My husband and I are currently "retrofitting" an older farmhouse. Some of the improvements we're making include lots and lots of insulation in the walls. We've also purchased an exterior wood burning furnace and are installing radiant floor heating using the PEX system. The majority of floors needed replacing, so we are using engineered "click lock" hardwood flooring. For any walls that need rebuilding/replacing, we are re-using the existing lumber when possible. For wall covering (once drywall is removed) we've opted for pine carsiding that we are getting from our local amish miller. A couple of beams needed replacing through the length of the house since they were beginning to sag -- so we've contracted the amish miller to replace these with whole logs (they build log homes and pole barns so they are experts at installing these, I am not sure that is something my husband and I could have done on our own). We will leave the logs exposed for aestetics. We are also contracting cabinetry from the amish as well. Some of the walls that were removed had wood paneling -- which we've saved for use in the barns and outbuildings. We also installed metal roofing rather than a shingle roof. The michigan basement will eventually be dried out a bit so we can accomodate a root cellar, we've read a bit about how to do this, but haven't tackled it yet. It's been a lot of work -- and there is still a lot left to do -- but as much as we are committed to renewable energy and going "green" we feel that we should leave as much of the house intact as we can. We'll eventually install solar panels, but that will be one of the last projects. Last year we missed out on some pretty big tax credits -- but we're hopeful the prices might come down a bit. It's definitely an adventure...I can see it coming together and I just wish it would happen sooner. Unfortunately, we both work so this is what we do with our spare time -- it is slow going! So rewarding, though. We will be buying our first chickens in a couple of weeks...! =)
