EXCHANGE INTERFACE

What if I don't want to run the electricity in my household like a standard Australian household?
 
( thinky thoughts )

Plumbers at 7am this morning. The knock on the door had me leaping out of bed and throwing on clothes - some of them initially inside out.

...I had a sudden thought. We leave the door open with the screen door (security grill) locked. So there's airflow in the more humid nights. I'm hoping I had the dress properly on before I walked out into the kitchen.

Oh well. If I flashed the guys, they didn't bat an eyelash when it came time to talk about the water issues.

Anyway, the water trickling noise? Yes, it was our house. Yes, it was our water system. And yes, it had been going for a while. When I turned off the water mains at our house the noise stopped. So, uh, we filled up a few buckets for washing, then turned off the water mains so it would stop leaking.

It turned out to be the crimped end of a copper pipe had started leaking. The plumber (and assistant) turned off the water, climbed under the house, and cut off the crimp, then affixed an actual proper cap onto it. End water leak!

Then he replaced the washers in the bathroom sink so they didn't leak anymore and cleared out the spout so it would actually, you know, produce water. He replaced the kitchen mixer tap which was leaking into the sink. And he checked the bathtub's drainage.

We have no idea how long the leak's been going. Long enough to warp the kitchen floorboards a little, which is not great. Maybe they'll settle down once they dry? We can hope!

Thank you to everyone who responded to my "food prep exec dysfunction" and "argh tidying/sorting" posts. Your answers and suggestions were helpful and I am going to try to take them.

I suspect that the reason for the sudden bout of exec dysfuction is "mild depression/anxiety" brought on by the lack of company in the house, and just me and my thoughts and the various house issues that I'm facing without my sister to whack me out of it.

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Anyway, I got pizza last night, and 1 large sized pizza with 8 slices will cover me for four meals.

I've ordered some ready-made meals to arrive on Monday, hopefully I can divvy them into boxes that can just be dumped into a container and heated up.

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The 'new' 2ndhand lounges have arrived and they are...LARGE. As in, larger than I expected and possibly larger than the last lounges we had! But most of that size is actually couch space, and the cushions and the backs are removable for cleaning. And they're pretty much what I was looking for when I was hunting for couches - configurable and cleanable. They also have feather pillows inside the back and arm cushions which makes them really very comfy.

4 units are in an L-shape in the lounge, and I have the 5th unit in my study. It's going to sit between two bookshelves, and with another shelf over it. That's going to be the 'storage wall' but also the lounge will be somewhere for B1 to sit while I'm WFH so we're all in one room, saving energy. Theoretically, anyway.

The lounges do need 'feet', though. I'm just in contact with the company who made the original lounges, but they only seem to sell the feet in plastic now - at least on the site. However, I called the company and they said they have a small number of the old metal feet, so I'm trying to source those.

I mean, we're not roughhousers, so the plastic feet would probably suit fine, but if you can get the longer-lasting option, why not?

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I have decided (with the advice of my bible study leader) that the cracks in the house are probably settling, due to the weight of the windows. It was good to talk to him and get that concern reassured. I just needed someone to tell me that the house wasn't going to fall apart, and he was practical and went through the 'worst case scenario' and reminded me that their house had issues with subsidence and everything and he fixed it.

J's a bit like a big brother, really - wisecracking, smartass, kind of similar outlook and personality, but also practical and pragmatic and reassuring on matters like this.

But it is a little disconcerting actually hearing the cracks happen.

Now, the big concern is the shifting of the clay under the house, and the ground cracks which I can't see under the lawn grass. I would like to find someone who has a "pipe camera" who would be willing to look at the extent of the holes. Is it a really long crack across the clay lens or is it a few small holes, or is it a series of them? Does it look like it was caused by drought-rain cycles, or is it vermin tunnels?

The guy who came to look over the house looked at the major hole we could spot and suggested infilling it with soil. Actually finding clean soil (would really rather not have, say, lead or heavy-metal tainted, especially not in a space where I want to eventually grow vegies) will be another job entirely. And then filling up the hole? Oof. My compost would be bad, though - high volume of organic matter in it and while that absorbs water really well, it also decomposes very well.

The house inspector hasn't contacted me since he left, hasn't invoiced me for payment, hasn't sent the report. I mean, I'm not really particularly worried, but it would be nice to hear from them.

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My work contract has just renewed! Six months, same daily rate. Now, I have to apply for six weeks of vacation time in December and both reassure everyone that it's not all going to fall apart while I'm away, while also making sure they don't think they can do it without me.

I'm pretty sure that my value in the team is more in communications than in technical - I'm good at explaining the differences betwee technical and business understanding, and generally pretty personable. People seem to like that, even in IT departments.

But it's keeping the job that's important to me. Also: I hate job-hunting. Also, if I can keep this for another three years, it might be the longest time I've ever been employed by a company!

--

B1 has decided to extend her holiday by a week if she can get in contact with her travel agent back in Sydney. Which is good! Except that I miss her. But that's no reason to drag her back here! And I've been gone for really long periods of time before (heck, I'm planning to be away for six weeks at the end of the year) so I can't talk.

I still miss having her around, though.

Property inspector came over, he let me shadow him, explained things along the way when I asked questions. Maybe in his 50s, the kind who appreciates someone who asks questions, and respects someone who wants to know more.

The young tradies these days tend to put on a more superior attitude; dismissive. You ask questions and they give one-word answers. I suspect a lot of time they can't answer the questions because they don't know the answers, so they don't like the questions in the first place.

Anyway, it looks like it's more along the lines of rain damage from roof leakage around the edges of various tiles. Some of the tiles have cracked and splintered, and the roof generally will need repairs - luckily, we're going into a dry spell, so it shouldn't be too bad. But we will need to hire someone to look over the roof and fill in the gaps they can.

Also will need to pay someone to trim the jacaranda down (again - didn't do it enough before), or find someone who wants to do tree pruning/trimming.

At least it's not structural, even if roof repairs will set us back a chunk. Also, we're probably going to have to regularly trim back the jacaranda and regularly clean out the gutters.

Ooh, there's a nice 'clouds-on-fire' sunset taking place outside. Lovely.

Wait, now it's gone.

It's a coooooold winter. For us, anyway. In our houses that were built as though the temp would never go below 15C or above 30C, during a time when energy was cheap and "eh, if it's too extreme, we'll just turn on the aircon/heating".

Times have changed and the builders are all snugly in the ground or in a nursing home, while the people living in their houses shiver or sweat, and the people living in the houses subsequently built to a "we'll just turn on temperature control" standard (ie. none at all) shiver or sweat...

The bill always comes due. It's just that sometimes we don't care who pays it, so long as it's someone else.

It just occurred to me that this is perhaps the perfect winter to use the timed gas heater.

I mean, we used it a couple of winters back, but B1 didn't like the smell of gas. However, she's not in the house this winter to object! I'll try to remember to dig it out of storage tonight. Mind you, gas prices are kinda crazy, so it could get pricey - meanwhile, the solar appears to be doing pretty well at keeping our bill down.

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Unpacking the house is still not happening. I'm just not managing to sort through things - I get hamstrung by decision-making about what goes where, how do I sort things, what about memento stuff?

The person who came around to assist in working out the sound system got it working!

It still cuts out if you turn it too loud, but we're not loud watchers (okay, B1 isn't a loud watcher and neither is B2).

I watched the opening sequence of Pacific Rim to ensure that it worked and, as ever, found my throat thickening up at the world coming together. I didn't really enjoy Pacific Rim: Uprising. The managed to take the heart of the first movie out of it, and it never really recovered from that point onward.

Even in the opening scenes of PR, you get a good sense of the world and the people in it. You like Raleigh and Yancy and Tendo, Pentecost is the anchor from then to now, and when they start up in the "future" (Yancy died in 2020 - man, I had a moment watching the dates come up), Mako being caught out for trash-talking Raleigh in front of him is so relatable, with Gottlieb and Geizler the comic relief.

Anyway, now I just need to get longer cords for the sound system to go around the room, and in the meantime we need to not trip over the cords so much...

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I did get the front curtains up, so now we're not on display to every person walking by. There's been a string of robberies and break-ins to cars in the area, so it's good not to have our complete entertainment system on public display any longer!

Unfortunately, the curtains I was going to hang on the front window turned out to need a wash, so I ran them through the washing machine...and then it began to rain. I hung them out anyway, and have a few buckets up to catch the drips that are happening through the porch roof...

Oh damn, I think it's going to rain all this week...

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The chooky-babes are laying again! Well, Q1 (Carambah) is laying and has been for the last couple of weeks, while Sissy has just started up again - just as we sail into winter! Be interesting to see if she lays through winter.

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I got some of the study floor polished; but I think I need decent light to do it by, so I've put it off until tomorrow.

B2 helped me move my bed back into place,

Might be an early night for me; B1 got up for about an hour earlier tonight, but that's been about it so far.

Hockey tomorrow, feeling a bit run-down and exhausted, frankly. And it'll likely be raining. Not gonna be fun.

* do things by night in rooms that we're not occupying by night
- lounge
- dining
- kitchen
- study

* do things by day in rooms that we're not occupying by day
- laundry (concerns about cats)
- bedrooms
- bathroom

Friday afternoon:
- seal bathroom window - maybe do this right before the shower?
- seal study window - DONE

Friday night:
- seal kitchen window
- seal dining window

Saturday morning
- seal my bedroom window

Saturday afternoon
- seal

Finished paint on kitchen windows, did one coat of bathroom (might be enough for just one). Made a plan for mosaics on the bathroom window.

( full house )

It's a lot. I'm not sure I'm even going to manage it. There's a few things to throw out and sort through still, all of B1's room to clear (she didn't manage it before the windows, and I have a feeling she's barely going to manage it before she goes overseas) and I suspect I'm going to be holding the storage space all winter...

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GOALS for the week
- go for a run every day (okay, I didn't manage today; too exhausted)
- seal up the windows/baseboards in the study, my bedroom
- get B1's bookcase out of her room and onto marketplace
- write my fiction words every day

I have packed and boxed and stacked and stored all weekend.

The study is almost empty, so is the lounge room. We've cleared out a lot of the dining room, it's just what's on the dining table now.

We have the lounge room pretty much divested of everything, and the lounge itself will be going tomorrow or the day after. Apparently a lot of people want a leather lounge, although the current person who is coming for it keeps badgering me for photos of any damage. I haven't given him the address yet, and I'm really liking the person who's next in line...

My bedroom needs the figurines taken down (and dusted off), and the last of the things under the bed taken out and moved away.

My study desk needs moving back and across, and also clearing and sorting. I have a whole pile of papers that are going to get sorted over the next week and boxed up and put away. I'm going to have a fairly major issue if I need to find anything, on the other hand. And I should probably get my tax filing for last financial year sorted out.

So many little things to do still, though. Sorting and packing and moving things away from the windows on the porch. That's still a job and a half. A friend was going to come over today and help, but he didn't contact me or turn up so I'm guessing he either forgot or got busy with his family (his SIL is coming to live with him and the family, so they're probably busy).

Laundry tidying up. Kitchen tidying up.

The big thing that I'll need help with is getting the three external shades down off the outside walls next weekend. I can pretty much do the internal curtains myself (oh, those'll need boxing up).

Oh, man, also: dropcloths. Must ask if anyone in the neighbourhood has some that they'd be willing to loan.

I'm absolutely shattered.

But I went out last night with friends from church. Actually, I kind of invited myself after I heard a few were going to see a band play at an inner-city pub. But they were amenable and didn't seem to mind, so...that's good. Still feeling a bit raw lately, though.

Okay, about to go pick up the sister from the party she's been at all day. I'm glad she had the day out, but she's probably going to be a little bit wrecked tomorrow. Also possibly a bit wrecked after she sees what I did with the furniture around the place...

It's a most blustery day...

This morning, had a guy arrive to measure the windows. What followed was a worrying hour or so of measurements, prying up window architraves to determine exactly how large the window space was between the 'noggins' (vertical posts) and the studs (horizontal posts). Also, a discussion on moving things around so the windows can be accessed when they do the actual work, and likely having to hire a storage pod to put stuff in while the work is being done, because we don't have the storage space for it straight up.

I'll probably start moving things around outside before we get to

Around mid-morning, I contacted a number that had been given on the local FB group for a cleaner. I gave them my address and they turned up this afternoon around 2pm. One hour later (probably closer to 45 minutes, actually), they'd cleaned the house, and they're willing to go a standard appointment every 2 weeks. Considering we've spent a year trying to get cleaners in, with one cleaning company dropping out on us (couldn't get a worker), and two independent cleaners deciding they couldn't do it, this was unexpected but I grabbed it with both hands.

They were thorough. Picking up things and wiping down surfaces. Wiping down splashbacks and cupboard doors. Maybe not as assiduous with the corners in the laundry, but still. I was impressed and pleased, and am more than happy to pay their rate for 2 people for an hour. (Or two. However long it takes.)

Anyway, definitely getting them back.

I also have a feeling that there's mould in the eaves and its seeping into both the study and my room. Slight discolouration on the architraves, and a crack in the ceiling of the study. Need to look up how to fix that.

Anyway, on to dinner, maybe a snooze, and then bible study.

Hark that wind!