/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.306265]

I've come into some money recently and I want a good life. I live in a northern state, so it's cold for half the year. I'm going to be building my house from scratch on my newly purchased 10 acre lot.

What are some material things that will improve the quality of life? Bonus points for DIY
(pic is from a greenhouse project last year)

[Anonymous No.306284]

This.

[Anonymous No.306285]

>radiant subfloor heating for the entire house
I just re-did my bathroom and installed an electric type system under the tile, and it is fucking glorious.
The best way to do it is to run a hot water type system when you build. This also allows you to run the piping under the driveway, and outdoor walkways. so less or no shoveling in the winter time.
If you have some property, I would also recomend a small tractor system such as a kabota, that allows for a mowing deck, and also has a backhoe and front bucket at the very least.

[Anonymous No.306314]

>>306285
thisthisthis
We've got the hot water type, it's fantastic. Beats forced-air by miles.

[Anonymous No.306321]

Not really something I know a lot about, but I ran into this a while back:

http://www.norishouse.com/PAHS/UmbrellaHouse.html

Claims to allow consistent temperature year round at a temperature that is livable without special arrangements.

[Anonymous No.306552]

How much did you pay for 10acres op?

[Anonymous No.306580]

>>306265
>What are some material things that will improve the quality of life?

Backup power/heat sources:

3-fuel generator (propane, gasoline, methane/natural gas).
Solar/wind + batteries.
Passive solar thermosiphon water heater.
Passive solar air heater.
Gas and electric space heaters.
In-floor radiant heating (the liquid kind!)
Wood stove with a flat top (you can cook and heat at the same time)

Sky lights every where!
Wrap around porch with roof.
Pond
Large walk-in pantry for food storage/kitchen equipment
Walk-in clothing closets
Bathroom each floor if you have multiple floors
His and Hers restrooms (this sort of thing can save a relationship, mark my words)
Fireman's pole (if you have more than one story on your house)
Fireplace with properly designed heat venting in the mantel section (the bigger the hearth the better, one that extends out 3 feet will be perfect, trust me)
Water access over your stove (see pic) this is not a luxury and you'll understand why if you've ever cooked much and used one
Outdoor water spigots in several sections around your house/greenhouse/garden/etc (the kind that the water falls into the ground once it shuts off to prevent freezing problems)

continued....

[Anonymous No.306581]

>>306580
Tips:

Leap frog the breakers for your electrical outlets. Have half the electrical outlets in one room be on one breaker and the other half be on another breaker. Then every other one will be on the opposite breaker from the one next to it. This way, when you are doing something and a break flips you can plug your devices into the next breaker over and finish the job without pause.

Pex is SUPER EASY to install, but copper piping is the best thing you'll ever install for domestic water. Pex can have problems with algae buildup inside the lines.

Island-based kitchens are better than wall-counter-only kitchens in regards to flow and use. If you have a wall sink, always put it on the outside wall with a big window above it. If you have cabinets over a counter, make sure you have nice lighting under them to shine on the counter tops. Small lights in all your under-counter cabinets that turn on when you open the doors are priceless!

Design the house so it sits well in relation to the sun and local wind conditions. Try to research ways to design and utilize the house in both heating and cooling passively during winter and summer months. You can VASTLY increase or decrease your heating and cooling bills by simple changes in design. Regardless, always give every room the ability to easily have a cross breeze of fresh air.

[Anonymous No.306582]

>>306580
>Water access over your stove (see pic)

Evil capcthas. Here's the pic.

[Anonymous No.306591]

>>306580
>>306582
Totally unnecessary.

[Anonymous No.306600]

>>306591
I'm certain you're saying that to be edgy. Either that you have never used one nor cook very much. This is very obvious.

[Anonymous No.306609]

get very high R-value windows with good glazing

My cousin replaced the single pane windows on his house, and they should save $1000 (40%) on their heating bill this year

[Anonymous No.306615]

>>306609
Seconding this. Even the 3 and 4 pane windows may be worth it depending on how far north the OP lives and how cold the winters are. They are really expensive upfront but the savings for colder areas is massive.

Extra insulation all around is a good idea. More in the attic always helps. If the OP is building a small place, it might actually be prudent to use 2x6s for wall studs and fill it in with extra insulation. But, as I said, it really depends on how cold the winters are there.

[Anonymous No.306640]

>>306265
Buy some tropical plants for that green house, OP. Be the only guy for miles with fresh papaya.

[Anonymous No.306653]

>>306640
I agree!

I was going to build a greenhouse this year so I bought a hardy banana plant and started 3 pineapple plants. Turns out I need to wait until next year to build the greenhouse. Now the banana plant has sent up a second banana plant on the side and the pineapple plants have turned into 4 plants in a similar manner.

It is extremely rare to find an actual yellow-ripe pineapple around here. I've only seen a few about 30 years ago. Now they are all green. But, the cool thing is, you can take the green ones and turn the tops into your own pineapple plant!

[Anonymous No.306690]

>>306653

Dat fruit-salad tree ;)

[Anonymous No.306692]

>>306690
>fruit-salad

Yeessss, those are awesome, just remember that ones with bananas are actually photoshoped. lol The rest are legit.

[Anonymous No.306730]

>>306653
Advice on banana trees: don't let the plant have more than one or two side-trees. They already need a ton of nutrients, don't let the side stalks take away from the main plant. The plant will put all its energy into those when you cut the main one down after harvest anyway.

[Anonymous No.306732]

>>306600
I own a catering business and cook often. Your contraption is frivolous and unnecessary. You are a cocksucker. This is very obvious.

[Anonymous No.306733]

>>306653
>>306730
Same thing with the pineapples. Don't let the plant split its resources up too much.

Also, banana flowers are edible and the leaves are good for cooking fish in.

[Anonymous No.306734]

>>306600
Have to agree with this guy:
>>306732

You should stop sucking cocks.

[Anonymous No.306736]

>>306730
>>306733
Noted. I planned on separating the pineapples anyway once they reached a proper size. Right now I just want to increase the number of plants and I'm not worried about the fruit. They have a long ways to go anyway.

[Anonymous No.306741]

>>306736
There's a book I just bought called "Growing Tasty Tropical Plants" that has a lot of info on tropical fruit trees and spices. Tells you how to grow your own coffee and make your own chocolate. I'd recommend that if you're looking into getting a variety of stuff.

[Anonymous No.306766]

>>306732
>>306734
Samefag Trolling

Very obvious. GB2/b/

[Anonymous No.306768]

>>306741
lol Love that title. Thanks.

[Anonymous No.306832]

>>306766
Sorry, foo'. It is frivolous and unneccessary. Useful, sure, but hardly necessary. If you can't walk, the, what? Five feet you might typically find between a stove top, and a sink to get water, you're a lazy asshole and should stfu.

[Anonymous No.306919]

>>306832
I can food and have 40-60 quart canners that need to be filled at the sink and moved to the stove or placed on the stove and ferry water over. But, I have a overhead faucet over the stove so I just fill there without any trouble at all. It isn't just canning either. It turns out to be a lot of things from filling carboys to filling stock pots.

[Anonymous No.307744]

install geothermal op

[Anonymous No.307785]

Timberframe FTW.

Pic Related. Its pretty much the ultimate DIY project. Many great books and forums about the construction method. I love it.

[Anonymous No.307864]

Banana circles will outperform individuals. Mollison mentioned up to sixty times yield in the PDC DVDs using high organic matter/compost on the circles.

http://www.mitra.biz/joomla/index.php/writingssustainability/3050-howtobananacircle

[Anonymous No.307867]

The umbrella house seems like a crappy version of an earthship.

http://www.earthship.com/

These also use radiant heat, but do it passively. No need to heat and pump water around.

[Anonymous No.307869]

>>307864
>http://www.mitra.biz/joomla/index.php/writingssustainability/3050-howtobananacircle
This would be really awesome if my greenhouse could accommodate that size. Nice post.

[Anonymous No.307870]

>>307867
If you do some digging you'll find that all earthships that are over 1 year old and outside the desert are all mold-covered and look like they've already gone through the apocalypse. I wanted to build one too, but it seems they're a scam. I tried to contact them on fb to see if they had newer models to accommodate humidity and they ignored me.

[Anonymous No.307872]

>>306284
How would you make it so that the air vents properly and doesn't get stuck in the globe?

[Anonymous No.307874]

>>306265
Could you provide plans for that sexy greenhouse? I'm planning on making one myself and your design is pretty nice.

[Anonymous No.307882]

>>307870
look at earthbag structures. Similar look, with portland cement, but no vapor barrier problems.
I was kind of wondering, it looked like they just kind of looped the barrier from the bottom to the top, rather than all the way around...
For some climates, or the possibility of heavy rains getting in nooks and festering is really horrifying.
Cordwood with an overhang is also a great method that lasts for eons.
relevant links
http://www.dreamgreenhomes.com/materials/earth/earthbags.htm
http://earthbagplans.wordpress.com/
Hint op, make your own design, and live in a trailer till you can do it yourself or just get a contractor and some guys to help you finish the big heavy shit you can't do on your own. (pouring a foundation/electric work).
If you do a good bit of it on your own, you can get away with paying like 50k for a 200k home, or whatever. Kind of like how steaks at wallyworld sell for 7bucks a pop, and big mac combos are around 7..
Other misc. cool features
>hidden walk in guns safe/valuables safe
>solar hot water

Also op, don't fool with using batteries if you can do on grid, just get enough batteries to get you overnight, no need to waste it when you can de facto use the grid as a battery anyways.

[Anonymous No.307887]

>>307882
>http://www.dreamgreenhomes.com/materials/earth/earthbags.htm
I don't know if these are legit, but they're certainly more reasonably-priced than the earthship plans.

[Anonymous No.307891]

there's a book called the $50 and up underground house on mediafire.
It may be of interest to you.

[Anonymous No.307915]

>>307867
I'm the guy who posted the link. I don't know how well it would work, as I said but...
Did you even read the fucking thing? There was no pumping involved.

[Anonymous No.307952]

>>306265
People and experiences improve the quality of life, not your house. When people are on their death-bed, no one ever says "I wish I had an island kitchen", they wish they saw Europe, raced a car, sailed a boat... *did* something.

A house doesn't help you live a fulfilling life. The real-estate reality television shows feature people who believe "If I get a big kitchen, I would entertain and all my friends will come over". One women went so far as to say she would learn to play the piano if only she had a music room. Stupid! They don't need a big kitchen or a music room - people in bachelor apartments host parties and practice playing instruments. The house is irrelevant.

More often, the house is a hindrance to a fulfilling live because people put all their time and money into their house, instead of using that time and money to live life! Some people argue that, if they spend money on a vacation they have nothing of value when it's over, but those people are wrong. You have memories and knowledge. I spent a month living with a family in Japan, and the memories and knowledge gained from that experience is worth more than a lifetime of warm feet from radiant subfloor heating. If travel is not your thing, then build a hot-rod, build a sail-boat, learn to ride a motorcycle... something.

OP, you need a house, but just build the basic necessities. Save some of your money for other things.

[Anonymous No.308724]

Aquaponics for a nice clean healthy eating for the family

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.503874466306993.128082.175752389119204&type=1

[Anonymous No.308727]

"DIY is just a way to take jobs out of the economy. So thanks for contributing to the crisis, assholes." ;P

A woodburning centralheating system with at least a 3000 liter insulated 85 degrees celsius hotwater storage vessel. That's what we made and even when it's freezing we only need to fire it up once every 3 days!

[Anonymous No.309172]

>>307891
>Look up book
>Read first page
>Rant, rant, rave, rant, rant, rave, rave, rant.

Is this guy like this through the whole fucking book?
I read reviews that said he littered his personal opinion all over the book, but I thought it would be a tolerable amount.

The first page is like some angsty teenager's angry essay written trying to be as offensive as possible.

[Anonymous No.309202]

>>309172
A lot of some construction/building books have an introduction that is a bit pissy. Not all of them are like that of course. I've not read the book you are referring to.

[Anonymous No.309241]

>>309172
I actually HAVE read that book, and I don't think it's very useful at all. The entire book can be summed up as:

- wrap posts in polyethelene before burying
- place boards, sheet in polyethelene
- build an uphill patio for drainage
- essentially be kind of a shitty carpenter, but do it anyways and enjoy living in your leaky shack with terrible dimensions where nothing is square.

Also, since he wrote this shit in like 1970 none of the pricing info even applies. Shit is way WAY more expensive now.

[Anonymous No.309321]

>>309241
>putting pricing in a book

I lol every time I see this done in any book.

[Anonymous No.309331]

>>309241
It does also have the benefit of people who read it not thinking they have to dig a massive hole (which is very dangerous) to build an underground house, though this shouldn't warrant an entire book.

[Anonymous No.309335]

>>309241

I also have this book, and while the ranting is a bit much and the designs are pretty crude, it has given me some interesting ideas to work with.

I plan on building something similar, but plan on sinking the pylons in concrete instead of shitty polyethylene bags. And using rubber roof for the roof and outside walls. Basically more of a low profile slightly above ground earth sheltered type of building.

His stance on drainage is solid. Having lived in houses with poor drainage and having pumps die and basements flood... well, I'll feel a lot better building something somewhat underground that can gravity drain and not have to worry about flooding.

Anyway, if you're planning on building underground it's worth a read at least.

[Anonymous No.309337]

Wow... I left this 5 days ago and didn't expect it to be here...
>>306552
Paid 40k for the 10 acres
>>307874
PVC "pole" every 4 feet. My 20 foot has 12 poles. On the sides they are in the ground, but continue up about 5 feet... try to get about 3 feet deep at least, more if nothing else is blocking your wind. On the top I ran a 20 foot pvc (actually 2 tens conntected) in an arch to connect to the top... which makes it 5 on the sides, and about 9 at the peak(actual width is closer to 12 feet). I sealed the connectors with this blue pvc glue. The door is just screwed in there as shown ( well, I have a hinged door with a padlock )... Take a thick (1.5-2 inch) pvc down the center up above the arch and screw down, also ducktaped just cause... this will make sure the plastic holds up between the arches. Plastic I used was 6 mil, thickest bulk plastic I found... it lasted about 3 months before it tore and once it tears, it's gone... only thing that slows down the tearing is the tape that holds the different pieces together (I made 1 solid sheet out of 3 pieces) I later ran tape in crisscross to slow tearing. Total cost was under $200, probably would be less for a second time.
>>307952
So... like a dish washer doesn't save you time and allows you to make more experiences you enjoy?

[Anonymous No.309548]

>>309335
>>309241
I skimmed through the book and it looks like he had some neat ideas but not really what I'm looking for since it's basically an emergency shelter/hippie hole.
I don't particularly care about being super hidden from everyone and off the grid, which he seems to have a huge boner for.

The PAHS stuff posted earlier is pretty interesting, and that may end up being a style I pursue. I'll look into more recently written underground housing books.

[Anonymous No.309563]

>>309331
The way you word this confuses me a bit.

1: to make an underground building you do need to big a massive hole and have the sides of this hole be sloped/angled to around 45 degrees to prevent walls from collapsing
2: I can't tell if that is what you are saying or not.

[Anonymous No.309688]

Tiny Houses / Yurts / Wofati / Earth Berm / Earthbags / Earthships / Cob / Adobe / Strawbale / Compressed Earth Bricks / Stabilized Earth Bricks / Rammed Earth Houses

Buried Air Tubes / Wind Chimney / Cross Ventilation / Solar Collectors

Methane Biodigester for cooking fuel
Wood stove or Rocket Mass Stove / Heater
Wood Gasification / Water Electrolysis
Jatropha Nut / Algae / Cane Sugar / Corn/ Soy for Bio Diesel

Wind Turbines / PV Cells / Water Turbines & a Bank of Deep-Cycle Batteries with a generator for back up (maybe one that runs on your bio-diesel)

Composting Toilet / Heating with a Compost Pile / Rolling Compost Bin / Worm Compost

Rain Water Harvesting / Reusing Greywater

Aquaculture/Hydroponics
Swales / Food Forests / Raised Garden Beds

Pressure Canning / Food Dehydrator
Root Cellar / Greenhouse

Alternatively powered versions of tools & appliances
http://www.simplyprepared.com/alternatives_to_electrical_appliances_and_tools.htm

of course you could use reclaimed materials
and do most of these things yourself save a bit.
Which reminds me if you're able to grow some
bamboo there you could make a whole lotta
things out that.

[Anonymous No.309780]

>>309688
This post is like Mother Earth News came over and shat in the thread. I like it.

[Anonymous No.309947]

>>309548

I've read a lot of the other underground house books and from what I can tell, most of the other designs are just variations of concrete shells covered in dirt.

I have a stack of underground housing books around here somewhere. I can dig em out and dust off a few if anybody is interested.

[Anonymous No.309969]

>>309563
If I remember the book correctly, most of it is more about covered buildings rather than actual underground buildings. Actual underground building are far more complicated and dangerous than most people like to believe, in both the building and living stages. A covered building is far far less likely to result in someone killing themselves.

[Anonymous No.310049]

>>309947
>http://www.norishouse.com/PAHS/UmbrellaHouse.html

>I can dig em out
>dig em
>underground house book

lel