The Beach House

[sailor]

Many thanks for the encouragement and kind words. Spoke with the ISP and Telstra yesterday. Changeovers booked for 23rd Oct...my first day off for 4 whole days...to be spent moving and unpacking.

We had storms yesterday...first real rain in ages. Baby avocado trees just lapped it up.

Bernly, there are already about 3 dozen lemons on the big lemon tree. Tis going to be a bumper crop this year...just in time for your visit. And the mango stems are 18" long....so perhaps it will be a big wet with some cyclones this year.

 

[bernly]

Bernly, there are already about 3 dozen lemons on the big lemon tree. Tis going to be a bumper crop this year...just in time for your visit. And the mango stems are 18" long....so perhaps it will be a big wet with some cyclones this year.

Can't wait, sailor, to check out your new home. These past few weeks must have seemed like an eternity for you with all the little finishing jobs. It looks stunning from the photos. Perfect posi for cyclone watching! Oh, to hear the sound of rain on the roof......

 

[sailor]

The Big Move!

Well I've finally moved into The Beach House, and am typing this as I look at the white caps coming ashore from the East.

The big move has not been uneventful --- to say the least:

1. Washing machine failed to spin on the first day. Fortunately the service man came out the next day...and bless him, didn't charge me for reconnecting a lever that had slipped during the move.
2. Despite Telstra being given 2 1/2 weeks notice to change over my land line, they failed to test it when they did it. Consequently...no land line. After 2 hours on the phone and 5 different bureaucrats later, they logged it as a "fault".
3. 4 days later (after 2 reminder calls to the 5 different bureaucrats that took 2 hours each) Telstra made a physical visit and advised that my electrician had not separated the wires properly.
4. One day later I lost my txt msgs in and out from the mobile ph. So another call to the 5 different bureaucrats, taking another 2 hours, and they advised that when they'd opened my details on their computer, they'd mistakenly deleted my txt service.
5. The following day I lost message bank on my mobile. And well....you know the drill by now....and Telstra apologised for unticking my message bank when they'd fixed up my txt msgs.
6. Meanwhile, I had given my ISP 3 weeks notice of the big move and put in all the paper work, so that I wouldn't be without email, internet banking and Somersoft forums. But no, they didn't get their sh!t together in time, and I waited another 5 days for a connection.
7. The night of the Big Move, I went to plug in the TV aerial into the wall socket and the socket fell into the wall space. So a quick call to the electrician who came and fixed it the next day. (I might add here, that the entire house has been rewired from scratch over the past few months.)
8. Then there was a wee drama or two with the painters painting the outside of the house. After my days off unpacking, and I returned to work, I specifically told the painters that Sailor (14 year-old pooch) was deaf and blind, and under NO circumstances were they to leave any of the doors open, incase he fell off the deck (which is 3.5 meters above the ground). I can see you are getting ahead of me here....anyway, I came home at lunch time and found Sailor wandering aimlessly at the curb. I jumped out of the car, grabbed him, and placed him safely inside. Then confronted the painters, who said "he just wandered out and walked over the side of the deck. He landed on the lid of the wheelie bin before bouncing to the ground. But he got up, and looked alright from up here." They didn't bother to go check him, or get him. I was livid....and can't write the swear words that came to mind.
9. Today the painters finished painting the inside of the wooden louvres. So this arvo I swept the floor in preparation of storing the remaining unpacked boxes against that wall. To my surprise I swept up a 4 cm x 4 cm piece of white china, that decidely reminded me of a white pot planter I've had for many years. Confronted the painters again...."Yes it fell off the chest yesterday, and we just put the pieces in the rubbish bin." They never even considered that I might have liked to have known.

So, I'm kinda over Telstra and tradies and moving at present. Fortunately this house has a tub, and to deal with the stress, I have a bath with candles and a champers each day at sundown. Tis doing wonders for me.

 

[Celeste]

Hi sailor

I am so happy for you. I just love a new house!!

And a nice long soak, snacks, drink and a good book - no KIDS!! enjoy! enjoy! enjoy!

I love all things Japanese, my thing at the moment is Japanese geishas - cross stitches.

 

[chrispy]

Sharon

Well done, its been a lot of hard work for you but now you can reap your rewards, sitting in your office looking out over that fantastic view.

Congratulations and spoil yourself, you deserve it!!

Chris

 

[BoatBoy]

So, I'm kinda over Telstra and tradies and moving at present. .

Glad to see that you are in at last Sharon, the greif at the end will be worth it I'm sure.

You seemed to be having such a glamour run there as well, though I have to say, I'm glad it's not just me that has had a gutfull of half arsed tradies (if they can call them selves that today) and the idiots at Telstra.


All good from now on I'm sure.

Dave

 

[kathryn d]

Certainly can't say you had a boring week.
Glad to hear your getting settled in you home.
Hopefully you will have an uneventful "next week."

 

[Tizzy]

Poor dog!

Thank goodness for the wheelie bin. It probably saved him a bit.

Must be lovely to wake up to a sea view each day though

 

[namtrak]

Great thread

Just read this great thread.

Machans is the hidden Jewel of Cairns. We lived up on the Tablelands for about 10 years and always thought, the only place to buy on the coast would be Machans. Locals get a bit iffy about it, because its perceived as being under the flight path, however unlike Holloways Beach etc, Machans is actually a little further East of the flight path and misses those flight directly overhead!!

Definitely a great pick up on the water there!!!

 

[Darren1968]

beach house wow

Wow!!!

I just read this thread from start to finish. I am extremely impressed. What a fantastic home you have finished up with.

Makes me wish I could afford a beach house. One day.

 

[LynnH]

sailor

Have been wondering why SS hasn't heard much from you of late - but just put it down to the impending move. Oh dear!! Telstra really has outdone itself this time!! And poor Sailor - I hope he has recovered from his fall!

Finally, you are "IN RESIDENCE" - congratulations! May you enjoy many years of happiness in your beautiful Beach House!!!!!

Cheers
LynnH

 

[our obsession]

Great journey and learning, thanks for sharing all the good and notso good stuff

Enjoy your new home, looks wonderful, idyllic, peaceful, cool, great views....you get the drift!

Sailor has amazing resilience and obviously knows how to bounce, bless him!

 

[sailor]

The Beach House Update

Gosh it's been a long time since I updated this thread. Ran out of money to keep going with the renos for a while there. Then damaged my finger moving rocks to landscape the garden. Over that now.

Got a quote to string stainless steel wire around the decks. Gosh! $9K. Priced the materials and it came in under $2K. So with the help of "girl power", I have finally started the mamoth job of getting the deck balustrading finished. To date we've done 22 hours and not half finished yet. But it is coming along nicely, and not as difficult to do, as I had imagined. I have now mastered the art of swaging. Wooppee!

Some pics to let you see how it's coming along:

 

[Tizzy]

Hi Sailor, good to hear from you again!

Now, I looked up swaging and I'm still a bit confused. What does it mean in the context of your stainless steel ballustrading? Well done for taking on the task too. I wouldn't have thought metal was the easiest thing to work with. I might have tackled wood but metal would have made me nervous. Great work.

It's nice to save that large amount of labour cost saved isn't it?

 

[sailor]

Wire balustrading....easy peasy! Step 1.

Left hand side of deck:

1. Drill holes in the sides of the end poles where you want to have the wires running from. (Councils have rules about a min of 80ml between wires.)
2a. If metal pole, use "tap" thingie from Bunnings to make a thread in the metal, after you have drilled a hole. OR
2b. If wooden pole, just drill a hole.
3. Get one end of the wire and feed on a swage (looks like a piece of short fat pasta).
4. Thread the wire and the thimble through the eye bolt (which is a screw with a circle in the other end).
6. Thread the wire back through the swage, forming a loop.
7. Insert a "thimble"...little horseshoe shaped piece of stainless steel through the eye bolt.
8. Pull the wire tight around the thimble, til thimble is snug against the swage.
9. Get someone else to grab the "swaging tool", like a HUGE pair of pliers, and crimp the swage. (Need 4 hands for this bit.)
10. Screw eye bolt into hole you have drilled.
11. Pull wire along and cut when you get to the other end.

Pic below:

 

[sailor]

Wire balustrading....easy peasy! Step 2.

Right hand side:

1. Drill holes as per previous post.
2. Screw in eye bolt.
3. Extend turnbuckle (complicated marine screw thingie, which you have to unwind to the full extent on both sides).
4. then remove the circle-pin, and the wee bolt).
5.Slide end of turnbuckle over eye bolt, insert wee bolt from turnbuckle, and fix with circle-pin, so it doesn't slide out.
6. Pull the wire, and cut in the ABSOLUTE MIDDLE of the turnbuckle.
7. Swage end of wire with swage and thimble, as per previous post.
8. Repeat numbers 4 and 5 above.
9. Wind the centre section of the turnbuckle, to make the wire tight. To get it really tight I put a small screwdriver into the turnbuckle hole for extra leverage.

TIP: Make sure the circle pins face the outside of the deck. To do that use a pair of pliers to hold the sleeve of the turnbuckle whilst turning the turnbuckle with the screw driver. That way they are all facing the same way and look shipshape when finished.

See pic below:

 

[Tizzy]

hahaha those instructions are priceless!

If only all instructions were written like that!

 

[sailor]

Thanks Tizzy....the instructions on the web, were just so complicated. Once I'd done the first one, I realised there was an easier way...like swage the wire into the eyebolt, measure and cut wire, and then screw in the eye bolt. Or else you are turning over this huge lump of wire that twists into itself and springs around the deck, hurting everyone in its path. I know....I have the bruises! LOL

Time to get back to it now.