3 ms·

Must have been some AC bill to balance $800,000 of renovations.

• Jtsummers 3y ago
  $300k on the AC/heat portion, but that included switching from a gas furnace to geothermal (and all the equipment that entails), reinforcing the basement (for that equipment), adding ducting for more efficient airflow through the house, and some other things. She also spent a lot to replace windows (single pane originally) and to fix a leaking roof. And this has to be done while preserving the character of the home. If this were a home you could gut, you might be able to do all this for less or more quickly since less care would be needed to preserve the original elements. And the motivation were things like not being able to get the temperature above 55ºF in the winter with the furnace running constantly. That probably won't get $300k in savings over any reasonable period (her lifetime), but it does make it habitable. It will probably also increase the value of the home by a good amount for the next time it's sold. ("Hey, you can actually survive here year round now!")
  • roughly 3y ago
    > And the motivation were things like not being able to get the temperature above 55ºF in the winter with the furnace running constantly. Well, that was the impetus, but the motivation was definitely to make an ecological point - which, to be clear, I’m for, but there’s no part of this that pencils out for $300k solely on the money. Taking a work of art like that house and making it net-zero energy while preserving what makes it so special would have been a hell of a feat.