October 2004 - With just over 2 weeks until we start the major section of the renovations we're in the final countdown phase.
Amanda did a sterling job of scouring the local papers for builders, searching the Yellow Pages site and after a number of quotes, visits (and unreturned phone calls from other builders we attempted to contact) we were fortunate enough to find ourselves a builder via the Carters Consulting service.
I'm a little loathe to drop the guys details in here until *after* he's started our job (wouldn't want any of you readers snaffling him away from us now would we!) so I'll be back to this page to tell you a bit more about this approachable and organised young guy who we both liked enough to pretty much award him the job on his first visit.
Now, let's rewind a month or so back to the Auckland Home Show. We'd boldly set out with plans in hand, strategy sorted and boys in the care of Nanna Jenni and Grandad John (Robs parents) "We'll be back in about 4 hours" said Rob. Amanda seemed suprised we'd spend that long there, and I thought I'd given ourselves an extra hour which we could sneak away and enjoy a quiet coffee together.
Oh how wrong I can be... how galactically, stupendously, incredibly wrong I can be...
So there we were, 6 hours later - with 30% of the show still to walk through and our plans in tatters:
- We'd tossed the gas fire + heater in favour of central heating which we found out was not only cheaper to install, it was also more energy efficient and would double in a DVS capacity during those fun humid summers in Auckland
- We chucked the continuous gas hot water in favour of a gas heat and store cylinder as it's more efficient - heck, we could have gone to an electric heat and stor (with or without a solar boost) and still won out on efficiency. It appears the lads at the electricity company are not marketing themselves or the new efficiency of their appliances very well.
- Even my beloved BBQ wasn't safe - apparently there's little to no advantage in stainless burners (though I still like the idea of not getting them rusting out, or filled with crap from drippings)
So the last section we legged it, saw the applicances for the kitchen, spent a very short time at the one stand I had to see (viewing the Media Center PCs/Applicance from Stylah - beautiful, really a nice units despite the excitable guy at the stand telling me that there'd be an EPG avalible in October - at ehich point I had to let him know who I was and get introduced to the owner who I was originally looking for, great guy - ex IT with a fairly good plan for the devices.
Anyway, the last marquee held a stand by Cedarlite a very fast, responsive team of joiners who not only spent just 5 minutes looking at our plans, but they had a quote to us by 7:30 the next morning! Needless to say, they've got the job and will be supplying our doors and windows.
Over this month I've also been messing around with the Electrical plan, and have come up with a version one which still need input from my friend Matt who does Home Automation stuff for a living, but as a starter for ten, and because we need to source ourselves a sparkie to do some initial work in the Ensuite, this will have to do.
Again, yes - I have a higher resolution image avalible but I'm not posting it here as it's too big (KB-wise) for browsing consumption, nor am I posting a 'complete' picture as things such as my security layout have no place on the public, unsecured Internet.
01/11 - Chris called during an all morning meeting and followed up with a fax requesting confirmation of which way the front door swings and also offering some suggestions as to how the layout of the bi-fold doors to the deck should run. Deans plans [see deck in detail] covered what should happen, and we're sticking with those layouts.
12/11 - Chris called again to arrange door delivery, as Brian can't start until Wednesday next week, we'r edelaying the delivery until the Tuesday - which seems to suit everyone just fine as this allows Chris to deliver the bi-fold doors at the same time. Of course, this means that we (Amanda and I) need to clear out the garage so we can store the units until they're needed and with me down with something HORRIBLE and unable to work a computer let alone a hammer or shift boxes, this may be a bit tight on timing.
On the up-side, having a wife does take things like the choice of whether you bother to visit a doctor completly out of your hands so I'm munching down pills on Saturday evenng, feeling a bit better and may even be able to survive tomorrow with less than 4 sleeps!
Still to do before Wednesday morning:
- Remove lining from entrance way
- Remove last of lining from office / foyer area
- Demolish chimney (though this doesn't REALLY have to be done - it's just I've got it on the project plan for completion by now)
- Remove ceiling panels
- Move stuff in garage and spare room out to the Storage place in Albany
Sheesh - let's see how we get on eh? (What a time to be crook)