In September of 2004 we purchased a 35 acre lot south of Fairplay, Colorado as the first step in my dream of both building an off-the-grid solar home and designing/building a home. I was inspired by attending the Denver and Boulder Tour of Solar Homes for many years. The land is on the east side of the Continental Divide and consequently gets less snow than the western slope but can get lots of snow with huge drifts. It is very high (9600 feet). After looking at a lot of land in Colorado, it was one of the only properties that had a nice southern mountain view, the southern orientation being very important for the passive solar aspect of the house. The area has excellent hiking, running, fishing, and mountain biking opportunities as well as being relatively close to some cross-country skiing and about 45 minutes from Breckenridge ski area. We purchased a camper as a construction dwelling.

We did not plan on starting the building so soon but my daughter and I went to meet with a builder of tilt-up concrete passive solar homes outside of Pueblo Colorado and were at that time favorably impressed, deciding to start building when the ground thawed in early June, 2005. I took two online classes from Solar Energy International on "Solar Home Design" and "Photovoltaic Design and Installation."

 The home has many energy efficient features including passive solar design, insulated concrete construction, concrete exterior walls and most of the interior walls to serve as thermal mass, energy efficient exterior and garage doors, energy-efficient/Energy Star appliances, 5.6 kW photovoltaic system with battery storage ( Solar-One HUP Batteries 48V 845 aH 40 kwH since 2018) for electric requirements, solar hot water (380 gallon storage tank and 200 sq feet of collector panels) with backup propane fueled Takagi on-demand hot water heaters for domestic hot water and space heating with radiant infloor heat, a Tulikivi masonry fireplace for supplemental heating, structural insulated panels (SIPs) R-42 for roof, extremely energy-efficient "Heat Mirror" windows, daylighting with clerestory windows, and a heat recovery ventilation system. Since the home is very tight, without too much ventilation, healthy building materials, paints and sealants have been used. The cabinets are made of lyptus which is a renewable wood. The house is stucco with brown window trim and a brown roof. The space above the garage is used for exercise equipment and a table tennis table. We currently have satellite internet service which allows for VOIP for phone service. Cellular service and a landline are not available.

The building process went very poorly and took longer than the estimated finish date of March, 2006. We had problems not only with the builder and almost all of the subcontractors but also the remote location, the lack of familiarity of the subcontractors with green building practices, and the harsh weather conditions which made things extremely difficult. While my builder had some very good ideas about passive solar design, it turns out that she was a poor general contractor. The result was that I did much of the general contractor work and all of the bill paying. Most but not all of the problems have been correctable for a price. We did the minimum required for a certificate of occupancy, and miraculously obtained one in December, 2006.

I slowly did as much of the finish work as I could, and eventually finished. Since this was my dream solar home, the building process was very stressful. On the positive side, my husband was amazingly supportive. He actually has been impressed with the outcome and is not second guessing my bad decisions. He only has pointed out that the project was far too ambitious and that the house should probably have been a lot smaller (I agree). My daughter liked the house and helped me do some of the work. My son didn't like all the time that I spent in Fairplay, but was helpful cutting firewood and admitted that he would have been disappointed if I had given up.

Time Line

September 2004: Property purchased
October 2004: Met with builder first time.
May 2005: Drilled well.
June 2005: Excavation and septic tank.
July 2005: Foundation work and started pouring walls.
September 2005: Standing of walls.
December 2005 to January 2006: Pouring concrete slab.
May 2006: Started framing house.
October 2006: Installed solar panels and did stucco work.
December 2006: Certificate of occupancy.
October 2009: Installed 9 new Sharp 208 solar panels and FLEXmax 60 charge controller.
April 2018: Solar-One HUP batteries installed