My biggest project...

[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.