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.

Posts getting done

Our progress on the kids' rooms has moved in three directions.

Firstly, we made a dry-stacked retaining wall north and uphill from the building site. At its base we dug a drainage ditch, in which we placed a 4 inch drainage pipe. We then filled the ditch in with rocks; gravel will be put on top of the rocks next week. More Photos

Secondly, we have begun to put an 8 inch layer of sand over the whole area. This will be compacted to 6 inches right before we pour the foundations for the walls. We will then fill in the rooms with more sand, up to the top of the foundations. Most of the rooms are covered, other than close to the northern posts, as we have been working on those, and sand would have gotten in the way.

Thirdly, we begun pouring the posts that will support the roof, which we are building before the walls. We have poured 3 of the 4 northern posts, and halfway up on 3 of the 4 southern posts – these must be done in two stages. We did these posts using black plastic stapled to wooden posts. They come out round, and one of them in particular came out super funky, as we didn't put enough staples in and the plastic started to separate from the boards. Oh well, funky kinda fits here! More photos

Kids' Rooms

This is the project we are currently working on. There will be two bedrooms, with a 7 foot wide staircase/bookshelf going from the dining room up into them. The walls will be built with Compressed Earth Bricks, as will the floors.

The roof , which we are going to build first, set on concrete posts, will be made of latex concrete – a very fast, light, strong, easy method of building roofs, and our first time of using this system.

So far we have been prepping the site. We put a drainage pipe at the base of the current wall, just in case water should ever get under the rooms. We then put black plastic against the wall and filled in with gravel. The rest of the area has been filled in and leveled with dirt.

We built concrete retaining walls around what will be the stairs, and on the ends. And we are digging a drainage ditch to the north and uphill of the site, so that water should never get under the building.

So far, we have poured the bases of the northern posts and this week, we will be working on finishing the posts and starting to pour the stairs.

We will keep you posted on how this all goes.

More Photos