We've been living in our Common Ground home for about a month and a half now. The photo on the right gives a sense of scale of the 11 homes of Common Ground. I love the proximity to the village, and the way that our children Ty and Sara can roam safely and play with their friends. I feel that so much of the urban/suburban world is crying out for this type of living arrangment: pocket communities, zero-net energy goal, built in-part with the love and sweat of the community that lives here.

It was cold when we were installing these solar water heating tubes, but the water they've been providing has been toasty! We turned off our electric heating element in our hot water tank when we moved in April, and have had plenty of very hot water -- all from the sun!

Yay for solar water! It's such a pleasure to take a hot bath or hot shower and know that no electricity was used to heat the water.