Cistern

Our current project is building a 7200 gallon water tank. We have had 12" of rain so far this year (3.5 last night!!), which would have filled the tank had it been ready at the beginning of rain season. Still, we have more than enough rain left to fill it.

It is 8 feet tall, 12+ feet diameter and about 40 feet circumference.

• We had to dig it down about a foot and a half extra from where we had previously had the hole, so that the intake for the tank would be a bit lower than the downspout for the gutter. This extra foot and a half was in almost solid rock, which makes for a super stable base!
• We added a few inches of sand over the whole area.
• We marked the center of the hole with a rebar, where diagonals from each corner meet.
  
• We laid bricks in a level circle for the metal of the tank to sit on. We attached a string to the center rebar and marked a circle which would show where to lay the bricks.
• Using a jig we'd made, we drilled holes every 6 inches on both sides of the sheets of metal. There are 10 sheets of metal, each 8' x 4'.
• We bolted the sheets of metal together into a circle that sits on the center of the bricks.
• We welded and attached a frame for the roof.
• Painted everything with primer and Rustoleum.
  
• Filled dirt in around the cistern on the outside. This must be done evenly all the way around, so as not to shift the circle of metal.
  
• Attached metal to roof. The edges of this we bent inside the walls and screwed it into the walls. This allows water to run off the roof into the tank.

And that's as far as we've gotten so far. Next week we should be able to attach the pond liner to the inside of the metal and then do the pipes from roof and to house.

For photos of it all, see here.

Windows and Doors

We now have all the doors and windows hung.

We have a metal screen door, then two metal doors (going into the entranceway, and from the entranceway into the kitchen). The doors in between the other rooms so far will have curtains, so only curtain rails were needed at this stage.

The windows in the entranceway and kitchen all have screens, while the double-glazed polycarbonate windows, which take up most of the south wall of the living and dining rooms, do not open.

The day we hung the screen door and moved the mosquito netting from the door of the room we currently live in to the doorway going up into what will be the kids' rooms was a great day – the whole space is now fly and mosquito free!!!!!

Basically, everything is sealed off and weatherproof, with the exception of the doorway going up to the kids' rooms. It is still open (with a mosquito netting over it) and so lets in the rain. But this will get taken care of over the next couple of weeks, when we build the roof of the kids' rooms, thereby covering the doorway, if not closing it off.

More Photos