A Pinch and a Punch . . . and the Tiling's Done!

Welcome to August! (August?!?!? Good grief. Where has this year gone?)

August 1. The Horse's Birthday. In the Southern Hemisphere at least. I've always wondered why it was called the Horse's Birthday. Thanks to Yahoo Answers (LOL) I now know! Apparently it's do to with horse racing and standardising the ages of horses. Fair enough.

It's also Wattle Day in Australia, where the Wattle trees are supposed to start flowering. No one has told the Wattle trees though, as I've noticed a lot of them have already been flowering since as early as mid-June!!!

The flowers sure are pretty though, but not so good if you have hay fever, like Gus!

So, onto the other matter of "Done Tiling". On Friday the tiler FINALLY showed up. Of course he blamed the Kitchen company for not ringing him, but I think he was also a bit dodgy to begin with. Never mind, at least it's all done now and I can look at the nice tiles we chose instead of ugly, crumbly plasterboard!!

There's only one thing left to do now - decide on the new handles. That's really our fault it's taking ages because we can't decide which ones will look good with the existing doors. Hmm . . . watch this space. LOL

*hugs*

The Kitchen Renovation Debacle - Day #2

This post was supposed to be dated Monday, 10 May, but for various reasons, I haven't posted it until today (see post below, LOL).

After spending the previous weekend cleaning off all the granite dust from the front of the house, wondering why the rubbish piled on our front lawn wasn't taken away, eating lots of takeaway meals, and using the laundry tub as a temporary kitchen sink, the kitchen guys came back on the Monday to do more work.

I had to head off to work (2 hours each way on the train by myself, boo hoo!), but hubby managed to get the okay to work from home.  Lucky him!

The Project Manager turned up first thing in the morning with our shiny new sink. Thankfully he got the right one this time. The rest of the kitchen guys turned up a bit later in the morning and started pulling off the tiles from the wall.  The plumber arrived shortly after and frustratedly headed off again since the kitchen guys were still stripping tiles and hadn't installed the sink or cooker ready for the plumber to connect.

Finally the kitchen guys departed around lunchtime after they had pulled off all the tiles (AND part of the walls!), installed the sink and cooker, and installed the new pot and cutlery drawers - leaving lots of dust and debris behind in the kitchen.  Hubby decided not to clean it up until AFTER the plumber had been.  Good decision that as more dust and debris was added as the plumber did his work.

The plumber didn't actually return until late in the afternoon.  Connecting up the dishwasher, sink and cooker was uneventful.  Hubby waved them off into the sunset, then tried to turn on the water.  It seemed that when the plumber told his apprentice to turn on the water mains, the apprentice turned the tap the wrong way and had actually stopped all water to our house.  Arrgghhhhh!!!!  Apprentice - YOU'RE FIRED!! (LOL)

When I eventually got home at 7pm, my awesome hubby had turned the water mains back on, cleaned the dust and debris from the kitchen, and vacuumed and mopped the floors.  Gotta love him.

What now?  Well, the benchtop is done and the sink, dishwasher and cooker have all been connected.  The new drawers are in, and the tiles have been pulled off the walls. 

The Project Manager was supposed to arrange a time for the kitchen guys to come back on Thursday, 13 May to finish gyprocking the walls, ready for the tiler.

There was no sign of him, nor any phone calls.  Sigh.

[Update:  He did ring me this afternoon to say he'll be coming back this Thursday.  Apparently he needs to find a new gyprocker.]

I'm hoping that the kitchen will be finished by the June long weekend.  At the very least.

Stay tuned for The Kitchen Renovation Debacle - Day #3!!  To be followed by The Laundry/Ensuite Renovation Debacle. . . LOL

*hugs*

The Kitchen Renovation Debacle - Day #1

Finally the day came when the kitchen company we appointed was going to work on our kitchen.  They were supposed to be here yesterday, but due to one thing or another, they weren't ready.  It's a simple renovation really.  Just replacing the benchtop, dishwasher and sink and re-lacquering the doors.  We're not asking too much! LOL

So I thought.  Nothing seemed to go as planned today. Especially for the kitchen company Project Manager for whom everything seemed to be messed up, running late, or not at all!!  Thank goodness that wasn't my job. :D

We (Gus managed to get clearance to work from home today) got up early this morning and cleared out the side of the kitchen that was getting a new benchtop.

The Kitchen Guys didn't turn up until 10am when they said they were going to arrive at 8am. The Benchtop Guys turned up at around 11am, but the Kitchen Guys still hadn't installed the dishwasher so the kitchen wasn't ready for the new benchtop to go on, so the Benchtop Guys went off to do another job first.

By lunchtime, the kitchen was finally ready for the benchtop and our shiny new dishwasher had been installed.

(Whoops, just realised this photo still has the old, gungy dishwasher in it!!  See below for a peek of the new one.)

But the Benchtop Guys were nowhere to be seen.  So we waited.  And waited.  And waited.

Finally at around 3.30pm the Project Manager comes back and is surprised that the benchtop guys hadn't started yet.  Um . . . no, they hadn't turned up yet.  So after a few phone calls, it turns out that they were stuck at the other job and couldn't get to us until 4pm.  So the Project Manager calls the Plumber and leaves a message on his mobile telling him not to come until 4.30pm.  The Project Manager then left to get another sink as the one he got had a big dent in it.

Ten minutes later the Project Manager returns with the Plumber close behind.  Turns out that the Plumber wasn't going to be able to do the job for us today as he had planned a weekend away and wasn't going to work late today.

{pick jaws up from ground}

After a bit of umming and ahhing, we decide that Gus would stay home on Monday and be here for the Plumber and possibly the Electrician.

Finally the benchtop guys turn up at 4.15pm and it took them just over an hour to install the new benchtop. Probably good the plumber didn't hang around as he would have had a loooooong day! LOL The kitchen guys didn't supply the sink that we wanted, so the benchtop guys just cut the hole. I'm hoping the sink fits in when they bring it back on Monday!

So after a long and worrisome day, we have a new benchtop and a new dishwasher installed, but no sink and the stove hasn't been put back properly or hooked up. Looks like a weekend of BBQing or takeaway!

I'll keep you updated. :D

*hugs*