Happy Australia Day! Now I’m going to do the Australian thing and talk about real estate. Later this year it will be ten years since I moved into this house. It’s got me pondering maintenance, repairs and a little bit of renovation. It started when I got my stepfather, who knows more about this kind ... [More]
Tag: house
So, how did my old wooden house cope with the heat? It’s not brilliant, but it’s also not unbearable. I was at home most of Tuesday, and graphed the temperature rise. Inside temperature from the thermostat / Outside from the BOM Moorabbin Airport readings. Unlike last time (2010), the overnight temperature had been a lot ... [More]
I’ve got a new ceiling fan in the kitchen. The bloke at the lighting shop said that in a kitchen, a metal fan is good because it can be easily cleaned — whereas in a bedroom, quieter wooden fans are more often used. He also reckoned for the size of the room, the larger 52 ... [More]
Well, I’m getting there. Last week I had a ceiling fan installed in the livingroom. It’ll help on hot days, and because I have ceiling ducted heating, also helps distribute heat better on cold days as well. To do this, the old light fitting was removed. I’m hoping it might be worth something — I ... [More]
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Cleaning out the roof
I spent about 4 hours in the roof on Sunday, with an industrial vacuum cleaner from Kennards, trying to clear out some of the residual insulation and other crap from up there. I had thought the half-day hire would be enough, but man, it’s hard work manoeuvring around up there, let alone with a big ... [More]
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Proof that roof insulation works
The lack of insulation in my roof at the moment does make a noticeable, tangible difference. Normally I have my central heating set to 20 degrees until 9:30pm, and I used to have it set to 12 degrees… I came up with that on the basis that when the insulation was in the roof, overnight ... [More]
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The plan for the house
I was chatting to a carpenter bloke about various things around the house, which helped solidify some of the ideas I’d been pondering for some time now. After years of inaction, I’m finally starting to move on them. I’ve had the Attic Ladders people come in for a quote, and they’re now booked-in to install ... [More]
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The heat in the house
I spent the day working at home yesterday rather than venture out into the world of 43 degree temperatures and train heat troubles, though admittedly I also missed out on comfy air-conditioning at work. My house doesn’t have air-conditioning. It does have internal blinds in most rooms, the exceptions being the kitchen and the bathroom, ... [More]
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Wacky idea
I’ve previously joked to my architect brother-in-law that given the relative space in my front garden (larger, somewhat wasted space) and back (smallish) garden, I should organise to have the house moved forward by 2-3 metres. We laughed it off, but by chance I found there are companies that move houses from anywhere to anywhere, ... [More]
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The gurgle
It seems at my place that once or twice a year, the back toilet will become a temporarily slightly clogged. The flush fills up the bowl with a suspicious amount of water, and empties more slowly than usual. And it becomes a battle of wits: should I call in the plumber (with his special machine) ... [More]
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By the power of Greywater!
My rough estimate is that at home it takes about three litres of running the hot tap before the water actually gets hot. One of my most commonly-used taps is in the laundry sink, which doubles as a sink for the back toilet. Being a laundry sink it’s big enough for a ten litre bucket, ... [More]