HOW HOMES ARE BUILT DIFFERENT IN ALASKA | BUILDING A HOME IN ALASKA |Somers In Alaska 

Your ceilings are high but you don't have any ceiling fans they have a winter switch reverse spin to circulate the heat sending the warm air back down to your family!...

i would love to see a full on from picking out the land to getting the parcel ready for building on to hiring the contractors and going through the ups and downs of building another building with timelapse shots as well

Live in middle Sweden in almost same latitude as north pol. North pol is just 140 miles north about Sundsvall Sweden. We almost build our buildings as same you are. 3 glass windows, isolation the same. Heating in floor. Many have a second wood burning stove ( blowing out hot air) But one big difference is main heating source. Oil and gas not almost does not exist here now but it used to be. ( it to expensive) But the oil crisis in the 70s caused many to switch to other sources. Now geothermal heat pump is a common alternative. ( 600 feet deep hole that heats the water) The heat pump uses the difference from water 32F to 39F from hole. Or air heat pump even many uses. Snow load is here 392 kg/m2. Could be 86 pound/square feet if I counting right. The roof shall cope with this. So glad I discovered your interesting site. We have much common.

LOL was amazed when by Hawaiian homes -- the older traditional homes have walls only as thick as the siding. Windows are usually louvered and rarely closed because air flow is vital to avoid mold.

In Kansas you have to have a basement that has a room with no windows for tornadoes. Or a underground storm cellar.

Your family is so precious. I love the way you and Bert are with each other. You can feel the love.

Oh oh oh, I'm in Texas and we have to irrigate around out house to prevent foundation from getting cracks. It's concrete slab. That's the only special thing I could think of. That and having constantly fight squirrels out of the attic.

You know its cold when you use your wood splitter in the garage.

A lot of Quebec homes have a secondary source of heating such as a slow-combustion wood burning stove or a propane fireplace. This has increased due to the great ice storm of 1998 where thousands of people were without power and heating for two weeks or more. We have extreme temperatures as well and when we get mild spells, it tends to be freezing rain. I installed new encased triple-pane windows and yes, it is expensive but I don't regret it at all! Hugs to you guys from one cold place to another!

Y’alls positive attitudes and kind hearts is so refreshing to see. It makes my heart happy.

You guys should start a new HGTV show for house flipping in Alaska!

Just found this video, just recently started watching. As a fellow Alaskan, one thing i'd love to point out is that aside from the wooden foundations and the adjustable foundations, a lot of cabins are up on stilts as well! Both of mine are about 3' from the ground to avoid melting our permafrost which lays 6" in the heat of summer under the topsoil.

I love the fact that there is no termite in Alaska because here in the Philippines that is one of our major enemy even if our homes are made of concrete, we usually need to put termite pipe line or poison the soil before constructing the concrete foundation just to be sure enough that the structure won't be infested by the termite 😊

This was fascinating! Our home here in SE Florida is built so differently than our previous home in NJ. Also because of weather, the house is built to withstand hurricanes and extreme heat. For example, the roof is triple tied, the floors are tile or wood (no wall to wall carpets), the windows/doors are impact resistant, the walls are poured concrete, the entire house is build higher than the surrounding area (to prevent flooding), the ceilings are higher (to help with heat), the heating system (which is rarely needed) is more heat pump than furnace, and no basement due to a high water table. Those are just some of things that stand out but there's probably more.

That is the most organized, functional basement/crawl space I have ever seen!!!! Love it

Some Building problems Upper Penninsula of Michigag Frost can go down 8 feet so footers water sewer etc must be that deep Average snow fall 150 to300 inches. So Snow loading is a big issue. Houses have much steeper pitch Vapro barrier is manditory. Insulation abounts are similar to what you listed. Triple pane windows would be preferable but many install double pane Basement can be built so not too mant crawl spaces Heating propane instead of fuel oil Most places have supplementary heat: wood stove, or wood stove insert in a fireplace since wood is available. Growing season is a little longer June to Sept for tender plants

I think it would be great to do a building project. I remember you saying Bert's office and storage is an eyesore, so an idea would be to build him an actual office and storage space for his materials for work. Plus he would be able to see out during the warmer months and help keep an eye on your kiddos while they are playing outside especially with the wildlife that lives there. Plus, you can get rid of those eyesores 😊

Saying hello from Texas. Down here, we don't see cold. The coldest it gets is about 32 for a few days and thats it. Winters in texas are cold in the morning, by midday your wearing shorts again lol. We do have fireplaces in all our homes here. We personally do not use ours because we never need to. But, back when I lived in apartments I did because I just liked doing it and it made things so much more cozy. While you guys pay an arm and a leg for gas, we pay an arm in a leg for AC during the summer months. Our windows are only double pane. I also haven't seen snow in many... many years. So watching your videos is a nice change as our climate doesnb't change lol. It's like a whole new world to me.

Hi Somers! Europe here, to be exact: Germany. Wanted to give you guys an idea of our homes here around. So, I my parents have build a big house with an aparment above the garage (thats where I live ). We do live near the alps in southern germany, so the climate ist mostly temperate and its not getting too cold - BUT we actually do have winters (around january / feburary) where it can get very, very cold (at least for us) around 5. Our home is heated with pellet-heating and normaly it works perfectly fine. A few weeks ago we had actually a problem with the heater (didnt work anymore). My parents do have a fireplace so it wasnt a big of a deal for them, my aparment otherwise do not have such second heating system. We had no heater for around... 3 days I guess, it was freezing outside and I tried everything to keep my home warm as long as I can. Therefore I know, maybe its not that good isolated like homes in alaska, but its done the job very well. We do have houses made out of stone here around, with isolation between the exterior wall and the woodwall in my rooms :) . Also we do have shutters on the windows, that helped with keeping the warm air in. In addition to the heatingsystem we do own solarpanels on the roof wich heat the water. Our windows do have handles to open them fully if you want, or just partly. They do have double glass actually. All of the homes here around do have basments for storage and such. Our heatersystem is in the basment actually.We do own something special, even for houses here around: My father was a parttime blacksmith and so we do have a smithy (is that the word for it? :D) in our house too. hope it was a little bit interesting

I love how the US talk about Alaska and the lower 48 like Canada doesn’t even exist. lol.

I am so very happy to here about the different ways homes are built in AK. My family and I have lived in North Central Texas for nine years and it rarely gets below 20°Fahrenheit. We lived in a "Green" Home that had the vapor barrier on the inside with triple pane casement windows. The had R 40 for the storage attic and the roof attic, Styrofoam inside the walls for added insulation. We had very energy efficient appliances. During the Winter months the whole house is airtight the house stays about 68°Fahrenheit with no heat on which saves on electric. We Central air & heat with a high efficiency insulated water heater located in the garage. During the 100°Fahrenheit Summers with no Air conditioning the temp inside is 80°F. I am interested in the future building projects you have, thanks.

I always forget houses with basements aren't possible in certain parts of the country. I couldn't imagine having a house without a deep basement!!!! We also love our fireplace and use it often throughout the winter but not as a daily source of heat. But it definitely cranks up the temp for our first floor.

Wow! The differences are so interesting. We live in Orlando, FL in a bungalow built in 1940! When it gets “cold” here we can feel the cold just coming right thru our original 1940 windows. Your house looks so warm and cozy!!

Absolutely love that view through your window at the beginning of the video . Here in the uk our house is sandstone on the outside, then breeze blocks, then plasterboard ,or drywall ,on the inside . Fascinating stuff how you build houses in Alaska to withstand the cold .

In central Virginia my home was built in the early 60s the atic has r 38 insulation and I believe my walls are around r 25 ish. No vapor barrier, the walls are about 6 inches deep. The windows are single pane however there are storm window over the main windows that help. The roof snow load is about 3 feet more then enough for this area. It has a forced air heating oil furnace at 2.75 a gallon normal cost about $400 a winter. My crawl space is actually a crawl space only about 3 feet tall. Concrete block foundation. I have a well and salt water system.

We just returned from the North Pole two weeks ago. I went with my son-in-law to go drop off the trash. We ate at the Pagoda, Pump House, Santa Claus House and Chena Hot Springs Resort. We also visited Denali and we went caribou hunting near 12 mile road just below the tree line. The Alaskan Pipeline is awesome.

We live out in the country, and use electric heat along with our wood stove to keep the house warm. Our well pump is located under a tall table in our laundry room inside the house. The previous home owner set the pump up this way to keep it warm. Eventually we'll build a well house outside, and relocate the pump.

I live on an island in the east coast (in new england region) and its mandatory that homes close to the ocean (ocean is about 2 miles out) have 4-5 feet of concrete foundation above street level so when winter comes (major flooding happens) houses do not take in large amounts of water. Homes on the mainland (about 10 minutes away) are on the land or raised 2 feet in case of excess rainfall.

Here in CA’s Central Coast, the mean temp is 67 degrees. However moving into a home built 50 years ago, it had *no insulation at all* when we moved in. First thing was R19 in the attic! The 6’x6’ single pane windows in the dining room are like a heat vacuum; we have to keep the curtains closed-Otherwise it’s about 10 degrees above outdoors. We have PG&E electrical/gas, which stands for “Plunder, Gouge, & Extort”-At least that is what the bills are like. Enjoy AK!

I was born in Anchorage as my father was in the Air Force. Daddy was transferred when I was 1 years old. I love following you and seeing all of the beautiful parts of Alaska. I live in Texas and can't imagine -40 temps!

In South Central Alaska steel pillar foundations are really common due to frost heaving damaging concrete footers & slabs. We install layers of ridgid foam insulation between the skirting of the crawlspace & the ground. This prevents the earth buckling under your house and lifting it off your foundation.

I Southern Illinois you must plan for periodic high ground water levels. Solid concrete basements will get pushed up if they aren't built correctly. You wouldn't think so but it happens. Homes with basements have french drains and sump pumps as well as good gutters and long downspout extensions to move water away from the house.

I'm in PA and the wood fireplace insert we installed in our fireplace is the BEST home improvement we made to our home. It helps keep our heating bill very reasonable!!!!!

Our weather here in SE Pennsylvania (Gettysburg area) isn't nearly as extreme as North Pole, but my house construction is similar. Constructed in 1988. It has oil fired hot water heating with a zone valve and thermostat in almost every room. That way I can shut off heat in some rooms that are only used occasionally. I have a zero clearance fire place (picture an air tight stove surrounded by an insulated box) that is framed in with no masonry. Used for supplementary/emergency heat. House (2050 sq.ft.) is framed with 2 X 6's on 24" centers to reduce the amount of wood in the wall. (about the same as 2X4 on 15" centers) Insulated with wet blown cellulose insulation, before drywall goes on. Outside of framing is covered with 1" blue board foam insulation. I can usually get by with using about 200-220 gal of fuel oil and a little less than 1 cord of wood. I don't think 10" walls are excessive for your area. I used a vapor barrier paint and sealed all the electrical boxes.

In FL most newer houses (built in the past 40 years) are made out of cinderblocks; I'm assuming to withstand hurricane force winds and be more impervious to termites which run rampant here! There are two main building styles you will encounter; 1. Modern house which will have double paned windows and additional insulation to help keep the cool air in and 2. Older house which will have many windows which are often louvered/crank and a whole house fan - this is all in an effort to keep air circulating and blowing for when AC was not as popular. FL is humid sub-tropical so if you don't have good air circulation- you'll have mold!

In Michigan it is going to be 1 degree tomorrow night. We have an outside vapor barrier and double pane windows. It also can get hot here in the summer. We have a condensing forced air furnace which which brings clean air from the outside. We have a cement poured basement with insulation on the walls. We have city water from the 3 city wells because we live far anyway from a large city. I haven't noticed any condensation on the walls though. It stays pretty comfortable in our home set at 68 degrees F. We do not have an additional heating source in our home. Maybe people have gas or natural fireplaces. I know some people who have radiant heat. That is a really deep crawl space. They are much small here in Michigan but we have a basement.

I’m in Iowa - our house shares a bit in common … backup heat source (two working actual fireplaces, basement & living room) & double paned windows(not quite the same, but same general reason) & attic is pretty well insulated

Maaannnn, I really wanna visit Alaska now! It’s a gorgeous state!!! Also, it’s a plus that you don’t have any creepy crawlers, I’m in Texas and dear LORD there everywhere!!

Your videos gives me warm fuzzy feelings...love you guys!💕

My dad built our house growing up here in KS. He also went the extra mile on things like extra rebarb for our basement along with a barrier to keep the cement from sweating & the insulation & rebarb in the walls. He tried to make it very safe for tornadoes & just efficent all around. But dont remember much else. Was little!

All very similar to Wyoming. I work in the HVAC industry. We don't use oil here, but boilers are still regularly used. Our insulation, windows, secondary heat source etc... is all pretty similar though. We're at 7200 feet and regularly get -30 (or more) below real temp here as well. Just recently found your channel and loving it!

We live in South Central, 6 inch exterior walls with spray foam insulation. The 2x4 studs alternate on the 6" sill plate so no studs go all the way through the wall (you lose a lot of heat through the studs). Spray foam is it's own vapor barrier. The windows are low-e coated and have "super spacers" but are double paned. We have a Heat 'n Glo inset fireplace/woodstove that is high efficiency with a blower to move the heat through the house. This is a back up heat source, but we also have natural gas with a 96% efficient Lockinvar Boiler that runs the radiant in-floor heat throughout the house. Nothing like sitting around the fire on a cold winter night.

Great video! Thanks for sharing your building knowledge. Favorite line in the video... “Frozen 2 baby!” Too cute!

Your videos are always interesting, I have found I have stopped watching a lot of other channels because it's the same content over and over. Thanks for keeping it interesting.

We use vapor barrier on the outside of homes here in Oregon. People use natural gas to heat with as well as electric and some oil. We just had to replace our old electric furnace and heat pump. We went with a Mitsubishi heat pump and an inside air handler. It's EXTREMELY efficient and SO quiet!! We also have a couple pellet stoves that don't get used very often. Our lowest temperatures in the winter are mid twenties sometimes we get into the teens. Our warmest temps in the summer get into the low hundreds, but average 85-95 degrees.

Here at our Iowa home we have what is called a heat pump system. It runs off electric until the outside temperature reaches a certain temp then it switches over to propane gas. It seems to be cheaper that way for us to have two different heating source's. I always cringe when the propane truck leaves our driveway. Its always nice when propane is at a cheap price per gallon. We built our house too do we were able to insulate overload. Stay warm guys.

I'm so glad I found your channel. I am from about 90 miles south of you on the Nenana River. Makes me so homesick seeing your video's. My dad use to build houses in Alaska brought back a lot of memories seeing your video.

Duluth MN here. We also have radiant heat. Wish we had a second source of heat. It is something we are planning for in future renovations. Lots of insulation in out attics. No a/c needed in our house either. We also heat our well line and have a special churner for our septic so it doesn’t freeze.

I’m in for the building project 🙋🏻‍♀️😊

Pretty interesting to hear the differences in home building! Y'alls home is similar to my parents house. It's about 3500sq ft, with a working wood stove in the great room. We also have triple pane windows and 8inch walls. We live in central Missouri so maybe our setup is excessive for the area, but I know the house is always warm and they don't pay much for heating!

Insulate those floor joists. Our last house had them. When we built our new one, we didn’t have the extra money for it. Totally regret not doing it now. It makes a big difference! Pellet stoves are awesome. Way less work and mess. Super efficient way to heat. Really easy to vent also. They only need a 4” pipe to the outside. They burn really clean.

Its very interesting to hear some of the things that are done to improve you home and to keep the heat inside to help keep warmer. In Southern California, we have what is called Energy Efficient Homes. 'They' come in and inspect your home to see what improvements that can be made to save money and be more Energy Efficient. Mr. Somers, your describing a few things with your home that was recommended to me. Mind you, if it got just below freezing people become very anxious where 0' to -20 is considered normal in Fairbanks and North Pole. Does anyone really ever stop working on their home? Your home is beautiful Mr. and Mrs. Somers.

Building project Whoo Hoo. If you guys want to do it. All of us have plenty of time to watch and enjoy 😉 Kids were so adorable how excited they got to watch Frozen 2. ❤️❤️☃️❄️

Ever thought about a "back boiler" on the open fire? It would add additional hot water to supplement the oil boiler and make the open fire more efficient. You're probably doing it, just a thought!

My husband and I will be, after 30 years of boys ❤️, empty nesters in about four more years. Even though we are obviously getting old he wants to build a tiny-ish home on property out of city limits. I say ish because we don’t want crazy tiny. I want closets, some storage space (in a basement), and just one extra bedroom for visitors, aka sons, family, whoever. We want energy efficient. Maybe solar panels. Anyway building like you do in Alaska, thick walls, extra heating source...couldn’t hurt. We’re in Appalachia. It can get cold, we can get snow, it ALWAYS gets hot and humid...energy efficient seems the way to go. We’d watch you build for sure!

That's interesting and I have a question. No disrespect intended. Why do you have the high ceilings? That's where the heat goes.

That oldest girl is so special. She is so smart. They are raised right. You can tell

Chilly near Houston Texas. We make sure we have good insulation to keep out cold. Not a big winter. Usually lows are 30s. Rarely 20s But summer is hot. Humidity and hot feel like a sauna. Shower, open the door to leave and ugh! Need another shower. Stay warm up there! 🙂

If you build it, we will watch!!!!

And yes, please!!! We will watch ANYTHING you can film.

I live in Minnesota and we are building in Northern WI (near Lake Superior) and we also were advised towards casement windows, our house is R21, and we have in floor heat as well- but it’s more of a luxury than a necessity. It’s mostly a necessity if you have a slab home. I’m seeing comments about basements for tornadoes but specifically living so close to Lake Superior those aren’t a threat at all- the lake sucks most of the bad weather in. My family two house south do mostly all have basements for fear of tornados.

we have plenty of termites here in Singapore a little army came through our kitchen and literally had our kitchen for lunch. We discovered that when we had repeatedly re-hung one of our kitchen cabinets and it kept falling off its hinges!

Hello! I live in ca in the Santa Cruz mountains we bought a cabin built in 1912. Made of redwood. Get this... NO INSULATION. You can feel the air come through the walls. We are a construction family so we are fixing the house ourselves. Had to relevel the house which are on post, put in both a workable fireplace including flue and pellet stove. Replacing windows which are old singles with double and sealable, old ones had a latch that didn’t even close. Oh it’s a change. Oh and all exposed wires because the people before us thought eh who needs to do it right? Blessings from our family to yours!

That's not a craw space...you're standing up ! Yes sir that's a basement .

Adorable kids, you are blessed with healthy hyper kids. Building is similar but 2 x 8 would be minimal I would think. Built my house with 15 inch thick basement walls, poured wall with insulation on both sides. 2x12 upper walls, i only did 2 pane glass but we only get 30 below for short times frames of a week or so. I mostly filled the attic with insulation, it was inexpensive to get the blown in insulation so I just loaded it up, probably more than would be financially recoverable to stop heat loss but I hate sweating ceilings. Stay safe, first video I will check out another.

Thank you for the great video on how new houses are built in Alaska. Most of the construction practices you mentioned are common practices today for northern zones. Fresh air intakes for furnaces has been a regulatory requirements since the late 70s. Heat exchangers do not always work when the difference in temperature between the intake and outgoing air are too large. The choices of building foundations dependent on the soil conditions (e.g. clay or gravel or rocks and etc.). One notable difference is the use of vapor barrier inside the house compared to use house wrap (on outside of the house). Preventing permafrost melting or water accumulation around the foundation in the Spring is very important for colder climate buildings. Again, thank you for this informative talk.

In the U.P. we have about the same requirements for snow loads and burial depths, 4 feet minimum on burial. We can use 2x4 walls but need house wrap on the outside and vapor barrier on the inside, 2x6 is reccomended. Two heat sources are code here as well, so most have a gas forced air and a wood burner that ties into the forced air unit, usually via heating coil. We don't have permafrost but definitely have the snow. Casement windows are recommended with triple pane. We have to get a perk test on our building site before we are allowed a permit. Just a curiosity, how does remote Alaska handle the sewage system and drain fields with the permafrost? All in all, not a far cry from my neck of the woods. The lower mitten is a little bit more relaxed as they have some zone 5 climate down there. Definitely not like the yoopers.

In Oregon there is an air test and house has to have so many air changes an hour. If house is built tight like yours you need a mechanical means to do it. Also a newer trend is to build a home with 2 thinner walls with a space between them. So instead of a 2x6 wall they build a 2x4 wall and leave 1/2 space then build another 2x4 wall. The logic is the weather outside cannot transfer as easy inside. Also they do spray foam as its got a higher thermal rating. So in a double wall system your outside wall is spray foam and inside is batt insulation. This is done as your inside wall is where plumbing or electrical is ran. The foam seals any and all voids from outside.

I am surprised that your house doesn’t have a lobby for the front or back doors to prevent heat escaping when you open the door. Is it difficult to keep that great room warm - it’s got such high ceilings and hard flooring? Do you have underfloor heating? Love your videos and curious about the lack of lobbies! Good idea about the building project! Love 💕 to you all.

This was interesting, sounds very similar to houses in Finland. We have similar windows, fireplaces, insulation, ground frost issues etc. We too have heating boilers, but nowadays we try to avoid oil, so in here geothermal heating and electrical heating are pretty common. 🏠👌🏼

I live in upstate NY and I have a wood burning fireplace that I do use when it gets under 15 degrees. We get cold but nothing like you guys. It was a high of 14 degrees today and I thought it was frigid. Then again I also wear shorts everyday of the year.

Speaking of attic insulation: I live in southern, coastal Virginia and bought a 100 year old home that had no attic insulation when I bought it! I have since blown in R-19 cellulose. But it boggled my mind that there wasn't a scrap of insulation of any kind up there!

I used to live in Hawaii and our house had zero insulation. It was virtually plywood walls. You could take a regular claw hammer, hit it against the wall and go “oh look, daylight”. In Indiana you can get away with minimal insulation, mainly in the attic, but you also (should) make sure the walls are robust enough for severe thunderstorms. Or go brick like my dad for moderate tornado protection.

In California, our second heating source is Puting on long sleeves or a light sweater...lol We dont have a heater, we have a fireplace but haven't used it in years. In winter it hardly gets below 45f on coldest winter nights..

Howdy from Eastern Iowa! We're in a bit of a cold snap here. It was about -1 this morning, calling for -16 tomorrow. Some of the things you mentioned are things we do here, just not to as great an extent. 6" exterior walls are typical, though a lot of older houses just have 4". As for the triple pane windows, that's considered more of a premium feature, rather than a "must have". Pretty rare to have to shovel snow off our roof, but "snow load" is certainly not a foreign term to me! Radiant floor heating has become quite popular in the last 10 - 15 years. We generally have access to natural gas (in towns) or propane (rural), so no $3/gal heating oil. Ouch. I really like y'all's perspective. Alaska is definitely on my bucket list, and I don't mean one of those gimmicky cruises! I enjoy seeing how real people live, not just the tourist traps. Think warm thoughts!

After watching this video I really started thinking about what I want in my home. I hope to move into a house in a year. So thank you for making me think.

Wisconsin...newer home. We can’t get over that southern states put units in attics and washers in the garage! Here, basements are a priority and keep water and air heaters protected. Heated floors are popular but more expensive. But we have basements....so floor isn’t cold. We were only oil heat....but luckily natural gas is in the neighborhood so paid to have lines put in. Thankful for a fireplace , because if the power goes out in a snowstorm....it’s a blessing! We have outer storm windows and then inside double pane windows inside. Vapor barriers and 2 x 6 walls with Banting walls and attic. We occasionally get to 40 below....and happy our house is built into a hill....so the garage ( under the house) stays warm....spoiled 😊

Your blogs make me guilty for complaining it was too hot already :) it was 85 today in south florida

You may want to look into geo thermal for heat, and heated water. Since you have to already pre drill test holes you might as well install geo. Yes it is a little expensive but well worth the cost savings. In okla. they are heating homes 5000 sq. ft. at $99 month. We also use it here for a/c. Doubt If you will need that in Alaska.

I live in a hot part of Australia (sub-tropical Queensland) where it’s mid-summer now. I think watching your channel makes me feel cooler 🤣🤣🤣 My insulation is R6...what a contrast. We have multiple cooling sources - fans, air conditioning, wide eaves, trees for shade, etc. Here we get tinted of being hot or humid. Lately it’s been 30 deg Celsius with over 80% humidity. Just walking to the kitchen is sweaty! I do enjoy your channel. I like the fireweed hoodie! I’m holidaying in a cold place in May so I’m looking forward to getting one 😃. Thanks Happy People

We do have carpenter ants though! Like termites they bore into wood structures and leave a pile of sawdust. They literally destroyed my garden plot which was bordered with wood beams. They also ate through the wooden stairs at my old place. So now I use metal scraps from old projects to boarder my garden. But I’m in the Matsu Valley, where ants and slugs (which I never had a problem with until 6 years ago -slugs) are more abundant. I even had them eat through old railroad ties! Anyway have a wonderful day! It’s beautiful out for sure!!

We're in WV, our coldest temp is around 0 F. We just bought a house and we have baseboard heaters and a woodstove in the basement and the wood stove saves us a lot of money on the electric bill. Our house was built in 86, so the windows are single pane and need to be replaced with double paned. Maybe next summer!

Thanks for sharing! Love your videos! Hope you guys are having a blessed day and much love and God bless!

I live in northern Ontario canada, it gets up to -45 here so most of the newer builds have triple pain windows as well otherwise it'll get real drafty and of course raise the gas bill significantly. Lots of power outages as well so a generator is essential.

🌵 AZ homeowner here 👋 . We have a ton of blown-in insulation in the attic (and we got a decent rebate from the power company for adding it), because 115 degrees in the summer can make for a painful electric bill otherwise. 😬

I found your comments interesting. We lived for 32 yrs in the Interior of Alaska, the last 26 yrs at 8.5 mile Badger Rd. We bought a spec home at the end of the pipeline building boom (1977) with 2x4 walls 🙁 but that was all that was available... To compensate for some that, we banked snow against the exterior walls. We added more fiberglass insulation in the upper crawl space but discovered that there were no vents in the soffits. Fortunately, the roof was a gable style. We installed an old style attic fan blowing horizontally. Before the fan, we would ice on the INSIDE of the walls up by the ceiling. Yes, we ran a wood stove and it helped but once time starting running the fan for a couple of hours a day, the lack of venting was no longer a problem... Yeah, well and septic systems and they could freeze despite heat tape. Finally I learned about a 100 watt trouble light about eight down the well casing and more frequent washer loads with hot , hot water. Now we live south of Tucson, AZ so friends tell us we went from the freezer to the frying pan! Yeah, we are full timers in AZ because who can afford two homes?? Not me...

ND we are pretty similar. Our windows are double pane and we heat with propane which is very reasonable. We used to heat with a coal furnace hopper system but propane has become cheaper and less messy. -28 below wind chill right now...we have a lot of wind and not a lot of 🌲

I’m in N. C. In a small country town. We have a wall gas heater and gas logs, also a wood heater. We use electric heat and air pump all the time and the gas wall heater in are basement.

Interesting video. Here in Portland, OR I have an older 1929 built home and had to install a sump pump to prevent water from coming into the basement. Quite a pricey venture but nice to have a dry basement.

I live in New England and there are a lot of similarities! Metal roofs seem to be pretty popular up north due to the snow loads. I find it funny you call it a crawl space, we call it a basement or cellar.

We currently live in south Florida (it is such a long state, you have to say north or south!), though planning on relocating to join family in Wasilla in 2021 after our baby graduates high school. Here we have mandatory "Dade County hurricane standards" for all home construction. Hurricanes are a regular concern, with several scares annually, and a bad hit ever 3-10 years. Insulation is important as well, but for the opposite end of the thermometer you use (the top part you never wear out in Alaska!). Basements are rare, partly due to the low elevation. Our house sits less than a mile from the Atlantic Ocean on an geological formation called the Atlantic Ridge looking down on the houses around us - as we sit all of 30 feet above sea level. Most of the coastal areas down here are all sugar sand - almost no other material in it. Think the sand in an hourglass. Difficult to compact and hard to excavate, as it continually slides back into the hole. We DO have snakes, and cockroaches, fire ants and scorpions. But no moose or bears (in our local area at least, there are plenty black bears a few hours north of us). We also have alligators here and LOTS of raccoons...and iguanas. I'm sure you saw the recent national news about our severe cold (it got to the 30s!) (ABOVE zero :P) that had iguanas falling out of trees...that's a real thing. Every place is different...some are just more different than others :) Appreciate your efforts here. You are a regular part of our Sunday binge watching Alaska videos in preparation for our move. Keep up the great work, Peace!

I wondered why you have such a large house & why Bert has a office out of the home?

Living in northern Indiana we typically have poured concrete basements with 4"-6" framed living areas. I also have home in Florida, do to insects (termites) and many others we have a masonry construction. Typically slab floor and block structure with wood truss roof system.

It’s so interesting to hear about you experience living in Alaska someone that lives in a tropical country. Greeting from Bogotá, Colombia.

I notice you don't use drapes or many curtains. We have cold weather here in Maine so I use lined drapes which I pin together with clothespins at night to keep the cold out - not pretty but warmer

Here in Wyoming we have double-pane casement windows. We have a lot of wind here, so although we don't have a lot of -20F air temperatures, we have that in wind-chill. The entire back of our house faces south, so we rely on passive solar for heat during the day. Great video!

We have constant weather change in Colorado, we we deal with quick deterioration of things like roofs and such. In the morning it could be below freezing and then afternoon it’s 70 degrees.

You guy should ad a clock/time stamp on one of the corners, I always wonder what time is it, if is AM or PM

As an Arizonan I am very fascinated the stuf in Alaska because it is such a difference frome the 117 we get here

Here in Ohio most houses have basements. A lot are “walk out” basements where there is a door leading outside. It comes in handy when we have severe weather or tornados. A lot of people will finish their basements to add extra bedrooms, family rooms, or playrooms to the house.