Post Retrofit Energy Audit

We just had our post retrofit energy audit on the 16th. Right now I am only writing a place holder in the blog so that I don't forget about it. It will be fun to see how much higher we got above the initial score of 36 out of 100 when we get the final score.

Good Use of the Park

Pine Pain

Our tree looks ok now but I wanted to post this anyway to keep everything together in one place about our house and our experience. This email is from the arborist after we sent him a question about all of the yellow needles:

"Sometimes the impact of construction on trees isn’t felt for a season or more afterwards. Although it is normal for white pines to lose needles in the fall the amount of chlorosis (yellowing) on your tree certainly does seem excessive. This is especially true for the needles nearer the end of the branches as these are the most recent needles and the ones trees try to hold on to the most. I can only assume this is related to root loss during the construction. Unfortunately, the only thing to do now is to wait and see how the tree survives the winter and how if reacts next spring. Essentially you’ve done all you can do for it and now it is a matter of seeing how the tree will respond." Keep your fingers crossed.

Trying to be a one car family...

For Sale: 2002 Mazda Protege 5 Hatchback, red with snow tires/rims - $6,000.

Pre-owned, 4-door red hatchback for sale with manual tranmission, A/C, CD player and AM/FM radio, power everything (steering, windows, locks, mirrors, etc), cruise control, tilt wheel, dual air bag, anti-lock brakes, alarm, keyless entry, black/grey interior, rear defroster, 2.0L, 4 cyclinder, Thule roof rack fit kit, 4 snow tires with rims. 133,000 kms. Second owner.

Passed safety inspection October 2009 (including new rear brakes) and valid Drive Clean certificate.

Post a comment if you are interested and I'll contact you!

Ottawa Citizen Part 4

The final Ottawa Citizen article from the four part series on our house comes out tomorrow. Post a comment if you are interested in seeing it but miss tomorrow's paper and I will send you a pdf.

I would write more but we are busy organizing something else right now :)

I will eventually be back to follow-up on some of our green features in use.

Plants

We fell in love with this purple mountain grass and decided to give it a try just to spruce up the yard. Wish them luck as the soil conditions are a little rough.

Backyard Back Breaking

Our mud patch with gravel mound for a backyard is now gone. Last weekend we relaid the old flagstones to make a path and shoveled the gravel that we had delivered a few months ago into place. The flagstones were saved over a year ago from among the trees roots in our dark old backyard. While our backyard still needs a lot of love, this is a good start.

Side Yard

The first photo is our of corner plot where we are thinking of planting some hostas donated by friends. The other photos are of the bush near our side door. If you have any idea what this is, feel free to post a comment. If you want to see it full grown, check out one of the first posts from a year ago when we bought the house. I am definitely a gardening rookie.

Front Lawn Makeover

There is still too much going on to be able to write a proper blog entry about our landscaping adventures but I at least wanted to post a photo of our new front lawn. We decided to go with sod to help combat the weed problem (at least for now). We kept a small section of a flower garden and then of course there are our old concrete flower urns (too heavy to move). One day we hope to carry over the rock/flower garden look as our neighbours have done next door.

A More Welcoming Front Door

Our Pine

Side Entry Recreated

More Side Shots

Side Door Fantastic

Original Rakes Remain

I wonder what plants we will bring back...

No Cedar Canopy

Back Wall Beautiful

We will have a backyard one day

Interior Side

Side View

Open It Up

Porch Shots

And they have a porch