DOES NOT EXIST!  Where do I start with this one??? I suppose we could start with either no hot water or scolding hot water for one (check the last post for the details of that one).  This old kitchen would probably allow a health and safety officer the opportunity to check off every single health and safety point on their check list.  Take this secret hidden tap…

…no drain underneath it, and yes that is an electrical cord running right underneath it (our fault, but we needed the power point above it to heat up the bain maries.  This secret little tap comes from the rain water tank and provides our drinking water.  You don’t want to drink the bore water that comes out of the sink tap, it’s salty and slightly brownish and tastes gross (I had to learn that from personal experience).  The rain water is clear and very nice to drink by the way.

Back to the health and safety stuff…that old oven is an upgrade from the even older oven that was used last year, but the door doesn’t shut, so in the 40+ degree weather it must have been 50+ in the kitchen with no aircon and the oven (with a slightly ajar door) and stoves going full blast for lunch and dinner.  Last year the old wall oven actually fell on Renarda while she was cooking, and she was pregnant…so it’s nice to see that it was upgraded!???

The gas stove on the left was a no no.  No way would we even attempt to use that. Renarda did use it last year however…and it was scary!

So the hot water in the sink comes out cold and cold water comes out hot, but only if the donkey (see last post) is fired up…and I really could keep going on but I think you get the picture.

As for cleanliness, you just have to get used to red dirt EVERWHERE. There is no way around it.  You live in a big red sand pit…what else can you expect!

No… not the animal kind! It’s the hot water system.  This is what it looks like…

You make a fire in the fire place.  The water is pumped from out of the ground (bore water) into the tank on the right, then comes out through the pipes and through the fireplace, heats up and comes out the pipes to the showers and the kitchen.  Now you don’t want to get the fire going too much or the water will come out boiling and scold you.  When the water is boiling it spits out the long thin pipe sticking up out of the fireplace and squirts all over the place. You don’t want to be near it when it’s spurting out either! A nice gentle fire is preferred…obviously!