Quote from Moses:

"I designed the house with "forever" in mind. The master. kitchen and living room are all on the ground floor. No need to climb a lot of stairs when I get old. Upstairs are only guest rooms including a bunk room that will sleep 4. The house will sleep 10. I wanted room for kids and grand kids.

I think you nailed it.

have you given any thought to heating the driveway.

when i was a youngster i used to go on working vacations up king's grade, shoveling snow in the morning and snowboarding the rest of the day.

i saw a few driveways that were heated to remove the snow, always thought that was a great idea.

I thought he was old already. You mean that avatar pic is not a sketch of him?

My parents remodeled their house not long ago to make it all one level, good idea.

The HOA keeps the snow removed all the way to your doorstep. And a door to door shuttle to NorthStar and Squaw Valley. Used it a lot last winter.

I'm 55. That's 385 in dog years.

385, man, no wonder you are going grey.


HOA? I think most of the places anywhere near the lake have those.

Didn't you get a V rod, or some other bike not that long ago? Some outstanding places for a scoot in Northern California.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1380810737.jpg
My place in Nevada City. Less than an hour from Tahoe.

Nice Bugs...

BTW, your son never called me...

I have a V-Rod and a Triumph Thruxton. I have a stand-up motorcycle trailer so it's really east hauling the bikes up. GREAT rides in the Sierras.

Dude, that ain't a house.

Reminds me of the loony-tunes cartoon:
"my name is Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht".


Does it come with a matching yachet?

Besides the ankle biter rug rats in diapers grand kid plans, this is exactly our floor plan.......everything is on the main floor.

having lived for 20+ years on 5 acres, I have put in my blood sweat and tears............and a skinned knuckle or two.


Moses your house looks fantastic. I'd curious about new construction costs, about how much a square foot is a "shell" of a house like that.........I know interiors can change that price a LOT (real River rock fireplace and chimney anyone?)

are we talking $100 / $150 / $200 a square foot for that floor plan you've shared?


Everyone.............If you want to live out "in the mountains or country" be ready to own several chainsaws, maybe a Kubota Tractor, and a large riding lawnmower..............it's beautiful to live it, but you're going to have a lot of maintenance work to do too.

Most People dream the life-style, but aren't prepared to put the work into it.

Moses you ROCK. Gotta dream it before you can do it, then it's a whole 'nother level to pull it off and live it for 20 years like I have.

if you want to see a short 2 minute Aerial fly over Video of my 5 acre llama ranch in the Seattle Cascade Mountain Foothills........

We life in, what Moses's plan of a great house plan with master bedroom downstairs and media room / computer / spare rooms up top.............




Gads, I couldn't live in a condo or crowded suburbia after doing living my 5 acre lifestyle for 20 years.

If you want to see my large house, 3000 square foot shop (30ish x 100), a big 4 stall llama barn, and tons-o-trees out in the woods with my closest neighbor's house over 500 feet away............................click here:

https://vimeo.com/74015639


GREAT JOB MOSES DOOD!!!

I wish... Finished project will run $2.75-$2.85 / SF

Love the video of your place!

I need some HVAC advice...

My house will have a central great room that is a big open space. Close to 30' tall. I know heating and cooling open spaces can be tricky and I'll need to use a lot of returns and duct work. My question is about noise...

My current house has a similar open floorplan and when the heater turns on, the thing is WAY too noisy. Is it possible to engineer these things to function more quietly?

My inlaws have a 6000-ish sq ft place that I helped build years ago. They have two HVAC units, both installed in large closets. We insulated the walls and ceiling of both closets and they are pretty quiet. Both are also high efficiency units which probably helps.

One other note, they also have a large foyer, the ceiling is close to 30 ft above the ground floor. My father in law installed a large high efficiency fireplace with forced air blower in the foyer, it easily heats the main floor and upstairs even in the winter. It also adds a fantastic cozy touch that would fit in great in a mountain cabin, and would heat the house in the event of a power outage.

Give very serious thought to passive solar impact. With big windows the Sun can have a significant impact on heating and cooling needs. Especially your roof overhangs, they should shade the windows in the summer when the Sun is high and allow for passive solar gains in the winter when lower in the sky.

Floor radiated heat is pretty quiet, but that won't help with A/C in the summer.

Yes, you can install a central HVAC unit that is quiet. Some of them offer variable fan speeds and are all but silent if installed correctly. Your noisy unit was probably not installed correctly and the ducts may not be sized correctly, or insulated. Talk to a good HVAC company, maybe even one with commercial HVAC experience.

Consider a ceiling fan to move the air in that room.

JR

I started my love of solar in College, where, in the 1980's, we proved it was not economic.

Today is not 1986.

Active Solar for heating/Cooling (yes cooling).

It mostly involves designing a "greenhouse" into the design, which has serious overhangs to prevent direct sun reaching it in the summer. It needs to have reasonably well insulated glass, and not low-e. When the air temp in the greenhouse exceeds the house, it will open vents and circulate air into the house and into a large thermal mass (Usually water or rock). When the temp of the house is below its setpoint, it will circulate air though the thermal mass. At night, the vents to the greenhouse close.

You can use the same system in the summer for cooling. Typically, the greenhouse is opened and cool air at night is circulated to the thermal mass. This assumes you get low enough temps at night.

You can get SOME of the benefits (passive( by adding thermal mass, extra insulation, triple pane windows and the overhangs. We found that by adding about 10% to the cost of a building in thermal mass and insulation, we could reduce the heating/cooling bill substantially. People, appliances and lights would provide most of the heat.

If you do go this route, still have the house ducted for forced air heating/cooling. You need a backup and you will need to ventilate a very tight house. The good thing is you can put air/air heat exchangers on the system and not lose much in the ventilation.

I will also say, that at the price of electricity today and the price of having electricity strung to your house, you might be better off with a full solar system with battery storage and a small generator.

I'll definitely look into passive solar design. The problem may be exposure. The big windows of the living spaces face directly east. The southern exposure is forest. Not a lot of light.

Whole house fan would be nice in the summer.

+1 on two (or more) HVAC systems... back in the day when I installed HVAC we did some big houses behind the gates and that is what we would do. Different zones with different exposures and different activities will need different levels of heating/cooling.

Also back in the day Carrier was the top of the line... but that was decades ago.

If it were me I would also look into the solar thing... being out in th boonies being off the grid as much as possible (IMHO) would be a good thing.

Maybe setup a barn in a sunny part of the property with solar panels and batteries inside, maybe add a windmill and diesel generator (backup) for a whole energy package?

I have three HVAC systems in my house. One for the master bedroom and office wing; one for the living areas; and one for the secondary bedrooms. Other than the click of the thermostat when it goes from off to on, or back off, again, I can not tell the system is on or even hear or feel the air flow for either the AC or heat. If the system is properly designed by a knowledgeable and professional HVAC guy, you shouldn't be able to in your new mountain home. Beautiful home, BTW!