Category Archives: House

House

Hot Water Pipe Insulation

Hello world!

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A drainage trench

We had an issue with water pooling on the side of our house, we originally thought this was related to the neighbours driveway – it was caving this way, but after they replaced that recently, we’ve still seen water pooling … Continue reading

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A Lawnmower

The grass is growing a lot of clover, so during the week we decided to seek out a second hand mower (the person originally doing it has been slack, I wonder if our storage arrangement also got slack if they’d … Continue reading

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When it stops raining…

.. I’d like to give the car a wash and remove the leaves that have been hiding up near the windscreen. It stopped enough today but I took the time to get the radio working (only CDs were working, and … Continue reading

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Planned Gross FIT reduction

The NSW Government is proposing to legislate a reduction to the feed in tariff from 60c per kWH to 40c per kWH. It’s reduction of one third of the rate that was legislated at the time we bought. But what … Continue reading

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A new tree addition

After considering more what our desired trees will be, we went out over the weekend in search of some stone fruit trees and some kiwi fruit vines to bury the chicken house with (it’ll double as shade cover and provide … Continue reading

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Funding our projects

Finding funding for many of the changes I want to take going forward remains difficult. The solar panels are paying for themselves, but we still need to pay the upfront charge which is restricting our ability to expand and add … Continue reading

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Chickens are in!

We had finished the setup of the chook house during the week, and then set out to get some chickens. The plan is to start with just a few and see how they work out with respect to feed and … Continue reading

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The Oven is nearing completion

I’ve spent a lot of time lately on the car that I’ve left the chook house – “The Oven” – alone sort of. A few weeks ago, we bought drill bits capable of boring large holes into the stump and … Continue reading

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Passion Fruit Moves to New Home

I was contemplating making Strawberry planters which make the most of the space given to them, by placing the plants in a vertical position, growing out of pipe – the online one uses PVC pipe – we looked for alternatives, … Continue reading

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The fence, the tree.

The fence on one side might be replaced in the coming weeks / months as the owners of the townhouses look to fix their driveway (it’s eroding on the slope). The tree at the back, the one we wish to … Continue reading

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What does it mean?

I had looked at this issue with my partner recently, whilst addressing the consumption of meat. What does “sustainable” mean? Sustain – this means to continue, to ‘go forth’. Able – ‘ability’. So, sustainable is therefore the ‘ability to continue’. … Continue reading

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The floorboard oil, and rainwater!

Last weekend, the efforts began to oil up the floor boards in the house – they were sanded, and ready to oil with a 50/50 mix of Orange Terpene and Tung Oil.Movie Get Out (2017)Movie Underworld: Blood Wars (2016) The … Continue reading

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A new approach

Each time a problem comes up, we find in some cases, a fix can be implemented, and others, drag on due to external factors preventing resolution. One such issue for example, is our back tree. I saw yesterday, that our … Continue reading

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Oils ain’t oils

When it comes to flooring, we had the choice of leaving the carpet in place (but it was later discovered to be rotted, black in areas), laying new flooring over the old, or polishing up the old. The choice to … Continue reading

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The tree

We have a tree in the back left of our place, the tree has a short trunk, but branches that expand nearly the full 15m of the block. A week or so ago, we were wondering where the chook pen … Continue reading

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Staples, staples, staples…

We lifted up the carpet in our hallway first. My expectation was that the floor boards outside the bathroom would be wet, soaked, water stains visible – even possibly rotted around the edges. Not so – they actually are pretty … Continue reading

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Floorboards – Better than carpet

So far in this house, we’ve: – Replaced the previous super-six roof with a Colorbond roof, complete with R1.5 insulation (the ceiling was already insulated). – Replaced the hot water system with the Apricus Solar Hot Water collector. – Replaced … Continue reading

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Effective Pest Control

We found our first pest today. It was eating the leaves on the apple trees. I noted it yesterday after seeing the leaves had a few holes and signs of being incomplete, nothing was on them, nothing in the base … Continue reading

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A vision

not necessarily of what might eventuate, but a vision none the less. The vision is that of what our planned renovations will make possible. The large open plan Kitchen / Dining / Lounge area will open up to a back … Continue reading

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Forest of Foods

.. in the making. My partner bought some interesting points to me recently – this article is one of the few showing the benefits of growing and maintaining your own fruit and vegetables. The other angle is pesticides, sure, you … Continue reading

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Effects of cloud cover

Yesterday, I noted the solar system was producing around 1000W maximum, today was different.Watch Full Movie Online Streaming Online and Download The clouds were out in full force today, as the drips show, and the peaks were not ~1000W, but … Continue reading

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A cloud free day

Today was the best day I’ve seen for our solar system in a while, it’s cloud free, the temperature is moderate – not excessive. We broke 5kWH instead of the more desired, 6 – 7 I anticipated based on the … Continue reading

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The front yard.

I last wrote about the front yard’s large wet hole, I’ve since proceeded further with that, and now we have the treated pine posts in. 4 posts, standing upright in concrete that set pretty quickly. I did that about two … Continue reading

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Beware, Large Wet Hole

The besser block steps were never going to work out, so I want to start doing something that will work – the besser blocks reassigned to the kids for planter boxes. I’ve been playing with some different methods of putting … Continue reading

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Concrete attempt

I took the time this weekend to start fixing the front steps, with very little planning to work with, I decided I’d at the very least get the continue the path to the house, so that at least there is … Continue reading

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Painting is completed!

The painter spent the last few days finishing off painting the house. He did a great job on it, and even went further than he had to / quoted. For testing colours, I figured, I would paint the front of … Continue reading

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Granny Flat Hot Water Pipe

When we installed our solar hot water power, we replaced the leaky, useless electric hot water system on the granny flat with a pipe from the house to the granny flat. We dug the trench and paid the plumber $550 … Continue reading

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A Painter Is Chosen

A second post, I figure I might as well update on the “House” ideas. Sitting in bed one night this week, I was thinking about how else we could make our desired house plan, but a bit more functional. I’m … Continue reading

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Painting the shed door

I managed to get the shed door painted last weekend, to match our scheme for our house. Then it rained all week, starting Monday. The steps I took to do it were largely based off having a look around at … Continue reading

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