Is it Trump or Ayn Rand that is tearing America apart?

It's late so this won't be a long post, but I'm thinking about John McCain's favorite book, "For Whom the Bell Tolls."  It's been a while since I've read it, but from what I understand the main character goes to Spain to fight in a war that he knows is lost and he gives his life for it anyway.  It's a matter of principle that somethings are done for the greater good.  It's kind of like Spock's, "Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."  That sentiment also reminded me of Tom Brokaw's work, "The Greatest Generation."  

All this stands in stark contrast to many current politicians fascination with Ayn Rand.  When I was younger, in college, I read Ayn Rand.  I was vaguely aware of what I was reading.  What I walked away with after reading one or two of her books is that society wants a certain amount of homogeneity but we need individuals to step to the front and break the molds.  We need to all be ourselves.  

There's a tension there isn't there?  Sacrificing oneself for the greater good isn't really looking out for oneself is it?  The first Ayn Rand quote I found online is. "My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.”  I was taught, whether it was at home, church, school, or by osmosis that this is simply narcissism.  This is not a mindset to be emulated.  Another quote, "To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. This and nothing else.”  What?  Who even thinks that way?

Paul Ryan.  Paul Ryan has made Ayn Rand required reading for his staff.  Justice Clarence Thomas every year makes his new interns watch a film version of Rand's novel, "The Fountainhead."  Rex Tillerson's favorite book is Rand's, "Atlas Shrugged."  Mike Pompeo cites her as a major inspiration. There are more.

As I wrote above I read several of her novels, but didn't take away much.  As I write this missive I have referred to several articles about her and her philosophy.  She was in an word, an "elitist" of the highest order.  She felt some people were simply better than other people and we should let them do pretty much whatever they want.  Common folk can just kind of come along for the ride.

This idea is in great contrast to the idea that all are born equal with certain inalienable rights.   We know that all are not born equal.  Some come out of the womb with birth defects.  Some come out already addicted to drugs.  Some are born and just always seem destined for great things.  Most have different levels of opportunity for nutrition, education, moral development.  

When Thomas Jefferson talked and wrote of us being born equal he was doing it in the context of an age that was getting ready to largely do away with Monarchs and aristocrats.  The days when people had to lean on the clergy to read and write their letters was drawing to a close.  Jefferson though he spoke of, "enjoyment of life and liberty,"  and "pursuing and obtaining happiness,"  he was not speaking of narcissism.  He was putting forth the idea that many people could be of value to society.  Not just a few.  Many.  Pretty much all in one way or another.  

Ayn Rand's philosophy is particulary un-Christian and un-American.  I hope you will reject it as I do.

Vermont

There are a lot of things that hit me now when I think about Vermont.  Before last week I either didn’t know about some of these things or if I did know I had forgotten about them.  We went up to visit friends of ours that used to live here in TN and it is a long, long, long drive.  As small of a state that Vermont is a good bit of the drive is actually was actually in Vermont.  It’s a long narrow state that runs vertically on the map and as luck would have it our friends live near the top.  Six or seven of the sixteen hour drive (with two kids in the car) were in Vermont.

The first thing that hits you is that it is really pretty.  The pictures and the postcards you may have seen are entirely accurate.  Not only is it pretty, but there’s no billboards to spoil the view.  I looked it up and they outlawed them the very year I was born (so as to mark the occasion I am sure) of 1968.  In addition to that there are very few box stores.  I saw a Lowes Hardware store in Burlington. I never saw a Wal-Mart, but I did a Google search and it looks like there are a few (less than half a dozen).  Another thing I never saw was a football field.  I’m sure there are some…somewhere, but I never saw any.

We picked up several magazines and brochures to read about Vermont and saw several interesting things.  It seems that in some High Schools the sport of choice is downhill skiing.  I though that was pretty cool.  I have downhill skied before…at Ober Gatlinburg.  I’m sure it is different in Vermont.

One thing that hit me was some of the brand names that come out of Vermont.  For some of these companies I just never quite made the jump to associating with the state.  For instance, Cabot.  We went to their factory and watched a little video about them and bought cheese and whipped cream. What made that one particular visit more interesting for me is a post I had just seen on Facebook.  The post was about dairy farmers selling off their farms or facing the threat of bankruptcy with changes to the market.  The key change is that Wal-Mart (the Voldemort of retail) has cancelled it’s contract with Dean Foods that supplied most of the retailers milk.  Dean worked with a lot of small farmers.  Wal-Mart will be working mainly with agribusiness type dairy businesses (think super large dairy farms that don’t give a crap’s ass about cows and are only run by dark princes of evil reminiscent of Vlad the Impaler…of course I exaggerate a little…but only a little). 

www.cabotcheese.coop

So, before I digressed I was talking about Cabot Creamery.  Cabot is actually a COOP.  You can go to their web-site and read about their COOP, but the bottom line is that the farmers who participate with the COOP have a much greater control of their destiny.  This kind of concept permeates Vermont.  The idea that if we work together and support each other we actually have more freedom and control of our destiny.  I think sometimes in America we have this idea that freedom is all about being free of rules.  There's this idea that if we all do what we want then some sort of magical fairy dust makes everything work out for the best.  

But life doesn't work that way.  Economics doesn't work that way...the farmers of Vermont realize that.  Ask any farmer who has had a contract with Dean foods. 

The visit to Cabot for me was more than just a visit to a cheese and butter house, it was a lesson in economics.  A lot of my relatives were dairy farmers.  My granddad was a dairy farmer. My great granddad was a dairy farmer.  A lot of my great-aunts and uncles were dairy farmers.  It’s hard work and they deserve to make a living.  COOPs are the way to make it happen.  Don’t buy dairy at Wal-Mart.

Let's do a flashback to before I was in Vermont, before I had kids, even before I was married.  I had left seminary and went home to work in the family business.  We opened a store in Chattanooga that I ran for nine years (nine really, really long, traumatic, hard years).  Our main products were for home interiors.  We did customer window treatments, wall art, lamps, stuff like that.  My mom’s store in Cleveland had been named “Linens for Less” for years, but we changed the name for the Chattanooga store to “Nancy’s Home Fashions.”  From a marketing standpoint I eventually learned that no one has any idea what in the world a, “home fashion” is.  Cest la Vie. 

Well, in addition to all the stuff for the house we also had gifty type stuff.  One of the lines I almost brought in was Vermont Teddy Bear.  They are really high quality teddy bears that you can get for kids to play with (they won’t fall apart in two weeks) or collect.  They aren’t cheap.  They are a good quality product.  

Well, about the time I was considering Vermont Teddy Bear the  TY Beanie Baby craze hit.  Cheap little crappy bear products with cute names and low prices...and people bought them up like crack cocaine.  We became dealers for crack cocaine and we didn’t ever carry Vermont Teddy Bears.  I did use money from the sale of the Ty Beanie Babies to raise money for medical research for Multiple Scloersis so I don't feel entirely guilty.

www.myelin.org/ - A great research organization

www.vermontteddybear.com

We didn’t go see the Vermont Teddy Bear factory place.  We passed it on the way to Burlington…maybe it was while we were in Burlington.  The important thing was that our daughter wasn’t watching when we passed by.  Every year our kids have to do some sort of educational project during the summer and for this summer she is doing a lot of reading.  Luckily for us when we were passing all those Vermont Teddy Bear signs she had her head in a book.  Next time we visit we promise she'll get her visit...and a bear.

Now we are going to go back in time...again  That’s really fine because one of the movies the kids watched in the car on our 16 hour journey was, “Back to the Future.”  Before we had kids, in fact back all the way to when we first got married we went on our honeymoon.  No surprise that we went on a honeymoon, but there’s a story there.  The night before our wedding we changed our honeymoon plans.  We were gonna go south from Cleveland, TN down into Georgia to a secret rendezvous on a beach somewhere.  Instead we headed north into Virginia.  Among our other stops we spent a few days in the historical city of Williamsburg.  Because if you are going to have a honeymoon you should do something historical right?

www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/

www.bedandbreakfast.com/williamsburg-virginia.html

Don’t ask.  Historical…honeymoon.  I know it doesn’t go together, but somehow it worked.  We stayed at Bed and Breakfasts Inns instead of hotels.  We never had reservations anywhere.  We had a blast.  One of the little stores we went in at Williamsburg was Danforth Pottery.  Guess where Danforth Pottery is made?  Vermont!!  In fact, that Williamsburg store is the only store they have outside of Vermont.  It’s just one more Vermont brand I didn’t associate with Vermont.

One company that you do likely…maybe…associate with Vermont is Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.  Just another comment about our wedding.  At the reception we had an ice cream bar…with Ben & Jerry’s.  At the time there was no Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop in our area of Tennessee, so we had to arrange for it to be shipped in.  My mom had a catering business years earlier so I just called found the number for the company and called.  I just told them I was with “Bennett’s House of Catering” and that we had a client that wanted Ben & Jerry’s and what did we have to do to make that happen.  You can see Ben, Jerry, and I go way back.

www.benjerry.com/

The friends we were visiting in Vermont were in the ministry and on our way to Ben & Jerry’s we were discussing, “The Poor People’s Campaign.”  I don’t remember how we got on the topic, but it’s pretty obvious social justice and ice cream go together.  It’s the middle of Vermont you have to talk about something…right?  There we were driving to Ben &Jerry’s talking about the Reverend Barber, institutional racism, the Koch brothers, and the efforts of some to fight back for the poor, the working class, and the middle class. 

www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/

And then we showed up at Ben & Jerry’s to eat delicious ice cream.  We took the tour, watched a little bit of the production, and we watched their little movie about the company.  Then, surprise, surprise, surprise at the end of the Ben & Jerry’s company movie they talked in the movie about their support for the Poor People’s Campaign.  Just what we were talking about on our way to eat the fattening ice cream. 

So what all have we learned so far…the Cabot Creamery COOP helps protect dairy farmers from the evils of Wal-Mart, Vermont makes great Teddy Bears, and Ben & Jerry’s supports fighting for the little guy.  Regardless of whether that little guy is black, gay, trans, a farmer, poor, or even a white straight dude.  Vermont is freakin’ AWESOME!!!!

Let’s not mention Green Mountain Coffee.  Green Mountain Coffee is well, it’s good coffee.  The company is incredibly environmentally sensitive as are most Vermont companies.  King Arthur Flour is sold in the South, but in Vermont it’s as ubiquitous as White Lilly.  If you go to a church social and people ask you for the recipe they just reply, “It’s just whatever’s in the King Arthur Cookbook.” 

www.kingarthurflour.com/

www.gmcr.com/

I think Wisconsin may have a stronger marketing presence when it comes to cheese than Vermont, but as far as “craft cheese” (think craft beer…smaller organizations making higher quality product) my guess is that Vermont has Wisconsin blown away.  Get this.  I mentioned the dairy COOPs earlier when I was writing about Cabot Creamery, but when it comes to cheese these Vermonters are downright zealous about their milk.  So quite a few cheese makers dry the hay that they feed to their dairy herds.  The idea is that summer, fall, winter, spring, or mud season (more on mud season later) the milk coming out of the cow tastes the same because they have consistent feed all year long. 

They have whole barns for drying hay!  Maybe this is widespread across the nation…I don’t know, but I haven’t ever heard of it before.  For that matter it was interesting I hardly ever saw any dairy cattle in Vermont.  There’s the Cabot Creamery COOP farmers, the dairy farmers that supply Ben & Jerry’s, the local cheesemaker dairy farmers…but where are all the cows?  It turns out they are in the barn.  Think about it…it’s so darn cold with so much snow on the ground they can’t let them out during the winter…and the winter, harsh spring, harsh fall, and mud season take up most of the year…so they just keep them in the barn.  The barns are huge.  Big, big barns.  My grandfather was a dairy farmer in Bradley County, Tennessee and I don’t know that I ever saw a barn as small as his.

burlingtonfreepress--story on drying hay

Now…about mud season. I haven’t witnessed mud season, but I hear it’s crazy.  It comes just as spring is ending.  Just do an internet search for “Vermont, Mud Season” and look at the pictures.  What I didn’t understand when I first heard about it is that Vermont has a tremendous number of unpaved roads.  The paved roads they clean religiously during the winter and if you have access to one you can get anywhere.  Even the unpaved roads are largely passable during the winter.  It’s during mud season it can get squirrely.  We heard that last year they never closed schools (at least in the area we were at) for winter, but they did have to close them one day during mud season.  I’ve never heard of such!  😊

Last, but not least…maple syrup.  You can find an infinite number of brands of maple syrup.  We stopped by Goodrich’s Maple Farm for ours.  One of the Goodrich daughters was there an gave us an excellent history of her family’s operation (now in it’s 3^rd generation) and the maple syrup industry in general.  The Goodrich’s do not distribute through grocery stores but sell and ship direct out of their store…everywhere in the world.  They have actually shipped their maple syrup to nearly every country in Asia…and Moscow.  It could be that Putin shared some of Goodrich’s maple syrup with Trump in that secret meeting!! 

www.goodrichmaplefarm.com/

But really, maple syrup farms are everywhere.  In the south if you throw a rock you might hit a Baptist church.  In Vermont if you throw a rock you might hit a maple syrup farm.  The way they make it is very similar to the way we make sorghum down here.  When the juice comes out of the sorghum plant it has a lot of water in it so you put it in a big tray and boil it down.  Same thing with Maple syrup.  When the juice comes out of the maple tree it’s about 98% (I think that’s what the Goodrich lady said) water.  Then they just boil it down.  There are four different grades of maple syrup that are dependent on what time of the year the juice is harvested (and probably on how long your boil it down as well).  We don’t have that with sorghum. 

Anyway, that just about sums up a lot of our trip to Vermont. It’s an absolutely beautiful part of the country.  They have really structured things up there to support their environment, their families, and their local businesses.  They take the long view.  Some of that stuff (conservation, etc) has a cost to it, but that’s what they have decided to do with their state.  It makes it a place were visiting or moving to if you have the hankerin’.  Just don’t forget about mud season.

"The Town That Food Saved" by Ben Hewitt - I ran across this book about a little town, agriculture, and working together. I got it at a local bookstore in Vermont. You should order it from the author or a local bookstore..either way.

Thowing out Books and Pictures

Recently...that is for the last 49 years life has been flying by.  I've been acting on that lately.  There are several boxes from the garage I've gone through and lots of things have ended up in the trash.  We are all here just a short time and I want to eventually park my car in my garage instead of junk.  Books have been taken to the used bookstore ($20 store credit for a substantial pile of hardback books).

Old pictures and even the negatives have ended up in the rubbish box.  My philosophy on keeping pictures is that they though they are capturing a time and helping me remember that time the picture itself should remind me of something more...or bring me some sort of joy.  Some of the pictures I saved are of my sister's kids.  Kid pictures are always great.  Big boundless smiles.  A lack of self awareness that creates this totally candid, "here I am" moment.  Though one picture would do it I kept several obviously taken right in a row because the expressions are different, sweet, and worthwhile.  It's worth keeping a picture if it brings joy.

The other day I watched a documentary on Minimalism.  Not artistic minimalism or architectural minimalism.  It was more about having less stuff and better stuff.  Stuff that you need, stuff that makes you happy.  It was about buying quality stuff instead of throwaway stuff.  I've got a lot of throwing away to do.  My life will be short no matter how much longer I live.  My goal is July 4th, 2076 the anniversary of our nation.  I'd be 107 yrs old.  I doubt I'll get there, but even if I do it's still just a short time.  I don't want my kids to spend months going through things.  At the same time I don't want them throwing my stuff out without going through them.  I hope the stuff I have retained brings back memories for them as well.

An Underlying Question

It’s a big topic these days and I wanted to weigh in on the matter because I like to weigh in on stuff.  In my, ever so humble, opinion none of the healthcare debate currently happening in the hallowed halls of Washington DC has much of anything to do with bringing down the cost of healthcare.  What is being debated is do we cover everybody?  And if we do what is the best way to do that? 

Whether we decide to do that or not there will be costs involved…either way.  The question is should everyone be covered?  Is it as Bernie Sanders says, “A human right in a civilized society?”  So far in America we have said, “No, it is not a right.” 

We have let insurance companies exclude people with pre-existing conditions.  That right there a long standing policy saying, “Healthcare is not a right.”  It is well known that the number one reason for bankruptcy in America is due to medical expense.[1]  What is less well known is that the number two and three reasons could very well be linked to the number one reason.  Numbers two and three are reduced income and job loss which you might likely have if you are too sick and can’t do your job.  So if healthcare leads many families into bankruptcy we can hardly say we have a system where healthcare is a right…right?

Should everyone be covered?  WWJD (What Would Jesus Do)?  Well, Jesus did heal some sick people, but he didn’t set up a clinic and have everyone pass by all day long so he could heal their infirmities.  It cannot be debated though that Jesus did try to help people and that he commanded us to help people.  What does that mean for us though, not as individuals, but as a society? 

What are the costs of not covering everyone?  Well, we already know we have a lot of bankruptcies. We have a lot of people that die years before they should.  We have millions with chronic conditions that can’t work or can’t work effectively.  So that means more unemployment benefits, more people on SNAP (what people think of as food stamps).  It means people with pre-existing conditions that might get treated largely won’t because they can’t afford it.  So they continue on with torn rotator cuffs, degenerative bone diseases, cancer, and more. 

Obamacare did not cover everyone.  Trumpcare will not cover everyone either.  What does your faith and your ethics (which are hopefully based in your faith) say about the issue?

My question is should make sure that everyone has good, quality health coverage that they can afford?  My answer is yes.  What is your answer? 

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[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simple-thrifty-living/top-10-reasons-people-go-_b_6887642.html

Old Blog, New Post

So we’ve got a few issues.  By we, I mean America and/or the World.  I also mean Christians.  Sometimes I think it’s tough these days to understand what it means to be a Christian.  On one hand it’s incredibly simple.  The word Christian breaks down into the root and a suffix, “Christ” and “-ian.”  It’s should be no surprise that it means, “Christ – like.”  So a Christian is someone who wants to be like Christ. 

Pretty simple, but until the rubber hits the road that is just religious jargon.  Religious jargon is empty.  It all sounds good, but it means almost nothing.  It leaves the way open for most anything to mean…well…most anything.  Do you remember what WWJD stands for?  What would Jesus do?  It’s an ethical question. 

Christian Ethics is integrative.  You take the biblical material, theology, Church History, archeology, even science and look at specific issues and try to figure out WWJD.

What does WWJD mean for the a politically polarized nation?  What does it mean for a world that has huge refugee problems?  What does it mean for healthcare?  What does WWJD mean for the national debt?  What does WWJD mean for taxation policy?  Did you ever think of that?  Does your faith go beyond your own personal morality?  If it doesn’t it’s a shallow faith. 

Here’s the thing.  Most people have never been told, shown, or educated that their faith is about anything other than their soul.  Their soul and other souls, but that’s it.  That’s not the whole story.  The biblical story told of God providing food for the people wondering in the desert.  Jesus fed, Jesus healed.  Many people say they believe in a literal resurrection, a bodily resurrection, but the theology is still couched around the soul and no other concerns. 

But if the body is worthless why did Jesus heal it?  Why should we provide for orphans and widows (or generally those in society that need help) if all that really matters is their soul?  If the body didn’t matter why wasn’t Jesus just resurrected into some angelic form with a halo and wings?

The answer is it does matter.  What we do here on earth matters.  Not just our personal morality.  Did we kill anyone?  Did we have an affair?  Did we not burgle our neighbor’s property?  Now, don’t get me wrong.  All that stuff matters.  Other stuff does too.  We were set in the Garden (and later outside the Garden) and told to be stewards of that land.  That’s not just a personal morality thing.  That is a responsibility given to us that impacts generation after generation. It doesn’t just impact the soul or the body it impacts the earth.  And it is part of our responsibility as Christians. 

In biblical times; there were dictators, pharaohs, and Ceasars.  But today we live in a democracy.  Put another way…now we are part of Ceasar.  The idea of giving unto Ceasar was not specifically about giving to the man with the title, but giving to the political entity running the nation.  When we are told to give unto Ceasar what is Ceasar’s what does that mean now?  As Christians and members of a democracy we are to be stewards of our money, our time, and now…our taxes. 

What policies would Jesus suggest or support?  Healthcare, student loans, the financial industry, immigration, campaign finance.  Does your faith speak to these issues?  Think about it.

Design Criteria Part 1

I did a good bit of research for our last house.  I've done a TON of research for this house.  I've spent a lot of time reading articles at www.greenbuildingadvisor.com, www.phius.org, and even purchased a subscription to the Journal of Light Construction (online version).  Even after all that I was still a bit dismayed.

Friends in the building industry as well as owner/builders I have met have filled my head with ideas that I could build a house, even with today's prices for as low as $50 a square foot.  However, these green building sites were talking about affodable homes being built for $105-$125 a square foot.  Something was amiss!

Somehow or another I finally ran across Fernando Ruiz.  He's a builder out in California that has been building for $45-50 a square foot for 20+ years...and still doing it.  When he started it wasn't that difficult as materials and labor were less expensive.  Now that's not so much the case, but he has adapted.  He value engineers his houses and makes wise trade-offs that save him and the people that buy his homes tremendous amounts of money.  And he wrote a book.  Which I bought.  And read.

It turns out simpler plans are less expensive to build.  Two story homes are less to build than single story homes.  One note on that.  Architects will tell you just the opposite.  They say they single story is less expensive because stairs are so expensive.  The two most expensive components of a house are the foundation and the roof and architects are worried about the expense of stairs?  Well I think it just goes to show that what you see depends on where you sit.

Architects, by nature, are dealing with higher end residential builders and home owners.  Massive spiral staircases with lots of exposed wood work are flippin' expensive.  Wrought iron balusters and railings can run up costs in a heartbeat.  A stone or granite staircase might cost as much as my whole house.  That's the stuff architects deal with...pricey stuff.  The rest of us...not so much.  Most stair stringers (the stair stepped structural pieces on the side) in "working class" houses are cut from 2x12's,  Mine will be cut from laminated strand lumber.  They will be covered with carpet most likely.  Even in the event that we do put on a "pretty" tread, it will likely be oak or finger jointed pine.
The first few steps may have exposed balusters, but after that it'll be wallboard up to the top.  I like my stairs a little wider than most so I'll go with a 4' wide stair.  It seems like a small thing and some people will say I'm using too much space with the staircase.  However, I have lived in a house with a 4' wide staircase (our last house) and a narrow staircase (our rental) and narrow staircases suck.  Laundry gets carried up and down, kids get carried up and down, luggage gets carried up and down, half the time someone else is on the stairs while all the carrying is going on (see aforementioned kids)...it's exhausting.  A 3' wide staircase is just too confining for all that activity.

So you can see where builders say one thing and architects say another and they are both right.

Now back to affordable design.  A square is more cost effective than a rectangle, but with the lot we have we want to minimize excavation and that means shallow front to back with some extra width. As I sit and think about it our old house was three different sized rectangles combined.  The first rectangle was the garage area.  The second held the dining area, kitchen, pantry, laundry room, half bath and a few closets.  The third rectangle was the living room, master bedroom, and study.  Our new house will essentially be two rectangles of equal depth.  The first will be the garage and the second will be the structure of the house itself.

Both rectangles will be the same depth and possibly some rooms of the house would be behind the area in the garage (if the garage is 24 wide and 22 deep and that rectangle is 24' wide and 32' deep we could use the extra space for storage or possibly the master closet and bathroom.  

See Ruiz's "Affordability Checklist" to see what you can use on your next project.  Affordability Checklist

Initial Thoughts

House number two is now on the horizon.  It's a difficult lot, a forward facing slope with a significant elevation gain from front to back.  The lot is currently wooded, overgrown, and seems to have been used by neighbors as a dumping ground for their brush and limbs for years.

For this house I have two basic design criteria driving my decisions.  First is affordability.  Houses today are not terribly affordable.  Everyone wants a McMansion, but hardly anyone can afford one.  Looking at the houses of today vs the houses are parents and grandparents purchased two things are evident.  The houses of today are larger and more complex.  If you drive through an older subdivision you will find squares and rectangles.  Houses were smaller and simpler and took up a smaller percentage of the average wage earners paycheck.  Out last house was 2700 square feet this house will be somewhere between 1800 and 2500.

That last number doesn't sound that much different than 2700 but over 600 sf will be "to be finished later" space, and we may or may not build that area in the first place.

My second criteria is about energy efficiency.  If you remember our last house used structural insulated panels, we had all our ductwork inside the heated cooled part of the house, used a marathon hot water heater (a very well insulated electric tank water heater), energy star appliances, and a front load washer dryer set.  All that kept our utility bills reasonable.

This time around we are going to use some different construction techniques to make our building envelope even more energy efficient.  To that end we'll have double stud walls with three layers of R15 fiberglass batts.  We will air seal with acoustical caulk both on the exterior sheathing and the drywall to create a very air tight building envelope.  We will likely use a mini-split unit with a heat recovery ventilation system for our HVAC system.  A heat pump water heater will lead to more efficiencies there and we will possibly use Whirlpool's new condensing dryer to lower energy output there as well.

The subdivision we are building on is not on city sewer so we will have a septic tank.  I've never had a septic tank before, but everyone tells me they work just fine and I have no reason to no believe them.  The thing I am excited about is no more sewer bill!!  Yippeee!!

In the last house our average utility bill (water, sewer, and electric) was $263.  That's not horrible for a 2700 square foot house.  This time around my goal is to lower that to $75.  With no sewer bill, lower heating and cooling costs, lower water heating costs, and cost to operate our dyer I'm hoping that is a realistic goal.