Wildfire!

Yesterday, around 4PM we noticed a huge smoke cloud looming over the San Gabriel Mountains and blocking the view towards Mt Baldy. That was no ordinary rain cloud, it looked more like a smoke cloud from a fire- so we checked out the news and learned about the 4000 acre (by Monday morning) big Williams Fire which had spread fast on Sunday, but the fire fighters seemed to have made soem headroom in the meantime. The smell of burnt trees was in the air this morning as the clund started moving along the Mountains towards the West. Later that day, the wind direction changed again and blew the plume towards the Inland Empire.

on the cover

The Nob Hill Haus made it on the cover of the August issue of Builder's Magazine-as the feature story about a collection of 5 sustainable homes! For us, that is quite an achievement. We got an almost 5 page long article on the inside and are really proud of it. As part of a special symposium, the L.A. County Health Department and the Environmental Protection Agency will tour the rainwater harvesting system next week. They’ve been using it as a case study project for rainwater use in residential applications. We have September in the meantime, but there's still water in the cistern for them to see! In the garden, the figs are ripe, but the squirrels get them faster than we can pick them- a real bummer.

Nob Hill Haus receives two Awards!

We could not believe it ourselves, but the Nob Hill Haus has recently received not one but two of the most prestigious awards a home can hope for: Two Gold Nugget Merit Awards: One was earned in the custom home under 3,000sf category, where the clean modern yet functional design was honored. The second one was in the sustainable category for projects certified under Build it Green's "Green Point Rated" program. The Golden Nugget Awards are held every year and entries from all around the world are competing against each other. We are very proud to be among the winners!

The power of the Sun- taken a step further

With the summer heating up a lot in recent days (we are hitting the 100s now regularly), the solar water heater is reaching the tank's hot water capacity long before the day is over. The collector fluid (glycol) reaches temperatures around 270 degrees while we have a water temperature of about 130 degrees inside the tank. As a matter of fact, the pump is shutting off at 1.30 and the glycol drains back into the expansion tank to prevent the system from overheating. See the graphic above with the solar WH performance chart. The energy of the sun that is hitting the collector after that is not being used at all. In order to make use of that energy, a steam generator would have to be connected to the tank and the hot water could then contribute to generate electricity. This is definitely something to think about for future solar systems.

Wildlife Watching

Living in a tree house with a view gives us plenty of opportunity to watch the wildlife around the house. There are the omnipresent squirrels (see photo) munching on tree fruits and nuts and other delicacies (and burying them later in the ground where they're routinely forgotten. We also have the usual skunks, raccoons and a couple of red tailed hawks with young chicks learning to fly (and making a lot of noise in the process) and the occasional coyote prowling through the yard in search of a meal. And sometimes, they're successful: Not too long ago, we could observe a pack of three coyotes running around our and the neighbors' gardens and munching on something not recognizable. We later found out that one of the semi-wild cats had gone missing and also found a bunch of fur in the garden. To eat and be eaten....Bon appetite!

Baby Shower for Coomy

Recently, Grit hosted the baby shower for Coomy and her son Auram. Of course, there was a lot of competitive gaming: Many tasks had to be accomplished by the attendees, such as speed-drinking from baby bottles, sophisticated word games and the all time favorite- feeding baby formula to each other (yum). In the past week, Auram has entered the stage of the world, but has yet to make his first appearance at the Nob Hill Haus, which is being highly anticipated.

Nob Hill Haus in Specs + Spaces

Two weeks ago, Kastle Wasserman, a journalist from the magazine Specs+Spaces visited the Nob Hill Haus for it's 1st anniversary. The visit resulted in the following article, featured on the May edition of the publication: http://www.specsspaces.com/Article/NobHillHausBuildingaGreenDreamHome.aspx In the meantime, we finally finished all storm repairs and started to heal the damages to the landscape- Grit re-planted a few of the trampled ground covers and we will end up ordering some more to fill in the gaps caused by the fallen tree and the workers clearing it. While we still have not started to irrigate with potable water yet, the rainy season can be called over and we will soon have to start to turn on the controller again.