Cottonwood Meadow

In the Meantime

2012-02-14T22:36:00.000-08:00

While we are waiting for the containers to be delivered I came across a little container inspiration.

This house is fantastic, a totally unique placement that we hadn't thought of before. Have to keep this in mind for the next container house;-)

Check out more pictures and details of this great French creations HERE.

Wedding

2012-02-12T17:40:00.000-08:00

Something happened that I didn't really blog about at the time and that was that Kyle and I got married. YEH!!

October 1st my mom was out visiting for one of her usual trips and we had persuaded Gary and Maureen (Kyle's brother and girlfriend in-law) up to meet my mom and hang out in the mountains.

They arrived and we went headed further into the Sierra's to Bassi Falls to go hiking and check out the waterfall which is AMAZING. If you want to check it out on Google Earth go to 38.5333N 120.1950W, its at about 5,500ft elevation.

And at the top of the falls Kyle popped the question. I was completely surprised as was my mom and we were even more blown away that Kyle had, had Gary an official justice of the peace to perform marriages in the county for 90 days. Maureen has smuggled up flowers and a T-shirt that said Bride for me to wear.

It was the most perfect day and I couldn't have dreamed in my wildest dreams that my wedding would be so amazing. Kyle went to so much planning and effort and both Gary and Maureen were amazing partners in crime for him, they are fabulous.

It was windy way up there so we all look a little blustery but from left to right is my mom Jo, me, Kyle, Gary and Maureen.

Of course my mom was over the moon, she adores Kyle, and was texting all her friends before we even got off the dirt road from the falls.

We had a fantastic dinner that night at the Sequoia House including our own personalized Wedding Cheesecake and some great Champagne. I think I was pretty quiet the whole day, just so stunned that we were actually married. I guess that is what it takes to shut me up.

My mom took more formal pictures the next day which is shown above. She also very generously got us a great wedding present.

Yes, we got a backhoe attachment for the tractor. Kim Kardashian eat your heart out, bet in your multi-million dollar wedding you didn't get a backhoe. Every girl's dream#(*$&@)$&#)

So now fast forward and we are in the thick of the house building so needless to say I will be cashing in on that postponed honeymoon as soon as this house is finished!

Second Concrete Pour

2012-02-12T11:50:00.000-08:00

Friday was another bright and early morning meeting a concrete truck or two to pour the floor for the crawl space, and the walls and floor for the well access to the crawl space.

Not that this is the most exciting process but it provides us with a lovely smooth surface to try out some concrete finishes so we can choose what we want to do to the final floor surface on the house floor.

Hard to see but I engraved Ziggy, Denali and Wolf initials in the concrete. We will probably do their paw prints in the back patio concrete later on.

Then the floor was poured, this part is pretty cool. It looks like glass when its done, such a satisfying process.

Tricky part is grooming the concrete till your stuck in the corner.

So now you do the big reach....

and then the long pole comes out.

Then you can kick back and admire your hard work and hope to goodness a dog doesn't come along and jump in - goodness knows they tried!

So next step is .....drumroll.......the part everyone has been waiting for. The containers!!!

I think Kyle found the best ones so we just need to get a few more pipes and drainage installed and give the concrete time to set up and then we can get them delivered and get the crane to place them.

Stay tuned.

Compromise

2012-02-09T15:15:00.000-08:00

There is action at the building site, just not visual changes. The footings are in and sealed and the drainage is placed around the foundation perimeter.

This week the interior of the foundation was leveled and filled with gravel and the crawl space was prepped for its concrete pour. After our second county inspection this morning we are set to pour the floor of the crawl space and the well area that will provide access to said crawl space. Such exciting stuff......

One thing that we run into again and again with this building adventure is certain people's refusal to do things differently from what has ALWAYS been done. I understand the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" but in reality much of it is broke and does need fixing. Yes, most of our homes keep us dry and somewhat warm but they could keep us a lot warmer for a lot less work ($) and they could be built a lot stronger and last a lot longer will less maintenance.

When we started this process one of our missions was to use as many resources that were located close to home, on the divide, in the county, certainly in the state, as possible. We ran into many people right off the bat that didn't want to do any work for us - too weird. Even to the point that one structural engineering entity in the next town over told we COULD NOT BUILD THIS HOUSE, it was impossible. Well, you just chuckle and say thank you very much and move on to prove them wrong.

As much as we want to utilize local resources, we also want to be green and use better building products and processes and when locals aren't up for it we are forced to move further afield. We have accepted it, but we did offer it up to our neighbors first. It is a shame that so many just won't think out of the box and take on a different challenge. We are aware that it might cost more or take longer - use us to try it out, what else are you gonna build right now?

On the other hand we have been lucky to use locals quite a bit to date. Our surveyor, geologist, engineer, excavator, and concrete guy have all been locals and they are great to work with. They all know each other, work well together, are very laid back and easy to get along with. Up until now our concrete has been sourced locally on the divide but they aren't really thrilled about some of the concrete selections we have for the slab and ICF walls (fly ash and lightweight) so we will have to say goodbye to them and move a little further afield. Such is life.

And though our windows are manufactured in Colorado (not many California manufacturers to choose from for windows) the ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) blocks are manufactured in Bakersfield, CA! Yeh, B-Field! I will do a resource post soon and list where we got everything.

The entire building process is a real eye opener and there is no way anything can prepare you for the real thing. Like the county that wants to inspect the tissues you use to blow your nose, do the holes in a french drain face up or down (thanks Google!) and how many pizzas do you need to order for the entire concrete pumping team? It's all the little details, small decisions to make everyday and dealing with me constantly changing the house design and being told I can't put a door there because it is a bearing wall......UGH!

So another concrete pour tomorrow - stay tuned!

Our Neighbors

2012-02-07T22:25:00.000-08:00

When we first moved to the property there was a project that was just getting underway in the El Dorado Hills area. It was touted as a very green, prototype house that was utilizing ICF for both walls and floors. I found their website but at the time it was in its infancy and there was little information.

Fast forward to 2012 and a few of the guys working on our house mentioned this project and have worked on it, multiple times.

So if you have a spare moment check out our neighbors, technically not neighbors but you can see this house from our place.

http://www.casabellaverde.com/ - its something else.

Picture from Casabellaverde.com - artist rendering

No Turning Back

2012-02-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

When its been set in concrete there is a certain finality, point of no return. You can't sell a piece of land with footings for some random house that most people wouldn't want finished let alone with all this work to do yet.

So Friday morning dawned with a feeling of full force forward as we watched the first concrete truck rumble down the driveway - only to have it stuck in the mud 1 minute later. Oh, the joys of building in the winter.

Fortunately everyone moved quickly and we got gravel under the tires and it was able to haul its own immense weight out of the deep ruts it had made. So on we go.

Along with the concrete trucks themselves we had a concrete pumper, here is the pumper above.

Of course what else do you call yourself when you are a cool concrete pumping dude, his real name is Ed and he rocks. Its amazing to watch this thing in action, Denali was very scared of the big black hose that seemed to have a life of itself as concrete pumped through its entire length.

Working with concrete is a bit stressful on the day as its a combination of wait, wait, wait - MOVE, MOVE MOVE. It took a small army of guys moving through the forms and multiple layers of concrete, so they went around the whole foundation a few times.

A little snippet of it all happening.

The hammering you can hear is their version of vibrating. You need to vibrate concrete in a form to get rid of air bubbles and make sure all the concrete settles evenly. With a big area like this they just hammer the sides of the forms to settle the concrete into place.

Here is the finished product and below are the footings for the mid-wall that will run between the living space and the second bedroom. And you can see Jim from Precision Concrete trowel finishing off the top of the footing walls.

The next morning the forms were removed and beautiful concrete walls were exposed. They really came out well.

After the walls were cleaned and removed of excess debris, Kyle coated the exterior walls and the interior drainage wall with dry-loc as an additional waterproofing before the gravel and drainage pipes are added around the exterior and on the interior wall where there is drainage.

Next step is adding the drainage and concreting the floor of the crawl space. Then the containers!!!

Calm before the Storm

2012-02-03T08:53:00.000-08:00

Shouldn't really say calm, should be nerves before the storm.

We (the royal we, I got nothing to do with it) have been pushing forward getting the forms built, placing over 1/2 a mile of rebar (this puppy ain't going anywhere), putting in steel plates to hold the containers, finding the exact measurements for window and door openings ("No Hannah, you can't have a bigger front door now"), inserting all the sleeves for electrical and plumbing to pass through the concrete wall, trying to locate the shy septic tank and make sure there is enough "fall" from the house to it so that "things" don't get blocked up and placing the plates for the shear walls, for East Coast peeps - that is for seismic protection, we have 8 shear walls in the containers alone.

There have been last minute trips to the construction supplier and overnight orders for bolts. Another rainy day didn't help but it is good to see the trenches drain well and no standing water.

Jesus is one of Tim's team and is awesome but we owe him some cookies since Denali and Ziggy got into his car and ate a bag of his cookies. Naughty boys.

Ziggy apologizing to Jesus for eating his cookies (or looking for more)

Denali basking with a full tummy of cookies.

So all this work led up to the big formal inspection by the County Building Inspector as well as our Engineering team. This is where the nerves came in. We are pouring tomorrow and if they find one thing wrong it pushed everything back.

Tim, Kyle and the County Inspector inspecting the plans.

Tim and Kyle laying the metal plates to hold the containers.

All that rebar - over 1/2 a mile of the stuff and we aren't done yet.

Stay tuned for tomorrow - the BIG POUR! The point of no return.

Always Something

2012-01-26T22:53:00.000-08:00

Well, what would a construction project be without its fair share of problems and hiccups along the way. The second week in we have had two. Both out our control....really mother nature - thanks!

Rocks and rain - lovely huh! As the excavation of the footings for the containers finished, which will sit on a crawl space so got dug out lower than the rest of the house, it exposed some serious rock formation that wouldn't budge with the excavator.

We went back and forth with the concrete guys (Tim & Jim of Precision Concrete), our engineers (Jim and Mark of D&Z Engineering) and our Geologist (Kelly Thomas of Foothills Geotech) on how to handle it. The concrete guys wanted to pin the rock and then form over the pinning. The engineers wanted to drill holes into it and use Dexpan to break up the rock and the geologist wanted to KEEP DIGGING!

The geologist won in the end, mostly because it was the cheapest option and didn't require him and the engineers coming back out and submitting more paperwork to the county. So enter my favorite toy -

Of course Kyle was at the helm and it took all day to get rid of the majority of the rock as I filled buckets with the debri and hauled it up out of the foundation.

It turned into a long night with us staying out there till 9pm and by 4pm it had started raining - of course it did.

So with the rain we also had to dig some trenches so the foundation would drain. It was a long, wet, cold night but we got it done and the trenches didn't flood. And what a storm it turned out to be.

The storm was so bad that the next night I was up all night as the camper rocked and rolled from the wind and rain. I hope there aren't too many of those before we finish the house, that wasn't fun.

So the rain has passed and we are back to sunny days. The mud is drying up and hopefully we will be pouring the concrete next Thursday after the 236 people (slight exaggeration) that have to inspect it first have done.....the red tape is ridiculous and I know our county isn't even the toughest.

EVIL PIPE

2012-01-21T11:14:00.000-08:00

Yes, it truly is an EVIL PIPE that has plagued us since we moved in 3 years ago and it continues to do so to this day....

There used to be a water spigot right in front of the house. We initially thought it was fed from the house water source but one day it sprung a leak, and after turning off the house water we realized we were wrong because the water kept flowing and flowing and flowing.

Higher up on the property we have a cistern that had a 2" pipe leading out of it directly downhill toward this spigot so our second thought was that it came directly from this.

So that day (you can read about that leak HERE because I know you can't get enough of our plumbing escapades) we had to drain the entire cistern, a couple of hundred gallons, and then were able to fix the leak and get the spigot back working.

Well, when we were going to be moving the house, this spigot was in the way so we needed to cap it off below ground level. Eventually we knew we would have to pull it up and cap it off further up the hill as it ran directly through the foundation of the new house but for now just eliminating the spigot was the task of the day.

So on Christmas Eve we repeated what we had done a few years ago, turned the spigot on to drain the few hundred gallons out of the cistern and then we would be able to take off the spigot and cap it.

Well between 2009 and today we had installed this:

Mr 2,500 gallon tank. It is fed from our spring and provided a consistent water supply to the workshop of cleaner water than the cistern provided. What we didn't know is that somehow the EVIL PIPE somehow connects to the water to the workshop and not directly to the cistern. Its complicated and we still don't know exactly how its configured but needless to say later Christmas Eve night - we had NO WATER:-( Its really fun to inherit other people's "ideas" of plumbing!

Yes, the EVIL PIPE drained the entire 2,500 gallon tank and we had no water. Fortunately we have another 5,000 gallon tank that we used to fill the 2,500 workshop tank and by morning we had aqua and got the pipe capped.

So when we needed to excavate for the foundation we found where the pipe ran further up the hill and after shutting the water off at the big tank (trying to be smart here), we drained the EVIL PIPE and Kyle cut it off in order to install a spigot on that side of the driveway. No reason why the EVIL PIPE couldn't be useful for car washing or irrigation one day.

This, of course, all had to be done at 9pm at night on one of the coldest nights we have had yet. So Kyle is working in a 5 foot wet hole in the partial blackness and I am handing him parts and pieces and thinking I haven't been this cold since I had horses, just a little reminder not to have horses again.

We got the spigot installed and were all ready to turn the water back on - this was my job!

I turned the water - all at once. Apparently not the correct protocol with new plumbing. Needless to say the water flew downhill fast and burst out our new plumbing work.

After Kyle bailed out the water from the hole we were able to get a cap on that stayed put when I turned the water back on for the second time - slowly, lesson learned. But the saga with the pipe is still not over, we need to find where it begins and once and for all be able to turn it on and off without losing ALL our water.

The ~~nightmare~~ joys of home ownership!

Digging in the Dirt

2012-01-16T12:07:00.000-08:00

The latest action on the site has been excavation of the pad. Through moving the home we met one of our neighbors - Jeff Proft - who has lots of fun equipment that Kyle drools over like that CAT that moved the home.

Jeff and his whack skilz worked for two days digging the crawl space under the containers and leveling out the pad and the back patio area.

He also cut in a new portion of the driveway so we have a circle around the tree, as seen here on the far left of the pic.

Jeff also cleared a fire break lower down on the property, I think it turned into one of those things of "well, while you are here!!"

Of course the entire work was carefully supervised - Ziggy is on the job.

And Kyle was able to sneak in a little toodle around in the CAT - He is in love. I don't think this picture captures his HUGE grin from ear to ear.

Not just moving, Moving a house

2012-01-12T13:29:00.000-08:00

So moving is a house is way more complex and involved than I had ever anticipated. And moving a house that has sat for 40 years in the same spot is VERY complicated.

As if removing the roof (which was entirely transported to the new location - every single shingle), the deck, the porch and demolishing the concrete ramp and walkway weren't enough......

John (the home's new owner) had to pretty much strip the inside removing shower doors, mirrors, every light fixture, drawers, anything that could slightly move. All the doors were taped shut and the windows taped and secured. There was a brick surround on the floor and walls around the fireplace that was all removed (and transported to the new home location). Then the electric, gas and water were disconnected and the house was split into two.

Then all the underneath piping was removed and each side had supports inserted to hold the centers. Each side was then raised up off the piers and its tires were installed and the hitch (or tongue as is the correct term).

Once all this was done (which took forever), the homes were moved via a CAT to the top of our driveway so the mobile home movers could just roll in, hook up and leave.

Of course, as with anything that you move, there were issues. Houston - we have a flat.....

But this is not these guys' first rodeo - Oh, no sirreee Bob.

My caulk gun to the rescue....they caulked the inside of the rim which allowed the tire to slip back on the rim and seal with the air in it.

Yes, that MacGyver guy in the middle is Kevin, our fabulous mailman. He is the brother in-law of John who is taking the house. (yeh, this guys knows how many Netflix I go through a week)

But that wasn't the last of the work - Oh NO!!

The house had to be wrapped in plastic and then criss-cross supports installed for transport. Needless to say the prepping went on till the very final moment they rolled out of the driveway.

The guys that moved the homes were sure characters as were the pilot cars drivers. The house is moving 17 miles as the crow flies but the route that they have to take, because we live on a type of island with canyons on each side, resulted in a total of 65 mile trip. It took 5hours......not sure I would want that job.

It was pretty stressful getting these things ready and watching as they left the driveway. Not sure what I expected to happen but watching a whole home that big move on these little wheels was unnerving.

So Bye Bye little home for 3 years. Thanks for protecting us from the elements and enjoy your new home in the south (17 miles south that is).

Now you see it, Now you don't

2012-01-08T15:56:00.000-08:00

And that is that. More details on the move to come.

Getting it Done

2012-01-06T15:20:00.000-08:00

This whole house project revolves predominantly around us doing most of the work. We are acting as our own contractor and taking on the majority of the projects ourselves with just the big items being fielded out to subs.

Well, with this partial demo of the old house to ready it for moving, we have gotten our first real taste of "doin' it yurself". Phew - it is rough. It took about 2 weeks of work just about every day. Some nights we were out there till after 11 o'clock at night. I found I don't function well past 9:30pm, I start getting careless with tools hence how the crow bar met the side of my face and a particularly wretched nail wanted to live in my knee.

The demo included removing the back deck and closet, removing the front porch, demoing the large handicap path made of concrete, removing most of the interior wood panels for use in the new house and of course this is after we moved all our stuff out and into storage.

It was exhausting and though demo is fun and I love just being active and productive, mentally its rough because we are tearing apart and not putting our new house together. Soon enough we will be out there at 11pm installing radiant tubing in the flooring and I will still be whacking my thumb with the hammer and crying that I wished I was in Hawaii!

Kyle is amazing and is such a workhorse through all this. He really pushes the schedule and gets things done. The day we took out the handicap path (yes, our neighbors hate us for the jackhammer for 16 hours that day) he was on that jackhammer for over 12 hours. The path was a beast to get rid of. I got a turn on it at the end of the end of the night on the flat part of the path - now that is a VERY cool toy.

Update to house - the dozer hasn't moved this morning, not sure what is going on. House still IN THE WAY!

Jeopardy Theme is right

2012-01-05T15:13:00.000-08:00

A comment today referenced a continuous, very quiet Jeopardy Theme song continually playing in the background. Nothing loud or imposing, just a subtle, continuous replay of that ever so memorable tune.

NO KIDDING! We finally put a deadline of Jan 10th (that is one month since it all first started) to get the house outta here.....times a tickin' people.

The house is already in two pieces and moved a little -

Well, this afternoon a very large CAT rolled in, the dozer type - not Meow type. I presume it's to move the two pieces to the top of the driveway in anticipation for official removal on Monday. If not, it can easily just plow them over and we can bury them, kinda like a 1972 time capsule;-)

Lord willin' and the creeks don't rise, no really, they rise, this house is going nowhere......

Kyle came in and told me he traded the house for this - THE NEW HOUSE. Uh, Big NO on that one baby.

The Waiting Game

2011-12-29T21:08:00.000-08:00

So now everything hinges on moving this house. Maybe its the time or year or the nature of house movers but no one seems to be in a hurry. Its a tad frustrating but we are grinning and bearing it.

Tomorrow we are picking up the rented jackhammer to go to town on removing the handicap ramp that is in the way of how the house will be shifted to leave the property. Of course the ramp would have to go anyway as it would be directly outside the back french doors of the new house facing the wrong way and as much as Ziggy begged it to stay as his new skateboard ramp, no such luck. Its outta here.

Hopefully we will get a moving day nailed down in the next few days, we can't move forward till we at least have a date and for sure have this house gone!

Stage 2 - Moving the House

2011-12-27T12:01:00.000-08:00

Now that our permits are just about ready, financing in place and contractors waiting in the wings our next step is to move the existing house on the property.

We have been looking for a new home for the house and have been inundated with responses of which most didn't pan out as people don't really think through the whole home moving issue.

At last we found a great, local family who have land and just need the home. They have been coming over everyday to prep the house for moving and have single handed removed the roof and loaded it onto trucks to move to their place to rebuild.

All the trusses and wood framing was in fantastic condition, a testament to the shake roof and the great job it did protecting the structure for over 30 years.

The roof needed to come off completely prior to the house moving as it was an addition to the structure after the fact and was too tall to transport. The family will rebuild the roof over the house once its in place on the new property.

They found this cedar shake that told us the roof was added in 1976 (the house was put on the property in 1973) and the shakes came from local trees and were hand split by the original owners. Every shake was removed and transported to the new property. They will use them for the chicken coop roof and some other applications. You can no longer have a wood roof in California, fire hazard.

Kyle and I also removed the back deck and front porch that were added onto the house. These were not as good construction though we have salvaged all the decent wood from these for use as shoring on the new house and a temporary deck around the camper we are living in till the house is complete.

The interior of the house is comprised of wood walls and ceilings. It was quite a feat of work and must have taken ages to complete. The walls have sheets of wood that are over 2" thick, 8' tall and up to 4'wide. All this wood was cut and milled on the property so Kyle and I pulled out quite a bit of what we wanted for the new house and can't wait to integrate it into the design in the loft area, doors and kitchen.

It wasn't easy to remove these pieces, they were on there so well it would have taken an unprecedented act of Mother Nature to tear them down, or Kyle and I. We had to be so careful so as not to damage the existing walls or crack the wood - NOT EASY. It took up to an hour to remove one panel, we tweaked, used crow bars, made wedges out of 2x4, tried to pop nail heads just to list a few techniques we used to get these puppies off. And they weigh a TON. Now starts my fun of pulling all those nails out of the boards.....hours of enjoyment in front of me. The wood we left will be used by the family and they have some great ideas for it as a built in dining room and some other tricks up their sleeves.

Its great to know that just about all the parts of this house will be re-used and so little has gone to waste. It also makes you think hard about how you construct a house and the products you use. There is some real junk out there that doesn't last and results in some terrible waste.

The final pieces to the removal include demoing the front concrete pathway (hopefully give that away on Craigslist), cutting power and water to the structure and then at the last minute splitting it in two for transport. Both Kyle and I and the family can't wait to get it situated in its new home so that they have a house and we can jump into starting our foundation.

Love with Two Wheels

2011-12-06T09:06:00.000-08:00

I just came across this stunning reno - its a 1954 Airstream (drool in itself) that has been completely renovated by Timeless Travel Trailers for Orvis and is being auctioned off.

Check this shizz out -

It includes reclaimed wood floors, calico hickory veneer siding, leather upholstered seating, all aluminum (that's Al-U-min-ium for the Brits) shower, flat screen TV and blue ray, and a wine rack. SOLD!

You can see more stunning pics HERE and if you have a spare $100k, take a bid, hey its for charity.

The Difficulty of "Giving" Away a Home

2011-12-02T15:52:00.000-08:00

So as we teeter on the brink of breaking ground one of the last and major hurdles is to magically get rid of our lovely current abode seen here - (sans the drill rig)

After an ad went up on Craigslist the first time - 17 calls in 10 minutes had me pulling it down IMMEDIATELY and quite excited about the interest. It seemed that the world wanted a free home and that we would have no trouble getting rid of it.

Enter - Stupid Humans. Sorry, that might be harsh but honestly, people don't think when they see FREE, they just react, engage brain and common sense later.

So here is my ad:

We are looking to give away a 1972 Arctic Mobile Home La Cruz Double Wide

It is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, kitchen, living room, dining room, extra room, laundry room. Kitchen includes full cabinets, dishwasher and oven. Bathrooms include all facilities.

It measures 60X24

We will remove the roof, porch and deck prior to moving so it can travel.

Not sure where I went wrong with the wording and I had to reread it a few times to make sure I hadn't inadvertently said RV, on-site etc...

Here is an example of some gems we got in response to the ad, I weeded out the ones that were so hopped on some kind of drug that their messages sounded like they were 2yo:

Respondent 6: Yeh, I am interested in the home for free.....details, details.....Oh, I need land to put it on? Okay, never mind!!!

Yes, you need somewhere to put a 60x24' HOUSE - its not an RV!

Rsepondent 8: Will it fit on my 20ft trailer and can I move it in one trip?

Ummmm, its 60ft LONG - don't think 20ft trailer will do it and its 24ft wide, you would take up the ENTIRE road, doubt the county is gonna like that.

Respondent 12: Hi, I am interested in your double wide mobile home.

Huh, what, where am I, what mobile home, Uhhhhh, its 5:02AM on a Thursday morning, why on earth are you calling me NOW!

Well, can you take my number and call me back with more information about it?

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even find my feet let alone pen at this hour.

Respondent 13: Why are you removing the roof?

Don't think our neighbors will be thrilled with losing power as you drive down the road with a 20ft tall house tearing out the power and phone lines as it goes and you better hope there isn't a tunnel on that route to your place.

It will never cease to amaze me the ability of man to miss so many obvious logistical issues when reading an ad.

Happenings

2011-11-28T07:58:00.000-08:00

So things are finally happening - slowly but happening. We close on the loan hopefully in a week and a half. So the next big hurdle (although that is the HUGE hurdle in itself) is to magically eliminate this from our property.

There is a lot of interest in people wanting to take it which is our first hope but moving it is a challenge living on the Divide and being surrounded by canyons and there seems to be an issue with moving a mobile home of this age so we are checking that out today. (Though I hope that no more interested people from Craigslist call at 5:15am again)

If that option fails then we will demo it and send what we can for parts to a mobile home dealer/owner, recycle the rest and re-use what we can - no, not the molded shell sink of faux marble, happy restore will get that!

So once this lovely abode is gone we will break ground and we can't wait. I will never be so happy to see a big whole in the ground.

Container Clairol Color #4

2011-10-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

The two storage containers we installed alongside the workshop for storage got a makeover today. We acquired on container for free from an insulation company in Redwood City and the other container Kyle had in Sonora. They were white and blue prior to this makeover.

Now they are a lovely green that matches the base of the workshop. Next step is to build a roof over them to drain the water away from them and keep the sun off of them. I am also pushing for new doors as container doors are cumbersome and difficult to open and close, that might be wishful thinking though.

Shake, Rattle and Roll

2011-10-27T00:17:00.000-07:00

11:30pm PST the shaking started and I just thought it was Denali scratching. Well, low and behold we had an earthquake. Check it out here on USGS. The open star is where the epicenter was and the red filled in star is where we live.

This was my official first earthquake so it was cool that it was at our farm. Well, that was the excitement for tonight and Denali and Ziggy slept all the way through it. Wolf was behaving strangely, makes me wonder if he knew something was coming, not sure if they have that capability.

Goodbye Princess Puzzle

2011-10-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we lost Princess Puzzle. She was 14yo and the vet thinks she had a stroke. Puzzle has been the matriarch of our puppy family for many years now. Her adoration of my mom was second to none. She was the loveliest of ladies but yet as tough as they come and known for taking a few kitties out in her time.

Puzzle was rescued by my mom at the Fair Hill International 3-D event in 1998 right by a driving hazard named "The Puzzle". She wasn't with my mom 10 minutes when she got caught up in her leash and broke her leg (the thought was it was a previous break, unhealed). So Bagel and I's first introduction to Puzzle was her flailing around with a cast on her leg for a few weeks.

She was a great traveler and it wasn't long before she moved with my mom and Bagel down to Virginia. Throughout her life there were multiple trips to Arizona and California among other states she had listed on her passport.

She was the softest puppy and you could tickle her ears for hours. Obviously a very tolerant one (as seen in the shot above), she was very patient with "the boys" and when Wolf joined the family they became thick friends.

A few weeks ago Puzzle flew out to California to retire in the sunshine with no stairs to deal with and a nicer climate. She adapted well, bonded with Wolf again and enjoyed snoozing in the front of the house in the sun, barking at the deer that weren't there and coming for cuddles every 15 minutes.

Puzzle is buried at the house in California overlooking the property. She is sorely missed but we had the best life with her. She was a pure pleasure. So incredibly loved.

Payback on Eco Home Upgrades

2011-10-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

A great graphic from the website One Block Off the Grid
As we know, increased insulation and leak proofing are your biggest and easiest bang for your buck. Especially for homes built by building companies and/or older homes. They don't go the extra mile on insulation and sealing leaks so its worth a close examination to increase your house's efficiency.

Home Solar Power Discounts - One Block Off the Grid

After it went Wrong

2011-09-16T10:14:00.000-07:00

Things go wrong - all the time but I figure as things go awry while I am working on the workshop or the trailer or our cabin in Twain Harte, I am learning (what NOT to do, not necessarily what TO DO) and hopefully things will go better on the house.

So to improve the trailer prior to move-in I wanted to paint the bathroom. I had to have one room in that thing that didn't scream early 90's bad trailer design with hospital walls. I wanted to paint the bathroom a bright, clean white. Into the fray with nasty, old paint (that I thought would work as a good primer coat) in 90+ temps in the trailer (no hook-ups for the A/C yet) I went to work taping off the edges and painting away.

After a complete coat I resigned that this paint had had ~~better days~~ better decades so I broke down and got a new gallon of bright white, semi-gloss LOW VOC (of course). 3 more coats (who knew hospital walls were such a baneful adversary) I stood back and smiled at the nice fresh feel it gave when you walked into the tiny room. Now wait for it - I went to pull off the tape before the last coat dried but didn't score the edges - BIG MISTAKE. I have read every blog on painting, every DIY Network, every This Old House episode, everything on how to paint and pull the tape off, you always cut the edges to get that clean look (you also don't use decades old paint left over from previous home owners as your base layer).

Needless to say huge swaths of painted surface came off along with my favorite Frog Tape. FAIL!

So with a visit from Jessica Ely, a little brainstorming and a quick trip to THE DEPOT. We amended the situation with this.

I was so upset with the painting situation I forgot to get a shot of the great peel. I gotta get better at taking shots of the bad stuff. But the remedy consisted of 5 sheets of this cool glass tile that was ridiculously easy to install - I mean a 3-toed sloth could of done it. There are a few tiles that look wonky and that is because the trailer back wall bows out, thus distorting the lines. Sometimes you just have to work with what you got.

The great part is that Jess and I bought 6 sheets of the tile, which was on clearance ($4 per sheet) and when I didn't need the last sheet THE DEPOT refunded it, they are truly awesome with their return policies.

I need to finish up the caulking in the whole bathroom, some touch-ups and then a big clean but it looks pretty good in there. I also have a new shower curtain and rail to go in there as I ripped out the old DOOR, who puts a DOOR on a shower in a trailer! I also want to add some shelving above the toilet too so stay tuned for that.

So the take-away (I hate MBA buzz words) is don't use decades old paint -DUH! Don't paint when its over 90 degrees (just like it says on the paint can) and score your tape before ripping it off......as I said, a 3-toed sloth would have more success in DIYing the trailer.

Note - yes, I would love to rip out and destroy that countertop but that's not going to be realistic at this point. Gotta put the limit on the trailer reno and because trailers are always irregular sizes and funky angles and nooks and crannies its a nightmare to retrofit so faux marbelized, plastic counters it is.

Let there be Light for Laundry

2011-09-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

We installed some homemade light fixtures in the workshop bathroom/temp laundry room. Kyle picked up four colanders and converted them into light fixtures and they are perfect.

They give off lots of light with their great CFL bulbs and have that industrial feel and ARE NOT bug catchers.

We are working on the plumbing in that room in preparation for when we get the tractor back from being fixed and can finish all the trenching for the water lines across the property. Yes, we are experiencing a significant schedule delay!!

Truck Lined Boots

2011-09-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

Kyle is brilliant (at least I think so). He is always thinking out of the box and comes up with great solutions to problems that I would NEVER have thought of.

Recently he got 2 new pairs of Blundstone boots, the greatest boots ever made in my opinion. He got a pair for working on the farm that have steel toes and a pair that he will keep "for good". For any of you that know Kyle, wearing a non-working pair of boots that aren't caked with mud is pretty dressed up for him.

The steel toed boots that he got for the farm always get pretty scuffed very quickly. Because of the steel front, the leather doesn't give when it hits anything and thus the leather gets a hard wearing in a short time.

So enter Kyle's thought process - Rhino coat type of covering does a great job protecting my truck bed, why wouldn't it work for my boots! But of course.

He used Truck Bed Coating by Dupli-Color and taped off the toes of his boots and applied to clean leather. He then let them dry and this is the result.

Will let you know how long it holds up. Even if its only a few months, its easy enough to reapply continuously. And of course I love that he has patent leather toes now!!! Bling Bling....

Learning plank

2011-09-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

So we are moving forward with the house building. The county are making us demo our current house before we start on the new house. We are making slow headway with installing the new water and power lines, more on that in a later post.

With our current house getting ready for demo we will be moving into a 32ft trailer. Its actually really nice for a trailer with a separate bathroom, big bedroom, two La-Z-Boy recliners in the pop-out (that is RV talk for little bump out) and HEAT!! Which I am really excited about, it will be much warmer than our current house this winter.

I decided to do a few upgrades to the trailer, one of which was install new flooring to replace the carpet. Nothing worse than someone else's carpeting. So I looked for the cheapest laminated hardwood stuff out there as a) its a trailer and b) this was my first foray into laying hardwood floor so I knew there would be a learning curve, or plank.

We found this stuff at Costco and at $1.56/sqft it was financially ridiculously doable and destroy-able should the effort go array. We chose Golden Aspen color as it was light and you wouldn't want anything too dark and heavy in a little space like a trailer.

This stuff is a floating floor and it clicks into place on both the long and short sides. Sounds easy enough. Of course fitting this into a trailer meant that after all said and done, there were only 2 boards that didn't require ANY cuts of any kind. Phew, a lot of cuts, angles, re-cuts, re-measuring, cursing, cutting the wrong side, more cursing, re-measuring, re-cutting and running to Costco to buy another box.

I will say I tried hard to utilize my skills of efficient resource usage to minimize how much I would need and use. Which was going well until I realized these guys have you over a barrel.

You can see here how they click in place so there are overlap edges and underlap edges. So as you move and cut this design forces you to use a new board for EVERY cut. So if you have a board that you cut in half to fit into a spot, you cannot use the rest of that board because it now doesn't have the correct form on the top. So they trap you into buying A LOT more boards than you would need and leaving you with an immense amount of waste. NEVER again. A complete waste and very disappointing. The only redeeming quality is its CARB compliant and made of 74% pre-consumer recycled material. Look at all this waste, whole box!

The other issue is that it ruined 2 saw blades making the cuts, should have used the tile cutter after scoring. Needless to say Kyle wasn't happy when he went to cut a thick piece of wood for his project and the blade started smoking....Ooops.

The floor does look good. I added quarter round on the edges which finishes it well. I spray painted the registers using Oiled Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint by Krylon. It will be much easier to keep clean. I started in the bedroom and you can see some of my mistakes but I learned a lot in the process and by the end really go the hang of it and was utilizing some other tools to perfect my cuts, angles, edges and seams.

Blog Comments

2011-09-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

So I am hoping my commenting issue is finally fixed and that all can comment freely and without having to register or give up their first born. I did have to add that horrible word verification part as I got a ton of spam about World Domination etc.. and I need no encouragement in that department.

If you still have issues with commenting on the blog, email me and I will try to fix it, try being the operative word here.

thanks for hanging in there and reading, all 7 of you!!

Greening your roof Greenpeace Style

2011-09-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

This is so cool, literally cool....cooler.
Greenpeace is trying to encourage residents to switch out their dark roofs to white and they are using these great images to sell their appeal.

Here are some facts about white roofs if you weren't sold from my previous post on the impact of roof color. Thanks to Inhabitat, as always, for a great post - Love them.

"A roof covered with solar-reflective white paint reflects 90 percent of sunlight as opposed to the 20 percent reflected by traditional black roofs. This reduces energy use and air conditioning costs immensely. This equated to $735 million a year, according to Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, if 85% of the buildings in the US are to implement white roofs."

Former president Bill Clinton is also an advocate for the cause, saying on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart “Every black roof in New York should be white, every roof in Chicago should be white, every roof in Little Rock should be white. Every flat tar surface roof anywhere! In most of these places you could recover the cost of the paint and the labor in a week.”

Slidin' Doors

2011-08-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

One thing we are keen to incorporate into the house are sliding doors. Wherever it makes sense to put them and they will fit we want the door to slide and not swing. Some might be pocket doors and others might be just fixed to the wall.

You lose a little wall space but you gain a lot of space inside the room and hallway by eliminating the swing.

You can also use all kinds of reclaimed items to make the doors out of as they don't have to be perfectly square and plum.

Its also cool to see all the different kinds of hardware you can use and displaying that is part of the charm.

It can get pretty rustic and the handles can be made out of anything as they are just pulls and not the click into place knobs.

One issue is that they aren't always secured shut and with one puppy that is quite adept at opening and closing doors there may be rooms we want to ensure he can't get into so you can get creative with locks and bolts.

I love the double doors, makes such an impact when you open both to reveal the next room.

Ohhh the drama!

This one below is my favorite, I love the window panes, very British but you have to have a set up like below or else it will look odd when its open against a wall. Maybe as a pocket door for a bathroom and you could frost the windows to let light in.

These are such great, cool, eclectic options for the house, each door can be different and unique and we can do them ourselves as there is a lot of room for error. You can take a regular door and rework it so it rolls instead of spins. The one thing is you would want to watch the weight of the door, nothing to heavy for the weight on the hardware at the top as well as the weight to push it closed could get to be a headache.

Up on a Hot Tin Roof

2011-08-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

I hope not - but we got the color chart from the roofing manufacturer so we can start the, what will probably be a lengthy, deliberation about what color our roof will be.

There are lots of color choices for standing metal seam roofs but the important part in choosing is the TSR or Total Solar Reflectance value assigned to each color. TSR is the sum of ultraviolet, visible and near infrared (IR) reflectance. Ultraviolet makes up 5% of the electromagnetic spectrum, visible 43%, and IR 52%. The 52% long near infrared wavelengths are invisible to the eye yet provide a significant portion of the suns energy heating the earth’s surfaces.

Yeh, aren't you glad someone else gets to run those calcs!

Here is what the Unpainted Galvalume looks like on a lovely pink, what I hope is beach house (our house will not be pink).

I really like this look and think it will go with the house well. Best of all its TRS is 68% which is one of the highest values you have have.

Re-Nest just did a great post about a cool organization that is promoting white roofs to reduce heat absorption. The White Roof Project is raising both money and awareness to turn dark roofs light. They have some great research available but the upshot is:

	Black Roof	White Roof
TEMP Outside	90°
Roof Temp	180°	100°
Inside Temp	115°	80°
Reflects Sunlight	25%	85%
Saves Electric Bill	0%	40%

Of course there a many other factors that a cooler roof influences but these are the biggest bang for your buck so to speak. And our house won't have A/C so we won't see any $ savings but we will be cooler and when you don't have A/C you will do whatever it takes to keep that place cool.

Back to my handy dandy color chart.

UPDATE - here is a good example of the color we are leaning toward, though its not set in stone yet.

If you have that Stove you HAVE to have the fridge too

2011-08-03T13:46:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, it just gets worse....off to buy some more lottery tickets.

New Toy

2011-08-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

Seems like new toys arrive at the farm every few months or so....fortunately most of them that come earn their keep and then some.

This one is no exception. Our new arrival, a backhoe......okay, simmer down, I know you are excited.
Here is the first and last shot of him all new and shiny and clean, won't ever look like this again. More pics of him in action soon.

Anyone need a pool dug - or some "other" kind of deep hole?

Pallet Walls Complete

2011-08-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

So update on the house is we are about ready to break ground. Few little final things to complete and one LARGE thing to complete. The LARGE thing is that we have to move out of and tear down our existing home. No small feat. Before we do that though we needed to renovate the little bathroom in the workshop to accommodate our fridge and laundry until the new house is finished. It also was just in dire need of an overhaul.

This is pretty much the before look -

It had a toilet and tiny sink that had seen better decades and there were a lot of appliances in there when we moved in.

Well we gutted, tore a wall out, cleaned, insulated, caulked, primed, painted and then we needed to cover the walls. Not being fans of drywall I thought it would be fun to re-use pallet wood to cover the walls.

Ta-da:

I ripped apart some free pallets we scored from Jen M. and Zach B. (otherwise known as Zen and Jach) and spent more days than planned measuring, cutting and getting them up on the wall. I learned a lot during the process, like next time make sure the pallets are all alike.

For the other walls I used some old wood we had from the little picket fence that sat outside the current house that we ripped out as soon as we moved in.

And the last wall was done using some old fence panels that we also got from Jen and Zach before they moved to the northern tundra (Portland).

The whole process was kinda long and a bit tedious and would have come out better had I not been so frugal utilizing every tiny little leftover piece but all in all for a workshop bathroom I am really happy with the outcome. Pallets ROCK!

We still have some things to do in the room like get the plumbing in, the on demand, tankless water heater (love you) is already up. We need to get the light fixtures up and the sink and toilet in and I think I will throw a coat of Linseed Oil on the walls too. But its slowly coming together and will be great to have a potty in the workshop again, that 500ft treck to the house is a kicker.....

Warning, this post is detrimental to you pocketbook

2011-07-31T16:29:00.000-07:00

One of the things we are struggling with making a decision on for the house is a stove. We know we want stand alone, 36", all gas, with multiple shelves in the oven (for multiple baking sheets full of doggy cookies).

We have looked at everything from Wolf, Viking, American Range, BlueStar, Dacor and the list goes on but all come with bad reviews of some sort and some have higher sticker shock than others but none compare to what I fell in love with today.

May I introduce to you the Château Series from La Cornue. Made just outside of Paris, these stoves have got to the Porsche of the culinary world and are basically completely custom designed and made for you specifically.

But ultimately its like having a mad crush on Tom Sellick, read - its never going to happen. Why you ask? Simply put, the $103,150 price tag would just judge our budget a tad over. And when you amortize the cost over all the doggy cookies it would bake, its a pretty pricey pooch bakery.

So we will keep looking and reading reviews and just in case I will cruise Craigslist in case anyone bought one, didn't like it and are willing to let it go for a few dollars.

The Best Drill Set EVER!

2011-07-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

Capitals and an exclamation mark - that is how crazy good this thing is.
After buying a couple of drills over the years, all different brands, Kyle got me a new DEWALT drill set last Christmas and its unbelievable.

First off, its small and very light. I have small hands and inevitably you are drilling or screwing in some awkward location and those heavy drills weigh on my arm. These things are so light and small they fit everywhere and I can hold them up for hours. BUT - they don't lack an ounce of power, in fact they are the most powerful drills I have used. They are easy to work, change bits and the batteries.....where do I begin. We just got back from a trip to AZ where we were working on my mom's property that has no power. I hadn't used the drills in a month or more, I plugged the battery in for 20 mins before we left and that sucker ran strong during all our work down there and never ran down.

This is by far my most favorite tool and I really never rave about tools, they are tools, they are supposed to do the job they are built for, end of story. But these suckers go way above and beyond and make DIY so much fun and so easy. Can't recommend these enough.

Check them out - disclaimer: we paid in full for these tools from Amazon and have not been paid or taken any sort of remuneration for this review...they are just flipping good.

Working on the Farm

2011-06-26T23:12:00.000-07:00

Working on new mulching on the blueberries - the Kubota got a full work out.

Costa Rica Container Living

2011-06-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

So even though there is no love lost between the country of Costa Rica and I, I do appreciate this fantastic container home built just outside of San Jose. Its beautifully done with a great idea to insert a clerestory level in the middle of the two containers which also allows rooms to be a tad wider than the 8' the container gives you and allows for full house ventilation to cool the entire home with no air conditioning.

Its simply appointed and finished out so cleanly. And the best part, it was only $40k so the homeowners live there debt free (the biggest goal of my life). Just another fantastic example of what you can do with containers (especially when you are not hampered by U.S. building code hassle) with a tight budget.

Check out more on Inhabitat who featured this project on their site today. Happy Container Friday!

The Ultimate Home - I am in LOVE!

2011-06-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

I can't even explain how much I love this home, its honestly the house I dream of, the house I want to build and I think we might be heading in the right direction.

This home is featured today on Jetson Green, one of my favorite blogs and the home is built by Free Range Building Company.

It is constructed from mostly salvaged materials and the attention to every detail is absolutely stunning. Its truly one of the most exciting homes I have seen, ever.

I gotta stop drooling and start planning......oh, little house in Walla Walla, how I do love you!

Here the house is featured on Zillow.com

Wood Plank......

2011-05-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to find this and see how amazing it looks -

Can you believe this is concrete, will last a lifetime, no splinters, no upkeep each year with re-finishing, its fantastic. I normally am not a fan of stamped concrete, but this is certainly an exception. I am looking into the cost of the stamps and think I might "try" it out at the cabin in Twain Harte first and if all goes well and I get the hang of it integrate it into the new house, maybe the front door area for starters.

So excited!!!

More Tractor Supply Decor

2011-05-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

I have to say I am loving this Tractor Supply movement for Home Decor, nothing like bringing the barn into the home. Check out this previous Tractor Supply lovely.

So these are grain scoop candles, how crazy is that. I do think they look pretty cool as sconces, they would be even better with electric lights (I always forget to light candles). These grain scoops are featured here.

I also loved this shower basin, though not sure how easy it would be to clean. The huge benefit here is it would be non-slip. Thoughts of old age and having to equip myself with one of those emergency alert buttons for fear I would be lying on the floor for hours wimping pathetically. Check out that post here.

I really don't need to say anything here, this is fantastic and actually cooler than the dumpster pool. I heart this pool very, very much. Check out more pics of that here.

We are off to Twain Harte to work on the cabin this weekend, finish the siding, put the window in, all fun and DIY games!

Fantastic Container B&B in Uruguay

2011-05-26T08:58:00.000-07:00

Inhabitat featured a fantastic container home built in Uruguay (where you are freely allowed to build something other than generic builder cookie cutter home, so much for freedom of living in the U.S.).

It sits right on the beach in Uruguay its comprised of 4 shipping containers and has solar hot water installed on the roof.

Check out more at Inhabitat and start planning your trip!

GOATS - Jollity Farm

2011-05-20T16:13:00.000-07:00

After reading in our local paper (The Georgetown Gazette, and no it is not carved into rock, it is printed, on paper, still) that there was a new goat farm, Jollity Farm, and it had just become licensed to sell the cheese that they make onsite from their own goats.

So I ran over as fast as I could to check it out and meet the goats.

Charley and Kyleen have over 40 goats with more babies on the way. They had some of this year's babies already on the ground and they were so ridiculously cute but didn't want to be photographed.

I got a full tour of the facility seeing where they sleep, are milked, where the milk is filtered and the cheese is made and aged.

WARNING -LOTS OF PICTURED OF GOATS AHEAD

After I bought 4 kinds of goat cheese I headed back down to take some pictures of the cuties.

They were so excited to see me and came running up to the fence and standing on anything they could find to get as close to me as possible.

They were so inquisitive and put their faces right next to mine for lots of smooches. Of course, what I didn't realize that was while I was smooching on them, they were eating my camera!

They were fantastic, and to think that I would be munching on their milk tonight was so cool.

I think even they were pretty impressed with themselves and put on a little show for me.

They had lovely grassy fields to eat in and they were all so shiny and healthy and happy and people friendly.

Sighh, I cannot wait to go back (and drag Kyle with me) and get more cheese and more goat pictures.

Pah....decorating ala Tractor Supply

2011-05-03T15:59:00.000-07:00

I guess after 30 years in a barn nearly everyday, it cracks me up that some bring the barn into the house. Probably like those women that spend $500 on jodhpurs and $700 on riding boots (ladies, you know they are cheaper at your local tack shop than Ralph Lauren).

The rest of the house isn't as cool but you can check it out HERE

This is My New Front Door

2011-04-22T09:28:00.000-07:00

Haha, I wish. Seriously, this is exactly what I would love for the front door, wonder if its DIYable?

Just another Sunday

2011-04-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

Spent the day gardening and mowing with new eco-electric lawn mower that I love. Plug it in a gooooooooo. Unfortunately the garden doesn't look quite like above, soon;-) but does look like below, getting there. Also, now have 3 VERY clean puppy dogs, they smell like rose for about 20 minutes.

Drool Factor

2011-04-17T17:12:00.000-07:00

Drool Factor, these are made from porcelain, they look just like shiny tin cans. Love them.

http://globalhomeny.com/index.php/silver-porcelain-canisters/

This is my next project, think I will use wine barrel bands and willow branches....fingers crossed!

TheDesignerPad - The Designer Pad - Home Contained

2011-04-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

We saw this container house project get started last year in Kansas City and its now complete. She did a great job of keeping it interesting and not all boxes and squares. I love the interior container walls, so interesting to have the 3-D effect. Its very aqua, I will give them that.

Check out pictures of the house on Flickr

Check out the latest container offering from Missouri, this now makes 2 container home in Missouri! Go figure.
Here is the other project, I love Marti's finished house, she did a fabulous job.

Here Kitty Kitty

2011-02-10T18:54:00.000-08:00

We decided to get a kitty cat at last, we may have over done it!

(Seen in the middle of the night via our stealth camera....was hoping for some deer, maybe a coyote, or this guy/girl)

EnGuard™ - GlassFree Insulation Technology

2011-02-02T13:31:00.000-08:00

After building my office on the second level of our workshop (pictures to come) we had a huge battle with insulation. Trying to find an eco-option was a miserable experience. Using any kind of denim or recycled content was 5x the price of regular insulation. But beyond the cost was attaining any of these alternative options. They were no where to be found. Dow create a great eco-friendly insulation option but only sell it on the east coast. Shipping huge batts of insulation, not an option!!

So we decided to go off to the DIY center and try the Bonded Logic Ultra Touch insulation, which was a nightmare. You have to blow it in and it went everywhere, covered everything, was hard to breathe and you had to install and then wait a few weeks for it to settle and then return and top it off. Not a good system. We would have loved to do spray foam, which is what we want to use for the house, but for such a small area it wasn't worth getting someone out to do or buying/renting the equipment.

We ended up going with the nasty pink stuff for the walls and rigid insulation for the roof but chose one that uses a high % of recycled content, there must be some kind of compromise, right, I was freezing in this office. So it is insulated.

But there is a new kid on the block - EnGuard. Made from recycled content ( a mix of post and pre-use) it just hit the market. They look like big foam batts like you would jump on in gym class and you can install sans gloves, masks, eye protection, breathing apparatus, ventilation that includes removing the roof - just 2 hands and half a brain. Check! Doesn't it look like she is having fun.

Price wise its about $0.72 per sqft. for the R13 and R19 and R21 options are coming out. The regular pink stuff is about $0.50 per sqft but add in the installation headache and all the safety equipment you need - ridiculous.

The only thing I can't figure out about EnGuard is where to the buy the stuff - so far it looks like the east and south is it....Don't these people realize that more green building is going on in the west. Hopefully they will get the message soon (after they receive my 238 emails).

Check it out - EnGuard™ - GlassFree Insulation Technology

Easy Peasy Grey Water Recycling

2011-01-25T09:13:00.000-08:00

Greywater recycling always seems like such a no-brainer. Using your expended washing machine, dishwasher, sink water for washing your car, watering the plants etc... seems so obvious and easy in theory. Of course, retrofitting your existing house to make this easy and more automated (because let's face it, unless its easy, we aren't going to do it) is actually kinda complicated and can get messy. Not to mention that its against many uptight town ordinances - apparently they would rather pay money to filter drinking quality water for you to shine up that '05 Ford Fiesta rather than you use the slightly tinged laundry water.

But here is a great concept that looks pretty easy to install, makes total sense and probably wouldn't come across the radar of your local housing inspector....not that we want to cheat the system, just cruise the edges;-)

The Sloan Aqus Greywater System filters your sink water and uses that to flush the toilet. How brilliant and easy. They claim that it can save a household upto 5,000 gallons/year. I presume that is based on not having low flush toilets and probably a family of 4 that drink A LOT! They do provide a water savings calculator on their site but you have to know what you pay for water per gallon, if you pay at all. Just the water savings, let alone any cost savings, to me, make it worth it. They also have lots of other water saving products for the shower and sink, must research those more! One of these includes a urinal system, something that Kyle would love to install in the new house. NO WAY - we are not building the Staples Center here...

Anyway, the Sloan Aqus is rumored to be in the $400 range, I am sure it wouldn't be hard to build something like this yourself if you have a Home Depot near and a nose for plumbing goop glue - its purple, its pretty.

I would love to install this idea in the new house. Aesthetically I didn't really want cabinets under the sinks but maybe there is a happy medium...stay tuned.

Source - Inhabitat

Opting Out

2011-01-21T11:58:00.000-08:00

I get excited for the mail to come. Not that anything really exciting comes by mail anymore, unless its those ever so generous folks at Amazon who seem to adore Kyle and send him gifts all the time;-)

So the mailman comes and I cannot wait to see what has come, who loves us or what exciting things I am going to learn from my magazines. Yes, I have become a magazine addict and love my subscriptions. I have a good amount that come, mostly house stuff and building things. They are great and I keep them all as reference. But the guilt of all that paper being used on me does get me down. So I figure its time to cut down (again) on all the paper I receive but DON'T want. Like all those catalogs - who shops from a catalog anymore, I just go online. And the phone books (yellow pages) - Kyle LOVES these things. They drive me crazy, because I can never find what I am looking for, it still necessitates a phone call (I hate talking on the phone) and they take up so much room and you have to have one for every since town in the area. We have a ton and I have decided that enough is enough and we are opting out.

(This is a test to see if Kyle reads this blog without being prompted because he will throwing a hissy fit if he finds out I canceled all our phone books...stay tuned)

So - in case you all want to follow suit:

Opt out of Phone Books HERE
Opt out of Catalogs HERE
Opt out of Credit Card Offers HERE
Opt out of Direct Marketing HERE
Opt out of those Stupid Blue Valu-Paks that never have anything you are interested in HERE - Note:You need to enter the info exactly as it's printed on the Val-Pak you receive, so you may have to wait until you receive the next one. You can also email valerie@valpak.com with "Remove From Mailing" in the subject line. Again, you need to include your information exactly as it appears on the envelope.

And then try this DONOTMAILREGISTRY - hopefully it will cover all the other garbage the above links didn't HERE

DoNotMail claims that "...more than 100,000,000,000 pieces of junk mail are delivered each year—that’s more than 800 pieces per household. In fact, junk mail in the United States accounts for one-third of all the mail delivered in the world. Even though 44% of that mail goes to the landfill unopened (source: EPA), we still spend 8 months of our lives dealing with it all." source - Greenhab

Architecture and Hygiene

2011-01-06T18:41:00.000-08:00

I could never quite understand the Hygiene part, it always seemed a little bizarre but then I guess you have to be a bit bizarre to build homes out of shipping containers and that Adam Kalkin does very well. Adam's Old Lady House is just another example of his great work with containers. More a simplistic take, this is just a lovely, nestled arrangement that leaves a fabulous living space inside.

via Inhabitat
http://inhabitat.com/adam-kalkins-old-lady-house-is-a-modern-shipping-container-masterpiece/

2010 Container Projects

2010-12-29T12:03:00.000-08:00

Though most of them are commercial outfits a few are just fantastic projects.

Jetson Green

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2010/12/recycled-shipping-container-projects.html

Jetson Green

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2010/11/off-grid-container-cabins-from-15k.html

Inhabitat
http://inhabitat.com/exclusive-pics-shipping-container-prefab-home-pops-up-in-ny/

Inhabitat

http://inhabitat.com/shipping-container-rainforest-home-survives-category-5-cyclone/

Pretty Container

2010-10-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

A fabulous container guest house was just featured on Desire to Inspire (love that blog) - its a guest cottage made from a container and they did a fabulous job of mixing true container with an attractive cottagey feel.

They did such a great job, I love that its still container on the outside, but its not that noticeable or dirty looking, like some projects. Check out the blog and look at the cool composting toilet they put in, great idea to avoid putting in a septic system just for a small place or having to tie into existing and then getting all the hassle of the permits and putting another bedroom on your system and its probably not rated for that. I think these new composting toilets are the way to go and even though $$, they are A LOT cheaper than digging up the septic and re-doing it!

Container Dormitory

2010-10-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

How amazing would this have been when you were in Uni? Container dorms in Le Havre, France are made from used containers and each contain their own bathroom and kitchen....not too shabby.

Inhabitat Link - Container Dorms

Container Cabana

2010-08-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a fabulous and easy container reno with all recycled material. Not a bad location too.Posted from ReNest.

This will go on the inspiration list for the house in AZ, this is a perfect design, just needs to incorporate a few more containers for size....Great out there for ventilation, cooling, shade, and rainwater collection which is vital.

its 2 x 20 ft containers sandwiched together for a nice size little get-a-way. Check out more pics HERE.

Java love

2010-08-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

I hate coffee, never had a cup of the stuff, love the smell, hate the taste, ICK! But I do love the bags that coffee comes in. Not the little waxed or plastic bags at the grocery stores but the big, burlap bags that the beans come in from the plantations before they are roasted. I had no idea that coffee beans were green - who knew.

Anyway, Kyle has been getting some coffee bags from the coffee roaster next door to their fire station in Emeryville. Well, I have been having fun playing around with the bags. The successful project a cool pillow - and it has a zipper!

There are 2 other projects I am attempting - one is not working out so no more will be said on that subject. The other is covering our ottoman.....just got a new electric staple gun for that puppy. I can't wait to get started. And I am also taking sewing lessons so hopefully my skills will improve.

Green Cork, Cork that is Green by design not color

2010-08-12T13:27:00.000-07:00

There is a great article over at Re-Nest today on how green and sustainable Cork is. Its got some great pictures of cork harvesting and the piece stresses how regulated the cork industry is in the Mediterranean regions where it grows so well. Check it out.

You had to go There

2010-07-23T16:29:00.000-07:00

Of course, you knew the second this was released that we would covet the idea. yes, dumpster pools. SO EXCITING! We aren't big "pool" people but when the temps hit 100 here it would be rather nice to have a little splash. But we have no intentions on spending tens of thousands on a fancy pool by some fancy contractor.

See the full article at Inhabitat

Enter - the Dumpster.

Such a fantastic idea, just dig a hole, stick the pool in, insert liner and water filtration and rotation system and voila, a lovely pool that is just deep enough and just big enough for fun. And if you ever don't want the darn thing, just pull it out and fill in the hole, or build a wine cellar.

And speaking as home owners that have a filled in old swimming pool in the front yard - pools stink, now we have to dig up the concrete, what fun.

Denim Pine

2010-07-22T12:15:00.000-07:00

A repost from ReNest - I just found out about Denim Pine .

Hmm, sometimes things cross your path and you wonder if its just a green spin on a regular or alternative product or if it really is an innovative alternative use or product. It can boggle the mind to try to think what are the repercussions, unintended consequences, what have we not thought of that will come back to haunt us if we jump whole heartedly on the band wagon. But as Treehugger says - "Silk Purses from Sow's Ears".

Denim Pine is one of those things for me. It sounds so obvious and cool and makes perfect sense, but is it?

So we have all heard of the Pine Beetle infesting the lodgepole pine in much of Canada and parts of the NW U.S. Its devastating to the lumber industry and I know in Canada they are using much of this infested wood for industrial, throw away uses, road base across sensitive perma-frost in the summer for access to remote logging and mining locations. But now its starting to make an entry into the design world and my first impression is, its really cool, makes perfect sense and could start to be an upside to a rampant infestation that looks to have no solution.

Because of the higher temps, call it Global Warming, Climate Change or just a trend, whatever you believe, the pine beetle is thriving with these mild winters and hot summers of late. The pine beetle brings with it a fungi that infests the wood and ultimately kills the tree. So they harvest the dead tree and utilize the wood - which has no reduction in strength than a non-infested lodgepole pine, once milled and kiln dried the fungi is gone leaving the wood, so they say, free of health risks but leaving the wood with a blueish hue. It is banned in the U.K. because of health risks but I couldn't find anywhere that talked about and health consequences.

Its actually a really cool blue color and after living in a house that is wall to wall, yellow polyurethane wood paneling, I am loving the cooler, blue color, lightens up the wood look. Could it be that we could utilize this already dead resources and thus preserve healthy, strong trees?

You can read more on the facts of Denim Pine HERE. Or get industry feedback HERE.

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl

2010-07-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

Kyle asked me if I wanted a new car or a little utility vehicle for tooling around the land. I chose Lola and now that i work at home she also serves as my commuter vehicle, though Ziggy often causes a back up on the driveway as he stops to sniff and pee.

Lola is fantastic. She is the best thing we could have ever gotten for the farm. Her little pick up part lifts so she can dump. She has a better drink holder than my car and she even has headlights. She goes through any kind of terrain, she is just amazing. Lover HER!!

For a little while I had all my tools in a bag that I kept in the cab part. But every time Ziggy or Kyle got in there was no room. So Kyle built me a little toolbox welded on the front, its fantastic.

It fits everything I need as we trundle around the property.

Also, behind the driver's seat is my Rattlesnake Wrangler tool. We are actually getting some rattlesnake tongs to be able to move the suckers when we find them and relocate them somewhere in the forest to live their lovely lives far, far away.

The Container Home in Richmond CA

2010-07-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

ReNest just featured the container home in Richmond, CA on their blog. Some great pics and info. We have toured this house and met the owner and architects, they are great and the home is stunning. They used insulated containers, thus eliminating ht need to add insulation. We thought about this but with all the cutting our house will require, it would be a beast to cut through insulated walls and insulated containers are insulated on the inside and thus you lose precious space, ours will be insulated on the outside.

It does run right over the Hayward Fault - apparently the foundation was quite a job to engineer to withstand that impact. Its in a lovely part of Richmond up in the hills and backs on to Wildcat Canyon, a great park I used to run Ziggy in.

Richmond Container Home on ReNest

Container Home featured at Dwell on Design this Year

2010-07-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

This nearly got past me - god forbid I miss a container home. Jetson Green just featured a container home that is on display at Dwell on Design this week in LA. Its pretty cool, and the company - IQ Haus - has kept it really affordable. Pictures and Info courtesy of the fabulous Jetson Green blog.

I love the black metal surround on the windows and the siding. For our house I would love to have some kind of wood siding or slats like this. Kyle is worried about putting wood siding on due to fire risks but I am thinking if we utilize on the front it would not be exposed to where a wildfire would come in from and with the driveway and parking area in front would be a good fire break.

This is a really great design, so easy to move, place and run and its attractive and usable.

Reaping the Benefits from Education

2010-06-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

Back in January I took a fruit tree pruning class at UC Davis - kind of the holy grail of fruit trees in the U.S. It was a great one day class with lots of hands on time - aka hacking the heck out of poor, innocent adolescent fruit trees.

The two instructors are both PhDs in Pruning, I am not kidding, though I am sure they have proven competencies in other aspects of fruit trees and horticulture.

If I left this class with one message it was - "If in doubt, cut it out". I was quite shocked at the hacking and slashing that went on. They just cut, cut, cut, obviously choosing their cuts but in some cases cut half of the growth off the trees.

Being new to this whole gardening and green thumb stuff, I was fairly shocked, it seemed to go against my whole "don't touch it, leave it as nature put it and hope this one doesn't die" approach. Hmmm, guess I have been wrong!

We have so many pear, apple, walnut and plum trees that have been so long neglected that it was time to heed the advice I garnered in that cold, bleak field in the central Valley of CA and begin the massacre. I only attacked about a third of our trees and did it on a day that Kyle was at work so I wouldn't have to hear the cries of horror as I mutilated his babies.

Fast forward to now mid-June and WOW! I will tell you the difference in the trees that I pruned is unbelievable. They are thick and lush and green, they look healthy and are producing much healthier and robust fruit. I will let you know if they taste better, but word on the street is that pruning makes a big difference to taste too.

So go out there this winter and hack away at those fruit trees, eliminate all that vigor and you will reap the rewards next summer in some tasty fruit.

Wind, wind and more wind

2010-06-17T10:31:00.000-07:00

What a long hiatus but amazing. We just got back from a fabulous vacation and are now hitting the "to do " list that seems to have grown while we were away both with fixes that cropped up to be done but also all those new ideas we generated during those long brainstorming hours in the truck.

The biggest thing that came out of the vacation was WIND! It was everywhere and it was so exciting to go to a part of the country where localized wind production was
so prevalent and relied upon. I am not talking those fabulous wind farms that run through Texas and the midwest but through Arizona and Southern Utah where you see small

Sky Stream and

Bergy wind turbines pumping away from the constant warm winds that flow. Whether it was a gas station at the side of the highway, a small farm or a remote rancher pumping water for

cattle, you couldn't drive more than a few miles without seeing a windmill working away generating much needed power.

We spent half of our vacation on the property that my mom bought in Eastern AZ just north of the White Mountains. The property sits on the old King's Ranch that is thousands of acres. It is split up into privately owned lots and BLM land. My mom's piece is 80 acres and is bordered on 2 sides by BLM. Its very remote being 20 miles from the nearest paved road and 30 miles from any kind of town. You sit on her property and cannot see a sole, house, building, road or anything. Its absolutely amazing. It also has no water or power. So its exciting to start to settle onto the land and figure out ways to generate power and store water, its amazing the options that are available.

The biggest thing that stuck out was the constant breeze/winds that crossed the land. At 6,500 feet elevation and up on a knoll with views for over 100 miles, the winds just roll in and for the first time we all got excited about the viability of a windmill. There are few people that live out in this area and fewer that live all year round so most of our ideas are a test at what will work best. We took stock of all the variables of the property and are going back to research the best infrastructure to implement over the next year or so.

With all this wind racing around you, you start to look for other areas where turbines could be working away with minimal work - top of street lights, power lines, on every house, the possibilities are endless. So I was excited to see Burger King embrace this idea, post courtesy of Inhabitat. We see great solar applications on many businesses but its exciting to see wind integrated in big energy consumers to offset energy use using localized power.

The area of AZ where our land is, is also home to quite a few coal fire power plants which is sad to see. There was a large scale wind farm on the books in 2002 and for some reason it was canned. I have called and tried to find out why but never got an answer. Its sad to see so much valuable natural resources just blow smoke stacks instead of wind turbines. Maybe one day if T. Boone Pickens gets his way or, God forbid, there are anymore mining tragedies.

Just Like Everything in Nature

2010-05-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

I just love it when someone comes up with a brilliantly simple idea and I smack myself on the head and think "Why the heck didn't I think of that" - UGH!

LufDesign - a zip tie with style. And since Kyle is a zip tie freak, its second answer to every problem at home after duct tape, he will love this chic take on the traditional black.

They had me a cord control

So smitten with these things - check out their website http://www.lufdesign.com/
If you scroll further down the page, take a look at fork and cream sauce, so funny.
And at $7 for 12, that is not bad and cute colors too.

Container Homes in Haiti

2010-05-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

For many the use of container homes as shelter housing or replacement housing in disaster regions of the world isn't received well. To say they are earthquake safe, fire resistant, waterproof and can be hurricane safe - I don't know what the dispute is really about.

Of course in Haiti, anything has to be better than a tarp or a tent. I just saw this posting on Inhabitat about Green Container International Aid providing containers designed homes to be built around the country for immediate and long term housing. I just think that this makes so much sense, Kyle sent me this picture -

My thought is that you are a heck of a lot more likely to walk away from this than from this:

Hmmm, 2 million homeless, 700,000 abandoned containers, makes sense as a great way to protect these ones from hurricanes, future earthquakes and provides a safe and secure home that they can call their own.

Check out Inhabitat's article - its pretty exciting stuff.

Bath Tub Addiction

2010-04-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

My addiction to bath tubs and finishing old cast iron ones has been fed with this post from my favorite blog EVER, Remodalista. I love every one of these tubs and it gives me renewed excitement to try my hand at refinishing the two we have to be incorporated in the new house and the cottage.

I am in the midst of redesigning the blog a tad, as you can see its a bit off kilter. Recently the fabulous Brian Bussiere (Jess's redder half) gave Kyle and I a rundown of how to use Photoshop. Unfortunately, its loaded on Kyle's laptop, and you think I ever get my hands on that thing. So once I can get in and fix the pics, hopefully it will look a bit more professional.

Fantastic Malaysian Container Home

2010-04-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2010/04/upcycled-container-house-in-malaysia.html

This is a great example of utilizing containers in home and shows some great shots of how it was done.

Here is a video of the house.

More Time

2010-04-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

Long time no post - its one of those times where things are just taking a long time to finish. We are hard at work but most of the projects we have going are taking a bit to come to completion and I hate posting mid way through.

We are working on insulating the workshop office, which is proving to be a challenge to be green and cheap!! The outside siding and interior windows are in and it looks fantastic. We have one wall done and as soon as its finished we will give you a preview.

We also acquired 11 trees from the Arbor Foundation. they had sent me a survey this winter and because I love trees I filled it out and sent it back with a little donation. Low and behold it came with a membership and they sent 11 bare root trees. They are the littlest stubs right now but are at home in their new 5 gallon buckets where they will live for a year (if I don't kill them first) and then be located to their permanent home.

On top of that we got 20 new blueberry bushes from a great local source, thanks James. We got Bluehaven, Duke, Blue Ray, Rubel and Hannah's Choice, He threw the last one in for free, how could you not! So we are now getting ready to get them settled in their new home in the newly cleared acreage just west of the workshop.

Yes, we have been busy clearing a lot of the blackberries and overgrowth from the fields. Its amazing how the tractor makes quick work of it but its also all the growth that has accumulated.

So now we need a rototiller to prep for the blueberries. They are about 2-3 years old and ready to go to a permanent home. We need to do some soil work first as, though we have good acidic soil in this area, we need to aerate the soil and improve the drainage before they get situated. I also settled some lavender in as an experiment. Let's just say, to date, the experiment is failing.

The next project is to clear an area between the driveway and the road for some bee hives. We met a family that is 4th generation bee keepers and they will be bringing over some hives to keep honey bees on the property. We are really excited to get them situated and hope they help our fruit trees but they do need to have a bear fence around them, naughty bears!

So that is the update for now. The house is coming along. We are desperately trying to select windows, which is difficult because all the windows I see in magazines that I like are nothing like what you see when you go to the big name window manufacturers. Its a very frustrating process. We also moved the staircase. It was a constant problem with alllowing for headroom and maintaining the structure of the container. We moved them over near the front door and master bedroom and love the new location and the look of them there. So now that this issue is resolved we are pushing forward on to the next issue......

The rain this spring has been insane. Non-stop rain and cold. Which is great for the state and water levels and the waterfalls are gorgeous, but enough already. The blooms are certainly pretty but quite late this year because of the cold.

We got both the water tanks hooked up on the workshop so the 3,000 gallons are saved for the summer and it took no time at all to collect with all this rain. Plan now is another 5,000 gallon tank and a 2,500 gallon tank.

On Friday we are off to the El Dorado Home Show to scope out some windows, I have little faith.

Not the Weirdest of the ALL

2010-04-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

We sure get some strange looks from some people when we tell them what we are building, apparently some people can't get past little wooden sticks. Here are some fabulous folks that went even further than we did - what great thinking and re-using...I really love the barn, always loved the idea of living in a renovated barn and the fire tower, one for the view and two for the fact that they are usually so remote. I also love the yacht. When I lived in the Bay Area, where houses were so expensive, I toyed with the idea of buying a big old fishing boat and docking it somewhere and living on it, a few did and they are fantastic. The land yacht is intriguing if nothing else but a statement on desertification and the disappearance of bodies of water worldwide.

Check them out - http://heralddaily.com/2009/11/11/13-repurposed-dwellings/

One Cool Shipping Container Habitat

2010-03-31T09:09:00.000-07:00

Another one hits down under, I love how this one fits so perfectly on a tow truck.

One Cool Shipping Container Habitat

Rainwater Collection Installation #1

2010-03-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

The other weekend we finally got the new guttering installed on the workshop and the first of two rainwater collection barrels in place. And it was just in the nick of time as we got, what will probably be, the last of the rain and boy did it rain.

First we got the guttering up, which, with the help of the scaffolding, was actually pretty easy to install.

Once this was up we put one of our 1,500 gallon tanks place at one end of the shop and attached the run off pipes.

We have a second tank of the same size that we weren't originally going to install, but instead pipe the gutter on the other side over to this tank. That in itself was causing a headache of how to pipe it over and get past the doors without going all the way down and pumping it back up into the tank. then we did the calcs on how much water we could expect to get off the rooftop.

The calculation is -

A * R/12 =cubic feet/year

cubic feet * 7.43 = gallons/year

where A = Area of catchment in square feet and R = Inches of rain you get a year

So when we did our calculations we got 3,000 gallons per year that we would be able to capture off of the roof top. And we receive all that rain in the space of about 3 months so one 1,500 gallon tank was not going to be enough - Enter tank #2.

We have tank #2 here, it just needs a clean out and to be put in place and piped into the gutter on that side of the shop. We will need to relocate the diesel tank somewhere else, but it will be great to have 3,000 gallons of water storage.

We did have our first huge rain storm 2 days after we installed the system. It was great to see it doing its job and watch that huge tank fill up with water. We got 500 gallons in 3 hours, but I will say, it was QUITE a rain storm.

Now please note that these tanks are WHITE!! Duh, you say. You cannot store potable water in white tanks as these are more susceptible to algae growth. Also, we are not doing any extra filtration system on the rainwater we catch beyond a basic household water filter. This water will just be for toilet flushing and washing and cleaning. We will be installing another tank for storing potable water from our spring on the other side of the property that will be a special green tank and since its already the spring water we drink at the house we won't need to filter it like we would rainwater.

But even if you don't live in a drought ridden area like CA, think about a small rainwater collection system. How great would it be to have a green lawn all summer and a clean car and not put any added pressure on your well or town's water supply. Its so easy to do and so nice to have that little reserve for a non-rainy day.

Let there be Light

2010-03-11T11:36:00.000-08:00

We had a weekend of lighting, lights and light bulbs. My new office that we are building up in the workshop, its always good to work outside the home, even if it is just a couple of hundred feet from my home, was in need of some lighting as we close it in from the rest of the workshop.

We did put in 2 windows so we will get some air flow and light from the interior of the shop and are planning on installing 2 exterior windows so ~~I can stare at the view instead of work~~ we can get the breezes in the summer from up the valley, which will be nice. But we wanted to come up with a cheap lighting fixture that hung over the desk area but wasn't fluorescent strip lighting. Here is what we came up with -

We used small galvanized buckets with simple light fixtures and hung them over the desk area.

We weren't sure what to hang them from as the ceiling in the workshop office is quite high. So enter, a cottonwood branch cut last year. It was a perfect fit and we curled the lamp cords around the branch to the electrical outlet.

It is working out perfectly with lots of light flowing on the desk, no loss of workspace and its lovely soft lighting from globe CFLs. I am thrilled with our experiment.

Our second lighting project was in our current kitchen. As most know, we refuse to spend a dime or a second on this current abode as its not worth it and will be torn down next year. BUT - the lighting in the kitchen was getting on my every nerve, between the horrid, cold, stark fluorescent light strip, but it was also the ultimate bug collector which drove me nuts. I recently got hold of the new SUNSET Green Home Design Book, which is fantastic and got an idea of a light fixture from there and so off we went to source out some fixtures that would fit the bill.

And here is what we ended up with -

Yes, its another galvanized bucket with a light fixture recessed inside. What a difference. Kyle installed it while I was at work and I cam home and couldn't believe the difference in the lighting and how more comfortable the space looked (as comfy as our double wide can be) and best of all, it doesn't provide a resting place for the buggies. I never realized how important lighting, types, placement, style etc. was. It makes a HUGE difference to a space.

Well, now we are on a roll and have tons of ideas for new lighting options...its pretty cool and fun to come up with new ideas and styles so stay tuned for more.

Fu-Tung Cheng's own Countertops

2010-03-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

I posted a little while ago about timeless options for the house and how Fu-Tung Cheng, of Cheng Design, had done the countertops in his house over 25 years ago and how stunning they were today and are regularly featured in Kitchen Design magazines. I finally found a video clip of his home on the Concrete Network - check it out. Here is the link to the entire piece on the Concrete Network.

Its Done

2010-02-25T11:48:00.000-08:00

We are so excited to see, our obvious kindred spirit, Marti move into her newly finished Container Home in Missouri. Marti has blogged (the 8747 house)about her process throughout and we have followed her on this roller coaster gaining ideas, watching things evolve and excited for the day she moves in and lives in her container casa.

I have to stay the final result is stunning. Her floors, the ceiling, the laundry room door, her clean lined kitchen and the lovely furniture she has brought in, I want that coffee table. And her views are stunning from that huge window by her dining room. Its been a labor of love but I am sure well worth the journey. We hope she enjoys her beautiful new digs. Congrats Marti!!

Timeless

2010-02-25T11:33:00.000-08:00

One of the things that completely enamored me with Fu-Tung Cheng was that his first concrete countertop was done 25 years ago, and just 3 years ago it was feature in Better Homes & Garden Kitchen Edition. How many countertops are THAT timeless.

You always hear when brides are planning their weddings that it should be timeless. You don't want to look back and pinpoint the exact year your wedding took place by the color of your bridesmaids' dresses or the shoulder pads in your dress. The same goes for your home, a timeless approach to key pieces can save much frustration down the road when you want to cry at that black and purple suede coach and black bear foot rest (ooops!!).

So as much as I love the thought of a white couch (yeh, with 3 dogs!) and other strong colored, fun pieces, I head in the direction of more timeless, natural beauty and I have found a few great ideas lately.

Just Monkeying Around

2010-02-23T13:24:00.000-08:00

Oh my, this gives me so many ideas for our dogs, anyone got any undersized kids that might want to learn to ride...something?

Dream House

2010-02-23T10:30:00.000-08:00

I am sitting at home working away, well really I am watching out the window at a little cotton tail bunny munching on some flowers while a mini-quail, guinea hen type is scurrying by him. All the puppies are snoozing as we wait for snow, rain or just cloudy yuck.

One of my favorite blogs just posted about this house - I love it, this looks about as remote as I would love to live. I really can't get far enough away from civilization, this might do it though.

Tomato Souce Mayhem

2010-02-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

Your having friends over, you clean away and have everything set just so for their arrival. They arrive and you are settling in and catching up, things are going well and you are all getting ready for bed when BOOM!!! An almighty rumbling followed up by a big crash.

We have a pantry cupboard in the kitchen and the top two shelves that are full of cans, jars and boxes of food came crashing down. And of course the things that break - the glass jars of tomato sauce all over the floor.

Fortunately, once our hearts slowed down and we realized that the actual mobile house wasn't falling down around our ears, we jumped on the tomato sauce with dustpans, trash cans, dish soap, vinegar, Oxy Clean and clean water.

Kyle worked his tail off and with the fast work of Jess and Brian, we caught it in the bud and this is the result the next morning. Nice work guys and thanks...as good as new.

The Joy of Recycling

2010-02-17T09:22:00.000-08:00

I posted a while back about refinishing the old cast iron tubs and finding a good quality DIY process to bring them back to their heyday. We have two of these old tubs and I have been very excited to actually integrate them into our new home as usable tubs and not just horse water troughs or planters. But we only have one spare bathroom and two tubs - so what to do with the extra tub......

Drumroll.....I bring you our new couch.

HaHa - this is not really our tub but is sold for the handsome price of £ 1,850 ($2,900) and is the creation of Reestore (UK/Online)
Now I love a good reuse and recycle as much as the next guy and I love the ingenuity of this piece but it is a little too reminiscent of the uncomfortable little antique sofas my grandmother had at her home, can't say I would want to snuggle up on this puppy and put in a good movie. Kudos for out of the box thinking though!!

Snow Fencing gets a Second Lease on Life

2010-02-11T14:54:00.000-08:00

Jetson Green just posted about a fabulous resource - Centennial Woods. They reclaim the snow fence in Wyoming (huge, wooden snow fences for placement in areas where VERY big scow drifts are a regular occurrence) for use in home siding, roofs, furniture, pretty much any application. its gorgeous stuff, all lovely and unique and weathered....check them out.

Eco Cabin for Camp Emerald Bay Scouts

2010-02-08T07:46:00.000-08:00

Another brilliant conversion of shipping containers - I love the roofing material, what a way to let light in.

Eco Cabin for Camp Emerald Bay Scouts

Air Fresheners

2010-02-04T10:11:00.000-08:00

I am a huge fan of the plug in air fresheners. Living with 3 dogs in an old, yucky house that really needs to be torn down, those little plug in smellies puts a smile on my face when I walk into our otherwise somewhat gloomy and musty house. I am a fan of all those laundry and ocean and post-rain smells and love plugging in a new one even if they are expensive.

The one drawback they have had is that they come in a lot of needless excess packaging, though Bath & Body started selling some loose, but then you always have the empty bulb to dispose of, though they are glass for the most part.

Enter a conversation I had with my friend Lesli last weekend and her news that those things, obviously full of chemicals, but also have hormone altering affects and all these things are being spewed out at puppy nose height or little human height. Ughhhhh, what to do!!

Check out this link to some of the issues.

We did a little brainstorming but neither of us were thrilled with those reed diffusers, both have used them and they don't work, potpourri doesn't work and we both hate clutter and chotchsky. I have candles but you can't leave them unattended and have had now had 2 close calls with candle holders cracking.

So we are on the search for options - eco-friendly, non-toxic, lovely smell...maybe a lavender sachet fixed inside a heating grate or above the sink where steam might help release the smell.

Anyone have any great ideas for what they use at home, have seen anywhere or good resources, please pass them along.

Get A Dog, Don't Work Like One

2010-02-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

I just saw this post on Bodie and Fou about this well written and timely book. After the last few months at work - I am going right out and getting a copy. There has to be more to life than how we work in this country. Its just not worth it, its never worth it. What is that saying, you never look back at the end of your life and wished you worked more...the key is to recognize that NOW, not THEN.

BODIE and FOU: Get a dog don't work like one....

Day 6 of the Cell Phone Deliberation

2010-02-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

So many earth shattering, miracle working, history making things can happen in less that 6 days. One thing that cannot happen any faster is the ability for Kyle to decide on a cell phone. We bought our house with half as much discussion than what has gone into the analysis, comparison, cost/benefit, review research of a new cell phone and cell phone plan. Its 2 years of his life that he is committing to with a 30-day money back guarantee if he is fact hates the darn thing after all.

Why is this so hard, painful, torture, misery. If it makes an actual telephone call and I can actually hear a live person on the other end, I am happy, the rest is icing..............

Glasses

2010-01-29T16:30:00.000-08:00

When I moved out to CA I stupidly bought cheap, icky drinking glasses. Both Kyle and I dislike them, they are thin and flimsy and boring. I have been scouring for some cool new ones but its hard to justify buying new glasses when the old work perfectly fine (and the odd one accidentally gets broken, Ooops, did I do that).

But now I have the perfect and fun solution. Make our own out of old wine bottles or beer bottles. I am so excited that I am going to go home and start looking for some cool empties and collect the ones that I want to make into drinking classes. This is going to be a fun, recycling project with much sassier glasses at the end and then I can donate my old glasses without regret.

Check out this link to Instructables on how to make your own -

Drinking Glasses from Wine Bottles - More DIY How To Projects

The New Bed

2010-01-28T15:05:00.000-08:00

Before the holidays we realized that we really did need a good spare bed, the floors of the double wide are hard! So true to our DIY selves, we decided to build a bed on our own.

We decided to keep it simple, true to our style and utilize a mix of industrial pipe with wooden posts and then use webbing (like seatbelt material) for the support and of course, stick it on wheels for that mobilization you always want in a bed....#()*$@)($*#$

We drew up our plans, ordered the webbing and toddled off to The Depot and bought our bits and pieces. Kyle cut and threaded the pipe while I stained the posts (FSC wood ONLY!) and sewed the webbing into strapping to fit around the pipe. It was a very simple design with thought to mattress size (we bought the mattress first to measure from) and height so visitors could stow suitcases under the bed while they were here.

We screwed all the final pieces together, attached the wheels (recycled purchase from used wheels on craigslist) to the bottom and then capped the posts with petina copper posts toppers. We put the mattress in and though our straps did a great job, the mattress still felt rather saggy, similar to those camp beds that lacked that little extra support. So we snagged a piece of plywood, rested it in the middle of the strapping and tried again - Viola, it worked.

The only final piece was the headboard and I had an idea of what I wanted to do with this and as soon as my mom got here for the holidays, we worked on making the pillows and the attachments to secure them to the pipe and leave room for the mattress.

So here is the final look pre-mattress

And here is the final product - still need to do some roughing up on the posts and maybe some more throw pillows but its already been tested thoroughly and received the double thumbs up.

Cook it

2010-01-27T11:26:00.000-08:00

We are starting to get to the point where we have to nail down smaller and smaller decisions and I am not ready. I love the looking and dreaming and picking out 8 light fixtures that I like, not having to decide on one, that will lock me in for life to look at it, turn it on and work under it forever, the permanency of it all is scary. Just kidding, we really don't take life that seriously, its just a light, it can be changed or really, how awful can it be, as long as its decent looking and provides light, that is our philosophy, somewhat attractive but MUST be utilitarian.

It hard to nail down the specifics in that regard too, how much light will you need, how big a stove will you need, what will work with what. The stove thing has been interesting. From the get go we have revolted against the $120k kitchen, sorry, I know its the big ticket item in a house with lots of payback, we aren't building this home with that in mind and it would horrify me to pay that kind of money for a kitchen I probably wouldn't be happy with. I have seen these boo-co bucks kitchens and haven't liked any of them. The kitchen in particular needs to be very efficient and highly utilitarian, less matchy-matchy. BUT appliances are a huge part of that and a good investment in a great appliance can go along way in both longevity, usefulness and efficiency. Obviously Energy Star ratings are very important to us, and though we aren't gourmet cooks, we do use our appliances as we try to always eat at home.

We bought a new fridge when we moved into the temporary house, it was the highest efficiency fridge you could get for its size (we didn't want one of those commercial jobbies) and we are thrilled with it. The French Door design lends itself to easy access with only opening as much of the fridge as is necessary and we didn't get the in door water and ice as we don't use it (we prefer the tap) and it takes up key room in the fridge that is needed for other items. The stove is another issue altogether. I have read a few blogs lately where the people have said that investment in your stove is the key area of a kitchen and they have never regretted it. I suppose you really aren't ever going to replace your stove, its not going to get worn out and the technology doesn't advance in this area THAT fast to warrant upgrades. So the first stove will hopefully be the last stove so lets make it count.

Eeek - cue panic again. My favorite is the AGA stove, my aunt and uncle have always had an AGA stove in their kitchens and the kitchen was always warm and lovely and it was such a friendly addition....this is high on my "WANT" list. Maybe not in turquoise but how about RED...Oooohh.

There is a side that loves this retro "BIG CHILL" baby but I bake ALOT of doggy cookies and I am frustrated now at the small size of my stove, I have to keep it on for 4 to 5 rounds of baking to get them all done. I would love one that cooks 6 sheets of cookies at a time, is that greedy - talks to the pups.

Of course we all drool over this kahuna but come on, we don't have 22 children, there is no way to justify unless we found a good deal on a used one on craigslist.

So I will continue my research, find more crazy gorgeous European brands but it might just come down to a cool stove on Craigslist or at the ReStore that would be a good fit as well as re-use of someone else's cast off.

Seismic calcs, weight bearing walls, roof angles - we have a Structural Engineer

2010-01-21T13:23:00.000-08:00

Its funny how sometimes you just fall into something and look back and think, how did that happen. We we have been going back and forth with whether we use an engineer that has experience with Container Houses (yes, all 2 of them...) or someone that is local and knows our County's Building Dept. or someone near our architect....decisions, decisions. So we got a few quotes and a few less than polite remarks when we told them about what we wanted to build and even a "You can't build that in CA", sorry but its already been built in CA, so we are nixing you.

In our travels we sent our plans off to a company right here El Dorado County, D&Z Engineering. And they actually returned our call and to our surprise expressed interest, if not I say - delight, at the idea of helping us with our weird home. So we toddled off to meet with Mark and Jim (Jim is the big Kahuna but bad pic on the website) and they couldn't have been nicer and more interested. They have extensive experience with green construction and are thrilled at being able to add a container home to their portfolio.They are looking forward to working with Eric (our architect) and say they are up for the challenge.

So we are off with the next step of this process which also requires finalizing our window locations, type of windows and other little details that I am constantly changing my mind about. We are also hedging on the living roof aspect of the house. We love the idea of a living roof on the house but Jim brought up a good point, you are surrounded by 22 acres of living garden, its all you see, do you need it on your roof too? For the added cost and headache, maybe we should leave that to the urbanites that really need a living roof to look at. We will have to resume intense deliberation with Eric on the subject.

So stay tuned, next step is permiting, Ohhhhhh, Ahhhhhh. We are in the midst of calculating the permit costs, what we have to pay so these little kids can attend a nice elementary school on our nickel!! Maybe we can enroll Ziggy if we are paying for it.

Can you believe that this -

Turned into this -

Grrrrr - retailers

2010-01-18T12:48:00.000-08:00

We talk about conspicuous consumption and buying things for the sake of buying or shopping but this seems like conspicuous dumping. For no good reason retail stores are dumping, trashing, disposing of unsold, "out of date" merchandise. Not just a shirt here and a bo ok there, dumpsters full of this stuff. Check out Inhabitat for more on these "outed" retailers and what they are actually doing. How stupid is this, in such a bad economy and with schools and libraries (and let's not even start on the a few Haitians that might need a shirt or two) desperate for books, clothing donations and easy ways to ensure that these items aren't used for resale on eBay or craigslist.....this is senseless and innane, just add it to the list!

H&M and Walmart - article and picture also courtesy of Ecouterrre.com

Borders

The Rock House

2010-01-14T11:38:00.000-08:00

repost from Re-Nest.com

The Rock House set in Portugal has been there for four decades. What an amazing way to take advantage of the landscape and so beautifully integrate a home that is seamless among its surroundings. It doesn't hurt that it has a stunning view of windmills in the distance. It makes you think about building into and with the land rather than building on top of the land. Which rings so true today after the devastation in Haiti. We all have seen the famous picture of deforestation in Haiti that is so noticeable on the Haiti Dominican Republic border. That kind of devastation to our land causes immense instability, trees and dense vegetation are the glue that holds our soil together.

When this is lost, it leaves the landscape vulnerable to mud slides and erosion which is the worst environment to be hit with an earthquake. Its horrific to think of an already desperate country that struggles with supporting its population, trying to deal with such tragedy and destruction. The only light is that through new non-profits like Architecture for Humanity, a non-profit I learned about from Michelle Kaufmann, that we now have an opportunity to completely rebuild this country in a way that is safe and sustainable and works for the people of Haiti for the long term. Of course I think container construction could play a big part in this effort, but are there other, better ways? It does not have to be an expensive endeavor, just a well thought out and planned one. Its always the poorest that suffer the most during these catastrophe's and it is these ones that are forced to rebuild using whatever means they can. They aren't afraid of hard work, chipping in, they just require information, direction and the know-how to build something that can last and keep them safe. We saw it in Pakistan and China, and now again in Haiti....schools and shelters torn apart and demolished finally demonstrating their sub-standard construction, a horror story just waiting to play out.

So I look at this Rock House, and I realize that there isn't a one size fits all around the world to stop this from happening again, we can't send containers to the four corners of the world to shelter and protect these ones. We need to consider the landscape and the environment and look locally at what lends itself to shelter, what does shelter require to be sustainable in the region and what do the people need. Its time for some ingenuity in the world, integrating architecture with the earth.

Shipping Container Subway Shop Scales the Freedom Tower

2010-01-08T10:26:00.000-08:00

Kyle was trying to tell me all about this the other week and I couldn't understand what on earth he was referring to but now I see the picture I get it - how cool is this. As the Freedom Tower rises so do needed resources for workers in the form of Subway in a Container, wanna know more or how you can make a Meatball Sub 11 floors up - Check out the post at Inhabitat.

Coffee Can Lamp

2010-01-07T15:44:00.000-08:00

Coffee Can Lamp

The Holidays in the Hills

2009-12-28T09:43:00.000-08:00

We spent our holidays snow shoeing in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and had an absolute blast. We didn't see a soul the entire time, the puppies ran an played, it is why we live here and love it.

2009 in Review

2009-12-28T09:37:00.000-08:00

2009 brought some serious out of the box thinking as far as home design was concerned, not that other years haven't seen big leaps in ingenuity and non-traditional design, but this year's designs were inspired by two main pressures we all face - Economy and Environment.

This year saw smaller, module homes come to the fore front to remind us that $250-$350 a square ft doesn't have to be the norm and we can live in custom, detailed finished homes with stunning architecture for an affordable price. Our homes can still be not only our best investment but a place to be proud of, to enjoy LIVING in ourselves and stand out from the cookie cutters of the 80's and 90's.

And there has been an enormous push to green it up, not only in the building of our homes utilizing refurbished, recycled and sustainable building resources but as important building homes that are efficient and utilitarian to run day to day. No more extra rooms we don't use more than twice a year, no more energy sucking appliances, windows and lack of insulation. High quality homes today have little to no indoor toxins (still working on getting rid of this addiction to granite countertops) and pride themselves on high comfort, ease of use and maintenance and low cost to run....isn't this logical?

Check out Jetson Green's top 62 Innovative Green Homes of 2009 - and there are 4 Container Homes on this list, I hope our hits this list in 2011!!

Comments Feature

2009-12-18T14:44:00.000-08:00

I am hoping the comments feature of the blog is fixed now. So I am expecting a plethora of comments raving about my every written word.

If you are still having problems commenting, please let me know.

Happy National Regifting Day.

Remodalista

2009-12-18T13:59:00.000-08:00

I think that Remodelista must be my favorite website ever. There isn't anything they post about that I don't like. But they hit the jackpot when they posted about Erin Martin's Water House in Napa, I am utterly in love with this place, its stunning. I love everything about it, it rocks my world. Check it out at Erin Martin's website or on Remodelista.

I adore the dining room and the seeming absence of the wall and that dining room table is fantastic.
The kitchen is as near perfect as I have ever seen. Of all the hundreds of photos I have collected from magazines and on the net, this takes the prize as being as close to what I would love in a kitchen. Of course nix the chairs and concrete countertops;-)

The exterior is stunning, the awning and clean outside facade and how you can open up the house from front to back, leaves me breathless.

Thank you Remodalista...pure inspiration!

Container Cabana

2009-12-14T11:18:00.001-08:00

I am starting to think I should just give up on blogging and give you all a link straight to Jetson Green, they write about everything we are doing, want to do and hope to do container!

Here is another container project, though I wonder where on earth they bought a container through that cost them $2,900, they are a lot cheaper through the ports.The link to the piece is here with more pics.

They did a nice job, I really like that it is insulated and the interior wall covering. This reminds me of one in Oakland that used a refrigerated container as their business office, it came out really well. I will try to find a picture of that one.