First 2015 update - Vege patch, study room book case and Solar

It's been a while since I updated the blog. Been busy with school holidays and other things.

Thought I'd write a summary on what we've done.

Vege patch: 

I've always wanted to remove the pebbles and dirt between the garden retaining wall but has always been too busy..... well lazy is probably more accurate.
My parents came to visit during summer. So I shared the idea with my dad. Next thing I know he started removing the pebbles. feeling guilty I helped.

This is what we did:

1. Pebbles removal/relocation
2. A layer of thick plastic sheet between the pebbles and the dirt is then removed. I believe this plastic sheet is to prevent weed from growing.
3. Digging out the dirt. This is the hardest part. the whole thing is filled with compacted mud or clay like soil which is  unusable for planting
4. Sift the remaining soil to get rid of the rest of the pebbles that we did not manage to remove earlier
5. Refill the space with new soil and manure.
6. Plant!

Notice the pebbles along the 2 retaining wall

Lots of pebbles to remove

Right after work is done

Within days, we see plants growing

Weeks later, beans growing too.

The earlier vege patch gets new soil and plants too

2 months later, B and G harvested the first beet root

How it looks like today

Harvested and new seed has gone in

Curly kale. This is after harvesting

Beens has been growing slowly

Lots of tuscan kale. Some chillies, herbs, capsicum and etc 

Book case and table for the study room

This room has always been neglected. It has mismatch book case, oversized table/book case and furniture with odd color combination. So I decided to revamp the room during the holidays. eBay and gumtree is my friend. Got rid of the tables, and book cases. Some are given away.

Being a small room, this table is oversized

Too big a book case

I found Matthew Timber close by to home. Great service! Ordered a few strips if pine wood in the exact size I wanted and sanded down too. It's about 4cm thick which is great. I like the look of thick, beefy timber.

I had to do final sanding then apply light clearcoat

Let out to dry 

Bought some shelving bracket from Bunnings. With beam finder, I manage to mount 2 strips straight into the beam. The middle strip had to use wall socket

Bought a table from a guy in Ferntree Gully. Had to spray the base white to match the room furniture. 

The final product. Realise the table is a little too dark. Well, I'll leave that for now.

My little helper enjoy her fruit of labor

Now that the table is smaller, and the book case has more storage, we manage to free up more space for the kids to use the room too.

Solar panel installation

I've always wanted solar, mainly to lower our carbon footprint. It is very confusing that it took me a while before taking the plunge. There are companies who recommends the best of product but they cost triple of an average solar system. However it not 3 times more efficient. So I finally decide not to go for top tier and save the money for something else... maybe a deck. Ordered a 3kW system which should be sufficient to offset our consumption. We're fortunate to have good roof space which is not shaded and north facing. My only complain is it's in front of the house and may be a sore eye to some.

The electrician who install the system was great. He took time to explain and workmanship looks great. Very professional and friendly.

Installer came a few days after order confirmation. Now that is fast. I guess they must be free since it's low season (autumn)

3kW inverter with wireless monitor built in

3 hours in

And finally done. In half a day

It was nice to see the solar finally working

Come with home wireless monitor so that we can plan our consumption

This is the best part. I can look at the generation from my mobile.

A/c for Christmas

It's almost Christmas. We're all very excited, so we set up the tree early.. in November...

Christmas also means hot days ahead. So I've been hunting for a/c deals since Oct. Finally The Good Guys had a promo where you get 200 for every 1000 spent. So I took the opportunity to purchase ac's for the bedrooms. I did not get any a/c for the study at it's south facing -hardly any sun, and we plan to extend it in future, so not going to add fixture to the room. 

I selected Samsung reverse cycle a/c, as samsung is giving 15% cash back (for purchase before 1st Dec), on purchase price. Pretty good deal I would say.  It's a smart a/c with bells and whistles. Always been a Panasonic user so this will be a change, hopefully a good one.  Kept them in garage while I go look for tradies. Bought some other appliance for the kitchen as well. 

So I head back to service seeking  publishing the job. Learn my lesson my my previous engagement.. where I did not get a good electrician. So this time, I reject all companies with less than 10 feedback, and must score 100% positive feedback. Found a few a/c installer from the shortlist but this guy stood up from the feedbacks. He's busy so I had to wait about 2 weeks before he can come around. The a/c was installed according to the specification specified by samsung, which is rather uncommon apparently. More spacing required compared to regular a/c, which I assume is for optimum ventilation. Install experience and quality was great in my opinion. Individual switch for each a/c, new breaker switch in the switch board, proper conceal, nice painted brackets, pressure test for copper piping and etc. He made sure everything is tidy and clean up after the job. One man show, starts at 8am and finishes at 7pm.

Indoor unit with unique triangle design, apparently for better air flow. The master bedroom gets a 3.5kw unit since it's north facing and has tall windows. The 2 smaller room get's 2.5kw units. The a/c does look well built, and with 5 years + 10 years compressor and parts warranty, Samsung must have very high confidence in their a/c. 

So this is pretty cool, probably the most exciting part. You can control the a/c from anywhere, anytime. Imagine outing on a hot day, I can turn the a/c on before I get home so that it's nice and cool when I get home. 

Even tells you the current temperature so you can turn on the cooling or heating

And this is gold, consumption summary! Can help us keep our power bill within budget. How I wish I get this indicator for all my electrical appliance at home...

Overall it's been a good experience. Now I look forward to enjoy the summer :)

Driveway and verandah painting

It's a long weekend. We were initially hesitant to undertake the whole lot as it's a really long driveway. At the very last minute, we decided to do the whole lot. The process spreads over a few days as there were unexpected rain.

Day 1: It's all about the prep work they say. So we pressure clean the driveway and verandah. Spent about 3 hours doing this. The driveway has been pressure washed a few times prior to this. If you notice the photos when we got our key, the driveway was covered in algae?

Verandah looks awful. Messed up during the renovations. Had paints, rust mark, and scratches all over

Driveway cleaned. Me and X patch up and replace the brick mortar a few weeks ago. 

Very long driveway. Still hesitant at this juncture to get it done

Day 2: Vacuum the verandah. Then it rained so we abandon plan to paint. The neighbours must have though we are mad to vacuum the external

Day 3: This is it, forecast to be sunny throughout the day. So E vacuum the driveway and verandah again.

Vacuum sand and dirt away. Ahh.. nice limo for Melbourne cup celebration I guess

I painted the joints between the concrete and edges while E runs the roller through. We decided to use Berger Jet Dry Heavy Duty - Dark Charcoal from Bunnings http://www.bunnings.com.au/berger-jet-dry-10l-heavy-duty-deep-charcoal-paving-paint_p1410011. Needed 3x 10l cans for single coat. We thin down the paint for better penetration. Since it was painted before, we decided to do single coat for now. There's almost 3/4 can leftover. We may do second coat if necessary.

Progress

Completed after 6 hours. Still wet when this photo is taken. 

Manage to sneak a photo. 

Label says 16 hours drying time. So still wet

We're quite happy with the result. 

After 6 hours work, we're both extremely exhausted. Rewarded ourself to a nice dinner :)

Update after a few days:
We did not drive on it for the last 4 days and the weather has been nice and sunny. It's definitely dry now.

Garden work

When we bought the house, the garden seem to have been neglected for a while. Most hedges are overgrown, and they are of different type which is quite a sore sight in my opinion.

As the weather gets better, we decided to start "fixing" up the garden. We did not budget for garden makeover so DIY is the only option, keeping it simple and hopefully makes the house look neater.

This photo is taken when we collected our keys in April 2014

This photo is taken sometime in July 2014. Notice the big hedge on the left is removed by the renovators as it's hindering them from painting the windows and eaves. We planted english box hedges as replacement. 

Hedges planted along the front fence. Kids help spread mulch

Lavender and succulent along the front driveway after hedge removal

More english boxes after removing the old hedge

E loves gardening, so this is her simple vege patch

The plats at the back was in a mess if you look at the pictures posted in January. Trim off much of the lower branches to make it look tidy

Planters corner

Plum tree bloom beautifully during the start of spring

Experienced nasty hail, took of half the flowers on the plum tree

Still a long way to go but we'll take it slow this time. Bought a whole bunch of gardening tools. Never had to use more than a trimmer when we live in a unit in the past.

Got this mower during eBay Sunday sale. It's self propelled which makes it so easy to use. Just start and steer, its that easy