Hi I'm meghan.

I recently graduated college and due to my parents moving across the country(behind my back) and the need to keep a home base in NY for my little sister who just left for college and my older sister who will be returning from 3 years in paraguay next year.. I did this tottaly insane thing, I decided to buy a house.
It seemed like a good idea at the time! better than renting an apartment with others, considering i wouldnt trust most people my age as far as i could throw them, and being a musician I expect to be away from home for long stretches.
If anyone knows housing prices in NY right now, you might be able to imagine what condition a house might have to be in for a college graduate to dream of affording it. (i.e yikes)
It's bad. It's very bad. think new foundation, plumbing, electrical, and all new drywall, flooring ect. On the upside, I am looking forward to being able to gut and renovate the house to make it more green.
I have done lots of research but sometimes trying to figure out what I want to know is like trying to understand independant japanese drama. Are there any websites for people like me?!
specifically I am interested in demand water heaters, sustainable flooring and walls, sustainable insulation, and affordable solar power. If anyone has any advice or any good links I would be super appreciative.


meghan

Hi Meghan, Did you look at the other postings under sustainability? Try reading the one about on demand water heaters.
Re foundations etc there are many ways to go. Here are 2 links you might want to look at-
http://www.toolbase.org/Technology-Inventory/Foundation...ved-aerated-concrete
This stuff is amazing, and can be used to replace/repair sections of already built foundations.

And - http://www.designbasics.com/altcon/altcon-01.asp
an intro to ICF Insualated concrete forms. I think they are wonderful, but don't know if you can use them for repairing/replacing foundations on already built houses.

Good luck with your research. I have found the HGTVPro website to be full of info on new products as well as time tested solutions. Look under the Best Practices and Products categories for things that might interest you.

Finally, I can't stress enough the importance of knowing what you are doing BEFORE tackling a big or critical project yourself. Some things are best left to the professionals. And GET A PERMIT It's designed to protect you from shoddy or dangerous work. Yes it costs money and sometimes delays your completion a couple of days, but an inspector will find things that you'll be happy about later. If you get cable, watch this weeks reruns of Holmes on Homes. Both episodes I saw yesterday were frightening examples of what can happen without proper repairs.

Best wishes REB

If a house has poor bones, (main struture) then there's little since in over repairing, unless you have money to burn.
A poor foundation and a poor roof are good examples. Foundation work is very expancive and really should be done by someone that knows what there doing since your counting on this to support anything above it. If it's done wrong then the walls and ceiling will keep cracking and the floors will never stay level.
If the roofs leaking then anything below it will be distroyed.
If I owned a house in this bad a shape I would be trying to get it fixed enough to sell it when the market came back not trying to green it up and adding a lot of extras that you will not get your money back on.
Sorry about being so blunt but I get to deal with this sort of thing every day and sometimes it's better to cut your losses and move on.