A simple passive solar detail

Ever since I came to live in Park City, I’ve placed enormous importance on choosing a home site with true southern exposure. 

After spending a quarter century in a shaded location, back in the Alps, where my parents’ home received only a few hours of winter sun, I learned firsthand how profoundly mountain sunlight affects both comfort and morale. Of course, site orientation is only half the equation — architecture must do the rest. 

At 7,000 feet, our sun is stronger, our winters are colder, and our skies are clearer, which makes solar geometry one of the most powerful and overlooked design tools. I’ve always been surprised by how little attention many local architects give to passive‑solar principles. 

When we built our home in 2013, I insisted on deep south‑facing eaves — in our case, 7 feet — to block the high summer sun while welcoming the low winter sun. At this latitude, the sun’s altitude swings nearly 47° between seasons, so a well‑designed overhang can dramatically reduce summer heat gain while providing free warmth in winter. 

The photo below was taken on July 7, shortly after the summer solstice at 11 a.m. MDST, and it shows exactly how the eaves perform: full shade in summer, full sun in winter.

Passive solar isn’t complicated — it’s simply good mountain architecture.

Break in solar electricity production

Unbeknownst to us, our solar inverter broke down on March 16. The inverter is a critical component that converts direct current (DC) electricity produced by solar panels into alternating current (AC), which is used by our home and sends the excess to the utility grid. It functions as the "brain" of the system, enabling, managing, and monitoring electricity usage. 

I should have known it if I had looked at my app telling me about the functionality of our solar electricity production, but I was simply assuming that all was well. It’s just in April that I checked it and realized that nothing was going on, then, a few days later I got the monthly bill from the power company telling me that I was owing three times the amount I normally paid when my solar system worked. 

I called the company that installed the system and ten days later they came to replace the faulty inverter and restore the natural cycle fed by our indefatigable sun. For those of you considering installing solar panels, be aware that there are two ways to convert current, one with a central inverter like ours or one smaller inverter per panel (a much better idea because it’s preferable to have one panel done instead of the entire system!) 

Now we’re back in full production and thanking the sun, our solar device and the human brains that have thought about that power conversion and made it such a practical and useful invention!

A twelve year anniversary!

Throughout our married life, my spouse and I have always stayed in one house less than 12 years, as we’ve moved 12 times together. 

Today, however, marks a family record. We have for the very first time lived at least one dozen years in our home and have no plans yet to move out, as we enjoy our place, its convenience and great location.

So, God willing, we might start setting a new record of living an unprecedented number of years in our beloved abode!

The “Lego” home building system (Part One)

Given the high cost of housing construction these days. and the inefficient building methods in America and elsewhere, I've always wondered why a "disrupting company" wouldn't come up with a manufactured, modular home assembly system. In fact, I’m a “frustrated architect” (in hindsight, I should have exercised that profession!) 

There’s of course nothing new to my question as lots of of architects, builders, and frustrated home-buyers have also been asking for years. The short answer is yes, many companies have tried to disrupt housing with modular, prefab, or factory‑built systems… but the industry keeps chewing them up. 

On paper, modular construction would resolves everything from factory efficiency, lower labor costs, faster building time with higher quality-control, less waste and much more predictable pricing. But the reality isn’t that simple. Many several high‑profile modular companies have gone bankrupt, including Katerra, Veev, and Modulous. 

Many of these companies have been failing due to cost pressures and logistical challenges. The biggest obstacles include logistics that are brutally expensive with shipping that demands cranes, escorts, special trucks, and careful routing. 

This often wipes out the cost savings. In addition, construction is incredibly local, with each region, even in the “United” States being different with its codes, zoning, inspecting methods, sysmic and other weather specific requirements that make scaling nationally extremely difficult. From a manufacturing standpoint, a modular factory is only profitable if it runs at near‑full capacity and the cyclical nature of housing that make it difficult for accommodated a continued production. 

Finally, developers resist change as traditional home builders have entrenched relationships with subcontractors, unions, local suppliers and as any new system is always perceived as a threat to the entire ecosystem. I would also add that banks and appraisers often treat modular homes as “manufactured” or “mobile,” which hurts resale value and loan terms. 

In the next blog, we’ll explore if there’s still hope for more efficient ways of creating housing...

Struggling with soap dispensers

Do you have a soap dispenser built into, or next to your kitchen sink ? We do, and in fact the first one we had was 12 years ago when we built the house we’re now living in. I doubt the plumber even tested the device after it was installed, but what’s certain is that it never worked! In addition, after many fruitless attempts I never was able to make it function, so was the device dysfunctional, was I doing something wrong or just plain stupid? 

Well, soap dispensers are one of those deceptively simple devices that can be maddeningly tricky. If it hadn’t worked for so long, chances were it was either a design flaw, a clogged mechanism, or a small installation issue rather than anything I was doing wrong. 

There are in fact many possibilities for this. First the soap can thicken or dry out inside the straw/tube, blocking suction. 

Also, if the pump isn’t sealed tightly to the bottle or tube, it won’t draw liquid. Many systems like mine were attached to the bottle and if it wasn’t seated properly under the sink, the pump couldn’t reach it. 

Pump dispensers designs also vary and are notorious for failing after a short time. Some brands simply don’t hold up. Finally there’s the nature of the soap that can gum up the pump. Dish soap or thinner liquid soap works better. 

Recently, I finally decided to address the problem with more determination than ever. I first flush the tube after removing the pump and rinsing it with hot water until clear. Of course, I checked the straw and made sure the straw was fully seated and not cracked or too short. Then I refilled the bottle with water, primed the pump more than 30 or 40 times and nothing came out of the spigot. Crazy, isn’t it? 

So, after doing all this I’ve finally decided to replace the built-in dispenser with a new pump kit that will directly feed inside a detergent bottle located under the sink, on its floor and will make sure to switch to a thinner dish soap or dilute it some (about 30%) to make sure it flows better.

I’ll let you know how this goes!

Second homes in mountain resorts

Like seaside and other vacation resorts, mountain towns hold a huge share of second homes. 

As my origins are from one of those locales and my current residence is also found in that particular setting, it’s a situation that I know quite well. 

This is of course very tempting to compare and draw comments between these mountain communities. 

To set up that comparison, we’ll look at four locations, two in the departement of Haute-Savoie, in the French Alps, Chamonix and Morzine (the town I grew up in) as well as Vail in Colorado and Park City in Utah (my current residence). 

What we can see when we look at the table, is that in all these resorts, the percentage of second home represents around 68 to 84% of the total housing available, with new condos commanding a definite price advantage over old ones and single family homes are no longer priced for “normal” people with workers salaries. 

In all cases and on both continents, finding affordable housing is all but impossible for “essential workers”. Will this change and if so, when? I don’t see any practical solution floating on the horizon except for a severe economic and/or climatic collapse...

Liberation through cleansing

For the past three months I’ve transitioned from a Windows 10 desktop computer to a new Windows 11 model, and as that chore is finally done, I’ve been able to remove the old machine and declutter my small office that was a total mess.

After doing it and getting rid of useless paper and documents, I’ve never felt so well to the point that I want to keep doing it with the stuff sitting in my office or around my workshop downstairs. The feeling was so soothing and exhilarating that I’d like to do this year round. 

That led me to research the subject and, in the process, I found that the deep sense of satisfaction I felt wasn’t just about tidiness, it was much beyond that! It was about regaining control, as clutter overwhelms our brain’s ability to focus (what some call "cognitive overload"). Organizing restores our sense of control. Likewise, a messy space subconsciously signals "unfinished tasks", triggering low-grade stress, so getting rid of it is highly beneficial. 

Medical folks say that cleaning up triggers dopamine release, the brain’s "reward" chemical that creates a virtuous cycle of motivation. At the same time our cortisol level drops, calming us a bit. They’re also psychological benefits, like one called the “ Zeigarnik Effect” that claims that our brain fixates on incomplete tasks, and organizing provides a kind of closure, freeing some mental capacity. 

An added benefit of reducing physical clutter is that it minimizes those pesky daily dilemmas, like “Where’s my credit card?", saving us both time and energy for much more important decisions. Psychologists also say that letting go of unused items does mirror emotional release. There are cultures that associate cleaning with purification, like spring cleaning or Japanese “oosouji” for year-end scrubbing. 

Of course, early humans learned to benefit from organized living spaces and were craving for predictability. Our need for neatness may be hardwired for survival, as modern life chokes us with digital and physical clutter, organizing our space is a tangible response to that, being in fact a rare area where effort yields immediate, visible results and return some sense of control to us!

Much, too much mulch!

On May 2nd, a huge dump truck was delivering what I thought was 16 cubic yards (over 13 m3) of mulch made of crushed tree bark to my home.

 

In fact I was badly mistaken in ordering as I got twice as much as was needed. Seven years ago, I had measured around 2,200 to 2,800 square feet of coverage needed and came up with an 8 cubic yard order that, upon delivery covered everything and left me some. 

 

This year, the coverage was considerably broader as well as thicker and still left me with 2.5 cubic yards (about 2 m3) leftover that I’ll be able to use over the following years. 

 

Live and learn!

My neighbor’s roof…

My next door neighbor is a “famous” general contractor in Park City, who until recently, has been building multi-million dollar houses in the most prestigious areas of town. Great reputation. Yet, you wouldn’t guess this if you looked at his home that is in serious need of maintenance. Talks about the cobbler that has no shoes! 

The house was built in 1988 and he purchased it in 2004. The roof is made of wood shingles that are now all twisted-dry and have seen much better days. In addition to being a fire danger in of itself, the roof is covered by trees that have extended all over upon its surface, not a good idea either in terms of fire propagation. 

The other day, I talked to his girlfriend and she told me that her man is now sailing in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and she’ll soon meet him, along with their 16 year old son, in the Azores and the three of them will keep sailing into northern Europe. She said they will have young folks in their house while they’re all away. 

I said, “It’s good to have someone in the house in case there are leaks and other issues…” She answered, “As a matter of fact we’ve got some huge roof leaks and we’ll be re-roofing it soon!” The next day I looked at their roof on my house side and noticed some huge tarped area and other patches that had been recently placed to address the leaks. 

I probably would have addressed that detail before navigating the Ocean, but I guess we all see things differently!

Tracking a leak down

This week will have been almost entirely consumed looking for the origin of a leak that has messed up everything contained inside the closet, under our kitchen sink. Nothing glorious or exciting about a quest that almost drove me insane. 

If you see what’s going under our kitchen sink, you would agree; how is it even possible to locate a leak in this confused and cluttered space where a full reverse-osmosis (RO) filtration system has to cohabit with a trash compactor, a pull out faucet and a few other technical accessories. You might be hard pressed to know where to begin.

A bit like opening up a patient’s belly yourself and glancing at the task at hand if you’re not quite a bona fide surgeon. At first, I assumed it was a leak from our RO. I called Paul, our plumber whom we trust and he kindly guided me via texts on how to proceed as I was placed on his waiting list. 

I did what he suggested and then some more, to the point that I learned quickly about servicing and trouble-shooting our RO system. Yet, days went by and the leak was stubbornly still there. It’s only after the 5th day that I had the brilliant idea to film with my phone what was going on inside that closet. 

As we were manually doing the dishes that night, the camera was rolling and when all was said and done, we previewed the video and discovered that the elusive leak was coming from the flexible tube of the pull-out main faucet that was frayed and, when pulled, was spraying water all around the closet and into the various components of our RO. 

When the plumber finally came this afternoon to change the defective hose, he was welcome like a savior. Well, he was our savior!

Ten years in our (new?) home!

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of moving into our new home, the 4th in Park City and perhaps the last one, but who really can tell? 

Do we still like the house we’re in now? On the whole, absolutely! 

Even though it’s the third home I have participated in the construction, and the 12th dwelling we’ve lived in as a couple, what would we still change are quite a few things in fact, as the human species never stops learning, its tastes evolve and needs change.

 But still, let’s say that we’re 90 to 95% there, so we won’t complain and feel truly satisfied with what we’ve got and stating the contrary would be all, but being grateful, so we’ll appreciate our current dwelling and hopefully live in it at least a couple more years to make it the place in which we’ve lived the longest amount of time!

Memorable weekend…

It all began with a power outage this past Friday night. We were expecting a big snowstorm for the weekend and its was so windy that it might have caused us to lose power around 9 pm as we were going to bed. To make a long story short, the power returned past midnight and the next morning, on Saturday our heating system didn’t appear to be working too well. 

It kind of sputtered before quitting on us early in the afternoon. Early afternoon is when it began to snow like crazy and just before that, I removed the furnace flame sensor, cleaned it up and replaced it without being able to get the furnace firing up again. I then did some online research and learned that it’s uncommon for flame sensors to fail after a few years and it’s a recommended practice to systematically change them every five years. 

I didn’t know it and it’s true that we learn something new everyday! I also check if our local Home Depot had the part in stock and I misread that they did (I only missed that it would be there next Wednesday), so I set to drive to the store in a terrible blizzard and it took me 40 minute of spooky drive to cover the 7 miles (11 km) distance that normally take 15 minutes to find out that the part I needed wasn’t available. 

Back home, I discovered that a Salt Lake City HVAC supply store might have the flame sensor and I almost resigned myself to surviving till Monday when the store would open at 7 am today. I returned to the furnace, tried a few more maneuvers to no avail and even though the fireplace was on, my wife and I went back to sleep in a cold house that would be even colder in the morning with 17 degree (-8 C) outside… 

Around 4:45am, on Sunday morning I got out bed and remembered that I had a spare flame sensor with a rod that was too long to fit in my furnace compartment and I thought of reducing its length from 3.5” (90 mm) down to 2” (50 mm) so it would fit, without really understanding how that stainless steel rod worked inside the burner (it actually converts AC into DC). 

So I took my hacksaw, cut the rod to dimension, deburred correctly and installed it and… Voilà! It worked perfectly, and immediately my heating system was back in working order. I brewed some coffee while my wife congratulated me, and then it was time to go out and clear all the snow that had accumulated the day before in my driveway! 

The art of snow removal

In winter, skiing and snow removal are parts and parcels of our daily lives. Some winters more than others, but in any case, the two activities remain front and center, as long as the snow keeps on falling. 

My wife and I love clearing snow each one of us with our specific approaches, our preferred thickness, our favorite tools (shovel for both of us and snowblower for me when there’s more than 4 to 6 inches) and our preferred technique (my wife pushes the snow against the bank on the opposite side of the house, while I push it on either sides and then throwing it over sidewalls that keep on getting taller). 

We seem to thrive from this very tangible exercise where the result of our good work is always impossible to ignore!

To fence or not to fence?

After struggling in searching for solutions for protecting my veggie from hungry deer, I have suddenly and surprisingly returned to a solution that had once crossed my mind in the early days of owning our new home. 

Instead of building a fence around my yard, I could surround my entire backyard with a fence that would then prevent any large, four legged creature, to venture inside its perimeter.

It would need to be tall enough though, as I’m thinking around 6 feet, and perhaps removable in parts to avoid being crushed from the snow sliding from our metal roof. 

It could either be solid or airy, meaning that it wouldn’t block sight, but just access. There are also issues dealing with our neighbors and the municipal building code, but those are just technicalities as I intend to graciously follow the rules. Finally it should look great while remaining affordable. 

So quite a few things to think about before I go ahead with that project if we find it worthwhile.

New “must-have gizmo” in mountain homes?

Most of Park City is roughly at 7,000 feet elevation. While not as high as most Colorado ski resorts, that in certain areas can be approaching 10,000 feet, there are many people who are not able to tolerate the thinner mountain air for a number of medical reasons (COPD and other respiratory ailments among others). 

This creates problems that could be seen as linked to altitude sickness, like fatigue, dizziness, and headaches. So, it’s not uncommon to have visitors, second or even permanent homeowners looking forward to living in a beautiful mountain-high environment but unable to enjoy it fully because of rarefied oxygen levels in the air. 

Slowly acclimating to high altitude is one way to prevent these discomforts. When traveling to over 8,000 feet above sea level, it would be a good idea to take several days to climb to your final altitude or to ease slowly into strenuous exercise. In fact, doctors recommend spending two to three days of gaining altitude slowly to adjust to changes in elevation with some suggesting gaining only 1,000 feet per day. Ascending slowly enables the body to adjust to higher elevations by allowing red blood cells to carry more oxygen to different parts of your body. 

This is however not what visitors typically do. As lengths of stay are becoming shorter, every visiting hour counts, and as soon as visitors gets to Park City, they can’t wait to hit the slopes. Then, there’s the recommendation to “play high, sleep low”. This means that one can play and ski at a high altitude but travel lower to sleep, which allows the body takes in the oxygen needed to combat the thin air affecting a full days of “playing”.

That’s where companies that precisely can provide “oxygenated” nights come into play with new technology and equipment able to oxygenate bedrooms in Rocky Mountain vacation homes. There are a number of these companies going after affluent homeowners that can be persuaded to minimize the debilitating effects of rarefied oxygen in altitude by outfitting their sleeping quarters. 

The air unit is controlled by a small tablet size controller on the bedroom wall and can also be controlled by a smart phone app. The room must be airtight with strict safety features to prevent risk of fire so the system can safely pump oxygen into the bedroom. 

So the rationale goes that a tired body is able to absorb more oxygen at night while sleeping in such a control environment, rejuvenate itself and wake up with the energy needed to enjoy a full day of skiing. As you can imagine, I find these solutions a bit extreme and gimmicky and the systems required to make them work are very complicated and not cheap. Installation alone can run $300,000 for an average home, so it’s not for everyone. 

At that rate and if I happen to feel short of breath at the end of the day, I might have to ski a bit less aggressively next time I’m on the slopes!

Big snow, big headaches

With a record year snow come some big problems. Besides avalanches, there are some buildings and homes that can have a tough time under too much snow, and particularly roofs. 

Snow is heavy and as it packs up densely, it can weigh enormously on structures that were not designed to support huge loads, even though our construction code takes care of these occasional snow excesses. Some homes are also very old and predate modern construction standards, some are poorly built or getting weak over the years too. 

This is why this season sights of crews shoveling roofs has been quite common and in spite of these efforts, some roofs still collapsed. 

There were also leaks, mostly occasioned by poor roof materials and designs that lead to ice dams and necessitated shoveling snow around the eaves. Finally, there’s the big spring melt that invariably occurs in April and May. 

When temperatures rise too quickly while the ground is still frozen solid, melting water has no way to go but inside the basements. Creeks can overflow too, and low laying areas can become targets of temporarily, but highly damaging flooding. 

So no matter how you slices, wonderfully abundant snow always finds a way to turn back into water and comes with a heavy and unpleasant price to pay!

An alternative to demolition?

For a while now, I’ve been lamenting about existing houses that are demolished and trashed to make room for a new, much bigger one instead. 

This stuff isn’t really ecological and to me the good alternative would be remodeling or extending a home, if that’s what is needed, instead of throwing all these once precious construction material in the overflowing public landfill. 

There’s however an alternative to that and its call “deconstruction”. The process entails taking a house apart, piece by piece, down to the foundation. This assumes that the majority of what is removed from a house via deconstruction should be recycled or reused.

The house that stood on that picture and has been taken apart is located not far from where I live. These materials removed from the house can be donated to a qualified non-profit (501(c)3) charity and its market or estimated value can be claimed by the property owners on their taxes as a donation at fair market value. 

Demolition costs are much higher than when a house is simply trashed. In the case of the above example it took several months to “deconstruct” the home and must have led to a pricey bill. For instance, for someone in a 30% tax bracket could claim $200,000 worth of recyclable goods and get a $60,000 tax credit. 

That only requires that the owners tax bill is over that amount, so easy to see that this tax maneuver is not designed with the poor in mind. It’s also highly questionable the quantity of material that can truly be recycled. 

So in essence, the operation is mostly shouldered by the average taxpayer, which in light of what can be actually recycled ends up being not so efficient. Nice on paper and in principal, but not so fair to the less fortunate taxpayers!

Another house bites the dust!

Demolishing older houses to build brand new ones has become common place in Park City, where empty building lots have become all, but unavailable. 

This is not a pleasant sight as it suggest wastefulness and a total disregard for the significant resources need for new construction instead of just remodeling and existing space.

What remains of a house pictured above was a two-story, 4 bedroom, 3 bath residence sold on June of 2021 for about $2 million. It was owned by two well-known parkites, Candace and Bruce Eriksen that passed away ten years apart in 2011 and 2021 at age 56 and 68. 

The house living area square footage was 2,405. If you look a the picture on the left you can see that it still looks like a decent home even though it might have been built in the early 80’s. 

This is just to say that similar building lots that sold for $150 to $200,000 in 2010 are now worth ten times more, if one is lucky to find a cheap enough home that can be easily demolished. 

While prices of existing homes are down some 25% from their peak this late winter, the cost of building lots have no apparent limits, especially if the location has some good appeal. 

This for sure is still not a good time to build real estate as prices are still dropping and no one knows when they’ll hit rock bottom.

The sewer saga continues

As I was quietly sitting on my toilet, bothering no one, doing what I was doing, things suddenly began to rumble under me and soon, I thought I was dreaming that I was in Japan or that my wife had just purchased, unbeknownst to me, one of these “smart-toilet” from the land of the rising sun. 

Yes, not only did I got shaken, but also generously sprayed in the rear-end, and finally it downed on me that the “Sewer Patrol” was at it again! I dressed-up in a flash and dashed outdoors and ran around the bend to find two big trucks tinkering inside the man-hole of our block sewer system. 

I sure wasn’t kind to the man I talk to, or I should say screamed at, from the top of my lungs: “What in hell is wrong with you guys? What are you doing to the sewer pipes?” One of the two guys reeling a bunch of pipes into the sewer entry point told me: “We’re cleaning the pipe so another crew in a few weeks can put a protective lining inside…” 

The other fellow, was more aggressive and tried to turn the blame on me, Trump style, by saying: “You must not have the necessary valve system!” I replied that my house was almost brand new and built to code.

Then he mollified and admitted: “Things like this [sh...t] happen from time to time, and I’ll personally come clean any damage…” 

By the time they were finished and he showed up at the house, my wife had already cleaned all the bathrooms, so the man just had to sanitize them to remove the stench that by then, had invaded the whole house. 

This is now the third time this type of incident happens to us and I can guarantee you that the sewer company will hear from me when they open up this morning!

A nasty faucet…

Sometime small incidents can escalate out of proportion. I’ll try to make that story clear, short and simple. 

As my son and I were installing some broken tiles on May 1, and I was trying to clean our tools, I noticed that my outdoor watering hose was woefully lacking pressure. I assumed there was still ice in it. In the ensuing days, I tried to thaw it, change the spigot, the reel, then the hose itself, to absolutely no avail. Thru elimination, the next element was the faucet itself. 

I examined at it and realized that it was indeed the problem. It’s a freeze-free outdoor faucet, that I started to take apart, hoping I’d clear some obstruction or change a faulty seal, but all this without any success. That’s when I noticed some wet cement falling apart around the outside wall, next to the faucet, that I realized that it might have burst. 

While I always take good care of not leaving the reel hose connected to the faucet in late fall, I might have been taken by surprise by an early, unusual October frost that permanently damaged it by bursting its foot long interior mechanism, and flooded the interior wall through all my subsequent attempts to test the system. 

This forced me to take apart portion of the wall in order to cure the problem ten days after I first noticed the it. At the end of the story, a huge amount of work for a minor incident.