Or perhaps install a shade sail instead of a pergola…

try this site for quick reference:

DIY Shade Sails

It would also depend on the shape, a yard that leads away from the house to a point could be very useful if you have a garden leading up to the point where you could have a water feature perhaps with a mirror (as you suggested).

Do you want a:

Pergola :- wooden (generally)structure with open roof

Patio :- Attached structure to house generally with a ‘closed’ roof.

There is a difference to both. A cheap pergola could perhaps be a large Arbour (open roof generally for growing vines on). You grow some quick growing vines like Jasmine or Orange Trumpet to create a shady…[Read more]

From my experience, many of the ‘odd-shaped’ blocks end up larger than the other blocks in the area. There were three odd-shaped blocks in my street and strangely enough they are the only 3 decent sized blocks in the street. They also end up a good price (per square meter) compared to nearby blocks.

You can still use gardens, paving, sheds or a…[Read more]

Smaller jobs also tend to have a higher ‘per hour’ charge due to travel and basically the fact that many tradies prefer the big jobs where the real money is.

An example would be my father who is a respected fencing contractor. A workmate needed a back fence on her IP replaced since it was falling down and the neighbor out the back has a pool. The…[Read more]

It was at least 60k (hence the + at the end[evil4]), he was working in a factory as a shift electrician and he was working in Brisbane. Also it was a couple of years back so increases in his potential wage now was not entered into.

Gee, and everyone was going on about how much money a person would earn with a Degree!

My older brother (sparky) was earning 60k+ a couple of years back before *THE EVIL ONE* left him with Epilepsy and now unable to be an electrician, he is now a saleman on 30k that cannot smell or taste anything.[grrr]

Of course the time he did the wiring in…[Read more]

An installed solar photovoltaic system will cost you three times the kw/hr cost of on-the-grid electricity over its lifetime of 30 years.

Solar hot water pays for itself in under 10 years.

You wanna pay three time more per kwh? You think thats viable?

Solar Hot Water pays for itself well under ten years. Most governments in Australia offer…[Read more]

For the record I will post a copy of the link I sent calvin@thirty4 upon the request he sent me earlier.

http://www.extraonline.com.au/story/details.asp?StoryID=9798

I hope that helps some people.

A couple of months back I think Brisbane Extra had a segment on a company that sells near new second-hand kitchens fairly cheap. Most of those shown were in very good condition and still fairly current for a fraction of the cost. Maybe you should look at that angle?

As for “Solar is only good for hot water systems” I do not think, such statement merits any response at all. Sometimes I think we live in the dark ages down under. Should go and visit Europe from time to time, they make good coffee there.

And due to the 26,000-year tilt that slightly advantages the southern hemisphere at the moment, they get…[Read more]

How much energy does it take to build a solar energy system[blink], or any system or alternative fuel, what does it cost, and how much energy will it return over its lifetime.
I think you’ll find that at this point Solar is only viable for hot water heating.

Its all very well to say, we can build this or that, but you need energy (at this stage…[Read more]

so room for 11 people or probably 9 bedrooms with the 4 adults are two sets of partners. Unfortunately the more rooms the proportionally more expensive I have found the placed to be to rent. A better option would would two properties of 4 and 5 bedrooms each to accomodate the large group. Would be good to find adjoining places..

Re: Peter Garrett..Maybe just Clever Marketing and a ‘talking point’ by Latham..keeps them in the news at the very least

Redwing,

This has the feel of a slick production in action for several weeks/months. They timed it to try to weaken the recent coalition gains. It may have been brought ahead since Bush’s unplanned assault on Latham as well.…[Read more]

From that report it seems that skilled vocational qualification is probably a good option still.

The female comparison was very interesting, could this result be a representation of the fact that a decent % of women with degrees may still leave the work force for the family (and the ‘glass ceiling’). In that one the skilled vocational…[Read more]

You can now pull the weight and rope through the hole you have exposed and replace the rope.

To re-feed the rope back up the hole/cavity, stick some rigid wire say 8 gauge, down from the top, hook the rope to a small loop on the end of the wire and pull up through the hole/cavity.

Would it not be easier to attach the ‘wire’ at the point you…[Read more]

Didn’t Garrett do a backflip on Pine Gap???

It looked more like a inverted two and a half somersault from the pike position to me with a full twist [lmao] How can the people look at any politician no matter how proud and honourable and think they will truly stick to their guns these days?

Apart from not voting for the last ten years, not being…[Read more]

The Leeching part about coke in general (and too a lesser extent the other carbonated drinks) is correct. Similar results have occurred ironically enough from water, water where most of the mineral content has been filtered out. This results in the body, through osmosis (I think), in dumping minerals back into the demineralised waters to equalise…[Read more]

Financially we would be screwed (we as in the whole country not just property investors) if Latham got in. Labor fundamentally as originally the voice of the workforce had good policy. Unfortunately they turned it into a popularity contest (Hawke was popular but generally didn’t help many with policy).

In the past Labor governments whether they…[Read more]

What a load of

Okay now with that out of the way lets look at the faeces, it could very well be the saviour of our comsumer climate with the oil companies controlling alternate energy technologies I remembered an article from over a decade ago that was about turning faeces into fuel pretty much in a 24-hour period. This wasn’t the old Mad Max…[Read more]