Okay, okay! I’ve been slack updating my blog, so I should give an update of all the different tasks I’m doing and where I’m up to with them.

Tea Hedge

• After planting the tea hedge it was realised that the area gets too wet and the plants would drown.
• I’ve started building a small retaining wall around the hedge location so I can fill it with dirt and raise the tea plants above the pools of water that form.
• I have installed 3 of the 3m sections and 1 of the 1 metre sections of the retaining wall.  I still have to install 2 more 3 metre sections and a 1 metre section.
• After completing the retaining wall I will need to dig up all the tea plants and add approximately 4 or 5 cubic metres of soil.
• To complete the retaining wall I had to purchase 22 x 3 metres sleepers, 52 x 150mm screws, 60 x 75mm screws, a chainsaw (to cut the sleepers) and a post-hole digger (’m not going to manually dig 600mm into pug soil).
• I still need to adjust the over-flow pipe on my tank so It does not fill the tea hedge area.
• The wall should be completed this Saturday (although I will not have the dirt by then).

Concrete Removal

• The concrete removal hasn’t progressed much lately.
• About 1/3rd of the concrete has been removed.
• A further 1/3rd has been broken, ready to be removed.
• I hope to have this done either Sunday this week or Saturday next week.

Ensuite

• The ensuite is slowly progressing.
• The electrician, unfortunately, found full-time work in the area and has not been able to do the wiring as yet.
• After the electrician has done the wiring I will install the other half of the roof and the cement sheet walls.
• I currently have the majority of parts to do the plumbing in the ensuite, this will be started as soon as possible.
• I will begin with the waste-water pipes, then proceed to the cold water pipes.
• Hot water installation will be combined with solar hot water installation.
• Window frosting will be installed after I have painted the ensuite, which will happen after the cement sheet is installed.
• Floor tiling will happen after the painting, and then I will just have to put everything in place.

Robe

• I’ve worked out what color to do the robe.
• I need to buy the wood to build the robe next.
• I will do this after I have completed the ensuite.

Waste-water System

• The waste-water system plans are currently with the council and should be approved this week.
• The waste-water system will be installed once I have completed the backyard and ensuite.

Well I had an interesting weekend!

Dad rocked up late on Friday night so we chatted for a bit before disappearing off to our beds.

Saturday we came into Lismore, collected some stuff from the Tender Centre and had breakfast.  We then spent a bit of time doing some odd jobs around the house and relaxing before draining the last of the petrol out of my housemate’s car and then installing half the roof in the ensuite.

Dad left early on Sunday morning to fly back to Melbourne.  Later on Sunday, one of my housemates turned up and let me know that they were moving out.  I’d kinda guessed this.  So while he packed some of their stuff I mowed the lawn and then being completely exhausted and dehydrated I collapsed on the couch.

For the coming week I’m planning on cleaning the house a bit more; the electrician is due tomorrow (Tuesday) to get some of the stuff done in the ensuite and robe area and then I’ll try and get soem more of the renovations done later in the week.

I think the current generation of late teens/early 20s has lost any understanding of respect and are too self-centred.

I’m sure I’ve hinted at this before; but this morning it was highlighted to me, and it got me thinking.

The case in point is that of my housemates.

When the mousemates moved into my house the deal was that they would cook and do the garden.  To date living at my house has effectively saved them $2,000; it has cost me money in increased electricity bills (they have the tv on all day, fail to turn off lights for days on end and are fond of running the airconditioner with the doors open), damage to property (cigarette burns in a couch, stains on another couch, damage to a water pump and jobs that have only been done by half and will require me to spend money to fix or complete the job).  To date they have not paid me any of the money they owe me for their fridge or washing machine (excluding the first payment shortly after purchasing the whitegoods) at the start of last year.  Additionally I have had to help them with moving stuff and collecting a drowned car from by a creek.  When the housemates decided to get a dog they asked about getting a specific dog that was small, I agreed to this but they did not end up getting that dog; instead they got Leylah, a border collie and as such a much larger dog.  I’m sure there are other things, but they obviously aren’t important enough to remember.

As I mentioned in a previous post my car window has also been left open, the first time resulted in oen housemate being banned from the car for a short period of time, the second occasion resulted in a more permanent ban.  These bans would have been avoided if said housemate has apologised for leaving the window open or had asked if any damage had been caused.  No damage was caused, but the lack of concern for my property is what annoys me.

Last night the issue was raised when the housemate who is banned from the car asked for a lift into town.  I told her I would not take her into town and that I was going to take my motorbike, I also reminded her that she was banned from the car.  Her response was “that’s just stupid”; I disagree, what is stupid is her lack of ability to think and her lack of respect and concern for other people and their property.

This morning when I got up this housemate was ready to go into town and asked for a lift again, once again I told said housemate that I was taking the bike, the ute costs a lot more to run and that there was a ban on the use for the car.  My housemate then tried offering to put $20 of fuel in the ute (it costs around $20 in fuel for the return trip, plus wear and tear on the car bringing the total cost of the trip to around $40), once again I reminded my housemate that they were banned from the car.  At this point my hosuemate started crying because “I can’t deal with spending another day in the house”.  A comment was made “well we’ll just have to move out then” as my housemate stormed off.  As if moving out is a threat to me; if they move out I’ll have to do the garden myself (it will most likely get done quicker without them anyway) and I will have to cook for myself; in return is will save several hundred dollars every quarter in power, I will have less stress about what they have done wrong or broken, I wont have to put up with a large dog running around the house and making a mess and I will have a house that once cleaned will stay clean for a long period of time.

If these housemates showed some respect, cleaned up after themselves, had some pride in the residence in which they live and stopped expecting everyone to do what they want, then their life would be a lot easier and people might be willing to help them.  If they do move out I am tempted to tell them the washing machine and fridge both stay as they have not been paid for; perhaps that will help teach them to pay their debts and to treat peoples property with respect.

So, I got home expecting to find the place still in a mess and having to go off at the housemates, but I got a pleasant surprise!  The laundry floor didn’t have clothes on it, neither did the bathroom floor, even the kitchen looks like it’s had a minor effort made in it (the bits of the bench that I could see have been cleaned).

So, basically I’m assuming my Facebook status of “Michael is somewhat annoyed with people who fail to show any respect for a person or their property!” was interpreted by my housemates as being about them.  I have banned one of them from the car, her response was “Oh, okay”, I didn’t really expect an apology, would have been nice if I got one though.

I elected not to go off at them tonight about the lack of cleanliness in the house.  I’ll see if they keep cleaning the house after today, and go off if they seem to stop.

My hope is that buy Friday when I get home from work the shared areas of the house will be clean; early next week I would like to see the storage room neatened up as when they moved in their boxes were just chucked on top of mine.  Once those things are done the challenge will be to keep the house that way.

Well this morning “the straw that broke the camel’s back” event happened.

Those I’ve chatted to online will no doubt have had to put up with me venting about my housemates who seem incapable of thinking and who fail to do anything overly useful.  Well I’ve given up on being nice, apparently it just doesn’t work on these people.

The event that has caused me to crack the shits was that one of them left my ute window open over night and as such I got a wet-ass on the way to work.  Thankfully we didn’t get any really heavy rain as I’m sure they would object to me demanding $300 to get the seat covers removed to allow the seat to dry properly.

Anyway, when I get home the law will be getting laid down (unless they happen to read this and realise they fucked up and do something about it).

Here’s a quick outline of what is going to be said: housemate who left the window down will be banned from the car, said housemate has been banned from the car for a couple of weeks in the past for this same offence, this is a permanent ban.  Additionally, both housemates will be told to keep the common areas of the house clean (common areas include the living room, kitchen, bathroom, laundry and outdoor entertaining area).  I will allow until Friday afternoon (upon my return home from work) for this to be completed or they will be given notice to vacate the premises.  Upon completion of the cleaning, the house will be kept in a reasonable state and any mess that is made will be cleaned in a reasonable time-frame (within a couple of hours) or notice to vacate will be issued.

Additionally, when the housemates moved in during November the deal was that they would stay until the end of February and they would have the garden completed in that time.  I am aware that the backyard could not be worked on as I have been trying to organise the installation of the waste-water system, but in the time they said they would complete the entire garden they have barely done any work on the front garden.  If I value their rent at $125 per week (they do not pay rent as they should be working on the garden), I have paid approximately $1750 to get a tea hedge planted, the lawn mown a couple of times and minimal work done on the front garden.  Due to the lack of work, I will be requiring them to complete the front garden within 2 weeks.

Housemates, if you read this, pull your finger out and do some work when I’m not at home.  I’m not your fucking father, and I don’t expect to have to treat you like children to keep my house in a reasonable state of cleanliness; additionally, I don’t expect to have to harrass you about doing a few hours work every week to cover your rent.  If you can’t keep the place clean, or if you have no intention of completing the work in the garden, I suggest you find yourself somewhere new to live and you go about it fairly quickly.

As part of the renovations around the house I’m generating a lot of rubbish.  The only solution I can think of for this is to take multiple loads of rubbish to the local rubbish dump or to hire a skip bin.

I’ve tried calling around and searching the net and looking in the newspaper to find anyone that can provide skip bins to the Kyogle Council area and only one company services the area.

Here are the prices I was quoted by Richmond Waste to get a 10 cubic metre skip bin to my property:

• Delivery Charge: $450
• Waste Disposal Charge: $105/tonne
• Bin Rental (first 2 weeks free): $12/day

This means to have the bin on-site for 4 weeks and to load say 5 tonne of rubbish (I have a lot of concrete to dispose of) would cost $1143.  I’m thinking it would be cheaper to go to the local dump with a few truck/trailer loads of rubbish.

Until the rain came this weekend I’ve had a fairly productive weekend.

During the week Nathan attempted to convert his car into a submarine; unfortunately this attempt failed at the second creek crossing, the car stalled and filled with water.  This resulted in a good portion of the weekend being utilised to try and get his car functional again.

On Friday night we went to collect the car and had to remove the spark plugs to get the water out of the engine.  This went well until the battery died, so we had to borrow some jumper leads off the people in a nearby house.  Eventually we got the water out and started the car.  The 30km drive home was uneventful but the car was running rough because of the water in the fuel tank.  We put the car in the garage and Nathan started removing the interior.

On Saturday Ren and I went into town, looked through the Tender Centre (where once again I placed way too many tenders) and did some shopping.  Included in the shopping were things such as chassis stands, oil drip trays and an oil change kit for fixing Nathan’s car; we also got about 9 Sodastream flavours.

Saturday afternoon was spent doing a few bits to Nathan’s car and generally taking it easy.

Today (Sunday) we got off to a late start, but we’re removed a large amount of wire mesh from the garden, broken a heap more concrete so it is ready for removal and removed most of the grapevine and associated wires.

The plan is for Nathan to work on his car next weekend when my Dad is here; my Dad has a reasonable amount of mechanical knowledge, so things that Nathan and I don’t know about my Dad can help with.  I’ll try and finish off the jackhammering and removal of the concrete and Ren will potter around the garden or similar.  I’m also hoping to get some more work done on the ensuite during the week so it is ready for the electrician to come and do all the wiring.

Overall I think we’re relatively on track to have things completed by the time they need to be done.  The backyard should be ready for when the waste-water system is installed; the ensuite should be ready for the electrician and then will have more work done to be ready for us to run the waste-water pipes prior to the installation of the waste-water system; assuming finances allow for it I should be able to get the rainwater collection tanks in place and connected just after the new tank arrives and I should be able to finish off my walk-through robes before my Mum gets here mid-year so she can see what I’m doing with the place.

Well after a heap of research and quotes and all the other fun stuff I have finally got the on-site waste-water management system happening.

I’ve decided to go with the Biolytix system which will fit in around the same sized hole as my current septic tank is in.

To get the system installed I have a fair bit of preparation work to do.  The system will need approximately 80 square metres of trenching (not sure on the actual depth of the trench, so i can’t quote cubic metres).  After measuring up the backyard and discussing options with one of the installers we determined that it would not fit in the space I currently have available.

The problem is caused by me wanting an area set aside to add new water tanks at a later date.  These new tanks will ultimately replace the existing tanks and will provide me with more useable space in the yard.  To allow enough space for these new tanks I have to remove some of my existing tanks for the trench to run through the area they currently occupy.

To get the system installed I now need to do the following (some bits are being done by Nathan and I, others by the installation company):

• remove all concrete/cement from the backyard;
  • Thanks to a “demolition breaker” or small jackhammer from Bunnings this is a work in progress and is a relatively easy job; the flat tyre on the wheelbarrow is making the job a bit harder though.
• cut a trench from the existing septic area to the backyard;
  • This is required to allow the new waste-water system to pump the water out to the trench.  Thankfully it doesn’t seem like it will be too hard to do this with the demolition breaker.
• install a new tank next to the existing poly tank;
  • This will be done by the installation company.
• pump the water from the existing poly tank to the new one;
  • As I already have a pump on the existing tank this is an easy process that will take a bit of time but will not be hard to do.
• raise the existing poly tank to ground level;
  • This will be done by the installation company and is required so the over-flow heights on the two tanks are level.
• pump the water from the existing metal tanks to the existing poly tank;
  • This has to be done so we can remove the metal tanks.  One tank will remain full of water to prime the waste-water system.
• remove the metal tanks;
  • A friend is wanting to steal these tanks, so that should make removal easier.
• level the backyard;
  • The entire backyard needs to be levelled so the trenches will work effectively.
• install the trenches and waste-water system.

To cope with the removal of the existing tanks and because of my future plans for the property I am currently looking to purchase 8 x 500 litre tanks.  These will be placed near each down-pipe on the house to capture the rain water.  Each small tank will then have a float pump installed and will pump the water to the tanks near the garage.  The down-pipes from the garage will be linked directly to the main tanks.

Initially I will need to install 4 tanks with pumps as some of the down-pipes will have to be removed during the installation process.  The remaining 4 tanks and pumps will be instaleld after I add the third and final tank near the garage.  This tank will be much larger than the existing one and the new one and will increase my total water-holding abilities.

My current poly tank (tank 1) is approximately 9,000 litres, the new poly tank (tank 2) will also be approximately 9,000 litres, the final tank (tank 3) will be approximately 23,000 litres, giving me a total storage capacity of 41,000 litres (10,000 gallons).

The tanks will be set-up as follows:

• Once installed the base of tank 1 and 2 will be at ground level and tank three will be installed at a lower level.
• The water-transfer pumps and the garage down-pipes will all direct water into tank 1.
• Tank 1 and tank 2 will be interconnected at the base so they keep a consistant level.
• Tank 2 will be connected to tank 3 with a one-way/non-return valve to allow water to flow from tank 2 to tank 3, but not back.
• Tank 1 will have an outlet connected to a pressure pump to supply water for gardening purposes.
• Tank 2 will have an outlet facing the road for fire-fighting purposes.
• Tank 3 will be connected to a pressure pump to supply the house with water.
• The overflow on tank 3 will connect to tank 2, the over flow on tank 2 will connect to tank 1, the overflow on tank 1 will be connected to AG-pipe and will be used to direct water to the root system of the tea hedge that we have recently planted.

This set-up has the following benefits:

• Household water is effectively drawn from all three tanks.
• Garden water and fire-fighting water is drawn from the two smaller tanks.
• Collected rain-water is used to fill tanks 1 and 2 until they are at the same level as tank 3, the rain water then fills all tanks.

Well today has been a financially fucked day!

I contacted Neilen’s Conveyancing this morning to find out why I had received a rates notice from Kyogle Council.  The conveyancer said the rates had been paid to the council and that I shouldn’t have got a notice.  They also said I should contact the council for further information.  I contacted Kyogle Council and was told the conveyancer hadn’t taken into account that the old owners had a pensioner discount on their rates and that $125.01 was still outstanding.  When I called the conveyancer to tell them what had happened all they said was “sorry”.

Then, this afternoon I got a call from Lismore Toyota to say they had stuffed up when I got the timing belt changed on my ute and they had forgotten to invoice me for the new radiator that I got at the time.  When I took the ute in to get the timing belt I asked them to do a quick once over and make sure the car was ok.  Instead of spending the $600 they quoted for a timing belt replacement I was charged $900 due to the other work that had to be done so it came as quite a surprise that they had forgotten to add a $500 radiator to the invoice.

So in summary, it seems that companies are either incapable of perferming the task they are employed for, or they are incapable of billing for it correctly.

Do I have any legal recourse about either of these issues? I doubt it, they no doubt have some disclaimer or there isn’t legislation to protect the consumer from organisations that prove themselves to be capable of 98% of a job, but fail dismally at the last 2%.

At least the coffee shop I always go to is capable of making a take-away latte with 2 sugars and consistantly charges $3.30 for it (and gives me every 10th one free) and can even correctly calculate the change, if only other companies were capable of the same basic mathematics!

I got a council rates notice in the mail today which is somewhat concerning.

I received a rates notice for 1/4 of the yearly rates, but as part of settlement I paid rates for 6 months.

I’m going to call the conveyancer tomorrow and find out what the deal is.