I love how light it is

Don't love that awful fireplace though

Thanks guys.

The fireplace will be getting a facelift some time in the new year. We'll rip out the old (dead) oil heater, paint the bricks and install a new heater; probably a fake log electric fire, like this:

I think its looking great, all the hard work is really showing now, well done. Adelaide is a lovely place to live & bring up kids, lots of space & everything you need in life really!

Cant wait to get back over there.

Bluekipper

Thanks!

Had to fix this one because a link had died...

Before:



During:



After:

Comes with the territory, were you live unfortunatly............mm

Yep, we expected nothing less.

Still, our particular part of the suburb is smart and remarkably quiet. The lady who was renting our house liked the area so much that she bought a place round the corner from us when she moved out.

yes you do live in a good part of Playford. even my area of playford has its ups and downs , i have a member of the Finks motor cycle gang for a neighbor, he keeps to him self and is fairly quiet, we dont get any riff raff around because of him ...........mm

Part 11: the black lagoon.
One of the more appealing features of our house in South Australia is a large outdoor spa. It was sealed shut while our tenants rented the property, to stop wandering elephants falling in and drowning. Today I decided to explore the horrors within.

Having never owned an outdoor spa before, I felt that I would bring to the job the exact type of honest objectivity that would doubtless enable me to approach it in the right frame of mind, for best results.

Or, to put it another way, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

First few planks removed:



A quick peek at the corners:





Now I'm no expert, but my first thought was "This doesn't look good."

The abyss!





I grabbed a bucket and started bailing.

Some time later...

Signs of progress:







There's no plug at the bottom. Is this normal for spas? I don't know. There is some sort of filter tucked away down there (you can't see it from this angle) but I have no idea how it drains, if at all.

Earlier today I switched it on and it began to dribble clean hot water into the tub, which I assume is a good thing. As far as I can tell, it definitely works. But I still have a huge amount of work to do. The spa needs to be thoroughly cleaned by hand and rinsed with a hose, which will take me a couple of hours. And then... er...

Well that's just it: I don't know what's supposed to happen next. I don't know the make of my spa, I don't know the model and I can't find any controls (apart from the on/off switch with a thermostat, mounted on the kitchen wall). I have some chemicals in the shed which were left by a previous owner, but I don't know how to use them.

So if there is anyone in the northern Adelaide suburbs who knows something about spas and feels like a good laugh over a free beer or two, you are welcome to visit me and tell me what the hell's going on with this damn contraption. That's a genuine offer!

Jeez, the smell must have been terrible. You have done a good job getting that all cleaned up.
Never owned a spa. I was put off when i saw what was in my neighbours filter (gip)...

But enjoy it nevertheless

I'm impressed at how clean you've got it. I wouldn't have been anywhere close when you took that lid off Know nothing about them, sorry but you someone will be along full of advice and then someone will say something completely contrary to that

Thanks guys. Fortunately the open air and the fact that I had opened it progressively meant that I wasn't hit with the smell in the way that I'd expected to be. But I did have to stand in a large pool of filthy water for a while, with the occasional spider crawling up my leg and mosquitoes trying to inject me with malaria.

It looks reasonably good at the moment but I still have a lot of scrubbing ahead of me tomorrow. There's still some dirt at the bottom, not to mention the grime and mould around the rim, seats and water jets. I am hoping that an overnight airing and a good hot day will help to expel some germs, dry out the last bits of water and make the remaining job a bit easier.