Beyond Blue Home Improvement Thread

[geoff]

Hi everyone. I'm Geoff and have been a dedicated Volunteer on the forums for 13 years. I am proud to have stopped some of the stigmas that are associated with mental health as well as doing my best to help others too

Before my health went south I was a builder in all aspects of home construction and renovation. If you don't have a handyman around I hope I can offer you some tips that may be of help. I have had many years of experience in home renovation and will do my best to help you out if you are stuck and need some advice

I hope my experience may be of help to the people on Beyond Blue and make their life a little bit better. Even if you need help with the most basic painting job or putting up a shelf I can help there too with some tips

I will do my best to get back to anyone that has a question when I can as this is social yet important thread

Geoff

[Skary Bill]

I don't wish to hijack this conversation, but on the subject of acreage improvements. I've just embarked on some substantial infrastructure development. I've got a small parcel of land, just a few hectares. And it's pretty much a blank canvas. I bought it a long time ago as a place to go camping, maybe have some fun with dirtbikes, do a bit of hunting, etc.. Right now, all it's got on it is two rusty old 20ft containers filled with all my hastily shoved belongings from my pre-accident life in them. The boxes have holes in the roof, so the belongings are pretty much stuffed.

The short version of a long story is I'm moving back there to live for a while. I've built myself a slide on camper for the back of the ute, which has been installed on the property and gives me something much more comfortable than a tent to operate out of. And what I want/need to do is create a working space and generally improve the property.

The council is proving to be a significant challenge, making me jump through expensive hoops for permission to do any little thing, so I've decided to stop asking and just make everything I need demountable. I've been digging holes, seems I have a foot of sandy loam then unlimited quantities of decomposed granite. So here's the plan. On the weekend I'll meet a local bobcat operator and finalise a quote for creating a large flat pad of deco, my two rusty boxes will be dragged to either side of the pad with a neat 6x6m flat surface between them and I will fill that space with a steel gable roofed portable carport that I'm about to buy in kit form online. I like that it has it's own structural integrity and once bolted to the containers will not require foundations of it's own.

I priced up the gathering and scrounging materials and building something from scratch option. But honestly, The kit is not really very different in price and given the challenges I face going out into the world to get things, I like that it all arrives at one depot in one go. And I've already sourced the materials to put tin roofs over the boxes themselves.

And while the earthmover is there, I'll be looking to have a second pad put in for a 40ft high cube container, which will initially be for storing my city furniture and belongings, but eventually turned into my cabin. It's going to be lots of work and stress and will empty my piggy bank completely. But I'm a little excited.

I hope you won't mind me sharing the build in here and asking advice along the way.

Bill

[Guest_1584]

Gday Bill

And no no l feel like l've been hijacking taking up geoff thread on my own crap lately so really nice to hear anout your plans. what a fantastic project somem you can get your teeth stuck into . don't worry once your on the place you'll feel much more relaxed even if your missing some comforts. And Geoff will no doubt be a huge help .

l've got another 1/2 place l got to keep if l paid off our credit cards , still goin on those.

l built the cabin thats on it now at home and took it over on a trailer in walls. that place was just a bare ugly corner of a sheep paddock should see it now. 10yrs later. beautiful trees everywhere l've planted , the cabin , a shed , pergolas , curvy little drive going through the trees up to the cabin and l rent it out now. Although the last guy nearly wrecked the place.,

Good luck with everything and l for one would love hearing all about it along the way .

Best of luck . rx

[Guest_1584]

1/2 acre that was sorry.

[Skary Bill]

That place sounds pretty darn cool. I really love the idea of modular prefabrication and assembly on site. There's something so impractical about taking all your tools to the bush. My hope is that the 6x6m flat, covered working space will make the rest of my construction goals much easier to achieve.

I sure wish I'd planted more specific tree species on my place over the years. I've had nice regrowth, but very unplanned. The driveway is looking really pretty, which will mean I need to create alternative access for the container truck. It would break my heart to have to prune all the overhanging branches down the drive.

Fingers crossed your current tennant shows a little more appreciation for your property than the last.

Cheers,

Bill.

[geoff]

Hi Bill, it's great that you have joined the thread and really excited to hear what you have done and any assistance you may need.

Can you use the granite for the new drive way, if you need to cut a hole in the fence is that possible and you too are very clever in what you want to do,

Please, by all means, let us know what you are doing and if I'm a day late, I'm sorry but I will look at this thread every day from now on.

My Best.

Geoff.

[Skary Bill]

Hi Geoff.

Well it's been a heck of a weekend down on the block. Without giving too much away, I'll just say one of the big bushfires that's been out of control came within 5k of my little place. So I've been cutting firebreaks for the last 3 days for all I was worth. I couldn't be sure it's all safe now, but the RFS has it listed as being controlled and short of a terribly unlucky wind change it should miss me.

So that's been a timely reminder to me to carefully consider my own fire prevention measures on the property. What I wouldn't do to have a Bobcat!!

Before all the frantic action kicked off, I met with a local earth moving contractor and had a really good look at my project foundations. He's all for sourcing the granite on site and everything I want to do should be relatively simple from his point of view, with one exception. My two old containers, he's concerned his machine can't just drag them out of where they've been for so long. Which means I've got to go back to the drawing board somewhat.. His advice about getting the 40 footer in was to do a little trim and bring it down the drive. And upon close inspection, I don't think I'll lose too much character from a small trim back.

Anyway, That'll do me for now. I need to go fall down for about 12 hours lol. Fantastic to have people to share the build and bounce ideas off.

Cheers,

Bill.

[geoff]

Hi Bill, the horror of any bushfire lurking towards you must have been a frightening experience, especially if the wind changed, I'm so pleased you are safe.

My son owned a bobcat but sold it, only wishing he didn't, but at the time he had no use for it, now it's a time when it would come in so handy.

Are you able to get someone with a bobcat or even hire one yourself so you can make a path to move the containers or to be able to pull it onto a truck, remember the old saying 'if there's a will, there's a way.'

Good luck.

Geoff.

[Skary Bill]

I think the most concerning aspect was the lack of up to date info. For all of our technology, I was surprised at how limited information was and how not up to date the bulletins were. I wanted to put my own drone up to get above the smoke and have a look, but with water bombing operations in full swing, decided to just stay out of the airspace. Anyway, It was an opportunity to think very seriously about my levels of preparedness and what I'd like to do better with my property and valued possessions.

I'd love to rent a bobcat dry.. But due to my location the cost of just getting one there and back to the hire place is more than the cost of renting one for a weekend and it ends up being quite expensive. The guy who came and looked at the site seemed really good, showed a genuine interest in my project and I'll give him some business for sure. But if I owned one, I'd bobcat *Everything* lol. I'd have dams and tracks and all the stumps would be ripped out etc.

I'll just have to make some money and put it on the list 🙂

[geoff]

Hi Bill, I know what you're saying, I only wished my son had his bobcat when we owned our 8 acre property, he would have had relished the time of his life.

How many 'what if's' do we have in life and 'only wished for'.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Hey Geoff.

Sounds like it would've been a beautiful property and what a house. Did you sell it non the less? How do you feel about unit living these days ? We lived in a couple too one up in Cairns, funny really but l quite liked unit living. lt was nice just living for a change and not having a list of jobs a mile long.

Do you like looking back on your properties or would you rather forget them ? l think l'd rather forget them all mine are related to some stage or other that just seems like another life and for me personally maybe best just left alone.

Hows it goin Bill , pretty hairy in bush with fires close l'd imagine , glad no harm done, Saw 2 containers on a show with a roof across like your doing , it was pretty cool l thought,

Best to all

rx