Broken Pipe

The driveway got one up on us recently, but not through causing more car accidents. This time it was a burst pipe. And not the nice kind of burst pipe!

We knew we had a leak from when we having some work done to make the driveway a little safer. That was months ago. So the project this month was to hire a digger, dig a hole, find broken pipe. Fix it. Fill in hole.

Sounds simple.

The digger was woefully underpowered and a bit old. After it died our rental period was extended for another weekend. It was no more powerful but it did stop less.

The concrete slabs were broken and pulled up. A hole was dug. We found the remains of the pipe almost a full two meters down! And boy did it smell. At one point I had to get down and dirty and scoop using a bucket. Did I mention the smell?

Having found the pipe I thought it wise to run some water down to make sure it wasn't broken further down. Within seconds of running the water the hole began to full up. Not good.

An hour later the drain cleaner arrived. $250 later he had discovered that roots had invaded the pipes 5m down the drive. He cleared out some of the pipe but recommended relaying all the pipes. He gave us a few months before he reckons it will be blocked again.

Having had enough of holes, mud and a huge cash burn-rate we replaced the pipe and buried the problem. I'll get onto it in a few months.

Be Gone, Stump

Outside the kitchen window is a large stump. Most people cut down trees and leave short stumps. Someone in the past has done half a job and left a stump several meters high. Over time vines have grown up attaching to the bark and ultimately sprouting above the tree.


This means there is less light getting into the kitchen, more spiders and spider webs (I don't get on well with spiders) and more leaves collecting in the gutters. Time to take it down.


The first step was the pruning all the vines from the bark. This will make it easier to ring up later on.


And now it's all gone. Notice a previous owner has even built the guttering around the stump and provided two downpipes. That's another thing for my list of things to do.


On the downside I did manage to cut a "breathing hole" into one of the downpipes and drop a sizable log onto a step. The step broke. Bummer.

Lighting the dining area - Part I

With all the outdoor activity it has been easy to neglect the work that needs doing inside. We want to achieve a modern and light and airy look inside while keeping the outside as it is, if not a little cleaner.

The original lamp (from when we moved in).

So, one day in Mitre 10 we saw a modern looking light with four halogen lamps. It had just the right look. We got it, and then bought three 3m sheets of Gib plasterboard for the ceiling.

Fitting the light was the first challenge. It required a piece of wood between the beams to hold the lamp housing.



I chose to attach the wood to the beams using small brackets. The most important thing was to make sure that when the Gib is attached there will be enough room for the Gib to sit between the bottom of the beams and the top of the light.


So, part I was about getting the lighting ready. The next part will be to install three sheets of plaster board. Enough to cover the area. At the same time Pink Batts insulation will be used in the ceiling cavity to keep the place nice and warm.

The shed takes one for the team

We haven't captured most of the tree-felling that has been going on. He's a short clip, just bear in mind I don't know how to rotate videos yet. This particular tree had already been cut and although we could hear it cracking inside it wasn't doing a whole lot of moving. A second, larger cut was made and this we did capture.

The shed took a bit of a whack on the corner. Close, tree, but no cigar! And to be honest I thought a lot more damage was going to come about from this.

The Driveway of Terror is beyond the law!

A man was seen near the area we live wielding a gun while driving a car. He was chased by the police and ended up in a cemetery near to the house. (He was still alive, not buried.) The entrance was blocked off.

When I arrived home I noticed a police car waiting on the drive next to us. It turns out that the police were waiting around in case the gunman reappeared. It also turns out they tried getting up our drive to wait, but lacked the grip to get up the drive and slid back down to the bottom.

When they saw me drive up in the little, underpowered Honda Civic we have they must have thought I was never going to make it.

Perhaps only the Hoff and Kit, both of whom are above the law, can get up the driveway to deal with bad guys.

The Gully

We always knew we had a gully, with running water and all.


But we didn't know how cool it looked cleaned up with the bush and foliage removed.

Finding the house

Our house is surrounded on all sides by trees. This is the view of the house from the front.

Can you see the house?

And from the front veranda...

You can make out the driveway

As pretty as it is it causing us a few problems:

• Sunlight does not hit the whole house and we get a greeny, mossy colour on the wood.
  
• The air does not flow around the house.
  
• It can get really cold in the shade.
  

The plan to resolve things goes like this:

1. Hire a chainsaw
2. Get a couple of mates
3. Unleash the mates
4. Clear up the mess
5. Get in the arborists to do the final and most difficult trees

What can go wrong? Nothing as it would seem. We had a highly productive and entertaining day.

The finished look...


This wouldn't have happened without teamwork. I now understand teamwork to mean to get the guy who has never used a chainsaw up a rickety, rusty ladder on uneven ground while your mates are safely away puling on a rope.

Just kidding. They were great!

Big thanks to Cheyne & Hayden

A few more things for my to do list:

• Clean up those white things underneath the veranda
• Clean up the wood supporting the veranda and deck