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.


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

My huge roving room.


Third Floor


Second Floor


Ground 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.



Not much progress on North side.

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.



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

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







Second Floor. Oct24th, 2010







Third Floor, Oct25th,2010








Roving Room, Oct25th,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.







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.

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.

Progress

Update Sept 25th, 2010.
We planned to have at least all the interior work to be finished by end of this month.
Thus we can monitor the temperature, humidity and darkness while awaiting for the exterior works to be done.
Although the data might not be as accurate as it should be as some external walls haven't been finished yet.
It should be at least a good indicator of the micros inside.



Third floor.





As of Oct 10th,2010. The roof steel structure is done and will be covered with metal sheet roofing with polystyrene foam as insulator under the metal sheet.

Birds came to inspect their new house!

My house hasn't been completed yet.
Two walls on the roving room are still not completed.
Metal sheet roofing and roof trust hasn't been erected.
No wood planks, no sound system, every floor there was at least one unfinished wall.

And yet, today in the late afternoon after heavy rain, many impatient birds came to inspect the house without any sound to attract them.
What you may hear from the video is their natural sound.

Enjoy!







A big pond in front of my bird house. Certainly a plus for the location.