From building site to home in 24 hours

Thursday morning ... the day before Christmas


24 hours later ... Christmas morning

Who could believe at the start ....

... that the builders would still be going on Christmas eve! I thought I set my "in my head" deadline so far out even I couldn't be surprised at delays ... but I was wrong! It wont be finished for Christmas ... enough will be done that christmas lunch will go ahead ... but the tradies will be back next year!!

They will be working Christmas eve ... when all I want is a couple of days to clean up, recover and become human again.

Builder got his payment ... I was generous for Christmas even though there are bits missing from the agreed list to complete, some they will finish today.

Pretty scaring looking at the kitchen and thinking I've got to miraculously turn it into a beautiful space in the next 24 hours.

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas ....

The lovely electricians connected up the ovens today ... so of course I had to use BOTH of them (after turning them on for an hour or so to get rid of the horrible smell!) ... very exciting that I got to cook in TWO new ovens ... which meant thinking of two things to be the first timers: dinner was roast veggies out of one oven, then we (my brother and I) made gingerbread in the other oven! YUM!!! I LOVE roast veggies and gingerbread!!



The gas tops are still not connected .... looks like there is a problem with me being on LPG gas ... even though the oven was ordered to be set up for LPG, it seems it wasn't. I haven't quite been told about this (heard through one of the other tradesmen) ... so I'm assuming it is a solveable problem that I don't need to get involved in.

Also going in today were the flyscreens ... they look wonderful - even if the cat can't see them and bumps into them with his whiskers ... "engage invisible cat shields"!

The airconditioner guys did turn up to put in the aircon ... pity the store had given them the wrong inside unit ... the lovely label on it had my name and the model number, pity that model number didn't match the BIG writing right underneath it!! So tomorrow morning it goes in (would have been nice tonight since it was quite warm).

The electricians have also set up my inside lights, some of the outside lights, phone line and powerpoints ... just missing a bathroom light which they'll come back to do (oh and no TV for me until next year - they cut the cable!).

The tradesman missing today: the plumber!! I've given up hope of getting the rest of the stuff finished, now I have a working oven ... all I want is some plumbing! A dishwasher, toilet and basin would be juuuuussst lovely!!

Photo of oven and others!

Here it is .......


awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww ... I could look at if for hours!!!

Below is a close up of the stainless steel bench ... still in its wrapping ... will be unwrapped for Christmas (given it was a pressie from my Mum!) ... it is nearly as beautiful as the oven!


I realised I had other photos I haven't shared ... so here goes ....

Below is my driveway on Friday afternoon ...
Rush hour!! That day we had carpenter, builder, 3 electricians, 2 tilers, 2 painters, 3 joiners ... and I'm sure I'm missing someone!!! Monday is going to be about the same ... adding in a plumber, airconditioner installer, flyscreen installer ... gas man? and maybe more?!?!

The dining room is ready to go for carpet ... was supposed to have happened this week but a bit of a mix up ... hopefully tomorrow morning (given I have guests arriving for lunch ... they'll have to carry in their own table to eat off!!). Bonus points if you can see the fatty grey poom-bah in the background!
Most of the tiling in the laundry and bathroom has been done ... I LOVE the tile ... thanks to my wonderful friend who trialled it for me ;-) ... it is quite amazing how little the dirt shows on it!! The bath is surrounded by the tile ... can't wait to see it all fitted out ... maybe tomorrow?! I suppose my brother who is staying from tomorrow night might actually LIKE his own bathroom.
I'm missing photos of the outside ... the windows have nearly all been done ... just waiting on the doors to get their final colour before I take another photo ... that will nearly be an "after" photo!

OMG ... it is IN the house!!!!

The OVEN is in the KITCHEN!!!

After over two years of living in the stables ... all packaged up ... with my nightmares of it being chewed by rats ... it is IN the kitchen!!!

Not quite connected up yet ... and not quite in the right spot ... but it is in the room!

They had originally said it would go in yesterday ... but then said they didn't have enough people to move it, so maybe Saturday :-( ... I woke up this morning with great anticipation ... my first question to them this morning was when they'd move the oven ... "not today they said, maybe Monday" .... nooooooooooooo :-( ... but the builders tricked me ... when I got back from the farmers' market ... THERE it was!! Out of the stables and in the kitchen! Gas guy was there looking to connect it up ... but it will have to wait until the electricians on Monday .... buuuuuttttt ....

best of all ..... so far no signs of it being chewed to death by rats!

Photos to come (thought the builders might not quite understand my over the top excitement!).

Had to stick the car on cruise control as I drove off to do some other jobs ... otherwise I would have been flyyyyyiinnnggg!!!

Oh ... and it is beautiful!!

Pretty shiney floor!

The floors are done ... they look truly amazing!

The shine!!!! In the sunlight they look a slightly different colour. The fumes are rather nasty at the moment ... but hopefully in another couple of days, with the windows all open, the air might be breatheable! I'm just so glad to be back in the house ... though I'm itching to start moving things in. I desperately need to tidy up my current living area ... and it would be so much easier if I could just MOVE things into their correct spots! eg. the telephone ... would be nice to plug it in at an actual phone point vs leaving it on my floor!!

Only one issue with my gorgeous floors .... after half an hour of the animals being allowed on it ...


I'll be investing in some new cleaning things! Nothing I had before will really help it. Anyway ... once the whole thing is covered in dirt, no one will notice a couple of footprints!!

The floor guy did spring some surprises on me though ... apparently NO furniture is supposed to go on it for a week (ummm ... the day before Christmas?!) and no floor rugs for 3 weeks (lucky he told me that, I would have instantly put something down to protect it!).

Yesterday I went up to a place that supplies cabinet bits ... I wanted to get the inserts for my kitchen drawers, but wanted to see them before ordering them (they are much cheaper through the internet, but I can't play with them beforehand). Nice guy who helped me out took me through some of the options ... and I bought the cutlery ones. I'll go back for more once I've got a bit better idea of how things work out (I was also missing one measurement which was a pain!).

Funnily enough the cabinet supplier's lovely catalogue had something the joiner had sworn was IMPOSSIBLE and didn't exist!!!! That stupid half bottle draw ... he said there were no other options, that "the cabinet was too big for the draw" ... I thought he was bullshitting - I knew the kitchen designer knew what she was doing, she wouldn't have designed a cabinet for something that didn't exist ... and as I looked through the catalogue ... there it was ... the EXACT thing that was supposed to have been put in - for the exactly right carcass size! I'll get the builder to hand the photocopied page over to the joiner :-) :-) ;-)

Curtains have arrived - I haven't unpacked them yet as I don't want them to get dirty.

Off to get light globes today so once the lights go in ... I can have lights.

Been having discussions between the builder, myself and the architect about $$$$$$$ ... builder of course wants to be paid before Christmas ... but he hasn't completed the stage. I'd already given him 1/5 of the payment but he's been hassling me for more. I was sticking on that there was no sign-off from the architect ... so the builder rang the architect and told him to come down and see that the work was done. When the architect got here ... he realised that the builder wasn't quite telling ALL the truth, that although the things left to go aren't big (lots of 10 minute jobs) there are LOTS of them to be done (a number of days work) and that it wasn't as done as the builder had told the architect. We've agreed for a bit more to be paid out, but the remaining amount will not be paid until a list of things has been completed:
- Kitchen bench
- Kitchen sink and taps
- Bathroom taps
- Bathroom vanity
- Toilet
- WC vanity
- Laundry cupboard completion
- Hotwater
- Eternal latches and locks (lock-up stage)

Which doesn't even include finishing the tiling, the painting, the rangehood, the skirting boards and so much more!!!! But at least those are the all important things! (I do have to say ... that finally the architect is being helpful vs causing more work ... maybe he did have his uses!!)

Annnndddd .... is today ... THE DAY!!! The most exciting day? The one I've really been hanging out for ... will it REALLY REALLY happen?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??! Off to talk to the builders to ask ... you'll have to wait to see!!

Most stressful week!!

I’ve been having a stressful week … finally the wooden floors are to be done … but the delays have meant that I’ve moved out two weeks later than I should, stuffing up all sorts of other plans!!! Then the floor guy let the tilers take precedent over what he was doing, making another days delay. what was supposed to be less than a week out of home, is turning into two weeks … though I think I’ll just have go to back and sleep there with the fumes due to animal juggling (who wants a visitor with two dogs and a cat?!).

The floor colour is a beautiful dark colour … they’ve checked with me a couple of times to just make sure … quite convinced I’ll change my mind … but I really love the dark floor with the light bright walls and windows. It will look even better with furniture and curtains in. They’ve only got the stain on so far … and the varnish will go on over the next couple of days … but still a while until it can be walked on again.

I’m hoping they are able to continue working on the rest of the house … would be great if all the bathroom stuff was in … and the solar hot water connected. Christmas is so awfully close … and I have visitors booked in to arrive … I’m sure they would like a bathroom.

The curtains are ready to be delivered … can’t wait to see them all up. I’ve been working on the cushions for the window seats with my Mum … I just adore all the materials, and we’ve found some great edging stuff to bind them with. The interior designer had picked out a cushion size of 50cmx90cm … and I was wondering how I was going to find a cushion that size – but that is actually a king size pillow size, so although they were expensive fillers to use pillows instead of cushions, they are the perfect size! Photos to come soon of some of these … though it might be until I get the dining table in the dining room that I’ll be able to finish them off (need somewhere clean to sew vs in the dust!).

Duel at dawn – gentlemen pick your weapons

Not quite a dawn duel … and not many gentlemen around … but my weapon of choice was “the plans”, kitchen guy’s weapon was “defensive cocky attitude” … the plans won!

It was a pretty tense confrontation … the kitchen guy implying that if I wanted something built to plans then I needed to ensure that every single measurement was on the plan … which I called bullshit on … the plans were drawn to scale by a professional, the majority of the measurements were on the plans … and doing hideous things is not acceptable.

It has been agreed that the draw fronts will be replaced … that took quite a bit … but it is on the plans! The draw fills will be changed (he tried to convince me that it was standard to be given half a cupboard!), the glass in the overheads would be changed – had a great win on that one – I asked him to check his paper work, there it was in black and white, the glass was opaque not clear! The rangehood top will be fixed … though I decided that rather than rely upon them to get the correct corbel, I would order them myself. For a $20 item that makes an impact it was not worth the effort of trying to get them to do them … I’m sure I can work out how to paint them and stick them on if they arrive after the builders leave!

He did ask me who I thought would be paying for the changes …I nearly laughed … not me!!!

That was probably my worst nightmare for the whole renovation experience … having to stand up to someone who was trying to bully me into doing what they wanted … and making my lack of knowledge their excuse for doing a bad job. Thank goodness I’m obsessive about lists and paperwork, they just had no excuses with things in writing.

So far they’ve re-done the shelf – interestingly, they had asked the builder to create a template of the shelf bracket, builder draws up a pretty one the first go … but what the kitchen guys have put in is what is on the plan ;-) So they’ve wasted the builders time … and it would have been nice to have the pretty template one, but I’m still so much happier with what is on the plan vs the horrid shelf bracket they put in in the first place.

My side of the argument went something like "it is on the plans", "the plans show", "the plans are drawn to scale, those are the measurements", "on the spreadsheet you were given it says", "there it is on the plan", "there is the enlarged detail on the plan", "check the paper work I gave you, it is written there", "there is the written measurement", "as you can see here on the plan ..." :-) !!!!!

His side of the argument was a whole lot weaker and it just goes to show ... if it is in writing and on the plans ... they can come up with lots of excuses ... but it wont hold! Even though they'll make the changes ... the cupboards/draws will never have the profile exactly how I thought it would look like ... hard to describe but I asked for shaker profile, and the ones I've got are really sort of shallow, with rounded corners - not true shakerish ... but the difference is minor and I don't have anything in writing to define exactly how deep and right angled I wanted the corners (bugger).

At the end of the discussion I left the builder to talk more with the kitchen guy … and I could hear as I left “so why didn’t you build it like it is on the plans?” :-)

The blank space is filled ... with mistakes!

I cried again today ... luckily not in front of the builders this time!!! Only my second set of big tears over this process I suppose it really has been too easy.

The kitchen arrived today ... I was desperate to see it going in but stayed out of the way. I was asked in for a question about the bench at one stage during the day, when I saw the most HIDDEOUS looking shelf on the wall. It looked awful ... I thought maybe it only had temporary brackets holding it up ... I couldn't put a measuring tape on it (as the builders were all around) so decided to wait until they were all gone and to go out with plans and tape (I hate to make a claim that something is wrong until I've quadruple checked plans and measurements).

The painter was around and asked me what I though of the kitchen ... I said I hadn't really seen it yet but I didn't like the shelf. He went and spoke to one of the builders (not the kitchen guys - they had already left) ... and a builder came to me ... I really didn't want to start making claims about it being wrong until I could check for myself ... but they said I had to quickly speak up so they could rip it off the wall before the glue dried!!!!

We pulled out the plans, the tape measure, the pretty picture from a magazine it was modelled on ... and it was ripped OFF the wall!!! I wasn't wrong ... the plans and the shelf brackets were very different to reality! Picture shows my attempt to put them side by side in an image shows the difference ... though the shelf that remains is the microwave shelf (which I thought might be larger than the other ones since it has a larger shelf to support).

Quick discussion with the builders (the senior one wasn't on site today) and we sketched up an alternative (a pretty bracket!) ... those lemon meringue tarts that I made for them yesterday, at the neighbours, must have helped ;-) ... they get chocolate marshmallows tomorrow. Where they ripped the shelf off the wall has damaged the plasterwork ... but it will be covered by the tiled splashback ... the microwave shelf can't be removed without major problems.

Below is the front on view of the microwave shelf ... it is kind of hard to tell in this photo ... but it is really LARGE ... imagine something wider than a standard fridge ... and takes up huge wall space ... the shelf over the bench was this size but even bigger ... ugh!!!


I thought we'd got through the kitchen hiccup ... I thought that'd be it ... I waited until all the trades were out before further investigation ... and what I found caused me to cry ... it wasn't just the shelves wrong ... there is SO MUCH else wrong!!! It seemed nearly everything I opened wasn't right. Below is the main bench (with damage to the wall).

I was wandering around trying to work out why it looked all wrong ... it just didn't give the feel of what I thought it was going to look like. I got out the pictures I'd cut out of magazines to try and identify what felt wrong ... and I finally worked it out ... I'd asked for a particular profile on the draws and cupboards ... what they had done was a sort of interpretation of this. I wanted boring plain even surrounds ... they seem to have improvised ... below is a picture showing the plan vs the reality. Plan has one distance around the molding (marked yellow) ... the reality is three different sizes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It just makes it look all weird ... and modern! Also ... although two plans slightly differ ... I was planning on putting the handles on the top section (not in the middle as on the plan shown to the left) ... which on the lower draws is only the size of the blue measurement ... not big enough for the handles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The tears were flowing ... and then I opened the draws ... oh my ... oh no ... what the?!?!?!?

The kitchen maker and I had discussed the draws/cupboards were supposed to be like inside ... the cupboard below was supposed to be for my baking trays:
Can't work out how I'm going to put baking trays in there ... if I take off the top basket (which is removeable) the bottom basket is not deep enough to stop them flipping out. I have a peverse desire to hand the kitchen guy a baking tray and say "here, you put it in".

The next draw didn't stop the tears ... this one is supposed to be for tea towels and bottles ....
ummmmm ... half a draw!??!?! what's the other side supposed to have in it? you can't reach into it!!! One narrow little shelf bit?!?!?!?!

Then I opened one of the main big draws ... to find the sides only go halfway up ... so you can't fill the draws!!!!!!!!!!!!! arrggghhh!! I think I'm in the kitchen where the Mad Hatter's tea party was prepared!!!


Then I noticed the rangehood is in the wrong place ... I know it is odd ... but I wanted the actual vent bits to be to one side ... because the oven only has burners on one side (the other side is just a warming plate) ... had discussed this with the kitchen guy ... he wrote it down ... and nope ... it didn't happen.

Another "hmm ... that doesn't look right" .... the mantle over the oven ... just looked too big ... sure enough ... I look at the plans which have 250mm .. and I put up the measuring tape 330mm . ... just a little bit out!!!!

I hadn't quite worked out why they had used such thick MDF in the pantry ... I SHOULD have spoken up about it ... because that horrible thick stuff is all through the kitchen ... the linen cupboard (photo further down below) has normal thickness shelves ... but the new cookbookshelf (is that a word?!) has the thick stuff too... I've never seen bookshelves with huge thick shelves ... they don't have to take that much weight!! Looks awful :-(

Below is the east side of the kitchen .. apart from thick shelves, weird molding on the draws ... it doesn't look too bad!!! Bench colour is OK ... don't know why the powerpoints are at that height (the other side of the kitchen has them lower) ... but I like the top cupboards .. oh BUGGER ... just realised ... the glass was supposed to be opaque!!!!!!!!!! arrrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhh!!!! *sob*
Ok ... enough whinging and wringing of hands ... I rang the senior builder, he'll be out tomorrow to discuss. The kitchen guy also called ... he'll be out tomorrow (and on the defensive ... he wasn't expecting my list of issues!) ... tomorrow wont be much fun ... but if the plans say something, then I'm sticking to them!!!

On to good things ... one draw I opened was GOOD ... the rubbish bins!!!! yup ... they're bigger than I expected (but the size I was hoping) ... they are fabulous! Lots of room for recycleables and rubbish!!


The first window seat is in ... in the dining room!! It looks a little low at the moment ... but it was put that way to account for the actual upholstery cushion going on top. Looks pretty!! There was nearly a hiccup over this one ... the builders had put in the skirting board without putting in the window seat. I mentioned it to one of the guys on site (to stop them doing the kitchen one and wasting their time) ... the senior builder approached me the next day saying he thought that the dining room would look better without the window seat ... ohhhh noooo you don't ... just because you made a boo-boo does not mean you get out of creating my window seat, not when I've spent $$$ on getting materials and upholstery done for it! Builder quickly saw it my way and this is today's result!


And I'd like to enter my linen closet in the "world's biggest linen closet" competition ... not sure you can get an idea of size from this photo (use the door as comparison) ... but it is HUUUUGGGGEEE!!! I can take all the stuff out of the spare room ... and it will fit in here!!!! (oh ... it will have doors too!)

Oh ... and for those who struggle to throw things out ... I'd watched an exchange between the builder and the painter ... they had some of the pretty cornice left over ... two big pieces ... the painter asked the builder if he wanted it brought in before the rain came, the builder said he didn't want it, the painter could take it if he wanted ... no the painter didn't want it either ... I looked at it ... and desperately wanted to keep it ... but what would I ever use cornice for?!?!? Well ... when they installed the rangehood today, they realised they just needed an extra piece of cornice ... pity it poured with rain the other day and it is ruined!!!!