Cooking with Gas!

Finally! All of my gas issues have been sorted, and the correct meter has been installed.

As a recap, I've well and truly over provisioned gas in the house. I've allowed for a full commercial kitchen in the galley (with plans to do so! [one day...]); I have a 3/4" gas line capped, just sitting in the wall, waiting for me.

I've also added another 3/4" gas line in the alfresco. This is big enough to heat a spa/pool.

All up, the energy budget ran to around 750MJ/hr. Not your usual domestic supply by any means!

So, the plumber put the request into Energy Australia, and the entered it incorrectly. Some nuff-nuff probably 'corrected' it, and put 400MJ/hr.

So EA installed this gas meter:

It did not look right, so I called EDMI in Dandenong, and I enquired about the specifications of this meter. The answer came back at a maximum capacity of 370MJ/hr! So, not only had they put the wrong figure into their system, the meter supplied would not meet it anyway!

So I let everyone know that it was the wrong one.

This is where the fun and games began.

EA turned around and asked for a Compliance Certificate for the Gas Meter, effectively asking me/PD to justify the gas usage. To which I duly supplied the original details I specified pre-tender!

A few days later, this monster appeared!

Given the previous issues, I checked with EDMI again, and I got an answer of 466MJ/hr. On no, not again!

Well, to summarise a lot of calls and misinformation, the figure EDMI gave me was indeed correct; when the input pressure is 1.1kPa. However, in this case, the input pressure to the meter is 2.75kPa, which means the same meter, on a higher pressure is capable of well over 900MH/hr. So it is fine for what we need!

Whew!

The final issue of note, one that only came out when I sent the above picture to the plumbers, was that had not had it communicated back to them that the meter was not against the house, where the gas point of entry is. Due to the placement of an external power point (and talking to my SS, downpipes as well! [Huh?]) the gas meter needs to be moved to the fence, in my case 1.8m away.

So they were sent to dig a trench to connect the gas meter to the house.

Where of course they hit rock. Of course.

As far as I know, we are still on course for settlement tomorrow, but tomorrow is another day.

Goodnight.

Painting Finished!

Paul the painter, came back to finish off the work for PD, which was to finish the final coat of gloss for the stairwell and to do a private job for us, which was to prepare and paint the skirting boards.

In the end, it only took him two days. The first day was spend sealing all of the gaps between the skirting boards and the wall, as well as plugging all of the nail holes. The second day they did all of the painting. We were asked to leave the house alone for 24-48 hours to let the clear on the stairwell cure properly.

It was hard to wait! But wait we did.

The finished stairwell.

The finished result.

Hit the Lights!

(With apologies to Metallica)

Just over the road, a few houses down to the left, we have an electrician! I could not think of a better way to help the local economy than asking him if he would be interested in putting up our lights for us.

He was interested, so we left him a key and left him to it.

He got home a little early one afternoon, so he decided to make a good go of it, and got through most of the stuff inside the house. We could not find a junction box in the roof, so that will be sorted out on settlement day.

He came back another day to complete the outside lights.

We purchased the lights well over a year ago, before we'd even started; they have been waiting patiently since then to be installed. We are really happy with the way the kitchen especially is coming up; it sets the mood and tone perfectly.

Island bench lights installed.

Fan in the alfresco.

Dining room lights.

The heart of the home.

Dining room.

External coach lights installed.

Three 25W LED flood lights. Lights up the back yard (and half of the oval behind us!)

Skirting Boards Attached: The Next Step (Painting)

This morning we met up with Paul, the painter, to discuss the next step and to agree upon a price.

In discussing the process, I had my previously unanswered question answered. Why do they not pre-paint the boards and cut to size and simply touch up? The answer lies in the process needed, and in the properties of the gloss paint itself.

The process is:

1. Seal all of the gaps.
2. Plug and fill the nail holes.
3. Sand it back.
4. Tape and mask the floor/walls.
5. Two coats of undercoat and a top coat of gloss.

The gloss paint is very liquid and runny (whereas the matt paints are not so much - you'll really see this when you get a skin forming on gloss paint) so it makes it very difficult to paint. Also, unless the gloss has fully dried (>24 hours) it can make touch ups or repairs even worse.

No wall is ever straight so there will inevitably be gaps between the wall and the skirting board against it. These gaps need to be filled, as do the nail holes.

So, don't be too shocked at the gaps below (I was initially, but hopefully they now make sense to you).

I'm impressed how they managed to follow the wall.

It is not a small job. Three guys for about three days work. When the gloss goes on, the house needs to be still (so as not to raise dust) for 24 hours.

Now for the bad news. He can't start for about two weeks. Not all bad though, it gives us time to do other things, like fences, driveways, and oh, yes, that's right, PACK!

Skirting Boards Attached!

The fix up carpenter was met by me at 7am at the house to let him and discuss what was needed to be done. I also gave him a slab of beer that I'd neglected to do previously.

I was wondering just how much and where the 135mm skirts would go. It turns out that they were planned for the columns and perhaps some of the entrance.

He thought that it would take Friday and Monday to do. We were going to check on them later in the day to see their progress.

When we arrived in the afternoon, they had been rather busy; they had completed sizing all of the pieces, had put them all in their place and had just started nailing them in.

They'd even run it in under the stairwell where the flooring was! Call me a fan of old-school professionalism.

Tomorrow, we meet up with the painter, Paul, to agree on a cost for him to paint the skirts.

The final (5th) day of flooring.

As promised, the flooring did take a full five days to install. Two floors. No carpets (at all).

Today Michael finished off the smaller fiddly bits and put the quad where it needed to be. He even put it in places that I did not expect (under the stairwell!?). The quad is installed against all edges where the skirting board will not be.

We are more than overwhelmed at how good it looks!

I had my concerns at such a large area in wood; I did not know how it would look. Heli had no such doubts!

The view from the front door, looking down the middle of the house.

Quad around the island bench.

Closer detail.

Under the stairwell. Even finished with the silver edging.

Dishwasher space.

Oven space.

Theatre room (was the formal lounge).

Upstairs.

Detail.

Rumpus room.

The third day of flooring.

Michael works Saturday and Sunday (he only takes Monday off). On the weekend he has a friend to help him. All up we had around 250 sq. m. of flooring to be done. About the same size as the roof area. Go figure.

We had decided to go with a 2mm rubber underlay (middle of the range) upon the salesman's advice. These are the green bits that you will see in the pictures. Michael said that is was fine for our purposes.

Kitchen/Dining area.

Dining area.

Kitchen from the Dining area.

Fridge space.

Top of the stairs.

Master bedroom.

Master bedroom.

Bedroom.

Bedroom WIR.

Bedroom overview.

Stair and rumpus.