Although H continued to do well with her yoga, we needed 2 incomes. And, a couple of months later, as has happened twice before, I was hired by my friend Mogens; this time in his latest venture in sustainable interior construction...DIRTT (Doing It Right This Time). For the rest of that winter, while I was learning about the ICE software that I would be selling, home improvements were back in motion.
5/07/07 Once around the loop
Darrel finished the great new loop that allows us to maneuver the Airstream in an easy circle. He is an artist with any excavation equipment and we will continue to seek his advice and pay for his excellent work.
7/07/07
Phase two of rain harvesting...
Phase one is the roof, and our main roof is just over 1250 square feet, which will yield about 600 gallons of freshly squeezed cloud juice per inch of rain.
Our 7500 gallon tank arrives and the new 20x20 pad of road base and sand is ready.
Also the pole barn was designed needlessly tall...15' on the high west side and 13' to the east . The Airstream only needs 9' of clearance at center so I could have had a much more protective roof if I had built lower...say 12' down to 10'. My solution... another roof sloped down towards the west to block the worst of the setting sun. This actually made sense since we also wanted more deck space. I designed a 40 x 12' deck along the western side with an opposing angle shed roof from 9' high at the west to 12' high where it meets the taller overlapping main roof. I thought that the separation between the offset roofs would look better and add some ventilation. I liked the original steel so much that I got a quote from Ed for his team to build the addition.
The change in finances forced me to have Ed requote for the deck extension without the steel substructure for the trex, which we would now make with treated lumber. It was Marc's idea and the savings were significant but then again so was the manual labor. I did have the steel guys do the stairs and landing and the lateral braces back to the main roof beams.
Can you believe that Marc and I worked through the hottest part of the year doing this deck? I couldn't have, nor would have, done this without him. We would have done it sooner but Marc and Megan got married June 1 and that celebration deserved our full attention.
Although the gutter on the new roof is below the input pipe on the tank and therefore too low to augment the rain harvesting, we will collect it for irrigation and fire suppression.
Notice the railing...treated 2x4's spanning the structural posts...not pretty but it keeps the drunks on board. Marc hates it. Helen hates it. So I promised to change it right away...
I want to rush ahead and do it all but, as Helen says...