Thread: Roobarb's patch

Sorry, it's been taking a bit long to update this particular batch of photos.

So, heading outside, a few pics of the outside of the house.

Standing by the kitchen looking up at the back bedroom:



Picture of the side of the kitchen:



The builder is about to start building a sort of lean-to shed thing for the water tank and the pump. We'll also put the gas bottle in there too.

The plumbing is all getting redone, it was cobbled together by FIL the day before I arrived so that we had some running water in the house.

A couple more photos of this side of the house:



... and a similar view standing at the edge of the paddy field beside the kitchen:

Your water tank pump thing looks just like mine mate well done. But yours is better he has even installed a ladder so you can watch it fill up easier. I unfortunately have to stand on 2 concrete blocks, mind you I did it myself !!

Moving a bit further around to the front...

It was decided that the water tank needed to be off the ground and that the water pump should go beneath it. I'm not sure how or why this decision was reached, but it meant that a frame needed to be made to support the water tank.

A whole load of steel then turned up:



... and by the afternoon we had this oddly insect-like frame:



Now that the washing machine was installed, it was realised that we didn't have anything approaching a drying line. The leftover pile of wood with some strategically placed bamboo seemed to work out pretty well (or so I was told...).

Originally Posted by bankao dreamer

Your water tank pump thing looks just like mine mate well done. But yours is better he has even installed a ladder so you can watch it fill up easier. I unfortunately have to stand on 2 concrete blocks, mind you I did it myself !!

Great minds eh BD (or is it that fools seldom differ... )

They filled the thing with 2,000 litres of water, then had to empty it all out again to put it on its frame thing they had just made.

I don't know why you would place the pump at a lower level than the tank....does not seem to make much sense......but raising the tank on a platform would provide some gravity flow to the house if the pump goes tits up.....which I think makes a little bit of sense....Yes?? No?? am I talking bollocks??

Standing by the woodpile (continuity experts will note that this photo is a little out of sync with the previous one as Mrs Roobarb's bloomers are nowhere to be seen).



Seems we have gained a chicken as well, or at least someone has as the cage is now empty.

Probably been eaten. Easy come, easy go:



These wooden bamboo sticks are going to be where we build a wall to separate the trees from the house.

Actually it reminds me, someone seems to be tapping these trees now. God knows who it is. I'll have to remember to ask my missus what the deal is here.

Actually, one of the odd things I found on this trip was that village folks just sort of wander in. One old crone strolled right by the house and, as she seemed quite friendly, I asked her what she was doing.

"Oh, I've just come to collect some snails from the paddy field" she said.

The paddy field?

THE paddy field??

It's MY paddy field that you are stealing MY snails from...

Oh to hell with it, what's the point in getting upset? Let her have her snails...

"Righty-ho, help yourself".

At some point we'll fill the thing in and build a bloody great wall, but for the time being we may as well keep the villagers (pillagers) on side.

I plumbed in a by-pass I open a valve and close another one and hey presto a dribble of slime

Snails your snails surely you could chop off a hand !!

Originally Posted by koman

I don't know why you would place the pump at a lower level than the tank....does not seem to make much sense......but raising the tank on a platform would provide some gravity flow to the house if the pump goes tits up.....which I think makes a little bit of sense....Yes?? No?? am I talking bollocks??

Well you might be talking bollocks but oddly enough that might well align your thinking with whoever decided to stick the water tank up on a stand.

I did want to keep the shed for the water tank as narrow as we could so it didn't block the view too much from the kitchen window (not that I'll be doing any washing up with the sink that low, but it's the principle of the thing) so in fairness it may be a space-saving design.

I've stopped trying to listen to the logic behind decisions that are being made on this house, but my suspicion was that the real reason behind it was that they had reckoned the pump wouldn't have to work so hard at sucking in water if it was gravity fed, which is both a good Issan way of looking at things as well as being a load bollocks.

So yes, I think you're right, but also quite possibly wrong

Originally Posted by bankao dreamer

I plumbed in a by-pass I open a valve and close another one and hey presto a dribble of slime

I've not seen how this has turned out at mine yet. I wouldn't be surprised if I find the same thing

Originally Posted by bankao dreamer

Snails your snails surely you could chop off a hand !!

Thankfully she didn't try this at Betty's place eh?

Here in India snails are fair game unless you nail 'em down. Personally I don't bother but of course I'm not French.

Originally Posted by Roobarb

I'm not French.

Thank God for that

Originally Posted by bankao dreamer

I think it depends on what type of pump you use. There is a thread on here all about pumps. Mine is a Mitsubishi constant pressure pump and the schematics for it show you don't have to raise the tank it can sit next to it.

You've got a yellow one

They're rubbish apparently, Marmite said so...

Originally Posted by bankao dreamer

Many many moons ago I used to be a plumber so I went for this type of pump because of the ease in installation.

Oooops, you may know what you're talking about then...

OK, continuing the stroll around...

I think I've already posted this one earlier, but here is is again:



... Looking at the outside of the large window at the end of the house.



Because this window faces north-west I'm not sure that it will ever get any direct sunlight. I'll have to wait until the summer to find out though. It certainly doesn't in the winter months anyway.

Originally Posted by Roobarb

You've got a yellow one

They're rubbish apparently, Marmite said so...

OOh shite is mine yellow ( I am slightly colour blind ) If I paint it to Marmites specified colour will it be ok I wonder

And then a few pics from the back.

I still think of this as being the front of the house but I did say earlier on that I would refer to this as being the back of the house for the thread as it's the side opposite the side with the front door:



The back of the house faces south west so gets a lot of sun, but other than the back bedroom, most of the other walls are shaded which should keep the place a bit cooler than it could have been.

I have to admit that this was more through accident than design...

Originally Posted by Roobarb

Because this window faces north-west I'm not sure that it will ever get any direct sunlight. I'll have to wait until the summer to find out though. It certainly doesn't in the winter months anyway

Who cares ? it looks blooming lovely, hats off to your wood bloke. In fact looking at the latest pics of stairs and such like send him my way I have a plan, a very cunning plan my lord regarding my Sala. Its more secret than Komans Franky,

Originally Posted by bankao dreamer

OOh shite is mine yellow ( I am slightly colour blind ) If I paint it to Marmites specified colour will it be ok I wonder

I was going to paint my white one yellow as I thought they looked a bit more racy.

Then a discussion started on Betty's thread about the relative merits of white ones and yellow ones. I soon realised that if I did paint it then there would be a good chance that it would start to leak.

To be on the safe side I've kept mine white and built a little house to hide it in instead.

^
Im not taking any chances Im painting it then hiding it, in fact Im going to brick it in like forgotten Prince's.

There was a bit of concern earlier that the house would look monstrously out of place and was all a bit too big for its environment, so here's a few photos from a bit further away which may put the place in context:



We'll fill in this paddy field sometime this year so the house doesn't seem to perch quite so precariously on the edge (and to stop the snail woman from nicking me snails).



Thinking about it though, I might only fill some of the paddy field and then stick a sort of mini 'Aircut-like' pond somewhere between the house and where the photo is taken from (you've got to love the Teakdoor pages for ideas).

I like the reflection of the house and sky in the water, and besides which it will save me on buying lots of extra truckloads of soil.

Originally Posted by bankao dreamer

Im not taking any chances Im painting it then hiding it, in fact Im going to brick it in like forgotten Prince's.

Good god, you really were a plumber then

Dragging out a few more photos....

If you're bored then skip past this bit.

Another photo from the far end of the land, at least I think it's the far end, somewhere around there anyway:



... and a bit further around:



This is about as far as I can get without falling into the paddy field.

The next photo is taken from the main road which is on the other side of the lake thing. It's a bit fuzzy as I took it with my phone but it gives you the idea anyway:

^
Comment from my Wife if I may " Beautiful "

As I mentioned a page or so back, the house is really as much designed to be a glorified viewing platform as a place to live, and so here are a couple of pics of the views:

The rest of the paddy field (looking roughly south):



The land border follows the path with the small green tree on the far left hand side of the photo, up to the next two (three?) trees and then back towards the house going past the light green tree thing.

We won't fill all this land, far too expensive, but we will fill the bit closer to the house I think.

From the balcony, roughly facing west:

Originally Posted by bankao dreamer

Comment from my Wife if I may " Beautiful "

Thanks BD, I hope you'll all come and visit some time.

(and nice use of a ^ BTW... )

And so, as the day is drawing in the last photo, and encouraged with BD's kind words, a few more pics as the sun sets on the first phase of the project.

From the edge of the paddy field:



... and then from the balcony:



I'm too lazy to try to splice these together. Here's the right hand side of the panorama...



Finally, the sun's gone down and what I think is Venus is shining down on us instead (top left):



Time for another beer I think.

Cheers all...