Monday was a good day if you needed to get to Kansas quickly, we had a bit of wind....PJ got the barn work done so the overhead service feed was removed....all in preperation to reduce the house to a pile of usable materials and scrap drywall/insulation, etc. My neighbor, BVM - a GC in the area, came over for a beer or two and we talked about what a pain the County can be. We are hoping we can buy wind power from Xcel Energy instead of putting PV 110V service on our roof. We want to do a 12V circuit for pumping water around through the floors, glycol through the solar panels, and running LED lights only....we'll see what transpires on that front. They seem to want to mandate energy independance on larger home projects, but wind power is the best option as it's cheap and green, etc.

Photo is of the house as it is, dwg if it is displayed is of the east and west elevations planned

Sat/Sun 2-7/8-09

JC and I tried to use a rental trencher from HD with not so much luck, took it back and got my money back, soil was too rocky....had to resort to using the TLB from JD [I wanted a skid steer adapter trencher tool, but no rentals nearby available]...we trenched in order to relocate the hot tub away from the house, cleaned out the barn so I will have an office on site, etc. Got to use the welder, backhoe, loader, auger, front bucket/loader, leaf blower, drill, etc. JC looks like he's going to be good part time labor for the project. He's the son of our housekeeper and is in college for Arch. Design/Engineering. This project will be a great experience for him. PJ is due today to finish the gate job he did at the entry and some barn elec. box work, then we can get rid of the overhead lines and destroy the house....etc. He brought enough rough sawn 1x8 material to scab on the existing fence at the entry, this will keep the gawkers from thinking of coming down the drive to prowl for stuff to steal. Next free weekend will involve fixing the fence and getting the barn emptied, cleaned, ready for an office, etc. The shipping container is massive and will take a long time to fill, etc.

We achieved site plan approval today, 2/6/09

The house to the right will be deconstructed and replaced with a passive solar timber frame....