Author Archives: Bill Hutchison

Apparently I’m a Pansy for Not Wanting a Cyclone

Posted on by — 1 Comment ↓

This is sort of funny…

I was just outside checking our car and the sheeting under the house when someone walked by and asked if I was wanting a Cyclone (the winds today have been up around 90 km/hour, and there has been a lot of rain). I said I definatly do not want a cyclone coming through Townsville, to which I was called a pansy!

Honestly, if not wanting a cyclone to come through Townsville means I am a pansy, then call me a pansy all you want. I certainly don’t want a cyclone coming through anywhere around here.

The last time a cyclone came close to here was in March 2006 when our house was in the middle of being lifted. Cyclone Larry devastated the  city of Innisfail, about 150km North of Townsville. Tamara and I drove through there on our drive from Townsville to Cairns a few months ago and they have still not recovered from Cyclone Larry.

I asked the people if they had ever been through a cyclone before, to which they answered “no”. Well, it figures I guess, only someone who has never been through a cyclone could possibly consider it anything other than terrifying and destructive…

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Five Layers of Linoleum Hiding a Gorgeous Hardwood Floor

Posted on by — Leave a reply

Some friends here in Townsville are moving flats in the next few weeks. Right now they are actually living in the same group of flats that Tamara and I lived in when we first got married, but now our friends are moving into a new group of flats a bit closer to work.

They have been able to get into their new flat to do some work on it before they move in. One of the things they wanted to work on was the floor. Below is a picture of the floor when they first got there…

Top layer of lino over the hardwood flooring

Isn’t that lino beautiful? Below that top layer of lino there were four more layers (you can check it on their article, which I’ll link to at the bottom of this article).

Continue Reading →

Sheeting Due to Start Tomorrow

Posted on by — Leave a reply

Well, this will hopefully be fourth time lucky.

Finally today the Gyprock sheeting arrived. The team doing the sheeting is due to start tomorrow, and I’m told that they will only take two days to do all of under the house!

The plasterer will come in after that (hopefully next week) to plaster up all the cornices and joins. He should take longer than the guys doing the sheeting, but not by much.

Delivery of the Gyprock plasterboard was delayed first by our leaking front veranda. Then the delivery got delayed because the Bruce Highway was cut off south of Townsville and the Australia Day long weekend was happening. And then I don’t really know why it was delayed, but the last delay was only for a day.

It will be exciting to see the walls finally go up. Even with the frames up it is hard to judge scale, so with the Gyprock sheeting finally going up it should look good.

I’ll need to make sure to post photos.

Technorati Tags: ,

Interest Rate Hike – Could Send 300,000 Out of Their Homes

Posted on by — Leave a reply

The latest interest rate hike here in Australia sets the official interest rate at 7%, which is an 11-year high. Since 2002 interest rates have gone up 2.75%, and it is starting to hit people really hard.

Australia already has a nation wide housing affordability crisis, and this is only adding to the problems. It’s expected that up to 1000 families here in Townsville are expected to default on their home loans. Nation wide that number is expected to be as high as 300,000 for home loan defaults.

This could be only the start of a huge mortgage crisis in Australia this year, with an expected further increase of at least 0.5% at least this year to try to curb inflation here in Australia (ex. grocery bills have increased about 50% since 2000).

When we got our first home loan about 5 and a half years ago we fixed our loan at 5.99%. On this house our current loan was fixed for three years at 6.99%. If we were to re-fix our loan right now and stick with the Bank of Queensland (who we currently use) we would be looking at 8.49%. By the time our current fixed loan ends in September we could be looking at a potential rate of 8.99%! Ouch, that will be quite an increase…

I know that I shouldn’t complain. My parents and Tamara’s parents all lived through the 1980s when housing loan interest rates at 20+ per cent. I heard on a radio show that here in Australia over 35% of the average families wages already goes into their mortgage repayments. The upcoming interest rate hike will increase that percentage even further.

From what I have read there are mixed feeling about how the interest rate hikes will affect house prices. The Townsville Real Estate Market is going gang busters, and has been for a while, but even a place as booming as Townsville is vulnerable to the increases in interest Rates. Only time will tell that I reckon.

Sources:

Technorati Tags: ,