I'm moving to a shack, with no power, on top of a mountain!

**gijoe1313** · 31st August 2008, 20:49

It has that certain rustic quality to it, a potential fixer-upper for those home handy-man types, you have quality views with natural bush and privacy ...

Actually, looks minters ... when everything goes to hell in a handbasket, you will be able to look down as Soddom and Gommorah get purged again!

**martybabe** · 31st August 2008, 20:56

By my daughters standards that shack is immaculate.

Good luck Steam, keep us posted, when ya get to a puta that is.

**HTFU** · 31st August 2008, 21:00

Mate what an adventure. Our bach down the Waikato river looks 5 star in comparison.

Have just set up solar panels and lights in our Caravan (we spend a month each year at the beach with no mod cons).

Battery clinic do 30-40 amp/hr batteries for $40-50 which is bloody good value. I run 10 and 15 watt panels that cost $50 and $ 100 each which charge 1.5 amps/hr.

We run 3 watt led bulbs ($20-40 each) that are equivalent to 20 watt globes, so 3-4 of them running at once would give you good light. They draw about .25 amps an hr so 4 of them is only drawing 1 amp an hr. Using it for 4 hours a night is 4 amps out of your battery and with the panels putting in 1.5 an hour, 3 hours a day of sunlight each day will top them back no problems.

Solar regulator for $50 will be needed to properly charge the batteries.

A small inverter 300-500 watts can be had for $60-80 and will top up computer and phones.

We run a 12 volt shower which sucks the hot water (boiled on the gas) out of a bucket and gives good pressure. $30 on trademe.

Gas fridge/freezer combo can be had for $500-1000 on trademe. Will use about a 9kg bottle every 3-4 weeks in summer. $20 a month on gas to run the fridge and cooker would be about right. If you go camping the portable chest fridge/freezer that electrolux/waeco/dometic do would be a good purchase because you would use it once this crazy adventure is over.

Have fun creating your little self sufficient hide away.

**kevfromcoro** · 31st August 2008, 21:01

GREAT pics steam..bit of elbow grease and it will look like new.
do you have to get up a couple of times a night and bash the possums of the roof like i do

**Grub** · 31st August 2008, 21:02

I like it!

Actually, it looks pretty waterproof and wow it's got a bed, reading materials, pot plants

and a sofa and everything!

Had you actually seen it before you agreed to this?

**The Pastor** · 31st August 2008, 21:04

looks real good bro, good luck

**cave weta** · 31st August 2008, 21:38

LoL - I live in a J4 Bedford house truck, solar panel , worm composting toilet, gas caliphont lasts 3 months with the stove on the same bottle. Outdoor bath has double gas burner underneath. washing machine has Briggs and Statton power, also has 12v alternator on same belt to top up batteries in winter.
Its a grand life! KBers whizz past on the weekends. Tourists sneak photos over the fence in the summer, The council try to procecute me and lose! hahahahahah

I used to travel the gypsy fairs in it. Now it just lurks behind the hedge!
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

**Steam** · 31st August 2008, 21:42

Originally Posted by cave weta

LoL - I live in a J4 Bedford house truck...

Oh excellent! You are my new hero.

Jeez that's a big chassis on a small truck. What was your top speed?
The parking meter is a nice touch.

**cave weta** · 31st August 2008, 22:06

Originally Posted by Steam

Oh excellent! You are my new hero.

Jeez that's a big chassis on a small truck. What was your top speed?
The parking meter is a nice touch.

I once cracked 60mph coming down the Titiokura on the way into HB from Taupo! -it was 2 or 3 mph faster than the hippy housebus that plunged into the Mohaka River a decade earlier. If you service the brakes every weekend these old girls are just fine....

**biggles74** · 31st August 2008, 22:22

thats the house where in the early 80s a guy murdered his family and then topped himself ,my mate only lasted 2 nights in that place good luck!

**cave weta** · 31st August 2008, 22:32

Originally Posted by biggles74

thats the house where in the early 80s a guy murdered his family and then topped himself ,my mate only lasted 2 nights in that place good luck!

Brilliant!!

**martybabe** · 31st August 2008, 22:46

Originally Posted by cave weta

LoL - I live in a J4 Bedford house truck, solar panel , worm composting toilet, gas caliphont lasts 3 months with the stove on the same bottle. Outdoor bath has double gas burner underneath. washing machine has Briggs and Statton power, also has 12v alternator on same belt to top up batteries in winter.
Its a grand life! KBers whizz past on the weekends. Tourists sneak photos over the fence in the summer, The council try to procecute me and lose! hahahahahah

I used to travel the gypsy fairs in it. Now it just lurks behind the hedge.

brilliant, you wild man you, best put some money in that meter dude or you'll have the parking nazis and the council on yer back. onya

**Wolf** · 1st September 2008, 12:07

Just a "heads-up", Steam, strayjuliet utterly detests you and is probably going to get a contract put out on your life - I'm looking at your little bach and thinking "Hmmmmmm..." with that look in my eyes and stray's getting veeerrrry nervous...

In all seriousness, that place is probably a lot more than my ancestress had when she arrived in NZ - and she had 5 kids including an infant that was born on the boat on the way from Cornwall and her husband drowned in Petone Bay a few months after arriving here:

Originally Posted by Sir Henry Brett, "White Wings Volume One"

...the foreshore at Petone had become a busy locality. Tents were supplemented by shanties of various descriptions, but some of the whares put up with the help of the Maoris were of a more ambitious character, and so well built that they lasted several years. Round about this somewhat incongruous camp-settlement the belongings of the settlers were scattered, and as there were by this time about 500 white people ashore the scene was decidedly animated."

No cellphone, no vehicle, no modern convenient foods, no battery-operated or gas-powered appliances...

She couldn't just screw the hose of a gas hob onto a convenient LPG cylinder to cook dinner or flick the switch of a torch to find her way to the shithouse in the middle of the night.

And people these days whinge that they've got it hard if the power's off for a couple of hours!

Good on ya, dude. Looking forward to hearing the continuing adventures and seeing what the place looks like as you fix it up - more pics, please.