After paying for two home designs, with one turned down and one approved by the local historic commission, I ultimately decided not to build a new house, mostly for financial reasons. Instead, I am renovating my existing cottage and adding a small office, a storage area, and a screened porch (an excellent feature in the South).

The financial reason that I’m not building a new house is that I’m unable to obtain a mortgage for construction. It has been a while since I applied for one and, apparently, you now need not only a pulse, but you actually have to show that you earn enough money to make all the payments. I’m self-employed, and while I have what feels like a very comfortable lifestyle, the banks didn’t like my position enough to lend me the money.

Holding the conditioned area to 800 square feet

So, looking at my options, I came to the conclusion that fixing up my existing house made the most sense. It is small (750 square feet), but having lived in it for almost eight years now, I realize that I don’t really need much more space, nor do I need to increase my debt at this point in my life.

My goal is to keep the house small enough that it could be the accessory building for a future new house in the front of the property. This required me to keep the conditioned space to a maximum of 800 square feet, although I will be able to add unconditioned storage and porches. I did consider making it larger, but I didn’t want to limit the opportunities for the property, either for myself or a future owner.

The plan is fairly simple: an office and storage room will be added at the back, the kitchen and bathroom will be renovated in place, and a porch will provide very useful year round unconditioned living space and shade the west-facing kitchen windows.

Zip sheathing, Home Slicker, asphalt shingles, and minisplits

I was looking forward to trying some new/old techniques on the new house I was planning to build, including using no spray polyurethane foam (SPF) insulation. I also wanted to use mineral fiber exterior sheathing, metal roofing, and minisplit HVAC. But since I installed SPF on the roofline and floor of my house many years ago, it doesn’t make sense to change products or the thermal envelope location for this project.

I would like to install a thermal break on the walls, but since my size constraints are so tight and since local authorities measure a building to the outside of the exterior wall finish, I am forgoing any added exterior insulation on the few new exterior walls I am building.

The historic district board turned down my request for metal roofing on the new house, and having recently replaced the roof with fiberglass shingles, I will be sticking with the same material for the addition. Since I have already installed minisplits in the house, I have gotten to experience how well they work

I will be using Huber Zip Wall for the first time on this project. Combined with Home Slicker to make a vented rainscreen, this should improve the durability of the solid wood siding that needs to be installed to match the existing.

A tankless water heater

I went around and around on my thoughts about a water heater. I considered installing a heat-pump tank model, a high-efficiency electric tank model, and finally settled on a Rinnai tankless unit. Since space is so tight and my hot water use so small, installing the heater on the outside of the house frees up a lot of storage area and will meet my needs efficiently.

One product I am very excited in trying for the porch floor and railings is Perennial Wood, a heat and chemically modified pine that is resistant to rot, warping, cracking, expansion, and contraction without the toxicity of traditional pressure-treated wood.

First on the agenda is relocating one of the minisplits I installed last year, when I didn’t think I would be renovating. Then the new water heater and new electrical service will be installed. Once those prep items are complete, the demolition starts. Stay tuned: there will be lots of pictures and comments.