Decision Made, Deposit Paid

We have now purchased a new car, though slightly hail damaged.  It has a few dents which we feel we will have fixed during 2020 when the current rush (and higher prices) have subsided.

Eventually it came down to a 'top of the range' Honda Jazz' or a slightly hail damaged $3500+ reduced in price Honda HRV (but at the bottom of the range).  Though the HRV had fewer bells and whistles it drives perfectly, is brand new and a 2020 model.

We took the top of the range Honda Jazz for a test drive and were immediately impressed with the ride and comfort of the car.

We are now busily driving the old hail damaged Jazz to use all the fuel in it prior to informing Youi that they can have it and in return forward us the payout.  Most likely we will inform Youi on Monday for them to collect the Jazz that afternoon.  This allows a full 48 hours for the insurance money to come through.

We are not in  hurry to get the new car as we have the Sonata for around town driving.

As it turned out it was the Kona that eventually got the sale over the line.  As soon as we mentioned that we were also looking at a Kona to the Honda sales person, it raised the possiblity that a smaller SUV could suit our purposes.

So we set off for a second Test drive for the day, this time with a Honda HRV.

It was a line ball decision between the upmarket leather seats and all the bells and whistles of the Honda Jazz and the Honda HRV.  It was possibly that the SUV was a more versatile vehicle with extra room easily accommodating 5 passengers that tipped the decision its way.

It is a reddish orange color and should be a perfect fit for us.  Being a "Honda" and that it was at the same price to us as the Kona was a determining feature in our decision.

With massive savings available on slightly hail damaged vehicles, Caloundra Honda has sold around 200 damaged vehicles since the recent storm.

It's a "Write Off"

It seems it is around $100 per dent for the Dent Removal guy to pull a  dent out of a car's roof damaged by a hail storm.  As we had around 100 small dents on the roof of the Honda Jazz, that made the possible insurance bill close to $10,000.  And this is too expensive on a 10 year old car with a market value of $6,400.  We have a couple of weeks to make up our mind as to what we want to do now it has been declared a "Write off".

The tank is still half full of petrol so we continue to mull over what we will do and we continue to drive the car. But we think we will go for a marked upgrade in vehicle.  We were a little miffed over not buying a new car when we bought the Jazz so this time we will go for something new.

The Jazz had been great, cheap to run easy to park but it was 10 years old.  The air con kind of worked, there was no cruise control or other comforts you now get in a new car.

So today we went looking at new vehicles in the Honda, Hyundai and Toyota ranges.  Trish had expressed an interest in an SUV or something to flit about town in.  We also loved the Jazz so today we looked at a Demo upmarket Honda Jazz, (a marked improvement on what we had), a couple of cars in the Hyundai range, the i30 and the Kona.  And we looked at Toyota where we checked out an upmarket Yaris and a run out model of the Corolla.

We certainly gave them the message we were on the lookout for a 'deal' of some sort and demo models would be a good starting point.

So at this stage it seems the front runners are an upmarket Demo Honda Jazz or Demo Hyundai Kona.  The Kona Go is registered as a "demo" but has never been used as one.  It has done 20 or so k's and costs around $26,900 new.  They would do it for us at $24,500 with a final set price still negotiable.

It is a bigger car than the Jazz but would make a very handy replacement if and when our other car, the Hyundai Sonata, begins to give us trouble.

So what else is news?  It has been extremely windy making fire conditions even more volatile.  Rarely we would get winds from the north west but that has been the regular everyday wind for the last few months.  I reckon I miss a bike ride or two most weeks just because it is windy.

After the recent storm (which has killed our Honda Jazz) there was shredded palm leaves all over the place.  With the hot weather these leaves have all dried out and fly about in the wind ..... and in to my pool.  Keeping the pool clean has been a consistent everyday task exacerbated but the uncommonly strong winds!

But beer brewing, bottle washing and bottling must go on! It takes no heed of the weather conditions.

Despite our recent misfortune we continue to enjoy our lives on the Sunshine Coast.  Now we have the excitement of a new car not far away.  But this does mean my beloved 2006 Hyundai Sonata Elite will soon shift to the drive way while the new car takes pride of place in the garage and away from errant hail storms!

Stormy Weather

We needed rain extremely badly in this part of the world but not the 35 mls we got in 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon.  The long dry spell meant the grass crackled under our feet and despite it being November, the yard seemed more like Melbourne at the end of January!

The storm hit mid afternoon on Sunday.  We had missed the warnings to get the car under cover and to batten down the hatches. It was all over in 30 minutes but the wind blew and the hail belted down.  It isn't the best photo taken through the closed window and flyscreen but the pool looked like it was in the middle of the ocean.  There were waves as huge hail stones, some getting towards the size of golf balls belted the house.

It came from the southeast so we had some protection from other houses around us.  With the strong wind and the large hail palm trees had their fronds shredded and palm tree bits floated down upon us.  As large hail hit the stones in the back yard with great force, stones were catapulted into the pool.

Anything made out of plastic was shredded.  The wind weather vane doesn't look the same any more and the plastic covers on the BBQ under the pergola were smashed. Solar powered Christmas lights were destroyed, the power plug powering the pool filter as dislodged and the few plants we have in our little backyard may need replacing.

Trish's little blue Honda Jazz has small dents all over the roof.  Hopefully "The Dent Guy" will be able to pull them all out so it is again as good as new.  We expect it will be a toss up as to whether we fix it or it goes to car insurance.  We are also hopeful the solar panels on the roof have escaped damage as well.

The hail was blown into corners around the house and built up during the storm as the photo left shows.

The worst bit was the mess that was left afterwards.  As you can imagine the pool will require several vacuums and more to get it back to its pristine condition.  But the water level is full as you could probably guess.

We saw reports on the storm on our local news and it seems there were other places on the coast which fared much worse than us.  We saw cars stopped on roads with huge holes in their windscreens caused by the hail.  Goodness only knows what other hail damage they received on top of that.

Now around 20 hours or so later the place is pretty well cleaned up.  The pool filter has been cleaned once and is hard at work again.  Already dust and dirt is settling in the usual spots ready for another vacuum later today.

And tomorrow the guys are coming to install the new bench tops, dishwasher, oven and cook top. There will be an electrician and a plumber along as well.  I will ask the sparky to have a quick check of the solar panels for me as climbing ladders at my age isn't a wise thing to do.

Our neighbour will do the painting of the cupboard doors and more while we are down in Melbourne for Christmas.

Another exciting experience on the Sunshine Coast!

Kitchen and Bathrooms to be Updated!

That $550 we saved from the previous post has now been well and truly spent.  As our small house gets that little bit older things need to be 'updated'.  We still have the original new fridge we bought when we first moved in here over 17 years ago.  The dishwasher is the original as well.

Then bench-tops have aged, become scratched and lost some of their lustre.  The bench-top in the bathroom and the en-suite have been marked as well.  And what was fashionable 17 years ago is dated today.

One place we went to for a quote said they didn't do jobs like ours but they had a guy who may be interested.  His quote to replace bench-tops and arrange for all sinks or basins to be taken out and then refitted along refitting with the cook top and the oven was around $400 cheaper than the original so we went with him.

As you can see from the photo the new sink, kitchen tap and dishwasher have all been delivered.  The new cook top, oven and fridge arrive on Monday!

They all virtually get fitted at 'no' cost as the originals would have had to be taken out and then refitted when the new bench-tops go in!

Today we've been selecting bench-top colors and we seem all ready to go.  Now we wait until the guy lets us know when he can do it.

I had the bike serviced and now I can actually stop when I want to.  All other wires and things have been adjusted and everything is OK again.  Those bloody magpies are giving me a rest nowadays and I now ride between 11 and 12 k's at a go and weather permitting 5 or 6 times per week.

I say weather permitting but it isn't the rain that is the problem, it is the consistently strong winds.  I rode one day this week when the wind was fairly up, another day it was blowing a gale and I see tomorrow is expected to be almost gale force and around 35°.  The winds are usually from the west and can blow in heaps of red dust from Queensland's interior.

Today was around 32° but with the westerly wind, the humidity level is down around 22%, not the 65% we usually have in November.  Even though it was 32° today, overnight it was down to the low teens!  This afternoon the pool was around 26°.

So what else is new?  The rest of it is same old same old!  We are driving down to Melbourne at Christmas.  We will leave around the 15th of December and get to Melbourne late on Tuesday 17th.  We will grab a couple of nights in Newscastle on the way down.

My Community Association stuff is all but finished for the year.  I finished the Newsletter today so that is it for 2019.  We have our Xmas break up on Saturday and it should be heaps of fun.

Then there are the new bench-tops and that is just about it.

I am fully recovered from the root canal, new posts, crown and the cost of it all!  And I should be selling Vodafone Android TV boxes.  I've set a few up now for friends around the place.  I now have heaps using my Plex Server and enjoying movies and TV Series.

There's a guy named Ken Burns who makes TV Documentary series in the U.S..  These include The Civil War, The Vietnam War and several others.  Each series wins top awards.  The series usually has 8x90 minute episodes.  If you get the chance to watch Ken Burns Country Music take the time and check it out.  I am not a huge Country Music fan but I found this TV series absolutely brilliant!

We are both well and enjoying our spot here on the Sunshine Coast!

$550 Saving Washers!

Despite unfounded rumours which have arisen because I haven't had a Blog Post for around 2 months, both Trish and myself are both well and continue to enjoy our Sunshine Coast lifestyle.

Since my last post my computer has again crashed (my own fault) and has been fully reloaded and we have moved from a very dry winter into spring.  Again it has been dry but a stormy night recently which yielded almost 4" of rain has got things back and green again.  However another stormy 4" of rain would not go astray as the place dries out again.

So the spring cleaning has been all but completed.  Windows have been washed (though they all look dirty again after a couple of days), the concrete pavers around the pool have been cleaned with chlorine (3 parts water to 1 part chlorine and then 5 minutes later a hose down) and are looking great again.

Needless to say new solar lights around the top of the fence are up again and working OK along with the cheap set we bought however long ago and also are still working after well over 12 months.

The other big job has been sorting the pool.  A couple of bags of salt and around $40 worth of pool chemicals got it all back again looking inviting and crystal clear.  It'll get to around 25° later on today.  With the extremely dry and windy weather, the pool always seems dirty with red dust blowing in from the Queensland interior.

As the photo above shows, there is a ledge about 60 cms below the water level which goes all around the pool which I guess is to provide strength to the fibreglass pool shell.  But it is a great place for this dust to congregate.  So I get the broom and brush along the ledge to move the dust.  Regretfully while sweeping just under the pool light, it was wedged upwards breaking the plastic where the retaining screw pinned the light to the pool wall.  The light just floated to the surface with the waterproof power cord still connected.

So we were up for a new pool light and upon making inquiries I was told they don't make that type of pool light any more and to supply and fit a new light would cost $550!  And on top of that we would have to wait a few weeks until the pool water warmed up enough for the installer to hop in the pool and install it!.

As you can see from the photo above I decided to try to re fit the light myself. and all it needed was a 37c stainless steel washer from Bunnings.  I did leave out it took around 10 goes and about 5 hours of messing around in the pool to get the excess electrical power cord to store the correct way so the light could be slipped into a bracket on the pool wall and the retaining screw (and several washers) again put into place.

I help a few people around here with TV shows and stuff and I also help them set up their TV boxes.  The best TV box is the Nvidia Shield at around $300.  An older guy I help (and a Vietnam Vet) bought a Shield and I would pop around to his place and keep it going for him.  Unfortunately Mick passed away recently (possibly respiratory problems most likely from being sprayed with Agent Orange).  That Shield has now come into my possession giving me an extra gadget to play with.

Trish has been down to Melbourne to catch up with family.

I continue to mess around with Plex and now have quite a library online.  I am very choosy with whom I share this library as so many people now have access to Netflix, Stan or one of those.  For most people this is more than enough choice.  The stuff I get comes from Netflix, Stan, stuff from the BBC and other various sources.  We are never stuck with out anything good to watch.  Currently we are watching "Sanditon" which has just finished on BBC1.

A week or two ago we watched (and enjoyed) "A Confession" which I see is on Channel 7 soon.

Our community involvement continues to keep us busy.  I am still ducking swooping magpies on my bike rides which are no longer every day and over 15k's a trip.  Now it is more like 11 or so k's up to 5 times per week.  Computer Club remains a great source of fun for me and I have gained some great friends from my weekly meetings.

So that's about it, we are both well but slowing down a little bit.  I get a bit of pain from my back most days but nothing I can't handle.  I have recently had a root canal and new crown on a tooth.  After getting the bill I think and extraction is the way to go in future!

Roll on summer time and the pool getting warmer.