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srercrcr

A Happy Medium

srercrcr
14 years ago

I designed my house to have flexible use and energy efficient.

It has 1300 ft down and 800 up. My wife and I live down and the up is only used with company. The HVAC are two separate units with a door at the top of the stairs. Here in S Texas when temps get to upper 90s regularly, with abundant insulation over the second floor, upstairs has never seen over upper 80s, and that is the attic to my first floor. Wouldn't you like an attic that never gets super hot? Bottom line, highest electric bill has been $120.

For those people who have youngsters it's just a two story house. When you become empty nesters, you shut down the up and enjoy the savings. No need to sell and find a smaller home. You still get good appreciation from a standard sized house...in this case a 3 bed, 3.5 bath setup.

Comments (8)

  • teresa_nc7
    14 years ago

    You have a very good point! I've often thought if I built a home for retirement I might have at least one bedroom and bath on a second floor just for guest use and resale value.

  • flgargoyle
    14 years ago

    That's exactly what we want to do when we build in rural SC. Most of the time, it will just be the two of us, so I'm putting the master on the first floor. The upstairs will just be bonus space. I may not even finish it right away, although I'd like it to be over and done with when we move in.

    A different approach to the same situation is to have a separate building on the property. My mother's house is very small, but she has a large barn, and one end of it is finished and insulated, with A/C and heat. It would be a perfect guest house, but it doesn't have plumbing. We are thinking of doing this on our property, since we have a lot of family members that are allergic to dogs and cats. Otherwise, they can't stay with us, or even visit for more than a couple hours. We plan on keeping the 'barn suite' a pet-free zone. Needless to say, we would only run A/C or heat the few times of the year we actually use the space.
    The barn could also be a completely different decor than the main house, thus giving us two different styles to work with.

  • TxMarti
    14 years ago

    Here too. We built a house in the late 1980's with something similar and I bet I only went upstairs once a week, and we had 2 small children at the time.

  • srercrcr
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Fantastic. My first floor has everything we need like it was a separate house. Upstairs has two suites with own baths and a storage room (that doesn't need to be heated and cooled).The 2 story design not only saves money heating and cooling because I'm just doing the 1st floor....it's the fact that the 2nd story is my first story's attic. That's significant, instead of 135 degrees, it's typical to reach 85. Much less heat load. I do have R19 insulation between floors too. In the winter the 2nd story has seen the 50s when it's like 32 outside, so it's serving as a buffer.

  • ronbre
    14 years ago

    our old farmhouse was arranged to where we only used the upper floors for storage after our son moved out..however..we lost that house in a fire.

  • lara_jane
    14 years ago

    I thought about doing this but since we'll have a basement I don't want to live on three levels. But ask me tomorrow and I'll probably have changed my mind! :)

  • srercrcr
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Thought I'd add a pic....

    Here is a link that might be useful:

  • jaybird
    14 years ago

    Beautiful house and mesquites!!! You have done a really good job!