When my wife and I were married in 1974, I promised to build her a house. It took 37 years to fulfill that promise, but I finally made good on my word. After building in Georgia and Colorado in my 20’s, we owned a grocery store in Grand Junction, CO for 26 years. Picking my hammer back up in my late 50’s, we designed and built what I call a “contemporary desert craftsman” home on a cliff looking over the Gunnison River and the Grand Valley.
Myself and the “Geezer Construction” crew did most everything, subbing out only those trades too technical or nasty to want to take on (Drywall! Stucco!) at our age. Green features include: Geothermal (“geoexchange”) heating and cooling; a 4.5 kilowatt photovoltaic grid-tie system; on-demand hot water recirculation; heat-recovery ventilation; conditioned attic and crawlspace; air-sealed insulation with closed-cell foam, wet-blown cellulose, ICF crawlspace walls, etc.; many reused and repurposed materials – for example, trim made from pine & fir shelving used in our grocery (that originally came out of the basement of a JC Penney store that closed over 30 years ago). Total energy usage charges will be well under $1000 per year – we use gas only for a cooktop and fireplace, and the solar system provides about 60-70% of our electricity needs
The desert environment is naturally xeriscaped – and by not building in the valley we didn’t take a square inch from the peach orchards and grape vineyards for which the area is famous. My wife’s stained glass transoms, local craftperson-friend’s front door, steel entry wall, cabinetry, and wood carving ,and my favorite, my slide-out maple cupholder in the window seat all add some artistic touches the home I didn’t get around to building in the 70’s!
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Thanks for posting, Sundrop. It's obvious that this home means a lot to you and to your wife.