Tag Archives: house

No Solar Power & The Plumber Came!

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Well at last we actually got a plumber to come to the house and fix the taps! This is the fourth plumber we booked and the first one to actually show up. He was to come last week but got caught up on a job so he rang to let us know and rescheduled for yesterday. So the leaking tap and the banging pipes are now fixed. Its taken a few months but its done now and we’ll be using that plumber in the future.

We got the quotes back on the solar power from two different companies. Because we don’t use a lot of electricity, it would take 7-8 years for it to become cost effective. So after that we would be saving money. So we have decided that we aren’t going to put solar power on. Its $10-$14,000 we could spend doing other work around the house.

DH has decided to take leave when I am off in a few weeks so we’re planning another big week of work around the house – more cleaning out of gardens and more painting, decluttering so I’m really looking forward to that.

Retirement savings & hard to find good tradies!

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I check our retirement accounts each fortnight after the payments have gone through. I was happy to see that we have now reached our goal for 2019 which was $420,000!  … and its only 3 months into the year.  Of course the market fluctuates and its been up lately, but its a good feeling being able to cross off one of my goals so early.

The mortgage is now down to $124,287. next goal is end of Year 17 balance – $119,519.

No painting got done again this weekend – DH wants to do a bit more prep work and it will need undercoating in one area. I just want it done asap but I’ll have to be patient – he’s not the most enthusiastic handyman but he’ll get there eventually.

We’ve been having problems with our tap in the kitchen for a while and with a banging water pipe in the bathroom.  We had a plumber organised to come and fix on the weekend but he was a no show and no notification he wasn’t coming – its very frustrating.This is the second plumber we’ve arranged to fix it and the first one did the same thing. Why is it so hard to get a tradesperson to just turn up!  So we’ll have to try a third one now.

On a good note we had a second solar heating company come and measure up. They have a really good system that would see us change to gas hot water and any excess KW gets used to heat water first, then excess over that goes to the grid. It does a cost a bit more and we’re waiting on quotes. They also commented on how low our electricity use is which was nice as we do try and not waste it, without being misers. It will be interesting to see both quotes and the savings projections.

Well its 5.45am here and its raining steadily. The sound of it is lovely. We need the rain and the cooler change is great.  I have only about a month to work and then I’m having some more time off which I’m looking forward to. Time to do a few chores before work.

This & that…

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We’ve had a cool change in the weather since yesterday and its raining softly outside this morning. Its a nice change from the heat and we even had to put a blanket on the bed last night. We could use a bit of rain on the garden and I’ve moved my pot plants out from under the verandah so they get watered.

We did not get the lounge/dining room painted as planned. DH hurt his shoulder so we decided to leave it to next weekend.

We did get our visit from the solar power company. They are preparing  a quote for us. It was interesting when we discussed our electricity use as we only use the amount that a 1. 2 person household would use, (there’s 3 adults here) so we’re using less than half the average electricity use. We have another company coming to give us a quote later in the week. It will be interesting to see what savings calculations come back in the quotes.

I finally got paid for my second job for January and put that off the mortgage – new balance is now $125,293. 


Its back to work today for me – I feel so much better for taking some time off!