Wow. Someone mentioned yesterday that I hadn't blogged in a long time. I see now that the last one was in June 2011! I only blog when I have something to say; it's sad to think I had nothing to say for almost nine months. But things happen, one puts stuff aside, and the next thing you know, it's the better part of a year.
We've had our house on the market since November. We've had close to a dozen showings, and that's not bad in this market. It's a unique house: superinsulated and built to look old. The thing people have the hardest time grasping is that you can heat a house in New England, keeping it at about 74 in the winter (yes, we like it warm!) and still pay less than $1,500 a year. (I just discovered this weekend that, if we kept it at 68F, we would've spent only about $1,200 annually the last two years---but I prefer the warmth.) When I built the house almost 26 years ago, I figured that superinsulation would be more common by now, and that when it came time to sell the house, people would be more or less educated about it.
The fact that they aren't explains a lot about our current fuel prices and maybe a bit about our economy. We've had the opportunity for the last forty years to build millions of homes that would've consumed half, maybe a quarter less in fuel per year. We didn't. And "we" means "not I". I spent $700 extra to superinsulate and tighten up our house when it was built, and our first year's heating bill was $250, so the extra cost was paid back in the first year. We knew about this stuff forty years ago! It's not magic: just more insulation, tighter sealing-in, a heat recovery ventilator to provide fresh air (which even conventional homes should have--they're built too tight now not to), passive solar orientation, smaller boilers or furnaces and AC systems. The building industry may be the dumbest industry in terms of selling the public the best product. Automakers have been making ever-more-efficient cars over the decades, but do homebuyers ever ask the contractor of the house they're planning to have built, "Is it possible to spend a little extra to cut my heating bills in half forever?" Of course not. They haven't been informed. But that's not really their job. I know, I know--buyer beware. But how about builder beware--or, rather, be aware--of how you could make a little extra money, build a much better house, improve your reputation, improve the environment, and help reduce the cost of fuel?
I could go on, but the main reason for my ranting today is that I'm trying to sell a house that's still ahead of its time, evidently, 26 years later, and people are wary because they're not sure it actually works. Regardless of your political persuasion, won't you admit that if the government (or anyone) had somehow managed to teach people, back when prices were lower, that they could have better houses and help keep fuel prices from rising significantly, that we'd probably be paying less for fuel now? I hate to think that government mandates would have been a good thing, but I hate more that the building industry--people providing families with the homes they live in and pay for, for God's sake--hasn't embraced this approach. People complain about car salesmen and lawyers--if I'm going to be guilty of generalizing, I'll put contractors at the top of my list.
We've had our house on the market since November. We've had close to a dozen showings, and that's not bad in this market. It's a unique house: superinsulated and built to look old. The thing people have the hardest time grasping is that you can heat a house in New England, keeping it at about 74 in the winter (yes, we like it warm!) and still pay less than $1,500 a year. (I just discovered this weekend that, if we kept it at 68F, we would've spent only about $1,200 annually the last two years---but I prefer the warmth.) When I built the house almost 26 years ago, I figured that superinsulation would be more common by now, and that when it came time to sell the house, people would be more or less educated about it.
The fact that they aren't explains a lot about our current fuel prices and maybe a bit about our economy. We've had the opportunity for the last forty years to build millions of homes that would've consumed half, maybe a quarter less in fuel per year. We didn't. And "we" means "not I". I spent $700 extra to superinsulate and tighten up our house when it was built, and our first year's heating bill was $250, so the extra cost was paid back in the first year. We knew about this stuff forty years ago! It's not magic: just more insulation, tighter sealing-in, a heat recovery ventilator to provide fresh air (which even conventional homes should have--they're built too tight now not to), passive solar orientation, smaller boilers or furnaces and AC systems. The building industry may be the dumbest industry in terms of selling the public the best product. Automakers have been making ever-more-efficient cars over the decades, but do homebuyers ever ask the contractor of the house they're planning to have built, "Is it possible to spend a little extra to cut my heating bills in half forever?" Of course not. They haven't been informed. But that's not really their job. I know, I know--buyer beware. But how about builder beware--or, rather, be aware--of how you could make a little extra money, build a much better house, improve your reputation, improve the environment, and help reduce the cost of fuel?
I could go on, but the main reason for my ranting today is that I'm trying to sell a house that's still ahead of its time, evidently, 26 years later, and people are wary because they're not sure it actually works. Regardless of your political persuasion, won't you admit that if the government (or anyone) had somehow managed to teach people, back when prices were lower, that they could have better houses and help keep fuel prices from rising significantly, that we'd probably be paying less for fuel now? I hate to think that government mandates would have been a good thing, but I hate more that the building industry--people providing families with the homes they live in and pay for, for God's sake--hasn't embraced this approach. People complain about car salesmen and lawyers--if I'm going to be guilty of generalizing, I'll put contractors at the top of my list.
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