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Growing up in a large family, Sky lived in a house with solar panels on the roof. His dad was a John Wayne, conservative-family man. -Very hardworking and he had 7 kids. He believed in doing something the right way, and the best way.

We would have loved to follow his lead, but solar panels are a really big money investment.

So, we talked about it once in a while, but never took the plunge.


Sky heard ads on the radio for Solar City. They offer a lease program. This program takes advantage of some of the green power rebates being offered in California- and by paying lease payments spread out over many years, the price is made reasonable. They have a no money down program, and then an even better offer if you put a certain percentage down. We went with the 2nd option. By leasing the panels, Solar City also monitors their performance- a win/win.


Before the crew could begin their work- they had to power up their tools the old-fashioned way.
Whisper...they used an electrical outlet.....

Our house was built in the 1950's -because our electrical box was one made for a 1950's house, we could not put the maximum number of panels on our house- unless we upgraded our electrical box. We were already laying out cash upfront to lower our lease payments...so, we said 'no thanks' to the new box. Instead, we had fewer panels installed.

The panels on our roof will not be adequate to totally power our house. But, they should take our electric needs down to the very lowest and next lowest pay scale on our electric bill.

You know that scale- the one that no one living could achieve..so you are pushed into the higher rate tiers quickly on your electric bill. Yes, that scale. Now- we will live on the lower rungs of the tier.
Oh yeah...oh yeah...oh yeah!

With our electric rates increased every year, we were very motivated to not be so dependent on our electric company. We don't live in Los Angeles county- where we hear of rates being dramatically increased every year- so thankful we don't have to deal with that...Yet, our increases are still problematic.


Here is our solar power doo-dad...(yes, I'm really tech). It took Solar City most of the day to install the panels. They were a very curteous crew. At one point, they accidently punched a few screws through our vaulted ceiling in the bathroom. They were quick to fix it, patch the holes and repaint. Nice guys, all of them :)

When they were all through, we stood in front of our electric meter and watched it spin backwards.

Yes, it really does spin backwards! I thought that was total hyperbole, but no lie, it really does.

It's pretty satsifying.

This is a totally unsponsored post- but* Solar City does offer referral rewards to current customers for referring new customers- I would love, love, love it if you mentioned I sent you, if you decide to go with Solar City.

Labels: home design

So, I left you all hanging with my post last week, -doings at home*
I gave you all a teaser photo and left you to guess...so sorry, things have been really chaotic and busy here with back to homeschool!

Here's the answer to my question....



We took the plunge and installed solar panels on our house. Solar City made it possible.
I'll post all about it later this weekend, stay tuned. :)

Labels: home design

We are super excited about a project we've got going on here at our house!

Here's a photo hint...

can you guess what we are up to?

Labels: home design

I've tried many different scheduling approaches for our homeschool planning. After more than 10 years homeschooling, I haven't found a system that sticks. Some have worked well for a year, or a month... but then the look of our school day changes, and my schedule falls by the wayside.

The chalkboard of ultimate power sprung from the clever whiteboard system used at our Classical homeschool group. I realized I was onto something possibly brilliant in execution...and so I asked sky to put up a chalkboard wall for me.

I chose a spot in the room we do most of our school work...the dining room area. Sky simply painted this wall with chalkboard paint.

I write out the flow for our day for my 3 youngest students, so they can see what comes next and what is left to do.

I have a running list of things I need to do. Here's the brilliant part....I erase as they are done.

If it's still on the board, I still need to do it.

It's my board, no one else is allowed to write on it. Ha!


There you have it, homeschool planning/scheduling for the Bridget Jones homeschool mom.

Labels: home design, homeschool, homeschool planning, Jen's world, school year 09

Here is how the window-seat area in the girl's room looks like right now.

Sky built-in bookcases on each side of the window seat area, and built the window-seat out, making it wider and more comfortable to sit on.

We need to find a cushion for the seat.

Oliver finds it plenty comfortable, it seems.









Here is the best "before" photo I could find.

This is the room before the great "sleeping-loft" project began...notice no bookshelves flanking the window, and the seat is not very deep.

Labels: home design, kid's loft

Sky has accomplished much this week. Day 1 of the project, he took the day off from work, to give himself a running start. Here are a few photos of how it is going...


After the demolition of the ceiling, we decided to build the sleeping platform out into the room two feet and some inches...it was just too cramped up there, I thought. By pushing the platform into the room some, they gain some headroom and more light.

The old insulation came out, and the air-conditioning ducts were moved, and another register was added to get cool air into the loft.

Labels: home design, kid's loft

Sky tells me that there is a moment in every home renovation project he does, where time seems to stop...as he pauses, with sledgehammer in hand, to ask himself...."Do I really want to do this?" Such a moment occurred as he lifted a power-saw to poke a hole in our perfectly good roof - to add a fireplace; as he took a jackhammer to our front stoop- to build a front porch, and as he took a sledgehammer to the perfectly whole shower tile in the bathroom-before building *this.

That moment was here, as he stood in the girl's room and prepared to remove the ceiling fan- step 1 before demolishing the ceiling.
The fact that it is a perfectly good room, a very nice room, really- kind of gives you pause.



We joke that I am the idea person, and that Sky takes my ideas and makes them work- (and beautifies them, he is really a construction artist).

I have the power to set him on a project- he is usually happy to get me what I want, if possible.

So, comes the cliche...
with great power comes great responsibility.
Is this really what I want?










Well, it's kind of too late now, babe...



The really funny part, sometimes I suggest a project and Sky begins work, and we find out half-way through that we were both envisioning something different. It's always worked out somehow...

eeek!

Labels: home design, kid's loft

Funny thing about being married to an incredibly capable, construction-talented man...

You have to be very circumspect about the projects you suggest.

Our last house, we had about 989 square feet. Think about it; 4 kids, homeschooling, 1 bathroom. It was tight. We were also a very broke-young family, so we talked and planned all the time how to add on to our house with the least expense. As in, not changing the roof-line. We became really inventive about how to get more space. But, when the time came for action- we decided to move instead.

I'm still congratulating myself.

We more than doubled our house size- our current house is about 2400 square feet. And yet, ironically, it is getting a little tight now. Building a second story would be ideal, but we cannot comfortably do that right now. We could comfortably do it when the kids are college age, probably...but then, what would be the point?

So, I saw the magazine photo above....mentally pictured our roof peak in my mind, and decided that Sky should do this (a sleeping loft) in the girl's room. He didn't seem very interested.



Until this week.
He decided it was a great solution to our space problem and ordered me to empty the girl's room the next day so he could begin. He wants to utilize the help of our house-guest, one of the Bible college boys- who is leaving this coming Saturday.

Here is the before photo of the girl's room. The 3 girls share the room, we have a bunk bed set with a pull-out trundle bed for Amie.


The problem, the trundle bed is almost always pulled out and so there is very little floor space.
Meg and Josie each have a desk, flanking a dresser (not pictured). We then had a bookcase overflowing with books and 'stuff'. There is no room for a desk for Amie. My idea was to build a small loft, sort of a cubby for one bed (our roof-line is not high enough to be able to stand in the attic, it is more a crawl space) and thus get rid of the trundle, leaving only the bunk beds and thus opening up more floor space.

Sky took the idea and enlarged onto it...why stop at one bed, when you could put all 3 beds up there?? Since we do not have as much space as shown in the magazine photo...I'm still unsure how this is going to turn out. It will either be a really great idea, or a horrible idea. I hope it comes out the great idea, because construction has already begun...

oh the mess, the mess. Here is Amie's stuff, sitting in the family room...where am I going to put all this stuff?

We are either very creative
or crazy.

Labels: home design, kid's loft

I had a few requests for pictures of the finished bathroom, so...drum-roll please...

I was only waiting to show it off to blogland-because I was waiting for the curtains I ordered- to arrive. They arrived, but are not in these photos because they were too sheer (very cute sheer white with little embroidered green poka-dots) Sky thought they were too sheer for this window, so we hung the new curtains I had just purchased for our bathroom (ala Target..) and they happen to go very nicely in here. Our bathroom has a frosted bottom window so we will put the sheer curtains in there.




We have marble tile on the shower walls, a small ledge on 2 sides to put things on, the marble is really lovely. Sky did this all himself, my dad helped him with the tile and plumbing. Sky took the room down to the studs. (Still waiting to go get a nice white terry-cloth shower curtain at Crate and Barrel, just haven't had time...)

And did you notice the whirlpool tub? We've never had such a luxury...it is not a real deep or wide one, because the kids still need to be able to step into it to shower. But, it is deeper and wider than the normal sized tub that was there.









Here is a view of the vaulted ceiling Sky created, and the interesting shower rod contraption we needed to order, because the shower has only two sides and a short pony-wall. The shower rod is connected at the front of the shower wall, on the left side wall and at 2 points on the ceiling.












You can kind of see the pony wall between the tub and toilet here on the bottom right. We had to decrease the space area around the toilet to fit in the wall...so we decided to not install a paper roll holder- it was a little tight there and someone might knock it off the wall or something, the paper roll is in a basket on the pony wall..we'll see how that works out. We also installed two double towel racks (needed for the 4 kids) and it was getting a little tight on that wall...

The blue/green color scheme idea I stole, uh borrowed from OC Mom's house. I'm going to stencil words to a song along the top..but we'll see when I actually get that done...








We wanted a one piece double vanity like we had before in this spot, but the price for two separate vanities was very convincing (big price difference). The granite tops were a nightmare...one was available when the vanities arrived, the other was ordered for us- so we thought, but was really put on raincheck for us. -it was then discontinued. The manager at the higher-class home improvement store finally tracked one down for us in another state and had it shipped to his store. It arrived the week before all our company was due to arrive. We also had a big headache ordering the tub from the same store. The second tub came in wrong again, but Sky decided to make it work and changed the stone design around it, rather than trying to order another one. The wood mirrors are from home depot- a good, easy, no-fuss purchase... I have to tell you that Sky forgot to calculate the backsplash for the granite here...and the mirrors would not fit, and the backsplash would not fit with the electrical outlets he had placed over both vanities. He had to rip out a good portion of this wall, after he had painted it and move the electrical-re-mud/sand and paint again. He's a good sport.

I really love the way it turned out, it's my favorite room in the house now...I'm going to start asking Sky when he's going to start on our bathroom...

You can click *here to see the before photos, or just click the little blue "home design" label at the bottom of this post to see a list of posts tracking the remodel...

Labels: home design

Things are moving along very swiftly as far as the bathroom remodel goes. Here is Sky mudding the drywall. This is his first time doing this, and I have to say he did a great job.




















Here is Sky after he sanded the walls. The photo does not do it justice, he was covered in white dust. He did wear a breathing mask, but safety goggles didn't work well.





















The room is painted, the first time, ahem. We had to go back and pick out a different shade. Here is Sky and my dad laying the marble tile around the tub. They are working on a little pony-wall that will separate the tub from the toilet.

I will post more photos soon, they actually have all the tile done today and are grouting.

Labels: home design

I had a few questions about how the remodel is going, so- I thought I would show you.


Sky took the room back to the studs -and- he took out the ceiling and vaulted it. Very cool, my husband is so talented! He had to move plumbing, electrical stuff and move the heating vent...he really can do just about anything he puts his mind to do.












Here is a shot of the plumbing work he did for the tub and shower. It's a little out of focus, sorry. We have a raised foundation, but not a basement, it's a crawl space. Sky and my Dad spent several days crawling around under the house doing whatever it is you need to do to move pipes around.

We have had a big headache over the tub, it took over a month for the store to get it in and then we brought it home, it sat for a few weeks while Sky worked on all the remodel stuff- and then he finally opened it up and realized it was the wrong tub. The store ordered a new one, but we were getting very nervous about how long it would take to get in, we are having 8 to 11 people staying with us for a winter Bible conference. We can't do that with only one small bathroom!! The tub came in rather quickly, but it was
again, the wrong one!! We decided to work with what we have,
it will only change the tile work around the tub...



And here is what the bathroom looks like right now, the
drywall is up, the taping is done and Sky has started
mudding. He took one weekend to take down much of the
drywall he had installed so he could put up wood behind
the drywall so we could hang towel racks and the shower rod. This is something he learned from his dad...make everything very sturdy....though his dad would have reinforced the whole room, not just certain spots....his house will be the last one standing in Orange County if the 'big one' hits. -Did you spot the new window? Our house was built in the 50's, this is the only window now in the whole house that doesn't let in drafts...

If you want to see the 'before' photos, click *here* for the before shots, and *here* for work in progress.
I really, really cannot wait till it is done! I have to go pick out paint colors now.

Labels: home design

We were up to a little home decorating this weekend. The first photo is kind of embarrassing, we were trying out this "bellagio" paint treatment and in our zeal painted three walls. It just got worse and worse and we kept saying, "maybe it will lighten as is dries!", should have been our first clue things were awry... Next we were saying, "well, maybe once the molding is up it won't look so bad...". We finally decided it was scary and re-painted and tried again. I don't think the photo here does it justice, it was like dark mustard- brown and angry.



The next try came out so much better. We should have thought, small test area...

Labels: home design

Here is what the kid's bathroom looked like before the remodel began. Four kids, two sinks...it's a good thing- we will for sure put two sinks back in. Four would be optimal, but wouldn't fit.









And this is how the room looks like today. Hubby also took out the ceiling, he's going to make it a vaulted ceiling...something our little old vintage house never dreamed of. Hubby is not just handy, he is a visionary too.



Well, the whirlpool tub has been ordered, the two sinks and vanities are in the garage..we are at a standstill until the tub gets here and the tile is chosen.

Labels: home design

Demolition began on our 'big' bathroom. This is the bathroom the kids use, and anyone visiting our house. Did I mention it was the 'big' bathroom? We are left with the 'small' bathroom off of the master bedroom. The bathroom we feel very rich indeed to have, because our old house had only one bathroom. But, did I mention it is small? And now 6 people are using it?

Wrecking things, hammers, tools, mess- Amie and Demi were very eager to jump right in and help.

I have to boast and tell all my imaginary friends that I posted these photos from my mac!! Our mac guru taught me how yesterday. I love, love my mac- but I still don't know how to use it. As of yesterday, I now can copy and paste links and post photos...I feel very tech.

Labels: home design

I am giving myself a headache deciding on a new phonics program for our new K student.

It's official, I am finally free-ing myself of the last remnants of my Abeka curriculum habit.

It's official, because I offered my books to my S-I-L to use with her kids.

It's official, because now I have to pick something else to use to teach Amie to read.

It's an official headache, because days after I decided on using Phonics Pathways...(it's simple, it's all contained in one book..what's not to like?...) I went to parkday today and had the chance to look over a Sing, Spell, Read & Write kit. Once I got over my fear of the million pieces, I kind of liked it. And Amie really liked it. (sorry, no links, I am on my mac tonight!...)

Homeschool bloggy friends, any suggestions? Anyone use this? Should I stick with simple?

On the bathroom remodel front-

we went today and ordered a new bathtub. A new, whirlpool bathtub...woo-hoo!!

We live in an old house, a tub such as this has been un-imagined in this sort of house. I am so glad that Sky kept all the measurements and specifications in hand, because I could not keep track of it all.

And the poor guy at the home improvement store..he was very patient and professional, as we gawked/ um, looked through the catalogs and tried to figure out what we want/need.

He wrote us all up, told us what all we needed to add to it like drains, pump package, etc...itemized all the prices like we asked, wrote it all down for us, figured out the tax
- and then sweetly did it all again.
Because, In 2 seconds, I picked up a catalog-looked at the cover, and said "Honey, I really like this here.." and hubby looked and agreed, and we had to change out how many sides it had, what kind of tile lip it had/did not have..etc. We then switched to a different model, discussed sides/lips...then switched back to our original choice without lips.

utsa!! (isn't that" lips" in Polish??) I know he thought we were alittle crazy when we began singing the veggie tales "I love my lips" song...

We did order the tub, hopefully it will arrive with the correct rights and lefts...

Next we have to pick out tile. The home improvement guy is going to cry when he sees us back.

Labels: home design, homeschool, Jen's world