Week 8-Collecting Rain (Video)
A illustrative schematic of the cistern installation that was started this week.
Our general contractor, Elena from NEON, was on site a couple of times this week. Elena is the glue for the whole project and we think the world of her. I can only imagine the number of phone calls she makes any given day. On Elena’s agenda this week was coordinating our 5,500 gallon cistern with Rain Brothers, prepping the basement for a final slab pour between Custom Concrete, our foundation experts, Johnson’s Family Plumbing, working with Boone REMC to get temporary electric on site, and possibly getting a lead on our septic system as well. These are conversations and work that I know about, and I’m sure there is more, far more, that is going on behind the scenes.
Plumbers! Johnson’s Family Plumbing has shown up and started the first and arguably most important part of the plumbing, the basement ejector pit. This is the waste water hook up needed for having a bathroom and drain in the utility room in the basement. The plumbing fixtures set in the basement here will be covered in concrete soon, never to be disturbed again.
Let’s talk cistern! A 36,525 lbs Ohio-made two-piece pre-cast concrete structure was delivered last week! As of this posting, the cistern has been fully installed, around 1,600 gallons of water pumped into it, and fully backfilled. The pump, while it’s in there, doesn’t have power and doesn’t have a lot to do yet, considering there’s no real plumbing yet in the house. It took Rain Brothers just about 2 hours to install this behemoth. Another 10-15 minutes to fill it one-third full, and there we have it! A place for our rainwater to collect and eventually be used for our single source of water.
Here’s a few fun pictures of family investigating the beginnings of our house build.
Bonus cistern day video!
