Although there are lots of things that are quite depressing now, on the positive side, it’s good to see signs that spring is getting closer.
Spring approaches…..
Category: House
An unannounced inspection
We were surprised when, unannounced, a Yarra Valley Water guy turned up at the front door. He wanted to put his camera down the sewer boundary trap. Well, yes, we know that the sewers in our area are old and there have been “issues” in the main, upstream from us, but we were a little sceptical. Just the same, we allowed him to go ahead, as he seemed credible, had YVW insignia on his clothing, appeared to have appropriate equipment, was knowledgeable about the location of the boundary trap and the sewer servicing our property and there seemed little “downside”.
And indeed, he did use his equipment to check the boundary trap. He told me that this was a “preventive maintenance” check, and that all was well, including in the short section from the boundary trap to the sewer main just the other side of the back fence.
Nevertheless, I subsequently emailed Yarra Valley Water to check, and to make the point that we had not received any notification. They promptly replied that the work was legitimate, as part of a program to assess the condition of property sewer branches via CCTV, but were silent as to why we had not had prior notification. To follow up or not to follow up on this point? I pondered the matter, but when the promised letter turned up the next day (dated just the day before the guy arrived – no wonder it hadn’t arrived by the time he got here), I let matter rest.
Landlines
As I’ve previously said, we still prefer to use a landline instead of our mobiles. But we’re regularly made aware that this is very definitely the exception, not the rule. When we’re asked for our phone number, we proffer the landline number, but there’s often a follow up, along the lines of, “oh, don’t you have a mobile in case we want to text you?”. So, we give them a mobile number, usually with a request along the lines that we’d prefer to be contacted on the landline.
As if! There seem to be sections of society who don’t understand that it’s possible to have a phone number that doesn’t begin with “04”. When the call, comes, it’s invariably on the mobile, not the landline. Estate agents and tradies are the worst, of course, but they are by no means the only ones. Age seems to have something to do with it (that is, the 20-somethings are most prone to this habit), but this is by no means determinative.
I’ve resorted to stating in the voicemail message on my mobile phone that the caller ought to try our landline!
Winter
Well, 1st June, and winter is with us! The rain is “good” of course, or at least better than drought….. . But it does remind me that some of our guttering needs attention.
Solar hot water
We installed a solar hot water unit some years ago. From my rough calculations, I don’t think we’ve come out ahead financially (that is, the gas we saved probably hasn’t offset the cost), but it did seem to contribute to the environment in that we were “doing our bit”.
Well, that was until the storage unit always felt cold. The context is that the water heated by the roof panels gets stored in a large tank. When a tap is turned on the water in the tank flows through a gas booster heater. If the water is already hot, then no “boost” is required, but if the water isn’t hot enough, the heater kicks in.
Hence, the fact that the stored water was always cold meant that we were totally reliant on the booster to heat the water and it took longer to flow through.
We finally got around to calling the plumber. He confirmed that the pump that circulates the water through the system and to the panels had broken. He had to find out how much it was going to cost to repair it. The answer that came back was that a new pump was needed, and by the time installation was taken into account, it was going to be more that $1000. And then, given the age of the storage tank, we might be up for a complete new system in the next few years. For the time being, we’ve put the whole issue on “hold”, even if it means we have to wait a bit longer for the hot water to flow and our environmental credentials are suffering a bit!
Auctions
One day we’ll probably “down size”. We don’t have any immediate intentions along these lines, although during our renovations, the thought certainly crossed our minds at times! I still regularly attend any interesting auctions in the area (if I’m around) so I keep this possibility in mind.
There were two recent auctions of properties with “potential”. I attended both. The first certainly “ticked the boxes” in a number of respects, but the price at which it was passed in was higher than I would be comfortable paying – and, at least to my mind, was higher than the market would justify (although it is still listed as being for private sale at an even higher price). I acknowledge that judging the market at present is not easy. Just the same, the only bid, a vendor bid, was very significantly over the Council’s CIV value, and around here, the CIV values have been a fairly good guide. Not so many months back, there were a number of sales at well below CIV, and even since then, the CIV values haven’t been been exceeded by very much at the auctions I’ve attended. True, CIV values are just one aspect, and the property concerned has some desirable features, but the the price issue has been enough to extinguish the small spark of enthusiasm I might otherwise have had.
The other property was older, but solid. It, too, was passed in, and it, too, is still listed as being for private sale (but the price is only available on application). However, S has ruled this place out of consideration for a couple of reasons that are no doubt valid – although had our appetite for a move been greater, I could have worked up a little enthusiasm for this one (and we may have been able to work through the issues).
But the upside of all this is that our commitment to remain in situ has been reinforced. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel with our current work: the plasterers have finished the remaining rooms, the painter is booked in, and then all that will remain will be to lay the carpet in the last two rooms.
Ridge tiles
I think ridge tiles are one of those things you hardly notice – until you become aware of them! But when you start to observe them, they can be quite interesting.
In our street, there’s a row of houses, each basically similar, but all subtly different. One of (several) distinguishing features is that the ridge tiles of each house are different. But up and down the street, there’s also a great varierty of styles.
Individuality amongst ridge tiles sounds good, but gave rise to “challenges” when we did our original extensions (years ago) and I thought it would be a good idea to have ridge tiles on the extension that matched the other ridge tiles.
I searched in the second-hand building materials yards, but to no avail: there are just so many different designs. I only found one that matched, and it’s still in the shed!
Very few new houses have ridge tiles, but in a nearby development (from the 1980s, on the site of a former army drill hall) decorative ridge tiles were used.
New carpet
The … trouble? issue? challenge? … with getting new carpet is that the floors have to be clear. With all the other work we’ve had done recently, that is, underpinning, plastering, painting and fixing the squeaky floorboards, the main items of furniture can be left in the room. So, part of the deal with the carpet people was that they would move the furniture. Just the same, we felt it appropriate for us to move all the loose items, leaving only the most cumbersome items for them to deal with. They did this quite effectively, first laying one area, then moving the furniture items around.
So, carpet laying involves massive disruption, yes, but at least it doesn’t involve a lot mess or dust and it’s over and done with in a day (at least the first installment).
There were four guys in the carpet laying team (some speaking a language I didn’t identify! from the sub-continent?). I had been told that we’d get a call from them on the morning of their arrival to confirm things.
I was slightly uneasy about what seemed to be rather late notice, but so it was: the phone call came at 7 am to say that they were loading up and would be here in an hour so so (which they were). So it worked for us, but just how it would work if we had to have more complex access arrangements, I’m not sure.
We’re quite happy with the choice of carpet. You always worry that, no matter how carefully you look at samples and patches, things such as carpet might look different when laid in a number of rooms. But we think it’s come up well.
But we’re not happy with aspects of the laying. Most importantly, a phone wire was broken or cut in the process. This is an integral part of our post-NBN phone network. We called the office and are waiting to hear their response. Pity the layers didn’t ‘fess up directly to us.
In a couple of places, the carpet hasn’t been very well aligned to the doorways, but I guess we’ll live with that. Moreover, carpet laying apparently doesn’t involve much in the way of cleaning up: no vacuuming, and lots of litter in the street.
There are still two rooms yet to be done and it seems that we have to store the underlay and carpet for these (while we get the plastering and painting done). But for now, we’re able to work on getting most of the house back to “normal”, which will be nice. It’s been about nine months since the work first started.
Squeaky floorboards
The carpet is booked in to be laid, but what about those squeaky floorboards? The squeaks appear to have become more noticeable of late, for what reason, I don’t know. But obviously they had to be fixed before the new carpet goes in.
Getting a handyman turned out to be more complex than I had hoped. The carpet people gave me a name, but not only was he initially hard to pin down, but he later wanted to change the date after we set one. When in a moment of frustration I asked whether he wanted the work, his response was to the effect that he had so much lined up, he was doing us a favour in coming at all. So we parted ways.
Long story short, after helpful input from a number of sources (thanks all, if you’re reading this), we located a very acceptable handyman. He could do the work in line with our timetable, and it turned out that he knew what to do. There are some quirks with floorboards, including that when you fix a squeak in one place, another one sometimes erupts a board or two away! But it all got done, and although the price estimate was a little on the vague side (well, the scope of the work was a little uncertain), the cost, while not in bargain basement territory, turned out to be what I’d call “fair”.
Buying carpet
We’ve reached the stage where we can update the floor coverings. Our present thinking is that we’ll stick with carpet in the front of the house, although the possibility of sanding back the floorboards in the hallway did cross our minds.
We made a number of visits to carpet retailers. We’ve been assured that the laying process will include moving the furniture as needed, removing the old carpets, fixing the squeaky floorboards as well as the actual laying of the carpet. It all seems a big “ask”, so we made an appointment to get things measured. When the guy arrived, we made a final choice about the colour, and since he reassured us that all the other issues were covered, and the price he quoted was in line with our expectations, we signed up.
Now we’ve got a date when they’ll come to lay it. It will be good to get the house properly “sorted”, but it does sound that the day when it all happens could be a little traumatic!
Musings and Mutterings 