Exploring Dow Solar Shingles

I've been interested in seeing if we could put solar shingles on the house to make it more energy efficient.  There are two options, and I've been talking with the local (San Antonio) DOW Powerhouse dealer.  The other vendor was relatively non-responsive. 

I sent him the elevation plans and the site plan, and after correcting them -- they had the house turned the wrong way on the site -- we got the proposal you can see here.  What I don't yet have is the pricing.  Our architect was guessing between $20- 25K, but that was with the original which had half as many units.  The builder is guessing closer to $30K. 

Unfortuntly, unlike Austin, the local power companies offer no rebates for installation of solar panels.  That leaves only the Federal Tax Credit -- which isn't that great.  I don't believe we're going to see a good return on the investment, unfortunately.

Here it is.

 And Alese says I should sign my posts, even though it shows who posts.  So, you know this was posted by Ray
 

AAC preliminary approval!

So, even though there are no houses in the development, there is a HOA (Home Owners Association) and there is an Architectural Approval Committee.  The AAC has right of rejection for all construction in the development.  At this point the AAC is basically the developer.  He has said one of us could be on as soon as the house is built.

We've been in contact with the developer, and have had Nick (our builder) talking with him as well.  We heard on Friday that we have preliminary approval.  Final approval is contingent on there being no changes on the engineering plans. 

We weren't worried about approvals, but it is one of those hoops that needs to be jumped through.

And tomorrow, I hope to post information about my exploration of solar roofing shingles.

Floor Plans

So the previous post showed the elevation views; what the house will look like from the outside.  Some of you may want to know what is on the inside; what the floor plans look like.  Well, here they are.

I turned off electrical and dimensions so as to reduce confusion.  Those hash marks around the plans are part of the dimension detail that I couldn't hide.

You can use the front elevation on the right side of the blog as reference for the outside view.

Start with the bottom right.  That's the first floor.  2 car garage entry on the left side with space for a work area.  Through the middle from front to back is the hall. The Game Room takes up the rest of the space there. And, yes, there's a small bathroom there so we don't need to run upstairs from outside.

Top right you see the second floor.  the Master Suite on the right -- with access to the porch.  The other two rooms, shown as bedrooms, will be our offices -- Alese's on the left and mine in the middle.  If you didn't notice when looking at the exterior views, there's a small balcony outside Alese's office.  Entry is from the hall however.  It's a place to watch sunsets over Corpus Christi Bay.

On the left, is the third floor:  from left to right -- kitchen, dinning area, and living area, leading out to another porch.  Look carefully at the top left corner of that plan.  Did you notice there's a small porch there? (Think breakfast coffee looking out to summer sunrises. (Also where we can winch up groceries)  Midway along the back wall is a small porch with the stairs to the Observatory.  Alese suggested the stairs might have a name -- widower walk -- since she'll be holding tight as she makes that climb.

Plans....

As promised.  Here's a look at the 4 sides of the house...

Bottom right is the front -- facing the street.  Top right is the back -- this is the side facing Port Royal.
Bottom left is the West side -- faces the Island Road, and in the distance, downtown Corpus Christi.
Top left is the East side -- facing the Gulf.  Yes, there is a porch at roof level.  Right now that's called the Observatory.  (Nick had been calling it the Widow's Walk.  That's a familiar term from New Bedford, but didn't think it appropriate for this house.)

Two more photos of site staking

Here are two additional photos I wanted to share.  

This shows the lovely though overwhelming cord grass with its fall seeds blowing silver in the wind.  

This was a favorite moment of the day as I enjoyed a feeling of power and happiness to be taking what felt like a huge step forward in our journey to our new site.

[Technical note: If you want to make a comment, one must click the words No Comments.  Of course.]

Placing the house....

Alese checking the plan.

Last weekend we went to the lot with the latest set of plans.  On that day, the most important plan was the one showing the placement on the lot.  We had the architect, Taylor, move the house to the East from where he had it in a previous plan, and we wanted to be sure we were happy with the revised location.  And it's hard translating the drawing to the actual, without looking at it.

We are pretty well set on the floor plans.   We'll show those when we get the next digital version.  For this adventure Taylor had  printed our plans on 2'x3' paper.

We stopped at Lowes on our way to the Island for a 100' tape measure, stakes, marking paint, and some orange tape.  Then we went to the lot.  The back of the van became the on-site office.  Plans spread out and scale ruler in hand, we tried to figure how to locate Taylor's exact placement of the house.  I won't go into the geometry, and luckily we decided we needed to only be close, not exact. Have you ever tried to use one of the triangular scale rulers?  Ours has 12 different scales, and on earlier plans we'd been using a 1/8 inch = 1 foot scale, the printed 2x3 floor plans use 1/4 inch, but the site plan uses 3/32 = 1 foot.  Needless to say, we had to remeasure a number of times.

Once we got the 4 corners located, we ran orange tape the the length of the North and East side of the proposed location.   Alese, after getting a feel for the position of the house on the lot decided it would be better to position it 5 feet to the West.  We both wanted it moved North 10 feet.  That moved it closer to the middle of the lot side-to-side, and a little further from the street.  But the footprint for the house is about 24 x 50 and the lot is 185' wide and 130' feet deep at the narrow (West) side.

So we put a stake in at the new location, Alese walked around trying to envision her plants, and I painted a line for the location of the driveway.  We had a good idea of where the house will be on the lot.   Of course, Alese then had "locators remorse" and spent a few hours on Monday rethinking the location and trying to see if we were right.  She was thinking she would tell Taylor to put it back at his prior location, or somewhere in between, but in the end decided she would be fine where we positioned it.

Taylor is doing some final work on the plans -- moving a few windows to the perfect locations, and moving the location of the outdoor shower.

Nick (our builder) is now working on preliminary pricing for the house.  That will tell us what we have to give up to be able to afford to build.  We'll also get the digital plans and send those on to the Architectural Approval Committee of the Home Owners Association.  We can't build without their approval.  And being the first house in the development we don't know exactly what to expect.  Expect that my next post will include floor plans.

Planning the reconstruction

Ray and Alese are planning
the post-construction reconstruction
of their half-acre wildscape

Life has been happily existing for many, many generations in the dunes and prairie that make up the neighborhood now known as Mustang Island Estates.  Now that we're planning our home on our little half-acre, we'll be inviting dozens of destructive people and their equipment to disturb much of the happy ecosystems that have been living there in peace.  

But eventually they'll go, and we'll be left with a beautiful home and an enticing blank slate of beautiful white sand surrounding it.  

Our plan is to help mother nature repopulate it with the very same plants that were scraped away, plus add a few pretty cousins from down the highway.  The primary goal is plant native Texas plants and, in particular, coastal South Texas plants.  And not the pretty things from Hawaii and South America and China and Japan, which don't taste good to butterflies and caterpillars and birds. 

Below are pix of some of the plants I've been taking note of lately that grow along our little neighborhood road. I've already identified some of them, but it's sometimes difficult.  Please let me know which you recognize and can put a name to.  Today's newly found site, the Kika de la Garza Plant Materials Center, looks useful, though I ran out of time before I could get through the Plant Fact Sheets page. Do you know of other resources with photos of coastal plants?

Plants of Mustang Island Estates

First Look: Front elevation

So, this is what we've gotten from the Architect.  It isn't perfect (of course, it's the first draft) but gives you a general idea.  We will have more windows and we may move some of these.  Alese wants a bigger front porch.  This does give you the general idea of the house though.

Another Design Meeting

We meet with Nick (builder) and Taylor (architect) today.  It was a productive meeting as you can see from the photo.  It looks like there were lots of changes, but not really, a lot of the red is clarification. We did make the most change to the master bathroom.  We also were clarifying pop-outs, and adding details. Taylor was also making notes, the next set of drawings, in about a week, will include elevations, so we can see windows and roof-line.  (You can see Taylor's explanation of the roof line on the lower left.)  Corpus Christi building code limits the building height at the mid-roof-line to 35 feet. 

We met for about 2 hours.  It felt good, but I'm now concerned that all the windows Alese wants are going to make the house more expensive than we will be able to afford.  None of the things I want will impact the costs.  :-) [Maybe that will get her to comment.]

FYI: About Port Aransas, just down the road from our future home at Mustang Island Estates Drive.

This is a description from a condo listed in Groupon.

 

Port Aransas, Texas: Sunny Beach Town with Excellent Fishing

Port Aransas is located at the northern end of Mustang Island, a narrow landmass that stretches for 18 miles off the Gulf Coast in Texas. The area gets frequent sunshine and is lined with sparsely populated public beaches, and it’s become popular with spring-breaking college students. They frequent the beachside clubs and bars, or rent kayaks and surfboards to paddle through the waves.

Fishing is a major pastime here; more than 20 fishing tournaments are based in Port Aransas, and you can catch tuna, kingfish, and marlin out on the water as dolphins jump nearby. When you return to land, bring your catch to one of the island eateries and they’ll often grill it for you on the spot.

There are 1,200 acres of tidal flats and undeveloped shore land to explore at the Port Aransas Nature Preserve, which features three miles of hiking and biking trails and boardwalks. Head up to one of the lookout towers and you can often spot rare and endangered birds such as the Piping Plover, a stout shorebird with an appetite for crustaceans.

Planning is underway.

Last Saturday we sat around a table in our builder's office going over details of the basic layout for the house.  We have a plan, but of course it's not quite the way we think we want things.  In preparation for this meeting we had done a walk-through of a couple of houses with basic floor plan.  One was a little larger and completed, and the other slightly smaller and under construction in the dry-wall stage.  Those 3-dimensional experiences were to help us visualize what was drawn on paper.

We made the greatest number of changes to the second (aka bedroom/office) floor.  As a reminder, the design if for garage and flex space on the first floor,  master bedroom and two offices on the second level, and kitchen, dining, and living space in one big open third level.  Of course second and third levels have porches on the Gulf side.  We added a small balcony off the offices on the bay side (that's the West side facing Corpus Christi Bay).  There'also a small deck off the kitchen -- which would also give us a view toward the Bay.  Then, over the living room porch, so up at the forth level is another deck.  That will give us a 360 view and a full view of the sky as well.

We had expected to go with the builder to his architect this week to get started on more technical plans, but the architect is on vacation this week!  So, that activity will wait until next week.  It may take two rounds with the architect, but that we'll get us to the stage of having plans we will show to the HOA Architectural Committee (aka developer).  Those will also be what we will show to the bank to get a loan.

(We just had a discussion about the difference between decks and porches...  Alese says a porch has a roof and a deck does not.  What do you think?)

Watch here in coming weeks as the action picks up.

A phone tip.

If you've been calling someone and they don't take your call, it may be because they don't have news and don't want to talk with you.  One thing you can do is use *67.  Enter *67 before you dial the number and it turns off caller-id for that call.  It means the person on the other end doesn't know it's you calling.  Of course, if they're like me, they may not be willing to answer a "blind" call.  But if they haven't been answering before, nothing ventured nothing gained.

It worked for us, and we got a status update.

Big Happenings on Mustang Island

On this past Saturday, we met with our builder, Nick Lorette, and rebooted the process begun last year to design and build a house on our lot. It left us both with a very giddy, giggly, OMG feeling all evening. He's even going to directly speak with the neighborhood architectural control committee to clarify some of the funky building restrictions. Given we'll be the first to build in the neighborhood, he's hoping he can push one of the restrictions to be a bit more logical.  We enjoyed showing him our design changes to his initial draft floorplan done sometime around August or September last year. Not only did he agree our ideas of moving rooms around and their layout were just right, but he thrilled us with his ideas of doing multiple bump outs all about to give the shape more charm. What fun this is. Afterward, we kept changing our votes on which part of that meeting was our favorite part of the day.   Once he settles with the ACC, he'll draw and present us with a new floorplan to react to. We'll take it to the existing house the original floorplan is based on, and will spend the afternoon comparing and contrasting the details for a revised, further personalized version. After a conversation and tweaking with Nick about our changes, it'll be ready for the architect, who will likely need to do tweaks before we're ready to roll.  How long will this take? Weeks. Could it be months long? Possibly.  Disclaimer: Ray will undoubtedly respond with a different version of his impressions of the meeting and timeline.

In other news, we enjoyed our weekend ritual of driving into our neighborhood, slowly inching past our lot, and then down the street to the end of the culdesac, a trek we'll one day routinely take up and back to the beach. We didn't get out and walk the property this time, but we did the drive-by version of checking out the lowering of the ponds' water levels, and imagining the changes in store for the hump of sand where our house will be.

Below are a few of the birds we saw on our drive-by. Yes, of course they're out of focus. There was a limit to how well Ray could drive and take photos of less than friendly birds who wanted to keep moving just out of range. There were at least another half-dozen types that simply left the area. The killdeer and egret are obvious, but help me ID the last two on the right: a meadowlark and savannah sparrow?  The latter are small and wren-like, and number in the dozens every time we visit.

This is going to be a full week at work, so I can't predict when I'll show you my new native and adapted plants I'm gathering for our future landscaping. Later.

Corpus Christi -- Alese's selected highlights of our first week

Yes, we’re here.  And so is all our stuff.

You may recall reading that we donated, gave away, or sometimes even sold more than half our furniture, clothing, and possessions during four different stages between August and March, each time being stricter and more critical.  Even so, we’ve had to come up with innovative ideas to stow our possessions (from a four bedroom house with six walk-in closets and two pantries) into a small two bedroom house (with one 3’x6’ storage closet, two 1920s circa clothes closets, and no pantry). Bedroom #2 looks like a blue light special of Walmart plastic tubs stacked high.

We made a great deal of progress this past week putting things away and repairing/customizing this old house, built in 1926.  It fit right in with the months of remodeling practice we had this past fall.  As we put things away, we make decisions about which are priorities inside each box and what are their logical destinations, not necessarily working to empty a box just to empty it.  It’s a challenging memory game: where did I see the dustpan, scissors, hair brush, nightlights.

Meanwhile, we’ve been learning our way around town.  We’ve tried other than just the closest HEB and Walmart to see which are and aren’t the best and worth the drive, and how to get from here to there using main streets, highways, and back roads.  Adventurous exploration is such fun.

Wichu made it through the remodeling and house selling phases surprisingly well, and the 3-plus hour trip down here was a simple time of patient waiting.  His entry into his new reality was a little rough, spending his first night hidden behind the toilet, and would have been ready to come out, but had to take a break in Liz’s future apartment while the movers brought everything in.  He spent the next day in the closet and much of the week under the bed, but he’s past his worrisome bulimic stage now and is enjoying exploring every little thing and spending long periods in the windows watching the world outside.

I can retire my crown as Drought Queen because the drought here preceded me.  The difference in weather is a significant change from the previous week at our chilly, Live Oak-y Austin yard.  We’ve had extremely windy conditions (40mph) and quite warm temps (mid-80s today), and the slow-leafing deciduous trees in the yard allow the sun to fill the yard and house.  

I'm writing this on late Sunday afternoon. Ray went back to Austin mid-morning to his temporary quarters to resume his Austin job, and this routine will become familiar to all of us over time.  It's just me and Wichu in the house.  It's an interesting coincidence that I'm living within a mile or so of where I used to live back in the mid-70s, and yet it's difficult to find anything similar to that time.  

I start back to work tomorrow after two weeks away in mind and spirit, and I'd rather be emptying those last boxes, but after such a long, very hard effort to get to this spot, I'm pleased to feel complete relaxed contentment with exactly where I am this moment.  

Yes, we're now in Corpus Christi -- Ray's post

I assume Alese will eventually get to posting, but just wanted to make it official. Our movers arrived on time on Sunday morning, and the truck was fully loaded by about Noon. There were a few things that didn't fit. They hadn't been sure if we could fit everything into one truck, so brought a second one in case. When they heard Liz was moving they suggested putting the few remaining things (mostly outdoor furniture) in storage at her place, and then bringing it down with her move, which would save money on this move. (A smart play on their part. That assures them of more business moving Liz.) So, we saved $600 on a second truck -- which will probably go to support Liz's move. We drove down that afternoon each in our own vehicle. Alese's was full of plants. We arrived about 5. The movers arrived about 12:30 on Monday and were done unloading by about 3:30. The past few days have been taken up unpacking, arranging furniture and boxes we won't unpack, and getting TW to install internet and cable. So now we're on broadband and don't need to be concerned with the data costs on our iPads. We had expected to use both the garage and the spare bedroom for storage and didn't really know how much space that would all take. It turns out we could have brought the queen mattress for visitors -- which would have added to the need for a second truck. (We only brought one twin mattress -- no box spring -- because we thought the spare bedroom/storage room would be inundated with boxes.) We are officially in Corpus. We closed on the Austin house yesterday. That house is now officially and totally sold! I'm still working at HT until the end of this contract. That will be the end of May. I'll be staying at my sister- and brother-in-laws house in Austin during the week and driving home to Corpus Christi on weekends. I may switch cars with Alese on occasion to bring some of the things we'd like to have before Liz moves down... end of April. Photos and prose from Alese will follow, one of these days. Ray

Out the door

Two more days.

Move day is almost here.

A few more last-minute boxes to pack and a hope that the plan works to get all those damn plants (that seemed so important to take along) will actually fit into the van come Sunday. Would one think it overly compulsive to draw a floor plan for the van for doing what-ifs of what pots will fit where?

Last night, we took Ray's clothes and personal belongs to his new living quarters in Betty/Ernie's house (the sister/brother-in-law). Ray will have a lovely setup there with the certainty of plenty of interactions with the extended family. 

This posting is simply recognition that we're still here, barely,
almost gone,
and the blog needs a proper jumping off place
before we begin to tell talkes and share photos of the new lives.
See you then. 

The last two weeks in the Olde House

The showings are all history, the open house has passed, the five offers all in, negotiated, and one accepted. The inspection is done and minor repairs all but complete. The moving companies are giving quotes. The modest House Cooling Party is due to start in three hours. The house is quiet and eager contentment is thick and rich in the air.

The new rental house in CCTX

We've done a huge amount of packing already and have plenty of time to complete the remainder in the days leading up to Truck-Loading Day, Sunday, March 10th. The plan is to clean the house as they load, and be ready to toss our essentials and Wichu in the vehicles, and drive down that evening for our First Official Night Living in Corpus Christi. 

The truck will arrive and unload our belongings the next day, and we'll switch our focus to where in the world we fit all this stuff in that small two-bedroom house. 

This blog will then become reflections on living together in Corpus Christi on weekends and in separate cities during the weekdays, as Ray completes the remaining two months of his university contract.

Life is so sweet.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
~ Barack Obama

Time to leave you, Luckenbach Lane

Finally on the market, and much excitement on the street as potential buyers flock to see it.

It's so rewarding to sell in a seller's market, and Austin's market is on fire!

Time to leave you, Luckenbach Lane.

Alese's long-postponed update

I give up.

I'm too much of a storyteller to keep up with all that's been going on in this tiny island of my life the last few months.  I keep drafting reports of all the remodeling news, only to abandon them as the actual doing takes me away from the telling.  

Here's the abbreviated version.

Mid-November through January

Phase I of the remodeling came to a close, ending our banishment to the master suite from the main house. We moved furniture, possessions, and selves back in, careful to chose on the barest of esstials, leaving everything else packed in the attic and garage.

We took advantage of the unseasonally warm weather and wood-filled, sanded, and painted the vertical and horizontal surfaces of various porches, and prepared the non-hardy potted plants for their annual indoor sanctuary.

To fill my spare moments and demonstrate that I am beyond insane, I took on sanding and painting four mismatched bedside tables, doing two of them to "match" for the master bedroom. What fun to sand away the ugly old stain, reveal the hidden wood, and antique them in various layers of golden colors. The garage was chilly, quiet and isolated, the hands busy and the mind free, until the cramping back would remind me I'd been enjoying it for too many hours without a break. 

January



Phase II meant giving up the master suite, which meant packing and moving everything from our closets, bathroom cabinets, and bedroom. The contractor helped to move the zillion-pound sleigh bed headboard and old-school TV cabinet into the living room and dining room (the garage is too dusty and potentially damp). They joined our king-size mattress and boxspring already in place there, stationed in the middle of the living room. We opted to crowd in there rather than move things upstairs, which is painful, scratches walls, and annoys the laws of gravity. What fun! Another cozy space to spend the last normal month before we move everything back into its carefully staged position for putting the house on the market. 

Then came the cold and dust phase. Despite covering the hearter's air intake from the construction area, dust from sanding snuck into the vents and deposited a thick coat of dust everywhere throughout the house. Everywhere. The sanding increased and painting time came, so we opted to turn off the heat till that stage end. Ms. Climate Change decided to swing to unseasonably cold temps, so we enjoyed the gas fireplace for warmth. We woke to some mornings of 50 degrees.  Inside.  

February

Now the remodeling is DONE!  FINISHED! BEHIND US! The house is gorgeous and we met our timeline goal.  

We signed with the same realtor who sold my parents' house in three days a few years back, and he was here yesterday taking 132 photos.  It's due to hit the MLS on Monday or Tuesday, and I'll give you that link then.

This feels fabulous and I'm delighted to see the results of so many, many months of hard work and planning finally be realized.  I'm luxuriating in the pleasure of a huge project well done.  Oh.  And did I mention that I have the finest partner a person could ever hope for.  Thank you, Raymond.  Now it's your turn to write. 


Alese hit the high points, but what she didn't talk about was all the organization she was doing.  There were lists, and lists, and sticky notes with each item, so they could be moved to the next week if not accomplished or tossed in the trash when completed.  We couldn't possibly have gotten this done on time, and with the house so beautiful without her OCD!  :-)

Little tidbits about living in the living room -- the fireplace was great.  Without the heat on we ran the fireplace a lot.  It was the last thing to be turned off at night and the first thing on in the morning, and on weekends it was nice to luxuriate in the bed and watch the flames for a while before starting the day.  

What Alese hasn't said about the house is that the realtor has been blown away by the renovations and the staging.  He said he might bring some of his other clients by to show them what to do when they put their house up for sale.  We know he can't put 130 photos up in the MLS, so he probably has other plans for some of them.  Today we'll have a sign up in the yard -- Coming Soon.   MLS maybe Tuesday, and open house next Sunday.  It will be a good day for an open house because the football season is over!

So, just to reiterate, this wouldn't have turned out so great and on schedule without Alese.  She is an amazing partner!