// The house is gone. We were tired soldiers working away to put it on trucks, and now we have victory! Although our lives have revolved around it, I am definitely glad to know it is gone and that we can actually get some sleep.

Sadder yet though, Allison and I have literally a month's work of homework to catch up on. But, just as we dedicated ourselves to this project, we can do it here.

I'm still truly in denial that this project is over. If I had accepted, I don't even know if I would be blogging. As it seeps in though, I think about Legacy. I hope we leave one behind that a house can be beautiful, unique, and still green. Also it reminds me of whose legacy we are filling, and that is the Santa Clara 2007 team.

Without their persistence to get the school to do a competition, and their unbelievable Cinderella story, we would have never received this opportunity. In short, thanks to the 2007 team, I hope we didn't disappoint.

// The house is coming down! Panels are off, skin is off, racking is 95% down, and the deck has started being disassembled. Still, its going to be tight to make our deadline of wednesday night. The worst part about the process is that we are still exhausted from initial assembly, since we never really got a chance to recoup with the competition following. So, any help is great!

Separately, Tim and I, as the last of the joistmonkeys, were working down below. Each of us came into contact with puddles or wet spots, but tim had the misfortune of water literally spraying him everywhere. Check this picture for his drying clothes.

// With the competition officially over, now we have to start disassembling these homes so they can leave the mall and get to their next/final location. We have until Wednesday to take the homes off of the mall, but we started right after the final tours were given today.

On a sad note, almost all of our team is sick right now. It is almost as if there was a ploy to get us all sick by infecting us with a virus or something. If that really was the case, they sure messed up the timing (it would have made more sense to do it during the competition, right?)

Onto brighter and damper things though: The Joist Games! What do you get when you have rain, 20 international universities, and the cramped underspaces of homes where the piping is run? Again, yes, the Joist Games! This competition is to get the houses ready for draining tomorrow morning where the water trucks come by to drain the homes. There would be no other reason for how dirty, wet, and cold I got today from the rain puddles under our home (check out the picture, that's me after walking back to hotel).

Team California's JoistMonkeys had a strong showing by getting everything done by midnight including the drainage of the thermal systems. However, between Preet Anand and Tim Sennott, it was apparent that the team was not at full strength. The missing presence of Erica (eager) fieger, and the LoneShark (Jeff Seago) was definitely noted. Other JoistMonkeys like Felipe and Ashley were also out.

Jokes aside, it was pretty cold going below the house to get the tanks ready for drainage. However, it's a step in the right direction to taking this house down and getting some sleep. We could really use help if any local DC alum would like to stop by.

// Today was wet - wet - wet. We had tours for a very long time today and sent about 2000 people through the house. It has been hard with all the rain to send people through the house quickly. I feel so bad telling them to speed up and move through the house when they were just waiting for half an hour to get in. It is very tiring but also extremely rewarding. I love seeing people gawk at our home and learning ways they can improve their own home.
After the tours we had a victory reception held by the DOE. They gave a really nice summary of each team in ascending order. I loved seeing all the teams, not hectically running around, in all their glory. Everyone has done so much work and we are finally able to celebrate.

To recap:
13 days of sunshine
Over 2 inches of rain
750+ Volunteers
2000+ decathletes (including faculty and staff)
over 300,000 visitors on the National Mall
74 homes built in the 5 Solar Villages.
These are just some of the many ingredients that went into the 2009 Decathlon.

Tonight we found out the People's Choice Award as well. Thank you so much for all your support, but Louisiana rightfully received the People's Choice Award. Over 18,000 people voted around the World. That is amazing! So many people have been impacted by the project!

A funny side note that I want to throw in: there was a lady in a red coat (known as the lady in the red coat) that was not on a team, but she would walk around the mall daily and talk to people about the houses as if she were a part of that team.

A wrap up for our successes:
We placed in the top three of 7 of the 10 contests, not including overall scoring.
14th in comfort zone
12th in net metering
6th in lighting
3rd in water and market viability
2nd in engineering, home entertainment and appliances
1st in communications and architecture
and 3rd in the 2009 Solar Decathlon!!!
Thank you so much for all your support, following us, bringing attention to the competition, having hope, voting, putting up with my tired spelling and mistypes, tolerating my explanation points (!!), donations, love and helping us make it through the past 2 years! We had an extremely successful 2009 Decathlon. I could not have hoped for anything better. This was the greatest experience I have been given and I know I will NEVER forget it. This is a magnificent group of students, faculty and staff.

// WOW!! This was a very eventful morning! We were not expecting to place in engineering, and definitely not expecting to place overall! This is so exciting!!!! We hold the place from last time! I cannot put enough exclamation points to represent my happiness! And just to make Preet happy... "SOO MUCH JOY!!! SOO MUCH JOY!!!"

People were crying, smiling, hugging, just about anything that shows the love in our team! After we received our awards we took more than enough pictures to fill five Facebook albums (for those that aren't familiar with Facebook, that is over 1000 photos). Then! The best part: We had a massive, bumpin' dance party in our house!! Illinois came over! And it was a giant celebration! Then Germany came! Then we went to Puerto Rico! And now we just dance! We did it Team California! Our two years paid off! This was such a wonderful experience! Thank you so much to all of our supporters, friends, family and sponsors!!!! THANK YOU! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!