Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Zen and the Art of … Home Design, Improvement and Maintenance (or not): The weekend of Oct. 6-7 rolled around with a marginally favorable weather report, so I vowed to take a much-needed chunk out of the ever-looming and everlasting reroof job on Saturday. But curses, the first Middle Peninsula Solar Home Tour debuted on the only non-rain day. Emotion triumphed over reason, and I compromised that I would make a marathon quick trip to a select couple of tour sites within reasonable distance only long enough to allow the dew to evaporate from my roof job.

I took my planned self-guided tour to four destinations, and (well…) arrived back home an hour before sunset, having just missed the most recent un-forecast T-storm that sufficiently dampened my spirits to resurrect the project before dark. No problem—I had so many new, better ideas from the four tour stops that I wanted to rethink all aspects and beyond anyway. But I digress…

Many thanks to all the generous solar homeowners, families, friends, consultants, organizers, sponsors and interns who hosted me and others to the first Middle Peninsula ASES Solar Home Tour. It was a beautiful fall day just to be traversing the outback of the Middle Peninsula, let alone also having destinations to view and discuss some of the most impressive innovations of home design, improvement and maintenance of the past 30 years with owners, designers and builders.

It was all extremely beneficial and inspiring to me as I upgrade a middle-aged passive solar home that has already served me and family well over the past quarter century (almost). I’m still trying to get up to Monticello to experience the 200-year-old state-of-the-art innovations of Thomas Jefferson first-hand as I plan and execute my home improvements. But that’s a five-hour round trip away from my eternal reroof project and beyond.

In the meantime, there are plenty of relevant state-of-the-art expressions of resourcefulness right here in our own backyard. I hope there will be future tours to inspire me and other DIY’ers as well. I would like to revisit the same destinations again and the others I didn’t make it to, as well.

Ned Burger

Ware Neck, Va.