David Russell said:
Hey Dave! Very cool story! I would like my next home to be a 1 level ranch like yours with a very very large basement(for trains of course) I understand now what your looking at…“the before picture”…that is a brass kickplate on a steel door that was here and removed during the rehab. Dad put that steel door in during the energy crisis in the 70’s thinking he was being energy conservant(waste of money considering other issues here), need less to say in 79 when you built your place I was 9yrs old and about 10miles as the crow flies from Three Mile Island(sure you heard of that) well I’m still here in the same joint,almost wasn’t?? The Finial on the spire was not functional(grounding wise) and was leaking which I removed and eventually will repair or replicate out of pvc or such for re-install. P.S. I like your roof…I especially like the open ended rafters
Would have loved a basement, if for no other reason than it would be cool down there during our hot summers. However, since the block is 914 sq. metres, there’s plenty of room for a shed and the trains. You won’t see any wires in the house photo, because all the electricity, phone, gas and cable is underground. We put on an extension in '94, when our four girls were teen-agers. Cost almost as much as the original house and land put together! There’s an enclosed walkway connecting the house and the extension, which turned out to be a good place for a Timesaver!
(http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj307/healydj/G%20Scale%20Trains/Puzzle%20Project/Originaltopsmall.jpg)
Unfortunately, we couldn’t afford anything heftier than 2 X 3 ceiling joists. That, plus the roof pitch, means the area between roof and ceiling is just crawl space. We considered strengthening the joists and cladding the rafters to make a proper attic, but decided to extend instead. It worked out OK; now that we’re both in our 60s, we prefer the “no stairs” lifestyle. Like your Dad, we put in a steel door. It’s the only north-facing door in the house, and we only put it in after our summer heat buckled the original solid-core wooden door. Touching that steel door on a hot day is a good way to get burned fingers! Also like your Dad, we are mindful of energy issues. We pitched the roof at 26 degrees, the optimum for a solar hot water heater. You can’t see it in the house photo; it’s on the left (north) side of the house. For over half the year, our hot water is free. We also put a 5000 gal. concrete water tank under one of the downpipes - no sand in the mix, just cement, two grades of aggregate and blue metal dust. That waters the garden all summer off a 1hp pump. I was born and raised in New York City. We have family and friends in Pennsylvania, though nowhere as close to the reactor as you folks. I’m very familiar with the Three Mile Island story - that would have been a very scary time for you.
