Solar Panels & Worms

Well our solar panel drama continues. Shortly after I posted my last entry, I found out (through the Vendor's FACEBOOK page) that they were actually mistaken in advising us that we would be eligible for the treasury grant. So we are back to relying on the IRS to reimburse a bulk of the cost of our solar panels.

We have reviewed the IRS code and language, and can see where our vendor gets their opinion, but the conflicting information from other vendors and web research still makes me very nervous.

Even more irritating is that we STILL do not have an installation date. After I sent the sales rep a nasty email a few weeks ago and CC'd the President of their company, they gave me a "tentative" date of April 20th. I would think that since that date is now only 3 weeks away they should be able to confirm it now, but they are avoiding my contact efforts.

For the record, our vendor is Astralux Solar and I do not recommend them.

On a more positive note, the worms are working out well. We made a bin for them using blue storage tubs and have 2 pounds of worms (aproximately 2000 of the little guys) working away on coffee grounds, wilted lettuce, egg shells, the Financial Times, and all kinds of other goodies. It took a couple of days to get it stabalized and we did have some odor and runaways at first, but the bin is virtually odorless now and when you open it to sift through it, you can't even tell that they are working on old moldy table scraps.

So, in summary: Worms = Highly Recommend; Astralux = Stay Away

Also, we're expecting a baby "any day now", keep posted or check the baby blog for more information!

Solar Panels

I had fun the other night reading through blog posts over the past year. While it was NOT on my goal list to decide on a solar solution, it is one of the accomplishments this year that I'm very proud of. We recently made our second installment payment for the system, which covers the cost of materials. Our installation date has been bumped out till March now, but here is a mock photo of how they will look on our house.

Goals - A Recap

I'm surprised to see that Winter is here already, and think that it is close enough to the end of the year to revisit my goals for 2008 and see how we did.

2008 Goals

Career

* Support E in finding a job he loves where we can spend more time together during the week (he should be working at new job by December 31, 2008)
Well, Erik is now on job #3 for the year, and back where he was at at this time last year. We definitly spent a lot of week day time together, between 6 months of working at the same office and 3 months of unemployment!

* Reach or exceed all of my sales goals at FWI
I was on target to meet this goal when I quit FWI in August, so I'm going to say that I didn't fail OR succeed at this goal.

* Mentor a new salesperson who will love working at FWI and have that person be in outside sales by year end
DONE! Good job Leanna.

Finances


* Combined household income of $200K or more
No.

* Add at least $30K to Savings/Investments
Close, but then we went and took a bunch of money OUT of savings so this is also a no.

* Pay down student loans at a rate of $1000/month
No. Was doing good at this goal till the job changes.

* Pay additional $500/month toward mortgage
Yes! Despite 3 months of unemployment.

Household

* Spend at least 15 minutes 5 days per week on housework
Ha ha ha ha ha.... I guess if I count cleaning clutter off of the countertops, that I probably met this goal. But I don't think that is exactly what I had in mind...

* Paint all living areas of the house to fit my dream house
Not yet :(

* Complete phase 1 of landscaping for under $5,000 (lawn, patio, some trees & shrubs)
Done.


Social

* Host 3 parties at our house
(1) - Housewarming
(2) - Jami's bridal shower
(3) - My birthday
Done.

* Engage with at least 2 recreational activities where we can make new friends as a couple
(1) - Guadalajara
(2) - nope, there is no #2

* Add at least 3 new friends to my social network
(1) - Dana
(2) - David
(3) - Dan
(4) - Heather
Done!

Recreation & Travel

* Travel to see our families in California, Washington, and Maryland
California - yes, once in January on business and then again next week
Washington - yes, in July
Maryland - yes, but just Gwen on business

* 1 Vacation to someplace with a beach
Yes! Several days in Puerto Vallarta while in Mexico plus time spent at Ron & Michael's in July.

* Try at least 3 new activities
(1) - Speaking Spanish 24/7 for 4 weeks
(2) - Being pregnant
(3) - Job hunting! Ha ha ha.

* Go on at least 2 backpacking trips
No, but we did have one day in Guadalajara where we walked all the way home from el centro, which took about 6 hours, so I am going to count that as 1 urban backpacking trip.

Fall At The Kubec House

Fall has officially arrived, the buffalo grass has gone dormant, and the leaves have fallen from our trees. The change of the season has brought many new and exciting events to our home this year.

Solar Panels

Today we signed the contract for the long awaited and debated PV solar panels. I am happy to announce that we truly leveraged the poor economy on this one. One of the many "ear mark" items on the bailout bill passed by Congress a few weeks ago was an elimination of the $2,000 cap on federal solar energy credits. The utility companies are responding to this change in the law by reducing their rebates. We were able to squeeze into a very small window of time where we get both, the high tax credit AND the high rebate. This resulted in an additional savings of about $5,000 for the solar system we were looking at earlier this year.

In the long run, we are purchasing a solar system sufficient to generate about 80% of the electricity we used over the last year for just over $3,000. It works out to a ROI of about 10%. Where else are you going to find that in this economy?

New Jobs

Next week Erik and I both start new jobs. Erik will be working for a company called America's Job Network, selling career consulting services to high level executives (resume writing services, interview coaching, etc.). I will be working for a company called UC4 selling a software system that automates business processes. Both positions offer the opportunity for better pay, benefits, and flexibility than our previous jobs. Erik will even have the option to set up a home office.

Trees

The initial design of the back yard is now complete, with the addition of six trees this fall. All of the trees were stategically placed to solve specific "problems" in the yard. We planted two Austrian Pine trees at the corner of the yard to add privacy, two Autumn Blaze Maples on one side of the house to block the glaring glow of some annoying street lamps, and two clumps of Aspen trees on the other side to provide shade to the kitchen and living room in the heat of summer.

Of course we got the best deals possible on all of the trees, with a total out of pocket of about $500 for all six of them. And with all of this time off we've had recently, Erik planted them
himself.

Politics

We are now officially addicted to the 24 hour news cycle. This is by far the most exciting and inspiring presidential election that I can remember. This last week we voted early and also went to see Joe Biden. This weekend we are going to an Obama rally. If you'd like to read more detailed political views from our household, check out Erik's new blog.

(and last but not least...)

Speck

As if all of these changes weren't exciting enough, we've also got a baby on the way! We've known this news for some time now (I actually found out just before we left for Mexico), but I was keeping it out of the "public domain" until after new jobs had been secured. You can follow Speck's development and my experiences with pregnancy at the Kubec Baby Blog, which I am now making public.

I am currently 15 weeks pregnant and the baby is due sometime in early April.

Life besides buffalo grass

I'm up to 571 hits, which makes me think that maybe some people are actually reading my blog (besides my mom). Some of you may have found me when researching buffalo grass. I have been posting often about the grass, but wanted to let the world know that there are things growing in my yard besides the grass and weeds.

Today Erik and I went to Paulino Gardens and bought 4 Hydrangeasand 2 Butterfly Bushes. I'm very excited about both and have put a lot of time and research into choosing the correct plants. The Hydrangeas will be taking the place of 4 bare-root roses that were planted in early in spring--all but one of the roses died, and we're attempting to save the scragly remains of the 4th rose. We bought a special hybrid of the Hydrangeas that are supposed to have mutiple bloom cycles per year. My hope is that they will grow tall enough to be visible from the living room and bedroom windows, which are just a few feet above the plants now.

The Butterfly Bushes are placed at either end of the row of hydrangeas and should also be good and visible from the house.

In late June we also planted 4 Korean Spice Viburnum bushes and a row of about 10 Purple Ice Plants. The Ice Plant has done well and I expect they will continue to grow in to form a nice matted edge around the patio. The Viburnum seem to be hanging in there. They hadn't shown much sign of growth until this week, when fuzzy nubs appeared at the top of some of the branches. It seems late in the season for them to bloom, so I'm eager to see what happens.

Here are some photos of our yard that I took today.

Buffalo Grass Progress

The grass is finally beginning to show signs that it might someday look like a lawn. From afar, it still looks like a bunch of dry soil with small patches of something growing, but from the photos below you can tell that it has really taken off. I think by the end of the summer we will have a full but thin lawn. We're probably looking at this time next year before it actually looks like turf.

Here are my latest photos:

Household: Get Rid Of Ants Without An Exterminator

Household: Get Rid Of Ants Without An Exterminator

The cayanne pepper trails seemed to show an immediate decrease in the ant traffic on the floor en route to the cat food, but was inneffective at keeping the little buggers off the kitchen counter.

Chalk lines on the foundation of the house put an immediate end to the ants sneaking into the bedroom (which was probably bound to be a short lived infestation anyways, since we do not eat in bed!).

Corn meal looks to be an urban legend. While it was amusing to watch the ants delight in carrying off their new found treasure, we didn't see any results.

The winning method was (as some readers suggested) boric acid. We mixed it with maple flavor syrup an filled small containers throughout the house. At first we were discouraged--it was certainly attractive to the ants but did not stop them from entering the house. And then one day, just like that, they were gone. Apparently it takes a couple of weeks to take effect.

Buffalo Grass Progress

The buffalo grass is slowly growing. The biggest challenge we face is fighting off the weeds without doing damage to the grass. From a distance, the yard looks to be all dirt with a healthy asortment of weeds, but if you look close, you can see how much progress the plugs have made.

Erik has begun a weekly regimen of weed attacks, carefully protecting the growing plugs while spraying a broad leaf herbicide around them.

The cats think that whatever we are doing, it is very interesting.

How to get rid of Sugar Ants

We've come across our first true pest at our new home...Sugar Ants.

These pesky little guys have invaded our home and we've found little crews of them working all about the house. I feel sick just thinking about using chemicals in my house, so Erik and I set out to find a natural way to get rid of them without the use of RAID or some other icky pesticides.

We found four potential solutions:

1. Try a natural repellent such as ground or powdered chili, or used coffee grounds. Citrus peel (ground) works well too. They hate the smell of vinegar; make a solution with water to spray around.
2. For a more permanent solution, find the ant mound, and destroy it using boiling water.
3. If you can't bear to kill them, at the start of summer leave a jar of honey up a tree in the garden. The ants will be happy to stay out of your kitchen.
4. Feed them corn meal. They eat it. They take it back to their nest and feast on it. They can't digest it and it kills them. Also, corn meal won't harm children or pets.

We're trying methods 1 & 4. I've got long lines of chili powder running along the seems underneath my counters, and little piles of corn meal scattered around the house and yard. Both seem to be working. Only the true troopers are willing to cross the chili line to get to Mrs. Beasley's food, and I think it's safe to say that the corn meal is a hit.

And if none of these solutions work, our next project will be to cause an all out ant war:

Collect a large number of ants from one ant hill (easy to do just leave some food in a container, return after 2 hours and you should have heaps). Drop all the ants in the container onto another ant hill and the ants will start fighting each other resulting in many casualties.

If you would like to see some real ant action, check out this YouTube clip.

The Buffalo Grass Is In!!

Yes, we've only been talking about the buffalo grass for about 18 months...and it's finally in! Tonight Erik completed the planting of all 1800 plugs of Prestige Buffalo Grass.

We have been obsessing about this project since before we found the house ("we" being mostly Erik), and are so happy that we are finally free of spring freezes so that we can get these little suckers growing.

We planted the plugs an average of about 8 inches apart, and expect that by end of summer they will fill in to create a nice, no-mow, no water turf grass. Unfortunately right now, they are terribly unimpressive so I am not bothering to post a photo--all of my attempts to capture the newness of the grass were unsucessful and my photos just looked like mounds of dirt--so instead I am posting a photo from the distributer's web site.

I was very skeptical about this project at first, but I'm very excited for it now. As pathetic as these little grasslings look, it is inspiring to see something actually growing in our yard. And they looked so nice in the trays when they were all grouped together...I put them all next to each other and pretended it was sod so I could see how it looks. I think our grass is going to be just as nice as the neighbors, and can't wait for them to envy us because we don't have to mow the lawn every Saturday morning.

The water bills will be nice too. My mom keeps warning me that the City of Thornton has high water prices in the summer, but after this new lawn is established, we should be able to get through the summer with only a slight increase in our water needs. We've even contacted the city to brag about our water conservation efforts, and they offered to run a feature on our yard!

Taxes & My Patio

What do these things have in common?

1. They caused a lot of stress
2. They were expensive!!
3. They are done :)

The taxes caused an unbeleivable amount of stress. Oh my gosh. And the patio, which could have served as a release, just seemed to make matters worse.

It isn't like it was a surprise that all this money was going to be moving out of the bank account, and yet somehow, parting with it was just a struggle. At the reccomendation of my boss, I have been reading Deepak Chopra's The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. While much of this book does not come as something new to me, I am discovering that I have forgotten to practice these "laws".

In the book, Chopra talks about the flow of money. I think that the pending tax and patio expenses were acting like a dam in our lives. I feel such a release just having them out of the way. Phew!! Time to make some money :)

Paver Patios

I thought I would insert a quick little video, detailing how pavers are installed professionally.



Today, E is in the "lay the roadbed" stage of installing our patio. He has taken down a chunk of our back fence so that our little 1983 Toyota Pickup can get through to drop off the load. The truck holds 3/4 Ton, and we apparently need 2-3 Tons of road base to create the required sublevel for the pavers.

On the first load, the truck was a little overloaded with 1 Ton of roadbase, making it look like a lowrider (hey, we do live in Thornton!).

Patio Progress

I thought I would post an update as to the progress of our first true do-it-yourself project: building a patio. E has the excavation done, and today he is going to go rent some power tools for compacting the dirt so that the patio will not shift with time. I am looking forward to having the patio complete, because then we can move on to the rest of the lanscaping (trees, bushes, grass, and a veggie garden).

Once the Patio is up, we will need to update the patio furniture with new cushions and an umbrella (since there are no trees to provide shade). I have my eye on an umbrella I saw in sky mall that was lined on the inside with little LED lights that are solar charged.

I will post more pictures when the project is done :)

Solar Panels - Part 2

No sooner did I publish my last post on being green, than low and behold a solution showed up on our front door.

I came home the following evening and found a flyer on my door with an invitation to a local community meeting on solar panels. Last night I learned about the financial benefits available with photovoltaic solar panels.

I came to find out that there are several rebate programs available through the local utility company, plus there is an IRS Tax Credit. Not only that, but if you are energy wise and generate more electricity with your panels than you use, you can actually sell the he excess back to the grid and could see a return on your investment.

I am in love with this solution. The biggest appeal to me is that (1) the solar panels provide benefit all year long, and (2) it is an opportunity to give back to the community. The solar system we have been looking into creates heat. Now this is all fine and dandy on days like today when the high outside is a chilly 25 degrees, but in Denver (beleive it or not) these days are few. Probably 7 out of 12 months we do not use our heater. If the panels create electricity, we can use it all year--and even power the AC with it!

Who says you can't have everything? I still need to set up time for the solar sales guy to come evaluate our home and put together a proposal, so it's not like this is a done deal--in fact E didn't even go to last nights meeting--but I have a good feeling about it.

It's Not Easy Being Green

In the years that my husband and I have been together, he has taught me many things. The two key values he has tried to impress upon me are frugality and concern for the environment.

Now this is not to say that I was completely absent of these values prior to meeting E (well, maybe I didn't even know what frugal meant), but they definitely did not drive my life. Yes, like everyone, I said I thought we should do our part to save the environment...but it's an easy thing to say.

Now that we are proud homeowners, he has organized all of his spare time around fulfilling these two goals: saving money and being "green". He's even started his own blog on the subject.

I, on the other hand, seem to have inadvertently organized myself around resisting his goals. I dread almost every aspect of making our home more economical and green. For me, meeting E's values means this: being cold at home, ugly solar panels, funky thermal curtains and/or blinds, noisy attic fan, and sacrificing cool AC for a less cool swamp cooler.

I'm torn in a dilemma that I know I've faced before: looking good vs. honoring my word. Why does so much of my life boil down to this? I know that the right thing to do (and the thing that will ultimately make me most proud) is to be on E's side about this and support it all. But there's this big part of me that just wants to have the prettiest, coolest, and best house on the block.

So what is there to do?

Just over a year ago, we created a goal of "having it all". I think I will recreate that goal for myself. Why not live for a future where we can have a green home, and be the best house on the block? What can it hurt to try?

“A goal is a dream with a deadline.”

Rather than resolutions, I do New Years Goals. I think a resolution implies that you need to fix or change some part of your life, and lets face it, nobody wants to be fixed. So instead I do goals. My life is full of goals, and over the past couple of years I've done a pretty good job at hitting them. In the past I've limited them to finance, this year I'm going to create goals for other areas of life as well.

Career

• Support E in finding a job he loves where we can spend more time together during the week (he should be working at new job by December 31, 2008)
  
• Reach or exceed all of my sales goals at FWI
  
• Mentor a new salesperson who will love working at FWI and have that person be in outside sales by year end
  

Finances

• Combined household income of $200K or more


• Add at least $30K to Savings/Investments


• Pay down student loans at a rate of $1000/month


• Pay additional $500/month toward mortgage

Household

• Spend at least 15 minutes 5 days per week on housework


• Paint all living areas of the house to fit my dream house


• Complete phase 1 of landscaping for under $5,000 (lawn, patio, some trees & shrubs)

Social

• Host 3 parties at our house


• Engage with at least 2 recreational activities where we can make new friends as a couple


• Add at least 3 new friends to my social network
  

Recreation & Travel

• Travel to see our families in California, Washington, and Maryland


• 1 Vacation to someplace with a beach


• Try at least 3 new activities


• Go on at least 2 backpacking trips