Saturday, June 6, 2009

Moved to the Big City


We were living out in Penngrove in a chicken barn for the past several years and, due to the recent collapse of the housing market, were finally able to find a home. Perhaps due to wine and horses, rural land was still out of our reach financially. In town, the formerly "cheap" half million dollar "starter" homes were now far less, so we gave up our country mouse dreams and moved to the suburbs in the City of Petaluma.

We got a bargain in this house, but had to put a lot of work into it as we could only afford a fixer upper. Besides cosmetic and functional upgrades, we are focusing on energy efficiency and reducing the amount of money it takes to run the place. For instance, we insulated before we moved in. Built in northern California in the 1950's, this place was never insulated. There are lots of rebates available for this. We got $300 back from PG&E after spending only $500 on materials and we will save on heaing bills into the future. We installed LED recessed lights. We hope to add solar hot water and heat soon as well.

For the purposes of this blog, I will focus on the transformation of a sunny and unproductive front and back yard into a food source and example victory garden or urban homestead.

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