​Sometimes, you get the call that a project needs to happen... right now.  When we found a wax ring leak in a toilet had resulted in saturation of... waste in a bathroom floor and up the nearby walls, a change needed to happen.  And fast.  

So, we renovated this half bath in just five days!  It looks completely different than it did when we first started working on this house, but we still saved the things that it made sense to save and found ways to make it an even better bathroom than it was previously. Including the cosmetic updating we'd already done, this was about a week of work.

Last time I wrote about our solar system, I wrote mostly about the process of getting solar on our roof, but not much about the system itself.  So, this is more on the system and the science!  I've wanted solar since I was my kids' age, so this process has been really cool to see unfold on our rooftop. 

Solar science is really interesting, and it's gave me even more incentive to understand more about electricity and how it is delivered.  Particularly direct current (DC).  I understand alternating current (AC) pretty well, but I'm a little fuzzy on how DC works!

Well, I've finally done it!  I swear, I have wanted to add rooftop solar since I found out the technology existed when I was a kid.  Probably from watching Bill Nye or The Magic School Bus.  Either way, it's been on the list of things I wanted to do for right around thirty years, and we finally got there.  Even just going back to our old books about how electricity is made reinforced the idea that what we were doing back in the 80s and 90s couldn't last forever.  

Going solar isn't without its troubles though; I want to start by writing that even being able to do so comes with a huge dose of economic and financial privilege.  It's almost impossible to get solar on a home that isn't owner-occupied in our state.  Each company that we talked to asked multiple times if we owned or were renting and if we planned to stay here long-term.  Since both are true, getting set up was a much easier process.  I'm not sure an installer would have approved our project with financing if we didn't meet those conditions.  And financing a project this big -even with the IRA tax credit- is definitely necessary.  Full financial break down is in this post!