Horizontal-ity

The sub floor is now temporarily in place.
 
This was so we could mark all the holes to be drilled. 

Olwen took some holidays and came to help. Here she is marking out one of the beams that needed some cutting, and yes all helpers get the funny hat.

 

Revealing the latest boy's toy in action.

Now I'm not saying that Jim is a push over for TV tools, but I do have to veto things at times, however this boy's toy more than lives up to it's PR.

Introducing the 'doolsaw'

Cut through the steel beams no problems at all. Much better than a cutting wheel - no sparks. Nothing in steel is now safe as he is often heard to say 'I wonder how the 'doolsaw' would cut that'

OK beams all cut and in place, will finish the holes for the bolts tomorrow.

 The two back rows stay, but all the others will be removed to allow access for the next stage, the erection of the 6 main frames

  

The Beauty of Verticality

My beautiful rows of holes have been considered worthy and now look like this.

 Next the magic potion was poured . . . 

Arcane motions with strange flat implements were were made to the surface and the potion was left to create the earthly bond.

Bracing removed, bearer brackets in place and waiting the delivery of the steel flooring system, due next week.

In Love with Holes

Well it had to happen, my new love has arrived.
See . . .  this is the first one, isn't it lovely?

And best of all there are lots of brothers and sisters, all neatly arranged in lines.
Tomorrow they will be inspected and hopefully pronounced correct.




 
 

I Love String

Today I love string.

 I love it when it loops around things

 And I love it even more when it goes in a straight line

 And I absolutely love it when it marks out where the stumps of the house will go!

I am however, fickle because my love will not last long as soon there will be a new love.

SIGNED!

Today we signed the contract to supply building materials for our house. All the plan drawings, engineering certificates, submission to council etc etc will probably take about a month.
Then let the drilling for the foundations begin!

The Acid Test

Tuesday was the first trial of the solar power systems capacity - could it run the air conditioner. Well the answer was yes. Was a stinking 38 degrees and it was able to keep the indoor temperature bearable. It used 9% of the battery capacity.
Yesterday I turned on the air con at about 9am. Expected top temperature was 35 degrees. The unit is really too small for the area, plus there is minimal roof insulation and although the glass is shielded from the direct sun, the air temperature is so high that the heat just comes through the glass. Kept the internal temp at a respectable 29 degrees. By the time the system went into resting last night the batteries were back up to 99% charge. You little ripper! System ran the air con and was able to charge the batteries at the same time. It has a 'learning mode' and is able to compensate for changes in power requirements and charging.
So the system should run the air con in the house no worries!

Another Civilisation Advance

This time last year rain was bucketing down. This year it has been HOT HOT HOT. Today it was 35 degrees in OurGunya.

So time for another civilisation advance.

So, how many humpies in the bush do you know of that are air conditioned?

Now we will see what our solar power system is capable of.