Construction: June 2008 Archives

It seems unwise to try to build a new house without thinking of ways to make it both more efficient and more carbon neutral (trendy but true). Which means among other things, we are going to look into the possibility of solar energy for the Villa Straylight. It turns out that in New York there is currently a program that will offset a large percentage of the cost of installing new a new solar system, around 40% according to their government website.These incentives last through 2009 so hopefully we will be able to take advantage of them. Since we will most likely want to do a grid-connected system, we will be able to put power into the grid instead of just taking it out.

After a little bit of research online to find out what kind of rocks are laying about all over our land, we discovered what we have is an abundance of Pennsylvania Bluestone. We are choosing to look at this as a good thing as we can use the stone to build our patio and a stone walkway inside the house. What we don't know is if this will be a problem in excavating the basement. There are a LOT of rocks. Hopefully there isn't a gigantic bolder right under our house site.

Random history note: The Starrucca Viaduct (below) is a bridge built in 1848 made of bluestone that carries the Erie railroad across the  Starrucca Creek in Pennsylvania. It's been in service for over 150 years. Built to last!