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Storm clouds on the Darling Downs on Thursday.

It's not aimed at Indonesia. I haven't looked at Peter's link, but I've seen news articles about poor people in Indonesia and other countries who have learned to turn a dollar by posting AI generated shit, usually aimed at the more gullible right wingers. The more outrage and reposting it gets, the more they earn, so they pick divisive figures like Pauline. They don't give a shit about Australia's internal politics, it's just a way to make a living.

Back to 'Crikey it's Wet'. Yesterday the wind dropped, and the fire died down a lot. Maybe the 4 choppers waterbombing helped there. And still a dozen appliances and crews. Then it rained last night. Temps down to ten, humidity up to 80%, nil wind. Crikey it's wet 🙂

I forgot to mention a couple of other things. The house is a lovely house,, Apart from being big (which I don't attribute to lovely), it offers a well thought out floor plan with good living space, excellent kitchen; bright (and airy ;-)) The village is a lovely village; everyone has their characters, but by and large it has been an inclusive village on day 1. And most have each other's backs. There are even two kiwis in this village as well. If I was staying in the UK, I would stay until I couldn't look after it (financially or physically, whichever came first). In all honesty, as I got older, I would probably subdivide, sell off the big house, and move into the cottage. I still may do that as part of selling up ( and may need to if too many more surprises come). Re the plumbing, yep the heating is also driven off the plumbing. I find it quite good and I understand hydronic heating, as it is called in Aus is getting popular. Of course, leaks can be a pain, but the pipework seems incredibly resilient. When they pressure tested the aged plumbing, they found one leak. That was it. I guess there's plusses and minuses for everything.

Thanks.. It certainly is more than I bargained for + contingency + Some more. The interesting thing is the original structures - except for pointing and some of the slate roofing - are in great nic. And fixing what is deteriorated is a pure joy. It's what they did since about the 1980's which is a pain and most commonly fails. Most of it is shoddy to the core.. What pisses me off is that the surveys didn't uncover the major stuff you would expect them to. They disclaim so much, it is pointless contesting it and would take years through the courts anyway. The next property I buy in Aus, I will get a land survey )of the type of property I am looking for), but do the building check out myself. As an example, about a year before we bought the house, a tree fell on the house. Half the room was repaired. We are in a contractual dispute with the insurer and the builder. The builder says we can;t enforce the contract as it is with the insurer. I point out he has a 25 year warranty that is transferable, the Contract (Rights of Third Party) Act specifically covers this situation, and he could end up going broke if I pursue it. And he agreed.. He would simply dissolve the company as being broke and there would be nothing for him to pay. Its £20 to start a new company and as long as he acted within the law, there is no restriction for him to take further directorships. So, I am pursuing with the insurer, who bats me off to the builder. That is a less probable course of action and the costs are prohibitive to do, which you have to find and can maybe claw back if you win. So, I have to suck it up. Because I am tackling this as it should be tackled - by using the correct materials, the house has surprisingly little damp. In fact the only known damp we have is a leak on part of the roof that wasn't fixed... The problem wasn't the leaky bit of the roof but because some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to use spray foam insulation. The same spray foam that you use to fill holes. There are two problems with that that blind Freddy could see.. One, it holds the moisture... for a loooong time.. it doesn't breathe. 2. It bonds to everything it touches.. So the rafters (rotting) and the tiles (can't remove them without breaking them). Again, the damp is caused not by the age of the building itself nor the materials that should have been used. But by idiots using the wrong materials taking the cheap way out. I have previously gone through the front cement render on the outer front wall.. put up by the builder that did the roof as part of the tree damage. A plasterer noticed and asked if we had damp in the front room, of which there was. Not long after he replaced it, no more damp there. The last set of phitos One of the things about these old buildings is draughtiness. In this house, the floor between the ground floor and the hasement does not go all the way to the walls - there is about a 5mm gap . at some points and there is an open (grated) coal chute to the basement. We have a cover over it that can breathe so it has reduced the breeziness by about 95%, but you do feel it. In the study, which is an ex private chapel, we replaced what as at the time of listing, a grotty PVC window that was double glazed. The guidance for listed buildings is that they are to reflect their passage of time, so in theory, we could have replaced it with another cheap UPVC double glazed windows. But that was crap and we found the original windows (not frames, which were lead-lined single glazed. We applied to have them replicated into a wooden frame but with ultra-thin double glazing at quite a lot more expense that refurbing the ortiginal windows and inserting them into the wooden frame. Given listing guidance is to reflect the evolution of the property, you would have thought it, especially being an improvement entirely sympathetic with the building and the looming environmental crisis, it was a no brainer. Nope; it was asserted because the originals are still there (one thing the previous owners didn't get to sell), it was their intention to install them as is, so we had to stick with it. We appealed as far as we could without getting lawyers involved and decided not to pursue it. You could not make this stuff up. Thankfully global warming is here as I don#t need to heat the room all day at the moment (it is 7:48 and 15 degrees c on the 25th October - absolutely nuts; there is a second storm brewing though, and i have to get the gutters cleaned in between and try and unblock a drain). So, it is draughty but not because it cannot be fixed. BTW, that window cost me £6K; it would have been $8k to do it properly and no one would be the wiser. Re light, apparently there was a window tax from the late 1600s to around mid 1800s. Our extensions must have gone up just after that period as the windows (seen from the photos published) are quite big and we do get a lot of light. I replaced c. 20 windows. Either that, or when they were bricked in, windows were subsequently reinstalled. But you do see a lot of older buildings with bricked in windows today and I always wondered why. Apparently that is the main reason. Of course, in the older days when heating systems weren't quite as efficient, brick and lime were better at keeping the cold out than windows. The tradies thinking you;re rich and pricing accordingly; absolutely. The easiest way to find out is ask for an itemised quote - not down to the nut and bolt, either major deliverables or even just labour and materials. When they refuse, you know you;re getting shafted. On the plumbing this was the case because despite the lure of a lot of work and what I knew was easy money. only two plumbers invited quoted despite the other 15-ish (can't remember exactly how many) saying they would he happy to. When the mate of a gardner heard the cost, he said it was around right, until he heard there was no boiler replacement and we weren#t replacing all the piping. Unf, I didn#t have the tools, the experience, nor the time, and I felt being impaled from behind with every day that passed. Other tradies were the same, but builders are easier to come by. At the moment, I have a decent builder who is experienced with old building, charges normal rates and makes good progress. I have a decorator who is a retired teacher and keeps himself busy; also good rates. The sparky is a little more expensive and totally by the book (commercially), so is the most expensive. But, he is a perfectionist, which I like and does get it done (i.e. not try and fit too many clients in). Still I am all in at the moment. I won't make money on it. Hopefully I won#t lose on it, either. However, if I count the opportunity cost of what else I could have done with the money, I would have retired comfortably by now.

I told you, you would get some water today. Nev

That was a set up by a ridiculous station. It's a real problem not to be taken lightly. Labor have a predominance of Women. Anxious Failure sacked the dominant one in the Libs and they have gone Backwards ever since. It was her sacking that enabled Hanson to get ONE elected Person in the Lower House. The ONLY one such person there and there's a fair chance HE won't stay there long being told what to say and having to sign a non disclosure statement. Only Ashby and Hanson call the shots. No democracy there. Gina Pays the Bills. Murdoch sings "WE Love you Pauline" Nev

It won't do OUR reputation any good. She sure gives them plenty of ammunition. Over 30 mil Muslims to upset unnecessarily. Our closet Neighbour.

Don#t be sorry, Pete.. It's your thread 😉

Help!!!! I'm drenched. Clouds passed over and deposited 8mm of water on me.

Not sure how you make babies on a bicycle. Good balance required!

Ben Carroll is anther polly who doesn't answer a question directly and repeats his first answer when re-asked.

I still missed the connection with A.I. Does A.I. or data centres use 50mm drains? Oops. Just noticed. There is another thread for A.I. Sorry @Jerry

Their Tolls pay for it. They are great freedom machines and are fun to drive. They gave People Personal Mobility and they got to Know what the World 30 kms and more beyond their Home was like.. Protected you from the elements. Helped Bank robbers escape. Make Babies at the Drive-In. Nev

Wouldn't be such a problem if we just banned all those crazy motorcars.

Interesting article about AI and how it's probably not the best idea to be an early adopter. What's this got to do with old house reno's? The example they used was Greece being the first to develop flushing toilets. However, in Greece now there's warning signs not to flush paper down the loo, because it'll stuff the plumbing. Why? Because for some historical reason they use 50mm drains which is half the diameter of Australian sewage drains. Original is not always the best.

All they want is a Headline. Media is interested in getting THEIR VIEWS in the Public gaze. ALL Newspapers are Owned by RICH people and Historically not many (if any) of them are very NICE People. They FAIL their Public Duty. Nev

It must be a bit hard for a reported to get the opportunity to ask a Prime Minister a question during one of these opportunities. Why waste the chance by asking something so inane that experience would tell you that the politician is not going to answer. In the current situation of confrontations with politicians, I would have thought the reporter should have been more concerned with what acrtions ar being taken to protect politicians (of all sides) from them. First and foremost, these attacks are being made upon people being present to carry out a job that the community has given them to do. It also seem that our male law makers are prone to mysogeny based on what our female politicians are saying.

The Australian Jillaroos defeated England 78–0 in their Women's Rugby League World Cup Pool A match at HBF Park in Perth on October 24, 2026. Did the Lionesess take to the field? A team wouldn't cross the try line that often during training.

I wtch a lot of English renovation videos and it strikes me that these houses suffer badly from moisture. Mould seems to be rampant. I don't think that their drainage systems work too well. It seems also that when their woodwork gets wet, the wood worm moves in to eat it out. Just as bad as out termites, in those areas where we have them. I suppose that using the same wood that the worms evolve with doesn't prevent attack. The other thing that astounds me is the plumbing. There's plumbing for getting water to washing bathrooms, kitchens and laundries, but also for providing heating using fluid radiators. These places seem to have nearly as much pipework as an oil refinery. Then there is the way they handle waste water and sewage. It all seems so primitive to me. I will say, however, they they have some really interesting tools and materials. I can't get over the fact that they will install plasterboard and then apply coats of plaswter render. And why would you render over brick work? All that does is prevent the brickwork from breathing. And I hate pebble dash. Jerry, the sooner you can get back here to a nice brick veneer four-bedroom single storey place, with reverse cycle heating/cooling, plasterboard-lined internal stud walls and tiled roof, the better.

I was talking about our Middle Eastern organisations. You don;'t hear much about teh Cosa Nostra these days. At 6:00 am the sky was clear. By 7:00 am it was 9/9 overcast and windy. By 9:00am it was broken low level cloud and still windy. I decided to risk doing my weekluy laundry, since I figured that the wind would speed drying. The wind seemed to die down mid-morning and the cloud broke up. Now at midday it's 9/9 overcast and the wind is picking up. At this stage I still don't think that the clouds look like producing any rain. The forecast is for thunderstorms across the centre of the State, but I don't hold out much hope. I'll update this evening.

I wonder if it was because it did not pass the vehicle standards that have to be met by all vehicles. I think the vehicle was banned in the UK for such failures. Anyway, our crime bosses prefer Italian sports cars.

It is a lovely property.. but far more neglected than surveys uncovered. For instance the cottage has underfloor wet heating and we had a couple move in for a couple of months. Out of the blue, the u/floor heating shorted and three new manifolds later (and a few hundred pounds) it was fixed. It is the constant tending to things you're not expecting that wears us down

Another vanity symbol kicked in the nutz!

I don't block it from my mind to pretend the problems aren't there..It's more I need the break from it. Often it is waiting for tradespeople who are not rip off merchants to come available. I have two tradies full time on it and they are very reasonable in their rates. Even so, it is costing me about £7k a month. We are probably two months from completion I think. Then the big clean up.

Paradise by the dashboard light - Meatloaf.

With the modern day 24 hour news cycle, mud doesn't stick like it used to. The pollies are lucky we have a voting population with ADHD.

I assume that every party compiles a shit list on anyone not in their party, and probably many in their party too. Not a good look, but judging by what everyone is saying about her, it wouldn't be a big list anyway.

I used that term to indicate that fording water is not 'normal' use of a vehicle. Therefore it requires skill an judgement (risk management) that is not taught in the normal road training syllabus. Nothing magical or crazy if approached responsibly. Responsibly includes saying no when appropriate, which is frequently.

Michelangelo's David returns to Italy after 3 years touring the U.S. ......