magnetic catch

The fridge is relatively old - 7 years I think. Anyway, after replacing the seal, it still didn't stay closed. Opening and closing the freezer would sometimes open the fridge. The DIY solution is to make up and install a magnetic catch. I used a 3 dollar magnetic with a 3kg pull with this job. The spring maintains the alignment It works well and my daughter has no trouble opening it.

We also installed some curtains to keep out the morning sun's glare.

hotwater timer

We got a small electric tank hotwater system for the following reasons; to save water and energy (the pipe run to the instantaneous gas is quite long - 20m or so), we like the kitchen hotwater to be very hot, we want it to come on straight away and we like to trickle the hotwater.

The only problem with the small electric tank hotwater systems is that they don't have an off peak circuit. So to save on the energy bill, I have been trying to make sure it is off during the peak times (2pm to 8pm). Effectively this means turning it on just before I go bed and then turning on off when I wake up. Unfortunately not only is an effort to remember, the hotwater is not really hot come time to wash up at 7pm.

The solution was to put in a timer. The one I got from Jaycar at $60 is really good. It is battery backed up and has enough configuration so I can turn in on at 6am leave it runing through the shoulder to 2pm on weekdays and leaving it runing to 10pm on the weekend.



On the weekend, I did some more painting both inside and outside...

scafolding, power point and letter box

I've been sick for the last three weekends, so it was good to start working on the house again.

I "moved" the power point for the microwave so we can turn it off athe the point to save power. Ocassionally the microwave does not seem to shut off, so it is also easier to reach the switch. The toaster stopped working properly, so I recycled the power lead and a spare power point to do the job.



Yay a new letter box - nice blue colour to match the house.

Here is me on my scafolding paintin the eves. For some reason my new neigbour across the road thought I was doing an extension - a porch.

We also put in some seeds and seedling out the back. Hopefully we should have a productive garden very soon. The broad beans have flowers on them and we are expecting a bumper crop.