Garden City Plastics sold me enough punnets, pots and associated trays to grow a small forest, costing $461.45
Paramount Browns modified a pulley for the cement mixer engine for $39
Sundry bits and pieces for all sorts of things cost us $13.90
Total Spend to date is now at $214 560.10
Wow, this was money well spent.
Darren met us, on time, at the Tungkillo pub before we finished the final trek out to the block. My wife and I were both impressed from the get go. I like it when people start talking about processes and ticking things off the to do list, then produce the list and start doing just that. To me that means there is thought behind the process that has led to refinement of the way he conducts his business. No BS, no vague references, just facts based on our answers to his questions off of that list. Everything gets covered.
Turns out our design was quite well suited to take advantage of passive solar principles. Standing on the block we were able to line up the orientation of the house. Darren was able to explain just what passive solar is and how the winter sun is able to be used with great advantage, conversely the summer sun is able to be kept at bay with clever use of shadow, even on the wall that will be facing straight into the morning sun. I feel the hours and hours of googling, reading and researching through owner builder magazines was now time very well spent.
We have exactly what we want and Darren can calculate sun angles and so on and tweak slight aspects of the design. This should end up giving us a home that is light, warm and comfortable during the winter and able to cope with the extremes of summer without monstrous cooling systems in place.
If you’re a South Aussie and looking for a clued in architectural draftsmen then I am happy to suggest you head on over to Wise Drafting Pty Ltd and see what Darren can do to help you into your dream.
As each job is individual, depending on complexity within the design, Darren prefers to quote each individual job. By using what we are paying as a guide you might be over or under estimating the cost for your job. Things like size of house, distance for him to travel for a site visit, 2 storey designs and so on all alter the quote. I’m therefore not going to specify his costs, instead you should contact him yourself and get a quote based on your own ideas.
I will however include his costs in some other large item, so rest assured the overall cost of this project will remain open for you to see.
Cement mixer has cost me $299 for the petrol engine, $13.20 for welding rods and mild steel to patch the holes.
I also was forced to buy a compass so we can get true north accurately on the block, that was a proper map compass (yeah I know, WTF is a compass and who the hell uses maps in the day of GPS) and cost $12.99 from Ray’s Outdoors.
Total spend to date is now at $214 507.20
It’s been quiet on the spending front which is not always a good thing.
Picked up a 1000L caged transport tank off ebay suitable for transporting water for our trees. The seller told me it held the dye they use to colour red wood chip mulch, which you would assume is non toxic. It does needs some cleaning, but the water I flushed through it and dumped on some weeds hasn’t managed to kill them after 7 days. More importantly it’s held the water level I left it with a week ago.
I’ve also ordered nearly 10 years worth of back issues from The Owner Builder Mag so we can sound our ideas off against the last 10 years of evolution in thinking and technique for owner building.
Cost for back issues and a 1 year subscription was $229.50 inclusive of freight.
Total spend to date is now at $214 182
I’ll make these seperate from other posts so if you want to see where we have spent cash you can do so by selecting the “Project Costs” category from the right.
So far, our expenditure had been:
Pegs, jute (twine) and paint for marking out – $76.70
Settlement and block purchase – $213 875.77
Total to date is a mere $213 952.50