Thoughts of DUH! | Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence.

Please help find Paul Russell

Posted on February 21, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

This photo is of Paul Russell, 38 yrs, from Launceston, Tasmania.

Paul was last seen by his family in April 2010 – sleeping/living in Peppers Paddock, Wattle Glen, Victoria.

UPDATE 1.52pm 21Feb12 - Paul was last seen in North Melbourne/Fitzroy in mid-2011. With SINCERE thanks to a Twitter contact for the info. Thanks, too, to everyone who is continuing to retweet/reblog/share this request.

Paul’s father is terminally ill and expected to pass away within days. The family is trying to locate Paul URGENTLY, to let him know, in the hope that he will have a chance to see his father before he passes.

Anyone with any information on Paul’s whereabouts can contact:

Email – michael.russell@mga.asn.au
Mob – 0400456979

Alternatively, please leave information as a comment on this blog post. Comments will NOT be published and I can pass on this information to Paul’s family.

All help would be deeply appreciated. Please help spread the word through your networks.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged missing person, Paul Russell

The renovations – day 34

Posted on February 18, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

Things have slowed down a little, at least in terms of new stuff that I can see/touch/photograph each day. Winking smile But we know that the builder and his posse have been busy lining-up the next round of deliveries and sub-contractors needed to get us closer to the end.

Eye spy with my little eye:

downstairs bathroom-laundry and the kitchen have been cemented/levelled
upstairs bath enclosed and flashing installed for the shower pan and vanity

Posted in Home, Renovations

Tagged bath, bathroom, floor, home, renovations

The renovations – day 31

Posted on February 15, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

Bags of cement and sand, piled up neatly in the dining room, heralded that the tiler was doing his thing.

Today:

evidence of more plumbing works, especially for the upstairs bathroom
Gyprock joints in the kitchen finished/smoothed
wall tiles in place for downstairs bathroom/laundry

…and the old outdoor dunny door FINALLY fell off! Open-mouthed smile

Posted in Home, Renovations

Tagged home, renovations, tiling

The renovations – Day 29

Posted on February 13, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

Welcome to week five of our renovations. According to the builder, we’re now tracking AHEAD of schedule, which is great news. On the not-so-great news front, we’ve run over-budget (due to a number of “surprises” and last-minute design decisions) so we have to head back to the bank for more money to get it finished. Errgh. Just as banks start upping interest rates again. Sad smile

Today:

hole left by downstairs fireplace filled-in with antique floor boards (in keeping with the originals) and wall patched-up
old door archway into kitchen now completely bricked-up
work has started to fill-in the holes left behind after the air conditioning pipes and cables were chased into the walls
upstairs bathroom walls and ceiling now lined

BONUS: Found a leaking can of expanding foam in the back yard. That stuff makes me laugh. Smile

Posted in Home, Renovations

Tagged bathroom, fireplace, floor, foam, home, renovations, walls

The renovations – day 27.

Posted on February 11, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

Today I jumped on the pushbike for the Saturday morning dry cleaning run up to the shops. Looking across the road at out house (recap: we’re renting a house across the road while the renovations are taking place) I noticed the plumber was arriving. Yes, on a Saturday. Surprised smile

This afternoon, we poked our head inside and discovered he’d been very busy chasing-in the hot/cold water lines, and adding more drainage, in the upstairs bathroom.

A fair day’s work IMHO.

Posted in Home, Renovations

Tagged home, plumbing, renovations, saturday

The renovations – day 26.

Posted on February 10, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

The day started with us fleeing the house at 6.00am to get to the kitchen place for our important meeting with the joinery bloke, Richard, and our builder. Late running buses conspired against our best-laid plans but we somehow made it there on time and got stuck into a crash course on cabinet/door finishes.

I was blown away by the number of possible colours, finishes and joinery options. We made a couple of key decisions, most notably to run with Polytec melamine instead of a painted polyurethane finish for the upstairs hallway. That decision alone will shave almost $5,000 off the quote (much needed!)

This evening, upon arrival back at home, I was greeted by the air conditioning bloke, William, and his off-sider, Christian. It was about 6.30pm and they were only just finishing-up their work.

“It’s all finished my friend,” William proudly told me,”all ready for the final wiring-up by the electrician”. He then proceeded to give me a guided tour of his handiwork and I could see that he was proud of some of the clever solutions they had come up with to make everything work in our ye olde terrace house ….with all of its design “challenges”.

Today saw:

completion of the air conditioning hardware installation (four compressor units and four head units)
bath suite in place in the upstairs bathroom; stainless steel shower drain had been delivered; and more Gyprock installed
another layer of the blue waterproofing membrane goo painted onto the downstairs bathroom floor and walls

It was decided that no weekly site progress meeting will be needed tomorrow morning. Yay for a Saturday morning sleep-in! Smile

Posted in Home, Renovations

Tagged bath, bathroom, drain, home, renovations

The renovations – day 25.

Posted on February 9, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

Egads! Lots of stuff happened today, especially for our future heating-cooling solution:

air conditioning installation hit top gear. Compressors and head units started appearing all over the place. Lots of fancy-pants cabling and insulated lines appeared. The builder constructed a funky little false wall in the dining room, under the stairs, on which the most powerful head unit will be mounted (with access panel from underneath).
downstairs bathroom looked like a horror scene from Dexter – if Dexter murdered Smurfs. The stinky blue stuff, Gripset 38, is what’s used to waterproof the wet areas.
the old doorway into the kitchen has been half bricked-up with Hebel blocks.
storage/display nook created in the upstairs bathroom at the head of where the bath will be. More Gyprock installed.

Posted in Home, Renovations

Tagged air conditioning, bathroom, hebel, home, renovations

The renovations – day 24.

Posted on February 8, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

Today started with a meeting with Bob the builder (yes, it still cracks me up) to discuss a number of the electrical items and the jaw-dropping joinery quotes.

Bob explained that there were a number of potential ways to cut costs without giving-up quality or the functionality we’re after. He’s going to meet us at the cabinet maker’s showroom on Friday morning to walk-through the options and work out how we can move from the proverbial Rolls Royce of joinery to at least entry-level BMW.

Today saw:

more of the cabling work done, including antenna and data points for the home theatre setup
air conditioning units delivered
more holes cut (including underside of stairs) to chase-in the air conditioning pipes and wiring
plastering has gone full-steam ahead, especially in the kitchen and downstairs bathroom/laundry
old split system air conditioner from the to-be upstairs bathroom removed
wall partially lined in the upstairs bathroom
air conditioners partially installed, including brackets on the front balcony for one of the three compressor units

Posted in Home, Renovations

Tagged air conditioning, electrical, joinery, plastering, walls

The renovations – day 23.

Posted on February 7, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

I was greeted by one of our neighbours, Mark, when I arrived at the house this evening. “They really got stuck into it today!” he said. Mark works from home and obviously the noise factor must have been particularly bad today.

Indeed, even before stepping inside I could see that the team had been running at full speed today:

new sub-board added to the meter board
cabling run for the air conditioning units at the front of the house
light fittings delivered
channel cut into the wall to allow the downstairs insulated air-conditioning pipes to to be chased into the walls
lots more Gyprock installed
first layer of flooring installed in the upstairs bathroom
kitchen now completely lined
door frame installed for downstairs bathroom/laundry
first of the bathroom items installed (downstairs shower mixer)
cabling run (and many holes cut!) for light fittings inside and out
new electrical earth point created outside kitchen