etc.) The main floor is all done with Roxul. A dream to install. No itchy skin, easy to cut with a fine tooth hand saw( or a cake knife ).

BUT they have two other programs that we can use. One gives us a rebate on any R-Value over the original (R-5) up to the Building Code recommendations for our region (R-50). The other lets us use their special low-interest (simple, not compounded) loan up to $7,500 to buy the material and install it, including new windows, doors, water heaters, even furnaces (not that we want a gas furnace), and drywall!. Don't need water heaters either. But the Windows and Drywall would sure take out the big lump payouts during this work. Won't need that kind of money for those. Insulation materials are $2,549. Drywall and tape and fillers another $800, and windows (tri-pane, gas-filled PVC Casements) another $3,200). So about $6,500. We'll use our cash for the downstairs drywalling, and end up with a monthly payment of about $250 for the first 6 months, when they let us put our tax refunds and freed up $$$ to fast-track the loan repayment. Comes on our hydro bill anyway.

My November bill was $200, December's $390, and January's $444. When we're done, we should be around $100 to $125 per month during the Winter's toughest cold!

The foam guy was only gonna go to R-28! I can imagine how hot the summer would get with an airtight roof! Foam is good for car seats or basement walls, not bedrooms.

We'll end up with R-56 on the vented attic deck, R-32 on the vented cathedral walls, and R-50 in the vented Kneewalls. Cool in summer, snug as a bug in winter.

The thicker materials have to come in from the factory in Ontario, and the plant is backlogged for 52 days! Gotta wait until early April, so we might use our tax refunds and cash before then to reduce the loan principle.

Money is a tool in this house, like a hammer or a tortilla press. I can't believe the installer contractor to even suggest changing the contract to use foam. He doesn't have to pay the higher energy bills for the rest of my life! And they knew I had ROXUL on the main floor. Some people just don't listen or their hearing aids go off when the customer speaks.

 

52 days from now you'll probably be able to turn the furnace down.
I'd given up long ago and accidently burnt the house down.

 

I was gonna post these two articles. I was out walking in a blowing snow storm getting the new deal going, from the bus stop, while this 3 year old house was gutted by fire, $400,000 tupperware house. The firefighters across Canada can't get the NBC changed, so I wrote to my Member of Parliament, since his neighbourhood has houses built in the last 10 years.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...refighters-concerns-about-new-homes-1.2531937

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...estroyed-in-fire-but-no-one-injured-1.2531158

These owners will likely get paid out, but their next Insuarance rates will go WAY UP!

 

Fires are scary. I remember years ago in Illinois some friends had their house nearly burn to the ground on Christmas Eve because of faulty Christmas lights. Several years later, they had another bad house fire.

We've been lucky. However my wife has had some kitchen fires that made me almost crap my pants. She likes to put something on the stove top then go outside for a minute.... or five or fifteen minutes !:confused:

 

I guess US stores sell those stoves with built-in BBQ grilles too. I wonder how they control the common flames and sparks from grilling on a kitchen stove. Open flame stoves are too risky.

I've got one of those Shrek DVDs with a fireplace scene. That's as close as I'll get inside the house.

 

Even if we are in different provinces/different building codes, this is just one of many reasons when in 2000 we were buying our first home I refused to look at anything built after 1980!

 

Yep! I was working as a software engineer in 2000-2001. Good money. Paid for the house in one year. My yuppie colleagues were always moaning about their $4000 annual property tax bill on their nice new homes down by the Brady Road Landfill (City Dump), and the seagulls and smells and flying trash bags. Those homes were over $400,000 back then. Now they can't even find buyers!

Must've been one heck of a real estate crew selling those. Anyway, they always razzed me for living in the North End, until they heard about my annual tax bill - $165 per year. This year it goes up by $120 to $285 for the year.

And my house would sell for twice its assessed tax value, as is! I paid $14,000 for it. Not kidding! Its ours and paid For, and almost finished this year. Gotta do the landscaping next year.

 

I hear ya, when we bout all our friends thought we were nuts because of 'location" , entering the area was like driving through a junk yard. Yet I knew the island has no other place to go but up island. Got a new mayor for "Langford", he bull dozed the crap out of the scum pits and for the first few years taxes went up..... then he cleaned the place up, brought in new development mostly commercial and taxes went down, down to the point new residential came in also. As anywhere, the house isn't worth a dam but the property is. Now we get from our friends, 'Why don't you sell, you'll come out like bandits with mega extra cash!"..... So now we answer.... "Where would we go and get a location like this, and we would need a mortgage again to get what we all ready have!"

 

We have so much in common! We've been offered $180,000 AS IS! And what would we get? Garden City's 1960ish houses are over $200,000 and just as inefficient as mine was. Not a chance!

If we move anywhere, it would be Mexico (Guanajauto or San Miguel Allende, both in the State of Guanjuato.) Central, cold winter is about one month long down to 10C and breezy 30 to 35C summers. We did it before for 5 years and loved it. Take the cash and pensions and live modestly, but comfy. And all the rust-free cars to drool on.

 

We paid $207.000, in 2000. I think you know sales in the area effect market value. 2 summers ago a house on our street we called 'The Munsters' sold for $325.000'ish witch when we got out property assessment dropped us from $480K the year before to $425k for what ever reason, our taxes dropped a bit also and considering we are not moving, who cares....taxes went down again:banana:. I can't remember what the last assessment was but we are all ways being hounded buy developers. 3-4 months ago we ere offered $510k. All sounds great, but we are back to..... where we gona move too and have the same conveniences and property, witch is what I told the maggot agent. I'll sell and move, but your gona have to make it worth my time and effort $$$$$$ if you want to blow up my house and put 2 cookie cutter houses on my property. Witch BTW is what they did to the Munster house....... Paid $325K, bull dozed, put up 2 new and sold each for $400K..... and my property is bigger.


A lot of big $ talked about here members, keep in mind our land on the wet coast is one of the top 10 most expensive places to live.

 

Atta boy!

Mexico is Canadian-friendly, if you ever think about cashing in. Canada has a tax and pension treaty. No issues.

 

Well got the rest of the lumber in to finish the partitions. The 8" Roxul will get here in mid-April, and I got all the roof vents too. Roxul Canada has a 40-day backlog, down from 52 days, on this thicker R32 batt. This winter has been cruel everywhere, but the cold has even dropped the National GDP, employment, and retailers are closing stores by the hundreds.

 

Fat Tedy, the lumber came in bundles stuck together by ice! I let it thaw out on the old linoleum in the hallway, before taking it upstairs.

Let me put it this way, all the brass monkeys in Manitoba are singing soprano in all the choirs. That's how cold its been lately.