Drama Drama Drama!

Something that I haven't mentioned much is the fact that we bought a digger machine in December, in anticipation of needing to do a large amount of earthmoving and hole-digging. The theory behind this was that it would give us much more flexibility to do the necessary earthworks in our own time (instead of having the time pressure associated with hiring a machine), and we could potentially create a little sideline income by hiring the machine out ourselves as time goes on.

This can be up to a $40,000 commitment (our budget was nowhere near that), so was definitely not one we took lightly. Tom is a master researcher, and spent a great deal of effort comparing our options - from brand new diggers to second hand ones. We eventually settled on one that the company had been using as their demo model in their showroom. It was a superceded model, but still almost brand new, and Tom managed to negotiate a very good price.

Well! Was that a mistake!! We've had the machine for about three weeks, and have hardly been able to use it for more than an hour at a time without something going wrong with it. From wheels that rattle themselves loose just with ordinary driving, to hydraulic hose fittings with bolts that explode out and spray hot hydraulic fluid everywhere, to steel welds that snap, it didn't take us long to lose all faith in the machine.

 

And then it got worse.

Yesterday, while Tom was away on a Bunnings trip, Daniel and I were inside the house. We were quite surprised to hear what sounded like a generator start up outside. It was pouring rain at this stage, so we were peering out from the back door trying to figure out what could be making the noise, with the digger (sitting up in its trailer) being the only possible culprit that we could see. I ran out with my umbrella, and confirmed that yes, it was indeed the digger having magically started up by itself in the backyard!

I then proceeded to try to stop it, and it wouldn't shut down! Tom arrived after a little while, retrieved the key from where it was stored, and managed to turn the thing off. In the sudden quiet, we all just looked at each other, completely mystified. How does a machine suddenly turn itself on, with no human intervention, and not a key in sight?!! Anyway, in the interests of actually achieving something for the day, we chose to move on and ignore the problem until we could complain to the digger company the next day, and the machine stayed quiet for the afternoon.

And then... Tom received a phone call this morning from an extremely irate neighbour who had been kept up all night with the noise of the machine! He dropped everything, raced to the house and disconnected the fuel line and battery. If that doesn't shut it up, nothing will!

Happily, the company have agreed to refund our purchase price in full and take the machine away at no cost to us now, so that's a very very good outcome. We can now look at a different (more reputable) brand of machine that runs like it's supposed to, and this whole experience will be filed away as yet another ridiculous chapter in our home renovation.

Now we just have to figure out how to cosole all our neighbours, who hate us!