My biggest project...

[alchemysa]

This is what I bought my Kubota for 18 months ago. The site is 100 yards from the beach but about $500 from the nearest hire tractor. So I decided to buy my own tractor and sell it when the job was finished. Trouble is I like it so much (the tractor) that I want to keep it forever. (I paid about $12,000 for the B1550 and had three offers to buy it before I even got it off the trailer!) What a gem its been. First job was to clear an old tin shack off the site and rip up the old concrete stab. In my 'yoof' I would have been silly enough to tackle that with a sledgehammer but I decided to do things the easy way instead of the cheap way. The Kubota, with a 4-in-1 bucket, forks, and a backhoe has done everything asked of it, and its fun too! The only thing I have had to hire a professional driver and tractor for was to dig out and level the base for the new foundation. I dont see many pics of US houses using corrugated iron so I thought you might like to see these. (The brown stuff is outdoor ply with stain in it. I dont know how thats going to stand up to the elements but I'll soon find out). Now the dreary work starts... painting inside... groan!

 

[JerryG]

Wow, I like. In a few years, when we build our last house I would like to have something different. Seeing yours gives me more ideas. I hadn't really thought about one like that. As you go along, show the inside and other details.

 

[Luremaker]

Great looking house mate!! I noticed water pooling on the drive. I thought you guys were in a serious drought?

 

[BTDT]

Good job. I like it. I like it even more when it's not the norm.

 

[EdC]

Alchemysa

Great looking house! Keep the tractor; being that close to the water there is always "storm cleanup" for an excuse.

 

[alchemysa]

Great looking house mate!! I noticed water pooling on the drive. I thought you guys were in a serious drought?

We are, but we did have a bit of rain overnight. (We are nearly a month into winter). Fortunately where this house is, near the sea, it does get just a little more drizzle than most places and the evaporation rate is lower so it doesn't get as parched as places just few a hundred ks away. I'm also lucky to have an excellent ground water supply here. I've got a bore, and the water table is only about 5' below ground. But the house itself will entirely run on rainwater when its finished, using one or two 5000 gallon tanks.

 

[alchemysa]

Good job. I like it. I like it even more when it's not the norm.

When people say that, I say we wanted ''a post-modern design that challenged people's pre-conceptions.''. OK, thats just architect BS. Its just plain weird.

Officially I was the owner/builder but in reality I was just the labourer. I had two excellent tradesman on the job almost fulltime for the last 6 months. Between them they had every trade covered except electrical (and one of the guy's sons did that). I also employed a neighbour just 2 doors away who did a lot more labouring than I did because I couldnt be there anywhere near as often as I'd hoped. Heres a BIG tip. If you are planning a job like this employ your own laborer who can be on the job almost full time. Tradesmen get a heck of a lot more done if theyve got someone to do the runnin' around and all the tedious stuff. They'll also be happier. Dont rely on the tradesman to find their own labourers because so often they wont be available when theyre needed. I was very lucky to have a handy and willing neighbour. I paid him of course but it was a lot less per hour than the tradesmans rates.

Incidently, heres the shack we pulled down. It was cute but not something we wanted to retire into. (Had some good times in it though!) It must have had a million nails holding it together which of course went everywhere during the demolition. But amazingly we havent had a single puncture ...yet.

 

[sandman2234]

So did you paint that old tractor in the background behind the old shed orange or is it still sitting out back patiencely waiting it's turn under the roof while your out playing on the new tractor?
David from jax

 

[alchemysa]

So did you paint that old tractor in the background behind the old shed orange or is it still sitting out back patiencely waiting it's turn under the roof while your out playing on the new tractor?
David from jax

That was a 1920's Ford that I 'inherited' with the shack. It had been used for years to launch boats off the beach but by the time I got it it was totally shot. It was way beyond restoring. I didn't know what i was going to do with it but it just 'disappeared' one day. A scap metal dealer was in the area and a neighbour said i wanted to get rid of it so he took it! I was kinda surprised to see it gone but I was glad. Apparently it took him about 4 hours to drag it out and get it onto a trailer.

 

[Renze]

hmm... so he just took it ? even it being just scrap, estimated the tractor weighs 1500 kg, he stole 225 euro off you, at the current scrap rate of 15 eurocent per kilo...

Anyways, you'd still have to get rid of the tires, and haul it before you can make some money of it at the melting ovens.

 

[Egon]

How about some details on the rain water supply set up.

Can't see why you had to replace a perfectly good building with a new one??? Just an excuse for a tractor??

 

[alchemysa]

How about some details on the rain water supply set up.

Can't see why you had to replace a perfectly good building with a new one??? Just an excuse for a tractor??

Actually its quite pathetic the excuses I find to use the tractor. Need a twig carried somewhere?

The rainwater set-up is pretty straight forward. All the roof run-off will go into PVC pipes that run underground to the tank that will be about 15 metres behind the house. As long as the highest part of the tank is lower than my lowest gutter, gravity will push the water through the pipes then up to the outlet at the top of the tank. Of course, having underground rainwater pipes means that they all have to be joined properly or the water will be just seep into the ground. But I won't have ugly overhead pipes running to the tank. An on-demand electric pump will then pump water back into the house when needed. The drought here has created a huge demand for tanks. I've been waiting 3 months for mine. I should have it in a couple of weeks. Its a 5000 gallon plastic 'poly' tank with corrugated sides that sorta resemble the old corrugated iron tanks. Do you have them over your way.

 

[dullpain]

Very nice , different design. Appealing to the eye. Curious why you used the brown plywood instead of all metal??

 

[R_Walter]

Got a picture of the beach from the house? [You've left off the most important part! The view.

 

[ratter]

Beautiful house! And, I never thought I'd see another B1550 other than the one that came with my house (and that I'vesince sold...for MUCH less than $12000!)

 

[alchemysa]

Got a picture of the beach from the house? [You've left off the most important part! The view.

The house is on a point so we have beach on two sides (behind us, and to the left of us) The water is only 100 yards away, we can hear it and smell it but we cant see it from the house. Those vegetation covered dunes are higher than they look. We went up a storey so we would be looking across the top of an expanse of coastal vegetation rather than looking straight into a wall of scrub. Its magnificent when the sun hits it in the morning. Its a pity we can't see the beach but on the other hand it makes the beach very private and unspoiled because no-one is looking down on you while you are wandering, swimming or whatever. It makes you feel like you're a long way from anywhere. (Not to mention that a site with a water view would have been way out of our price range!) The beach was a bit dirty with seaweed when I took these. During summer it clears up pretty well. Theres only about 30 shacks around here. Most are usually empty. No shops at all. You can drive south along the beach for 15ks, or north for 30 ks to get to the nearest shops. The last pic shows the main attraction of the area.

And is there anything happier than a dog on a beach?

 

[alchemysa]

Very nice , different design. Appealing to the eye. Curious why you used the brown plywood instead of all metal??

A number of reasons. I like wood and I thought some ply sheets would give it a bit of a 'beachy' look. The colour is lighter and the timber grain is a more obvious than those shots suggest. And I didnt want to overdo the metal. I've seen some houses that I thought used too much tin and started to resemble big cold sheds. Sometimes 'less is more" as they say. But I do like the tin a lot. Maybe if this ply doesnt stand up to the elements it might be an all metal house in a few years time. It'll be relatively quick and easy to clad the ply with iron if i have to.

 

[BTDT]

That's a fair sized crawdad you have there. Do you set out traps, how do you catch them?

 

[alchemysa]

Beautiful house! And, I never thought I'd see another B1550 other than the one that came with my house (and that I'vesince sold...for MUCH less than $12000!)

$12000 Australian is about $9000 US. Small tractors are not common over here. And ones with a backhoe and a 4in1 bucket are even rarer. This may be the only one in the state. And I got a rear mower with it too that I'll be using in the future on another block. Second hand Bobcats are pretty common but are MUCH more expensive. I could have got an old full size Case or MF tracter with a backhoe for around the same money but that would have been too big for comfort and I'd have had to pay plenty to get it here on a low-loader. I was able to tow this Kubota down on a car trailer. You were lucky. The old Fordson is what came with my house!

 

[alchemysa]

That's a fair sized crawdad you have there. Do you set out traps, how do you catch them?

We call them crayfish. They are like your lobsters but they don't have claws. Amatuers like me are allowed to have to 2 'pots' during the open season. Pots are about 3-4 feet diameter and 18 inches high with a hole in the top. We just bait them up and drop them over the side of the boat, then come back next day. The water can get pretty rough around here so I usually stay within a mile of the shore. The bag limit is 4 crays per person, up to a max of 8 crays per boat. But I've only ever caught 3 in a day. Minimum size is about 11cm along the top of the main shell. This was a particularly big one.