We have Brick...and Dogwoods!

We were very excited tonight to find out that they have been laying brick this week!  We are so happy with our brick choice - it's so pretty!  I'm not sure whether I was more excited about the brick or the fact that I realized tonight that we probably have 10 - 12 dogwoods on our property.  They hadn't been blooming yet so I didn't realize we had these beautiful trees until tonight!  I love blooming trees so this was a nice surprise and we will enjoy having these lovely trees down our driveway, in our front yard and there is one just outside where our bedroom window will be.  Love, love, love it!!

Here's an "aerial view" of the basement from a huge mound of dirt.

Side view of the house.  This is the left side of the house and the front corner.  Love how our brick is turning out!

Front of the house and looking into the 2 car garage.

Back left corner of the house looking into the basement.

Yay!  Look at the dogwoods in our back yard!  So excited that we have these beautiful trees!

The builder says next week they will be waterproofing the basement so I'm not sure the pictures will be too exciting.  I can't wait for the framing to start!

The Basement is Taking Shape!

Our weekly trip out to the new house wasn't a disappointment.  They have been laying block this week despite the rain we've had and they've gotten a lot done!  We were actually surprised to see how much they had completed since we've had rain almost every day this week.  We are so excited to see things taking shape.  Here are some of the pictures from the house.

This is at the back right corner of the house looking toward the front.

This is down at the basement level looking up toward the garage.

Another shot from the top near the garage looking down.

That's a long way down...

My lovies...Sara was not very excited to head out there this week.  With the weather turning nice, she likes to spend her time outside playing.  But we got her out there by letting her play with Daddy's cell phone.  I think she's like me - she'll be more excited when the framing starts :-)

Support your Local Farmers!

This post isn't related to the house but I wanted to share it with you.  A friend of mine posted a link to this article and it just reinforces yet again why we should read labels on our food and eat local as much as possible.

7 Foods Even Food Safety Experts Won't Eat

Canned tomatoes are still one thing I haven't found a replacement for, but I think this summer/fall I'll be attempting to can my own after reading this article.  We've already switched to grass fed beef, organic produce (especially for any produce we eat the peel or skin - I'm not overly psychotic over bananas, oranges, etc.), eggs and hormone free milk from a local dairy.  We still eat microwave popcorn, but we've recently bought a hot air popcorn popper, which after reading this will get much more use.

Buying organic or purchasing from local farmers can be more expensive, there's no doubt.  However, after a lot of the recent talk of "pink slime" in ground beef and other toxic chemicals that are sprayed on our food and used to control weeds and pests, I feel better removing those items from our diet.  I look at my little girl and just feel that I wouldn't be doing my job as her mother if I didn't try to feed her the best food we can reasonably afford.  I guarantee you that if you try meat from a local farmer, whether it be beef, chicken, turkey or pork, it will have more flavor and taste better than anything you can buy in the grocery store.  It's also been proven in scientific studies that locally raised meat has more nutrients and is higher in healthy omega-3's than commercially produced meat. 

Support your local farmers - I guarantee you will love the quality and flavor you get from locally grown produce and locally raised meats!

Here's a link to the Raleigh Farmer's Market.

Lets make some Power!

So we've talked about building an energy efficient house, high performance windows, foam insulation, low watt lights, etc.  At the latest Raleigh Home Show I was curious about a Thermal solar system (water) to save even more energy and that's when it started, I inquired about Solar PV (electric), a few weeks later and we're on our way to a 24 panel multi-kilowatt PV system AND a 2 panel Thermal Hot water system!  Talk about excited.  We worked out what we think will be a great system at a great price with Southern Energy.  We have to take out a few extra trees but the benefits should far outweigh some trees missing on the side of the lot.  There's a lot to take into consideration when looking at solar, Southern Energy definitely helped answer many of the questions we had, but you also have to do your homework and know the tax rules to take advantage of the tax credits.  We still have to work with our tax lady and tweak stuff for probably the next 3 to 5 years to take advantage of the all the tax credits, so we'll have to post about those items over the coming years along with the power output/savings that we gain from the system.  You definitely don't want to just jump in without doing your homework first.  Solar combined with the exceptionally energy efficient house that Olde Heritage will be building I'm sure will be an awesome combination.   So are the Swayneys turning into "tree huggers"?  No, we just want to take the opportunity to do our part in reducing our carbon footprint which I think anyone should do if they have the opportunity, being green isn't always about saving a buck, sometimes you need to spend a few bucks to do your part, it's like giving to charity, except this charity is for our little spec of dirt in the galaxy called earth.

We'll post more as the systems are installed and definitely once we start making some power!

Footings Poured!

We drove out to the lot yesterday afternoon and they have poured the footings for the house.  I was hoping to see some block laid, but none yet.  As usual, I had problems visualizing the house layout and I was panicking that the house looked far smaller than we had planned.  I personally think it would be best if I just stay away from the lot until it's framed and there's a roof.  Brian would probably like that too ;-)  I'm certain he's tired of explaining everything to me.

Sara had to check out the block and get her picture taken.

Digging the Basement!

We had our typical Sunday visit out to the lot today.  Brian had a meeting with a guy about Solar PV/Solar Hot Water and a meeting with the developer to find out if he'll even let us do Solar PV, so Sara and I met him out there around 4:00 this afternoon to check things out.  Brian said they were actually on site today digging!  It looks like the digging for the basement is either done or very close to being done.  Our builder said they will start laying block this week, probably either Tuesday or Wednesday (I hope it doesn't rain!).  Here are some pictures we took today of the current state of the lot.

This picture is looking down into the basement from where the garage will be.

This is looking up toward the garage from the basement.

And here are Sara and Daddy on the huge pile of dirt.

And Sara always has to check out whatever large equipment is on site that day...

She loves all the trees on the property.  This one is her favorite.  She calls it her "carousel".

We spent some time today walking down by the creek that is on our property.  It is so pretty and peaceful out there - we are so excited to move to our new home!

That's all for today!  Hopefully this week I'll have some more pictures of the basement with block in it :-)  Have a great week everyone!

It's electric.....

FINAL RESULTS:  I'm impressed, my Chevy Volt test commute this week from Monday to Friday has forever changed my thinking about our dependency on foreign oil...I drove a total of 174.7 miles during my commute, due to depleting the battery only one time I used 0.3 gallons of gas, that's right, less than a third of a gallon.  That makes my gas mileage for the week 582 miles per gallon!  The one day that I depleted the battery I drove 42 miles on electric alone, I then drove another 12 miles and used about 0.3 gallons (it was actually slightly less but the system rounds up).  Even paying for the extra electricity to charge the car you're only talking about a few bucks to "fill it up", additionally having the gas engine, you can still drive to Disney if you want and still get around 40 to 50 miles per gallon.  The market still seems like it's in the early stages of these types of cars but with these kinds of stats it's very hard to overlook them.  The next time we're looking to purchase a car, we'll definitely be putting PHEVs on the top of the list.

So this post has nothing to do with the new house, however, it has a lot to do with being "green".  Progress Energy this week started a program that let's employees test commute with some of the plugin hybrid chevy volts and all electric Nissan leafs.  I was one of the first to sign up and I get to drive the chevy volt all week this week!  Day 1, trip from work to house was 14.5 miles and was all electric, didn't use a drop of gas and still had enough juice for about 20 more miles....very cool, at this rate it would slash our typical commuting gas expenses to pennies on the dollar.

UPDATE:  as of day 3 I've been able to achieve more than 300 miles per gallons!!!  I've driven well over 100 miles so far and only used 3/10 gallon after the battery was depleted on my Tuesday afternoon commute, if only all cars could get even 100 mpg it would change our entire dependency on foreign oil.

Digging has started!!

We had a nice surprise today when we stopped by the lot. They have started digging for the basement!! Yay! So exciting to see things start to happen!

Why Build Green?

Many of you may be wondering why we decided to go with a green builder.  Why not just go with a conventionally built home?  And just what is "green building" anyway?  Well, Brian and I originally just wanted a more efficient home - one that wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg to heat and cool.  However, after we had our daughter, I began doing a lot of research on different topics related to healthy eating, healthy home cleaners and general home health.  It is unbelievable the amount of chemicals in our food that are toxic and proven to cause cancer!  (And even more unbelievable that the FDA doesn't do more to regulate and eliminate the chemicals in our food - but that's for another post). 

But it was more eye opening for me to learn about the chemicals in things like carpet, cabinetry, furniture, paint, sheet rock and many other things you use to build a home.   Chemicals like formaldehyde and VOCs (volatile organic chemicals) are found in just about every building material you can think of.  Not to mention the chemicals in treated wood.  These all "off gas" in your home and can cause respiratory problems like asthma, a decreased immune system , allergies and worse.  We just felt it made sense to eliminate as many hazardous substances from our new home as possible to make it a safer environment for our family.

There are a lots of great resources online with information about green building and what it means.  One of my favorite websites to visit is The Daily Green.  It has lots of information about the many technologies out there as well as other ways to "green" our homes and our lives. In addition, the National Green Building Program has information on how to "go green" as a homebuyer.  Want more information?  Just google "green building" or "green construction" and you will find a wealth of information on the topic! 

Trees are cleared, its just about time to start some diggin!