April '09 Update

Daily monitoring of progress over the past 2 weeks was not possible as I took time away to Melbourne attending Lisa's graduation. Good that I got some photo updates last night.

See it in a more complete form finally. But my eyeballs popped out & shook my head soon as I saw the first pictures - OMG, how is it the window openings for the equipment room at floor level!














Good resemblance to my SketchUp model, huh; less the wind turbine.



























Chang Ou must have missed out reading the height or was it my mistake without detailing it? Such communication errors were usually correctly promptly on site. This this one slipped through! Lucky it is a minor mistake that can be rectified easily.














On further thought, I'll leave it as it is. These openings suit well to experiment with my DIY long range bird callers - in comfort here without going up the roof top!














Other than that, things are pretty much in order.
Insulation foils laid below roof tiles.














Contrary to the "DON'Ts" about using roof pools, I buck those advise. I see more in its benefits than the negatives. May be I am cocky but take extra precautions about long term leakage issues & "sauna effect" it may cause.
External roof pool to collect solar energy in the day, stored thermal energy will be used to "buffer" heat lost during the night.







The walls are "wedged" at the top to discourage other visiting birds - especially pigeons common in the area.



















Putting up the wall of the roving room.














So I've decided to add a lift - DIY build by P'Moo all the way to the roof top!














Water pond in the roving room, solar heated water here will be gravity fed to ground floor via a "drip curtain". In the process thermal energy will be transferred to the air between walls and creates humidity at the same time.














Airwell and entrance to nesting areas.














Ground floor water pond.














Stairway and air vents.



















P'Moo fabricated the steel doors at his workshop. He is a DIY man - extraordinaire!














Nesting planks delivered to site waiting to be installed, grooved by the machinery he built.














Rock fills for the driveway. Soil here turns muddy after rains - only 4x4 can get through!














I always enjoyed sights of these yellow flowering trees that blossoms only this time of the year.