Plastering is Complete

The plastering of the walls and ceiling under the house is now complete.

It took the plasterer 5-days to plaster the walls and ceiling instead of the usual 2 and a half to get it done because of all the rain that we have been getting. The plaster was taking a lot longer to dry than usual because of the really high humidity, so it really increased the amount of time they had to spend getting it done.

Our builder was planning to get the fitting out done before Easter, but since it’s already Good Friday and he hasn’t started, I can’t really see that happening.

Once the fitting out has been completed I’m planning to take a week off work to paint under the house. It’s not exactly how I would like to be spending one of my only four weeks of holidays this year, but it has to be done.

After the painting is finished we will be able to put the flooring in, finish the bathrooms and eventually put the stairs in. It sucks that the stairs will be the last things put in, as under the house won’t really be usable until that happens.

On a side note I’ve been working on a new web-site for Voice for the Voiceless Australia. Voice for the Voiceless attempts to bring awareness of gender based injustice issues. There is a Voice in the Dark Concert coming up here in Townsville on Saturday night which you can watch live on the site. You can also listen to some of the heart wrenching stories of gender injustice on the new web-site.

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7-Ways to Handle a Door-to-Door Salesman

There is a great discussion going on right now at Get Rich Slowly about how to handle a door-to-door salesman.

Here are my favourite 7 suggestions of how to handle a door-to-door salesman:

  • Don’t Answer the Door and Definitely Don’t let them Inside
  • No Soliciting and No Trespassing Signs
  • Just tell them “No, not interested” and close the door
  • Tell them you are renting (if it’s a house product)
  • Remember, door-to-door salesmen are not guests, and don’t need to be treated as such
  • Get a kid to yell “What the hell do YOU want?”, while sitting in a tree
  • Get a Big Dog / or at least a Loud Dog

There are currently 80 comments on the original article, so why not pop over and read some of the comments and other suggestions that the author has. Also feel free to add to the conversion over at Get Rich Slowly, it’s great blog about personal finance:

Update:

Here is a link to a great sign to keep salesmen and solicitors away:

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Government Puts Home Ownership Further Out of Reach

The Federal Government has once again put home ownership further out of reach for the typical Australian owner / occupier.

In a move meant to increase the availability of affordable housing in Australia the government has provided tax incentives to investors to build 100,000 low-rent properties over the next 10-years. Investors will be able to claim a tax credit of $6000 a year for 10 years on new properties that are rented at 20% below the market rate. But who determines what the “market rate” is? A move like this also has the possibility to drive up the market rate to artificially high rental rates because of the availability of properties available at the “discount” rate.

Already the typical real estate investor in Australia has a huge advantage in terms of buying power over an owner / occupier. This comes partially from the increased borrowing ability that they have because of negative gearing and other tax breaks that investors get that are not available to an owner / occupier. Continue Reading →

7 Types of Window Blinds


I posted an article a little while ago about 10 Advantages of Curtains over Blinds. It was written by someone else and had some good points about why curtains are a a better window covering than blinds. As we slowly get closer to finishing under the house we wanted to look at more options for our window furnishings.

Below is another article that I found, but this one covers information on different types of blinds. Upstairs we have all blinds, so we are probably lean towards getting blinds under the house. We’ll see though, as curtains would be nice in the master bedroom.

Here are the Seven Types of Window Blinds covered in the article:

  • Window Shades
  • Window Shutters
  • Sun Control Blinds
  • Wooden Blinds
  • Bamboo Sliders
  • Hunter Douglas Blinds
  • Vertical Blinds

Continue Reading →