The Waiting Game

Tick tock, tick tock

Time goes by so slowly when you are waiting for a call from the bank.
In the absence of any progress I thought I would take the opportunity to shamelessly advertise the products and companies we are hoping to incorporate into our place.

If you have read previous posts, you know about Transtate Homes and what they are all about. But even if the blatantly irresponsible economic practices of the United States prevents us from getting any finance at the moment, we will need to push ahead with essential services on the block, water supply, water treatment, power and shelter.

Shelter will come thanks to Metroll Toowoomba providers of all things spawned from steel. Our very polite and prompt consultant there has quoted us on a double garage with attached double carport (or garaport if you are into the lingo) which should provide us with enough living space to while away the months. All the tv advertising would suggest that the price of all things steel is about to sky rocket astronomically, must be something to do with the fact that they are digging more of it out of the ground then they know what to do with. No wait a minute...that doesn't make sense... Anyway a lovely steel kit home (ie shed) will cost us about $6300 plus slab. With two doors a window and built in outdoor entertainment area, can't complain about that!

Next comes water. You can get lost and dehydrate pretty quickly trying to sift through all of the water tank suppliers in the market so I went with a time honoured decision making process based on the 'ooh they look pretty' system of selection. I stumbled onto Rhino Tanks. Which quite frankly say 'I'm a serious rural water tank' to me! They are fully constructed on site on an owner prepared pad and come with a free ladder! Yay! So really it is a water tank and swimming pool all in one! A 56 000 litre (yes, you read that right) comes in at about $8350 installed on the block ready for plumbing. Pretty decent, and add to that a range of local and state government rebates and we might be able to afford some soap for showering. As long as we get some rain that is.

Water comes in, water goes out. We are not on a water supply so a water treatment system is a must. We originally intended to have a composting toilet and grey water system, but after speaking to a few fellas in the know we have decided to go with an all-in-one black and grey water treatment system that provides irrigation quality water as a by-product. Best thing is the more delicate of our friends and family will not have to be afraid of the breezy bum toilet we were intending to have! Solar Centre Toowoomba offer the Envirocycle System which suits all our needs and once we have dug a big hole they will supply and install for around $9000.

Tanks and water treatment systems need pumps, and pumps need power, not to mention it is nice to be able to flick a light switch on when you go to the loo! RAPPS Systems are right up my alley. A local guy with local knowledge who isn't afraid to tell me what I should do and has a sense of humour to boot! We would like to generate enough power to be able to sell our excess back to the grid. Every unit that we do not use we can sell to the grid for $0.44, and then we buy back the energy at $0.14 per unit. That's good maths to me. So we have gone for a medium sized system which after the generous government (oxymoron?) rebates comes in at a neat $14000 installed.

Have the mathematically gifted of you added that up yet? Shed plus tanks plus water treatment plus power comes to a grand total of
$37 650 and that does not include any of the required earthworks or payments to the plumber and electrician who will also be required. And this is before we even start to think about the house! Yup. And yet, everyone wants you to go green. It really isn't that easy.

But the reality is, that in the current climate we may not be able to get the full amount we require to build our home complete, but perhaps we may be able to get a smaller amount to get us started and wait out the wild ride. We were supposed to hear from the bank today - but I think they were all too busy watching the stock market to make any call backs. Perhaps tomorrow.

Tick tock tick tock.