Common handy man tasks

If you are living in Australia and you need to get something repaired at home or garden, you will most likely need to get service from the handy man. Handy man will charge approx $50 per hour. But what if you can do such tasks yourself saving you some $$. yes that's the topic for this article.

I am going to explain you how to do simple handyman kind of tasks yourself and save some bucks.

Indoor D.I.Y. tasks

Some of the tasks we are going to discuss are - 

1. Garage - Tiles, Signboard, Benchtop, CCTV, Aircon, Sliding door, Gate, Gas Stove, Freezer and Racks - If you are planning to set up a business in garage, you can get some cheap benchtops and racks from Facebook Marketplace.
2. Digitalboard and or projector
3. Vinyl tiles for flooring - Garage generally do not come with cement tiles. You can use vinyl tiles instead of cement tiles to save some $$. It's easy to install as well. You can get it from bunnings.
4. Gym
5. Signboard / Posters - You can print the stuff at officeworks and then use poster stands. Double Sided Corflute A Frames are very popular.
6. Photos - You can print photos at officeworks for a very cheap price.
7. Painting - Bunnings provide D.I.Y. videos related to painting.  
8. Wall repairing kit box - gyproc plaster - You can get wall repairing kit at bunnings.
9. Wall Hooks - You can use 3M hooks for this.
10. Garage remote replacement - If you have lost garage remote, you can get one from the ebay for very cheap price and then program it to use it with your garage.
11. Stickers and decals - Decals can be used to decorate house walls and car doors as well.
12. Tapes - There are different types of tapes - single sided, double sided, thick, thin - Gorilla and 3M brands are very popular. They are used in fixing leakage, wrapping, sticking stuff etc.
13. Kids safety hooks - To prevent kids from opening the cabinets, you can use these hooks.
14. Child gate - To prevent kid from going out of the room, you can use child gate. You can use extension if width of door or opening is more than the gate width.

Outdoor and Garden D.I.Y. Tasks

1. Carport Shade Sails - Posts and Shade cloth - You can get shade cloths from bunnings. 
2. Polyhouse Shade - Posts, Cloth, Wire Mesh for fencing. You can get shade cloth for vegetable garden from ebay. 
3. Garden beds - You can watch hoop video and garden bed video on how to make garden beds and hoops easily. You can use flexi tubes to make the hoops. I tried to use polypipe to make hoop but it did not work as expected so I used 1/2 inch pvc pipe and to anchor it I used galvanised metal conduit/pipe. This metal hoop video is also very useful.
4. Wire mesh net - You can protect plants from the animals and birds by netting 
5. Compost - Do not throw kitchen garbage in dust bin! Make compost from it.
6. Organic pesticides (dipel and neem oil) to control Grasshoppers, Aphids(greenfly/blackfly), Gnats, Slugs and Snails, Caterpillars, Flea beetle, Codling moth, Cutworms. When using pesticides, ensure that it is not killing good bugs!
7. Weather - find out what plants can be grown in specific weather.
8. Sprinkler and Drip irrigation
9. Decking tiles
10. Drilling
11. Fencing
12. Turf
13. Retaining walls
14. Clothes airer or Clothes drying rack
15. BBQ - BBQ installation is very easy. Just place it in the backyard and use electricity or gas.
16. Landscaping design - You can do landscaping yourself.

CAR D.I.Y. Tasks

1. Phone holder
2. Air refreshner
3. Door print
4. Child seat installation
5. Dashcam
6. Toll tag installation
7. Car sun shade - Foldable
8. Tyre replacement
9. Trailer hitch
10. Car battery charging
11. Removal of car scratches

Licensed Tradie Tasks

For some tasks, you will need to hire licensed tradie to do the job. For example - 

1. Installing gas cooktop and gas bottles - This task will need licensed plumber. Do not try to do this yourself
2. Garage sliding windows and door
3. Garage Aircon installation
4. Security camera - CCTV
5. Security Gate

What do you think on this topic? Please express your opinion or ask any question through comment below. You can write to me at reply2sagar@gmail.com

Vegetable garden care in Australia

This article is written based on vegetable garden in Brisbane, Australia.

Garden Enemies

Here is the list of Garden enemies

1. Pests and Insects
2. Bad Weather
3. Animals
4. Diseases

Solutions

Pests and Insects

Common pests found in Australia are - Caterpillar - Spodoptera or yellow-striped armyworm, Caterpillar - Tobacco cutworm or Spodoptera litura, Grasshoppers. Butterflies and Moths lay eggs and when eggs are hatched, caterpillars are formed. Caterpillars eat the leaves and fruits of the plants. So to prevent this damage, block butterflies from laying eggs on plants by netting the plant. If netting is not possible, you can use polyhouse. If netting and polyhouse is not possible, then you will need to use pesticides to kill these pests. I would recommend using organic pesticides e.g. Dipel or Eco-Oil.

Bad weather

Bad weather can be very destructive. Especially in Australia, summer is very hot. Plants like brinjal, Tomatoes would not tolerate such heat. So polyhouse or shade is recommended. Main purpose of polyhouse or shade is that UV sunrays are blocked and plants are protected from direct sunlight.

Animals

You will need to protect your plants from animals. In Australia Possum can eat the leaves of plants. Apart from possum, there can be lots of other animals and reptiles like Lizards, Mice which can cause damage to crops. You can use netting or polyhouse to protect your plants from animals or reptiles.

Diseases

Most of diseases occur due to insufficient fertilizers or sunlight. So make sure that plants are getting enough nutrients.

What do you think on this topic? Please express your opinion or ask any question through comment below. You can write to me at reply2sagar@gmail.com

NRI - Tax filing process

If you are NRI and have any kind of income in India, you should file the income tax.

Types of income you can have are 

1. Passive income like rental, freelancing income
2. Dividend income
3. Capital gain tax after selling property or shares [To get these details from ICICIDirect, I had to call the call center as these statements are not provided through website for NRI]
4. PMS profit loss - audited report
5. Any Indian business income 

Here are the steps

1. Get form 26A (This form contains details of TDS - tax deducted at source) from https://nriservices.tdscpc.gov.in/nriapp/login.xhtml
2. To open form 26A, you will need to type your birthdate (ddmmyyyy format) as the password 
3. Then you can take help from https://cleartax.in/ or https://www.taxspanner.com/ to file the tax
4. I paid fees for these services online using ICICI bank's debit card. I found taxspanner bit cheaper than clear tax

If you want to file the tax by yourself, you will need to follow below steps.

1. Go to https://portal.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/
2. Download pre-filled XML from "My account" by specifying the ITR-2 form
3. If you upload the XML as it is, you will may get error saying "The XML Schema is invalid. Please upload the XML in the correct schema" - error at line no.1 One of '{""https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/master":"CreationInfo}' is expected
4. Reason why this error comes is you have not added correct details in the XML. To modify the xml you need to download the Java or Excel utility from https://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/downloads/incomeTaxReturnUtilities
5. I used Java utility. To run the utility on linux or mac, you need to first modify the permission of the file ITR.sh to 777 by using command chmod 777 ITR.sh. Then run it by executing the command ./ITR.sh
6. Then GUI will open where you need to import the original XML and modify it. Once you hit submit, it will show errors if any. You need to fix the errors one by one.
7. Once all errors are fixed, you need to save the final XML and then upload it.
8. That's all. You are done! Enjoy! Do not forget to e-verify your return through netbanking. Also ensure that ITR status should  be "processed" after 1 month of filing the ITR and e-verification. If it's not, you will need to contact ITR processing unit to fix the issue.

ITR Java utility

What do you think on this topic? Please express your opinion or ask any question through comment below. You can write to me at reply2sagar@gmail.com

Home Loan application process and things to keep in mind when buying house in Australia

Before choosing home

1. Decide on the suburb
2. Unit/Apartment/Townhouse/House/Mansion/Acreage?
3. Is house located near school and public transportation? 

During Home loan application process

You need to ask these questions before going for home loans.

1. Check your eligibility with lenders - It's better to have a full time permanent job
2. What is the interest rate and comparison rate? What fees I need to pay to find the true cost of loan
3. Fees - annual fees, discharge fees, monthly fees, early termination fees, Prepayment fees
4. Fixed rate or variable rate?
5. Redraw facility
6. Redraw vs Offset
7. Redraw vs Prepayment (Extra repayments)
8. Do you need to pay LMI - Lender's Mortgage Insurance
9. What are upfront costs - stamp duty, first home owner grants - state and federal, legal fee, LMI fee

Steps to buy new house in Australia

1. Get Home loan preapproval - This is valid for 3 months
2. Find the property - Initial Inspections
3. Make offer
4. Seller's Solicitor will create the contract for sale.
5. Review the Contract for sale with the help of Solicitor (conveyancer) and then Sign it. Solicitor fees will range from $1200 to $1500.
6. As per the contract for sale, you will have to deposit 5% or 10% of total purchase value of home in trust account mentioned in the contract.
7. In parallel, Ask the mortgage lender to do Property Valuation. Mortgage lender will valuate the property and based on the valuation, it will decide how much mortgage (maximum amount) to be approved
8. Get Formal Approval for Mortgage from the lender. Most of banks will lend upto 80% of purchase value of house. If you need to borrow more, you will need LMI (Lender's mortgage insurance). In my case, LMI cost me $7000 as I wanted to borrow 90% LVR(Loan to value ratio)
9. Building and Pest Inspection - This cost me $495. If the report mentions defects in the house, you need to ask seller to fix those before proceeding with contract.
10. Get Home insurance (This cost me $40 per month) and get certificate of currency from home insurance provider
11. Sign the mortgage document witnessed by JP and then send it to mortgage lender. 
12. Settlement - That's the final step. 

Timeline

In general, it takes 1-2 months for the entire process.

1. 2 weeks - For preapproval
2. 1 week - Formal approval
3. Contract of Sale - 2 days
4. Contract of Loan - 2 days
5. Settlement date - 4 weeks after signing contract

After settlement

1. Get Home insurance
2. Move in

What do you think on this topic? Please express your opinion or ask any question through comment below. You can write to me at reply2sagar@gmail.com