[Greenbuilding] Refurbish or Replace

[Zach Douglas]

Thank you for all the very informative replies!  While I expected good
information that was even better than I would have thought.  I will try and
address bits of each of your replies without quoting anyone directly but
just give further info and answers in general..

Am I painting my housing situation as somewhat bleak because I am looking
for justification to build a new home.. sure.  I would say I am.. we have
lived in the house for over 5 years and most of the issues have been here
since the start and do not create any real impediments to living.. we have
worked around issues like wiring (we have an extension cord that runs from a
bedroom to the living room.. a little tacky but we don't even notice it any
more).  So it's not exactly falling down on us although the recent roof leak
which has resulted in a brown stain on the ceiling of our living kind of
makes it seem like that.

Having read what you have had to say and also following the progress of some
friends who had a home built in the new 'green mango' project in Austin.. it
seems like refurbishing and adding on might be the way I am leaning now.  My
friend said every day is stressful.. he has to go every day to his new home
and look over their shoulder while they make obvious blunders.  Anyways, I
won't go in to that, I'm sure you have heard the stories or lived through it
yourselves.

I found that bit of information about leaving a wall in place which would
allow you to perhaps avoid calling it a 'rebuild' and just 'adding on' as
far as the city was concerned.  I will look more in to that and see what I
can find.. if I need to do that.  I'll perhaps talk to an electrician again
about getting my wiring fixed permanently and how to do that.  The wiring in
my house was run in long chains.. I am not sure if this is standard today..
but the living room light is connected to a living room wall outlet which is
connected to a bathroom outlet.. the bathroom light.. etc.  The bad
electrician broke some of these chains and thus disabled many outlets.  I
guess you just have to create new circuits and leave the old ones where the
are buried in the walls.

As far as the possible asbestos in the attic.. I just had a friend who is
pretty handy mention this to me after we had gone in the attic to look at
something.  I don't really know for sure what it is.. it is indeed grey.. it
looks like what would come out of a comforter if you tore it apart.. like
little fluffy bits of stuffing.. I didn't find anything on the internet
really that matched.  I might take some pictures and post them and it might
be easily identified (I would of course handle it carefully and not stir it
up, just put a bit in a zip lock bag)

Someone asked about how long we plan to stay here and our situation.. it's
just my wife and I, no kids and no kids planned as of now.  If we did have
any the house would probably be too small.  We likely are not moving from
Austin any time soon, I own a business here and again we are in a good
neighborhood that we hope is still on the way up (we are across the street
from the Mueller Airport Development on the other side of Airport BLVD) so
we aren't really going anywhere.

Some follow on questions:

If I do refurbish the house..

A. Concerning the roof (shingles apparently wearing out, some boards
rotting, possible water damage, and the old insulation)...  would I have the
roof of the house completely re-done? Or would it more likely be just
replacing some damaged boards and resurfacing?  I might have some water
damage and there is the old insulation and new pink fiberglass insulation..
could those/should those be abated if the roof was off and being re-done?
There is bird crap in my attic also.. obviously it's not entirely closed
from the outside either!

B.  Tell me about a tin roof..  this seems to be more durable than
shingles.. and I have been under the assumption it is cheaper?

C.  I have very large windows in most rooms.. they are nice but as mentioned
they are old 'casement windows' and not really at all efficient and in need
of drastic repair if they were kept.  Would I likely be able to get windows
the same size or would I end up having to go with smaller windows if I
modernize them..  we know from trying to buy curtains that they don't seem
to make standard windows as big as these from the 40's.

D.  I'm thinking to create more space that perhaps I would just extend two
rooms in to what is now the back yard.  As part of that the leaky laundry
room would be removed.  Is this feasible.. just remove a wall and make a
room larger?

I think that is all for now. Thanks for the recommendations on people who
might can advise.. I definatly will talk to the neighbors and other people
who you guys recommend I get advice from.

I might have to do something about the roof soon though.. since it's
currently leaking!  I wonder if I should go for a large overhaul or just
patch the leaks for now.. for example if I wanted to remove all the windows
and maybe add-on rooms then I should save the roof work for then?

Like someone said, I might have to live in a trailer or something if I have
some major work done.. maybe my dad would lend me his for a while.

Thanks again for all the help!