(Choirs of Angels Singing in the background) . . .

Ok, so maybe it's not as monumental as All in the Family's first on-air toilet flush, but it sure was the best progress on the house for me in a long time! That's right - today, we hooked up the very first toilet in our new home! Let me tell you how nice it is not to have to drive a mile down the road to go . . . We installed a standard 1.6 gallon toilet in the basement bathroom and we'll install the dual-flush toilets in the other three baths. I'll spare you the picture, you know what a toilet looks like, but I just wanted to share this special moment with all of our online followers!

More Paint

Pics of Kaila's Room

Siding and Paint

Here are some pics from the weekend. We had some awesome weather last week and this weekend - nearly 80 degrees on Sat. and Sun. Here's Kenny working on the garage siding below.

Above is a pic of the Powder Room accent wall and below is a view of the Dining Room, Kitchen, and Loft.

Below is Kaila's Room - more pics to follow this week!

Yeah! The meter spins BACKWARDS!

Ok, today Duke Energy came out and replaced the meter on the house. The technician wanted to know why we needed a new meter and when I said it was because the one we had didn't turn backwards, I opened a can of worms! Finally after about 15-20 minutes, I convinced him that what I was doing was legal and that we knew what we were doing, he finally put the new meter on. I fired up the PV system (luckily it was a very sunny day) and he could see the meter spinning backward for himself! When I left this evening, the sun was still shining and we had produced a total of 24 kWh so far!

Below are some photos that volunteer, Perry Leitner sent me. He is a local Master Electrician that is training to become a certified PV installer. He helped to install our system as part of his training. Carl Adams was another volunteer also training to become a certified PV installer. Both underwent training in Toledo with our certified installer, John Witte of Advanced Distributed Generation, LLC based in Toledo, OH.

Above from left to right are volunteers Carl Adams, Perry Leitner, and our installer John Witte.

More PV Images

You can view more images of the PV (solar panel) installation at: http://picasaweb.google.com/swingjunkie/ADGPVSolarInstallNutterResidenceMilfordOhio?authkey=VA-ComQyqdU

Thanks to one of our volunteers, Carl Adams, for the pictures!

Generating our own ELECTRICITY!

Above is a view of the Great Room painted, and below is the meter showing our PV system generating almost its second kW of electricity. The problem is that the utility company hooked up the wrong meter to our house and it will not go in both directions. So we will need to have Duke Energy come back out and replace the meter with one that moves in both directions. It was kind of a bummer to see the inside meter showing the system generating electricity, but the outside meter not going backwards.

Above is the PV system connect to the utility power. From left to right you see our main breaker panel which is being fed from the utility. Next to that on top is the inverter that receives DC power from the solar panels and converts it to AC power and sends it back to the house through the breaker panel. Below the inverter is the PV array power meter that monitors how much power we are producing. Today was really sunny so the meter was really crankin'! On the right is the DC disconnect.

Below is another view of the Great Room.

More Solar Panel PV Installation Photos

Solar Panel-Photovoltaic Installation!!!!

Today was a very busy day - we had all kinds of contractors and volunteers onsite to help out with the PV installation (as well as getting those darn stairs in!) Below are some pics from today. The first one shows Daniel and Brian working on the stair stringers.

Bringing the panels up to the roof and attaching them to the racks that attach to the ribs in the metal roofing.

Student Tour

Here's the group of students from the College of Mount St. Joseph here in Cincinnati that came for the lecture and tour yesterday. Thanks to all those who attended and we hope you learned a lot about green design!

 

Let there be Light . . .

Today Kenny was able to hook up our first switched lights in the house. The basement circuits are connected to the breaker panel so we now have lights and power in the basement. He also hooked up the GFI outlet for our whirlpool tub in the Master Bedroom and the breaker for one of the furnaces. I gave a tour to a group of 21 college students this morning (I'll post pictures as soon as I get them). Above, the Master Bedroom is primed and ready for paint, and below is the first ceiling light in the basement!
The breaker panel - only 30-something more breakers to go!

 

Primed and Ready for Paint . . .

Today Kenny spent the day working on ductwork and electrical while I cleaned, and cleaned, and . . . finally I was able to prime the kitchen wall and get it ready to paint. We had a huge mess to clean up after the drywallers finished - there was a thick layer of drywall dust on every surface in the house. For 3 days during this past week, I spent the afternoons mopping the walls and ceilings. Then today, I shop vac'd the windows and washed the caked-on dust off of the windows. Then it was time to cut in the primer around the ductwork and in the corners. Then it was time to prime the rest of the wall (see finished wall below). Tomorrow I'm giving a tour to a group of 21 Interior Design students and a faculty member from the College of Mount St. Joseph here in Cincinnati. After that, I'll be doing more priming and Kenny will be hooking up outlets on the main floor and working on the breaker box in the garage. I need to paint the kitchen and dining room walls so that cabinets can be installed next weekend.