We had to wait in again for the furniture from Tamworth.
The place looks a bit more habitable now but we will have to solve the heating problem before we can move in. The overnight temperature are already dropping below freezing and it's quite chilly indoors all day.
I'm still trying to get information on the calorific value of gas so that I can compare the cost of electric and gas heating. My own reference tables provide information on lots of materials but, sadly, not on the hydrocarbons. I guess I could get the information from the web when I next log on.The gas suppliers will donate two bottles to anyone who signs up for three years gas supply or anyone who buys a gas heater. That still leaves the cost of installation to be considered. I'd dearly love to have a gas stove but we'll have to wait on the cost comparison before we decide on that. Most people here use firewood which they gather from the surrounding countryside either by arrangement with a property owner or, possibly, illegally. I don't know that I want to do either of those things but perhaps I'll have to.
I did a bit of work tidying up the carport. We will have to find some way of taking stuff to the tip. Perhaps a towbar on the Terios and a box trailer would be appropriate.
In addition to the furniture, we need a fridge, stove, hot water service, heaters, TV, VCR, and stereo so its worth buying at discounted prices.
The are all sorts of end-of-year sales of furniture and whitegoods on in Tamworth at the moment so we got up early and went to town.
We visited a discount furniture shop and saw a bedroom suite we quite liked at a reasonable price but decided that we needed to get some other things done before we can get into buying such things. We visited the other major secondhand shop and saw a most wonderful old European sideboard which was a really good price because it was too big for most houses. Perhaps we'll find a way to fit it in.
We went to South Tamworth to check out the "sales" at Harvey Norman and at The Good Guys. The "sale prices we a little bit off what can only be called exorbitant normal prices. The only thing we saw that was really cheap was a 68cm TV which didn't have HD or digital or anything like that so had been reduced to about a third of the price of the last big TV we bought.
We had lunch at the Homestead Cafe where the wireless hotspot allows me to connect to the internet at lightning speed. I got the incoming emails but still couldn't send any. I surfed for information about the calorific value of LPG and propane but couldn't upload the Motley website.
The information about gas showed that the cost of energy is much the same whether you use gas or electricity so we will probably opt for gas as it allows heaters of larger output and it would also give us a gas stove which I dearly want.
Elsie May, our next door neighbour, lent me her hedge trimmer which I used to good effect on the hedge between her place and ours. In the course of putting things away in the shed, I found a bag of parts for all the outstanding Motley modifications which I had "lost". I'll now be able to finish these jobs and clear off the "to do" list.
I arranged to dump the black water into the town sewer and I asked if it would be Ok to modify the inspection point on the sewer connection to the house to allow me to dump there. The guy said he would come round and check out what we have.
I also arranged for a guy to come and mow the grass and take away the cactus. He said he'd come on Thursday. I ordered a load of firewood which will come on Friday.
I rang the Apple support line to find out how to get the Tiger upgrade for the iBook. It was an extraordinary experience because the support person was an Indian lady called Anil who seemed to take an age answering every question as though she had to key the question into her computer and let it provide her with the answer. After quite a long time, she told me that I would have to log on to the Apple website to arrange the upgrade. When I said that I didn't have access to the internet, she said I should go to the library!
We waited in until about one for the delivery of the TV.
After lunch we went into town to try and buy something to put the TV on. We found a small tatty TV table which will do until we can find something better; I unpacked the TV and set it up on the sitting room where it looks and works OK.
We went to the library to return books, and to use the internet access point to download arrange the upgrade for the new iBook. After some difficulties getting the page to tell me what I wanted to know, I finally downloaded a form to send the Apple by snail mail. So much for the support system of the "smartest" computer company in the world.
We went to Tamworth to do some more checking and buy some things we need immediately.
We found several places which we can use to buy stuff we need including two kitchen suppliers and a carpet seconds place. We can now decide how to deal with the floor covering of the various rooms.
We found a second hand coffee table just right for the TV and we bought a vacuum cleaner and an electric convection heater.
All the new information we gathered indicates that we'll be able to save money against the budget I prepared for the evaluation of the purchase of the house.
The guy was coming to cut the grass so I prepared to move the Motley. I left the move itself until he arrived. When he came he said that his ride-on mower was unserviceable so he planned to use a hand pushed mower. I suggested that he should come back later when the ride-on is fixed. He was grateful and promised to be back on Monday.
I went into town to talk about rainwater tanks. I found out how to size the tank; the key is to have a tankful last for the normal length of a dry spell given your average consumption. Given that we use about 50l per day when we are living in the Motley, we should probably allow say 100l per day and the normal length of a dry spell here is probably two or three months so we need a 9,000l tank (2000 gallons) but we might buy a 14,000l (3000 gal) tank which would give us 4.5 months coverage.
In the late afternoon, the firewood was delivered. It is a mixed lot, some box and some ironbark, and mostly cut branches. The ironbark is said to burn hotter than the box so, having some of each, we'll be able to find out which is more appropriate in our fireplace. We'll have to sweep the chimney before we use the fireplace so I need to buy a flue brush.
The day dawned cloudy but it doesn't look like it will rain. Rain is a very high profile thing here. The say they are in a drought because it hasn't rained much for three months. The landscape is certainly dry but I think that they are so used to regular rain that they are threatened by any dry spell.When I talk of the nine dry years in the Wimmera their eyes glaze over a bit.
We tested the fireplace in the living room and found it very cosy. It used quite a lot of wood but we did have it on all day. I tried to buy a flue brush and was told they are almost unobtainable because most people use a chemical soot remover so we went with that.
We spent the evening in the house to test the fire and the TV. It all went very well.