larknm
8-31-14, 6:28pm
DH and I and 4 dogs (3 big, one middle size) and 1 parrot live in a 600 sf house. We bought it with old age in mind, in that it's walking distance from 3 markets and the Farmer's Market, to the town plaza, a health clinic and so on. It's an old adobe house in the oldest part of Santa Fe ("the barrio") where the last of the big heroin problem has been cleaned up in the past year (yeah!).
The house is drafty, as old adobes tend to be, and all we've done to ameliorate that hasn't really worked --like insulation in the ceiling. A big problem is the whole bathroom floor is over a crawl space. It's also all electric, because when we moved in I was allergic to gas. So heating is expensive. We use small electric space heaters. We have 12 solar modules for heat, but they only work when the sunlight is actually shining. So winter heating cost causes us to close off the living room (front 1/2 of house) from the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom all winter. Part of what's going on here is my immune system is affected by Prednisone, and our parrot will die if the temp gets below 40 or probably get sick if it gets near there.
The problem is, then we have to get up at night to let one or more of the dogs out to the living room, where they can go out the dogdoor to the yard to pee and poop--two of these dogs are old and can't last all night. Then they need us to let them back in the bedroom. Last winter I didn't get enough sleep. DH said he would do all this, but he sleeps a lot heavier than I do, and gets mad if I wake him up for it. So we will put a dogdoor into the door between the kitchen and living room. We've looked at Habitat for Humanity's Re-Store for a door but the door we'd be replacing to put the dogdoor in it, would have to be an off-size. They have some, but would have to be sawed off at the top or bottom and the hinges probably aren't in the right places. Our carpenter friend who would do the work says that makes it more expensive.
We think if we put the dogdoor in the existing door, it will detract from the house when we go to sell it, that this is just too odd a look. The house, while a bit shabby though well cared-for is kind of charming in its architecture indoors. That's part of why we bought it, besides its proximity to services we use.
ANY take on how you as a buyer or any imaginary buyer would be affected by an in-house dogdoor?
The house is drafty, as old adobes tend to be, and all we've done to ameliorate that hasn't really worked --like insulation in the ceiling. A big problem is the whole bathroom floor is over a crawl space. It's also all electric, because when we moved in I was allergic to gas. So heating is expensive. We use small electric space heaters. We have 12 solar modules for heat, but they only work when the sunlight is actually shining. So winter heating cost causes us to close off the living room (front 1/2 of house) from the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom all winter. Part of what's going on here is my immune system is affected by Prednisone, and our parrot will die if the temp gets below 40 or probably get sick if it gets near there.
The problem is, then we have to get up at night to let one or more of the dogs out to the living room, where they can go out the dogdoor to the yard to pee and poop--two of these dogs are old and can't last all night. Then they need us to let them back in the bedroom. Last winter I didn't get enough sleep. DH said he would do all this, but he sleeps a lot heavier than I do, and gets mad if I wake him up for it. So we will put a dogdoor into the door between the kitchen and living room. We've looked at Habitat for Humanity's Re-Store for a door but the door we'd be replacing to put the dogdoor in it, would have to be an off-size. They have some, but would have to be sawed off at the top or bottom and the hinges probably aren't in the right places. Our carpenter friend who would do the work says that makes it more expensive.
We think if we put the dogdoor in the existing door, it will detract from the house when we go to sell it, that this is just too odd a look. The house, while a bit shabby though well cared-for is kind of charming in its architecture indoors. That's part of why we bought it, besides its proximity to services we use.
ANY take on how you as a buyer or any imaginary buyer would be affected by an in-house dogdoor?