Transport & travel
The bike doctors
After starting small at a local school, Dr Cranky’s is spreading its bike-fixing, community-building initiative around Australia. Peter Foot finds out what’s needed to get kids riding.
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DIY
Making space for DIY
DIY projects are often a solitary pursuit, but that’s where a makerspace can come in, providing a place to share tools, ideas and expertise. Ralph Johnstone visits one in Melbourne.
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DIY
DIY: Insulating raked ceilings
Raked ceilings with exposed beams may look nice, but they are near-impossible to insulate. James Stapledon explains how he insulated the ceilings in his home to greatly improve thermal performance.
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DIY
DIY: Insulating aluminium windows
Many Australian houses feature aluminium-framed windows, which perform poorly thermally. But performance can be greatly improved with a simple DIY project. Glenn Newman explains how his friend Lisa Rime came up with an easy system for DIY double glazing.
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DIY
DIY: Sheet mulch and hot compost
Fuchsia Branwhite explains the permaculture tricks she uses in her own garden, to both control weeds and produce beautiful non-stinky compost from a wide range of garden waste.
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Buyers guides
A draught sealing buyers guide
Draughts can make your home far less comfortable than it needs to be, particularly in winter. Sealing them up is one of the simplest things to do for an energy-efficient home. Find out where the gaps are and how to fix them in our first-ever draught sealing buyers guide.
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DIY
DIY: All-season vegie shade tent
One reader, Brian Mollan, describes his solution to the problem of summer scorching of his vegies—and it can even be left in place in winter.
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DIY
DIYs for efficiency: Garage insulation and shutters
Kim Wilkinson describes his projects to reduce heat ingress into the house by improving the performance of the common wall between garage and house, and adding shutters to some windows.
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DIY
Digging the No Dig
Growing vegies with increasing summer heat and less rain doesn’t need to be a battle, writes Carmel Killin. A solution can be found in the water-retaining and humus-rich layers of a No Dig bed.
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DIY
DIY: Solar dehydrator
Stephen Palethorpe describes a solar dehydrator construction project.
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DIY
Reduce, reuse, and don’t (always) renovate
Should you reuse a functional but dated kitchen? What do you do with a concrete path removed from your garden? Katie Moon describes how she and her partner Tom Brewer went about upgrading their family home.
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