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!!!!

ooooo ... I have a laundry ... and a store area ... and a pantry ... and ...

Very exciting homecoming today ... when I left this morning the joiners had arrived ... so I knew big things were happening today. Sure enough when I got home they were still working at 5pm and I now have a laundry, a pantry, a storage area ... oh ... and I also have all my exterior door handles in the WRONG place!!! argh!!!! When I'm home the builders never do anything evil ... as soon as I leave for the day it seems they start to think up evil things to do ... especially since I'd already discussed it with them ... they are NOT going to be happy when I tell them ALL the doors have to be re-done (I'm hoping this is actually possible!!)!!!

The pantry ... plans and results ... WOW WOW WOW!!! My dream pantry ... I want to fill it all up right away! I don't think I've quite allowed enough room for all the appliances ... but I'll see how I go once I pack them in!







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The laundry plans ... and the results ... I really like how this has come out ... can't wait to see it with the final doors on the washing machine area!







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The laundry has a hallway storage cupboard ... here is my plan ... and the results!! Quite pleased with how it has come out ... only one thing I would change, which would to be to make the mail shelves shallower so you aren't tempted to hit your head!!! Also I didn't count in the effect of the kickboard ... so the boots wont be sitting on the ground (and the nice dark tile ... might have to put a layer of something at the base of the cupboard for muddy boots) ... now to work out the hooks to put in!

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Apparently my floors will be in by the end of the week ... the kitchen is arriving on Tuesday ... and I have to be out late next week for them to stain and polish the floors!! Not quite sure when the tiling is going in ... think we might have a bit of a hiccup with some of the tiling ... I handed the builder the tile for the kitchen and laundry today ... and his response was "I didn't know there was tiling in the kitchen" ... hmmmm!! Not sure about that one ... they are PC items anyway, so not included in his quote ... and of course there had to be something behind the oven as a splashback ... so not sure what he thought was going there.

Check out the countdown!!

Yup ... countdown is at zero ... completion date was supposed to be Saturday ... surprisingly enough it isn't done! Not even close!! And we're going to have quite a bit of delay this week ... the roof was supposed to be going on, but with high winds forecast ... it has been put off until next week.

Gives me a bit more time to search for various things ... roller screen fly doors, canopy roof for the bay windows and bath surrounds.

The canopy roof is being tricky ... looks like a custom job ... of course in the UK they have a zillion and one options!

Today's puzzle - tiles for ensuite - which direction?

Not quite sure which way to ask the tiles to be laid in the ensuite ... not sure I should rely upon a tiler's advice (I'm sure they know which way is EASIER ... but maybe not the most attractive way!!)

Horizontal? or ... Vertical?

Small space ... odd angled roof ... low roof height ... ?????

Pantry plans - first attempt

Rather than starting off with vague ideas to give to the architect, I decided I'd have a play at creating the plans for my pantry. I googled and discovered someone else's fantastic plans ... and found out they used a free program called SketchUp. I've been playing for the last two weeks or so (on the train to work) and I think I've sort of worked some of it out. I still can't really work out how to change sizes of sections - but it sort of looks like a pantry!! (click on the images to see a bigger size)

No idea if I've really got the proportions right - and I had to guess the actual size of the pantry from the plans (because it wasn't very clear). So it is more a conceptual view vs actual plan. I had to sink the person through the floor to make their height a bit more like mine!

Happy to receive all feedback and good/bad ideas from your pantry experiences!!

Poor mouse is wondering where the kitchen went!

So there has been a mouse in my kitchen for the last couple of weeks ... the cats have had great fun trying to get it out (they probably brought it in in the first place, entertainment when bored whilst I'm at work). After last night, mousie is going to be wondering where the kitchen went!! Totally cleared out! Nothing to find at all!! A mouse could hardly expect that the nice kitchen they've taken up residence in, would disappear in an afternoon.

(OK, so maybe a good clean out would have been just as much help as a new kitchen!! And I did take the messy photo when it was truly awful!! Just so I could remember how I sometimes lived!)

I'm a bit surprised I actually managed it ... it seemed an unending job - MORE cupboards full of stuff, and this is from a tiny kitchen. Imagine what I'll be able to keep in my new BIG kitchen!!! At least in the new kitchen things will be on display more, so no back of cupboard hiding of things. I still think I could live off my cupboards for weeks. I was quite strict in what I threw out - anything that wasn't going to be used and would be past its use-by date within a couple of months - in the bin! I probably could have been even stricter - but it was hard to throw out things that were still good. When it all goes back into the new kitchen, I'll throw them then.

Amazing to believe that next time I have a kitchen it will have a stunning stove, a huge pantry, zillions of draws and a purdy kitchen bench! It's only a couple of months away!!

I'll have to keep reminding myself of that, as I live in my spare bedroom! I think I'm going to miss the kitchen sink the most. I'm not a great washer-upper-er ... and if it is that much harder to do and I've only got the bathroom basin, that's going to be VERY unpleasant. Might have to be very slack and use plastics and throw occasionally!

Last week the architect finally got the ensuite plans complete ... here they are! Not quite sure where I'm going to find the minature towel rail on the plan!! Especially since I'll need to fit in a light switch there as well.

The plans ... the dream!

Existing house

Extension