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

The renovations – day 72

Posted on March 27, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

The guys had a HUGE day today! As I walked into the dining room this evening the first thing I saw were stacks of draws for the kitchen.

….and then I saw the kitchen itself
….and then I spotted the side pathway
….and then I noticed the outdoor area

…and, well, you get the picture. Lots happened today Smile

kitchen cabinetry (excluding the doors) installed
range hood partially installed
concrete for side path poured
some of the posts and beams installed for the pergola (it looks huge )
tiles in upstairs bathroom buffed to remove protective way coating
repairs to the wall in the back bedroom started (the wall suffered from water damage approximately 12 months ago)

Also, the new refrigerator was delivered today. w00t!

Posted in Home, Renovations

Tagged back yard, bathroom, cabinets, concrete, draws, home, kitchen, outdoor area, pergola, refrigerator, renovations, side path, walls

VIDEO: Broadway Shopping Centre punch-up (shop-keeper and unhappy customer)

Posted on March 26, 2012 by OzDJ| 1 Comment

RE-SHARED TO FLICKR and DAILYMOTION– YouTube decided the video, which had been up for two weeks was “offensive” based on a complaint from a single user (who has since removed his/her YouTube account).

At 4.02pm on 11 March 2012, as I was leaving Broadway Shopping Centre (Sydney, NSW, AU), I could hear load voices coming from the direction I was headed. Turning left into the ground floor wing which leads the car park, I discovered where it was coming from.

Two men were involved in a loud shouting match adjacent to the “Class” mobile phone accessories shop/cart. The shouting quickly deteriorated into physical actions as the customer (green shorts) picked up a metal-legged stool from the shop and threw it at the shopkeeper (black shirt, blue jeans).

Both men then traded punches as shoppers (including myself) scampered to get out of the way of their meandering fistfight. I managed to dig my mobile out of my pocket a second after the customer kicked in one of the glass displays of the shop and broke another customer’s mobile handset.

I managed to get 30 seconds of footage before other shoppers blocked my view. That footage is what you see here. The shop keeper completely out-punched the hapless customer.

From what I overheard, the customer was claiming the shop keeper was going to repair his phone with genuine parts and didn’t do so. The customer was upset that the shop keeper was refusing to give him a refund.

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Posted in Citizen Journalism, Consumer, Customer Service, Shopping

Tagged broadway shopping centre, Class, customer service, fight, punch

The renovations – day 71.

Posted on March 26, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

Came home to discover an 85% complete deck and a huge timber delivery for the pergola which will cover it. Who0hooo!

Posted in Home, Renovations

Tagged back yard, decking, home, renovations, timber

The renovations – day 70

Posted on March 25, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

Slight change of pace yesterday and today. With the decking going down tomorrow we wanted to paint the fences and one of the walls while we had no obstructions to get the job done.

The horrible old cream-coloured fence got hit with a couple of coats of Taubmans Endure “Miss Molly” semi-gloss. The brick wall got two coats of British Paints 4 Seasons “Rhino” low-sheen.

Posted in Home, Renovations

Tagged back yard, british paints, fence, painting, taubmans, walls

The renovations – day 68

Posted on March 23, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

The day the wall came down.

Our builder phoned me at around 10.30am to advise that he was very concerned about the remainder of the outside toilet. Unfortunately, the old brick wall was not as stable as originally thought and he wanted the green light to bring it down. Green light was given without hesitation. I didn’t want it falling on someone and having death/injury on my conscious for the sake of a $200 insert panel of Colorbond fencing.

Today:

outdoor dunny completely removed
decking timber delivered
25mm conduit run from house to end of decking with a draw-line inside to make any future cabling easier (not have to dig up concrete or remove decking)
draw-lines run around perimeter of decking area to allow pull-though of cabling for the deck lights, speaker wires, HDMI etc
reinforcing mesh now in place ahead of the concrete pouring for the side path

Posted in Home, Renovations

Tagged back yard, concrete, decking, dunny, reinforcing, toilet

The renovations – kitchen kit-out.

Posted on March 20, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

We needed to have a series of discussions with the builder today to check, double-check, reconfirm and quadruple-verify details for the kitchen cabinetry. Of course, much of it depends on the appliances used, so we wrote up a list of the items we’re going to use, to send to the builder.

…and this is it.

Refrigerator – Westinghouse WHE5100SA
http://www.westinghouse.com.au/Product?model=WHE5100SA

Microwave – SMEG SA37X
http://www.smeg.com.au/Product-97-Freestanding-2fBuilt-In_Traditional_Microwave_SA37X.aspx

Cooktop – Ilve H360CX
http://www.ilve.com.au/products/view/71/60cm-compact-cooktop

Range hood – Glem CK53UC
http://www.glemgas.com.au/Glem_Product_Range/CK53UC.aspx

Oven – Electrolux EPEE63AS/CS
http://www.electrolux.com.au/Products/Cooking/Ovens/EPEE63CS

Dishwasher – Bosch SMU50E35AU
http://www.bosch-home.com.au/SMU50E35AU.html

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Posted in Home, Renovations

Tagged bosch, cooktop, dishwasher, electrolux, glem, home, ilve, microwave, oven, rangehood, refrigerator, renovations, smeg, westinghouse

The renovations – day 65

Posted on March 20, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

Attention shifted to the back yard today – including partial demolition of the old brick outhouse (aka “dunny”). The plan is to leave the back wall of it there as a bit of a feature and link to the past. And talking of links to the past, another newspaper remnant was found in the ruins of the old dunny. I have no idea how old it is, but it’s been a while since a room in a Bondi Beach share house could be had for $30.00(!)

Quick snapshot of the changes which I could spot this evening:

outside toilet semi-demolished
side path levelled and partially back-filled ahead of the concrete to be poured
upstairs shower arm installed
power point wired into the cabinet above the vanity upstairs

Posted in Home, Renovations

Tagged back yard, bathroom, dunny, newspaper, toilet

The renovations – day 64

Posted on March 19, 2012 by OzDJ| 3 Comments

Welcome to the start of week number TEN. Walking inside the house tonight it was obvious we were entering into a new phase of the project. Most of the black plastic protective padding on the floors had been removed – signalling the removal of nasty equipment like drop-saws, tile cutters erc.

Let’s have a look-see:

TV/monitor ceiling mount in place – I actually gave the builder the wrong target location (too far from wall!) so he had to relocate it.
glass shower panels installed in both bathrooms
pedestal basin plumbed-in and installed in downstairs bathroom
laundry tub plumbed-in and installed
upstairs toilet partially installed (looks rather complex!)
two of three glass shelves installed in the storage nook above the bath (there was a third shelf but it was accidentally smashed during installation)
mortice lock, rebate kit, handles, flush bolt and sealing kit fitted to the French doors in the guest bedroom