[Greenbuilding] re: Need some ideas for AC in an old house

[Bobbi Chukran]

Hi Rob,

Fascinating ideas!  Actually, she only lives about a mile from my 
younger sister, who has had the "joy" (ha ha) of dealing with our 
mother's house since she moved there five years ago.  I live about 6 
hours from them. Our mother is, how shall we say, a very difficult 
person, and I fear for both of our marriages if she lived closer. 
There's no way anybody could tolerate living with her, and neither 
would she tolerate having others there. Yes, it would be a 
Nightmare-From-H-E-double-toothpicks (as we say down here in Texas). 
LOL

However, we both have thought of the "granny flat" and right now, 
neither of us has room for anything other than a very small storage 
shed in our backyards.  Neighborhood rules in many places prohibit 
that, unfortunately.  My Spousal Unit (who is probably reading this, 
and will freak at the very idea of living that close) and I just 
downsized from a larger home on acreage to a small home of our own to 
lessen our maintenance and energy needs.  The costs of building a 
smaller house there on our previous land (minimum 1700 sq. ft is the 
rule) would have been prohibitive.

Our family has an interesting history of doing the granny flat thing 
with my great-grandparents and grandparents, and it's caused major 
problems along the way.

Some of my former neighbors were able to build small apartments 
semi-attached to their homes, and that seemed the ideal to me.  For 
sure, this is a situation that a lot of us Baby Boomers are faced 
with, or going to be faced with.

I definitely would love to remodel her whole house to be green, but 
at this point, we're just trying to get the roof and AC dealt with 
before the summer hits.

regards,

bobbi c.


>Your Mom, at 75, is still a Summer Chicken and perhaps can still remain 
>independent for the time being but in  few years (that will pass 
>alarmingly quickly), it's going to be tough for her to be living on her 
>own in a house that by your own account, needs a lot of work and is going 
>to be a severe drain on the resources of whomever has taken on the
>financial responsibility for maintaining the place.