Backyard is completed

[countryford]

I noticed washman posted a picture of his beautiful yard with his patch of grass. Since we just completed our backyard just yesterday, I wanted to show it off as well. Instead of hijacking his thread, I created my own.

 

As some of you may remember, we moved to a different house in October of last year. Here is what the backyard looked like before. The house sits on an acre of land, although, thankfully not all of it is fenced off.

 

 

[countryford]

After many months of hardwork and lots of $$, it is finally completed. We laid all the sod down just yesterday. We had 8 pallets(4,200 sq feet) of sod. 33 tons of gravel, and 34 trees total.

 

[countryford]

Here is a better picture of the pool. This was taken before the grass and rock was in, but gives a better idea of the pool. The rock feature has a waterfall in the center and a slide on the left. On the right side are the steps leading up to the slide. Boy is it fun to slide down.

 

[washman]

Looks marvelous

how much did the sod cost?

 

[twintubdexter]

got water?

That's really beautiful, but be thankful you don't live anywhere in California. The water company would take one look at that Ponderosa-sized lawn and burn you at the stake. 

 

They'd probably send one of their friendly customer service representatives out first...

 

[supersuds]

Looks great. I'm sure it is expensive but all those rocks you had were kind of like a moonscape!

 

[brisnat81]

It looks nice, but coming from Australia, you've planted that much lawn in the desert? Over here there is now a huge push for drought tolerant landscaping. After our water shortage a few years ago, you don't water the lawn anymore, if its dry and dies, all good because as soon as there is any rain it greens up and bounces back.

Do you get much rainfall, how drought tolerant is that lawn?

 

[a440]

Looks fantastic! 

Your pool looks so inviting. 

Love your solar panels!  I bet you have an endless supply of really hot water!

 

 

[petek]

I'll be there in November... no need to plan anything special I'm not a fussy guest and can fetch my own  beer from the fridge. 

 

[countryguy]

Looks very nice and inviting! Do the solar panels provide all the electricity for the house?

Gary

 

[countryford]

Washman: We paid $.43 a sq ft. My brother-in-law is a contractor and got us a good deal. If we would have paid full price it would have been closer to $.90 a sq ft. It came to over $2,000 for all of it.

Twintubdexter: I know. So far Phoenix isn't placing any restrictions on us here. I have to have grass. One day I'll move up north where I won't have to worry about it.

 

Supersuds: It was a lot of work and it cost quite a bit. The pool being the most expensive. .

 

Brisnat81: Probably wasn't the best idea. As I mentioned, so for no push/restrictions as of yet. The grass will dry out if not enough water. We typically only water during the summer months. Right now we are in our Monsoon season and we are getting some rain.

 

A440: Thank you. The pool is very nice. I'm in it almost every day. Since our backyard is private I'm clothes free. Fun sliding down the slide. The solar panels are for the electricity.

 

Petek:When you arrive, you are more than welcome to stop by. We have an extra room with a queen sized bed. We keep the fridge stocked with beer and it is on the back patio, so not a long walk.

 

If anyone is ever in the Phoenix area, you are always welcome to stop by and visit, see the collection or enjoy the pool.

 

[countryford]

Countryguy: yes they do. We have a small bill(under $50) from the power company each month.

 

[countryguy]

Wow, I wish my electric bill was that low! That is great.

 

[combo52]

WOW Yard Looks Great

Can't wait to get out there sometime and see it in person, the pool looks great as well.

 

Did you guys add the solar panels ? since you got the house? I have just signed up for Solar City to install panels on my primary house. It seems like a great program, depending on what state you live in the complete installation is free or you can pay for part of the system and get a guaranteed lower price for all the electricity your home uses for the next twenty years. SC was able to get enough panels on my home to generate 98% of all the power we use in a year.

 

[countryford]

Yes we did get the solar panels installed on the house since we've been here. When Steve's dad owned the house his electricity was $400 plus in the summertime. It is a 2,500 sq feet home with vaulted ceilings. We also go Solar City. We are leasing the panels. We pay Solar City $140 a month for the panels and then pay the under $50 to the electric company for being hooked up to their grid. I think we are at 90% capacity or something like that. Pretty close.

 

[revvinkevin]

 

 

The yard is looking GREAT Justin, I can't wait to see it in person!

 

I also looked into solar panels and had a rep from Solar City come out have give me the "sales pitch" (lol).  I can't afford to buy the system outright, so also looked at their lease program.   I decided not to go with them at this time, simply because my electric bill is so low that I really can't justify having them installed.   The majority of the year my bill is around $40 (or less).   During the summer it goes up if I'm using the AC a lot (of course).   With the Solar City lease, with a 4.4 KW system, my payment to them would have been about $72 each month for the next year.

 

Kevin

 

[twintubdexter]

feedback concerning solar is helpful...

I still haven't decided if I should go solar or not. Solar City gave me a quote of roughly $50,000 for a 6.9 kw system, about $10,000 more than the other bids I received. I can lease systems for no money down but I prefer to purchase the system outright. With a purchase, the warranty, not pro-rated, is 30 years including the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">2 invertors a 6.9 kw system requires. The solar system can be financed through Solar City, the interest rate is low, and there is no pre-pay penalty.</span>

 

Aside from the big chunk of cash (I'm far from wealthy, light years away,) one has to realize that $50,000 pays a lot of electric bills. I'm an old man of 65. In 30 years I won't be here, perhaps not in 20 years. How long will I be able to stay in this house? Will I be in a retirement facility in 10 years or so? Selling a house with an attached solar lease in my area can be a liability. Many buyers here are seasonal. They are only here in the winter months when electricity bills are very low and gas for heating is $40 or less. 

 

I do have a nasty habit of forgetting about the "green" aspect of going solar, especially with this area's average of 360 days of sunshine per year. I also neglect the fact that Southern California Edison is increasing the cost of electricity, not making it more reasonable. The retirement home is sounding better all the time. I wonder if they still serve fish on Fridays?

 

[countryford]

We are leasing our panels from Solar City. It is a 20 year lease. They look at your previous years electricity bill. They will give figure out how much a month you use. They charge you a flat rate per month, which is usually less than your electric bill. For us it is $140 a month. You will still get a small bill from the electric company(taxes fees for being hooked up to them). It does go up a small percentage each year.  It has been under $50 for us. Even in the winter months we are saving money. With the 20 year lease they take care of any and all issues with the panels. No money out of our pocket. They monitor them for any issues and will correct them right away(according to them, since we haven't had any issues). At the end of the 20 year lease, you can either sign a new lease or they will give you the old panels. If you decide to keep the panels, they will make sure that you are running at, at least 80% capacity. If for whatever reason, we sell our place before the 20 years, the seller has to take over the lease. If that were to happen, we would just put that in the contract that they must take over the lease.

 

[revvinkevin]

either sign a new lease or they will give you the old panels

 

 

Correction:  At the end of the lease you either sign a new lease, or if you choose not to, they will remove the system from your house.   It's not a "lease to own" program.

 

[countryford]

They told us that we will keep the panels at the end of the lease.

 

[combo52]

Solar City Solar Panel Systems

SC has really great deals in Maryland partly because Maryland is strongly behind the effort of alternative energy.

 

Their basic program here costs you nothing to install and you get a 20% lower electricity cost for the first 5 years and set power rates for the 20 year period after signing up. You can also put some money in and get an assured price on all your electricity for the 20 year lease period.

 

At the end of the 20 year lease they will sell you the system [ for it then value ] or remove it, replace it, or possibly release it to you.

 

I decided to put in $5000 which will give me power for 9.8 cents per KW for 20 years, if I put in $10,000 I would get power for 6 CPKW for the next 20 years. Since I really don't use a lot of electricity at home [ I have natural gas for much of the heating, water heating, the hot tub and clothes drying ] I think this will be a good plan for us.

 

[combo52]

Solar City Solar Panel Systems

SC has really great deals in Maryland partly because Maryland is strongly behind the effort of alternative energy.

 

Their basic program here costs you nothing to install and you get a 20% lower electricity cost for the first 5 years and set power rates for the 20 year period after signing up. You can also put some money in and get an assured price on all your electricity for the 20 year lease period.

 

At the end of the 20 year lease they will sell you the system [ for it then value ] or remove it, replace it, or possibly release it to you.

 

I decided to put in $5000 which will give me power for 9.8 cents per KW for 20 years, if I put in $10,000 I would get power for 6 CPKW for the next 20 years. Since I really don't use a lot of electricity at home [ I have natural gas for much of the heating, water heating, the hot tub and clothes drying ] I think this will be a good plan for us.

 

[combo52]

Solar City Solar Panel Systems

SC has really great deals in Maryland partly because Maryland is strongly behind the effort of alternative energy.

 

Their basic program here costs you nothing to install and you get a 20% lower electricity cost for the first 5 years and set power rates for the 20 year period after signing up. You can also put some money in and get an assured price on all your electricity for the 20 year lease period.

 

At the end of the 20 year lease they will sell you the system [ for it then value ] or remove it, replace it, or possibly release it to you.

 

I decided to put in $5000 which will give me power for 9.8 cents per KW for 20 years, if I put in $10,000 I would get power for 6 CPKW for the next 20 years. Since I really don't use a lot of electricity at home [ I have natural gas for much of the heating, water heating, the hot tub and clothes drying ] I think this will be a good plan for us.