No peace for the wicked
With a general notion of wanting to be off grid as much as possible, good progress has been made. The extremes in hot and cold makes maintaining the house and garden challenging. Plastics go brittle very quickly in the hot sun, paints deteriorate at a faster rate, a stitch in time saves nine is never more true here!
Anyways, here's some projects, either on the go, or completed.
Bike Shed / Wood Store for this Year!
Put some steel metal roofing overtop of the existing shed roof.
Finally finished the north end shed extension, will house the 10 cubic metres of oak logs this year, will start on the south end extension, which will be designed as a proper wood store.
Solar System (2024)
Solar Panel Frames welded and concreted into the ground. Have 16 solar panels, generating sfa, as stored in the front room! Have an inverter and 2 lithium batteries, just need some switches, fuses breakers et al.
Have designed the circuit, going to get it checked over and crack on building a panel in the shed while it's too cold to finish the wood store.
First of the 4 Solar Panel Frames
Took advantage of a dry November to weld the frames.
Decided to have all 4 banks of 4 panels facing due south at 35 degrees. Should be self sufficient in all but winter, but can charge the batteries overnight from the grid using off-peak tariff.
Will the real wood store please stand up, please stand up
Posts are concreted in. Just waiting for the weather to warm up before extending the shed base. Got 2 roof sheets matching the shed roof, then will panel the sides, inside and out to hopefully keep the wood dry, but well aired.
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Wood you believe it?
Having plagiarised designs for a chicken coop, greenhouse planters and much more, we purchased a small forest, had it chopped and cut and is now wrapped up for the winter out the back. Oh, and there's about 15 sheets of OSB in the shed.
How it started.......
Rather than fix the stairs, the previous owners had made various attempts to stop the water getting in to the pantry. Obviously when water has gotten this far it's too late, so a lot of lifted plaster and eroded mortar.
...... 4 days later
Petya's Christmas Present! (though she can't reach the top two shelves, so they're mine).
The new shelves are the only things straight or parallel.
Seed Tray Stations
16th Jan 2024, have now completed 3 simple A frames for holding the seed trays.
They're a bit "chunky" but should survive a direct asteroid hit.
The south end
The third A Frame is at the other end.
Current plan is to have some early cropping tomatoes and cucumbers in the middle. But plans change on a daily basis - all about maximum utilisation of the space, whilst being able to access everything. Complete novice with greenhouses, so all experimental.
Bike Shed
Frame up and base laid with concrete, to match slope of shed base. Roof panels cut, need some propane to adhere the bitumen roof sheeting, Afix roof and panel two sides.
Stairway to Heaven 2023
The stairs face due south and are sun baked all summer. Whilst previous repairs were obviously failing, they all came home to roost when we had a heavy storm move in from the south, water cascading into the pantry below. A refurbishment before winter sets in required.
Bottom Step
The bottom step had parted company from the remaining stairs and the top plaster coating was no longer adhered to the concrete base material.
Removed most of the loose plaster back to the concrete, used various lotions and potions to fill the void and make it all waterproof.
Awaiting a few dry and warm days to sanddown the new plaster and apply a sealant and a new grey topcoat to all the steps. The finished work will appear on the right in due course.
Here's the halfway landing
This had the worst of the cracked "plaster", most was loose so took all back to the concrete base. Now, mostly flat and sealed ready for the final coat. It is December so unlikely to be finished this year!
And, finally (2024)
With Petya and Bobi away in Sofia, for Bobi's GCSEs, I had a 3 week window to complete the stairs. Sleeping in the downstairs bedroom meant no traffic!
First two weeks were April shower weather, but finally, done. (Well I might get to do a second coat before Wednesday when they're back).
Yes, ok
Banisters need a good filling and repainting, and then the walls of the house, but the stairs project is pretty much done. Let's see how the paint stands up to 40 degree sunshine over summer
Pretty pleased
It's easy to get carried away and try to make everything perfect, I just had to keep telling myself, they're just sodding stairs!