My Ditch Diggin' Husband

This is him, my ditch diggin' husband.  He dug a ditch.  From our house to the river.  Just him and his shovel.








Just kidding. We rented a Ditch Witch.






 What in the world is a ditch witch?  I don't know, but when I googled it images like this popped up:
 
 Michael picked up this bad boy from Four Star Rental for a measly $120-you'll see later why I think $120 is measly.  He, along with my Uncle Steve, got right to work.  Thank goodness for "Saint" Steve (which I will henceforth be referring to him as).  He worked all week on our house, late into the evening to get the drywall done and what does he do?  Volunteers to help Michael dig ditches on Saturday.  He. Is. A. Saint. (Therefore: Saint Steve). 

Anyway, I missed out on all the fun because I was sleeping during the day due to working the previous night.  But as soon as I was woke up, I was out there to see what they had been up to.

Ditch #1

 

Ditch #1 goes from the river to the house.  This ditch is to accommodate the drain for our geothermal system.  If you don't know what in the world I am talking about, you can learn more about our geothermal system by reading this blog post. 

When they got down to the river's edge, Michael did have to dig the rest of the ditch manually because they didn't want to get the Ditch Witch stuck in the muck. Then would it be called a Muck Witch?  That doesn't have the same ring to it.

And here he is with the final product.  The black drainage pipe is going to be buried up until it gets to this cement (concrete?) block.  This is where the water from our geothermal unit is discharged into the river.  That sounds a little sketchy, huh?  Don't worry.  We got the go ahead from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and our local DNR.  The water is exactly the same water that comes from our well.  No more, no less - although possibly a degree or two different from the temperature of the river water.  But even still, there is no environmental impact by discharging the water into the river! Woot!

I think Michael had a really good time getting this project underway.  Here's why I think that:

1. He got to use a cool piece of equipment (i.e. the ditch witch)

2. He got to wear waders and get all muddy.. I mean if that ain't a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon, I don't know what is!

3. He got to explore our property in ways we haven't been able to yet.  (see below)

That's Michael, standing in the river where the water comes up to his abdomen... trusty shovel in hand so he doesn't get stuck.  Because I told him, there was no way I was coming out there to rescue him!

Ditch #2

 Ditch # 2 is basically boring.  There's not much else to say other than we dug it to bury our internet wiring.

Which leads me to the next topic...

Why is $120 spent on renting a Ditch Witch considered measly?

Because we saved a ton of money doing it ourselves.  New Paris Cable alone said they would charge us $350 to bury the internet line for us.  So we already made back our money from that.  Plus we saved money by not having our Geothermal installers dig the ditch for the geothermal system which we estimate they probably would have charged us >$500.  Woo hoo! So we saved an estimated $730! That is super helpful since we are about to purchase the tile for our bathroom!

 And check out this awesomeness! That's a completely dry walled entryway - looking at it from the living room.

The mudder/taper is finishing this week! But more on that later!

Plus! What do you all think about the face lift for the blog?! I'm diggin it... ha! Appropriate pun!

Have a great week everybody!

Um... Is this normal?

Is it normal to have a deep and meaningful relationship with a heating and air conditioning system?  I would bet it is not....but let me explain...

Our Geothermal system went in this week.  You may ask... what is a geothermal system?  It is our new heater, air conditioner, and water heater.  Say what!? How is it different than a typical heating and air conditioning unit?  While my husband could type up a nice detailed explanation for you, I am more inclined to post this video for you to help explain how it works.  :-) I don't know about you, but I am more of a visual person anyway.

Did you make it through the whole video? -it was a little lengthy, sorry.

So basically the system uses the ground temperature, which stays at a generally constant temperature of ~55 degrees, and transfers heat to or from the system to heat/cool your home.

 I think most people can see the benefits of geothermal, but why did WE chose it?  There are several reasons:

1. Currently we have an old oil burning furnace that is likely original to our home.  Oil burning furnaces are way out of date, so it really needed replacing, and we certainly were not going to replace it with another oil furnace. Natural Gas would have been the first choice, however, it is not provided out where our house is located.  Sure, we could have done an electric or a propane furnace but when you compare them with a geothermal system, there is really no contest in our minds.

2. It is SUPER energy efficient.  Compared to an oil furnace, we will save an estimated $2000 a year with our geothermal system.  Even with Gas, its about $1000 in savings.  If you are interested, you can find the cost savings calculator that I used here.
3.We have to replace our furnace AND add air conditioning AND a new water heater, so we really were starting from scratch.  One unit offers, both heating AND air conditioning and with an added part, you can utilize the system to heat your water.  We've been told, in the summer, when you are adding heat to the unit from your house, you basically get FREE hot water. You can't beat free!

4. We live next to the river which provides the perfect opportunity to install an open loop system, which is a less expensive installation approach. 
5.  We sprang for the extra option of being able to control the humidity levels in our your home.  No more dry static-y air for me in the winter! Woohoo!

6. Although the upfront cost is higher than traditional heating and cooling systems, over time, you more than recover the cost.  What also helps is that there is a 30% tax CREDIT for the cost of installing the system.  (And if you are like me and always have to ask your husband which is better - a tax credit or tax deduction?:  the answer is tax credit) That is a HUGE amount of money that comes right back into our pockets bringing the total cost of installation down to a more manageable price.  Not only do we see a tax benefit once but we also get a property tax deduction every year because of our geothermal system! Are you sold yet!? We were.

I think you can probably hear my excitement! And of course not every family is in the right situation for adding a geothermal system to their home.  Again, if we did not see ourselves living in this house long-term, we would probably go for something with less cost up front.  But we anticipate seeing that money back in energy savings.  We have been sooooo happy working with the guys over at Crystal Valley.  They have been great at helping us with the geothermal learning curve.  We really appreciate their thoroughness and professionalism. 

So that's that! We won't kick start the system until probably more like August/September after all the dry wall is done.....you know, after the heat of summer is over.  Looking forward to that!



Other exciting milestones from the week:

The load bearing wall came down and the big beam went up!!!

Before: living room looking toward dining room and kitchen

 After: living room looking toward dining room and kitchen

We finalized and ordered our kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanity!

We got the dumpster!... and its filling up fast!

It's been an exciting week! But, if you can believe it or not, we have more demolition yet to do.  Bathroom, watch out, we're coming for you! I'll be back next week with another update! Hope you all have a great Memorial day!