anyone else rightsizing?

it may be good time to buy, but it's not a very good time to sell.

 

My house is very modest in size. When we moved in, I had the walls insulated, had a horrible furnace replaced with a high-efficiency one, added insulation to the attic and weatherstripped around doors and windows.

I'll probably have the siding yanked off before I retire and have some insulation installed and vinyl siding. I'm getting a little too old to paint a two-story house.

It might be fun to design and build a super-energy efficient, "right-sized" house after I retire, but I probably should hang on to the nest egg I've got, since that is of modest size, too.

Harry

 

PLease don't even mention the state of the housing market (I'm a realtor). Purchasing the Prius was a step in our right sizing. I used to drive around a 2500 4x4 diesel truck. Although this was the vehicle I always wanted to own (kind of a status symbol to own the biggest loudest thing on 4 wheels) I quickly realized 12mpg @ $3.59 was not only bad for my pocket but horrible for the future habitat of my children, inpracticle and just plain stupid. In my career things like public image and status symbols seam to portait succes and wealth. I on the other hand, have come to the conclusion that, people who own these status symbols (yes myself included) are just mindless and make decisions based on what other people will think of them not what they really believe.

Thank goodness I finally saw the light.

 

[/b][/quote]
too bad it took you all so much time and energy to see that light...god

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lefat1 @ Nov 21 2007, 12:08 PM) [snapback]542447[/snapback]</div>

I could not agree more

 

I retrofitted our 2300 sq ft tract home 18 years ago. The Energy Efficiency Index is 1.0 (utility bills less than $30 per month year round). Triple pane windows, double dual pane sliding glass doors, insulated garage, ceramic tile floor, CF lights, caulking every crack, 60-year tile roof. Genetically-prostrate native landscaping (little or no irrigation or pruning). You can throw the money out the window every month or put the money into a more efficient window one time. I've extended the life of the house and increased the value.

While downsizing is an excellent goal, making existing structures more energy efficient goes a long way toward sustainability. It is not enough to go smaller. Quality is a major factor in sustainability and decreasing our carbon footprint. Besides having very low utility costs, we happily model what we teach.

We generate almost no refuse. Any discards such and paper and cans are recycled. We have a large companion planted organic garden (eat locally). We bring home cans, bottles and paper from work for recycling.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(skruse @ Nov 21 2007, 12:45 PM) [snapback]542473[/snapback]</div>

Incredible why didn't I think of this sooner..@ home I recycle but I have never realized how much stuff I throw away at work.. Ha, this is why I love chatting with all of you

 

Ha. I feel your pain on the RE market. Glad to see that you're thinking about things in a different way now. It's appreciated. I'll occasionally nick cans and plastic bottles out of file 13 if no ones looking. It's sorta gross but the waste really pisses me off. It's my OCD thing I suppose. Well, I gotta watch Wopner....

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Nov 21 2007, 03:37 PM) [snapback]542558[/snapback]</div>

Same thing bothers me at the gym. Everyone there goes disposable, exceptin' me of course.

So far as work recyclables, I've a box with all discarded office paper and any other recyclables and bring it home to be recycled when full. All office paper is reused before it gets recycled. Drives my sis nuts but I don't encounter much of a problem discerning which side of the paper contains the current/useful data.

 

wife and I rightsized when we bought our 3k sqft house 13 yrs ago. Perfect size! Great garage for our toys. Too bad the boat doesn't fit inside. Time to extend the garage!

 

You dont have to downsize. You need to increase efficiency, recycle, and find new sources for resources

 

The notion of downsizing is fatally flawed if it means more and more consumerism aimed at unloading what you already own in pursuit of something smaller but shinier. For the most part, producing big ticket items like automobiles and houses uses just as many natural resources whether the item is reduced-size or full-size, especially when the recycle rate is low. So that approach alone accomplishes little. As a nation, we would be wise to invest in and offer incentives to improve what we already have, especially for houses and vehicles.

As examples, make recycling of as many goods as reasonable mandatory across the nation. And/or, conversely, create large penalties for adding to or opening additional landfills, especially in bodies of water. Create large tax incentives for recycling companies, thereby fostering competition and efficiency. Give people large (even very large) tax incentives to convert electric, oil, and gas furnaces and AC units over to a combination of geo-thermal, solar, or other environmentally-sound HVAC. Give more large incentives to replace old water heater tanks with the tankless instant-on type. Make the entire cost of fluorescent and LED household bulbs tax deductible. Change Federal tax law so that individuals can deduct these items from their taxes with a few line items without having to itemize. Eliminate CAFE and give all automobile manufacturers (foreign and domestic) big tax incentives based on a simple formula weighted to account for average fuel efficiency of each model's sales total for a given tax year. No loopholes. No E85 40mpg-equivalent full-size truck calculations or similar nonsense. This avoids Draconian alternatives like a national fuel tax by making it more and more profitable for automobile manufacturers to sell more and more smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles (and effectively discourages them from producing large gas guzzlers). I would also give very large tax incentives for companies to develop hybrid drivetrains for retrofit into existing vehicles. To keep things honest, simple language in the law would tie the tax incentives directly to how many pre-existing, registered vehicles that a company retrofitted in a given tax year. On the flip side, I would give individuals strong tax incentives to retrofit their existing vehicle(s).

Agree or not, those are just a few ideas off the top of my head that might be used to end our dependency on foreign oil, hopefully prevent endangering our soldiers, and save trillions of dollars lost to wars over oil.

<steps off soapbox, slinks away>

 

I do not believe that is enough. With an ever expanding population a reduction of consumption will be the single most important factor in ataining a sustainable future. Sure increasing efficiency and new resource utilization is important but if consumption or population does not decrease as well then we will be no better off. Technology will not solve our problems until we change our values.

 

Rightsizing sounds like a change in priority. There is probably a better word that applies to the situation below.

House priorities 10 years ago:
1) Space and bedrooms for kids
2) Location for schools and location to parents
3) Safety (i.e. far from high crime rate areas)
4) Pool (mixed feelings about that, but very extensively use by kids so OK decision)
5) Nicely covered by Oak Trees

House priorities now:
1) Solar Panel exposure setup
2) Hurricane evacuation zoning
3) Energy efficiency
4) Minimum maintenance (NO pool and NO unused space)
5) Still thinking of what is needed for minimum energy use AND higher quality of life.

Most of these changes are due to education, not changes of heart. There is still a lot to learn about house designs that use less consumables and inprove quality of life. One key example is that one really big room is much better than seperate family, living, and dining rooms....even though total space is significantly less. I'm still working on others.

 

Sorry but we have an neverending pool of resources in space on the Moon, Mars and in the solar system

You are right about that as long as we only depend on 1 planet we have to reduce consumption

But its a lot smarter and more realistic to acquire new sources

The alternative is never ending war, genocide, and the death of billions

 

Downsizing

In 1989, we downsized from a 2-story 3500 sq ft home to a 1900 sq ft ONE story home, and I retired in 1990. Wow! its one of the best decisions we have ever made. Climbing stairs ain't so great for a 74 yr old guy (me) now, ESPECIALLY, when I fractured my ankle in 2k5. After we downsized, it seemed all utilities went up and UP. Also, upkeep outside was reduced almost 100% since we do not have a pool. Having a single story is virtually a necessity, if one has heart problems. No stairs to climb really saves the heart. Its great to have the g-kids come, but with a smaller house, only one g-family can come at a time. There are so many more pros than cons, and not enuff space here to enumerate. Just believe us !!!

 

I disagree.

If you buy an existing smaller home, you're not consuming for new shiney.

Even if you do build a new, smaller home, chances are it will be highly efficient and in the building can be very green and friendly. Someone will buy the previous home so that is not being wasted. And new homes are being built, so a new smaller, efficient home with an emphasis on green building is better than building a new, bigger MacMansion.

Or maybe you think people should raze their existing palaces and live in recyclable cardboard boxes?

 

Resources with current design philosophy and economic models is a recipe for disaster. Seeking new resources before we learn how to manage the ones we have is the wrong way to go IMO not to mention much more risky and non-resilient. You know what happens to every species that overspecializes right? lol

 

We've had 10,000 years to learn to manage our resources and wer'e just not that good at it

This is why I think that tapping into an unending supply is best

We could never use all the resources in just our single solar system

There is 1 asteroid that has more fresh water than our whole planet

 

Tell me, how do you plan on cycling these resources after use and dealing with entropy? All this extra energy and resource waste must be accounted for.

The asteroid was actually pretty funny.