After First Year (Feb 2022)
We moved into the house on 1st Feb 2021. Here are some end of year reflections.
On Design: The design worked out beautifully. I could not think of any changes we could have thought ahead!
On Construction Quality: The hollow clay bricks indeed kept us cool in summer and warm in winter. In-spite of excess rains this year (2021), no leakages noticed on roof or walls of main structure. The metal roof on shed required some silicon glue application where bolts were drilled and screwed to arrest rain water leaks.
Some niggles
- Birds and squirrels kept making attempts to build nests at places inconvenient to our living and safety. We could have taken some precautions during construction to prevent such possibilities.
- Ants too started living inside cavities of sandwich panel roof. Spraying an Ant Repellant Spray fixed the problem.
- Our first peanut harvest in the farm brought lot of cheer to our kitchen! Not to our car! After the harvest (and also due to rains), looks like many rats took shelter inside the car bonnet. An attempt to use the car after 2 weeks lit up the Engine Malfunction lamp. Thankfully, the car worked in a limp home mode and I could drive it to the service centre. It was a costly fix! And we had to take many precautions henceforth. After a search on Team-BHP forum, I tried multiple options. First, sprayed Anti-Rat spray (keeps them away without killing them) inside bonnet. And removed a trellis next to car park and converted it into a walking path. And even installed nail spiked wood slats around the car to deter rats. Installing a battery connected unit inside bonnet that emits high frequency sound to be tried out. Time to tell if these work.
4. Installed a Water Treatment Plant to treat hard water coming from the borewell. Fluoride is an issue. We noticed scaling of pipes and kitchen sink and utensils. The unit costed around 30k. It failed couple of times due to high pressure from borewell motor and released powder into the overhead tank (requiring hours of cleanup). When we switched to using sump motor to do the pumping, the issue was resolved. The overhead costs are first pumping borewell water to sump tank now!
5. Access roads to the farm house forced us to revise our vehicle preferences! I had to say good-bye to my old trusted Elite i20 and go for a Bolero Neo with the hope that it’s RWD and Locking Differential will make it easy to navigate the muddy access road to farmhouse even in a bad rain. This is after i20 once required a tractor to pull it out of mud! A TVS XL Moped joined the family too and helped us with many a grocery runs even during peak rains. A good access road could have saved us a lot of money, maybe!
If these and such issues bothered us 20% of time, the 80% went into quiet walks, watching the farm grow, eat farm-to-table, and enjoying reading books midst of cacophony of birds!
Covid situation and being far away from nearest village did make us miss visits and interactions from family and friends and neighbours. But this did not in any way make us look up to cities with longing! For now.
A Note on Working Remotely
Airtel and Jio both provided excellent 4G connection even for a rural area! I had no trouble working remotely. Speeds were consistently above 25 Mbps. This even meant Netflix Streaming to our TV worked well from just a Mobile Hotspot. Things may only look better once 5G is rolled out. Though BSNL offers Fiber Internet around, we could give it a pass.
After Second Year (Feb 2023)
On Design: The design continues to work it’s magic. Wish many more will explore the beauty and function of tiny homes! They sure put some leisure back into your hands. Not to mention reduced consumption of inflation driven or scarce resources like power, water & cleaning supplies. They also give more space for your garden/farm. Post COVID, we had many guests and no one really complained about not having an exclusive guest room! The few days spent seemed to bond everyone together more closely!
On Construction Quality: The hollow clay bricks continue to work their charm to keep us cool in summer and warm in winter. No leakages noticed on roof or walls of main structure. Wish we adopted Mangalore roof tiles instead of Cool Panel/PEB roof panels for our Verandah though. Inspite of repellant sprays, Ants insist on making grooves inside the sandwich panel roofs for their home!
The metal/welding work done by a local team also made us wish they were designed and implemented more carefully. We now understand how important it is to pick the right team for this work. One oversight was the angle with which the PUF roofs on Verandah and metal roof on Shed were laid. Wish they used 30+ degrees instead of 10+ I currently see. This would have made it easier for rain to leave the roof quickly.
Some other niggles
- A few snakes entered the verandah highlighting the importance of closing even small gaps in the roof and under doors.
- Metal doors (main gate) and stairs to roof and overhead tank are already asking for a coat of paint! Too much rain or poor initial job?
- Had to replace Power Meter due to damage done by high voltage on a rainy day; it is important to prune tree branches with help of the Electricity Department once a year, maybe.
- Had to reduce Borewell Pipe height from 500 ft to 300 ft post rains to ensure optimum pressure from the motor.
A Note on Working Remotely
Airtel and Jio continue to ensure 4G is available from the farm without any hiccups.
However, Working-From-Home has it’s challenges.
- Visitors in rural India can come un-announced. If you are in the middle of a meeting/call, it can be awkward.
- When Guests are at home, one wishes to have a quiet WFH space to still be able to log in and work.
- If you have an important presentation/meeting, thought of whether your Mobile Hotspot will fail on you can give some un-wanted stress!
After Third Year (Sep 2024)
The design continues to please and meet all our needs.
sadhana.farm 