Copper Sulphate Stain For Concrete Floor

It took a little longer than I had planned, but I finally have a concrete floor:

 Once the first pour was done, about 3", we lifted the pex up so it is sitting in the middle of the slab.

 Now for a little experiment: While I was looking for information on staining concrete I found that most of the brown stains contain some form of iron sulphate. It just so happened that I had a left over bucket of Copper Sulphate that was used for weed control in our pond. Hmmm, Copper instead of Iron... Blue instead of brown... what the hell I figured I'd give it try. I can always cover it with epoxy if I don't like it ;) I'm sure some will love it, and some will hate it. I think it looks great.

 I mixed about 5 gallons of water with 2 quarts of crystals and kept stirring it every few hours for a day or so. I used one of those 1.5 gallon hand pump sprayers to apply it. I did 3 applications, brushing off the excess powder between coats (wear a good respirator, it's not deadly, but it is an irritant). While I like the look I have, 1 or 2 coats would give a lighter blue/green.

Once it was stained, I put down a coat of "Kure-N-Seal W".  Basically it allows you to seal your concrete as soon as the surface moisture is gone. They claim it slows the curing process ( read stronger crete) and protects the surface. It was perfect because there is no way I'm waiting 28 days to seal it. I need to start using the shop, and once I put my shit in the shop, I'm not taking out 30 days later to seal it :)

The sealer goes on milky white and dries clear. I apllied it with the hand sprayer as well. It was a little scary at times wondering what the final outcome would be. It went from ugly white powder, to blue/black (with clouds?), to the final blue/green copper I was hoping for.

Well, the palette of solar panels from the Evergreen bankruptcy finally showed up. Man, this is alot of panels. Now it's time to start building a ground mount. Although... I may not get to actually start building until spring. Not much snow so far, but the ground is pretty well frozen.Yes, the array is 40 feet wide!, roughly 6 kW :)

UPDATE: Never fails, It's been a really mild winter, so I started to think I had a chance of building the array before spring.... NOPE. 45 deg. one day, 16 BELOW the next :(

Some more technology to maximize my technology

Installed a new weather station. This thing will measure, and log, EVERYTHING. (wind, rain, clouds, solar energy, moon ...) It even uploads it's data to various weather services. It's currently telling me I have 401 Watts per square meter powering this laptop as I enter this post :) So, if you really want to know what the weather is like here... check it out live. Click on the weather sticker for more detail than anyone should need.

Some more of life's necessities... sorta

 

TV and Internet

 Hot Water

Doggy Windows

  Backup Generator

 A house for the generator

 Propane for hot water and backup heat.

Getting cold, although the snow has melted.