Going Solar

Hurray! Our system is up and running. With two systems this size, we are hoping to make enough energy here in the summer to offset all our winter heating needs. Living in Nevada is the perfect environment for creating energy--nothing but sun and wind most days.

This is a on-the-grid system, meaning that we don't have battery back-up. All our energy goes into the power company's system and then we use our energy off their system too. There is an $8 a month fee to be hooked into them, but that's it. You should see our meter spinning backwards!

We get 1/3 of the cost straight off our taxes this year and the rest of the system should have a pay back period of about 7 years, based on current use rates. But if the cost of energy goes up, it gets paid back faster. Some advisors say that investing for future savings is not the wisest use of your money, but we think it is a no-lose proposition. We will have free energy for the rest of our lives.

It comes with a computer read out to monitor energy output and use. On the first day we produced enough energy to save 6 gallons of gas. The group of solar owners that we are part of are creating enough energy to be equivalent to taking 3093 cars off the road. Yahoo!

Water Re-Circulator

If your hot water tank is a fair distance away from your indoor spigots, you might want to consider installing a water re-circulator. Brad installed one at my mom's house for her. We already had one at our house. The idea is that this little pump on a timer will send hot water through your pipes, so when you turn on the water, it is instantly hot. No wasting water while you wait for it to warm up.

You can get one at any hardware store for about $100. They take an hour or two to install. My mom said that there was virtually no change in her gas bill and she isn't washing her hands in freezing water any more. Save some water!

Now You're Cooking

My mom gave up a month of her life and a lot of her money to have this kitchen turned into something beautiful. The house that I grew up in was built in 1962 and the kitchen was pretty close to original. The granite countertop alone is heart stopping. Almost all the cupboards were replaced. She kept the flooring, the frig, the microwave, and the dishwasher. That helped keep the costs down. She wisely used one of those all-inclusive services called Kitchen Mart, and they really did it all. They came back several times to makes sure every detail was the way she wanted it.

My favorite parts are the little triangular phone spot in the corner, and the crushed granite sink. The wallpaper we choose together, a fresh modern green leaf pattern with silver highlights that glow in certain lights. I am so proud of her for taking on such a big project alone and now she will reap the rewards for years to come.

Quick Hint Tuesday

Peppercorns -- I buy regular black peppercorns in bulk from Costco. Then I go over to World Market and get a small packet of pretty colored peppercorns -- pink, green, and cream. It's easy to mix them together and get a reasonable mixture for my clear pepper grinder.

Caulk singles -- Great idea from GE. Disposable, single use, clear caulk that you squeeze. I am going to buy dozens!

Big Baggies -- did you know that you can buy ziplocks (I think they are from Glad) that are 12x12? This the perfect size for scrapbooking materials. You can set up kits with cardstock, patterned paper, embellishments, and photos all kept together until you get around to making them.

Planting Big Pots

Potting up large, heavy ceramic pots can be a real pain. I bought two identical ones from Thailand for $34 each from Costco, but then I had to plant them.

First, be sure to place them on rolling planter holders. This keeps them easily mobile and prevents your deck, patio, or rug from rotting.




Keep them as light as possible by filling them with styrofoam peanuts. You can get them very inexpensively from your local mailing center. Fill the bottom 2/3 of the pot with the peanuts. Cover that with a thick plastic trash bag that was cut open and then punched with several holes, for drainage.







Fill the center with high quality potting soil, amended with a slow release fertilizer like Osmocote and possibly those water retaining crystals. Trim the excess plastic from around the edges.



Pot the plants of your choice. I selected two small purple fountain grasses for $5 each from Home Depot. In a month, they have grown to almost fill the pots. Sometimes, a real pain is worth the effort.

Campfire

Probably our favorite thing to do when we have guests is sit around the campfire with a cold drink, just letting the evening go by with quiet good conversation.

The fire ring from Home Depot was my Christmas present from Brad one year. We gathered small river rocks from roadside (we live near the river and they are abundant here). Dug a small ditch around the ring, placed the rocks, filled the center of the ring with a few inches of decomposed granite, and backfilled the outside rocks with a little decomposed granite too. It worked perfectly.

The firepit is in the center of a clearing in the yard, with lots of open space. I feel very secure. It has four comfortable adirondack chairs with footrests. What a lovely way to while away a summer evening.

Outdoor Living

Last winter we had the deck re-built; it was in sad condition. The new one is basically the same, just a little bigger at the edges. We’ve owed the dining table for several years now. The outdoor kitchen consists of a BBQ, rotisserie, griddle, burner, sink, and refrigerator. The outdoor furniture with Sunbrella fabric is from Costco and the durable rug came from Lowe’s. The ceramic planters are filled with fountain grass that I planted and hopefully they will fill in quickly.

But the thing that makes it feel finished is the shade sails from Reisinger Rigging that we put up a few days ago. I’ve been obsessed with them since I saw them last year at Moana Nursery. We finally decided on these sails and I think they’re perfect. This is the preliminary design, we will make a few adjustments. They add a modern, artsy quality to the backyard. They were easy for Brad to put up and he has attached quick-release carabineers, in case the wind gets out of control. In the winter, when we take them down, we’ll still get the sun warming the house.

It’s been a project that we’ve worked on for over a year and it’s finally to a stage where we can enjoy being outside most of the time, basically increasing our living space by half. When you count our outdoor bedroom, we could live out here all summer. If we added an outhouse, we’d never have to go inside.

Pantry

My pantry is the part of the house that usually impresses guests the most. It’s clean, well lit, and organized, and it stays that way. I have dreamed of a pantry like this all my adult life and I finally have it.

To create it, we took a window wall and built this 6x8 foot pop out box. So you have to picture this box attached to the outside wall where a window used to be. If you have an outside wall available to your kitchen, it’s not hard to do. It’s just big enough for one person to stand in the middle and see everything. It is directly next to the refrigerator, so all of our food is in this corner.

The first thing that people notice is that the light comes on automatically when you open the door. Easy little switch installed in the door frame, just like your frig or oven. You know that you always have your hands full either coming in or going out, so it is nice not to have to fumble for the light switch.

The shelves are a standard 12 inches deep, so things don’t get lost in the back. Bigger, heavier items are simply stacked directly on the floor. If I had a typical closet style pantry, the first thing I would do is take out the shelves and create this U shape, even if they were only a few inches deep. It might seem like you are losing space, but I think it would be a more usable solution. Our contractor used carpentry biscuits for the joints, if that means anything to you.

I went to a lot of trouble to make sure that you are not confronted with a wall of labels when you open the door. The clear round containers were purchased from the professional kitchen store. They pop into the dishwasher and I can rotate the contents easily. Three baskets hold the smaller items and break up the landscape a little.

I removed all the labels from the big Costco spice containers. You can tell what they are by looking at them. Although I think that Trader Joe’s has done a good job of making their boxes and cans pleasant to look at.

Spices drive me crazy. Ultimately, I’d like to have all clear matching jars, but at $1 each, that would be at least a hundred bucks. You can never find what you need that matches what you have, so you end up with a mishmash.

I used leftover flooring pieces to create little stairs for the jars. I know I could do better if I bothered to saw them off at uniform lengths, but this works for me now. Yes, they are organized alphabetically (by type of jar). It’s anal.

Sunset Idea House Sneak Peek

Sunset House, originally uploaded by c8mills.
When the invitation to the Open House Reception at the new Sunset Magazine House in Truckee came in the mail, I almost fell over. We still don’t know why our name was on the list, but we were glad to get a chance to go, for free, without crowds, with appetizers, and wine!

The house is built in the typical rich Tahoe style on a golf course. It’s not as big as you might think, because it is in a basic U shape. The main living area runs cross the bottom of the U, with a large outside deck, and then two small bedroom wings. They’ve included fancy technical stuff like radiant heating, solar power, tankless water heaters. And they used a lot of exposed concrete and reclaimed lumber for the building.

Sunset Living Area

Sunset Living Area, originally uploaded by c8mills.

The Pluses:
Custom work—the stonework is all hand laid, the trim is finely detailed, the lighting fixtures and metal work are all custom iron.

Bold Colors—the colors are these intense deep vibrant hues. And they use a lot of different ones in small doses all over the house.

Outdoor shower—I adore outside showers. This one is fully enclosed in a separate room on the side of the house with French doors going into the master suite. It has a roof and a lumber grating where a window would be, so it really didn’t feel that “outdoorsy.”

Wide open deck—made of concrete. I didn’t find out if they had hydronics underneath, because if they don’t, they are going to be hating life when a 12-foot snowstorm comes. Lots of room for people and parties, and sunbathing (except that you couldn’t because of all the golfers walking by).

Separate guest house—we both loved the guest house and decided that’s where we’d stay. Just a bedroom with a tiny bathroom and a fireplace.

Extra large windows and sliding glass walls that fold completely out of the way. Really opened up the south side of the house to sunlight and fresh air to counteract the darkness.

The Minuses:
Exposed concrete walls—I know they are economical and help mitigate temperature fluctuations, and it’s suppose to be all modern and cool, but it really looks tacky.

Out of area landscape architect—Truckee’s environment is so unique, they should have gone with an experienced local in this area. They are going to be sorry.

Too exposed to golf course—First thing I’d do is it plant really big trees and fill in with bushes. It’s not just a “golf course view,” it’s wide-open, everybody-stare-in, view.

Dark interior—a big pet peeve of mine. All of these very expensive Tahoe homes have deep overhangs and little windows, mostly painted deep colors, dark rockwork, with dark wood floors and trim. It’s the style, I understand, but it would get depressing to live with daily.

Sunset Outside

Sunset Outside, originally uploaded by c8mills.

Special touches:
Shelving in the living room--I will copy these for my living room someday.
Kitchen table composed of a big black box for the base and a thick wooden slab bolted on top.
Japanese style bathtub on the deck, although you would want to use it out there in front of everyone parading past.
Hand glazed tile were truly stunning. I also liked the steel lightening fixtures, cool and funky.
The metal trough water slough in the front courtyard was different than the standard waterfall.
Railroad pegs in the rock wall in the mud room for hanging stuff.
Semi-enclosed outdoor kitchen—gorgeous bbq in a separate kitchen area off the deck.

************

You can see the rest of my photos here

Sunset Idea House opens to the public today and will be open on weekends through October. (For $15!!)

Sleeping Outside

Oh, my goodness! Pure joy to wake up under a canopy of wisteria, birds singing, sun just peeking over the fence. Long ago, we would pitch a tent in the backyard to enjoy summer nights, mid week, just to add some spark to our lives. We found that we loved sleeping out.

When we moved to this house, the previous owner had built a private little garden off the master bedroom in a side yard. He built an arbor and grew wisteria up the sides and over the top. Under this he put a hot tub. We thought this was ideal, soaking in the tub that first winter was a pleasure. But when spring arrived, we wanted a place for an outside bed and the arbor was just sitting there unused.

Off we went to Home Depot, buying plywood for the base, a wooden door for the headboard, outdoor carpet for the “floor.” It took us one afternoon to build the platform for the hot tub. We got a mattress and hung a mosquito net, making a cozy nest for the two of us.

The hot tub is still there, functional, if we want to use it. But honestly, we never have. Maybe this autumn, we’ll get it running again. In the meantime, we fall asleep to a chorus of crickets and frogs, the stars twinkling through the wisteria leaves. We are lucky here, most nights there’s a gentle cool breeze that rustles the leaves. It's one of the things we do that makes summer a very special time for us.

If there is anyway you can arrange to sleep out where you live, try it. It'll change your view on life.

Shower Remodel

I wish I had a picture of the old shower to show you; it was truly awful. Our friend Brian did the remodel and Tim did all the tile work. It’s great when you have talented friends. I asked for a seat, because it just seems practical to be able to sit and shave your legs or just rest for a minute. If you have room, it’s a high priority. I also asked for a ledge about four feet from the ground. Brian thought I was crazy to have it framed in, but it’s perfect for the soap dish, shampoo bottles, razor. It works.

Instead of being totally square, we cut the corner off to make more floor space in the bathroom, so we needed to have a custom pan made for the floor because it’s an odd shape. We framed a short wall about two and a half feet tall on the outer edges which we topped with clear heavy glass. The wall is tiled on the inside, making it less expensive and easier to clean. I was against the clear glass really, because it’s hard to keep from water spots. But I think it was the right decision; opaque would make it too closed in. Now we have to squeegee it off after every shower, but it’s a habit that you soon get used to.

We had to redo the seat because it slanted the tiniest bit towards the back, which made the water pool against that back edge. If you ever remodel a shower remember to tilt everything toward the center.

(The window you see in the last pic is just a reflection in the glass).

Carpet Diem

The other day I found myself vacuuming the garage, which is an odd thing, if you think about it. When remodeling the house, we tore out the carpet to put in hardwood floors. There was a lot of leftover carpet. Brad cut it up and made these runners and step covers. Now that it's getting cold and since I tend to walk around the house barefoot (love that Heatizon), it's was a shock every time I needed to throw a bottle into the recycling bin. Now it's a real pleasure to go out there.