When Scott and I were dreaming about building our tandem house, we used to spend the weekends going to open houses in the neighborhood.  We were curious to see the standard of material finishes that we would be held to in order to compete in the highland residential market.  There was one house in particular that had these chunky wood stair treads and metal fabricated railing.  We loved the untraditional look and knew that we wanted a similar aesthetic in our house.

Little did we know how complicated planning, designing, fabricating and installing these stairs would be.  Although it was a long process, we couldn’t be more happy with how they turned out.  We went with solid hickory treads that Scott finished with a natural polymer-based finish.  After three coats and sanding in between, the treads were ready for install; just in time for Thanksgiving.  Our family could rest assured that we had railings.  Not only did the stairs look fabulous but they were safe for all the little ones to run up and down when they played hide and seek!

We made a bold chose by going with concrete floors in our main living space.  Although concrete floors are not uncommon these days, it took some extra planning because the floor sits above our basement.  Meaning, the joists below the floors had to be doubled up in order to support the structural load of the concrete above.  See our previous post on the pouring of these floors.

After ten passes with a diamond grinder and a matte protective finish, the floors are beautiful and have a complex natural look.  Even better, they are seamless, collecting little to no dust.  They are smooth and easy to clean!

On the second floor, we went with solid character maple hardwoods.  We love the natural and bold look of these floors that are a far cry from the more traditional oak flooring that you see in many Denver homes.

We went with porcelain hex tiles in the bathrooms and laundry room which ties in the concrete look from the main floor.  And last, we chose carpet in the basement because it gives a comfortable and homey feeling for our guests when they come to stay with us for the holidays!

This past Thanksgiving week our solar pv system passed a final inspection by the City. Going forward our Xcel Energy bill will start metering the solar power generated and used.   We couldn’t be more excited to start using power off the grid and to start tracking our savings.

We ended up selecting flexible solar panels by Miasole call the FLEX series, specifically model FLEX-02N .  These panels are an ideal solution for our standing seam metal roof since these lightweight modules directly bond to the roof between the metal ridges.  Not only do they offer a clean, sleek aesthetic but the modules will provide more than enough energy with the 16, 125-watts panels.  These lightweight panels reduce the structural load of a typical panel array and they minimize wind resistance with its flat profile.  Our generated energy will be stored in the SMA 3.0 KW inverter which has extra capacity in case we want to add more panels at a later time.

SMA 3.0 KW INVERTER