Getting outstanding jobs done

One of the things that's most on my mind now that I'm settling in a new home in a new country is getting on with things. Outstanding things. It's not a short list. I'm having to put into practice my electrical skills (basic skills), my non existent carpentry skills (my grandfather was a carpenter by trade), and I've discovered I can paint (badly).

And the living room heater is one of those things that needs sorting. My wife bought it several years ago, and it's lightly used - heck we don't really have a need for a heater until the really cold days of winter (eg under 20C). But when you have a day that needs a heater - by damn this is a good heater.

Problem was that it broke its on-off switch about a week after it's warranty ran out. So what with myself and the wife swapping countries (especially at winter) we haven't really needed it. (Apart from the really cold winter when I was still pretty sure I was incapable of fixing things).

But it's been outstanding and yesterday I got the switch off, tested it as broken, broke it apart to confirm it was broken. It was broken. But rather than let the heater become one of those long standing problems I wanted it fixed and done. Not having the living room in a state of disrepair.

So today I resolved in getting a new switch for it, and failed. The manufacturers don't carry it - but they do carry a $125 remote control pack that will fix it. Not going to happen with Mr Tight here. The fix isn't elegant, but is professional.

End result - we now have a working heater. Not a great photo - but then it was hand held for half a second!