thesimpleHOUSE

As we sat on our front porch this afternoon, we took pause to reflect on our now almost two years (!) living in our neighborhood. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long!

Today was a beautiful, sunny spring day with some clouds, a fair amount of sun, and a cool breeze. We went for a walk to the local supermarket and on our return decided to just take a bunch of photos on our walk home. Some I posted on my personal Facebook page and some I didn’t post. But we enjoyed everything from my barber shop just a few blocks away to rows of houses, all with front porches, to our mail carrier and a neighbor all converging near our front porch at the same time.

As we relaxed on this sunny Saturday afternoon, enjoying mochas on our front porch, bicyclists went by as well. Not as many as a couple of weeks ago (44 in just 30 minutes; I didn’t count today), but quite a few nonetheless.

Last night we went on the First Friday ArtWalk downtown. Enjoyed the Delgani String Quartet at the public library, visited our friend, Susan, who owns Mosaic Fair Trade Collection, our other friend, Sandi, who runs Pacific Rim Art Guild, then finished with dinner at Ambrosia and a pleasant walk home.

Tonight, we are off to the Wildish Theater to see Guys and Dolls, the Rose Children’s Theater production directed by our neighbor, Scott.

We live such a rich and blessed life. It’s awesome!

In October 2002, I bought a new 2003 VW Turbo S Beetle. 6-speed. Fast. Loved it.

In June 2009, we bought our lot where we now have our new home. The idea was to be able to walk more and be less car-dependent.

In June 2015, we moved into our new home. From day one, we decided we would see if we could live using only one car. The Beetle had 111,000 miles on it. Our thought was, if we could do this thing, we would sell one of our cars. We have been blessed to have two cars our entire married life.

I started riding my bike to work. Every day. We walked most everywhere on the weekends. I would start and drive the Beetle every once in a while just to keep it running. I bought a battery trickle charger for those weeks I would forget to start the car.

Now, one year later, and 130 miles more on the Beetle (yes, I only drove it 130 miles in a year), we put it on Craigslist and within four days it was sold. A little bittersweet, I must say, because I’ve had the Beetle almost 14 years. It’s been a good little car. It’s been a fun little car to drive.

But times change. Lifestyles shift. And we are in a new chapter of our lives.

Has this last year using only one car been easy? Actually, yes it has. I’ve enjoyed biking to work. I biked a lot prior, but now it’s even easier and more direct. We have enjoyed walking more. The bus, when needed, is actually quite easy and convenient most of the time. I still have my Car2Go app for when we take Amtrak to PDX or SEA. We’re still hoping they come back to Eugene someday.

And I just downloaded the Oregon Taxi app today. Just in case.

Bye bye Beetle.

One year ago today, we moved into our new home. It has been an amazing year!

We have not only met virtually all of our neighbors, we’ve become good friends. We’ve gone to plays, concerts and had dinner together. We had a Memorial Day Potluck that was a blast with 22 friends from the ‘hood.

Brenda and I have loved living downtown. We walk most places, so much so that the VW Beetle we own will be for sale soon; no need for two cars anymore.

The house is performing impeccably well. Energy use is so low, we actually are a “net producer” both for the house and the cottage. As of today, the cottage has generated 867 kWh more electricity than it has used and our house has generated 1,073 kWh more than we’ve used. So not only have we achieved net zero, we’ve exceeded it.

And as you may have noticed from my Facebook posts, our garden is going nuts. This is the first house we’ve had where we have enough sun for a garden. I don’t post food pictures, but last night we had sautéed crookneck, zucchini, green onion and basil pesto, virtually all from our garden.

Lovin’ it downtown!

[UPDATED 29 April 2016] I haven’t posted for a while. We’ve been enjoying the neighborhood and our neighbors and settling in. But we’ve had a couple of pieces of “news” that I wanted to update you all on.

First, our LEED certification is OFFICIALLY complete (finally). Looks like the main house needed 86 points to achieve Platinum (the highest rating) and we scored right at 101 points. The Cottage needed 80 points and ended up right at 98. Woo hoo! [Also, our HERS ratings are 9 and 18 respectively; find out what that means at HERS]

And add to that, we’ve been through the winter and now are generating more solar electric. As of yesterday, we have received to date from EWEB 4,361 kWh since we’ve moved in and have delivered 4,663 kWh, about 300 kWh more than we’ve used. The Cottage is at 2,254 kWh and 2,558 kWh respectively.

That means both houses are currently running at net zero. Pretty exciting.

I’ll post more updates along the way, but we’re having family over and getting ready to bbq.

Later.

The initial cost of a home is far from the total, real cost. As I mentioned in my previous post, the long-term life-cycle costs account for 85% of the monetary cost of a home; only 15% is that initial cost. A significant portion of that 85% is maintenance and repairs.

I am actually amazed at the number of builders and consumers that don’t really consider the durability and longevity of a product when purchasing a home. There are so many aspects to consider, but I’d like to highlight just two in this post: plaster walls and good paint.

There is a huge difference between drywall and a plaster finish on your walls and ceilings. Drywall is probably 15% to 20% less expensive initially than thinwall plaster. However, thin wall plaster has a number of advantages. It is much more durable. Try the “finger nail” test. Use your finger nail and see if you can dent drywall then see if you can dent plaster. It’s very telling. The ease with which drywall dents should be a good indicator.

Then, the finish you use for the walls, the paint, is every bit as important. Cheap paint may last a year or two or even five. But really good paint can last much much longer. Coupled with the durability of the plaster walls, good paint can last a very long time. Think about that the next time you may be tempted to use a cheap paint, then ask yourself in the whole scheme of things is that extra few hundred dollars (or even less) worth needing to paint more often?

I love to use the example of our last house. We finished the walls with plaster then used a very high quality paint (in 1998, the trim paint was $50 per gallon). We lived in the house until 2014, raised two teenagers and never repainted and it still looked brand new. Yes, 16 years later, the wall finish was still in great shape. It wasn’t even looking like it needed to be repainted.

We did the same plaster and high quality paint in the Lawrence house.

I could go on about things like wood floors in lieu of carpet and vinyl, high quality windows (durability and long-lasting energy efficiency), LED lights (which will last virtually forever) and so on.

Bottom line advice is to look at the long-term efficacy of the product and determine whether or not it will have the durability you desire. Will it reduce (or even eliminate) long term maintenance and what is the length of time you can expect before you have to replace it? That will be the telling factor in how cost-effective a product really is.

Oh, and the picture of the shoes? Those are a pair of $180 shoes I bought in 2005. I still wear them and they still look great.

We’ve been in our home 4 months now (coming up on 5, actually). Time sure flies.

As of the end of October, we have been using an average of about 295 kWh of electricity per month (remember we are 100% electric, no gas). And we have built up an 1,800 kWh CREDIT going into the winter.

We may just make that goal…

We have moved in. We have settled in. Pictures are hung on the walls. Landscaping is complete. Fence is in. Electric bill is still a negative dollar amount. Have not driven my car to work in almost four months. Walking a lot. Biking a lot. Loving it.

We are down to three days before we move in! Final coat is on the wood floors, just a few minor detail things to do, landscaping is in, cottage is rented, and both solar systems combined are churning out about 63 kW a day. Our 34th anniversary was today and tomorrow is Father’s Day. Life is very very good.
Cleaners come Monday, Window washer Tuesday and Movers Wednesday. I’ll post again when we’re in.