Solar Panels

Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it? ~~Henry David Thoreau
We finally got our solar panels! Now we have a lot to learn by experience. Living without electricity for a month has actually been a good thing... instead of changing to limited power, a little power now is a miracle. When you do not have a utility company that will give you what you pay for... when you live with a limited amount of power... it changes the way you view things you need. Solar is an amazing thing. More efficient and less expensive than years past. I see the day when every house has a grid-tied solar system. Grid-tied for a few reasons: power companies will not want to lose their power, most people do not want to carefully monitor their power consumption, and the expense of batteries. Batteries cost more than the solar panels, the person who can invent a new way to store energy will vitalize alternative power sources. Now I look at the power consumption of everything, it is facinating to me.

Baths and Kitchen.... water

I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man.

~Henry David Thoreau










In this quote, Thoreau is referring to the Transcendentalist belief of not consuming alcohol. I will refer to this quote as the preciousness of water. Water becomes more precious when it does not automatically come out of the tap. Maybe in solar contractor language the date they give you really means two weeks later, still waiting for power. No power, no pressure pump, no pressure pump, no water to our facets.

We have never had a dish washer. When this task is rotated between four people, it is not bad. When you have to haul and heat your water, it becomes more difficult. It takes me 3 gallons of water to do the dishes.

Moved

"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone." ~Henry David Thoreau

We begin to work frantically. My first priority for completion is the basement and bathrooms. We are uprooting our children and taking them into the wilds. In attempt to make this less painful we get their rooms done first. Spend a surprising $400 on joint compound and $600 on paint. Sanding and painting will it ever end? Once painted, what I thought perfectly sanded walls are eye-poppingly flawed. Got to let it go, I sanded until my hand cramped and I couldn't feel; we worked from sunup til sunset for multiple weekends. Not much more we could do. We got the rooms done on a Monday (had to be to work on Tuesday), carpet on Friday $1400, and moved (thanks to all who helped) our heavy furniture on Saturday. Greg tiled the bathrooms and installed the fixtures... Greg is great at finding clearance items, we spent about $2000 for both bathrooms and they are beautiful fully tiled bathrooms.

I have never really moved. I lived in the same house as a kid. When we moved to the house in Logan we had just been married a year and didn't have many possessions. I can't believe the amount of stuff we acquired. I can't believe how much work it is to move. We yardsale, donate, throw out alot of things. Why did we have it? Where did it come from? We still have another weekend of moving things.

We spend the week in barebones Logan House for showers and electricity, and finish the master bedroom (with carpet recycled from the house in Logan). Get our payment... pay off the mortgage and start spending our equity. Life without a mortgage how will it be? Got to invest in retirement. I quickly learn that when subcontractors give you a date, in their language it really means a week later. I quickly learn that every thing costs more than you think (all those small parts not included really add up). Saturday, we move the rest of our belongings to a house without running water, appliances, finished floors (but the basement) or electricity. My nice plan is put off by my lack of fluency in subcontractor language.

Ordered a solar pump $2500 and generator $1500. The solar pump is amazing. I love it. It is quiet, and even works on partially cloudy days. We should have built our storage tank higher for gravity pressure, unfortunately we need a pressure pump to get the water up to the sinks and shower, this is an additional $1000 plus all the fitting and shut off valves add up to a surprising $500. $4000 for running water ($5000 if you count the tank we bought last year) and we aren't even there yet because the pressure pump needs electricity. By the time we get there I will really appreciate running water. The propane tankless hot water heater cost $750, the venting pipes surprisingly $250. So if you are thinking about hot water it is $6000. But a hot shower is one thing in life I am not willing to live without. It is worth every penny.

We wait for the gaslines to be pressure tested. Wait, wait, wait one week. Then Greg tiles the kitchen floor (tiles Greg got a year ago, traded for labor on a tile job) and we have the propane tank and line installed $4000 with the tank filled.

I usually do not splurge, do not buy what I want only what I need. But when it came to the fridge and stove that I will have for the next 20+ years I wanted what I wanted. Propane is more expensive and I wanted stainless so we pay a painful $3500 for both. They had to be shipped from the midwest and when we unpackage they have dents (we only later read the instructions to not sign the delivery forms until you have inspected them and now have to live with it) but we are living the theme of not expecting perfection. How I love refrigeration. Spend a hot end of June week without it and you will appreciate a cold drink like never before. We have also spent more money on convenient foods than normal with no easy way to keep things cold or to cook them. You can do alot with a campstove, but I only have so much energy.

I don't think the solar guy took us seriously. He didn't order our panels and wouldn't until he cashed half the payment (why is he just telling us now when I thought he would be here to install the panels). We pay the half of the $10,800 for the solar system and wait. Fourth of July he is gone on vacation. We still wait.

We go to my parents house every few days to do the laundry, shower, and charge batteries. So far it has been light from 5:30 am til 10 pm which is sleeping time, but each day we lose a few minutes of light. We have solar flashlights and haul buckets of water to make the toilets flush, wash dishes, or to take lukewarm baths in. The water all drains perfectly to the septic tank, it just doesn't make it to the taps.

Three weeks of living in the wilds. Done a lot of driving. The dogs love living in the country and the kids have been amazingly adaptive and tell me that I haven't damaged them for life. The mornings and evenings are the best. In Logan I never went outside after dinner... too many weird neighbors. It is beautiful here, quiet, and we play frisbee every evening watching the sun set and the stars begin to dance. We are now really living at Walden with Wife and Kids.

Risk

“A man sits as many risks as he runs.” ~Henry David Thoreau

We spend March and April insulating and sheetrocking, plastering and sanding. Hard dirty relentless work.

Our neighborhood is falling to pieces and I feel unsafe, do not want to leave my children (who are at an age when they need independence) alone.

We are frugile, but there is no way we can save enought to pay for the expensive items needed to live comfortably such as solar panels, water pumps, and propane tanks and appliances.

Our Logan house was planned to be rented out for retirement income. Would that be possible in our neighborhood? My sister has a rental house and has lost money more months than she has made money.

When the city offered more money to buy our house we decided to take their offer. We were given six weeks. I would lose the security of our house. We would have our equity (in six weeks) to finish the house. We would finally finally move. We would live in the country on a dirt road 3/4 mile from a paved road for all the good and difficult this would mean. Some think we are crazy for this choice... and I must admit there have been nights when I have been unable to sleep thinking the same thing, but for the most part this decision has felt good. You can not live life without risk and those who have gotten the most out of life or given the most back have taken the greatest risks.

Cupboards

“I sometimes dream of a larger and more populous house, standing in a golden age, of enduring materials, and without ginger-bread work, which shall still consist of only one room, a vast, rude, substantial, primitive hall, without ceiling or plastering, with bare rafters and purlins supporting a sort of lower heaven over one’s head…
“…a house which you have got into when you have opened the outside door, and the ceremony is over; where the weary traveler may wash, and eat, and converse, and sleep, without further journey; such a shelter as you would be glad to reach in a tempestuous night, containing all the essentials of a house, and nothing for house-keeping;
“where you can see all the treasures of the house at one view, and every thing hangs upon its peg that a man should use; at once kitchen, pantry, parlor, chamber, store-house, and garret; where you can see so necessary a thing as a barrel or a ladder, so convenient a thing as a cupboard, and hear the pot boil, and pay your respects to the fire that cooks your dinner and the oven that bakes your bread, and the necessary furniture and utensils are the chief ornaments; where the washing is not put out, nor the fire, nor the mistress, and perhaps you are sometimes requested to move from off the trap-door, when the cook would descend into the cellar, and so learn whether the ground is solid or hollow beneath you without stamp. A house whose inside is as open and manifest as a bird’s nest, and you cannot go in at the front door and out at the back without seeing some of its inhabitants; where to be a guest is to be presented with the freedom of the house, and not to be carefully excluded from seven eighths of it, shut up in a particular cell, and told to make yourself at home there, — in solitary confinement.” ~ Henry David Thoreau


Our house in Logan is so tight and compact. As the kids have grown and we have acquired more stuff, I feel like we barely have room to move. Our new house is open. The design in for transfer of heat and light, but it makes the space seem larger and more inviting. With all the windows it is a lovely transition from outdoor to indoor.

Last summer, there was a canal break in our neighborhood that killed a family and destroyed two additional houses. The neighborhood has been empty and blighted. Just before Christmas, a local millionaire offered to buy all the property on our street (ours included) for taxable value. We declined this offer, but were allowed to salvage materials from the other houses marked for destruction. Greg took out some maple cupboards and put in the kitchen... just had to buy new pulls and corner molding. In the efforts of piecing things together we needed a sink. Once again it came down to the conservative me versus the artistic him. The beautiful farmhouse sinks that would create the right look cost thousands of dollars... some goes for granite countertops. With his gift for lucky finds and improvisation, Greg found a gorgeous granite sink that had once been a display, now sitting collecting dust in a back storeroom, he bought this for a couple hundred, and bought stone scraps to make the countertops with. And our kitchen will be built with beautiful natural enduring materials for under $1000.