Going solar

As stated before, Steinback Mountain runs exclusively on electricity. When we purchased the home, it came with a pellet stove insert that was great for heating but, like the kitchen cabinets, just didn't fit the MCM aesthetic we're after. In the winter we now heat our home using Morsø wood burning fireplace inserts. After a winter of experimenting on wood choices we found eucalyptus worked best because it burned clean and hot. Now that the windows are all dual paned, it's relatively easy to warm the place and keep it cozy for hours.

Our goal during the renovation is to supplement the wood stoves with electric radiant heat below the soon to be tiled floors. The radiant heat will be used in all three buildings and will be zoned so that we'll only heat the rooms that we want heated. Of course, radiant heat needs either a heat pump or a furnace both of which we do not possess, or electricity. Here comes the sun....

A few months back, on one of our many trips to Home Depot, we reluctantly talked to a Solarcity representative. At our first Dwell on Design gig two years ago we also talked to them but at that time their preliminary study showed that our hillside home was not a good contender for solar. Well, they were a little more interested this year and two weeks ago a very nice sales consultant made a visit to Steinback Mountain. She was convinced we had enough sun exposure to work. But, just to be sure, another rep came to the house today to take measurements, check out the roof structure, and survey all of our water heaters and appliances.

While looking at the crawl space above the ceiling in the main house, the Solarcity guy commented on how impressed he was with the roof's support system. He said he's seen a lot of flat roofed homes and none of them were as strongly constructed as ours. I told him the history of the house and we both agreed a contractor building a house for himself is probably going to do everything right.

See the small building behind the oak tree in the center of the photo? That's the guest house. The Tombleson guys are coming this afternoon to take some more measurements so they can finalize the estimate for the first phase of the renovation. We've come up with a few changes since the architects sent the plans to the County and want to talk with Mike about how these can be implemented.

Three of the changes involve the guest house. First, we've decided to replace the fixed window in the bathroom with a slider. At Dwell we talked with the manufacturer of the slider we have already installed in the main house's master bedroom and he assured us we could use one just like it in a shower. The view from the guest house bathroom looks out onto an oak filled knoll that is very private. So guests will be able to open the slider when showering and feel like they're doing so outside.

The second change we're making is also thanks to Dwell. One of the many Plyboo products we lusted over is a stacked Durapalm paneling (top two samples in the pic above). We had initially planned on covering the wall separating the sleeping area from the bathroom with an Arizona sandstone brick treatment to match the walls in the main house and BBQ room. But when we saw the Durapalm paneling we thought, hmmmm, this is kind of like the walls back home but it's actually cooler, a lot lighter in weight and a lot easier to install. Which means... a lot cheaper. Sold!

The third change we may be making is the decking material. We're adding a rather large deck between the guest house and the main house which will be the spot for a new hot tub. The area where the deck is going has the best and widest views of the Salinas Valley and the Gabilan Mountains. We had originally specced Ipe wood for the deck but have been concerned about how "green" it is. When visiting the Plyboo showroom a few weeks ago, they showed us a sample of their decking material (last sample, bottom right) which is very green. They just so happen to have a few pallets in their showroom of a product they're discontinuing and have quoted us a really, really good price on it. Haven't yet made up our minds, however. There are a few reviews online that are not very positive. We're waiting to see what Mike Locke thinks....