Insulation Installation

The guys from Brett Heady's mob came around this morning. They said that they would arrive between 7:30 and 8:00. Wouldn't you know it, they got here at 7. I was up so it wasn't too bad as I was planning to remove the old newspaper in the roof space that had been used to soak up water when we had a leaky roof.

The two guys, Cliff and Steven, jumped up on the roof, removed quite a few tiles, and got to work. One hundred and five square metres were done by 10 to nine. I did ask them how they were paid, not expecting the actual value, hourly or by the job, and they said they were paid $1/sq m. They could make $200-$220 each a day and be finished by 2pm. Yesterday they did a 320 sq metre house followed by a 200 sq metre house.

I had a look at some of the insides of one of the thermo sealed batts and it contained recycle newspaper with fire retardent. Not rocket science. Steven said that Cool Or Cosy, a rival group, had visited a couple of their jobs and taken some batts away for testing to make sure that the claims made about their insulation was correct. They discovered that the 2.5 batt was rated at 3, and the 3.0 batt was rated at 3.3. Sort of gives me some satisfaction.

I can tell you, the house was definitely cooler. The difference shocked me.

While I was up on the roof I pulled the airconditioner apart and gave it a damn good clean. Cliff thought that I must have been in contract maintenance to be cleaning it so thoroughly. Nah, just wanted to avoid legionnaire's disease.

Another funny thing. The guy that own's the business, Brett Heady, was a champion footballer for the West Coast Eagles (don't think I'm going to give those bastards a link on my site) who used to take some hangers (great, high marks). He's afraid of heights!! As such, he doesn't get up on customers' roofs.

How To Pay Two Years Off A Home Loan And Still Have A Bad Day

I sold some BHP Billiton shares in the recent buy-back. I was expecting to receive a cheque for this unusual occurrence but found out later that the money was deposited into my home loan account.

Now, I have a principle for saving. It goes like this - every cheque I receive pays off the home loan. The money is being put to good use and I can't withdraw it. That's fine until you make the mistake of nearly paying off two years worth of home loan. I was going to purchase some more shares with that money. Oh well.

What Does These Have In Common?

A. What's the same about the Olsen twins and a picture on the wall in the sun of the Olsen Twins?

Q. They both fade away.

I kill myself.