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Tue 01 Oct 2024

Unfortunately the terrain adjoining the garage falls ever so slightly towards the garage. As such when it rains heavily water flows into the building.

So we're putting a drain across the entrance.

Man it's hard going, it takes all day to dig the trench because of the rock content here.

Yeah I know, it's not straight, don't go on so.

We will cover this with gravel so it won't be visible anyway. If it was to be visible I would go to the trouble of making it straight, and would do even now if the ground wasn't so hard to dig.

Meanwhile we have an invader inside the Zen garden. The poor little Buddhas are freaking out.

Wed 02 Oct 2024

I'm adding a partition between the kitchen and the lounge room.

I did originally think to have this open plan but practicality won in that I do need some more wall space to hang the TV, and also to hide the back of the fridge and freezer.

Sat 05 Oct 2024

There be wedding bells in them thar hills.

No not us, some friends are getting married in Mount Perry and I'm the best man.

They have paid for our hotel accommodation at the Federal Inn, a really nice old converted picture theatre.

As we booked in early I had time to wander around the town looking for photos.

We had the entire second floor as our room, including things like this dormer window.

Truth is the upstairs room is really badly laid out, it would be easy to make two or even three rooms up there. No matter, not my problem.

And to think that a few years ago I actually thought of buying this building in the main street to turn into a gallery.

Don't play up in Mt Perry, they take crime seriously here.

The main street, most days you could fire that tank's cannon down there and not hit a thing.

The nice park in the center of town.

My soon-to-be-married friend is very involved with the local men's shed. They recently got a grant to buy an old Melbourne tram because...oh I dunno, because they could I suppose.

That's the actual Mount Perry behind this house.

Our room has a door at the end that leads into a loft area that is full of junk.

And from there to a balcony that overlooks the bar section of the inn.

Sun 06 Oct 2024

Some of the guests from yesterday's wedding are still around and we have breakfast at our friend's property, then head off home. This is the view from near their place.

Wed 09 Oct 2024

The plumber will be coming next week to hook up the gas and water. He will need a source of pressurised water to test everything and although I originally planned to get him to do that as well it just goes against the grain to pay someone to do something I can well do myself.

So today I plumb in the pump to the water tanks and a single outside tap. He should be able to connect to that.

There's a 2" balance pipe between the two tanks and the reason that it is that shape is twofold.

Firstly, as you can see, I'm using PVC pipe and that is not very flexible over a short distance and the fittings are not flexible at all, so this arrangemnt allows for the tanks to "breath" without breaking the pipes.

And secondly the outlets from the tanks don't align, they are offset in every plane possible and using an arrangement like this gets around that problem as you can glue the various fittings at whatever angle is required to line things up.

The ball valve at the front is for fire brigade access so they can pump from the tanks if necessary. Eventualy there will be a cam lock fitting for that purpose.

The 1" poly pipe goes under the garage to a tap. That's all working now and when the plumber comes he should be able to cut into that poly line to run copper pipe into the house.

Mon 14 Oct 2024

A neighbour knows that we plan to build a rock garden in an atrium area and he asks if we would like some large rocks that are in the way on his property.

Of course we do, so I go get them and bring them home.

While unloading this one Geri gets her finger mashed under it. It hurts like heck and the finger doesn't look good, nothing broken as far as we can tell but that's the end of her rock-handling for a while.

Tue 15 Oct 2024

NOTE: For my non-Aussie readers, a "ute" is a utiliy vehicle, AKA a pickup.

We drive into town today to buy a couple of "skins" (scrap roller door material used to protect roller doors during transport). The Bravo ute is a bit sluggish and yesterday it didn't want to run at all, but I paid little attention to that at the time. However as we approach the highway and I put the clutch in to change down gears the engine stops. I'm still moving of course so do a quick clutch start but a few seconds later have to stop at the intersection and the engine dies again.

This time I have to stop the car (with no brake booster) as the traffic is whizzing past.

I try to restart the engine but no luck and there's smoke pouring out from under the bonnet so I get out and check.

It doesn't look good I have to say and we're not leaving this intersection under power. A young bloke called Clay is behind me and he offers to help push the car off the road, which we do then he gives us a lift into town, specifically to the Grind N Grow coffee shop, where we phone a friend to come pick us up and also phone the RACQ to pick the car up, then enjoy a cappucino and a banana bread.

An hour or so later the car has been recovered and we go to check it out, I turn the engine over and there is NO compression, that's probably it for the Bravo but I'll let them diagnose the problem.

Some time later: Yep, no compression in any cylinder, the engine is toast.

So it's the wreckers for my trusty ute I guess. As it happens I'm not that upset, in fact it does take a small load off me in that I have been mulling over which vehicle to spend time and money on to get in better condition, the Bravo ute or the Cruiser, Now I don't have to decide.

That said the ute is a very useful piece of kit that does things the Cruiser no longer can because it's half converted to a camper. To be honest once the house construction is finished I would not use the ute much anyway, but of course the construction is NOT finished yet, and one thing I was about to do was harvest some large rocks from the district using the crane I made for the ute. I'm not sure how I will do that now.

Anyway we still buy the skins and I organise for Trent (the local courier) to deliver them tomorrow. I think we'll be using him a lot more in future.

Wed 16 Oct 2024

Yay, we have a (mostly) working kitchen.

Damian (the plumber/gasfitter) turned up today and with my help finished the water and gas connections to the hot water system and the sink. It takes about five hours to complete the job, I ran some of the pipes, cut the holes, and generally helped a bit which reduced the cost quite a lot I think, well he charged $1350 when the original guestimate was $2000.

So why engage a plumber when I can do all this myself? Firstly although I have done some gas fitting before it is an area that really should be handled by an expert. And secondly without the job being certified by a registered plumber you can't buy the 100-pound gas bottles and we want them.

And to be fair he did a way better job than I would have done and had the tools to use modern fittings, like a large crimper that squishes the fittings onto the pipe. No more solder, something I've done a lot of and he doesn't miss one bit.

The sheeting was designed to allow one to be removed for easy access to the rear of the oven and cooktop.

That reduced the cost a lot as well because he didn't have to grovel inside the cabinets, everything is easy to access from outside. Because I normally do all this type of work I think of such things, I have found that most house and motorhome designers don't care about this as they aren't the ones that will be doing the work later.

You can see the two pipes leading of down the hallway then turning into the kitchen wall for the sink. The two vertical pipes that are capped off will be for the shower when I get around to building that.

As you can see the system works with a 9-kilo (20lb) gas bottle and that will be a good backup, but we do want to use the 45-kilo (100lb) bottles and, as mentioned earlier, in Australia you can only get them if the installation was done by a certified gas fitter.

That's a lot of work doing all that copper. The tap is the one I installed the other day, he has connected into that line down at ground level.

Some of the cabinetry I've built for the kitchen, this is a nook for the toaster and blenders etc.

I have done some nice cabinet work in the past but I'm certainly no master cabinet maker, this is mostly store-bought panels etc that I've just put together.

Thu 17 Oct 2024

Today is a big red-letter day. We cook our first meal in the new kitchen and everything works great. There's plenty of space to prepare things and Geri is like a pig in mud.

Here are a couple more photos of the coffee nook and the hutch.

This was the old kitchen, big difference eh?

It actually served us well for many years but now that the new one is functional we have no need for it. I say I'll just go in there to have a look into removing some of the cabinetry. Half an hour later when I haven't returned Geri starts to wonder what all the banging and clanging is all about she decides to investigate, only to find that I've almost entirely dismantled the old kitchen.

Most of the kitchen is gone and I've also removed what used to be an external wall but lately has been a dividing wall between the old and the new sections of the house.

I've left the old shelving for now as a useful place to store my DVDs and other stuff that was in my office.

This is actually similar to what I have planned for this area, that is a reading and video-watching hideaway for me, and that wall will be shelves to house the DVDs and books, plus a new TV of course.

Here we see the area from the other side, looking out the picture window with the steel door entrance to the garden just to the left of the window.

Fri 18 Oct 2024

I am back to using the trailer for large loads now because of course the ute is no more. For a few months we've been throwing rubbish into it and it's chock-a-block full. Not stinky rubbish, we use a neighbour's bins for that, just cardboard, scrap wood etc. So we take the lot to the rubbish tip then head into town to clear out the ute, we removed the number plates, the toolbox and jack, plus some junk in the cab.

We still haven't found a buyer for the car but know that the two wreckers in Bundy will take it, mind you they will pay almost nothing for it, but what do you do? Yes I could pay to have it floated home, then remove the useful parts and try to sell them. Then after a month or two of faffing around and arguing with people I would finally clear $200 I would have a carcass that really was worthless and junking up my yard.

No, if I can get even just $100 for it that will do, and I'll move on.

Damian (the plumber) drops in while we are doing this and says that he has a mate that might be interested in the tray. But it turns out that his mate already has three of them, so that's a non starter.

Sun 20 Oct 2024

The kitchen is even more functional today as I've done some of the wiring, just three outlets, a 4-way one for the blender and friends, a 6-way for the TV etc, and a 2-way for the fridge and freezer.

And speaking of the fridge/freezer we have moved them from my office into the new kitchen as well, so in terms of basic functionality the kitchen is finished, still a lot of trim and some cabinet making to do though and of course the wiring has to be completed.

Mon 21 Oct 2024

I'm beginning to think that this new kitchen is a health hazard. Today Geri made a tuna bake AND an apple crumble. Both lovely but maybe I should be worrying about my waistline. And tomorrow we'll go searching for "bakeware", I don't know what that is but it kinda sounds like I should buy some larger clothes as well while we're at the shops.

Comments

Date  ::	27 Feb 2025
Name  ::	Rod
Location  ::	Perth
Comment  ::	Anyone got an elastic boiler suit to spare?
Date  ::	01 Mar 2025
Name  ::	GRAYnomad
Comment  ::	Why, you coming over to help eat all the food?
Date  ::	04 Mar 2025
Name  ::	Kevin K
Location  ::	Canada
Comment  ::	Looking pretty fancy around there Rob, I reckon old Canucks would no longer fit in with such luxury. I liked the Federal Inn room, just steps to the beer garden for me. Seems you are having some good times there. Keep it up. All the best from up here.
Date  ::	09 Mar 2025
Name  ::	cees beers
Location  ::	Dronten Netherlands
Comment  ::	Just checking if you both are ok Due to strom.Albert Regards Cees
Date  ::	09 Mar 2025
Name  ::	cees beers
Location  ::	Dronten Netherlands
Comment  ::	Sorry i mean storm Alfred
Date  ::	09 Mar 2025
Name  ::	GRAYnomad
Comment  ::	Hi Kev, yeah it's the Ritz here now, might be a bit hi falutin for you How are you going? Not the 51st state yet?
Date  ::	09 Mar 2025
Name  ::	GRAYnomad
Comment  ::	We're just fine Cees, got some heavy rain today but no big deal, Hervey Bay about 1-1/2 hours drive south got a real hammering though. Not wind I think, just rain and flooding.
Date  ::	15 Mar 2025
Name  ::	Kevin K
Location  ::	Canada for Now
Comment  ::	Ya Rob, all good here Mate. El Trumpo's birthday is 14 June, so we're thinking his generals, (and Putin) are gonna gift him Greenland or Canada on that date. At least our Canadian peso will hopefully recover a bit. Enjoy that great looking life there in country Qld.

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