CopyAnt Blog

06 February 2008

Spades at the ready

Things have moved so slowly that I couldn't bear to write about them so I didn't. But I'm finally getting a feeling that the various threads are coming together. Let me list them out:

Drawings
These are now signed off by the engineer and are about to be presented to us as finished. What was supposed to take 5 weeks ended up taking 6 months..... when I ask around, nobody seems surprised by this timeline blowout. Apparently 6 months is about right for getting your drawings done.

Drainage
Because we have a pretty flat section of land we couldn't use the worm based poo treatment system. We couldn't even go with a standard septic tank system. But the good drain troll of Mangawhai has recommended Enviroflow as being the best option for us. It does need some power but we might look at solar or wind for that part. The drain troll is doing our waste treatment drawings for us too so that's all in hand.

Roofing
To satisfy the council we have to have roofing truss drawing. Carters have a good deal on this. They'll do the drawings for you for $250. If you then buy the roofing from them they will deduct the $250 from the final cost. Seems fair to me so we went with that. Should be done by the end of the week.

Heater
Because we're on less than 5 acres it's a Council requirement that we have to have a fire that has at least a 65% efficiency rating and emits no more than 1g of “particulate” per kg of emissions. With Nat working for Mitre10, we've got them researching that for us. I think it leaves us with only a few that we can use if we also want them to have a stove and wetback but there you go - we'll see what comes out of that process.

Straw Bales
We've ordered these from a chap in Manawatu with the wonderful name of Roly Mars! They'll be arriving in March probably long before we actually need them. But you can only buy straw between January and March - being a natural product it has a seasonality... so we decided to go ahead. The book The Straw Bale House has instructions on making bale pyramids which is the best way to store them. I'll be hiring the local teenage boys to help with that when they arrive.

There's two themes that I'm spotting about this project. I'm delegating more..... and we're nearly ready to start digging those footings.

It all can't come soon enough for me. Spades at the ready.

Labels: drainage systems, Kaipara District Council, straw bale building

06 February 2008

Spades at the ready

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