Reminder: Avoid frozen and burst water pipes and huge plumbing bills.

[NutmegYankee]

7. The insulation isn't always great up here.

The Northeast has the oldest average housing stock in the USA. My house was built in 1961 and could really use some improved insulation. The electric and natural gas prices are outrageous, but 80% furnaces are still the norm. I did luck out on natural gas. Most of the region is heating oil or propane. And about 10% use wood, running wood fired central furnaces as well as cast iron stoves. Thankfully this region has trees everywhere. And I mean, Everywhere!

I'm not familiar with foundation skirts. Most homes have full basements and you see the house sitting on the upper 2-3 feet of the basement concrete wall. Basements are a necessity to ensure the service lines can come in well below the 4 foot minimum depth and serves to protect the rest of the plumbing that would be exposed in a crawl space. It also is convenient to keep the rest of the house smaller in size to reduce heating/cooling/taxes since the basement area is not taxed. The 840 sqft down there drops to about 55°F at the lowest in winter, but that's still tolerable.

Now banking on climate change, I did install central AC using the existing gas furnace network. It's not perfect since the ducting was designed for heating and I lack a proper high air return, but it made the last few summers quite comfortable. I'm slowly seeing neighbors who never used AC (even window units) give in. It was once a freak occurrence to have a night with a low in the 70s. Now it can go on for stretches of a week or more.