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Farrar PV-powered Nissan leaf

Dear Friends and Family,

Ready or not, we have finally moved into the Farrar Green Home!

We love our new house and green lifestyle. We especially love being able to turn on the air conditioning, music, lights, and sprinklers from our iPhone or iPads. I am loving driving my zippy new Nissan Leaf for FREE! It is my best car ever!

Our solar PV panels power the whole house, the well, the pool, and my car, with power to spare. We received our first SDG&E bill and our usage was a -647 kwh and a $90 credit towards our monthly electric connection bill of $5/month.

Go Green!

Rhonda & Nigel Farrar

PS. We have posted recent photos on the Farrar Green Home website if you would like to check it out.

Rhonda

Rhonda Farrar
www.FarrarGreenHome.org

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Dear Friends:

It has been a busy week for the Farrar Green Home!

CABEC regional meeting at the Farrar Green Home

I was delighted to present the green features of our home at the Business Industry Association Net Zero Energy Building Seminar on Tuesday.  And today, the California Association of Building Energy Associates held their regional meeting at the Farrar Green Home.

There was a great deal of interest in the home and its green technologies and expressed by both groups.

We are getting excited as the completion date for our home approaches. There is a bevy of activity and new progress to see every day.

The appliances are in, the light fixtures are installed, all but one of the countertops are installed, the plumbing fixtures are installed, and we have a beautiful patio! It is becoming a home!

Thanks again for all of your efforts and support for making this home such a success! As always, we welcome the opportunity to help more people build green. Go Green!

Rhonda

Rhonda Farrar
www.FarrarGreenHome.org

Passionate about sustainability and sharing lessons learned, owner/builders Bob and Betsy Macomber are offering construction tours of Vista Cielo–their new green residence in Ramona. This is a unique opportunity to see cutting-edge green building components before the final finishes are applied…and you’re invited!

View during construction showing DensGlass and foam block. Photo by Kellyn Sanderson.

An inspiring example of learning from disaster and making something better because of it, the Macomber Residence—built on the site where their previous home burned in the 2007 Witch Creek Fire—was designed by Hubbell & Hubbell Architects to be as fire-resistive and green as possible.

One of the first things you notice when approaching the home is that most of the walls are foam block. The Macombers used IntegraSpec, an insulating concrete form (ICF) type of wall construction where foam provides excellent wall insulation and interior cells are filled with concrete structure.

Areas of the home that had already been plastered also look a little different. Instead of conventional stucco, this home features a type of plaster called SureCrete–a water repelling but breathable no-VOC plaster using recycled aggregate. On their home it looks like a smooth Santa Barbara type finish. The difference is that it only uses a very thin coat, and best of all, doesn’t show any signs of cracking!

Vista Cielo uses passive solar design strategies along with the super-insulating wall and roof construction to keep the home cool on hot days.

Water is heated with a Dawn Solar System utilizing 1500 feet of PEX tubing underneath the home’s metal “cool” roof.

The home’s electricity will be generated from photovoltaic solar panels that blend into the standing-seam roof and a rooftop wind turbine.

Bob and Betsy are enthusiastic about their home’s innovative materials and features–many of which will only be visible during construction. By giving tours of their home to point out and discuss its green features and energy-efficient systems, they hope to help educate and encourage others to go green.

To schedule a visit or learn more, please contact Betsy at bmacomberrealtor@gmail.com. Tours are available weekdays and some weekends by arrangement.

Dear Friends,

The Farrar Green House is becoming a home!  See for yourself by checking out the most recent photos.

Farrar Green Home construction Nov 2010. Photo from FarrarGreenHome.org.

Since our last update, Nigel and I have been very busy, working with our design and build team finalizing the myriad of finish details.  What kind of doorstops do you prefer?  We are now in the final stretch as we see the results of all of those decisions.

We have selected some exceptionally cool, and green products, and outstanding craftsmen to install them.

Our cabinet master, Steve Gunderson, has done an amazing job of crafting beautiful bamboo cabinetry throughout the home.  The walls are being painted with Dunn Edwards Enso Paints, their new line of non-VOC paints.  The colors are fantastic, our painter, Tom Summit, says the product is fabulous, and, there is no smell of paint in the house!  It is like magic!

We also have selected Fluidstone for the home’s exterior (another magic product!), in place of stucco, which will be applied next week, should the weather cooperate!   The Metal Sales roof has arrived and is ready to install as soon as the Fluidstone had dried.

We would like to welcome our newest Partners, without whom our home would not be the showcase home that it is becoming.

Coatings:  Dunn Edwards, Fluidstone
Countertops:  Eco by Cosentino, Artflor, Shetkastone
Flooring:  Teragren, Interceramic
Roofing:  Metal Sales
Stairs:  Skyhook Stairs & Rails
Smart Home:  California Automation Consultants

We are thrilled to have their most excellent products and services in our new home.  Welcome!  Visit the Partner‘s page of our website to learn more about these fabulous products and craftsmen.

We are also receiving lots of invitations to share our green home with interested professional groups.  The Building Industry Association has invited the Farrar Green Home to present at their Green Building event on February 15th.  The California Association of Building Energy Consultants have scheduled a special tour of the Farrar Green Home for their membership on March 11th.   For more information about these and other events, stay tuned to the “What’s New” on the Farrar Green Home home page.

We are looking forward to inviting all of our friends to our first open house, once the home is completed.

The house is becoming a home!  Thank you all for your part in making that a reality.

Go Green!

Rhonda Farrar