Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Graywater ready for inspection


As we are slowly approaching the finish line, more and more finishes are being completed. One of them are the cabinets. Michael, our cabinet maker made sure, that the panels of doors and drawer fronts have a continuous grain (on all cabinets). This gives the whole cabinetry a coherent look and puts the emphasis on the beauty of the wood- The grain is only interrupted by the narrow gaps and the door hardware. Last week, Abe poured the new curb and the driveway- the street facade is almost done. On the interior, the graywater tank went in and is ready for inspection- see photo.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

True to the design


The scaffolding and fence have both come down and now we can get a good look at the exterior of the house to compare it to the rendering done 2 years ago (see above). The computer generated model gave us a very good idea of what we are going to get- It is quite fascinating how accurate it really is.

Graywater pipes are going in now



On Friday, Abe started to install the perforated graywater pipes and the supply lines from the building. The pipes have to be made of an approved material and be able to percolate the graywater through a gravel bed into the surrounding soil where it will be available to the plants. The rest goes down to recharge the aquifer. Our landscaping layout was arranged around the graywater system- All plants that need water on a regular basis will have a graywater pipe nearby- the fruit trees get even two. Everywhere else we are using drought tolerant or desert plants.
Parallel to that, the cabinetry is almost completely installed, the holes for the plumbing fixtures are drilled thru the countertops and Abe has started to work on the curb- He wants to pour concrete for that tomorrow.