Last Photos of an Empty House

We're four days away from the move and I officially can't wait. We're meeting with our builder tomorrow night to go over the last details.

While Iain watched cricket I drove over to the house to check it out. I flicked all of the light switches on and off, turned on every faucet, ran the showers, opened and closed the kitchen drawers. I turned on the ceiling fan upstairs, opened some of the windows (with SCREENS! A rarity in NZ!!), and sat on the carpet. It felt great.

As expected (and warned by friends who've undergone renovations), there's stuff we did wrong. But thankfully nothing is holy-crap-this-looks-like-sh*t standout wrong -- it's all in the details. There's stuff like the positioning of a wall socket... or an outside light. But so far, the important stuff is all there.

The next pictures will be of a completed house!

Week

This week was much less hectic than last week. With my workload being back to normal, we were able to tag team the house chores: I'm responsible for hiring a carpet cleaner for our rental, arranging internet and satellite hook-up, and managing the upstairs closet build. Not too onerous. Iain took over the kitchen sink install, plumbers, screens, and our builder.

We're both taking off the week of March 8. Iain doesn't have enough vacation days to take the FULL week. So I'm handling the move on Monday the 8th, just like Iain handled our move into the rental back in October. I'd hoped to have the internet and TV hooked up in time to watch the Oscars but it won't happen. Damn!

There's a huge sale on at Smith + Caughey this week, so I spent numerous lunch breaks looking at sheets, towels, shoes (not house-related but c'mon...), housewares, etc. I got us some fantastic orange towels for the upstairs bathroom. I might go back next week and look for towels for the downstairs, too.

Here are pictures of the rangehood and - finally! - the correct kitchen sink: 500mm X 400mm X 200mm (19.6" X 14.74" X 7.87"). The kitchen company agreed to reimburse us for 50% of the value of the handles, since they're wrong and we couldn't agree on an adequate replacement. This is a pretty good deal since they originally threw the handles in for free.

Lastly: the backsplash. Or is it splashback?

Landscaping...

The landscaping is well underway - it's one of the most satisfying parts of the job. You see immediately what they've done, as opposed to a house where an entire week might go by with no really obvious changes.

Countdown to March 8!!!!

Tired.

My partner at work is on vacation so I enjoyed a 50+ hour week (that's not a complaint -- I just heard of another local ad agency doing poorly in this economy so I'm feeling lucky. Tired and cranky, but lucky. Ok, yeah, it's kind of a complaint.)

Iain handled all house-related chores, going down almost daily for frustrating meetings with our infuriatingly (sic) non-communicative builder. While I've been at work from 7.30am to 6pm, he's been dealing with the logistics of scheduling the carpet guys to come back and flatten the carpet that the radiator guys disrupted, calling the screen guys, emailing the kitchen chick to find out when the new sink arrives, and trying to find out why the hell we have no exhaust fans in the bathrooms! We are tired.

It's Friday night and Iain is watching a rubgy game. I'm catching up on Facebook and just wasted 15 minutes of my life watching The 30 Most Important Cats of 2009.

Here are some pictures of the radiators and carpet. What's weird is that these things, more than the kitchen install or the bathrooms, have made it all seem like a real house. Seeing the house almost finished gave me that little knot in my stomach - the first real feeling of excitement.

I confessed to Iain that I've felt negative towards the house lately, and wasn't nearly as psyched by the completed bathroom or almost-completed kitchen as I thought I'd be. I said, "This sounds awful, but I'm just sick of it." He nodded and said, "I've hated this house since June." And then we just started laughing.

Here's something strange: one of the biggest thrills has been seeing the carpeted closets. I did a quick mental search through every house and apartment I've ever lived in and realized that only two had carpeted closets. But so what, right? It never occurred to me to care about such an unimportant, arbitrary feature, but yet here I am, fantasizing about hanging my clothes in these brand new carpeted closets. Weird.

Home Stretch!

We've had three blinds salespeople come to the house to give us quotes. The prices have ranged from $9000 to $3000. Incredible. The woman who came on Saturday morning greeted us with, "I'm sorry if I smell like booze -- my husband and I were entertaining last night." I think we might award her the job! Truthfully, we probably can't award the job to anyone -- we had no idea custom made blinds were so pricey.

Here's what's left:

1. Carpet install
2. Radiator install
3. Rangehood install
4. Backsplash of some sort (still unresolved)
5. Blinds for most of the windows (still unresolved)
6. Cat fence install
7. Upstairs closet build (still getting quotes)
8. Utilities (phone, electricity, water, etc. etc.)
9. Change of address - fourth one in three years. Enough already!

Getting your money's worth

The landscaping started on Thursday and already we're seeing why it's costing so much! Our guy found a bunch of old buckets and pieces of steel underneath the lawn by the plum tree which of course begs the question: "Who the HELL used to live here?!?!"

The yard was such a complete mess we've had to hire the guy just to make it a "normal" backyard, let alone a really elaborate one with fancy shrubs and flowers and decks and fences. Hell, at this stage, we're just looking for a decent lawn! I can't wait to see how this all looks when he's finished.




Okay, maybe a FEW shrubs!

Kitchen Krisis Averted!

Stupid kitchen. Wrong handles, wrong wastebin, and UGH! Wrong sink!

What should've been one of the easiest parts of the construction almost turned into one of the worst. We've discovered three mistakes in our kitchen, the latest being the sink model! An appointment with our kitchen designer was scheduled for Saturday, so we spent Friday evening going through all of our paperwork. Yep - they installed the R100 sink, not the RJ10 sink! And the handles? Bilma, not Bilma Straight! WTF???

Even though the company was in the wrong, I was still nervous and suffered a sleepless night on Friday. We've heard horror stories of people going back to their installers and being ignored, or handed some arcane set of terms and conditions that absolves the company from everything. How many months did we spend comparing kitchen sinks? The thought of all that research, only to get stuck with the wrong sink was depressing.

We've had a good experience with this company, which is why we were so disappointed when they screwed up. The garbage bin and even the handles I could live with but the sink was just WRONG.

Just in case they didn't own up to the mistakes, we went in guns blazing -- invoices, pictures, pdfs... and a back-up plan involving a social media blitz if they refused to own up.

We were pleasantly surprised. Our designer took responsibility for everything. She'd gone on vacation during the process and in the handover, a bunch of things got screwed up. And from her tone, it sounded to me like we weren't the only dissatisfied customers.

They're completely re-doing our kitchen counter to install the right sink, and we're being compensated for the handles and the garbage bin. They'll also pay for our plumber to come back in and re-install the faucet and garbage disposal. Whew!

We celebrated with a delicious lamb dish and rosé at a tapas place called Altar.

In the Closet

It was Waitangi Day on Saturday. This meant that a lot of the stores were closed, forcing us to actually set aside house crap and enjoy the weekend. It's the height of summer -- really hot, really sunny, really awesome.

We went grocery shopping and visited a few tile stores to see if we could find something affordable for our kitchen backsplash.

Answer: no.

Damn!

Looks like more subway tiles... we investigated a glass backsplash, but the price is still the same: $1200+. Since we're already so far over-budget, we'll compromise and get some subways. We'll probably live.

Pictured below is Iain on Saturday while we figured out our upstairs closet configuration. We measured our own closets in the rental and figured out what we think we'll need in the new house.

The closet is going to be a freestanding structure so we're investigating closet companies -- for those of you who immediately leap to your California Closet / Broadcast News / SATC fantasties, you're not alone. This, however, is going to be a basic closet with some shelves.


Boring: the freestanding closet was a big discussion when we first started renovations -- we didn't want to build a closet for fear it would affect resale in case a future owner wanted to use the "dressing room" space for an office or baby room. But you know what? We need to live there, too, so we're revamping a lot of our "resale vs what we actually want" decisions.

(This late-in-the-day decision has left us with a perfect and now useless cable, power, and phone jack right where the closet will go. Brilliant!)

We finally nailed down a good design which I incorporated into Excel and emailed to our closet dude. Done!

Cut to four hours later and we're at Flax in Browns Bay for a late lunch.


We love this place because of its proximity to the beach. It's like being in Miami or LA or... New Zealand!


We ordered some fish cakes instead of something good like the burger and fries. Alas... trying to be healthy. I should've returned mine - it was vile. Iain didn't mind his.

After our 2pm lunch we headed for home for a quiet afternoon of laundry and books.

The Floor's So Clean I Can See My Head Right Through It!

The title of this post is courtesy of an oft-quoted guy named Fred who 3 people who read this blog will remember from Plum Dandy.

Last week, all work on the house came to a standstill as the floor guys went in and did their thing. We are so happy that we didn't choose to stain the floors a different color to cover up the imperfections - it looks great, the imperfections add charm, and the parts that are a bit conspicuous (foyer and hallway leading to bathroom) will fade with age.

We're down to the end here, thank GOD. In the next three weeks, we've got radiators, screens, double-glazing, plumbing, carpet, kitchen backsplash, VANITY AND SHOWER INSTALLATION, kitchen appliance and rangehood install, door-rehanging, blinds, and of course landscaping. Anything else? I cant remember.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day in Auckland. After a Skype call with the 'rents, we quickly ran errands and got home in time to enjoy a few hours in the backyard with our books. The older couple next door had what sounded like Sinatra playing loudly from their home throughout most of the afternoon -- at first we were like, "What the hell is that music?!?!" but as soon as we realized it was them, we relaxed.



Mom and Dad, this is what I was talking about with the screens!

The landscaper starts next Thursday - thank GOD!

Auckland Anniversary Day!

Monday is Auckland Anniversary and the whole city gets a public holiday. This is absolutely perfect timing since we both had rough weeks. I had a positively vile 5 days in the office, followed up by two tiring nights of house meetings (builder, electrician, closet guy, tiler). Our electrician doesn't get along with our builder or Iain, so he's taken to calling me direct at work for all things lighting-related. So, we definitely could use a break.

The weather is stunning today -- I've done 4 loads of laundry and they dry on the line within an hour! (I always feel like I should be in a Jerry Bruckheimer film as I'm hanging stuff on the line -- I keep expecting to see planes flying overhead and an American flag somewhere. Maybe some Aerosmith music....)

I spent the morning cleaning our grody house - Iain is finishing up the job with a good vacuum, and then we're off for sushi and a swim! Oh, and we bought a rangehood for the new kitchen! Yay! Final days... we're almost there!

Movies:
Avatar - incredible
Drag Me To Hell - awful
The Lovely Bones - yawn
Rachel Getting Married - annoying filming but great acting
District 9 - good, original

Taking a Break

The last month we've spent every weekend in stores, looking for tiles, carpet, lights, fixtures, rangehoods, faucets, etc. etc. etc. We're taking a break this coming weekend to host a BBQ. Iain's running out on Saturday morning to pick up a rangehood and I'm cleaning. We'll hopefully have a nice relaxing afternoon, then Sunday we've got about 14 people coming over. I can't wait, although the REAL party is going to be when we move into the new place!!

Dag, that's a lot of blue!

The front door only has one coat, so we're hoping it darkens slightly. That's some serious blue!

Thanks so everyone who helped us figure out which way to go with the subway tiles in the downstairs bathroom. It looks amazing!

KITCHEN! KITCHEN!

Kitchen!


Kitchen!

Kitchen!


Kitchen!

Kitchen!

Monday

Today was frustrating for two reasons:

1. The Golden Globes are on and I missed them because I have a j-o-b. It was agony all day!!! But I do have sick days and holiday time, so next year I'll plan better! Skype call anyone?

2. The kitchen install is actually a two day process: delivery on day one, installation on day two. So I have to wait until tomorrow to see it all. Damn it!

Not too shabby.

We were up at 6am yesterday to organize ourselves for another day of house chores. On the list:

1. pick up drum and pendants we ordered last month from the light store
2. look at tiles for the splashback (again)
3. return all the tile samples we got last weekend
4. stop by the screen store to look at screen options (it's more complicated than I thought!)
5. buy a tub sink for the laundry and a garbage disposal
6. buy ceiling fan for upstairs bedroom
7. look at outdoor lights (expensive!) and stairwell lights (kinda useless but still cool)

We got a pleasant surprise -- in the lighting store where we bought the ceiling fan, I noticed a really reasonably priced drum light that will look perfect over our stairs. We bought it. We were hoping to make this light a really important feature, and this involved going to all sorts of boutiques and shops in search of The Perfect Light. It was always in the back of our minds that we might not be able to afford The Perfect Light, as these little boutiquey stores can be really expensive. At $90, this is a really good find!

It was another perfect summer day in Auckland so we blew off carpet shopping, grabbed the beach bag, and headed to Iain's office for an afternoon of tabloids, rice crackers, and pool. It was so much fun!

Kountdown to the Kitchen Install

4 days and counting! The kitchen goes in on the 18th!
The white vanity and associated boxes are for the downstairs bathroom.

Lights are in!

I realize this is pretty boring but I was totally psyched! Hanging lamps will go in last, to avoid random construction worker guys from accidentally damaging them.