The roof is rocking and rolling along as these pictures from Friday show. The area over the front porch was rebuilt after the last set of pictures last week because, in Rick's words, "it had a booger on it." We once again applaud Rick for his commitment to zero-"booger" *ahem* defect building.
Windows get delivered this week and the roof should be finished shortly!
What is disheartening about seeking a better way to build a house is the change resistance one gets from conventional builders who don’t want to see the way we build modified. I offer these questions: why has it taken $4 a gallon gas to get car manufacturers to give us the fuel efficiency we should have had 10 years ago? Why did it take a “green movement” to get grocery stores to give people incentives for reusing bags?
And how long will it take Baton Rouge builders, fat and happy off of a real estate boom, to realize that the fastest and cheapest way to do something isn’t always the best way? Mr. Joe Didier needs to check his facts from his recent Business Report story (read here) where he is quoted as saying that it is hard to justify the costs of doing what we’re doing as opposed to stick building. Let me break it down for him this way: 1) According to the appraisal of our home as compared to the cost it is taking us to build it (plus Rick’s fees, plus lending/finance fees), we are already conservatively about $90K ahead. 2) Add to that a $65/month energy bill in the summer (let’s just look at the four hottest months, May – August) and you figure we’ll spend $260 at current prices to cool our home next summer. Compare that to most people I talk to with similar sized, conventionally built homes and they spend closer to $200/month at current prices cooling their home in the summer. That would mean that our home, just at these rates, will give us a summer savings of $540/year. And that’s just the summer. Because concrete also keeps the warm air in during the winter, we’ll see a similar, though not as dramatic, savings in the winter.
And this is at TODAY’s energy costs, which we know are rising. Anything the homeowner can do to reduce the energy use of their home not only saves them money it saves the PLANET of dwindling energy resources, something we ALL should attempt to do as good citizens.
But if the savings alone isn’t enough, Mr. Didier, I’ll tell you what, you’re invited over to my house next time the hurricane winds start to blow outside (or, heck, let’s just say a tornado or really bad thunderstorm). When the lights go out, where would you rather be? A house that will reach 85 degrees (and climbing) pretty darn fast without a backup generator, or my house that, without electricity, won’t get over 78 degrees for hours on end while we sit in the safety of our concrete walls, hardly able to hear the winds blowing outside. If there’s any beer left by the time you can get to us, Mr. Didier, I’ll be happy to share one with you while I smile smugly that we found an innovative builder willing to challenge the status quo.
Oh, and did I mention the energy savings tax credits available from the State and Federal government? Ooops, there's two more reasons to invest in the future. Think outside the wooden box, my friends!
Today is my friend Stone's birthday. Everyone wish her a fantastic birthday and that it's the beginning of a year filled with wonderful things for her. Normally I wouldn't make such a public mention of Stone getting a year older, but when I called her this morning to tell her Happy Birthday, she asked me what was up with no more recent pictures.
No the camera isn't broken... I've just been lazy. I even had pictures from last week that sat in my camera on my desk all weekend without getting posted. In my defense, I did finish painting the master bathroom of the old house, fix the tile in the kitchen and look for new light fixtures for the hall bathroom, so I wasn't a complete bum this weekend.
So... here's a picture from last week and this week. The rest are posted in the slideshow. It's coming along great and we're having some great weather this week, so I feel as though there will be more photo-worthy progress by week's end.
