Been busy!!

....It has been a busy time since my last post. I have installed the water collection system and am now enjoying 95 gallons of fresh water for every inch of rain that lands on my little roof. The system is very simple consisting of a gutter system that feeds into a first flush diverter....basically a "T" of PVC with a tube beneath it. The tube is capped at the bottom with a clean out and inside there is a rubber ball. When the rain starts the water is funneled into the diverter and the first 2.5 gallons fills up the vertical tube. Inside the rubber ball rises until it hits the top and closes off the vertical tube allowing the remaining rainwater to continue on to my cistern. The "roof washer" cost about 50$ to build and so far has worked great. I am still not getting potable water due to my roof materiel but I am getting enough for washing and watering the garden....

.....which went in this week. I have doubled the size of my beds, creating three 4x4 beds out of 2 recycled banquettes from a bar in town. I chopped the backs off of them and placed them next to each other with a 4' gap in between. I then tied them together with some scrap lumber and stapled landscape fabric to the bottoms. Inside I have a layer of cardboard and a layer of straw. The beds are filled with rich soil that I bought from the local yard (96$ for 1.5 cubic yards...ouch). It is a nice blend, dark and rich and I have high hopes for the crop this year.

   I have been picking away at the inside of the house too. The kitchen has been re-done. I added some nice shelves (the back of a banquette...waste not!) and I re-did the shower enclosure which looks much better but is much more of a pain in the butt. Going back to the drawing board on that one. I have added some trim around the sliding door and will finish trimming out soon.

...The ceiling is still not in. That's all I want to say about that. It's a mix of lazyness and the extreme PITA factor. it will get done soon. I hope.