We just moved from a rental house to a loft. No basement no yard nonwater hose nothing. If this happened to mu dogs right now i would seriously consider making them outside dogs lol.

At about 3am I said to the wife, I'm going to the Marriott. See you later :-D

Apparently this one time Goldenz didn't rule....

Goldenz ALWAYS rule. In this case, dachshund mixes didn't rule.

Won a $400K commercial project this morning!! It'll keep the guys busy through the winter months. We had an extremely slow summer for larger jobs. Basically, limped by with service work.

Nice present from Santa!

When I was in high school (90's) we had a collie that was an outdoor dog. Often he slept close to the house, under a window. We didn't have A/C (houses around here built in the 70's didn't have A/C) and in the summer kept the windows open (brick house, faces south, zero shade). One night I had just gone to bed when my mom busted my door open yelling "shut your windows!" Confused I got up and started shutting the windows then went to the living room trying to figure out what was going on. As I left my room it started to come together. Skunk. In the living room I met my step dad coming from the laundry room with a bounce sheet over his face, shutting windows. Apparently a skunk found its way up to the house right under a window when the dog scared it. The spray didn't come directly into the house, but the house had a strong residual odor for about a week of heavy cleaning, burning candles, running fans, and anything else we could think of. I think we only tossed food to the dog and kept our distance for about a month.

Almost finished roughing in central vac in a 9000 sq.ft. house. 6 Hide-A-Hose inlets & 2 sweep pans. We're using two motors, one in the garage on one end of the house and one in the basement on the other end of the house. There's a 35-foot high great room with no attic in the middle of the house so there's no way to get the proper lengths on the piping other than routing the pipe through the basement to the motor on the opposite side of the house. There is exactly one joist bay in the basement that is halfway clear of micro lam beams, so it has 5 runs of pipe in it. I'm glad we beat the other trades to the basement!

Next up is security & surveillance, then structured wire, A/V, & automation.

My landlord had the solar guys out yesterday. Three vans showed up. 5 guys. Installed 16 panels on the roof. Its up and running today! These guys dont mess around! Looking at a 73% drop in monthly rates. 8 year break even. Its grey, Seattle!

Even better is, later on that day, won another $300K job. I've played as much lottery as possible and really contemplated going to the casino.

So how much does your electric bill average before solar?

Around $240


I'm not sure how much the solar stuff cost... But my landlord is like 75 years old or so. I understand the break even point takes about 8 years. I'm sure it wasnt cheap, but she is pretty excited about it.

Those installers were fast! When I was with Madrona Digital, I was hoping to get into the solar business, but from what I understand it is pretty unprofitable --- not to mention, tons of paperwork and beaurocratic stuff to wade through. Not to mention the liability involved with having guys climbing around on steep rooftops.

It is surprising though that there arent more people going solar these days. As mentioned before, I will get a 73% reduction - even in rainy - grey Seattle. We have a similar climate to Germany, and they are requiring most new housing to be solar.

I was curious when I was visiting down south (Arizona & Nevada), as to why people down there are not doing much with solar? With all that sun, the savings could be significant.

For my house, gas and electric on budget plan is currently $185 a month.

Electricity at our place is $50 a month sometimes and $160 sometimes. We average $120 a month. Natural Gas is apx $50 a month.

Utilities + Cell phones is apx $650 a month for us. We recently moved from a house to a loft. No more landscaping. No more carpet cleaning (once a month because of dogs). No more payments to the water company, waste management & sewage. All that nickle and diming is over...finally. Sadly the $200+ a month saved is now being spent on CableTV (former cord cutter).

Sheesh. Summer gas bill is ~$10. Winter is ~$85. Electricity goes from ~$55 in winter to ~$120 in summer. Average ~$140/month between the 2. 1450 square feet...3 bed/2 bath...your standard tract home in a cheap builders' neighborhood.

I just watched a short documentary about Germany and their goal to be energy self sufficient. Currently, they import all their energy fuels. The place is half the size of TX. I think the current requirement for new buildings is they must source 30% of their energy from renewable source. Solar, wind, bio-mass, etc. I think that requirement will go up considerably over the next few years.