Sunnland Sunhouse is nearing completion!

I wasn't able to be at the open house on Friday the 20th due to my backpacking trip in Montana taking longer than expected. Quite a few friends and relatives showed up & I wish I could have been there!

A few pictures of the (almost) finished product.

I'm very happy with the kitchen cabinets and tile, it turned out very well.

Annette, my brother John and I worked both Sat. afternoon and Sunday morning on getting the house ready for the Sunday open house. The place looks a lot better than it did for the Friday open house.

Open House, Friday Aug. 20, meet the designer

I'll be out of town right before this but wanted to plan on having an open house to show the place off on Friday Aug. 20 from 5-7pm. I'm thinking this may be better than on the weekend and I believe our real estate agent will have an open house on Sunday Aug. 22 too.
This may be the only time I'll have to do this so I hope to see a few interested people there!

Rain Garden & native plants

The rain garden shown here was put in some time ago now but just finished today with bark. I dug up some Carix Obnupta and Dagger Leaf rush, both native wetland grasses from the pond in my back yard to plant here. We used the rocks dug up from excavation to decorate the garden bottom & set it apart from the rest of the yard. I tested the soil for drainage and we should be able to disperse most of our runoff into this rain garden. The downspouts will be hooked up soon to run to the raingarden.

Today I worked on installing plants with a majority being native varieties. Some of our plantings: Lots of Salal, Kinikinik, some Oregon Grape, Evergreen Huckleberry, Sword fern, and Penstemon. Also put in a Red Flowering Current which is one of my personal favorites and have an Alaskan Cedar to plant.

Other plants; 3 varieties of Heather and a Rhododendron (both somewhat similar to native heather), Nest Spruces and a couple of other miniature conifers.

The garden is doing very well now and producing a variety of vegetables. I put in a couple of apple trees last week as well as 2 blueberry bushes. The whole garden area gets lots of sun which really helps in our area.

Interior update

The inside of the house is being finished rapidly and here are some pictures of where we are now;

The upper picture shows the Mini-Split heat pump unit inside on the Living Room wall. These units are super efficient and it should be able to heat the entire house given how well insulated it is.

We have also put in Radiant Cove heaters that are all individually controlled for each room. In addition there is a fan/duct from the top of the stairs down to the Laundry Room to help mitigate warm air stratification.

In the middle is the Master Bath where the tile backsplash has just been installed. We spent an extra $600 for 3 dual flush toilets in the home. This was an important step in making the house more green and not something one would normally find in a house in this price range.

The lower picture shows the Kitchen which I had to include just because it is looking so great! In the background is the Dining Room and the wood on the short wall was from the old house that was torn down on the site.

Solar Panels Installed 8/3/10

Today the solar panels were installed! They look great and make the house look distinctive and will let people know that this is not an ordinary house. The panels are clearly visible from nearby I-5.
The system is being installed by Advanced Solar Energy LLC and here are a few pictures of them being put up.

We have put up 8 panels at 175 watts each and there is enough room on the roof to expand to a maximum of 24 panels. The inverter is also sized for this future expansion.

Rain Barrels and Solar Panels

Picture taken on July 26 showing the finished exterior paint, a growing garden, and rain barrels.

The rain barrels are re-used food grade storage containers and will be painted to match the siding and installed on the north (left side) of the house.

Today I signed a contract with Advanced Solar Energy LLC to install solar voltaic panels on the house made locally in Washington State. The locally made panels are more expensive than other comparable output panels but there are a couple of advantages; they are stronger than other panels for one. Also, the rebate check given to the buyer of the panels will be about 3 times higher than a conventional panel. This was established by Washington state law makers as I understand it to encourage local solar products. The result for the consumer will be huge; several hundred dollars per year. It was hard to make this decision to spend the extra money for this but I feel that a buyer will realize that it the payback will be in a short period of time, probably 4-5 years. As far as I know this will be the first spec home in the state to use these panels & I hope that others can find a way to use them in their projects too.

Sun Tempered features

A couple of pictures of the house taken July 12. As you can see the siding is on and in the process of being painted. What I'd like to point out is how the windows are shaded from the summer sun on the south side of the house (the 4 windows shown in both pictures). This keeps the house from being overheated in the summer. In winter the sun angle will be much lower, allowing sun and therefore heat into the space when it is wanted. Having the glass on the south makes it bright inside in both the summer and winter creating a bright space that will not need so much electric lighting.

Since I haven't put extra mass in the house this should be called a sun-tempered design rather than passive solar. Being a more affordable place this was a great solution for the house.