Prototype realities

 

Living and working in the first two SEED Homes to come off the line is an honour. Being the first of something is always special, but that doesn't make it easy. Our saving grace is that the company, and its owners, are standing behind us and making sure that the prototype gaffes are fixed and that errors borne out of a precipitous learning curve are addressed.

We love living in our SEED Home. It is warm, bright and supremely comfortable. It provides a certain WOW factor when people see it for the first time. "It immediately feels like a home," commented a recent visitor from Ontario. 

The studio has great light and great energy. "You feel it the moment you walk in," shared a guest who visited this past weekend. It's a great space for creativity and creative collaborations.

The Bird's Nest, our micro Airbnb suite is immediately welcoming, feels spacious, despite its size, and modern. It has earned five stars from each of the guests who have stayed in it. 

On the more challenging side, we are experiencing issues related to the volume of electricity usage resulting in some pretty shocking bills. We had our first brush with this last winter after that brutal polar vortex. Our power bill topped one thousand dollars. All of us chalked it up to it still being an active construction zone with doors opening and closing constantly during very cold conditions. We had also chosen to go one hundred percent with electricity which includes in-floor heating, hot water tanks and electric furnaces. However, as power usage continued to escalate this winter, it became crystal clear that something wasn't right. We were using more power in a month than much larger homes were using in a year. I shared our most recent power bill with the SEED Homes team and they have jumped all over it. Plans are in the works to permanently address the inefficiencies of the HVAC system and the draw on the electricity grid. 

Things were happening so fast in the nascent months of SEED Homes, that decisions were being made on the fly to move our projects forward with haste. We were chomping at the bit to get our home and studio and the team wanted to make that happen. If we all had it to do over again, a list of things would have been done differently. None of us can go back and change history, but we are working together to make adjustments and bring this project to its conclusion.

As we look ahead, we are anticipating a flurry of work in the yard and on the buildings in the spring. Shortly after, a significant solar array will be installed. With the arrival of spring and the completion of this work, Heather will begin to do her landscaping magic. New trees will be planted and our High River home and studio will begin a new and exciting chapter. She is currently doing a University of Guelph diploma course in landscape design. She'll be excited to put all that knowledge to use in our yard and property.