As 2010 comes to a close, a blog update seems to be due.  Right after our last blog update on 21 July, we had some good rain showers; and the rain water collection tank (1250 gallons) was filled back up very quickly.  Even though there was not that much total rain (0.33" as measured at the Oracle Fire Dept), our large roof allows a lot of water runoff to be collected.  On 23 July, nearly an inch of rain fell in about 30 minutes.  On 25 July, Mike noticed that a deer was visible in our live webcam at 11 AM.  She was down by the observatory.  Then a little before 2 PM, she was up by the house (as seen above and below):

29 July, we met with Gerald Tuggle, our site manager and building consultant.  We went over the status of items on our “punch list”.  On 2 August, the roofer came to check out a possible leak in an eave.  Nothing was found wrong.  But he added some extra caulking on some shingles as a preventative measure.  On 6 August, a monsoon thunderstorm passed to the east of Oracle about sunset.  Mike took a movie of some lightning with his iPhone.  Click this page to see a couple of stills and a short movie (as well as a time-lapse movie from our webcam).  A sunset storm on 22 August provided this rainbow:

In July and August we had these visitors:

31 August.  Laurraine noticed some water damage beneath one of the windows in her room:

This is well away from where the skylight had leaked and was a recent occurrence as the area was still damp.  Also, there was some moisture between the glass panes in this window:

The window subcontractor had the window replaced on 27 September.  But we are still waiting to learn what has caused the wall damage.

7 October.  The water damage from the skylight in Laurraine’s room that leaked was repaired.  Still need paint touchups.

Also, the ladder in the TV room was finally installed:

On 12 October, the ladder for the Library was supposed to be installed.  The installer came but we discovered that the ladder company didn't design the rails according to what was requested.  Our contractor is working a redesign with them and we continue to wait for them to be installed.

In September and October, we had these visitors:

Yes, that is a stick bug, about 3” long.  And there was this small (2”) tarantula:

We'd been having problems with the dimmable ceiling lights in the TV room and Mike's room.  The dimmable CFLs would fail after a few months, instead of lasting for years.  We finally gave up on them and switched to dimmable LEDs as a test in two of the fixtures.  LED floodlights are way more expensive than CFLs but they are supposed to last even longer than CFLs.  However, on 25 October, after 4 months of use, both LED lights began flashing whenever the wall dimmer switch was set at less than full brightness.  Mike talked with the electrician and he special ordered some new dimmer switches that are specially designed for dimmable CFLs and LEDs.  (Who knew?)  On 18 November, the dimmers were replaced in the TV room.  The dimmer in Mike's room could not be replaced as the new dimmer design doesn't work on a three-way circuit.  Bummer.  The LED bulbs still flickered with the new dimmer switch, and the dealer agreed to replace them.  So far the new LEDs do not flicker.  We’ll see if the new dimmer switches in the TV room resolve the pre-mature failures.

16 November.  One of our two wall-mounted GE microwave ovens failed.  So that is two of our seven GE kitchen appliances that have failed in a little over one year.  (Hmm, is a pattern developing?)  Mike posted our appliance failure rates on Twitter; he was contacted by GE shortly afterwards, and the microwave over was repaired at no charge.  We originally had not purchased extended warranty contracts, as the cost for all seven appliances on individual contracts was excessive.  However, after this latest repair, we got an offer from GE for an extended warranty contract that covered all the appliances at a much more reasonable cost.  We purchased it.

25 November.  The HVAC unit that heats the east side of the house (including the master bedroom) failed sometime during the early morning hours.  Unfortunately, this happened on Thanksgiving AND the temperature was forecast to get below freezing overnight Thursday night, Friday morning.  Fun!  The tech came on Friday, 26 November.  Problem was a blown fuse on the main circuit board.  We now have extra fuses for this board.

7 December.  We had a new visitor this morning:

And some regular visitors came by in November and December:

The bobcat was looking for breakfast but missed easy pickings.  This road runner that came by a few minutes after the bobcat had a bum leg:

And so ends 2010.  Some items on the house punch list remain open.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that they will be resolved before we reach our 2nd anniversary here in June 2011.