We’ve been having a hard look at resolving our space problem in our house. Do we put on an extension of some kind or sell the place and buy another house?
Surprisingly, despite contacting a few building companies to come and give us a quote only one has fronted. I thought we were in a recession and assumed builders would be falling over themselves to get our business. Anyway, this one company had a look at our sketch plan, called around to check the place out, and provided a quote. The quote was more than double what we had expected. A few days later we revised our sketch plan with a view to simplicity and a single room. Now the quote was only double what we hoped to pay. I’ll have to check to see if I can get a bigger home loan.
The idea of selling this place and buying another is looking distinctively attractive. Though, S isn’t so sure of selling and buying.
06 February 2009
05 February 2009
Another sloppy job
Summer has well and truly arrived and along with it comes the bush fire hazard; especially with this hot spell in recent days. So I climbed on to the roof to get rid of the leaves in the gutters. There is a great view of the Canberra suburbs from the roof. It was while on the roof I spotted another goof in the way my veranda had been erected.
I was amazed at the number of broken, chipped, and cracked roof tiles on the house. There were corners missing from the tiles, a lot of hair cracks on the tiles, but some of the cracks were surprisingly large. In fact, there is a water mark on the floorboards in the hallway in the house that has been a mystery. It has been a puzzle because there are no other stains except on the floor boards. The cracked roof tile shows daylight when viewed from inside the roof. Mystery solved: The water flows inside through the cracked tile, and on to the ceiling, perhaps flowing inside a wall (that no doubt had been painted before the house was put on the market) and eventually onto the floor.
Anyway, I was gathering up the leaves and rubbish from gutter, and eventually I reached the front of the house where the veranda has been built. This is not a flash veranda by any means. It’s just a frame to support some corrugated plastic sheeting. It provides a little shade and keeps the rain off the decking. When I got to the gutter adjacent the veranda I could see that the veranda sheeting had been fixed in a way that the sheeting covered the gutter.
It’s difficult to clean the leaves from the gutter when it’s covered like this. Another brainless non-tradesman bit of workmanship. Another problem of having the structure built like this is that when the gutter blocks as gutters tend to do from time to time, and if there is a large downpour of rain the gutter will fill and overflow. Had the veranda sheeting been placed under the gutter the majority of the water overflow would pour onto the sheeting and be carried away. But with this stuff up any water overflow will flow under the veranda and soak everything on the deck.
People who offer home services of this quality need to be shot.
I was amazed at the number of broken, chipped, and cracked roof tiles on the house. There were corners missing from the tiles, a lot of hair cracks on the tiles, but some of the cracks were surprisingly large. In fact, there is a water mark on the floorboards in the hallway in the house that has been a mystery. It has been a puzzle because there are no other stains except on the floor boards. The cracked roof tile shows daylight when viewed from inside the roof. Mystery solved: The water flows inside through the cracked tile, and on to the ceiling, perhaps flowing inside a wall (that no doubt had been painted before the house was put on the market) and eventually onto the floor.
Anyway, I was gathering up the leaves and rubbish from gutter, and eventually I reached the front of the house where the veranda has been built. This is not a flash veranda by any means. It’s just a frame to support some corrugated plastic sheeting. It provides a little shade and keeps the rain off the decking. When I got to the gutter adjacent the veranda I could see that the veranda sheeting had been fixed in a way that the sheeting covered the gutter.
It’s difficult to clean the leaves from the gutter when it’s covered like this. Another brainless non-tradesman bit of workmanship. Another problem of having the structure built like this is that when the gutter blocks as gutters tend to do from time to time, and if there is a large downpour of rain the gutter will fill and overflow. Had the veranda sheeting been placed under the gutter the majority of the water overflow would pour onto the sheeting and be carried away. But with this stuff up any water overflow will flow under the veranda and soak everything on the deck.
People who offer home services of this quality need to be shot.
02 February 2009
An underfloor experience
I have a brick house, with timber floor boards. And I needed to get under the house. Fortunately, there is a timber access door at the side of the house to allow access under the floor. The block is on a slight slope, which means that there’s more clearance under the floorboards on one side of the building than the other end. Guess which side the builder put the access door? Was it the side with very little space or on the other end where there is plenty of room? It’s on the side with less room, of course. Why do builders do things like that? What do they think about? Saving bricks, or are they having a joke at someone else’s expense?
So with the little wooden door wide open, I got down on the ground ready to crawl through. I lay flat on my back on the concrete path immediately outside the access door. My head was on the ground closest to the entrance. Using my elbows, back, hips and heels I began to wriggle inside. I had about 6 inches clearance on either side of my arms as I squirmed through. There was only about 3 inches between my chest and the timber structure of the floorboards above me as I lay flat on my back. Thankfully, the clearance above me increased the further I moved inside, and the further I went the easier it became to move. After a time I was able to roll over and crawl comfortably, and as the ground level fell away I could almost walk the rest of the distance. Yes, I had to get to the other end.
A timber decking had recently been added along the front of this house. It had been erected as a home improvement, and with the veranda that was part of the project is really a very nice spot to sit and admire the view. As I’m moving through under the floor boards I can see the air vent holes that are built into the brick exterior wall. I can also see the where the timber has been mounted to secure the decking. It’s been placed right over the top of the air vents. Goodbye air vents. That was a great job somebody did in erecting the decking.
The tradesmen who did this (sorry, I should say the people who did this, because they couldn’t have been tradesmen) could have left some gaps around the vents. How difficult would it have been? Presumably there will be enough other vents around the place to allow some air to circulate under the house.
So with the little wooden door wide open, I got down on the ground ready to crawl through. I lay flat on my back on the concrete path immediately outside the access door. My head was on the ground closest to the entrance. Using my elbows, back, hips and heels I began to wriggle inside. I had about 6 inches clearance on either side of my arms as I squirmed through. There was only about 3 inches between my chest and the timber structure of the floorboards above me as I lay flat on my back. Thankfully, the clearance above me increased the further I moved inside, and the further I went the easier it became to move. After a time I was able to roll over and crawl comfortably, and as the ground level fell away I could almost walk the rest of the distance. Yes, I had to get to the other end.
A timber decking had recently been added along the front of this house. It had been erected as a home improvement, and with the veranda that was part of the project is really a very nice spot to sit and admire the view. As I’m moving through under the floor boards I can see the air vent holes that are built into the brick exterior wall. I can also see the where the timber has been mounted to secure the decking. It’s been placed right over the top of the air vents. Goodbye air vents. That was a great job somebody did in erecting the decking.
The tradesmen who did this (sorry, I should say the people who did this, because they couldn’t have been tradesmen) could have left some gaps around the vents. How difficult would it have been? Presumably there will be enough other vents around the place to allow some air to circulate under the house.
30 January 2009
Life in the new house
It has been a while since I last posted. This diary has been about selling a house in Melbourne and buying in Canberra. That has been done and wrapped up with all its various problems.
Now I’m in a new phase: the aftermath. Having been here for a reasonably long time and yet I still feel unsettled. Our stuff has essentially been unpacked, but things are still in a mess. There is more stuff than we know what to do with. The passageway has a row of cardboard boxes, piled two or three high in places. The two spare bedrooms which we were going to use as studies still have so much stuff in there that you can barely move. It’s not good. There is a little homemade shed outside that is good to keep outdoor type stuff in, but it leaks when it rains. It’s not good. There is a double carport but there is so much stuff stored there that we can only get one car under it.
My house isn’t perfect by a long shot. It’s too small, is located on a busier street than I’d like, is a tad too cold in winter and is too hot in summer. There are some lovely things about its position, which is great with good views. Some reasonable renovations had been done before moving in, and it’s on a good sized block of land.
So what do you do when you find your house is not quite the ideal dream home? Sell it and get another place that is more likely to meet your needs. That’s an expensive project; particularly with the cost of Stamp Duty, real estate fees and other costs. Building on the extra rooms is another solution. That could work but what if you over capitalise in the renovations, or it doesn’t turn out the way you want. We might never be able to sell a place and be forced to live a place we hate.
Now I’m in a new phase: the aftermath. Having been here for a reasonably long time and yet I still feel unsettled. Our stuff has essentially been unpacked, but things are still in a mess. There is more stuff than we know what to do with. The passageway has a row of cardboard boxes, piled two or three high in places. The two spare bedrooms which we were going to use as studies still have so much stuff in there that you can barely move. It’s not good. There is a little homemade shed outside that is good to keep outdoor type stuff in, but it leaks when it rains. It’s not good. There is a double carport but there is so much stuff stored there that we can only get one car under it.
My house isn’t perfect by a long shot. It’s too small, is located on a busier street than I’d like, is a tad too cold in winter and is too hot in summer. There are some lovely things about its position, which is great with good views. Some reasonable renovations had been done before moving in, and it’s on a good sized block of land.
So what do you do when you find your house is not quite the ideal dream home? Sell it and get another place that is more likely to meet your needs. That’s an expensive project; particularly with the cost of Stamp Duty, real estate fees and other costs. Building on the extra rooms is another solution. That could work but what if you over capitalise in the renovations, or it doesn’t turn out the way you want. We might never be able to sell a place and be forced to live a place we hate.
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