Building – Off Grid Living – Building the Dream

Why your inverter should be lower capacity than your solar panel

A bright sunny day in August, fully charged by 10:30 in the morning, and the closest we’ve come to hitting our inverter limit of 12 kW. If the batteries had more capacity, or we were using more, I think we would have seen it max out. A sunny day in June (when the hot waterContinue reading “Why your inverter should be lower capacity than your solar panel”

We’re In!

It’s so lovely being here! Quiet, peaceful, a beautiful view from every window, and so warm and spacious. After 4 years, we finally made it! It was definitely worth persevering. We feel like we can breathe again. We finally have all our stuff back and unpacked – and everything is just fabulous. And then weContinue reading “We’re In!”

We’re almost there…

It was clear two weeks ago that the house was not going to be finished by the 9th of June. Close, but no cigar. Fortunately, I was able to extend the rental by a week and rebook the removalists for the 21st. So where are we now? Just about to do a walk through withContinue reading “We’re almost there…”

9th June?

So work has continued at a reasonable pace, and four weeks ago we were given the handover date of 9th June. We waited as long as we could to give notice at our rental and book removalists to make sure that we wouldn’t end up homeless, but finally went ahead, despite misgivings. We need toContinue reading “9th June?”

We spit the dummy….

At last some progress again – but not meeting latest promised completion date, again…

WI FI

We always knew we’d have a problem getting the internet, and so it’s turned out. Cable is clearly not an option in the bush. The following describes the options that we’ve looked at, and highlights just how bad the NBN is for regional areas (and we’re within an hour of the outskirts of Melbourne, onContinue reading “WI FI”

Will this saga ever end?

Cabinets, BAL

The builders are back

After nothing for the first half of January. the builders are back and things continue to move forward. The external plumbing has been run (our nice landscaping is a bit of a mess around the house again), the air-conditioning ducts have been cut into the plaster, and the wooden floor has been installed and theContinue reading “The builders are back”

A lot has happened (finally). December was HUGE…

So much has happened in December – it’s looking like a house!

Cladding install isn’t bushfire compliant

We were really happy with the way the cladding was looking, but as I’ve mentioned before we were a little worried about having colorbond flashings. Turns out that the plumber didn’t think that was a problem, because he WASN’T ADDING any more. The maxline panels clip onto plates that have a removable foam covering onContinue reading “Cladding install isn’t bushfire compliant”