Large Branch

This morning I was contacted by the estate agent regarding some maintenance issues with my unit. One was that in recent storms some large branches had fallen. The agent asked if I wanted to have their garden person cut up the branches and take them to the tip. 

I didn't want to pay for potential firewood to be cut up and taken to landfill, so said I would go and look at the situation before letting her know.

Looking into the back yard from the pathway behind the unit, I had trouble seeing a "large branch".

Zooming in:

There it is.

Not much firewood, unfortunately!

Around my Unit

I was recently advised that the tenants would be vacating my unit by the beginning of December. No worries, that gives me a few months to find another agent, because I have not been happy with the lack of communication from the current agent. So when on Friday I discovered that in fact the tenants were moving out that day, it was a surprise and yet someone how par for the course with this agency.

I sent an email to the agent asking what was going on, as it is not December yet, and got an automatic reply saying she was on leave until the end of September. Great! However, she did answer later, saying that the original email had been a typo, she really meant the tenants would be out by the beginning of September.

I went to look at the unit and discovered a few interesting things.

This is the front door, when the deadlock is unlocked:

The deadbolt is still sticking out, meaning that the door can't be closed. I also found that if you lock the deadlock, you can't get the key out of it. Back in April the agent told me that the tenants were having difficulties with this lock. I authorised the agent to get a locksmith to fix it, and paid the bill at the end of the month. But obviously no-one checked that the work had actually been done and that the lock was fixed. So now I need to get another locksmith to fix it.

Oops:

 The tenants forgot to empty the dishwasher before they left. At least these are clean dishes.

I wonder how efficiently the aircon unit has been operating:

 Air intake filter above, and below after a vacuum.

Should work a bit better now! To be honest, I don't remember if I cleaned it when I moved out, but it is obviously a job I need to add to my list of things to check after each tenant vacates.

I've also put new curtains on the back windows and new lamp shades in the bedrooms. Now I just need a new agent!

Unit Maintenance

Removing a couple of broken trees:

Sweeping down spider-webs from every outside surface.

Wondering how the tenants "lost" the curtains:

At least they replaced them with something.

Patching and painting lots of little dings and scrapes, particularly up the staircase:

And the dishwasher is dead so I need to replace it. Not while the unit is empty, though.

Settling In

Jack's favourite spot:

Sitting on the stairs he can keep an eye on what everyone is doing, including anyone walking past on the bike path.

And here's the first load of washing on the line!

And still no word on when the earthworks will start. Maybe tomorrow?

Clothesline Construction

The tree clearing and earthworks isn't happening today, after all, so it gave us a chance to get the bargain clothesline set up.

Here's Jack posing in front of the first stage:

And here are Jack's fore-paw prints preserved for posterity in the concrete:

After lunch, stage two:

Tomorrow it should be ready for some washing!

Jack seems to have settled in quite well, but Scruff and Merle are a bit confused. They have each fallen off the edge of the deck a couple of times (a drop of about 30cms), so I can't imagine what was going through Scruff's head when she climbed up onto the lower shelf of the kitchen island:

Clothesline

My unit for some strange reason has no clothesline. It's one of those things you don't notice when you inspect the property, but once you move in you realise something is missing.

Other units in the same group do have them:

If you look closely, two can be seen in this photo (another shot taken by the plumber when he was on the roof). So who knows why mine doesn't have one.

Earlier this week I found someone in Ballarat selling a line still in its box on Ebay:

Brand new, for less than 30% of the retail price. I snapped up this bargain. I still needed to get the post kit, which is about $90. But look what I found on clearance today:

It is even the same colour!

Kitchen Island

I had my eye on an Ikea island for the Ballarat unit. But how about a custom-built one instead?

Under construction in the workshop a few days ago:

Assembled on-site with professional assistance today:

It is a little larger than the original - I wanted it a bit longer, and a bit higher.

The Ikea original is $500. So far this island bench has cost about $30 in timber. It will be getting a nice timber top, which will add a bit, but it's still a bargain!

For now it has a temporary chipboard top so I can use it.  It fits perfectly in the space, and works well with a couple of barstools I picked up on Ebay for only $8 each.

Up On The Roof

I don't think I'll ever see this in person:

I gave my camera to the plumber who came to find out why the roof was leaking. He thinks the problem is lack of sealing between that vent pipe and the roof. So he's sealed it up and we'll see what happens next time it rains!

Productive Day

The built-in wardrobe in my sewing room is now much more useful. I assembled some of my Ikea Ivar shelves inside it:

and filled it with magazines, patterns, books and a few boxes of quilt tops that I intend turning into quilts this year.

I didn't realise I hadn't taken a picture of the centre section, but it looks pretty much like the two parts you can see. You may remember me painting some of these shelves back in December, although most of these were actually painted in the garage of the unit.

Then I made two more curtains, this time for the downstairs loo:

All done on the treadle machine, which doesn't seem to have suffered any ill effects from being stored under piles of boxes for the last few months.

Curtains

Spent the weekend getting a few things done at the unit, including installing some curtains on windows which felt a bit too exposed:

Now I can watch people go past on the bike track without feeling that they are also watching me inside my home.

And I can open this bathroom window wide, without feeling the people walking past can see right in.

Hanging Around

Lots of vacuum and steam cleaning at the unit today. A locksmith came and sorted out a few issues. And my hammock was given a place to hang:

Not very elegant getting in!

But once there it is a very nice place to lie and look up at the trees and watch the birds.

The Cat is OK

Another Christmas lunch, this time in the new unit:

An almost picnic style lunch, with the Sweet 16 table and a borrowed card table, and various chairs.

My son enjoyed setting up the Christmas tree, which I haven't bothered doing for the last couple of years. But it was nice to reminisce about the various decorations, some of which are as old as him. The tree itself is a couple of years older than him:

It seems not very long since he couldn't reach the top of the tree, and now it looks tiny next to him. At this point my camera batteries died. And I hadn't brought extras because I don't learn from my mistakes.

After everyone had gone home, I took the Sweet 16 table upstairs and set up the machine. But I was too worn out to actually do any sewing!

Everyone who was concerned (as I was!) about the cat abandoned by the previous tenants, will be glad to know that it is alive and well. It is being cared for temporarily by the next-door neighbour. She has been feeding it since it started hanging around her door after its owners disappeared. She has also managed to make contact with the sister of the old tenant, who is apparently going to come and collect it. So I gave the carry-box and the cat food to the neighbour, and hopefully the cat will soon be re-united with people it knows.

Behind the Orange Door

Welcome to the house with the orange door!

I took possession of this property today. There's not much inside yet, but I brought along the table for my Sweet Sixteen machine:

The machine itself is still in its box at home. Next time.

Then it will go up the stairs:

And be set up in this room, which will be my new sewing room:

But one thing I am unhappy about. In the garage I found a few items:

Cat food. A cat carry-box. And a note from the tenants who moved out over the weekend, saying that they hadn't been able to wait for their cat to come home! And they asked me to take it to the RSPCA, or keep it myself. I am very upset that they have dumped an animal, and expect me to deal with it. I don't know if the cat is somewhere in the neighbourhood, or if it has been hit by a car, or if someone else is feeding it, but there was no sign of it at the house today. It will be a few days before I am there again myself. I feel dreadful that the poor thing has been abandoned like that. Why on earth didn't they keep it confined for the last few days before they moved out? Cat people, what should I do?

Jeweller's Shop

A few weeks ago I noticed this sign near a unit I was inspecting:

"Blacksmith's Hole" and "Jeweller's Shop" didn't mean anything to me, and Google let me down on this occasion. But I guessed it had something to do with gold.

A week or so later the explanation was found at the Sovereign Hill lookout. Here's the marker, pointing to both localities, in the ESE direction:

A near-by historical panel about the gold-rush days states:
"...near the Canadian Creek were the famed 'jeweller's shops' which yielded up to 500oz (14kg) of bright nuggety gold for every foot (30cm) mined. This was perhaps the richest patch of alluvial gold the world has known. The crudely-sunk 'blacksmith's hole' nearby produced more than a ton of gold from a claim only 24 feet (7.2m) square."

I remember in primary school having to learn, "From wicket to wicket in cricket is 22 yards, 66 feet, or one chain." (And who would have guessed that was worth remembering? Last week I used the same memory to help me calibrate my step length on my Vivofit by walking and running up and down a nearby cricket pitch.)

So five chains makes 110 yards, or 100 metres. I've marked the rough position of the sign on this map:

Using the scale, you can see that 100 metres is pretty close to that property coloured orange on the map.

It seems I've just bought myself a gold mine!