Sorted a few things today as well, in fact I saved about $5,000 in one day. I told Tom that I don't need to work at all if I can save that sort of money every day ;). Firstly, I met with a plumber today who knows all about the wetback system I'm keen on for the wood heater (using the wood heater to boost the solar hot water in winter). I wasn't sure if it was really going to be worth it if it meant we couldn't have the evacuated glass tube system that we wanted (they are meant to be more efficient in our climate in Tassie). But there is an evacuated glass tube system that also has the roof mounted tank that we need for the wetback system. I know it's a silly thing to get excited about, but what's even better is that it's less than half the cost of the other system we were looking at. It is smaller, but if we find it doesn't do the job, then we can always add another solar system after hand over and it would still be cheaper :) The other thing that saved us heaps is me finding the perfect sized rain water tank. The designer had specified 2 poly tanks, but I found a steel tank which should fit very nicely under our deck and actually gives us more storage capacity...again for less than half the price. It feels so nice to have things coming in under budget for a change, so I have to savour the moment!
So piccies of the house as it stands now...
Internal wall between the stair well and our bedroom.
Internal walls between family room and study nook. Wood heater will go against the closer wall
Internal walls between family room and study nook. Wood heater will go against the closer wall
And one of our neighbours, a beautiful little bennett's wallaby
