Sri Lanka It's Happening

February 25, 2008

After more than an year of building, my new house is almost complete. Yes it's almost and the last 1% is usually the hardest. Now it's time for greening up. Though the building itself was designed to be a green building the only thing that is green in color at the moment is the paint.

The building is green because we have not cut down any trees to build it. There were no trees on the site when we came across it. The doors and windows are all used ones. Most door frames were pulled out of buildings being demolished, refurbished and fixed to ours. Others were built from timber bought from demolishers. Finally the window panes were sub-contracted to a firm that is an associated of a demolition company.

The staircase handrail is made out of discarded railroad ties (Railway sleepers). So is the main gate. We plan to make the dining table out of them as well. Some of the furniture will unfortunately have to be MDF (Medium Density Fiber) board or plywood. It cannot be avoided due to certain practical issues)

I have also planned to have a solar power system but finding a suitable inverter is easier said than done. Finally I have persuaded Nawaloka Trading company to import one specially on my behalf. I am also planning a diesel electricity generator that would be powered by bio-diesel some of it made from waste cooking oil)

The building is green not just because of the used timber. It's green because we have put in a rainwater harvesting system. The lawn and the vertical gardens will all be irrigated with rain water. The drip irrigation system (which was bought from Jinasena) is being put in. The next step of course is to grow some plants. That was started on Saturday.

Posted by raditha at February 25, 2008 9:40 AM