Setting up living room

I spent 9 hours over 3 days mowing the property before the weeds got out of control.  Even so, the mower was stopped dozens of times by big wads of moist vegetation jamming the blades.  Anyway, I got through it and got on with the renovation project.

I have finished sanding and re varnishing the woodwork in the living room and today began the task of moving items from the garage into the house.  The big item was a beautiful side board that I "inherited" from my good friends and neighbors George and Dode from next door.   I offered it to the children after Dode's passing away but they had no room or use for it so it has been in storage in the garage for over 6 years.  It is a superb piece of furniture: solid teak as far as I can tell, perfect dove tail joints, and great workmanship in the three drawers.  They brought the piece from England when they migrated to Australia in the mid 1960s.

Side Board On The Way

I managed to move the piece a few grunty steps at a time from the garage to the steps to the house, and while I was taking the accompanying photo of the piece resting across the stairs a group of children from the Montessori school next door happened to pass the house on the way to the playing field in the center of the village and their teacher asked if I needed help.  I replied that I could use all the help I could get and he told me that he'd be back at noon, two hours away.  He did return shortly after noon and introduced himself as Brad, the physical education teacher.  We had a good chat, I gave him a tour of the house, and he helped me move the piece up the steep front steps and into the lounge, which I had already cleared and covered the floor with sheets.  After gluing soft casters on the feet I cleaned the side board thoroughly then gave it a good treatment of furniture oil.

While I was waiting for Brad I had retrieved the unbelievably heavy speakers from the garage, cleaned and oiled them, then put them up high on the living room wall shelving.  The speakers are "Major" S-360's made in Belgium in the early 1980's.  They are rated at 60 watts per speaker, were sort of upper middle-of-the-road speakers at the time, and I have always been happy with them.

Speakers and Tuner

I also fetched the solid-as-a-brick Hitachi HA-610 amplifier that previously handled my TV, disc player, FM tuner, reel-to-reel tape (Yep, I've got a classic Akai tape unit, which shows my age, I guess.), and "Acoustic Research" turntable (Yep, I've still got that too and the many LP records to go with it, including the complete set of Beatle albums, probably worth a fortune on Ebay now.)  All of this sound will go through the amplifier and up to these speakers, giving a great effect when watching a movie.

A few days ago I also set up a 33" (80 CM) "Soniq" digital TV that I had purchased about two weeks earlier with the help of Stephen.  How the technology had changed during my absence!  A year before I departed on the circumnavigation - 2007 - I had forked out $899 for a TV set of the times plus an unspecified amount for a "set top box" to translate the new digital signals to the old TV technology.  The TV was big, with the CRT tube sticking a couple of feet from the back, and very heavy.  The picture had those visible lines running down the entire screen.  In 2014 it is a different world of thin, light, and cheap LCD digital TV's.  I paid $230 for this TV, which is lighter, thinner, cheaper, and provides a picture totally out of the league of the 2007 TV.

Speakers and Tuner in Position

Teak Side Board

The question was whether I would get reception.  In the late 1970's I had cleverly, I think now, placed the TV antenna suspended by fishing lines from the roof rafters just above the verandah.  The idea was to avoid an unsightly TV antanna perching on the roof of this rustic cottage.  Sitting in the verandah one can look up through the slats and see the antenna.  There were two problems: 1) would the old antenna deal with the change from analogue to digital signal, and (2) would the change from a tile roof to a metal one cause a problem.  I had two things going for me: 1) I am in line of sight to all of Perth's TV transmitters at the Kalamunda hills about 10 miles away, and (2) as luck would have it, the spine of the roof is N-S and the antenna was at the S end of the roof cavity, closest to the Kalamunda transmitters.  Hopefully the TV signals would pass through the vertical non-metal eave of the house and under the metal roof.

While I was sanding the wood work in the living room I came across the cable connecting the antenna to the wall plug below, which I had ... well ... cleverly again passed from the attic through the back of the shelves and down to the wall Socket. I unscrewed the wall socket and saw that the connection was still good so decided to set up the TV and have a go.

The new TV was a piece of cake to set up.  I unpackaged it, plugged in the power and antenna cords, turned it on, then answered the questions about my location (ie "Australia" then "Western Australia").  The TV then auto tuned and found 30 channels and 5 radio stations.  As they say in Oz, You gotta win a few.

Behind the side board that I moved into the house was a veritable Aladin's Cave of kitchen goodies safely stored in a small trunk.  I found the large cooking pots that I had been looking for plus all of the Pyrex and clay cooking ware that I will ever need.  There were also all sorts of ceramic dishes and unopened boxes of top quality crystal glasses from small liqueur to large wine.  There were exquisite sets of fine china tea and coffee sets that must have come from Dode and Geoge' household.  I thought much of Dode and George as I unearthed these gems was determined that they will be treated with respect and care during my time.