Is it wrong to hate tradesmen????
no I don't think so. So yes I do. They promise everything and the only thing they deliver is a bloody mess!!!
But on the bright side we now have cornices and no big cracks in the lounge room so can start to paint - have to admit having the holes sealed up does make it a bit warmer and a lot quieter though...
then hopefully we will be able to get the furniture arranged and start to have some semblance of a home... (this could be wishful thinking)
Had another drama with the bi fold doors in that the retractable fly screens don't appear to fit properly. Have to ring the supplier again and get it sorted out.
Just shits me that you pay all this money and things don't work properly.
Brad and I are both a bit tense at the moment as things have not run as smoothly as we anticipated (naive I know) and so the time frames have been extended and extended.
The carpet is now not able to be laid until early September and so that was a bit of a bummer. Bare floorboards are not a good fashion accessory!!!!
Still trying to choose tiles so off to the Tile Liquidators tomorrow - what fun.
We are hoping that the carpenters will be back next week and so the weatherboards will be finished on the house But then that may be wishful thinking.
So I think the only conclusion and solution is to drink more!!! (must admit the local bottle shop profits have increased since this renovation started..)
Friday, August 14, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
The worm fails
Wednesday 12th of August, 2009
Another princess day. Spent the first part of the morning trying to put the worm up a blocked drain pipe. Not successfully I may add...
Decided it was all to hard and sent the machine back to the hire place. Think I will go into the hire business - seems like a good way to make
money. Had another heating dude come out - he was a bit more professional than yesterdays tool - will wait for his quote to come in - might need to
get a loan to make it happen....
Spent rest of the day - using Luke's gurney gun to remove slime from tiles and trying to put my water features around the house. I am very sore from
picking up lots of heavy things and then putting them back down again. Have to wonder what the water bill is going to be. Brad was trying to fix a washer on a tap in
the garden and broke the mains water tap right OFF... Worked out really well though as South East Water came out and fixed the broken mains
and our dripping garden tap. YEAHHHH one small win..
We also fixed the front drain pipe so that the front door doesn't look completely awful now. Brad even managed to get architraves on around the front door so that was good.
Front garden bed is a complete shambles from everybody walking on it. I almost need to erect some sort of barrier to keep them all out. Talk about the path of least
resistance.
Tried to put the retractable fly screens on the bifold doors and surprise, surprise they didn't fit. Cracked it big time and took to the couch with a large glass of red. Definately had enough of the day. Funny me sitting on the couch drinking red whilst Brad is cutting up pieces of wood for architraves in the sun room. Glad we don't have
carpet yet as we would have trashed it by now. Will have to get onto Adam - Bifold door dude tomorrow to sort out flyscreen problem.
Weird day weatherwise as was foggy up the valley all day - must say that I did enjoy my view of the garden through the bifold doors though.
Another princess day. Spent the first part of the morning trying to put the worm up a blocked drain pipe. Not successfully I may add...
Decided it was all to hard and sent the machine back to the hire place. Think I will go into the hire business - seems like a good way to make
money. Had another heating dude come out - he was a bit more professional than yesterdays tool - will wait for his quote to come in - might need to
get a loan to make it happen....
Spent rest of the day - using Luke's gurney gun to remove slime from tiles and trying to put my water features around the house. I am very sore from
picking up lots of heavy things and then putting them back down again. Have to wonder what the water bill is going to be. Brad was trying to fix a washer on a tap in
the garden and broke the mains water tap right OFF... Worked out really well though as South East Water came out and fixed the broken mains
and our dripping garden tap. YEAHHHH one small win..
We also fixed the front drain pipe so that the front door doesn't look completely awful now. Brad even managed to get architraves on around the front door so that was good.
Front garden bed is a complete shambles from everybody walking on it. I almost need to erect some sort of barrier to keep them all out. Talk about the path of least
resistance.
Tried to put the retractable fly screens on the bifold doors and surprise, surprise they didn't fit. Cracked it big time and took to the couch with a large glass of red. Definately had enough of the day. Funny me sitting on the couch drinking red whilst Brad is cutting up pieces of wood for architraves in the sun room. Glad we don't have
carpet yet as we would have trashed it by now. Will have to get onto Adam - Bifold door dude tomorrow to sort out flyscreen problem.
Weird day weatherwise as was foggy up the valley all day - must say that I did enjoy my view of the garden through the bifold doors though.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Princess Natalie
Tuesday 11th August
Arhh the princess strikes again.
I keep telling brad that I want to be a princess but as you can see from the photographs I don't think he is taking it very seriously. We spent the day in a drain trying to put a "worm" up the blocked drain. After shoveling out 2 wheelbarrow loads of yuck we were able to clear some of the drain for the driveway. Hopefully now will be able to not walk through a flood each time it rains. Fingers xxxxx. Had a heating/cooling guy come at 5.30 pm - a bit of a tool really but now are trying to decide on options for keeping the house warm.
Have to go back to the carpet place - Fowles Auctions - as the carpet I had chosen is out of production - typical.. Can't choose the floor tiles until I have chose the carpet as they need to match.
Arhh the princess strikes again.
I keep telling brad that I want to be a princess but as you can see from the photographs I don't think he is taking it very seriously. We spent the day in a drain trying to put a "worm" up the blocked drain. After shoveling out 2 wheelbarrow loads of yuck we were able to clear some of the drain for the driveway. Hopefully now will be able to not walk through a flood each time it rains. Fingers xxxxx. Had a heating/cooling guy come at 5.30 pm - a bit of a tool really but now are trying to decide on options for keeping the house warm.
Have to go back to the carpet place - Fowles Auctions - as the carpet I had chosen is out of production - typical.. Can't choose the floor tiles until I have chose the carpet as they need to match.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Moving In
12 th August 2009
After a few false starts w we are finally moved in and what a roller coaster of a ride it has been.
We ended up extending our rental at Rosserdale Crescent by another week as it was just impossible to live in the new house because of everything that was going on. At one stage we had no walls and no floor in all of the sunroom and half the loungeroom.
From the discovery that half the floor was eaten by termites we have been on a ride that has a million downs but these have been balanced by the highs. we are now starting to get a real house and one that will be beautiful when it is finished.
It all started when we took possession and as previously described pulled the carpet back and discovered that much of the floor make that all the floor in the sun-room and a portion of the lounge-room had been destroyed by termites. We then went on to discover that all the walls in the sun-room had also been eaten and were no good at all. The first call was to get someone in to check the stumps as the house seemed to be on quite a lean.You guessed it. All the stumps were rotted and the house needed a complete restump and re level... The cost was not as bad as we thought it would be and so we consequently engaged a man to do the work. Not a job I would want that is for sure. For our house it involved crawling under the floor and digging a path before you and then moving the dirt behind you. The guys doing it resembled moles and were constantly covered in dirt. They also had to cut holes in the study and the main bedroom to get access so there was just dirt through the whole house. Not to mention there was no floor in much of the lounge-room and none of the sun-room. Just bearers. At times brad and I would just stand there looking at tradesmen as they continued to destroy the house. We would look at each other and hope to hell that this would work out well in the end.... The whole time thinking can this get any worse. Should we just bulldoze the whole thing - or please, please don't wreck anything else - we have to move in here in a week....
Nothing could be really done until the re-stumping was done and that took a week. We couldn't even paint as the guys were in and out of their mole holes and would just put dirt on everything. It was very frustrating and dis-heartening. We had to keep telling ourselves that it would be ok and that we were lucky the re-stumping could be done so quickly as the contractor put off other jobs to do ours.
Of course during the job the contractor had to have knee reconstruction done so that slowed down things even more.
After a few false starts w we are finally moved in and what a roller coaster of a ride it has been.
We ended up extending our rental at Rosserdale Crescent by another week as it was just impossible to live in the new house because of everything that was going on. At one stage we had no walls and no floor in all of the sunroom and half the loungeroom.
From the discovery that half the floor was eaten by termites we have been on a ride that has a million downs but these have been balanced by the highs. we are now starting to get a real house and one that will be beautiful when it is finished.
It all started when we took possession and as previously described pulled the carpet back and discovered that much of the floor make that all the floor in the sun-room and a portion of the lounge-room had been destroyed by termites. We then went on to discover that all the walls in the sun-room had also been eaten and were no good at all. The first call was to get someone in to check the stumps as the house seemed to be on quite a lean.You guessed it. All the stumps were rotted and the house needed a complete restump and re level... The cost was not as bad as we thought it would be and so we consequently engaged a man to do the work. Not a job I would want that is for sure. For our house it involved crawling under the floor and digging a path before you and then moving the dirt behind you. The guys doing it resembled moles and were constantly covered in dirt. They also had to cut holes in the study and the main bedroom to get access so there was just dirt through the whole house. Not to mention there was no floor in much of the lounge-room and none of the sun-room. Just bearers. At times brad and I would just stand there looking at tradesmen as they continued to destroy the house. We would look at each other and hope to hell that this would work out well in the end.... The whole time thinking can this get any worse. Should we just bulldoze the whole thing - or please, please don't wreck anything else - we have to move in here in a week....
Nothing could be really done until the re-stumping was done and that took a week. We couldn't even paint as the guys were in and out of their mole holes and would just put dirt on everything. It was very frustrating and dis-heartening. We had to keep telling ourselves that it would be ok and that we were lucky the re-stumping could be done so quickly as the contractor put off other jobs to do ours.
Of course during the job the contractor had to have knee reconstruction done so that slowed down things even more.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The bloody bifolds
The bloody doors!!!!
OMFG - I wish I had never decided to put bloody bi-fold doors in the sunroom. It had better look fantastic in the end or I will have a breakdown.
The bi-folds were meant to be DIY - well DIY to whom I don't know. It took the carpenters 3 days to put the *%$# things in.
I just kept telling myself that the end of the house had to be rebuilt anyway and it would have had to be leveled what ever when in. Didn't help though.
Especially knowing that it was costing $1 per minute to have 2 carpenters working on the repairs and replacement of the sunroom.
At one stage it looked like we were never going to be at lockup and we would be sitting on the couch watching TV with the cool night air ruffling our hair.
Everyday the builders would say - " we'll get it to lock-up today" and everyday they didn't..
In the end I wasn't even allowed to speak to them. Brad would go and talk to them and then he would come back to me and would have this look on his face -
"before you start" - and there would be another problem. Just about drove us both mad.
The main problem is our house if very old and there is very little that is level. Even after the stumpers had leveled the floor - something else would be out of
line and this would make 5 million other problems. At the moment I have cold sores and pimples - all from stress I reckon. OMFG - sometimes I would just want
to go to the bottom of the garden and scream!!!!!!
But as happens with all these sorts of things 2 things fix it. Time and MONEY - and this was the case here.
The builders rebuilt the end of the house, put in a floor, got the doors in and we could finally lock it up. Mind you there are no weatherboards on the outside - all that is between us and the elements is a bit of blue paper.. But the doors are in and they work and look good. HURRRRAAAAHHHHH..
All we need now is
move in
clean rosserdale
plaster
cornice
architraves
paint
more paint
more and more paint
tile
carpet
heating
new kitchen
new bathroom
blah, blah, blah
might need a big holiday at the end of this....
OMFG - I wish I had never decided to put bloody bi-fold doors in the sunroom. It had better look fantastic in the end or I will have a breakdown.
The bi-folds were meant to be DIY - well DIY to whom I don't know. It took the carpenters 3 days to put the *%$# things in.
I just kept telling myself that the end of the house had to be rebuilt anyway and it would have had to be leveled what ever when in. Didn't help though.
Especially knowing that it was costing $1 per minute to have 2 carpenters working on the repairs and replacement of the sunroom.
At one stage it looked like we were never going to be at lockup and we would be sitting on the couch watching TV with the cool night air ruffling our hair.
Everyday the builders would say - " we'll get it to lock-up today" and everyday they didn't..
In the end I wasn't even allowed to speak to them. Brad would go and talk to them and then he would come back to me and would have this look on his face -
"before you start" - and there would be another problem. Just about drove us both mad.
The main problem is our house if very old and there is very little that is level. Even after the stumpers had leveled the floor - something else would be out of
line and this would make 5 million other problems. At the moment I have cold sores and pimples - all from stress I reckon. OMFG - sometimes I would just want
to go to the bottom of the garden and scream!!!!!!
But as happens with all these sorts of things 2 things fix it. Time and MONEY - and this was the case here.
The builders rebuilt the end of the house, put in a floor, got the doors in and we could finally lock it up. Mind you there are no weatherboards on the outside - all that is between us and the elements is a bit of blue paper.. But the doors are in and they work and look good. HURRRRAAAAHHHHH..
All we need now is
move in
clean rosserdale
plaster
cornice
architraves
paint
more paint
more and more paint
tile
carpet
heating
new kitchen
new bathroom
blah, blah, blah
might need a big holiday at the end of this....
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