Author Archives: Bill Hutchison

LG LX-M240 Micro HiFi System

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This weekend Tamara and I went out and had a look for a micro HiFi system for under $200. Our main three requirements were that it looked good on our book case (more Tamara’s requirement than mine), it had decent sound and it played MP3 CDs.

We tested out pretty much every system under $200 and decided on the LG LX-M240 Micro HiFi System as it gives fantastic sound for that price range and it met all of our requirements. There is certainly a large selection of sound systems out there in this price range and with these specification though.

LG LX-M240 Micro HiFi System

The temptation was definately there to look at the $300 multi-disc changers and to look for more, but since we only needed something small this was a good fit for us. Because access to the system would be pretty easy and it played MP3 CDs, the need for a multi-disc changer wasn’t very great.

The main reason why we were in the market for a micro hi-fi system is that with our living room reorganization we had lost most of the room on our entertainment unit. The old stereo didn’t fit in the bookshelf, so we were stuck with the old one sort of hidden behind the TV. The new system has helped us to better organize our space. The only downside is that our chrome moose had to find a new place to live on the desk instead of on the bookcase.

House Concrete Slab is Complete

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The concrete slab under our house was finished a while ago now, but I was a little distracted and haven’t posted the photos and update yet on this site.

Below are the photos of our new concrete slab. Tamara jokes that she has been looking for the gold in slab and hasn’t found it yet. It’s not much to look at right now, but at least I can visualize what will be happening down the track.

The Front of the slab is 50cm above the ground level
Front of the slab

Looking back over the slab - still curing in some areas
Looking where the rooms will be

View of the Slab from the back - You can see the in slab plumbing
You can see the plumbing at the back of the slab

There is about a 30 cm drop in the ground level from the back of the slab to the front of the slab. This is great for the water flowing off our property but it means that the slab at the front is 50cm above the ground.

House Removals – Relocating a House

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Because of the nature of the construction of many of the houses here in North Queensland it is not uncommon to actually see houses relocated from one location to another. This is what actually happened to our old house that was purchased by Castletown. Because they were really only after the land so that they could expand the shopping complex they sold off most of the houses that they had purchased for removal. You can see our old house before and after the house removal in my previous article Where did the House Go?.

Having the houses built on stumps actually makes it quite an easy process to transport a Queenslander or similarly styled house. All they need to do is back a flatbed trailer under the house and lower the house onto the trailer. They even have specially designed trailers for this sort of work that can raise up to meet the house, making it even easier to remove the stumps. I have even seen one of these trailers driving down a narrow road actually raise up one side of the house to go over a parked car! I sure wouldn’t want to have been the owner of the car looking out the window and seeing that.

House Removals - Specialized Trailers

There is quite a bit involved in actually organizing for the removal of a house. Our old house would have been relatively easy to relocated as it was only 6 metres (about 20 feet) wide with the front enclosed varanda removed. If a house is bigger than 8.5 metres wide from what I have read it actually has be to be cut in half for transport. We had toyed with the idea of relocating our house to the area that we live in now, but decided against it as there is very few empty blocks of land around here to put it in.

There is a really good discussion about the removal and relocation of a house over at Cracker Classifieds, Removable Houses?. Some of the people participating in the discussion have actually gone through the process of relocating their house and it has fairly up to date information.

Here are some more links for information on the removal and relocating of a house:

Probably my only real disapointment with the whole process is that I didn’t get to see it happen with our old house. I think that I would have liked to see it go and to know what’s actually become of it…

Reorganizing the Living Room

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After getting home from the hospital with Jessica we came to realize that our living room layout really wasn’t all that functional. Live many families we had made the focal point of the room the television, at the cost of space on the floor.

The old layout of the living room

Not only were we cramped in the living room, but we were also cramped in the dining room and I would quite regularly knock my chair on the wall behind me when I got up from my chair. Tamara was also starting to feel quite claustrophobic with her, Caleb and Jessica in the room all at the same time.

We managed to arrange a temporary swap of entertainment units with some of our friends. They got our large unit which you can see in the image above, and we got their smaller unit, which you can see in the corner in the image below.

The new layout of the living room.

The room is now a lot more conducive to conversation and there is a lot more usable room in it. The new entertainment unit is a bit cramped, but we are planning to someday get a smaller stereo that we can put on our book self that is in the dining room. That will unclutter the unit even more and make it even less of an eyesore. There is also a lot more room to play with the kids and I no longer bang my chair against the wall as we were able to move the table over a few inches.

Now there is more room to play in the living room.

Watching television in the room isn’t as easy now, but we really aren’t watching all that much of it any more. When we set it up for Caleb to watch we just ask him to pull out his bean bag, which he is more than happy to do (getting him to put it away is another story…). Our reasons for not watching much television anymore is partly because we are very busy, but also for personal reasons, which you can read about on my other blog Television is Sucking my Brain.