When we bought our house almost 12 years ago, we were a homeschooling family of six and the house was always busy and filled. My mother, who we built a mother-in-law suit for, has since moved into assisted living, two of the kids are away at college and the one that is still at home now attends a public high school and with all his EC’s is almost never home.
Down sizing isn’t an option for us because we want to have space for the kids to come home to and I have significantly modified the house to accommodate our hobbies and just can’t imagine taking the time and money to do it again in another house! We’ve gradually rearranged the use of space, after my mother moved into assisted living DH and I moved into her room and DD moved into our old room and DS1 moved into DD’s old room so both boys would have their own rooms. I’ve slowly turned the “homeschool room” into my indoor studio.
Other things we’ve done is to install Nest thermostats so areas of the house that aren’t occupied aren’t heated or cooled to the same extent as more used areas. We also decided to replace our current water heaters with a tank-less system since we have less need for hot water. I’m thinking of unplugging the extra full size freezer and refrigerator/freezer in the laundry room and just plugging them in during holidays. We also bought a smaller rice cooker and replaced the toaster with a toaster oven. There is a learning curve from cooking for 6 to 2 and a half!
Any other pointers for modifying a big nest as it empties?
Nest will do zip if you have one central furnace with one heating zone. I would look into minisplits. They are butt ugly but they do work well as individual zones.
Just dropped off both my boys to their respective colleges, and I’m now starting to re-claim what was once my space that my boys have made a total mess of. My basement used to be my DIY photography home studio. After my boys have left, it’s unrecognizable. Other than a couple of holes in the drywall, it’s salvageable. While they’re away, I decided to take all the carpet out and re-floor with a laminate wooden floor.
@BunsenBurner not sure about “furnace” - not sure if that is different for the A/C units (don’t they control heating as well?) which we have three of all on different zones. One for upstairs and 2 for downstairs (our bed room and DH’s office/ living room, kitchen and my studio). The Nest has helped a lot since upstairs is only kid space and only one (rarely home).
@TiggerDad when it gets cooler we are going to clean out the “camping corner” of the garage. We have so much gear that likely won’t be used in several years and much of this stuff will deteriorate over time so best to donate sooner rather than later.
Then you are fine and all set with your Nests! You need to have either a dedicated heating/cooling unit for each zone or a mechanism that regulates heat flow to a zone to have individual temperature control in that zone. So your house is well set up.
We put on an addition when my youngest was a senior in college - I finally got the kitchen I wanted and another table where people can play board games and a screen porch. We also got a master bath and upstairs laundry. It seemed a little silly to make the house bigger, but it works infinitely better now and when we have the extended family there’s room for everyone without driving us crazy.
Planned projects:
spiffing up the yard (especially front yard)
replacing aluminum siding with hardiboard
minisplit A/C
We didn’t install new t-stats but simply set some of ours to the outer limits of heating/cooling that should keep the unused spaces safe. We run dehumidifiers in those areas with short hoses that discharge into sinks/showers since we live in a humid climate. I have a relative who set his A/C at 85 whenever he was out of town; his house developed a serious mildew problem and I don’t want to risk that.
A few months ago we bought a Breville Smart Air oven and very rarely use a big oven now. It saves a lot of time and doesn’t heat up the kitchen like the Wolf.
My concern about tankless water heaters is whether they can handle enough simultaneous use when we have a full house. They’re great for continuous or sequential use and won’t run out, but I’ve read they can’t provide hot water for more than three users at the same time. When our house is busy, it’s not unusual for two or more appliances (dishwashers and washing machines) plus multiple showers to be going at once. If everyone wants to shower after a swim they couldn’t do so at the same time. If we need to replace our water heater tanks some day, I’ll look into whether a tankless could feed into a standard tank unit and if that would solve the problem.
We did learn a lesson about keeping plumbing traps full. If any bathrooms aren’t used regularly, be sure to run water through all drains every 2 - 4 weeks. The traps in one bathroom (toilet, sink and shower) all dried out after a couple of months. That was unpleasant and caused a mini panic before we realized the cause of the odor.
@mathmom - totally understand! After the we figure out where the youngest will land (and how much it will cost) we have a hit list that consists of a master bath remodel, a kitchen remodel, and I really want new garage doors but for some reason DH is pushing back on the garage doors?! - Oh, and replacing all the builder grade windows that are now starting to fail.
Silpat - I read that some tankless systems can be set up with a small tank that works as a buffer for those situations. We have a mega-BTU tankless water heater (combiboiler hydroair) which can handle several users at a time, but it will have to be replaced sometimes in the next couple of years, so I am researching…
They plumber assured us that new tankless system would be able to meet the same demand as the two 40 gallon tanks we currently have. Our household (when everyone is home) is about 50/50 am-pm showers and laundry is usually mid day so I think we’ll be fine.
We had a “nest” that required little modification… then the birdies have flown, and we bought a “nest” that requires a lot of work. Mr. says it is his hobby now.
So far, we have been lazy and haven’t really changed much. We are thinking about it but the kids are unhappy on their rare visits with any changes. ;).
I have a very part time business that I run out of my home. Some of the work is actually done here. I am going to be increasing capacity next year when I’m down to one kiddo at home, and will be moving towards essentially taking over a part of the downstairs for my business once all the kids have moved out.
We moved out of a neighborhood to a larger “fixer upper” nest on more land after freshman year. Now that the kid is gone until May I plan on a new vanity and paint in the hall bathroom (her bathroom). The first step was to defunk it after she had used it all summer. I’m thinking about painting her room. There is a super long list of other projects. The sad part is the house we moved from was completely done
You need to have either a dedicated heating/cooling unit for each zone or a mechanism that regulates heat flow to a zone to have individual temperature control in that zone. So your house is well set up.