14. The END of our OFF GRID Journey (1 Year Later)

We moved to our land one and a half years ago with the aim in mind to be as self-sufficient as we possibly could. During this time we have built a cabin to have shelter for under $5,000, a food garden from where we now eat every day, an off-grid solar system in a temporary location to produce our own clean electricity and now we are building the workshop, a multifunctional building that will finalize the solar system setup completely, putting the panels up high to avoid shadows and on appropriate inclination for winter when the solar exposure is the lowest. This building is also going to work as a greenhouse so we can still grow food during winter, as a ceramic workshop for Eugenia and a wood one for me. It will also have the washing machine, extra storage space and maybe in the future we will finish it up as a guest house for volunteers that want to stay with us and help build our project. Today we complete a full circle, finishing the off-grid solar system up completely after months of planning, designing and building. Yes over here, today our goal was to cover this first side of the roof and it's looking quite promising, it's not even noon and we already have three of five installed but it's looking good guys. Lolita has been trying to get to the roof with us but last time that she did that didn't end up any well, right Lolita? So we didn't let her this time, she's been climbing the solar panel trying to get closer to us because both of us were on the roof and she doesn't like to be below anybody, she likes to be higher than everybody if she can. Just a couple of panels more and we're done, then we will cover the front. We did a test earlier to see how it was looking and if we were going to do it or not because we kind of like to see the wave over here but also once we saw the trim in front of it I think we're gonna go with the trim, I mean we already bought it and it looks very very neat. All right guys we just finished today's work, we got a lot done today, very proud of what we have done today and it's looking quite quite good. Our idea was to get to this point so we can install the solar panels on top with everything else open so we only have this facade and that part of the roof. Right now the building like you see from the front looks like it is finished but uh if you turn around it is just fake you know it's like half of it is finished and the other half is not which looks kind of funky I know but um it's the best way for us to access the solar panels. We could have bought a superstructure for the solar panels but they are quite expensive and I don't know it didn't make sense to spend like three four hundred euros in just a couple of aluminum rails and a few connections so we just bought c-channels that are gonna run from one side to the other and we will connect these c-channels to the roof and then the panels on top. Solar panels will go over there exactly like they are well a little bit more from angle. We decided to keep it always at 35 degrees which is the best for winter in our case and during the summer we don't really need more power because it's way too much sun. I know you can build something that you can, I don't know, change the angle but I wasn't into it because it's just another complication and during the summer we have way too much power it's just the winter that we need to be careful about. It's gonna be a little tricky to get all the dimensions exactly right but I think we can do it. Today right now is probably the last time that you're gonna see the white roof so if you like it make sure to take a screenshot because tomorrow we have solar panels on top hopefully. Also I'm gonna show you how this profile works. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to. There we go. We have the roof panel all coming over here overlapping on top of this first angle. The water will come from the panel and out and actually that panel is sitting outside this profile so there is no way water will get into it and if it then we have that profile that goes from there all the way to the back of the omega channel as you can see. And then this front piece is just to cover all the connection and make it look neat and nice. I'm sure I'm sure we're gonna get comments of pro builders saying that this is not how it's built but just for you to know there's more than one way to build and this is one. And by the way we are just sharing what we do not telling anybody to do it this way. This is how we are doing it and this is how we did it for the cabin similarly and for me it's just a matter of keeping the water out and looking good not only keeping the water out. I want the shape of the building to be like a perfect shape you know if nothing is overextending. Which one do you prefer? The old brother or the young brother? I'm not too sure which one I would pick. I can't wait to have everything like covered and the panels on top. And then this is what I was referring the diffused light in the inside is very nice. Eugenia is quite happy. I'm quite happy as well. Tomorrow hopefully we start with the solar panels installation. It's gonna be a fun one. It's gonna be tricky to put all the solar panels on top of there because it's glass and we need to make sure that we don't break anything because I'm really not looking forward buying a new solar panel. I've been working for the past I don't know two three days. I've been I mean having working we haven't been working in the building site but we have been working inside on the computer. I have been finishing a couple of projects that I've been working on in California and Eugenia has been working on a couple of videos. But today is the day that we put the solar panels on top of the workshop. I'm going to pick up the profiles that we're going to be using and start the day. All right so here is the plan we already cleaned underneath this not 100% but almost everything is clear out and we're going to replicate this connection here but instead using a C channel we're going to be using a U channel or U track or whatever you prefer to call it. Right now what we're going to do is to take dimensions from underneath the panels and make sure that we have the proper distances between holes. Translate those distances to the channel and make holes. Put the channels on top of the roof over there on top. Hope that all the panels fit and everything is is nice. I think this time the holes we're going to make them with a little bit of tolerance maybe I don't know like five millimeters wider in diameter so we can have some some room to wiggle. These are the screws that we're going to be using or the bolts in their M8 if I don't remember wrong with a split washer and just a regular nut. I think a number 10 will do it. We'll have a couple of millimeters of room in between and it still will be small enough for this nut. Eugenia is removing the by hand. I told her that we needed to paint the screws but she doesn't want to do that. Jolica is helping cutting wheat underneath the panel. She doesn't want to be recorded. She's too real man. So I'm doing the first hole is two and a half and I'm going to be putting all of them at two from on this side. Now I'm going to drill here I'm going to start with a smaller drill bit and then I will jump to the nine millimeters nine no ten sorry it's going to be the second one but I'm going to do a pilot hole first so I can have it really accurate. Pepe is doing that I'm going to paint the head of the screws because the screws that we got in white are too long and it's touching the structure inside so we were able to find a shorter one but without the white paint. How many screws should I paint as much as I can? All right guys I just finished drilling all the holes. Eugenia also finished painting all the screws. Now I'm going to show you how the holes look. The idea now is to install these two profiles on top of the roof. I'm actually really not looking forward to it because it's going to be complicated. I don't know I think I always say it's going to be complicated and then maybe it's not. It might be a little complicated though but I think we'll figure out. The first one that we're going to put we're going to put one right in the first omega that we left waiting for them in the location and it's going to be quite tricky to put it to the millimeter I feel like I'm always saying these kind of things but it is actually true. I'm not quite sure how we're going to do this. Most of the time we don't know how we're going to do the things that we plan to do. We just come up with an idea while we are doing it. If I ever put a solar panel ever again on a roof like this and then I will know how to do it but this is going to be the first time. I think maybe the best way to approach this is to put the first profile that way we can take some dimensions later and secure the second one where we think it's going to be. In order to do that I will present the first one somehow because we cannot clamp it. The plastic panel is too weak you clamp it from the side then the first wave is going to just collapse. Later on when we put the whole thing it's fine because all the waves will support a little bit of the weight not the whole weight. If not we will just put reinforcements behind the wave. We wanted to buy those but they didn't sell them so I don't know maybe we can catch something with wood and I will figure out if we actually need it. I don't want to overthink too much and most likely we will need to use them this tool that we have that is 90 degrees kind of handy tool. We use that in the van a lot while we're building the van. Wish us luck and hopefully everything goes smoothly and the second one let's put the first one first and then we'll talk about it. The screws are now dry and I'm going to give the second coat and take a break with Pepe. Originally I just said that we were planning to use this gadget to screw like a 90 degree it doesn't quite work because it's too short. As you can see here there is no way I can fit anything in there. I tried also with this smaller screw there's just no way to to screw this from here you know because it will be it will be on an angle and we don't want that. So what we just did we presented this on top of the roof and marked where one of the top of the waves are. This is going to be the first screw we want to screw always on top of the wave. We will put some rubber underneath so we can seal that hole but we will do that later for now we just want to put the first two screws so we mark this this line here and then I transfer it here on top and now we're going to drill a hole there like a big hole with this drill bit so we can drill from here you know like if this would be a hole I can access this point through there and that's what we are planning I can do this and screw however I want through there I don't know man can I screw without this silly bit like a smaller one not really right and be cool it won't get all the way to the this side so I think I have a smaller one than this because this is just way too long one looking good we were able to put the first two screws and that profile is already secured there now we're gonna add three more screws for a total of five I already did the holes the bigger holes on top of the other three drilling the hole and Eugenia was coming after to clean all the the little metal particles because they they get rusty and make everything ugly but I was able to put the waterproofing membrane underneath it so now all the holes when we tight them they are compressing this waterproofing membrane and there is no way water will go inside the hole which is something that I was a little bit I don't know worried about next thing that we're gonna do we're gonna put a string from one corner to the other very taut like we did for the omega because then this channel even though it's big and strong it's already flexing a little bit and we can see it's not much it's maybe like a couple of millimeters I cannot tell how much I can tell once we put the string and then I'm gonna go in the middle push the profile a little bit higher to match with the line of the string and then screw it well that's the idea I think that's gonna be all for today at the building site we were able to successfully install the first profile for the solar panels it might not look like a lot of progress but in these kind of things you cannot do it fast because it has to be 100% accurate if we want the panels to sit like aligned to the building screwing it to the structure maybe took us like I don't know 30 minutes in total it's just a matter of like doing all these extra little steps that guarantee that the solar panels are gonna be where we want them to be because you know they're gonna be part of the design of the workshop so we cannot just throw them there and see if they look nice they have to be treated like like a building material because one of the elevations is gonna have half of it is gonna be solar panels you want to see what I'm seeing imagine all these five solar panels sitting all nicely and organized on top of their cabin or the workshop I mean it's not fair the workshop is not even done I think I already have my favorite guys it's like 4 30 or something like that p.m we're gonna have lunch yesterday I went to the fish market and got clams so we're gonna do clams with rice and another fish that I got yesterday at the market and now we're gonna go in and work on the computer that's our life now we work on the building site from like 9 to 4 30 if we don't have lunch or to 6 30 if we do have lunch in the middle and then from 5ish 6 to like 11 or midnight editing Eugenia is gonna be editing one of her videos and I will be editing for this channel so you better like it please like it no I'm kidding I've been editing for a while so yeah we're switching in between you know when Eugenia needs help because it's a lot of work to edit and the first 45 episodes were all hers and I was you know like doing other things she was just a champ doing that because it's a lot of work and a lot of stress and a lot of creativity going into it and then you have analytics and things like that which is never helpful but anyways now I'm helping and it's feeling much better because we both can be working outside and then we both work inside so it's more you know it is more sustainable for her you know she's not always sitting and it's better for me also because I enjoy her company and then we have an extra set of hands to build things faster all right guys see you guys later welcome to Pepe's kitchen this is my homestead channel and I show you how to cook from your own garden Pepe! how is it? she already ate two and I'm here recording and salivating at the same time on the other side now Eugenia you're feeling good today? should we show them your paint job? it looks fantastic! today we are about to start installing the second line here the second profile here for the solar panel slow day today it's like noon so we don't have much time to talk we're gonna get ready and try to put this in like the next hour or so so we can start installing solar panels today by the way while we install the solar panels I think we might need to use the generator or not I'm not too sure we'll see if we have time to install everything or not maybe we can install the solar panels and connect them today if not we will need to charge the batteries with the generator we'll see one millimeter you ready to put the panels on top? no all right we just finished a quick snack break it's all ready for us to start putting the panels on top hopefully everything fits on the first attempt and we don't have to do too many adjustments I think we already have figured out how to do it Eugenia is a little bit scared regarding her ladder I'm not that concerned we're gonna try to tight her ladder to the actual profile to the holes that we did the bigger holes now I think I'm gonna go with the compressor real quickly clean everything up remove the ratchet that I left all the way up and once everything is clean we will disconnect the panels and start installing one by one so put the first two panels but now we just stop for a minute because Eugenia is about to post a video we want to have some time to post it in instagram if you don't know Eugenia has her own channel it's pretty sweet so you should check it out most definitely almost half of it is up you wanna see? panels are looking quite good now I need to go one by one adjusting the corners to make sure that all the corners line up with each other one millimeter down Eugenia is flying the drone Eugenia is going to travel with the battery of the drone oh guys amazing day super good mood right now because I just saw for the first time this what it looks so good oh my god and before any of you complain about this shadow line the sun is about to set so at some point will be a shadow there adjusting it to to look perfect it was very very easy this first location where it was temporarily it was kind of complicated actually I wasn't able to do it you always looked kind of not aligned I wasn't really happy with that and I thought here on top it was going to be more complicated because it's you know it's higher and it should be more complicated but no it is just 100 perfect and I love when things come out perfectly I'm extremely happy extremely grateful for the work of today we're very tired I mean we haven't eaten it's like 6 30 I don't even know so I think we're gonna just call it a day tomorrow we will connect the cables right now all the panels are connected to each other and now I need to connect a positive on this end and a negative on this other end one cable here another cable there there is no way to do it wrong I think the cables that we had for the temporary location are too short these are the cables that came out of the cabin we will need to connect them with with another connector I bought several connectors and a crimper and I didn't have it so I placed the order a couple of days ago and arrived yesterday I'm excited to use a new tool as well tomorrow we are not able to work we still have the generator we haven't used it for a few weeks already because the solar panels have been enough for us hasn't been raining too much lately but it's good to have a backup if we don't find the time tomorrow to do it then probably in a couple of days we will need to turn the generator on but that's just normal life when you are off grid my name is Eugenia Diaz I'm a designer and an artist and I'm going to tell you the story of my tiny house garden journey I took the most important decision of my life in 2019 I left my life in the city and moved into a campervan to spend more time closer at the end of 2020 I finally moved to the countryside to a little village with less than 30 inhabitants in the mountains of portugal