Almost ready for drywall

This is a picture taken about 3 weeks ago. The plumbing, electricity, fire sprinklers, and HVAC all are in place now, and we're just waiting for the City's sign-off so that we can start putting up drywalls. Everything's a go, but the plumbing inspector has been a little slow in getting around to our home. I wonder why? It's not like there's a boom in new construction these days and I can't imagine that the City inspector is swamped in work right now. Oh well--we got the corrupt Governor finally out of the office but we still can't fight City Hall. Anyway, we're meeting with our contractor to finalize all of the finishes tomorrow!

Payback Period?

Warning. Here's a rant. When building a "green home," be prepared to hear the term "payback period" a lot. That means exactly what it says: the period in which your investment in green technology will pay back what you spent on it initially. For example, many claim that a solar hot water system will pay back its initial premium in price in 10 years in energy savings.

First, that's all good and all, but is it true? The way that some journalists and so-called green professionals throw around these numbers is baffling. Seven years for geothermal, 3.5 years for energy efficient washer/dryer, 4 months for compact fluorescent light bulbs, 2 years for ... whatever. Just how do they come up with these numbers? Based on some statistical average family living in an average town, with average utility costs consuming an average number of energy hours per year? In my opinion, these are wildly optimistic numbers at best. We, as green advocates, cling onto these numbers, because they sound good, but let's not get carried away.

Second, I don't necessarily have a problem with promoting the economics of green technology, but I dislike the trend these days of viewing our green homes primarily as investments. Let's be fair. The reality is that in a city like Chicago, green technology is not (yet) the best money-making investment for an average homeowner. That's not why green owners like myself do it. Take geothermal, for example. It costs a lot, about twice as much as the most efficient conventional system (i.e., $20,000+ extra on top of what a similar conventional system would cost). By my calculations, to make this back in energy savings, it will take me almost 20 years, not counting the loss of interest on my initial "investment" (i.e., loss of opportunity cost based on money I could have made had I invested that $20,000+ elsewhere) and based on a number of optimistic assumptions. So if I were in this just for financial reasons, I'd probably pass on the geothermal and put it into bonds and equities. But as a home owner, I chose to say yes for a number of other reasons: quiet efficient heating and cooling, less CO2 emissions in the air, the general feel-good factor, helping a fledgling industry, and better indoor air quality for my family. Yes, Mastercard, I'm going to say it. Aren't these things, after all, priceless?

How People Blow Their Budgets

It all starts innocently enough. "That would be much nicer. It's only an extra $__!" Then it all starts adding up. $.50 more per square foot on a nicer tile. A $500 wine fridge. $2,000 for an integrated sound system. $10 more per nicer door knobs. $4,000 more for better windows. $10,000 for a radiant heated basement. The next thing you know, you've completely blown your budget. I thought I had pretty good discipline but I'm convinced that nothing tests my weakness for the finer things in life than building my own home. Honestly, I never thought that I needed a wine fridge until I was given the option of having one in my house. It's like some irresistable force of nature screamed at me, "You'd be a fool not to put one in now! You'll regret it later!!" I know it's crazy (and this is from a guy who still drives a 2002 Hyundai) but I can't resist.

Dog Friendly Design

We knew we had the right architects, when we told them, "We want to incorporate some dog friendly features into our home" and they didn't laugh. At least not to our faces. Just look at this guy--he acts as if he owns the place! So to make sure that our new home will also be ok for his highness, we've incorporated some dog friendly features into our home: a little mudroom/dog shower for him in the basement, all solid floors throughout, "guard-dog" watching areas on the third floor decks, and bamboo floors that match his hair color (he sheds like crazy in the summer). Some ... most will think we're cuckoo but isn't being a little over the top one of the perks of designing your own home?

Wine Cellar

Not the best picture, but I saw this while browsing through some magazines at Borders and snapped a photo of it with my iPhone. I wasn't exactly in the mood to buy the $7 magazine just for this photo. Anyway, it's so simple and elegant--perfect for our "wine cellar," which is not a cellar at all. It's just a closet in the basement that's going to have some wines. Hey, wine's meant to be drunk. I can't imagine wine at my house collecting dust in some cellar.

Need...Garage...Now

Winters like this remind me of why we wanted a house in the first place. It's great things like a 2-car garage. Of course, in this two-car household, Mary gets to park her car in our one garage spot because, well, it's the right thing to do. I get stuck with the street and the snow. Can't wait until I can park in my own garage spot and not have to deal with having my car buried in snow every winter.

Happy 2009 from Sam, Mary, & Josh

Happy new year from our family to yours!

Selling Our Condo Continued: The Wow Factor

Our current home had all the right stuff when we bought it in 2002: the SS appliaces, granite, hardwood, open layout, master bath with jacuzzi and separate shower, two decks, etc. But in this era of HGTV and buyer incentives, it now lacks a wow factor. Yes, that je ne sais pas of the place that says, wow, this place rocks. I have no clue what that is for our condo, but we're going to make some nice cosmetic upgrades in the kitchen. After all, isn't the kitchen what sells homes? So we're replacing our builder-grade faucet with this modern industrial Danze faucet. $360 from Amazon. Not bad, huh? Now I just have to find someone to install it for me.

First Things First: Selling Our Current Home

Today, Mary and I spent the entire day cleaning up our condo. We live in a great part of Chicago called Roscoe Village, and we're sad to say good bye to our home for the last 6 years, but we're also getting excited about our new home in Logan Square. As you know, our home in Logan Square isn't anywhere near ready yet, but a realtor friend of ours told us that if we're expecting to move into our new home by early May, we'd better put the condo on the market by February. I think our reaction was, "Holy crap!!" So like mad, crazy lunatics, we decluttered and cleaned up our place to get a feel for how it will show. We'd accumulated so much stuff since we had Josh, so our place was just overflowing with baby stuff. Anyway, even after just one day of cleaning, the place looks amazingly better. I'm hopeful that the market for condos isn't completely dead in Chicago. It's a great home, and I know it'll make another family very happy here.

Prodema! Say yes to Prodema!

The bones of the home are finally being finished, so I am now looking forward to getting some finishes on the house--the skin, if you will. For the front of the house, we splurged a bit and decided to go for a sleek modern looking material from Spain called Prodema. Doesn't it sound like a precription drug or something? "Prodema! A new antidepressant from Pfizer. When you're depressed, think Prodema!" Anyway, we thought about brick or even stucco, but we just fell in love with the warm contemporary look of Prodema. It's expensive, but the way we look at it, why make our home look cheap after we've spent all this time and effort designing and building it. It's the one area where we decided we didn't want to skimp. The sides and the back, however... we didn't really care as much. They're still going to look nice with HardiPanel in a rainscreen installation.