Minor frustrations

The first Thursday open inspection happened. Five couples visited. The property hadn't been on the market a week, and the real estate agent is talking about reducing the price. Could this be a method of trying to soften us up; conditioning us for an argument to lower the price?

The for-sale sign finally went up out the front. I couldn’t help thinking that this was a bit late. Something that should have been done weeks ago, or at least on the first day the property was listed. Despite the fact that the house was meant to be listed as Sale by Tender the sign read Private Sale, whatever that meant. We were considering selling privately, but in the end opted for an agent. So how can this be a private sale? The agent suggested listing the property as a sale by tender. Presumably, any punters interested in the property would lodge an offer prior to the deadline. After the deadline the highest offer, that is acceptable to us, wins. So what’s this about a private sale?

I got the car back from the garage today. I took it for a drive with its good-as-new turbo, and was disappointed that it put out almost the same amount of smoke as before. The smoke wasn’t nearly as bad as before, but it was still polluting the air in a bad way. The mechanic had been talking about the drain holes in the lower (oil) rings. He was talking about a major engine overhaul, but didn’t actually say that. He explained that sometimes the piston rings can get their drain holes blocked preventing excess oil from escaping, and when that happens the engine produces a lot of smoke. I wondered if it was because the exhaust pipe was full of oil. He conceded that that could be the problem. I took the car for a good long drive. The smoke began to ease somewhat after about 40 minutes on the road. At the end of the run, it was just like a smoky old car, rather than the attention getting smog making machine it was a few weeks ago. This was an improvement, but not an impressive improvement. I expected it to be smoke free. But in fairness to the people who repaired the turbo, it was now quiet and the car had a lot more guts.

It’ll be interesting to see what it’s like on the next Melbourne trip. At least it’s no longer a target for the police. So, after spending $960 for the turbo repair and $445 for removal and replacement I have to consider whether it was worth the $1400. Anyway, I like the car.