Painting!

Our first painting job in the new house. We started at the master bed room.

From this 

To this! Almost there. We took a lunch break and this is what we achieved after 3 hrs of painting.

What a difference!

Can't wait for all painting job to be done. 

Kcan

Photo blog

My harvest from the garden!!

First little Japanese cucumber. 

Donoe why, but it is round instead of long. 

Here's how it looks like when cut. Just like a normal cucumber. =)

We bought an outdoor parasail for the new place over Christmas. We only open the box today.

Here's the 60kg worth of concrete for the sail. Cost $60! $1/1kg?!

And here's our massive shade in the front yard. It's 4 m in width. (Thus needing such huge base for support)  Unlike the concrete base, the sale was on massive discount of $30!!! We bought an outdoor table with chairs to go along with the shade, but we realised it was not well put together =(   

And because it was a discontinued item, we could not get an exchanged, only a refund. How good it will be to sit under here for summer lunch....

Kcan

Downs...

Sorry for not updating for the last few weeks.

Had been having really down times. Surprisingly, it coincides with the arrival of my in-laws. hur hur...

Anyway... I think I need some serious help. I just cannot help myself from crying and crying and crying. It is really frustrating living here. Seeing people sneaking here n there like a rat, hiding and stuffing silly things like news paper or plastic bags in every small holes/gaps you can find in the shelves.

I don't know why I had to endure at this place for so long. I hate it when they criticized me for changing their way to suit my way, when I am the one asked to help them clean up their filthy home.
And they had not even lift up their little finger to help! 9 Bloody MONTHS!!

I so longed for home with my parents.

Late last week, I attended work seminar in the city. Ollie from uni days came with senior Jenny to attend too. It was a nice catch up with Ollie and Jenny. The only regret was not able to try out what I had learned with patients... Because I had none~! I seriously don't know why this 9 months had past yet the clinic had not started. Crap just kept pilling and pilling, and things that are not our business became out business, and then 9 months down the road, our goal was still no where in sight.

What crap and business you may ask? Well, these are some of the crap and business:
Crap includes the other house, where it had plumbing, trees, walls paper, and many headache things to consider. We thought we can move out to live there 2 months later, but there are many things which their greedy minds wanted to do. Like, rebuilt the place or extend the place, so it can fetch a higher selling price in the future. We drove all the way to displays homes and such during one fine day, and realised that it will take 18months to build one from scratch.
So now the place is left idle.

'Business' includes the kitchen, wall cracks and plumbing issue at THIS place. So that kitchen frame took a while for the pest control dude to declare good to replace. 3 Monthes! Then it took her another 2 months to get some carpenter or builder to come and fix it. But no! No Carpenter or builder came. She went to find the wood work guy to make her the window frame. He recommend his friend who is a licenced handy man to come and fix up the frame and kitchen, but no... No one came. By then, she went overseas, and Eric and I had to take it into our 'business', learning how to replace the plasterboard, fixing the frame and then later paint the whole dame kitchen, because the kitchen was a ugly PINK, where we could not find it's original colour.
Another 'business' was the cracking in the wall. The crack was always  there, but of course, people who stayed in the house don't give a blink, till people like us start questioning if it was actually safe? Because, the  tiles started lifting off the floor, showing a big gap of almost 8mm where by you can see down the concrete underneath, and the windows of the affected side cannot be close when you tried opening it. There's also the sinking walkway at the side of the house where it looks like a whole concrete pathway had detached itself off the top and side and is sinking down the ground underneath.
So that involves us having to call the engineers to come and access the damages and also to find out the root cause of the damage.
The first engineer came, gave some crappy solution which I do not buy. He wanted us to dig a hole at the side of the house to dig out 'stones/sand' that could have pushed the wall out from the rest of the house, that was causing the damage. It took me almost another few weeks to convince Eric to get another opinion. And the 2nd engineer came and found a gaping tunnel underground that showed signs of soil erosion which signifies a  burst pipe!
With that, we isolated the whole house to only 2 usable toilet and sinks. The top and bottom most level. That also meant that we cannot use the kitchen sinks, and laundry, for all the waters from that level goes through the leaking pipe.
We lived like that for almost 3 weeks and it was finally fixed this Monday.
With the plumbers, they also found a storm water pipe breakage and blockage. Storm water pipe channels all the water from the roof down the pipe onto the street. A major pipe that gets all the water from the roof from the pack of the house, and the back yard, was BROKEN!!! It took the plumbers a while to locate it's location as it was under a concrete pathway, but thankfully, we found that there was a way to get to it. It was always right infront of our eyes, but was blocked because his mum love to put the bins and empty pots n rubbish at it's entrance. So ALL the water from the rain pipe and backyard and the washings that she had illegally poured down the outdoor drain had all accumulated at the bottom of the house. GREAT.
The plumbers fixed the pipe back (yay!), but a water drainage test showed that the other end of the pipe was blocked! So they had to clear the pipe and found tree roots, mud, tennis ball!, ceremic pavers.......

So Eric started digging last week while I was at the seminar, to find the section of the pipe where it was blocked. Probably had to cut down some trees too. It was crazy.

BUT despite all of this, we STILL don't know what caused the cracks on the walls. *rolled eyes*

So yup....

kcan

Down time

I just blew it yesterday. All the frustration and anger. All mixed in one.

Lets see what had happened prior....

It had been two weeks since I had gave this place a vacuum. And as usual, I had to do this all on my own. A good three story climb with the vacuum cleaner. Changing and discarding the clogged dust bin at least four times. And at the end of it, I'm battered and my back is wracked. And now, I'm still contemplating when I should pick up the vacuum cleaner again as my back is still hurting.

For the past many months since we had this stupid extended renovation in the kitchen, the kitchen had been and still in a mess. And for some unknown reason, these bastards had also became deaf while they were in their rooms. No matter how loud I shouted to call them down for dinner, or help set up for dinner, no one came. Super pissed, cause no one ever had the willingness to lend a hand or what. Just sit there n wait for food to drop from the sky. N I had learned from all these months that their slowness, means it will take another 20 mins before we can actually eat something, which by then food will be cold. All the while they just could not see how rushed I had to be so I can put food on the table on time. Do they want the slow cooking their mum does, whereby food will only be served at 9pm? Argh!

Then there's the washing up dishes. His sis kindly took up the role. Which is really helpful. But that was till she realised she can get away with washing up by eating her share quickly and dart upstairs n hibernate. Which means I had to clear up all the washings from dinner and cooking. Isn't this something a child will do? Why am I seeing it on a thirty something? Eric had a good talk with her, so tat had stopped for now. Then there is also the lack of willingness whereby if u don't have it in the sink, she will not wash them. So there is often the jobs where I had to clean up after she had clean up... (Like if i was watching tv or out at bible study, I will be greeted with jobs undone) Do you get what I mean? Sigh....

Then there is the toilet. Everyone uses it. But no one cleans it apart from me, or eric when i howled at him. I still remembered the line his sis told me on the first day we moved back. "Yay! Now there is someone to help me clean the bathroom!"

At that time, I replied "yeah, I can help clean it with you." But, see what I said, With You, not me only. Clearly her sentence means Me only, as she had since then, Never, I repeat,  NEVER cleans the bathroom. And it really pissed me off.

I had been living out of home since I'm 18. And I had lived in shared house since. Independence is like second nature to me. I learned to cook and clean and take care of myself. Plus I had to study full time n even work part time jobs. I even had time to do my St. John volunteering. Compare to here, this family is just Hopeless! What a lazy bum! 

Just as I had predicted, when I stop or refuse to cook, what do they eat? Takeaway pizza. Lazy to the point they do not even want to lift a finger and cook. 

Looking at the wall of wall papers yet to be removed. It is really daunting. I had not even manage to take off the papers from one room! Let alone the whole house. I had pleaded to eric for help. But none came. My back is now so sore tat I cannot stand up for too long. Even standing for cooking hurts. 

I'm glad tat mum n dad came to visit few months back. They had seen the place I am living. They understand the pain I am going through. I told them about the wall papers and things that needed to be done over at the other place. And you know what they say? 

"Do you need two extra hand to come and help? We can fly here for a week to help you." 

My help! 

Why can they so easily offer their help, while those lazy bums around me can't. Only once his sister had so call offered help with the other place. But when the time comes, she gave the excuse of " need to study", when obviously she was just plain lazy. Can you see how sick I am of this place? 

I really appreciate the help offered by my parents. But how can I ask two elderly to work for free on a place tat is not even theirs?! Some more now, my mum had finger joints problems and shoulder problem, plus dad had a poor back too. 

And I also donoe why I am putting myself into this bloody place, working till my back aches and head spin. It is not even mine! Can I claim my medical bills from his parents for hurting my back on their bloody houses? 

This is ridiculous.

Kcan

The frame is up!

This happen last weekend.

The long awaited kitchen frame is finally up!

No longer a gaping hole through the plasterboard and wooden beams. It's now closed!

Eric here pre-joining the three edge of the frame.

Pre-drilling holes on the frame n wall, applying adhesive glue (also called liquid nails), and sticking it up.

The last gap showing before the final piece of frame goes in.

Eric pre-drilling before applying liquid nail adhesive.

Using the glue gun like a pro! It is surprisingly difficult to apply. Needs lots of strength.

And tada! Yay! 

It took us the whole day to put it up. After this, we still have to fill up the gaps, sand, paint.....

That should be for another day.

I had also spent the whole of yesterday morning stripping off the grout on one of the bathroom shower wall. Will apply the grout tomorrow, God willing. 

I'm now officially the handy woman in the house. Feeling man-ly. Haha.

Kcan

Busy Bee

Now that Eric had gone back to the uni. I'm now left with stuff that were left half done and needs me to finish up. That's so not new, consider I had to keep an eye all the time and pick up the things lazy people just gracefully left behind. *Roll eyes*

There are 3 main things that are on my plate now.

1. Leaking grout in the downstairs bathroom. This was annoying as the person who lay the tiles (probably some doggy trades people), used Concrete instead of Grout. And this makes taking out the joining groove difficult. I had already blunt a grout removing blade from my electric multifunction tool. There is also the difficulty of having the new grout to join onto the old grout/concrete. *bleah!*
2. Wall paper in the other house. That whole place is literally all wrapped up from floor to ceiling with wall paper. It will be a messy job trying to take it down. Not to mention there are various other things wrong with the place. *sighs*
3. Painting the fence. Something I won't mind doing and will give this moldy place a good fresh paint of same look. (well, it's the same colour) 

Hope this will occupy  me for a while and get things moving. Hated it that the kitchen renovations are still half done, with the kitchen still in a mess and things overflowing to the other rooms/corridor due to the dust n dirt. Now that he is back in uni, I really wonder when it will be done. =S

On another note, I had a bit of catch up with my ex-colleague D yesterday. Initially wanted to ask her when my ex-boss is going to be back from his holiday (a friend wanted to see a doctor, so I recommend him, since there are no others I knew), but instead, I got the news that she had quit! Ha. 

She said things had gotten from bad to worse since I had left last year. She was over worked, under paid (I don't think he had given her a good pay to begin with) and this year, he did not deliver what he had promised on the pay rise. (Even dragging me down by saying that I was over paid *rolled eyes*)

She also mention that his Greed had not change a bit since I left, but seems to have grown a whole lot BIGGER! He now charges a whopping $247 for his initial consultation!! (Why? Cause there are a highly likely chance that the patients will not return due to the high fees, so he 'make up' on the loss by charging astronomical sum in the first visit. Through the years, I had observed new patient turn over rate for him was so high and retention rate so low... as low as only 1 in 10 will actually complete the treatment cycle. However, new patients will still continues to come, because of his self-declared Reputation as the 'guru' in the area, PLUS he had the $$$ to splash around to make his reputation big with media advertising and connections)

Talking about splashing $$, I was told he had bought 3 pieces of land in Bali to 'invest' and build houses. So his patients are his cash cows, feeding his extravagant lifestyle. Demand and supply you'd say. Well, Canberra had it's unique community of people. High earners, career minded women who wanted to give birth later n later, not to mention the IVF clinics that are making lots of money too. 

I am sad that people who genuinely needed his help, people who had to give up their income just to see him, were treated as 2nd-class patients.

Sigh...

On the other hand, I am happy that D is happy and enjoying her work as a Chinese medicine doctor in a busy clinic in Sydney. Her health is much better now and she is also doing part time Honours at her uni too!

*yay! great ending for her*

Oh yes, before I end off, I had FINALLY manage to call through to the HR personal of the clinic I had interest of working at weeks ago. This is ridiculous!

What made me more mad was that she actually gave me the SUPER LAME EXCUSE of:

'Oh, we are having trouble with our email system for a few weeks. I had replied to your email, but I think the system is having trouble to keeping track... blah  blah blah...' 

Seriously, people lying with their EYES wide open. For goodness sake, does a quick reply via text, phone call voice mail etc also cannot? I  had sent in like 2 emails and 2 voice mails and 4 calls to your clinic  (all in the span of the last 3 weeks) to try to reach you. And you give me this excuse?! Even tried to MIA with being sick.

Anyhow, I had no desire to be working there anymore, BUT I do appreciate that you can let me know SOONER, so I don't have to keep waiting FOR TIME IS PRECIOUS!

Inconsiderate.

kcan

Old house

Eric and I had been busy with the renovations at home for the last two weeks. It seems to be going no where as time is just not enough! When we fixed a tap, the other decides to leaks. Then the other one, and another one. Grrrr!

Anyhow, to add to our frustration, we now are in possess of another old house that is in need of renovation. Yes, an old house. It was their first home in Australia, and it is in great need of a love n facelift.  Hopefully, in due time, when we are finish with the renovations here in this big hell house, we can start moving to the other place and start living and doing the renovation there at the same time. 

Yay! Can't wait to be able to live away from the in-laws. 

So today's the day where I set foot into the place. They always talked about it but I had not been here before. It is not too far from where we are now. Basically they did not move out of the suburb. The house looks old from the outside. Large fenced off yard in the front and a small garden in the back. Entering from the front door, you can sense the age of the house, through the yellowed walls papers, faded carpets, hanging lights, old rugged door with old style handles....

Oh my, the whole house is filled with wall papered walls! Imagine the work needed to get rid of them and paint the walls. >_<

And the kitchen is in a great need of a change of face. 

And the old dirty curtains. I wonder how can you live with dirty curtains with dust n all on it? I even saw spiderweb on one of them, guess they did not move the curtains at all.

There are lots of things to be done. But glad that at least this will be a much better place to stay than a house with junk n endless work to do. (Aka: doing things for people who are incapable due to laziness)

Thank you for the blessings that comes so unexpectedly. 

Kcan

DIY renovations

Dad n mum came for a short surprised visit last week. They only bought the tickets 1 day prior! But sadly, the weather had been storming non-stop while they were here. Even our trip to the Blue mountains, only allows us to see a fog filled views. 

We manage to catch a glimps of scenery, but we had to be quick, as the heavy fog draws like a curtain, closing in quickly.

Anyhow, the rain finally stopped the day they flew back to Perth. Oh how I love the sunshine! For the whole of this week, I had been doing lots of laundry washing and making full use of the beautiful sunshine. 

And as our visitors had gone, Eric n I started on our DIY projects around the house. 

1: There is the kitchen window frame that had been chewed up by the termites. Thus we need to replace the beams and frame. A huge project, that is still undergoing. Currently day 4!

This was how the kitchen window had been looking like since I've moved in early in the year. Pest control done, killed all the ants. Now just need to patch it up.

Eric started by measuring the plaster board to patch up the gaps. 

Doing all the measuring up. Created lots of dust. I got quite pissed off on the first day as he did not cover the things around the kitchen and dust flies all over. Guys... *roll eyes*

The first plaster board is up! Yay!

At the end of day 1, all the 3 plaster board are up. And finally, the kitchen wall is sealed.

Day 2:

We added the joint compound to join the plaster board together. Kinda like a cement. Had to apply many layers. Lots of waiting time. Realised that the beams behind the walls are not straight! So some places are budging out more than others. So had to put more compound to level it.

Eric's artwork is on the right, while I did the left side. Hehe. Who's one is nicer?

We had to leave it overnight to dry.

Day 3:

Me applying another layer to seal it. Looking good.

Today, we redo the sillicon grout at the wall. Nice n white. It was black with mold before.

We had to stop here as we will be having guest staying over the weekend. Next step for us will be to add a final coating layer, sand it down, then out the frame up, and finally paint it!

Will update more as we go.

Kcan