Review Site Idea

Most review sites are lame. The major one that I have frequented recently has been Product Reviews which is okay, but makes things a little messy for when people just want a summary of the product. I found I had to read 40-odd reviews to get an idea on some product where a simple summary could have sufficed.

If I had to design a review site I would also make sure that I do that silly star rating thing. It's so subjective that it really bears no main bearing on knowing whether a product is fit for my needs or not.

A simpler approach would simply be to ask one question and to have three possible answers:

• I would purchase this product/service again


• I would probably buy this item again, but would shop around some more for other alternatives first


• I would never buy this product/service again


Apart from three buttons like the above I'd then have a pro and con box so users can detail specifics.

New users to the review site would then get a summary of all the votes that had come in, being the % break down of people that would buy again (etc) and an itemised list of the positives and negatives of the product from the most common elements written in the pro and con boxes.

Hmm, I'd have to see if I can design such a site!

Our Westinghouse Fridge (WTE4200SB)

It can be very difficult to know which appliance is the best when shopping around. People don't usually go and buy refrigerators each and every day, and even if you happen to buy a new fridge it can still be several years since your last purchase!

So knowing what to buy proved a little difficult initially. When I shopped at Harvey Norman and The Good Guys I fell in love with the bottom freezers, but didn't fall on love with their price tag! (I don't know why they are priced so differently?)

Anyway, after refining our buying decision down to two factors: it needed to fit in the alcove of our new kitchen AND it had to be silver we were still uncertain on what to choose.

In the end I scoured the Product Review website and after several days of wading through the reviews found the WTE4200SB as bring the best for us.

There are though a couple of things that weren't made aware to me that I thought to share with you now:
Firstly, the fridge door is slightly angled meaning that if you leave it open it will close for you. This is handy however I think the angle is a little too steep as when the door slams it makes the freezer door open and then close. So you'll generally hear two doors close when you shut the fridge door.
Secondly, I think the dimensions we were given were quite liberal. I think if you ever do consider a fridge go to a store and ACTUALLY measure the thing! From the dimensions we were given I thought it was going to be a tight squeeze - not so, we have quite the gap, which I guess is good as it allows for the fridge to breathe.
Thirdly, the fridge is noisy, but it's certainly not an unbearable noise. If you sleep right next to the fridge and you consider yourself to be a light sleeper then I wouldn't recommend buying this fridge. We happen to sleep on the opposite side of the house so the noise isn't a problem for us.
Lastly, putting drinks down on the lower door tray will indent the plastic because of those funny white teeth things that keep the drinks there. I personally don't mind, but if you have guests come over and put on the table all the drinks you have available you may get the odd question - why are they dented?

Anyway, apart from that the fridge does it's job, which is to cool and to keep things cool. My wife seems to like the blue light, but I consider it a cosmetic fancy that really seems to have no purpose.

Would I consider buying a WTE4200SB again? Meh... I'd probably shop around some more and see what else is out there. And I'd definitely be more diligent on the measurements too!

Breville CT70

I loooove my toaster. It's from the future. It has a nice digital display, and we were lucky in getting it cheap at Myer during a surprise sale they were having (they were obviously caught off guard that Harvey Norman were having a 3-day home appliance sale!!).

However the only thing I don't link about this toaster is that if you toast crumpets or pickelets the lift handle doesn't raise the inner bar high enough! One has to tilt the entire toaster and hope the crumpet or pickelet rolls out (maybe that's why they're both round?!).

No need to dry

One thing I love about our kitchen: there's no need to dry dishes in the morning!




(Provided it's not cloudy! *cough* *cough*)

Doors

One of the things we just had to change (among the many) were the internal doors in our house. They were ugly, dirty and just needed a massive overhaul.


So, after taking them out and replacing them with the cheap Stanford doors from Bunnings ($39.95) and door handles from eBay at $10.00 each (plus $3.00 each for postage) we ended up saving heaps!

(Thanks to dad for installing them for us too!)

So $52.95 per door installed inside! What a bargain!! All we need do now is paint them.

If you're looking to change the doors in your house then you might want to explore Bunnings, just make sure you get one of those trade trollies - the usual ones will not help. And if you have a friend who has a van it helps get them to your home (although I learnt that Bunnings allow you to hire a ute per hour per km if needed).

Freezer

If there's one thing we didn't expect when we moved into our new house, it was how absolutely freezing it is because of the tiles and floorboards!

Our floorboards look fantastic but our feet in the morning are screaming at us as we scamper from room to room.

Unfortunately while the family which did our house did a very good job, there has been a never ending clean up of the dust that remains!

The saw dust is just everywhere - even in crevices where I thought no dust could go!

But apart from the cold it looks good and my old trusty ugg boots have provided much comfort in the morning.

If you're in the Sydney metro area try Gold Floor Sanding. We'd recommend them for the service and the price!

T-minus 3 days

While I love my beloved iPhone it isn't the most functional piece of hardware when one surfs the Internet with a laptop at work and comes home to no Internet at all and must still function with with navigating, changing, setting up and doing things online.

Don't get me wrong the iPhone has improved heaps and I'm sure the technology from Cupertino will continue to astound, but adjusting from one media to another can be like exercising the right and left side of the brain at the same time - it hurts a little some times. You need to be quick in moving those thumbs around the screen to type. What has usually been only been uses for the space bar has now been moved to all ends of the keyboard!!

Anyway, hopefully, should the Telstra juggernaut deem I am worthy the Internet will be here and I will be released back into the wild next week.

While a couple of things have gone wrong since moving into our new beloved home I'm hoping the Internet installation will not be one of them.

Who did we go through?

Interestingly I considered several different companies and alternatives when I researched through the gamut of ISPs offered today. Initially I was all for getting cable broadband but after finding that only two companies offered it - Optus & Telstra (which I'm sure they're being highly competitive over) I thought it best to look at other options.

First there was the prospect of naked broadband but then it seemed too... meh... the price of having a normal land line (paying land line rental fees) really was cheaper!

So I've opted to go with TPG as they also provided me with a good deal on mobile plans too.

Currently I am on Vodafone as my wife is with them too and Vodafone have this deal where if you talk to other Vodafone mobiles it's free! Woohoo! This worked out great for us, however, the measly 250MB of Internet has since cost us a heap since using it this month (did I mention that we have no Internet yet??).

Added to that the frustrations I, my wife and no doubt the countless other Vodafone users have experienced - the service is really sub par. And in fact management know this as they sent me a nice letter stating that by October this year things would be much better.

While I appreciated the fact that Vodafone didn't call me once every three months asking if I wanted to go on the next plan (*cough* Optus *cough*), I had no qualms in moving over to another provider.

So hopefully TPG can provide! And we shall see this Monday if they do! Can I survive another weekend??