Getting what I want

So yesterday I decided I'm going to start being "difficult." Very, very difficult. Live up to my stubbon Zodiac sign and all that.

Here's the deal.

We are, as many of you know, building a house. Well, not really building right now. Right now it's a pile of dirt. With a newly paved road up to it. Thus, the clock is now ticking for permits and all that until the excavation begins. I figured this would be a good time to demand two rather simple things of my homebuilder, Ryland homes.

1. Dual tankless water heaters, gas-fired, on either side of the house. One would supply the kitchen and upstairs bathroom. The other would provide for the half-bath downstairs, master bath upstairs and the laundry upstairs.

2. Spray foam insulation. Preferably the bio-soy kind. There's a company here in Indy that does it.

Why I want these are very simple. First off, the cost of this house is pretty much at the maximum (and likely more) than what we can afford. So by enacting these energy-saving measures, our monthly operating costs will plummet. The tankless water heaters should save 20-30% and the spray foam should cut our heating and cooling bill in half.

Wrap your head around that for a second. If you're spending say, $200 a month, it'll jump down to $100. $1200 a year. Sure it costs more up front, but by putting it in the mortgage, you're still saving monthly. Then when I get the solar power going, I'll be all sorts of set. Which is another thing -- the more efficient the house, the smaller the solar package we'll need. And what about my neighborhood bylaws saying I can't install solar panels? Indiana law says that you can't put such a restriction in your covenants. So stick it, neighbor.

I talked to my salesguy today and expressed my deep desire for these things. My inability to live without them, if you will. He said that he had seen others ask for things like this and have it come to a dead end. That is unacceptable for me. There will be no dead ends. There will be two tankless water heaters in my basement and sprayfoam in my walls. I will talk to whoever I have to in corporate to get this thing moving along.

Now don't get me wrong -- there are issues other than the red-tape bit. For instance, the air conditioning unit that they will give us is based on their standard house with standard insulation. However, if you seal up the house really well, you need a smaller unit. But to figure out how small, you need to do some testing, which will cost money. And if you're thinking that a bigger AC is better, uh, it's not. It's actually a lot worse. Not only do you waste more money as it turns on and off constantly, but it will likely be incapable of quashing summertime humidity.

For the water heaters, they need larger pipes for the natural gas. This is going to be another simple hurdle.

The most annoying thing in all of this is that we've already put down what's basically a non-refundable 5%. So if I don't get what I want (highly unlikely since I have time, a computer and some writing skills... not to mention a telephone) then the only other recourse is a nice long nasty column in some local paper.

Maybe I can negotiate something with them, too. I understand that they are giving me a home warranty. And I understand that bringing someone else in to do work may have an affect on that. But here's the thing -- I'll waive the entire home warranty if I can get this. That's right. The whole damn thing. If the roof falls in? Whatever. Just as long as I'm surrounded by nice thick sprayfoam when it happens.

I'll keep y'all updated on how things develop. Salesguy said he'd make some calls today and let me know possibly by tomorrow where the dead end is. Then it'll be my turn to start annoying the crap out of people.