Heated by the Sun

Yesterday at 10:00am it was -5 outside with about 12" of snow on the ground.  Hello winter.  This is by far the coldest it has been since moving into our new house, so I was curious to see how the solar hot water panels were doing.  To my surprise the water inside the tubes was 157 degrees!  That same water heats the glycol that runs through our radiant floor heating system and keeps our house a toasty 72 degrees.  Add to that the passive solar design and we have a free heating system.  We pretty much will never pay a dime for heating our home.  The sun does it for us.  Best invention ever.

We received our first electricity bill since moving in.  We used half as much energy to run this 2500 square foot house than we did our 1000 square foot house in Golden this time of year.  We're planning on installing solar photovoltaic (electricity) panels when the ground thaws in the Spring that will eventually drop our bill to $0 and possibly even make us money from the electric company.  Since Rocky Mountain Power takes their customers for granted (and is a sorry excuse for a public utility company), I cannot wait for that day!

The house is coming along quite nicely.  We even have pictures hung on the walls and are definitely feeling settled in.  We're hosting Thanksgiving this year, so we're excited to have a house full of family!  Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Tara

Home Sweet Home!!

We have finally moved into our new home and couldn't be more excited about how it turned out!

Our front porch -- newly decorated for fall with home grown corn stalks, pumpkins, and straw!

We still need to put in a pathway from the driveway to the front porch and add a bunch of rocks to the terraced yard...we will have our work cut out for us with the landscaping!  We plan to plant native grasses and such up to the terraced part and then put in a bunch of perennials above the rocks.  You can also see one of the water barrels we installed.  It rained last Friday and Saturday and both of our water barrels filled up in less than 30 minutes.  We plan on installing a couple more next Spring.

Back patio

The solar panels for the hot water are going in this week.  The mounting racks are up and the first set of tubes have been installed.

Stone fireplace with wood burning stove.  That thing puts out the heat!  I just kinda threw my knick knacks onto those shelves, so I definitely need to de-clutter. :)

Kitchen area -- the girls have loved sitting up high to eat and color at the island.  We still need to add knobs to a lot of the cabinets.

Hutch

Our new Sticks table ... see post below. :)

The floor turned out great!  I think we'll like it even better when they get the solar hot water set up and we can actually turn on the radiant heat.  Our only heat source the last week has been the fireplace, but the house has stayed surprisingly warm!  Since it is a passive solar design, all of the heat collected through the windows from the sun is stored in the floors and released at night.

Entry way

Girls' Bathroom -- they love their new tub! :)

The best part!  The view at sunset out our back windows!

Full moon setting this morning over the mountains.

We are so thankful that our house is done and we can finally start to feel settled in.  There is still lots of unpacking, decorating, and organizing to do, but it will all come with time.  We are still in amazement over how much space we have...this is a 1000 square foot upgrade from any other home Joe & I have shared.  All of my boxes are unpacked and I still have empty closets and cabinets...amazing.

Happy Fall!  As you can tell by the two pictures above, it has been beautiful here.

Thanks for checking in on us and feel free to come visit any time!!

Sticks Table

Joe & I have wanted a table from Sticks (a Des Moines-based company) for a really long time....and our wish finally came true!  We spent lots of time while we were visiting my family in Des Moines designing our table at the Sticks Gallery there.  It was so much fun to pick symbols and sayings that represented our life together.  Around the edge of the table are sayings and small pictures.  The center of the table has 4 large pictures and the center season medallion.  We couldn't be more happy with how it turned out!

The center of the table -- the 4 seasons.

Big Horn Mountains -- drawn from a picture I had taken while hiking.

Rocky!

Canoe that represents how Joe & I got engaged.

Columbine to represent the 8 years we spent in Colorado.

Enough said!

We had to represent the alma mater!

Blue Bonnets to represent the time we spent in Texas (Blue Bonnets look just like lupine which grows abundantly around here as well!).

To honor our 8 friends and teammates that we will never forget.

Quetzal bird -- Guatemala's National Bird to show our connection to Guatemala.

Corn to symbolize my roots in Nebraska and Iowa.

Jackson!

One of the legs -- each one represents a different season.

I'm a little scared to let the girls eat at the table, so so far we have been eating meals at the center island.  We had it measured for a piece of glass for the top and once that gets in place we will be able to enjoy it a little more!  I can't wait to have may family meals shared on this table that represents so much about us.

Almost Done...

We are almost residents of our new house!  This past weekend we moved most of our belongings to the garage.  We will be able to move the rest and actually live there on Wednesday!  Yay!  These pictures were taken last Saturday, so things have changed a little more since then.  Hopefully by next weekend I'll be able to stop unpacking boxes and moving furniture to take some pictures of a more finished house!  Thanks to Chris and Greer for helping us move last weekend!  It is so nice to have friends and family close.

Front of the house -- columns still need to be wrapped and stone columns need to be enclosed to make it look like a porch.





Solar hot water storage tank -- solar panels will go in next Tuesday.



Kitchen, Dining area, and living room



Stone fireplace and bookshelves; mantle still needs to go on.



Master bedroom



Master Bathroom walk-in shower -- I can't wait to take a shower in here!



Hallway to bedrooms



Guest Bedroom -- Please come stay with us!!

Thanks for checking in on us!  Tara

Fence, Cabinets, & Stain

Joe & Greer worked very hard last weekend to get our fence done! We are so thankful that Greer was able to help Joe so much. They built over 700 feet of fence and did a great job.

I think their favorite part was operating the skid loader!

Here is the fence on the SE side of the house. There will be a gate there that you will walk through to get to the solar array.

I am super excited that our cabinets are in and look great! Here is the main kitchen:

Here is the wall in the kitchen with the desk area and hutch:

Vanity in Master Bath (the girls' vanity is identical to this):

The laundry room cabinets with sewing and folding area countertops:

They stained the beams in the vaulted area to match the cabinets:

The exterior doors and windows have been stained this color:

Here are a few pictures of the exterior. Most of the hardiplank siding is on. Shake siding will go in the pitches and on the bumpout. We're still waiting for our garage door as well. The rocks in the picture will be the ones that go on the columns and fireplace.

The back of the house with the newly poured concrete patio:

The West side of the house:

Joe admiring his fence (and the view!):Thanks for checking in on us! Tara