Plumbing and electrical wiring

Progress so far on the plumbing, wiring and insulation.

We have installed two hot water cylinders. The primary one is open vented and and will be heated by both the Solar panels and the Stanley wood burner cooker's 14kw boiler. This cylinder also supplies the under floor heating and bathroom radiators. The second cylinder is medium pressure domestic supply heated via a coil from the first.

Big digger

My little tractor wasn't up to the job, so
we hired our neighbour "Ray" who has a 25 ton digger to carry and lift a concrete water header tank onto a terraced bank beyond the house site. The tank will give us 11 meters of head; a good household water pressure with no pumping to the house required. In the short term, the tank will be supplied from our existing river sourced filtration and treatment system. Long term I intend to look into using a hydro powered pump system.

While the digger was on site, Ray made very short work of finishing the ground contouring work around the house.

Bath and Solar Panels

How do you install a 200kg cast iron clawfoot bath on the second floor? Answer: Remove window and crane in... easy ;-)

Like wise, the bee truck crane can in handy installing the solar panels on the roof. We went for 3 Marvel panels which I am assured will provide pently of free hot water.

Waste and storm water

In early July a period of settled weather made the ground work possible for the Septic and Storm water drainage to be completed. We decided on a conventional septic tank system over the biolytix type system due to cost and complexity. Plumbing and drain laying was the first contracted work for the project. That didn't stop me from pitching in though. All went to plan, which was pleasing, as the drains where covered in the day before more heavy rain.

The building hiatus is over...

Well its been a long while. I took a break from house building in Feb 2009 and set about to establish a beekeeping business. Well BEEWORX Ltd operations are well established and its time to get on with construction during the winter.

The last month has seen covers removed and the house made fully weather tight. With that, the wet weather arrived as if on que. Work begins on the interior.

Windows and cladding

Window reveals are machined from milled Lawson Cyprus timber and fitted to the doubled glazed joinery supplied by NZ Windows. 

The gable ends are bevel-back weatherboard, also from Lawson Cyprus and finished with Sikkins Cetol HLS and Filter 7.

Roof party

Christmas day arrived with the transformation of the inside into a party venue for 26 friends and family. Timber slabs and spare Timbercrete blocks where the basis for the table which was set in fine splendor. Much food and merriment was had and the roof was officially wetted :-)