[Others.058] Leaking caused by neighbour's construction work

It rained quite heavily for the whole week in Sydney last week, and in the weekend we went to a friend's house for lunch. Their neighbour at the back, who's land is at a higher level was building a 2 storey house.

Other than the non-stop annoying noise and dust, our friend mentioned about this leaking under their house during rainy days which only started after the builder installed an underground water tank between the 2 houses. And the photo below is what it looks like, you can clearly see water running from certain area while other parts were completely dry.


Suggest them to take some photos/videos and report to the council asap - specially before the construction work finished and the council issued the OC. Obviously it has to be somehow fixed and would be quite concerned if the water could cause any damage to my friend's house. Things like this would surely brought some delay or extra cost to any construction work.

[Others.057] The Original Reverse Clock

Saw this strange "reverse clock" the other day. Quite interesting and took me a few seconds to get used to it. Checked the net and I think you can get one for around $130. Quite expensive actually, in my opinion but it's fun if you have school age kids.

[Others.056] Burst water pipe

One of our neighbor's water pipe burst right under their driveway the other day. The whole street suffered lost of water pressure and few hours later, completely out of water. The water pressure from the damaged pipe was so strong that it cracked and pushed the driveway up a few cm higher than the footpath level, some of the footpath also damaged.


Annoyingly, it took Sydney Waters about 3 hours to send someone on site. After some investigation, they digged a big hole on their driveway.


Have a quick chat with the guys and they said this is the smallest 4 inch pipe, and start talking about another incident where an 8 inch pipe burst, how much damage it caused.... We finally got our water after about 6 hours later.


Other than having the water back, What we were more concerned about is how are they going to fix the damaged driveway?

The next morning noticed the hole has been filled up like this... Also noticed a few yellow marks been sprayed on the footpath and other areas where the concrete were cracked.


At first we thought is that it? The driveway will be left in such an ugly condition?

Then last week, council parked a caravan at the front. Next day they started working on the driveway. They were quite careful, only did one half, wait for it to dry before working on the other half.


After a few days work. It's now a brand-new driveway and footpath also fixed too!

What our landscaper told us before is correct. If your driveway was damaged due to burst pipe or whatever reason, the council will only replace it with basic concrete. So if any of you thinking of extending your beautiful driveway paving all the way to the road might want to think again... Better off saving that for the back yard?

[Others.055] the incredible (house construction) project

Took this photo from my old iPhone 3GS, so it's a bit unclear, but you should get the idea.... It's for some sort of computer software project, but still matches what could happen during any construction project. And I am sure whoever built a house before would quite agree with this.

One of the point is, sometimes even the customer can't clearly explain what they want. How would you expect the result to be correct after the message been passed over through so many people and documented in different ways.

So make sure you double check and triple check every diagram, every line in the contract, take a lot of pictures, ask a lot of dumb/silly questions - yes it can be a bit embarrassing, but it's really rewarding if this can clarify if every parties involved are talking about the same thing!

Whatever the sales person told you - specially while he/she show you around - write it down and make sure it's correctly and clearly covered in the contract. Whatever promise/agreement you were told/made doesn't count unless it's written down in the contract!

[Others.054] Change of NSW Premier and Council Zoning

First of all, congratulation to Barry O'Farrell our new Premier for NSW. Hope the North West Rail Link, which has been promised since 1998 can be finished in the near future as planned.


Picture: Jeff Herbert Source: The Australian

For the Labor, on top of all those countless money wasting mistakes they had made, to focus on connecting the 2 existing lines of Parramatta and Epping is really dumb. Compared with those residents in North West suburbs who have no rail-way and only over-congested roads, connecting Parramatta and Epping will only benefit a very small number of people and probably save them 10-15 min of travel time, isn't that really obvious?? No wonder Labor would loose the election so badly...

The other change is the zoning changes. During an open house inspection in one of the house in our area a few weeks ago, a neighbour mentioned council zoning has changed. Lots of area used to be "2B" and allows construction of single dwelling or duplex (Dual Occupancies), has all been changed to "R2" and that will only allow "single dwelling houses".

Quickly checked our council's web site and indeed noticed new Draft LEP and DCP been announced (see this link), this document about Zoning also provides some high level information.

Not sure about your council, at least in Parramatta council, it's definitely more difficult to build duplexes or townhouses. Wonder if that could have any impact to the house prices.

If any of you are thinking/planning of building new houses, make sure you keep yourself up to date with all the latest council regulation/zoning changes!

[Others.052] Metropolitan Plan for Sydney 2036

The NSW government just released Metropolitan Plan for Sydney 2036.

Personally, I certainly don't think the Keneally government would win the next election....

[Others.051] More scary news about US banks!

Saw this scary news on Sydney Morning Herald today about lots of US Banks having problem with paper work. Hope this won't cause another "subprime collapse" of the banks. Main concern is, does this mean US Dollars going to keep going down??

[Others.050] Cheaper supplier for water tank filter found!

Good to be in beautiful Spring time again!

In the past few months, I didn't do much except:
1. Spent a few weeks in Shanghai, mainly visiting World Expo 2010 with family.
2. Finished my 4th City2Surf 14 km run.

Other than that, basically quite busy with work.

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I mentiond in this post around Dec 2009 about paying $75 for 2 water tank filter.

We went to Parklea Market the other day and saw this stand from a company called OnTap Water Filters selling $25 each or 4 for $50.

Yes, the sign says "Today only", but based on the amount of dust on it, I don't think it's new, probably showing "Today only" price everyday...

The stand is right next to the "Information Centre" near one of the gates, you won't miss it.

As below, they also have many other filters on the shelf:


The size for ours is 10 inch. We weren't very sure if the size is correct so we only bought one, later compared with the existing one and the size is exactly the same! Yes!


So, there you go, another tip to save some money for everyone (around Sydney I guess :-P )!

[Others.049] Insulation sagga for about 255,000 homes

There's been some quite scary reports about fire caused by insulation, and about 255,000 homes fitted with insulation under the program might have safety problems, substandard batts or installation faults after the government's $2.45 billion ceiling insulation subsidy scheme been scrapped.

Feel really sorry for those home owners. This would also be a huge risk for potential home buyers too. How would you know if the insulation been installed was up to the standard?? Will there be any sort of certificate issued by any authority for this?

Not sure if it's related, I mentioned about possible fire caused by downlights in July 2007 and then another follow up as well. If there's any downlights in your house, might want to check if any proper protection been installed around all the downlights.

I also did this burn latest in December 2007, just to make sure the insulation material we got is fireproof. Surely this wouldn't be a proper/official test method, but I guess if you just have insulation installed, it won't harm for you to grab some of those materials through the man hole and do some simple testing while waiting for official inspection!

[Others.048] Matt's house sold! Congratulation!

Have been following Matt's blog for a while and saw this post from his blog today that's his house was sold after only on the market for 6 days! That's really excellent and congratulation to Matt!!

Did a quick search on the net and found the house as below, with details removed to protect his privacy. A very nice house as you can see from the photos...

The best part is the timing, Matt must have a crystal ball or something to be able to time everything so perfectly.

First we all heard that in 2009 house price in Australia posted 12.1 per cent rise overall for the year (e.g. here, here, and here).

Then there's also quite a lot of reports in past weeks (e.g. here, here, and here) all pointing to almost 99.9% certainty that the Reserve Bank is going to raise the official interest rate next Tuesday. Most people are expecting the property boom to start slowing down a bit.

It would be really difficult to sell a house at such a perfect timing -- almost the peak of the property cycle.

As for us, we're definitely not thinking of selling our house at this stage. After all the effort in past 2 years, we would like to enjoy it a lot longer...

Chat with family about if we should consider selling if the property price doubles in X years time? Urh..... I think we would still prefer to hold it, but borrow against the equity or something like that and then look at other opportunities... The cost for selling and then buy/build another one is just too high in Australia...

[Others.047] What the fork??

Around early December last year, while waiting for wife shopping in Kmart Hornsby, I saw this cheap "Gardener's Choice Fork" around $20 and bought it without much thinking... I wasn't a heavy user, just like to loose the soil for the grass to grow better probably once or twice every 6 months.

It worked ok for a while, then one day while I was working near the brick retaining wall, it snapped into two.... What the fork??!!

A closer look shows it's actually not very strongly made....

From this photo you can see the metal surrounding the timber handler is actually quite thin... No wonder it didn't last long....

Have to drive all the way to Hornsby to get a refund, and on way back, saw this "Stanley" Garden Fork fork in Bunning's on special around $30 and comes with 5 years warranty. Should be much better and stronger than the previous one if it's almost 50% more expensive and clearly specified warranty period, right?

Wrong! I used it near the same spot and snapped! It's broken again! What the fork??!!

This is a closer look of the broken part...

After some explanation, I got it refunded, and was strongly recommended to get this "proper" one called Cyclone Garden Fork which was "Made in Australia" and comes with 10 years warranty.

At about $65 it's not cheap, but certainly felt much heavier and stronger by the look of it...

So, did the new fork work at the place where the other 2 failed? Well, yes and no...

Firstly, I definitely don't want to take the risk for this new expensive tool... Secondly, I thought about it for a while, inspected the spot which killed previous 2 forks and then I noticed the problem... Silly me, I was standing quite close and facing the retaining wall. Which means I was actually working against the big blocks, which is why those 2 forks broke... If I turn and face the opposite side, and work the fork the other way, instead of towards the retaining walls, then there won't be any problem at all!

Any way, I learned the lesson the hard way. Luckily, thanks to the Australian law which protects customers against all sort of stupidity like mine, I got both forks refunded. If I had used it correctly, even that under $20 one would still be working fine I guess...

[Others.045] Nice features of new houses in California

During my short stay in California, I found quite a few nice features which I like to share with everyone.

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The most impressive feature is the high ceiling, which I think is about 10 feet/ 305 cm high. The dark brown door in photo below is the main entrance, the plain white door at the far right is the garage door which is about the same height as the normal door we have here. Compare the gap between the doors and the ceiling and you can see the difference.

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The next feature I like is the smooth/round edges for all the walls. This would certainly be more child friendly than the sharp ones we have here.

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I also found they all have a big tray under the washing machine in the laundry, similar to this one. This would protect the floor from been damaged.

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There's also wallpapers been applied in some of the rooms. And as below, the light switches were beautifully covered with the wallpaper.

The switch at the far right has some sort of built-in sensor, which probably would turn on the light when it detects any movement. This certainly looks better than a separate sensor been installed on the ceiling corner and less wiring required.

[BlogSite.028] Home Sweet Home

I was away for a while, stayed in the sunny Los Angeles California for weeks, enjoying the beautiful sun shine and inexpensive food/shopping thanks to strong Aussie dollars.

Also visited some new display homes and found lots of interesting ideas which is quite different from what we have here in Australia. Will post some information to share with everyone later. It's really great to be back home again...

By the way, I decided to change my blog template back to the previous one, as the new template isn't wide enough.

[Others.044] Call the police! Someone stole two lanes from Epping Road!

This is quite funny, but unfortunately it's the NSW government who stole the two lanes from Epping Road, trying to force everyone to use the expensive Lane Cove Tunnel...

[Others.043] Flaws in the construction work for new buildings

I saw this article "A litany of defects and still no resolution" from Sydney Morning Herald the other day about nightmare of a brand new building in 25 Kelly Street Ultimo for all the residents. Have a read and tell me how you fell about it.

While you might think it's just another tragic story similar to the one I mentioned this post (Charlie's Sad Story) mid last year, but there's one very important point been mentioned in the article by Dominic Ogburn, who is a licensed building consultant and author:
"When a plumber does some work on a new building they are the ones who fill out the compliance certificate to say whether their work has been done properly."
"Often the certification provided is completely at odds with what has actually been built because the contractor is the only person who has to sign off on it."

I certainly agree that this is a major flaw for all the construction work of new buildings in Australia.

While you might say that all building companies have a site supervisor who checks every construction site weekly. Yes, that's true. But based on what we seen in ours, and a few other sites in the past few years, it's never enough.

Each site supervisor normally has to look after at least 20 sites, and you would be lucky if your supervisor can spend more than an hour or two in your site every week. Although we have inspectors from council or private ones (hired by builder), it's almost impossible to pick up every problems in a short hour or two's inspection.

So from purchaser/owner's point of view, it will certainly be safer if you can get your own inspector, and check everything you can think of, again, again and again before the hand over. Once you accepted the property or signed the dotted line and paid all the money, you lost control of everything!

[Others.042] Thanks for the execellent service Freedom Furniture

We bought a set of "Lila" bedroom furniture from Freedom Furniture last year.

We noticed started from early this year, for some unknown reason the colour changed from white to irregular yellow spots in different places. We visited one of their shops a few weeks ago and surprisingly their friendly staff said they were aware of this issue and can arrange for a replacement.

After a quick phone call, a replacement was arranged, and we got all of them waiting in the garage to be picked up next day morning. Just look at the awful colours...



It was raining the next morning, a big truck arrived around 7am. 2 guys quickly checked the goods, stick a big yellow note on each of them, and replaced all of them.




After some hard work with assembling everything and rubbish clean up, we leave it overnight to get rid of the smell.


Unfortunately we found a small problem, as below one of the roller wheels for one of the drawers was broken. Since it still sort of works so there's no rush to get it fixed. And with their excellent service I believe this can be easily resolved.

Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention. When we bought the furniture last year it comes with 2 years warranty. The best part is, after the replacement (which is about one year later), they still give us another 2 years of warranty, not bad isn't it!

[Others.041] Execellent tool to control kid's TV/Computer/Game time

If you are like us, having problem controlling kid's TV/game time after school, there's a solution!

According to this report on "Oh Gizmo!", there's this little "tamper-proof" timer device which you can set the timer and completely lock the power point of the TV/Computer/Game Console, not bad isn't it?


Further details can be found in Digital Innovation, it's currently US$29.99 each and comes with 1 year warranty.

It's a very simple 3 step setup as below:

It can be programmed to repeat every 24 hours, and 4-digit pass code to prevent unauthorized timer changes.

Would be good to know when this becomes available in Australia!

[Others.040] Swine Flu - how it started...

Got this from work colleague... quite interesting...

[Others.039] Dispute Between Neighbours

Found this on the internet, quite interesting...

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Dispute Between Neighbours - this is a true story...

A town councillor in Wales , Mark Easton, had a beautiful view of the mountains, until a new neighbour purchased the land below his house and built a new home.

The new home was 18 inches higher than the planning dept had approved, so Mark Easton, mad about his lost view, went to the local authority to make sure they enforced the roof line height.
The new neighbour had to drop the roof height, at great expense.

Recently, Mark Easton called the planning dept, and informed them that his new neighbour had installed some vents on the side of his new property.

Mark didn't like the look of these vents and asked the planning dept to investigate.

When they went to Mark's home to see what the vents looked like, this is what they found...

The Local Authority said the vents can stay since there is no planning law referring to shutter design....!

[Others.037] Hello Queen Mary 2!

Queen Mary 2, the largest cruise ships to visit Sydney is here!

We can still see it even from our office at Martin Place, which is quite far away. I only have my mobile with me, so sorry about the not-so-clear image...

2nd try, with a bit of zooming.....

Still not very good... Looks like I need a new phone that comes with a much better camera...

Alright, to have a much better photo of the beautiful ship, have at look at this page on news.com.au or their official photo gallery.

Sydney Morning Herald also have a report here, but there's no photo and not as interesting as the previous one...

From their official Australian web site here, I was quite impressed about the facilities available.

According to this page it cost $12,629 for a 44 days trip. Sounds a lot, but if you divide that by 44, it's only about $287 per day. Don't forget that this also covers accommodation and they still have to feed you! If only I can have so many holidays....

Sad to know that it's leaving tonight and heading for Tokyo. Wait, don't go! Every passenger has to spend at least AU$500 before you are allow to leave Sydney :-) !

Finally, some interesting facts about the ship:

# The Queen Mary 2 is two thirds the length of the Sydney Harbour Bridge
# The ship's engines produces enough thrust to launch a jumbo jet and can reach a top speed of 30 knots
# It has 1072 deck chairs, 2000 bathrooms, 3000 telephones and 5000 stairs
# It weighs 150,000 tonnes and is 345 metres long
# The Queen Mary 2 is the largest passenger ship to ever visit Australia, it is more than double the size of the Queen Elizabeth 2 and more than three times the size of the Titanic
# The ship is 44 metres longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall (300 metres)
# It is 34 metres longer than the original Queen Mary
# It cost an estimated $800 million dollars to build
# The Queen Mary 2's whistle is audible for 16 kilometres
# The ship has no wheel but a joystick to control its movements.