• shoephones@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 years ago

    I built a playspace in our crawlspace for the toddler. Chalkboard wall, framing, drywall, lights, flooring etc. Ran probably around 1k and took up a solid 4 days of work time. Toddler barely plays in it. Hoping for more use in the winter

        • fodder69@lemmy.world
          1·
          2 years ago

          Yeah, they want to hang around you or at least someone else. At that age they don’t want privacy, they want interaction. Now put a nice exhaust fan in there and your soon to be teenager will probably padlock the door and live down there.

          • shoephones@lemmy.world
            1·
            2 years ago

            I’ll keep that in mind haha. It’ll be a good place for playing for a few years anyways, then we can always turn it back into storage later

  • gordon@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 years ago

    We rented a house where the owner decided to replace all the old metal fame single pane windows with new high quality double pane windows.

    He spent something like $30,000 on all the windows and installation.

    Didn’t notice any difference.

    Like, the HVAC bill was basically the same, and the noise was basically the same.

    We may have saved $5-10/mo. on power but that is simply not worth it.

    • Sagittaire@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 years ago

      The key with windows is reducing your cost. I too received a quote for $30-40k back in the day… so I did it myself with vinyl replacements (double pane, argon, etc). Ended up spending only a few thousand total for the whole house, I know I did a better job than the local contractor because I spent my time and did it right.

      We had a massive comfort difference due to the old windows being extremely drafty (1960’s original wood single-pane). In my opinion that’s the biggest benefit. We also were able to remove our storm windows, so improved exterior visibility, reduced cleaning, and improved curb appeal in my opinion.

      Energy-savings, yeah not so much unless you DIY like I did to keep the cost down.

      • gordon@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 years ago

        That’s what I found after researching as well. Now on the opposite side of the spectrum, we bought a house with zero insulation in the attic. Paid $1800 for I think 16" of blown in insulation. Simple return on that was less than 6 months. Next will be crawl space insulation and encapsulation. That’s going to run around $3000 and I expect maybe 2-3 year return on that.