23 Mar 10

Tidy up job

At long last, we've made it back to the earthship. It was a struggle I can tell you. After so long away we were getting used to not having to do that long drive. But we could put it off no longer, the architects who visited last week said we'd better do something about all the rain that was collecting around the bottom of the wooden columns.

As it turned out, by the time we'd arrived most of it had dried up, but we've dug channels leading to holes away from the column footings so water can drain away quickly. And as we've been forecast more rain over the next week we're hoping this will do the job.

The crickets seem to be working nicely. Once we'd pulled the plastic taught the water flowed off nicely. Shame we haven't got the water tank in place to collect it all.

Countryfile

I was watching Countryfile a few weeks ago and noticed a thatched roof that had ropes criss-crossed over it. It was on a particularly windy island. What a brilliant idea, wish we'd seen this sooner. Anyway, we bought 70 metres of rope and have done a version of this to hold down our temporary plastic roof - plus even more tyres.

If nothing else, we've learnt the hard way that getting the roof waterproof as quickly as possible is so important.

Planning news

Dave spoke to Daniel (one of the architects) yesterday. He said they're doing the final bits to the Project of Execution and it should be done by next week. They've sorted out how we can strengthen the roof joints to allow for seismic movement - and it doesn't involve lots of concrete which is a relief.

The Building Permission Basic Project has been passed on by Sorbas council to the Diputacion in Almeria. Hopefully that will be signed off soon. Confused? Sorry. The Building Permission Basic Project is the first part that the architects did before Christmas. The Project of Execution is the next part which goes into the build in more detail. Phew, I'm so glad Dave speaks fluent Spanish and we found Alicia and Daniel to do all the technical stuff, they've been brilliant.