Tag Archives: san diego

Adding on to Your House Expands Your Options Too

Posted on July 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

Homeowners needing more room are in a tough spot these days. They want to trade up, but sell now in a depressed market and they lose money. One alternative is expanding the place you already have — adding on instead of leaving and taking the loss.

Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your value questions.

It might be a two-story wing of extra beds and baths, or a simple bump-out that opens up a cramped kitchen. Whatever the scope, you won’t have to go house hunting or pay thousands in closing costs and real estate commissions, transaction fees that could buy concrete and wallboard for an addition. It may take a while for housing to recover. But when it does (it always has) the investment will pay off.

To start, check plan books or shelter magazines or come up with your own sketches. Try different versions, the ultimate space versus the practical space. When you get one or two that work, the question becomes how to make them part of the house.

Expanding up In homes with an attic that’s framed with rafters, not a maze of trusses, dormers can turn dead space into airy, well-lit living space. Framing in an attic can be tough, particularly when new 2-by-4s join existing timbers that are a little cockeyed. On the other hand, you don’t need to excavate, pour a footing, or build a foundation. The only intrusion into living space below is a stairway. Pull-down attic stairs won’t cut it. The only major framing job (in most homes) is to beef up the floor joists. Extra strength is needed because loads in unfinished attics are usually figured to be lighter than loads in finished spaces with people and furniture. Where you’ll find 2-by-10 joists on the first floor, the attic is likely to have 2-by-6s. Expanding even more and raising a full second story on a one-story house is more difficult. Loads are the problem because the existing structure down to the footings is designed to carry what’s there, not almost twice as much.

Disclaimer: for information and enterainment purposes only

7 Ways to Fix Time-Wasting, Annoying Hassles at Home

Posted on July 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

Every home has a few bottlenecks where things could run more smoothly. Some become an annoying or time-wasting hassle; others can cause maintenance and repair problems. We’re talking omissions, not mistakes. Here are seven problem solvers that are not included in most homes but are worth adding later.

Jackshaft garage-door openers Standard openers hang down from the garage ceiling and drag the door up. But if you need the room for storage or clearance, a jackshaft opener solves the problem. It mounts on the wall next to the door and turns the main shaft directly without cables or chains. The compact units need only about 8 inches beside the door, plug into a standard outlet, and work with all modern safety equipment. I installed a Liftmaster 3900 (details at liftmaster.com) for sectional doors because the new pickup was too tall for a standard opener.

Electrostatic air cleaners Installed at the end of the forced-air return duct, these appliances include a standard, removable, dust-trapping pre-filter, and behind it is a stack of electrically charged metal fins. With alternate charges, one positive, the next negative, impurities blowing past the prefilter cling to the fins. They’re spaced widely enough not to reduce airflow, and the frames holding them are removable so you can clean the filters periodically in the dishwasher. Some units can remove 95 percent of airborne pollen, 80 percent of smoke particles and other microscopic pollutants.

↑ Trash compactors In the space of a single lower cabinet, compactors pull open like trash bins, but a ram inside compresses a full bin to one-sixth its normal size. They save space, time and energy with fewer trips to haul out garbage and fewer drives to the recycling center — and save money on pickup fees based on volume. Compactor rams can apply enough force to crush cans (3,000 pounds of pressure), but plug into a standard outlet and use about half as much electricity per month as a microwave oven.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Passive Solar Design Basics

Posted on July 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

Passive solar design begins with the simple idea that you can build a house that uses natural heating, cooling, ventilation and daylighting. These homes require much less fossil fuel energy to heat and cool than conventional homes do, which is better for the environment and saves passive solar homeowners money. Passive solar homes are comfortable to live in because they are designed to radiate heat in winter, maintain a comfortable year-round temperature, ventilate naturally, and let in plenty of natural light.

I became interested in sustainable design, specifically passive solar design, as a young architect — first while working in the Peace Corps in Africa, and later while working professionally in New Mexico. The details of any particular passive solar home design depend on the climate and the specifics of the site. Over the course of my 35-year career, I’ve designed a variety of passive solar houses throughout the country using different configurations of south-facing windows, sunrooms and other passive solar design features. (For specifics on one of them, read “The Western Solar Farmhouse: A Passive Solar Design” near the end of the article) What follows are the principles used to design any passive solar home.