you'll be thankful for the Tankless water heater

So this is a tankless water heater located downstairs left of the kitchen sink. (the white box) It is 'in the wall' and is usually covered by that little panel you see resting next to the box.    The bone house has it's own passive solar heater system set up on the roof.  A pipe runs along the roof and the water gets circulated from a non-heated storage tank in the upstairs bathroom. All of the water in the tank goes to the two heaters in the house for both up and downstairs hot water usage. The picture below shows you what the circulation pumps look like.

Obviously on cloudy days the tankless water heater works on its own.  It's a little confusing for me but I think I'm understanding it.  The typical water heater always heats up water whether you need it or not. It is a huge electricity pig.  With this tankless water heater, you are only heating up water when you need it.  It is much more efficient and when coupled with the solar pre-heating system you reduce your electricity consumption even more.

Dan said he got this tankless water heater new on ebay for $229.  According to the Titan Tankless Water Heater site, you will save 60% on your water heating bill!  Enviromentally friendly and cost efficient....go ahead, take that hot shower guilt free!  You can read more here, 'how to take a shower' by Dan Phillips.

Sunday catchup

Dan doesn't 'do cute'...but this little dude he made is wonderful, cute or not.  I think he's a perfect pet for the bone house.  Quiet and able to take care of himself.  No fuss.  No mess.

Bob, who is going to be renting the Bone House when its finished, got the upstairs bath sink installed and really cleaned the place up to finish the walls in there.  Way to go Bob!

You never know what cool adornment Dan is going to make.  Last week he finished the outdoor light fixture, a bone 'mask' if you will.  It's stunning.

Bones are starting to appear everywhere.  The outter decor is coming together ~ I never know what I'm going to find next when I show up.  The interior continues to move right along as well.  Josh is actually taking a week's vacation which leaves myself, Tod, Linda, Dan, Bob and his son Clay to get those bathrooms done.  I can see the finish line with the mosaic mirrored bathroom that I'm working on.  Can't wait to be done with that!

labor of love and then some

Linda has made progress in a big way this week.  I think one of my favorite things about this bathroom shower is the cut out bottle parts she employs.  A rather difficult endeavor by the sound of it, the bottles can break easily when she cuts them.  The end result varies from delicate to chunky sized 'rings' that she then fills with a chunk of mosaic.  (post below) Long thin ceramic pieces lead up to these circles creating a stem or vine like image.  I still don't know how she is able to blend so many pieces into a cohesive piece of art!

I'm still working on the other downstairs bathroom that appears to have worn everyone out (don't forget the art studio walls are 2/3 mirror shards).  It is going to be 100% mirror shards from floor to ceiling. Tod has spent most of his work week cutting mirror and smoothing it so I can add it to the walls.  I am always reminded when I pop in to work a few hours here and there of how hard everyone on the crew has worked to make each and every piece of this house unique!

bathroom details

 Linda's Mosaic Design in the downstairs bedroom shower.

Below is the redwood ceiling that Josh made in the same room.

Upstairs shower: tile mosaic in progress

The bathrooms seem to be the focus right now.  Linda is diligently working away on the downstairs shower mosaic. It took me awhile to 'get' mosaic, and this shower wall is sealing the deal for me.  It is chunky and funky and full of variety.  It's fun to follow the 'trail' of vertical pieces and run into the big round broken glass; visually it is a great stopping point that really works! Josh made the ceiling from donated Redwood and worked that wood until it was smooth and beautiful.  By sealing it with polyurethane it is good to go!  Beautiful, rich and compliments the shower mosaic perfectly. 

The upstairs bathroom is still in progress as well.  As you can see in the last photo, tile is being used in the shower and it blends in with the tile floor quite nicely. Meanwhile,  Dan and Clay are doing the underpinning of the foundation right now, nasty hard work with lots of bug welts by the end of the day.  I'll spare pictures of that!