We're at the finish line!

Whew, it has been a frantic month for us. We decided last month to lock in a great interest rate. Good thing, because rates have skyrocketed lately.

Anyway, we passed our final inspections today and got our certificate of occupancy. We close on the house on Wednesday. We won't move in for a couple of weeks b/c there is still plenty of painting and cleaning up to do.

I can definitely say that I will be having a cold beer tonight. It's been eight months of hard work, late nights and early mornings. Now I can finally get back to my wife and kids.

God bless!

We'll blog more later. We have a lot to share about what "green" things we added to the house.

I really like our neighborhood

Here's a friend I caught on a nearby lightpole. I guess he wasn't too impressed with me because he left soon afterwards.

A month without updates!

So it's been an entire month since we updated our progress on our Green Home. It's been quite hectic, so I barely have time to add anything to this blog.



Here's a few pics of what we've been working on.



Our 5-1/4" heart pine flooring is going in.


The fireplace mantle is starting to take shape. We put the granite surround and hearth in. Now the painters will have to paint the mantle the same color as the trim.

Painters continue to work on the front porch railing.

Finally, we got the metal roof put on over the breakfast nook. It looks good, but we probably could have gotten away with shingles here.

Currently, they are finishing up tiling, hardwood flooring, and kitchen cabinets. I've slowly begun to lay the cork flooring upstairs. It's not real hard. I just don't have the time to devote to it. There really should be more hours in the day.

Tallahassee Parade of Homes is this weekend, so we may take some time off to go visit some houses and get ideas.

Now that the rain has passed...

Some Rivers in North Florida Nearing Record Flood Levels

The recent rains were not good for our Tallahassee home building adventure. The last few days of rain brought perhaps as much damage as Tropical Storm Fay last year. Sometimes no amount of silt fence and hay bales can stop Mother Nature. Fortunately our property got by relatively unhurt.
I owe all of our good fortune to one reason: we minimized the amount of clearing done on the lot. We basically cleared only enough for the building footprint and to grade the driveway. We have kept the rest of the lot as natural as possible including letting the grass grow up. As my wife tells me, a silt fence isn't supposed to be your main line of defense from erosion. It's meant as a backup.
Here's a clip from way back in November (it seems so long ago) when we first cleared the lot.




Unfortunately, more rain is forecast for tomorrow.

Cheap Money

I realize this blog is supposed to be about building green, but I can't help but post about the interest rates nowadays. If you are in the market for a home, now is the time to lock in a good interest rate.
Or maybe you want to purchase those solar panels, tankless water heaters, or energy efficient windows for your house. Well... a home equity loan isn't quite as good. Those rates have been creeping up for some time now, which is a shame.
Still, there are a lot of federal and state tax credits out there for energy efficient upgrades. I have no idea if there are low interest lines of credit for energy efficient upgrades. I have to think there are.
Check out this site to see what you might qualify for:
http://www.dsireusa.org/

The Marshmallow house

So it's been a while since we updated our Florida Green Home blog.

The sprayfoam insulation started today. Here's a picture of the upstairs. I'm using sprayfoam on the ceiling and walls. No fiberglass batts. The stuff looks gooey like marshmallow but it's got more stiffness than that. Imagine how thick a styrofoam cup is. Now imagine a much thicker foam and that is what's insulating our home. I'm really hoping for low utility bills with this stuff.

Here's another picture above the rear porch. It's a good picture of the sprayfoam and you can also see the Hardie pre-painted frieze board, as well as the beginning of the 1x6 tongue and groove porch ceiling.

Finally, the roof is finishing up. The "weathered wood" color really goes great with the Hardie Colorplus siding.

Did I mention that I like our brick choice?

The siding has begun on the front. It's a light green but can definitely pass for a gray color too.