Odds and Ends

The exterior still isn't quite complete, so I figure I'll wait until it's more finished before posting another exterior photo.  In the meantime, this is some of what's going on.

PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM

We will produce some of our electricity with rooftop photovoltaic panels.  We have just over 200 square feet of south-east facing roof available, so the size of the system is a little limited.  According to the numbers provided by the installers, after rebates there should be a 5-6 year payback.  I'm always a little skeptical but, even if it turns out to be twice that, that's still not a bad return.  Net metering makes it worthwhile because that the electricity fed back into the system is credited at full retail cost.

CABINETS
We've chosen a cabinetmaker and are finalizing the details.  We've looked at many different kinds of cabinets, from IKEA to modified stock cabinets to full custom.  In the end we're using Horgan Millwork, who is nearby in Hyannis.  We actually kind of stumbled into them.  I saw their truck outside their shop and stopped in.  They don't advertise and they don't even have a sign on their building.  Scott Horgan was rather surprised to have someone walk in off the street, as they don't usually deal with homeowners or the public.  They specialize in kitchen cabinets and seem to run an efficient shop.  They do some beautiful high end kitchens, and their price is relatively reasonable for what you get.

I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK
Figuratively, not literally.  Last week I recieved a call from the Board of Health.  They said that the house was two feet longer than what they had approved and that maybe I should stop construction until their next Board of Health meeting in February.  That call was a rather large shock.  Thank heaven for emails.  Last June I had sent the BOH an email with the proposed floor plans and received a response back that the modified plans were fine.  They also had to sign off before the building permit was issued, and knew that the plan was slightly different and 40 feet long rather than 38 feet.  Fortunately this issue resolved itself and is not a problem.  I wouldn't want to have to decide whether to saw off the left side or the right side.

WHERE DO THE HITS COME FROM?
I've been tracking blog traffic with Highstats.com.  They have a neat function that allows you to see what type of search leads people to the site.  It turns out that most of them are because I mentioned IKEA Nutid appliances.  The most popular searches are things like "nutid microwave reviews" or "nutid ovens".  When I first started the blog, hardly anyone knew about it but I almost immediately had my first two followers.  I'm not sure how they found me.  This month the blog was featured in the Boston Society of Architects ChapterLetter.

That brought a few new viewers, but didn't increase the traffic much as I would have thought.