First of all i have to point out that i know nothing about house construction, if any of you look back into the blog to when we sold our house in UK you will also note that i am no expert at DIY either.
So having said that....................
We were driving around Raymond this afternoon and noticed that a lot of new houses were going up on the south side of town. Now practically all houses round here are of wooden construction not of bricks and mortar which can be a little unsettling to most Europeans.............
Remember the story about the three little pigs ?
Okay first of all the design..................
Okay first of all the design..................
Back in UK you tend to have a ground floor and a first floor,with a set of stairs that separates the two. Over here, our house for example, is on half levels.
What i mean is we have got 3 bedrooms upstairs, you come down half a staircase and you have the main lounge, dining room and the kitchen, you go down 7 more steps and you have the second lounge, utility room and door to the double garage. Then you go down another 7 steps and you have the games room and 2 separate basements, it sounds strange but it works great.
The house feels very solid and no different to the ones in UK except its a lot bigger. The pics im sharing with you are houses in various stages of construction and ive also shown you the insulation stuff they put on them and the chipboard they are made out of. I have also included pics of our furnace (central heating) system and water boiler.
Hope you also like the Raymond Sunset.........................
Coz "Everybody Loves Raymond".
Is that forced hot air? That's what I have here in Iowa. When I lived in New Hampshire baseboard hot water radient heat was the norm and if I build in the future that's what we will be putting in. very comfortable. Also during heating season your hot water is essentialy free since boiler is on for the heat anyway.I think most people here like wood because you can work on it yourself. nothing like the fear in your wifes face when you take the sawzall to the side of the house for a new window or something. I suggest you start stocking up on manly power tools because you never know...
ReplyDeleteyes its forced air, dont really know too much abou it but it seems okay and cheap to run, back in UK were used to being able to adjust temps in individual romms, not so good over here.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what the other radiant thingy is though.
In UK the most common form of central heating was having radiators in each room and pumping hot water through them. Proberbly similar to your New Hampshire system.
I think the wife would be okay with the windows but the landlord may have something to say .........
By the way im in Des Moines again on Monday night so if my return load takes me further east towards Toronto then i should be passing by Iowa City sometime Tuesday.