As much time as we’ve spent in this house over the last year, I would not have thought there would be any surprises when we moved in, but there have been a few.
Temperature – It’s been very hot here this week, over 100 some days. Despite this, the house has stayed very cool. There is generally a 20 degree differential. The only time the house starts to heat up is at about 4:00 when the late afternoon sun streams in the front windows. We will probably get some kind of window coverings for that side of the house to help with this. Also, the air flow in the house is amazing.
Solar – The solar has worked great. I wouldn’t even know we had solar if Brad weren’t so obsessed about checking all the metrics all the time. And it’s worked great before we even had all the panels up (which we are finally completing now).
Birds – There are so many more birds here than I realized. It is especially evident in the early morning when we wake up to a chorus of all kinds of birds. It really sounds like a forest. I thought that when we moved away from the heavily treed place we were living before, we’d leave a lot of birds and other wildlife behind, but this has not been the case.
Kitchen – The kitchen is compact but workable. I have baked and cooked, pretty much as usual. The range is great. I am missing some counter space (especially last night when I made an overly complex grilled flat bread with carmelized onions and goat cheese, which required a lot of “staging”) but it is not bad. I am getting some hanging produce baskets and other things that should help. And we are storing a lot of canned goods and other stores in the storage room for now. It’s weird to think that when we originally designed this house, it didn’t even have a kitchen.
Views – The views out our many windows are just as nice as we’d hoped. Almost every night this week, we’ve taken an hour or so to sit outside and watch the sun set. (Once the sun dips down behind the mountains, it cools off fast. It’s been very pleasant around sunset. By midnight or so, it’s cold enough to use a comforter.) It really is gorgeous here.