A quick update on the electricity saga- things were moving so slowly that we actually re-considered making a push to go off grid. The more we researched, though, the less appealing it became. There is something so simple and attractive about the idea of building a self sufficient little oasis but the reality is that off grid systems are still very expensive, require regular maintenance, frequent (expensive) battery replacement, elaborate (expensive) back up generators and, in our case, would prompt many changes to our house design (adding gas lines in the slab, a propane tank, different appliances, new concerns about venting).

But things just turned around- the neighbor finally got back to us about getting an easement to connect to his power pole. His engineer checked it out and he gave us the go ahead. This makes hooking into PG&E so much easier and cheaper. We've been in wait mode for over a month on this even though it's one of our most urgent issues and now we can finally move forward. It's a huge relief.