Becoming a steward of your property

I've been thinking a lot lately about the idea that we not only own our property, but are, in fact, stewards of this piece of land.  We are the second owners of this house and property and plan to be here for a long time, but our lives are finite.  I'm not saying I'm going to kick the bucket tomorrow, but someday we might decide to move on and sell this property to someone else.  Most people talk about that in terms of resale value.  Am I doing things that someone else will like?  Usually you don't want to do something like remove a bathtub and replace it with a shower because the next owners might have kids and want a tub.  Those ideas are valid, but that's not what I'm talking about here.  

I'm talking about making the right decision now even if you won't see all of the benefits right away, or ever.  If you make the right decision on something now, the next people that own the house won't have to.  It is quite literally the opposite of kicking the can down the road.  Sometimes we hear the words, "the next person can deal with it."  The problem with that argument is that the next person is probably my kid, or someone else's kid.  Or, in extreme cases, my kid's kid.  Wow, that was a lot of kids... 

Anyway, my point is that I was taught to pick up the trash in the hallway and not walk past it for the next person to deal with.  We think that, if we possibly can, we should make the more sustainable choice on the small stuff and the big stuff.  You will likely see some benefits now, but there will probably be long term benefits for someone else.  In fact, maybe that's your resale value.  You've done all of these things that benefit the next buyer.  Perhaps you can command a higher price because your house is "Zero Energy Ready"; because every time something in your house needed replacing, you made the most efficient, low energy decision.  You might not be able to afford solar panels while you are living there, but maybe that's the contribution the next person can make to the property. 

I'll give one example:  We bought our house for the blueberries... The previous owners planted about 50 blueberry bushes.  It likely took 20 - 30 years (possibly longer we aren't sure) for the bushes to grow to their current size.  They probably got plenty of benefit (in the form of blueberry harvest) while they were living here, but we, as the next owners, also get that harvest! (About 130 pounds this summer...)  It really was a big selling point for us.  The house on the other hand was... rough.  There were lots of bad decisions made for the longevity of the house.  We are trying to be better and make good decisions going forward, i.e. upgrade the electrical service, convert the heating system to electric, fully insulate the walls.  It isn't easy, but we'll get there.

-Nate

P.S.  For your enjoyment, here are some of the decisions we or the previous owners have made for our home with an eye on stewardship.

In addition to blueberry bushes, the previous owners also planted apple and pear trees.  We aren't the only ones that benefit from that decision.

Old electrical panel with our home inspector's understated comment...

He also said, "I've never seen one like this before." He has been doing this for 30+ years.

New electric panel with plenty of room for future expansion.  

It also has a 50amp circuit for:

New Chargepoint car charging port.

The blueberries... 1/4 of the daily harvest in July.

Turkeys among the blueberry bushes

The best time to insulate

Continuing on our series about timing, we thought it would be best to start at the beginning. Insulating your house depends a bit on what you already have.  Our house had 1.5 inches of foil faced fiberglass batt insulation in the exterior walls.  Restated, we had almost no insulation in our house...  The best time to insulate a house like that is, as soon as possible.  I would also say, the best time to insulate your attic is as soon as possible.  Heat rises, and it will rise right out of your house without a properly insulated attic space. 

Let’s say however, that your house is pretty well insulated, meaning that the exterior walls are fully filled and the attic is perfect.  If you plan to replace the siding on your house, this would be a good time to add some continuous exterior insulation.  Think of it like wearing a sweater in the winter (normal insulation), but then you go outside and realize that a big puffy winter coat would really be a great addition.  This is what I’m talking about.  Wrapping your house with a layer of insulation is like putting on a winter jacket.  It helps bridge all of the gaps between the buttons, or in this case, the wall studs.  I’ve put together a fairly standard detail drawing of how this might work.  If you are talking to a contractor about this kind of work, show it to them and tell them you are interested in continuous insulation.  It will add money to your project, but the benefit will be noticeable in the winter when your heating bill goes down.

There are some options here in terms of types of insulation and there is an opportunity to make a better decision. When we talk about insulation "in" the walls, cellulose is, by far, the best. It doesn't have the highest R-value, but it is easy to retrofit an existing home, it's made from recycled paper, and, most importantly, it can dry if it gets wet. (walls are prone to develop moisture either from temperature changes, or the fact that you breathe inside your house... and your breath contains moisture.) Foam insulation is not ideal. It contains lots of harmful chemicals and tends to shrink over time, negating the effort now. That said, there are some very difficult areas to insulate, so this might be the right solution given the circumstance.

Exterior insulation is a little different. There are a couple of options, but usually you want to go with a rigid board type of insulation. Mineral wool, or a wood fiberboard are good alternatives (see below for links) They are good at wicking moisture, and they are good insulators.

There are other ways, and if you are interested, feel free to reach out and we can talk about some other alternatives. They are just a little too complicated to explain here.

Sometimes there are government programs that can help you to pay for a project like insulating your house.  A quick google search will probably help you determine if there is a program near you.  In our case, we live in a town that uses National Grid (local utility), so the Mass Save program helped us.  They paid for 75% of our insulation project, bringing our total out of pocket cost from $7,500 down to $1,200.

Mineral wool: https://www.rockwool.com/north-america/products-and-applications/products/comfortboard-80/

Wood fiber board: https://gutex.de/en/product-range/products/walls/

(this product comes from Germany, so it is likely more expensive due to shipping etc.)

Our own insulation project:

Holes in the exterior where they "blew in" cellulose insulation.

Fiberglass insulation (pink) between the floor joists in the basement.

Spray foam (yellow) sealing the joint between the wood framing and the foundation.

Ways to Make Your Home More Environmentally Friendly: Intro

House projects can be daunting and, if you don’t have a frame of reference for it, you might have a hard time deciding where to start on a project, or even which project to start with.  Even for us that was a challenge.  It occurred to me that there is a very rational way to look at this problem.  There is an order in which home updates can and probably should happen.

Sometimes it's easy to prioritize a particular project and know exactly when to do it.  In the case of our moldy carpet, we decided to immediately rip it out, but then paused and decided what the best replacement would be.  We waited 2 months, did some research and saved some money, then bought what we felt was the most sustainable flooring we could.  The flooring is sustainable in several ways.  It is going to last a long time, the material itself is renewable and it was purchased through a company that puts environmental concerns first.  It was not the most expensive thing we could buy, nor the cheapest.  We also tried to make a good decision about the way we installed the floor, knowing that buying a little more up front would allow us to have a seamless transition down our hallway to the bedrooms.  We know that this flooring will not need to be removed until it has completely worn out (hopefully a long time).  My goal in talking about this is to show that even in a crisis, it is important to stop and think long term about your project.

Sometimes however, it isn't so easy. Those reasons can be wide ranging from financial hardship to a lack of time to do it.

So, over the next few weeks, we are going to explore this topic of when and why to do projects, as well as some suggestions on how to make your decisions as sustainable as possible. In the meantime, here is the final result of the flooring project!