Thursday, October 28, 2010

One more month?

I visited my BH last weekend to check the progress of the BH construction.
Only the exterior of the south side is about to be finished, still three more sides to go.

South side exterior.
South

For the interior, most are done, still here and there to be finished.

My huge roving room.
Roving

Third Floor
3rd Floor

Second Floor
2nd Floor

Ground floor
1st Floor

During the first day of my visit, I didn't see many birds flying around the area , only 5-6 birds at most.
So I felt a bit uneasy, in my mind, what happen, what's wrong, etc.
I couldn't go home without seeing birds in the area. At 6 pm on the second day, I went to the fourth floor and put my bird call gadget at use. Within two minutes, birds came from all directions, haha, see all these birds really put my mind at ease.



As of Oct30th, 2010. The South side is done.

ใต้ฉาบเสร็จ

Not much progress on North side.

30Oct2010

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Feng Shui

Do you believe in Feng Shui?

According to Feng Shui, a place that has water in front with a mountain behind is considered a good Feng Shui.

See a paddy field and a big man made water pond in front of my BH.

pond

And a mountain behind my BH. A very good Feng Shui indeed! :)

บ้านภูเขา

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Micros of the unfinished house.

I've just came back from Surat. Not quite sure that the BH can be finished by next month!
All sort of problems, heavy rain stop working , local holiday stop working, etc.

Although the house is not completed yet. I checked the micro on each floor just to get the feeling of it.

Ground floor, Oct 24th, 2010

Ground Floor

Ground Floor

Ground Floor

Second Floor. Oct24th, 2010

2nd Floor

2nd Floor

2nd Floor

Third Floor, Oct25th,2010

3rd Floor

3rd Floor

3rd Floor


Roving Room, Oct25th,2010

Roving

Roving

Roving

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Plank arrived!

Finally my planks arrived after 1.5 months delayed. I was told that it's a dark red Meranti wood from Malaysia.

Please help comment whether it is a real one, as I have no idea whether it is just Meranti or dark red Meranti.
Mine is a 1 inch thick and 8 inch width type. It's more common to use 1*6 inch.

plank1

Plank2

Plank3

From the appearance, it is freshly cut and the wood is still very fresh. Which mean we have to air dried it for at least another two weeks, due to the heavy rain in our area right now. It also means that my BH will be delayed for at least another two weeks! Sigh!

We heard so often that mold is a real headache for BH.
One preventive measure is when the plank arrived, we need to store it correctly in a clean and well ventilated place. Don't just leave it in a corner on a wet, dirty floor within the unfinished house full of cement dust.

If it is freshly cut, the moisture content in the plank is still very high. We should know how to lay it properly with air gap between each and every one of them and away from the wall. This way, the moisture can evaporate out easily and thus prevent the mold forming between the contact of each plank.

If you are not taking good care of storing these fresh wood, what you might encounter is a black mold deep in the wood grain found more intensely on the area that 2 pieces of wood are in contact or found on the low quality piece of wood which is normally will be weighed much lighter than the good quality ones.

Although after you have dried the wood plank properly, it still does not guarantee that you can say goodbye to mold for good. If the condition in your bird house is still hot and too humid, mold still can grow. But this time, it is the white mold, not the black mold. White mold can grow on the surface of the plank, all it requires is a certain level of moisture deposit on the surface of the plank. So make sure you monitor and control the humidity level in your bird house properly.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Gadget Hunting, Part4

Finally the floater for the ultrasonic humidifier arrived from China.
It consisted of two plastic pieces, one functions as a container and one as a floater placed below the container.
Look more professional now, no need to use the foam and ping pong balls.
This floater costs only US$ 2.00 there.

Floater

Floater2

Floater1