Month: September 2006

Hard to Kill Plants

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Tamara and I have not had much luck with pot plants. Actually we have had ZERO luck with pot plants. Every single one that we have owned has died. These include the two that we received at Caleb and Jessica’s welcome ceremonies (thankfully we have had better luck with the kids…).

This page lists a few different plants that seem to be hard to kill.

If you have no time to fuss with houseplants, you’ll appreciate a species that forgives you if you forget to water exactly on schedule. Here are some of the least-thirsty indoor plants — they can last about two weeks between waterings.

The plants listed seem to be pretty good at resisting us forgetting to water them. You can read the full article at Sunset Garden: Forgiving Houseplants.

Now all we need to do is find some kid proof plants (other than cacti, which could hurt the kids, which we don’t really want to do).

Source: Lifehacker – Hard to Kill Plants

Trouble Finding an Electrician in Townsville

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Last week I called about eight different electricians to try to get quotes done on the renovations under our house. Of the eight I left about four messages, booked a time with one electrician and was told by the other three that they were too busy to do any more quotes this year.

Well, of the four that I left messages with only one has called me back, and he has already been and given me a quote for doing the electrical work under the house, and the upgrades needed for the top floor.

To add insult to injury the one guy who I originally booked a time with called and canceled, saying that they were not doing any more quotes this year.

If I want any more quotes I can only hope now that the carpenter doing the framing under the house comes though with the electricians that he has worked with before.

The other problem is that I really can’t wait too long, otherwise the guy who has quoted me already will probably book up and no longer be available for the job. It almost feels as though I just need to hire whatever contractor actually shows up, regardless of the price…

Intelligent / Structured Wiring in the Home

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This week we have to start to get quotes on electrical for our house (Thanks to all the help on my last post, “How many Power Points do I need?“). One of the things that I am wanting to look at is how I can set-up distribution and wiring for phone, network, audio and video, as well as electrical.

I received my owner builders package last week and it included an article about “Smart or Structured Wiring” for the home.

I had always planned to do this, but hadn’t really found a good solution that explained how to do it. I have found stuff about how to do one or two of them, but not something that included all of them together.

The documents that came with the package were good, but didn’t actually provide any DIY Wiring information, it only pointed you to certified installers. Here are some links to two of those sites:

If anyone out there has some good resources for wiring up your home can you please comment below.

I am going to be looking around a bit to see what I can find, as I’m sure I have read about it before, but I haven’t been able to find it yet. When I find some stuff I will make sure to put it all into a post.

On another note here in Australia you are not actually allowed to install your own data cable in a house without a special installer license. For me that means that now I will need to get the electrician to actually do it / oversee it, or I risk a $10,000 fine!