Down, down, the prices are down!

I find it impossible to pay full price for anything.  It's simply not necessary - the are plenty of bargains to be had no matter if you're buying clothes, cars or building products.  Half the fun for me in making a purchase is calling, visiting and googling about 100 different suppliers to find the best price.  Ironically its the first place I've gone to that I generally return.

I have to acknowledge that I am very lucky that I'm able to use my contacts  to obtain particularly good pricing on a range of goods (special thank you's to Brett's Timber & Hardware, Finlayson Timber & Hardware and Boral) for this project.

However, the most amazing bargain of all, one that has nothing to do with my work and something that anyone else can obtain, is the incredible kitchen, pantry and laundry cabinetry that we sourced through the wonderfully helpful Adam at Aussie Cut.

Aussie Cut is a high-end cabinet making factory.  They've got this wonderfully clean and tidy, high tech factory at Brendale - it has huge computer operated machines that slice, dice and create kitchens following some data entry and the press of a button.  I've had seen their advertisement in the Master Builders magazine about 18 months ago and then coincidently my mum and her partner sourced their kitchen from them last year - they got top notch quality at a brilliant cost because basically you are cutting out the middle man ie the kitchen designer.  Of course this wouldn't be for everyone - you need to have a pretty good idea of what you want plus you need to draw up a plan and measure everything yourself.

And so this is what we have done.  I must admit it wasn't particularly easy and it took a couple of trips out there to get it right.  On my first visit - the first Friday of the school holidays  - I had to leave and burst into tears when I got in the car because my two naughty brown eyed, brown haired boys misbehaved so badly I couldn't concentrate and was getting my measurements topsy turvey.  In hindsight this was a blessing because we really hadn't put enough thought into things.  Happily some holiday time and James' huge effort in drawing and measuring up ensured the next time went smoothly.

It's semi gloss lexicon quarter 2 pac for those that speak "builder".  40mm organic white ceaserstone benches to come 

Still getting the plans "right" before going to the factory and then spending a few hours sitting with Adam talking through the plan and checking measurements was quite nerve-wracking - like sitting an exam.  If we made any, they would be expensive mistakes! We asked if we were particularly inept or if they often got people walking through their door with similar plans.  We were pleased to hear our approach wasn't uncommon!

My pantry - not quite finished  but getting there...

The kitchen took about 3 weeks to manufacture - most of that time it was getting "2-packed", it was then delivered and installed by our builder.  And the result?  Couldn't be happier!  We've got a custom-designed 2-pac kitchen, pantry & laundry all with blum softclose drawers for less than I would pay for an ikea kitchen.  What's not to be happy about - as I said I truly love a bargain!

One side of the compact laundry - I've got drawers to store the dirty clothes...

Sink to go in the top of there and more drawers for dirty clothes!

The kitchen was delivered mostly assembled and our builders have installed it.

Voila! Almost.

For all those who have been concerned that I've abandoned this blog due to being squashed under a pile of building rubble I can assure you that thankfully that didn't occur.  However, at the end of last year I did disappear under a huge pile of life related busyness - work, school related issues and reno. The good news is I've managed to climb to the top and its looking pretty good from up here.

The house is looking amazing, better than we could have hoped for.  There have been a few hiccups along the way but nothing that couldn't be fixed.  The amount of time we spent labouring over the plans have really paid off because there isn't anything much we would have changed - except perhaps the location of the linen cupboard - swaaping it from one side of a door to the other in the hallway.  But that's chicken feed really.

In think I left you all hanging in suspense as the framework was going up so here are few pics to whet your appetite whilst I get back into the swing of blogging.

Looking out the kitchen window

Beautiful 130mm spotted gum board from Boral - I love them...

And the beautiful spotted gum deck also from Boral, there will be many a party out here in time to come...

I look unsure in this photo but changing this dining area into a bedroom is one of the smartest decisions, it was such a huge long room before it really hasn't changed the living area at all, in fact I almost think it makes it more balanced. 

On a final note for those family and friends reading this, its the 8th festival of my sweet William this weekend.  It's been a busy and at times tumultuous 8 years but he is the light of our lives and I am so proud of the effort he puts into himself.

Check, check again and again and again.

When dollars are tight you can't afford to make any mistakes.  I learnt a valuable lesson today - even when you think something is right get your builder to check it and then check it again.

Just as James clicked the send button to the place the hardwood flooring and decking order I decided to compare the provisional cost indicated in our quotation with the final price received.  As soon as I saw the prices, $4500 vs $5900, I knew something was amiss.  We were getting an exceptionally good price and I had expected it to be way under the provisional cost than over.  In fact some of the other decisions I am making are based on that I am expecting to be under, rather than over budget on the timber used.

As soon as our builder arrived I mentioned this to him.  It was decided that it might be a good idea to re-measure now that the framework is up.  Thank goodness we did as the original measurements, taken off the plan, were incorrect as the laundry and powder room had been included.  They should not have as they will be tiled with nice penny rounds.  It also became apparent that the flooring for the kitchen/living area had not been factored into the original quote as the builder had assumed there would be original flooring that was usable - not too happy about this but need to look on the bright side that it could be a whole lot worse if we weren't getting such a discount.

This certainly gave me a wake-up call.  I've been coasting along assuming that the builder will get it all right.  The fact of the matter is that mistakes do happen and I need to get on top of things to ensure they don't. We've decided to get up early in the morning and do a bit of measuring and checking to make sure that since the frameworks up that all the doors and windows are in the right place!

Guess it pays to be living on site!

As I sit and write this there are three strong, very hot (as in heat not looks) men carrying framework up our narrow side path.   Things have been moving fairly slowly over the last 10 days since the ground work finished but I understand that once the framework goes up its entirely possible that the roof could be going on next Friday

Since the picture below was taken the back part (the old kitchen) has been removed.   Seeing the "footprint" of the space and the deck has been reassuring - we've always been a little concerned that the area wasn't going to be big enough, however we can see now that it will be very functional and the deck is going to be huge - big enough for complete outdoor living - table/chairs and a lounge suite.  I'm very excited about this as I have always loved a lounge outside.  I've been busying googling rattan lounge suites on ebay in a hope to get one and restore it.  The deck area is basically from where you see the gap between the particle board.

Gone are the old cement steps, these will be covered in lovely spotted gum decking, the space under the floor on the right is standing room heigh and we're thinking that this can be used for a tool room and space for messy activities like mosaics - something I love doing but don't always want to have to clean up afterwards.

Unfortunately we have to remove two trees that we were hoping to keep - they were going to be just too close to the roof line.  James says he is never going to remove another tree stump in his life - given that he has been know to walk around wearing t-shirts stating "trees spoil city views" - I'm not quite sure that I believe him!

Bored by board width

The amount of bandwidth I've used looking at board widths is concerning.  Why is it that just when you think you've got a decision locked in something throws a spanner in the works?

I've really got no-one else to blame but myself really considering I've got Queensland's God of Timber in the office next to me at work and I left it until today, the day I was supposed to order the floorboards, to casually mention over a glass of champagne at the Melbourne Cup lunch, that I was planning on using 180mm Spotted Gum floorboards.

What I really wanted my floor to look like.

Well I'm not anymore....

Apparently the wider the board the more likely the floor will "cup".  Cupping in solid hardwood means the boards raise slightly at their edges making the hardwood flooring uneven across its width. The cause of cupping is an imbalance of moisture through the timber.  Given our unstable climate - throwing itself between extreme wet and extreme dry - the potential of this occurring concerns me.

Narrow width solid hardwoods are always more stable and less prone to movement than wider width flooring. I've been advised 80mm boards would be the safest to use but I really want wide boards - the existing pine boards in are 150mm, so I think I will have to choose between 130mm and 150mm. 

I guess erring on the side of caution would be sensible - but who says the girl who goes shoe shopping after four glasses of champagne is sensible?

Hot, cold and sparkling!

I've won a couple of scratchies before, and I even won a crocheted rug in a raffle once but nothing comes event close to the competition I won on Friday!

In a fabulous piece of timing and luck I won a Zip HydroTap.  YAY!!!  For those not in the know this is a beautiful piece of equipment that instantly provides boiling, chilled and sparkling filtered water.  

This is not me - I am allergic to dogs and have milk in my tea. I do have brown hair though.

I went to the HIA Home Show a couple of months ago and entered a competition which required me to state why I would like a Zip HydroTap - my response was:

“Because water is life! And we love life!”

Clearly I am going to start loving my life even more when I've got this tap in my shiny, sparkly new kitchen.  Think of all the time I'm going to save not filling up water bottles, boiling the kettle and going to Coles to buy replacement soda stream canisters!  

James was excited with my win but ever-budget conscious his thoughts immediately turned to how much this would add to the power bill.  Having had a look at the product website it appears not too much - you can set it to only heat at certain times which translates the cost to less than $1.90 a week in power.  

Now all I have to do is work out where to place it my fancy new kitchen - which I am getting for an amazing price.   I'll tell you all about it next time...j

Progress report

Coming home from work each day at the moment is almost like Christmas morning.  There is something that's exciting and has cost a lot waiting for us every single day!!  We returned from holidays   without too much having been demolished, however a couple of days later John the Digger Man arrived.

And he dug.

And he dug.

And he kept digging until he removed four layers of concrete!  This was considerably more than the initial layer of concrete and a layer of bricks that was expected to be there.  There were layers of tiles, more layers of bricks and more layers of tiles.  And then they hit paydirt - rock! (on the other side of the hill we live on is the old Windsor Quarry so rock was expected - thank god we decided against a pool for the rock reason) Twelve truck loads of fill were removed - so that's the first cost variation!

Following all the excavation we had a few days delay as the timber order for the retaining walls and flooring joists was delayed.  However, it was very exciting when it arrived and a big thank you has to go to Bretts Hardware at Windsor for the great prices they are providing.  

Apparently he was a super duper delivery driver because it was a tricky delivery that he got spot on.  We're on a hill and trying to place large, heavy pallets of timber as far as possible up a steep driveway with a swinging crane is no easy task.  I watched this and then thought of the effort Ross and Shane will have to make carrying it all up the back and blessed my cotton socks for my air-conditioned office.

Plenty more has been done but it's taken me about 2 weeks to finish this post - so it's going up now like it or not!

Necessity is the mother of all invention during a live-in reno

I'm not really going to  miss this room.

While living in the middle of a building site for several months sounds like a nightmare to most, to James and I it just makes good sense.  I'd rather be able to afford to have a few more bells and whistles in our fit out than cook cordon bleu for a while!

After a hectic weekend of sorting out, letting the boys watch copious amounts of television and several bouts of takeaway the boxes were all packed and our kitchen was ready to be removed.  I put an ad up on Gumtree a few weeks ago to sell the whole kit and caboodle (cabinetry, stovetop, oven, sink, rangehood) for $350.  Given it was a timber kitchen it really was a steal (10 calls in 12 hours was also a good indication that it was priced well) but I couldn't bear the thought of it going into landfill and we didn't want to have to do any removing ourselves, so the deal was the buyer did all the hard yakka taking it out.  This all happened yesterday without too much drama.  It's fascinating to see the remaining carcass - all this will be demolished.

The main reason that we're able to stay here whilst the renovation takes place is that all the work is happening at the rear of the property and Ross is able to board off the work area leaving us with what is essentially a safe and secure 2 bed apartment.  We've got 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a large living area at our disposal.

The room will be "boarded off" from where the architrave is (and if anyone wants it let me know)

My solution to make our "apartment" work was for the boys to move into the front bedroom (previously used as a study),  turn the main bathroom (which is pretty big) into a kitchen and for us all to use our ensuite for the duration.  I must say I am pretty pleased with the kitchen.  The pictures speak for themselves:

Ta da! Note the toilet is taped up!
I've got microwave, weber bbq, 2 burner gas top, slow cooker and about 20 pre-cooked meals  and lots of baking in the freezer!

My dining table is sitting over the top of the bath - all my appliances (whizz, sandwich press etc) are sitting underneath.

Yes that is a pantry in the shower!
(note the taps weren't removed until after one small boy decided to see if they still worked...they did)

Check out my sink - sourced on Gumtree for $30.  Simply took the bathroom vanity out and voila!
I must admit I don't think the whole kitchen-bathroom deal would work so well without this fabulous find. 

Two breakfasts, two school lunches and two dinners down and no complaints...yet.

The paper towel holder of champions!! 

'What's for dinner?" - the question on everyone's lips at the end of the day!

So I'm feeling pretty relaxed about the whole live-in arrangement at present. Of course that's before it's all started and I might change my tune fairly quickly.  We're off to South West Rocks for the holidays and the demolition should happen whilst we're away.  No point hanging around asbestos removal; it's so expensive - about $1200 a room - just imagine I could be going 5 star rather than camping under the stars if we didn't have to pay for that!!

Signed, sealed and to be delivered!

Finished or just starting? It's an interesting conumdrum.  It's felt like a journey getting to the point of having FINAL APPROVED PLANS!

It's been an busy10 days in our household, aside from hosting the flu from hell and dealing with possible a possible job redundancy (avoided..phew!) we've been focused on a paper trail to get those approved plans in our hot little hands.

Our aim has been for the work to start no later than the end of September and there has been a myriad of hurdles to jump before going hat in hand to the bank for final approval of funds, who then take up to 4 weeks us the nod and provide the builder with a "notice to proceed."

We used Les Kirby at Catalyst Building Approvals , he informed us that before he would provide building approval we needed to

1. Builders Registration Insurance is required before the release of the plans for construction. Would you please have your registered builder lodge his insurance fees with the Queensland Building Services Authority and provide a copy of the confirmation number to our office. For additional information contact Building Services Authority www.bsa.qld.gov.au or 32252800

2. Qleave is applicable to building works in excess of $80000. This levy is payable at an Australia Post Office calculated on the total value of works. Additional information regarding this call 1800 803481 or www.qleave.qld.gov.au

But to get these documents we needed a signed builders contract (which we didn't realise, we thought you could get the approval and then shop around with builders - apparently not) .  So we finally made the decision confirmed with Ross Stone, Prestige Building Group and signed a contract.  

Then it was back to the bank with all of the documentation above, plus plenty more to get the final funds.

This all took place about 10 days ago and life has been chaotic since then.  I'm writing this on the couch in the middle of absolute chaos - packing boxes, a temporary kitchen half set up in the bathroom and a huge day of sorting things out tomorrow before our kitchen is removed on Monday!!

Superwoman has been on a short holiday

It would be so easy to start this entry by disparaging myself for all the reasons I haven't updated this blog for far too long.

Rather than that I'll just show off by saying I've just been busy being super-woman; doing extra freelance work (lets pay for this reno!),  fighting off the flu (nothing will get me down!), volunteering for the school fair (school captain for my boys one day!?!), training for last weekend's City2Surf in Sydney (anyone know a good orthopaedic surgeon!) all while working with Peter to get our final working drawings completed.

I'm pleased to announce (drum roll)- we are DONE and super happy with the results.  We've got ourselves an stylish extension that ticks virtually all of the boxes in our extensive design brief.  Have a look for yourself....

Looking inside from the backyard

The laundry door - windows are into laundry, powder room & pantry

In the kitchen/family room (grey door is into laundry)

My small but functional laundry - right next the kitchen exactly where I wanted it!

Anyone feel like sitting at my breakfast bar with me?  Wine or milk?

The final floor plan!

Electrical plan - can you have too many plugs?

Turn the bloody lights off...ie the lighting plan.  Good thing we've got solar

 So now it's time to get this baby built, let the fun and games begin!

Builder-guilt

As a mother I know plenty about guilt; I didn't breastfeed, I let my kids watch TV during the week and to top it off some afternoons when I have managed to force them into the garden I lock the back door so they can't come back inside.

There's plenty more to anguish over but at present this guilt pales in comparison to what I am experiencing in relation to obtaining builders quotes.  My whole life I've have it drummed into me to get three quotes for everything, it just plain common sense!  Consequently I am now the world's best bargain hunter (have you heard the one about the $1050 boots I got for $150?) and never feel comfortable paying full price or buying anything unless I have visited every shop and supplier around town to make sure I'm getting the best deal.

So why in the world do I feel so dreadful getting three different builders to quote on our renovation?

I think the reason is that we know the builder we would prefer to use - a lovely man Ross Stone from Prestige Building Group.  Our building designer introduced us when we first started on the plans and he has been a font of advice already.  He has given us an estimate price which is pretty close to what we budgeted (I will be happy to share this with you once I receive the other estimates).  For some people I know, this would close the deal - they would sign up with Ross pronto.

My builder-guilt stems not only from being unwilling to commit to Ross immediately, its because I feel that I'm wasting the other builders time.  Wasting these poor guys time when business is so tough at the moment.  Wasting their time when they could be at home with their families.  Wasting their time when they could be quoting on a job they have more of a chance of winning. Wasting their time when they could be at the pub having a beer after a long days work.

Because we really do want to use Ross.  Of course this may not end up being the case - one of the other builders quotes could be tens and ten of thousands of dollars cheaper.  But emotionally I feel that I would then be questioning why they are so cheap anyway.   Am I just going through the motions of getting the quotes to appease another type of guilt - the guilt of not doing the right thing?  Or is a case of first with the head, then with the heart?


I've been trying to appease the builder-guilt with the knowledge that builders factor quoting time into each job and if they don't win the job they just add it onto the next job they do win (or so I have been told). But then I just start feeling guilty about the poor sod who might end up paying for my actions down the track.

There's are real guilt-a-thon going on round here!


How many quotes did you get if you have done a renovation?  Did you choose for cost or like-ability?  Any regrets?

Measure twice, cut once.

My grandfather, Bill Seward, always told me to measure twice and cut once.  I have discovered when you apply this principle to developing plans it's more like measure fifty times, pace things things out at least thirty-two times, draw it on the ground with chalk and try to envisage what furniture would fit where twenty times and then have about seventeen anxiety attacks that perhaps the economy is stuffed and you shouldn't be renovating at all.

So that's what James and I have been doing recently and is the reason you may have noticed my blog has been quite of late.  However, we think with a few tweaks the latest iteration of our plans will give us what we need. Plus the economy needs building industry needs stimulating so we might as well be the trendsetters.

You may recall in my last instalment I had to tell our building designer that whilst his plans were great they weren't going to work for us. About a fortnight ago we received new plans, straight away we were much happier - the whole thing seemed to provide us with the space and the requirements we wanted and was along the lines of what we always thought would happen to this house - basically a box on the back.

Click on the picture to see the plans clearly.

Peter Latemore said to have a good think about it all and get back to him.  You might be interested to know the approach James and I took to considering the layout and functionality of each room. It may seem over the top but remember I am anal and James is a business analyst...you put these things together and you get this...a spreadsheet which lists each room and the things we needed to think about for each room eg light, security, storage, entry/exit, heating/cooling etc.  You can see the spreadsheet here and the list of things that that we came up with here.

Once we felt that we had measured, paced, discussed and debated enough we made a time to meet with Peter and ran through what we thought needed to change.  The main things are that the pantry will swap places with the laundry, the drying area will move to the side of the house and the screen that divides the deck into two areas will be removed.  One of the windows in the kitchen will be removed to make space for a hutch for the kettle etc.  There are few other things - I guess we will get another plan soon that I can show you.

So now we are approaching the stage of the working drawings being produced and council approval.  We also need to start confirming the cost  - that will be the topic of my next post and I guess what has been worrying us most of all - BUDGET!!

The best laid plans...

Does anyone else get scared of tape measures?  Functional tools but when they retract the zooming sharp sides freak me out, I'm terrified I'll end up with a massive cut, like a paper cut but bigger.  This week I've confronted my fear as I've obsessively been measuring lengths, widths and trying to envisage room sizes because (drum roll please)...we received our plans. 

Here is the existing floorplan:

 and here is what was proposed:

Proposed floor plan

I received the plans at 9am on Monday morning with a busy day ahead  of me - excitement combined with excruciating pain, all I wanted to do was rush home and feast my eyes. 

What an overwhelming experience it was when I finally had the chance to look at them closely.  As a novice I quickly realised reading a plan isn't as easy as reading a book - understanding perspectives, measurements, elevations, roof lines - these things take time. From my experience this week, getting a feel for a plan isn't something that should be rushed.

Something that was immediately obvious, even to my untrained eye, was despite the plan ticking nearly every box on our very detailed brief it didn't solve a fundamental problem with the way we live.

It seemed that our current issue of the kitchen area being too small for two growing boys would remain somewhat. What we had wanted was a big family dining table (not just breakfast bar) adjacent to the kitchen plus a small lounge area.

James and I spent about 4 hours trying to work out different ways our need could be met with the proposed plan.   Changing the family room to a meals zone seemed like a very big space just for a table (it's not big enough for dining plus lounge) and the space adjacent to the breakfast bar called "reading" just seemed too small, I felt it would be redundant.

I went to bed feeling dreadful, in my odd way I was feeling as though not getting the plans right first go was all my fault. Was my brief too brief after all?  Were we unclear about what we really wanted?  Were we overwhelmed by Peter's enthusiasm for his initial concept of adding an extra bedroom, forgetting about what we really wanted?

I woke the next day determined to resolve this and called Peter as soon as I could.  I felt very nervous making the call, it was like ringing to tell someone you think their baby is ugly.  He reassured me not to worry, that this was a normal part of the design process and that we could resolve it.  We told him our ideas and with his suggestions we came up with this (the pink lines are what the new plans will be - hard to see I know, hoping for another plan soon!) :

We've spent the weekend with the tape measure (panic!), pacing out rooms and trying to envisage the various spaces.  It's interesting to observe the different approaches different people take to visualising spaces; some can do it on paper, some need to stand in certain directions, others need to measure out a space in a completely different place to see how large a particular size is.  Whatever works!  James and I have drawn chalk lines on the ground and in an OMG moment I didn't freak out when I saw he had drawn on the kitchen wall in permanent marker - it's all going soon enough anyway!!

The roof line - we have decided to "settle" for a hip roof over the fancy skillion option Peter provided - by doing so we will save enough to put in a powder room.

The deck - anyone ready for a BBQ?

So it's been a big week, an exciting week.  What have I learned?

When you are on a tight budget you can't get everything you want  (farewell kitchen desk nook) - it's about getting what you need (apparently I need a butlers pantry! - I didn't expect to get one! have you got one?  Do you like it?)

What do you think of our plans?  (if you can't see them leave a comment below and I will try to upload in a different manner)

PS - a BIG congratulations goes to our lovely designer Peter Latemore, not only was it his birthday his week but he won the "Designing the Dream" Award at the Building Designers of Queensland Brisbane  North Awards.  If only we had the budget that would have been spent on that house....