What’s up guys and gals, welcome back to Tidal Gardens.
It has occurred to me that there are more updates on my building project on other people’s
channels than on my own so I feel a little guilty not having my own done.
So before I get into this, a quick shoutout to DC Reefer, CJ, Rico, and Matt from Jayoe
Nation for coming over and introducing my little corner of the reef world to your audiences.
I really appreciate it.
Right now what is going on is the plumbing inside the walls and electric.
Once they are all done, we can insulate the walls and put up the wall panels.
Here you can see a rough in for the bathroom downstairs.
The bathrooms so far were probably the most challenging part of this build.
It is because we needed to install a separate septic system for this building.
This entire area does not have a central city sewer system so every property is on septic,
BUT… they are all grandfathered in.
Because the ground is very clay-like new septic systems don’t ever get approved, thus requiring
much more expensive surface discharge systems designed by the EPA.
We lucked out that we found a small area on the property that was suitable for a septic
system and got all that approved.
I get asked all the time what my plans for the tanks are and right now it’s still up
in the air.
If I’ve learned any lesson from the greenhouse, it’s that work areas and walkways are really
really important.
I am going for a minimum of 4’ between tanks.
Minimum of 6’ in the main aisles.
There’s going to be plenty of space for the tanks in a building of this size so I’m
not going to even worry about it until much later.
Again, I think people design spaces too much with tanks in mind.
They just want to cram as many tanks as possible into a space and not give consideration to
actually working on those tanks.
Obviously to each their own, but learning what I have from the greenhouse setup, I longed
more for work space and larger aisles than I did for tank space.
One of the architectural features of this building is that it has three large cutouts
in the second floor.
I love them because it makes the space that much more airy and less claustrophobic overall.
I don’t know if anyone has ever done this, but I think it would be cool to have a giant
mangrove growing that extends to the second floor.
It’s probably impossible, but I thought it would be cool.
Up top here is going to be my studio.
Here is a quick look at the upstairs.
Again you can see those second floor cutouts.
It’s hard to get a feel for the size, but this second floor is roughly 4000 sq ft.
There won’t be any tanks up here but in addition to the studio there is going to be
a bathroom and laundry.
We decided to put the laundry upstairs to save some floor space downstairs for tanks.
I don’t expect to use the laundry that much here, just to wash towels every couple of
days.
On the other side of this bathroom is going to be a kitchen so when it is time for a lunch
break there is a break room right here for everyone.
The rest of this second floor is going to be open concept.
I can see down the line some space for desks and maybe a couple cubicles for interns.
This stud wall you see here is where the kitchen island is going to go.
It looks small, but it’s going to be 10 feet long and should comfortably seat 4 to
5.
My design philosophy with this building is to have everything be as open and flexible
as possible.
The greenhouse next door has undergone major changes every year since it was built and
it’s not possible to predict everything you might need down the line.
A perfect example is back in 2002 when we were building it, never once did I think,
“you know what would be great in this greenhouse?
A recording studio to do live shows on youtube.”
But…
here we are.
So anyway, there is a reason why there are plenty of unallocated spaces here that we
can grow into.
Ok, that pretty much does it for this update.
Hopefully the next time we do this I can talk more about the actual tanks!
Until then, happy reefing.