Wow, it's been a month since I posted, but it's pretty much because I was broke and had no money to put into the house. That has changed...sort of. I'm still mostly broke, but I'm ready to put money into the house again.

First step, this week E and I are finally talking to an architect. That's been something we've wanted to do for years, but we're finally making the leap. We have so many ideas for this house (some crazy and some just plain insane), but we need an expert to tell us "no, that's physically impossible." Then at least our day dreams will be somewhat informed by reality.

Second step, find out how the Federal Tax Credit for Energy Effieciency can help us to afford geo thermal. If you're considering making improvements to your home, check this out: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-09-41.pdf

You might find that you can better afford to make green updates with this credit. However, be forewarned, the legalese of this document is sort of hilarious. For example:

"4.01 If a dwelling unit is jointly occupied and used during any calendar year as a residence by two or more individuals, then the maximum amount of qualified fuel cell expenditures which may be taken into account for purposes of § 25D(a) by all individuals with respect to the dwelling unit during the calendar year is $1,667 for each half kilowatt of capacity of the fuel cell power plant to which such expenditures relate.

4.02 The amount of expenditures taken into account under section 4.01 of this notice by any individual for a taxable year is equal to the lesser of--
(1) The amount of expenditures made by the individual with respect to the dwelling during the calendar year, or
(2) The maximum amount of expenditures that may be taken into account by all individuals under section 4.01 of this notice multiplied by a fraction--
(a) The numerator of which is the amount of expenditures made by the individual with respect to the dwelling during the calendar year, and
(b) The denominator of which is the total expenditures made by all individuals with respect to the dwelling during the calendar year."

Huh?

*sigh*

Well, at least the architect speaks English.