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Elwood was not pleased that they could not take a tax deduction for the use of their home for Agnolia's herb business because Agnolia did not use any portion of the house exclusively for the business. When he thought about how often Agnolia cleaned off the kitchen counters and put away her herb supplies so they could make sandwiches or the twins could color big posters, Elwood realized a separate place for Agnolia's herb business would not only allow them to take a deduction, it would make doing business easier for Agnolia.
Agnolia was delighted with the idea of adding an addition with room for her herb business, and suggested they make the addition energy efficient and possibly include some passive solar features. Agnolia reminded Elwood that one of The Coffee House customers said their passive solar house had stayed warm during the January ice storm in spite of the fact they were without power for 8 days.
Hoping to find some books on energy efficient building Elwood stopped at the bookstore. The clerk at the bookstore told Elwood Chelsea Green Publishing Co. published several books on energy efficient building and innovative structures and suggested Elwood look at The Passive Solar House, The Independent Home and Eco-Renovation.
After spending some time looking at all three books Elwood decided to purchase The Passive Solar House in part because he was impressed with the information contained in the appendices. Even if they never built a passive solar addition the next time someone tried to tell him Oregon was just like New Hampshire he could tell them that the February "Mean Percentage of Possible Sunshine" in Concord, New Hampshire was 53% while in Portland, Oregon it was only 34%. Elwood knew Agnolia, who liked lots of windows, would like "Solar Principle #5 - Utilize windows as solar collectors." Since Elwood liked "Solar Principle #9 - Use the materials you would use for a conventional home" because if they didn't have to use unusual and exotic materials, building the addition would be easier and less expensive.
Elwood left the bookstore eager to start planning the addition with the help of The Passive Solar House, and confident they could build a energy efficient addition.
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