When we first bought our house, it was not energy-efficient at all. Not by a long shot.
The windows were all old and single-pane. The two existing heat pump A/C units were old and ran on (expensive) propane. There was some insulation in the attic, and some blown-in insulation in the walls but what was there had settled over time.
We knew when we bought our place that it was Priority One for us to make our home more energy efficient. No one likes to pay high utility bills and certainly not a frugal person like me. During our first winter here, we ran ONE of our heat pump units, for about a month total and it cost us close to $500 in propane, so after that, we survived using our fireplace and small space heaters. It was not pleasant. Many winter mornings we woke up to temperatures of 50 degrees inside the house.
After our first cold winter here, we tackled our window, siding, and insulation replacement project the following Spring.
Since our old house has solid wood interior walls, we knew we had one of two choices: we could remove the wood from the interior walls, insulate in some fashion, then cover the walls up again …. or we could remove the exterior siding and during that process replace the old windows, insulation and add additional insulation.
We wanted to keep the character of our old place intact, I don’t like drywall, and our siding was in pretty bad shape, so we went with the latter option.
We’ve never regretted that decision.
I want to show you what we did. It was a ton of work, but it is achievable for anyone wanting to add energy efficiency to an old home.
Before we tackled the project, we remodeled our kitchen. Because our kitchen design impacted window design also, those windows were replaced first. Of course, our house looked terrible from the outside for a few months.
We had a timing issue that we were luckily able to solve fairly quickly. Our carpenter in Austin, who’s also a dear friend, was not able to come help us until the Summer. Mark and I knew we couldn’t tolerate a Texas summer without a new HVAC system, and we weren’t about to do spend the money on a new HVAC system until we made the necessary energy efficiency improvements.
We hired a local carpenter, Mike Cochran, to help us with our project. Mike and his wife live next door to the old house we tore down in Grapeland. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were fortunate to meet them both.
One thing we decided to go ahead and just do during this whole process was build our mudroom. We decided that if we were going to do it, we needed to do it then. Although it would have been possible to do it later, we would have to rip out new siding and insulation to build on, and that didn’t make any sense to us.
After the addition was done, the guys replaced all of the old windows with new wood windows on all four sides of the house. We decided to go with Jeld-Wen double-hung wood windows, although we looked at multiple manufactures such as Pella and Marvin. (If these manufacturers are not available in your area, there should be a lot of window options available in your area – just be sure you choose an energy-efficient window.)
As they went around the house, the guys also assessed the perimeter of the house for moisture or termite damage. Unfortunately but not surprisingly — our house is 150 years old! — some damage was found in a few places . . .
. . . but it was not significant and was easily repaired.
Of course, it wasn’t all work and no play. We all tried to make the most of it and have some fun.
The next thing to do was to start removing the siding. Because we only had a two-man crew (to conserve costs), our house is a large 50′ x 50′ box, and progress was relatively slow, we decided to tackle two sides of the house at a time.
We were lucky to find an insulation company who was willing to make two visits to complete the work for a reasonable additional fee.
Removing the siding revealed a strange assortment of wall studs going every which way.
Of course, we also found lots of nasty pink, fiberglass insulation (nasty because it’s so itchy) that we bagged up as best we could. (It’s in our attic now.)
Here’s what one side of the house looked like after we removed all of the siding and pink insulation, and replaced the windows.
After we removed all of the siding from the first two sides of the house, we stapled tar paper between each of the wall studs. Mark knew that if we didn’t do this we do this, there was no way to prevent spray foam insulation from seeping through the cracks of the interior wood walls.
Otherwise, our interior walls would have looked like peanut butter sandwiches.
Of course, it rains in East Texas a lot, especially in the Winter and Spring, so during this entire process, we protected the house with plastic.
The big day for Round One of spray foam insulation finally came. We were ecstatic. It was fascinating to watch how fast the foam expanded to fill every crack and crevice.
The consistency of the insulation, when dry, is about the same as a styrofoam cooler.
Once the insulation was good and dry, we covered up the two sides of the house with plastic and started on the remaining two sides of the house.
By this point, we were getting more efficient at gathering and bagging up the itchy, pink insulation . . . .
. . . and replacing windows.
We replaced our home office windows with slightly smaller windows — we knew we wanted to place a cabinet for our two printers underneath the window.
We were making good progress for sure, and the weather was mild and dry for the most part, a good thing since some days it felt like we were living in a barn.
The celebratory day came when Garland Insulating made their second visit to our property.
After the insulation dried, we hammered up plywood, then covered everything with a moisture barrier.
Then, we installed new Hardiplank siding. I love this siding. It’s historically appropriate and holds paint beautifully. It’s also a masonry product which saved us a bit on our homeowners insurance.
Of course, we also installed new wood trim.
Once that project was done, we painted the house. Our house is now green (my favorite color) rather than blue.
Once our house exterior was completely finished, we upgraded to a new heat pump system which runs on electricity rather than propane.
All in all, we’re very happy with the work. It’s certainly improved the energy efficiency and the appearance of the house. The appearance of the finished siding is very close to the look of the old #117 siding, and in most cases, we kept the window sizes the same as the originals. This helped to maintain the look of the old Greek Revival style of the home.
While it wasn’t incredibly difficult work, it was time consuming. It took Mark and Mike 30 days from start to finish to complete the work, not too bad for a very small crew!
Maureen says
Great information! Living in a 100+ year old house myself that desperately needs this done I often wondered what it would entail. I could totally relate with your “before” story of cold frosty mornings and propane expense! There might be a silver lining after all. Thanks for sharing.
Kim says
You bet, Maureen! It was totally worth it.
Bernideen's Tea Time Blog says
That is an amazing series of photos and answered questions I’ve always wondered about. The men look very “strong” which also is a necessary quality! They did a beautiful job!
Kim says
Thank you!
Cher says
What a massive job to undertake! Results totally worth it, I’m sure. Love the way the two-man crew respectfully worked around the existing landscaping.
Kim says
Thanks, Cher! Truthfully, I wanted to rip out some of the shrubs because they were so troublesome . . . but I’m glad Mark prevailed in wanting to keep them. 🙂
Carla says
Great job!! My husband & I also did the same scope of work to our Sears Catalog 2 story house that hubby moved from town out to the country–we still have the crawlspace insulation to do. Are you planning on insulating underneath with the spray on insulation? Also–we had the house painted green as well!!
Kim says
Awesome! We are planning to insulate under the house — at a minimum, underneath the interior walls.
Jenny says
Wow! Impressive! I can’t help but wonder how much all that cost? I love my old wood windows in my house…but I can feel the cold seeping in as I type……wonder what it would cost us to do the same to our home. You guys continue to amaze me! When the dust settles, if it ever does…you will have a completely new old house.
Kim says
Yep! You know we love new “old” houses! The cost was just shy of $20,000, not including labor, the new HVAC system, or paint. That price included the new windows, siding, spray foam insulation, tar paper, moisture barrier, plywood, and trim boards. We spent close to $10,000 on the windows alone. Of course, your cost would depend on if your windows were custom sizes or required custom jambs (ours required both).
wendy says
Kim, you have a lovely home!
Vickie says
After the extremely cold past few weeks in northern MN, I’m wishing our house was insulated as well as yours! One of the old brittle windows cracked from the cold this winter and 2 last year. I thing our house is telling us is wants new windows soon! Your home is not only beautiful and historically correct, but energy efficient, too. Well done!
Kim says
Thanks, Vickie! Sounds like you have a window replacement project in your future. You’ll be amazed at the energy savings!
Stick Horse Cowgirl V says
LOVE your home–especially the kitchen! Wish I could replace all the windows in our two story house. We have these awful storm windows that have to be screwed off for cleaning! Therefore, they never get cleaned on the second story–I love beautiful windows that fold in for easy cleaning. I love my beautiful views!
V
Kim says
Thank you so much, V! I lived in a two-story house once, but don’t think I ever will again because of the maintenance and inconvenience (my master bedroom was upstairs, and I remember it being a pain to go up and down the stairs 50 times a day . . . and that was in my 30’s!). But, I can completely understand that if you live in a beautiful place, it certainly helps you to enjoy your views.
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