My weekend in the garage!

For the past 9 months, I have been staring at the piles of stuff in the garage as I drive in and out 100 times a day (almost). As you can see in one of the BEFORE photos, there is a leaning tower. It was only a matter of time before it collapsed on a child or on the car. This weekend was the time to do it as the schedule was fairly clear once I got home from my daughter's netball match.

I started by clearing everything out & cleaning the ground as much as possible though I think it needs a good guerney. I drove off to Bunnings and purchased the QiqFix range of garage shelving. It proved a little difficult to get it off the shelf and into the car by myself but some helpless looks saw burly men come running! About 3 hours later the shelves were all together. There weren't too many arguments! Everything was then neatly arranged back inside the garage.

Back to Bunnings today for someplastic containers that actually would fit on the shelves and I think another trip is warranted tomorrow for some more!!

SO GLAD IT IS DONE!

BEFORE Northern side

AFTER Northern side

BEFORE Southern side

AFTER Southern side

Window Cleaning recommendation

I HATE dirty windows. It's just MY thing. I love looking through clear glass with no dirt, no bird poo, no smears or fingerprints. I had noticed our neighbours using a company fairly regularly and I would watch as a team of 4 or 5 descended upon their home, hurried around cleaning windows and departed. I called them back for a quote on our place and I was astounded.
Now we have a pretty large home. For our house, without flyscreens, cleaning inside and outside, vacuuming the tracks, cleaning the pool fence and the glass stair balustrading inside it cost $210. Bargain! No other quote came close.
The test was going to be to see if I was happy with the quality of the clean. Yes, I am! To top it off it was all completed in about an hour.
Call John Lopez on 0412 916010 for a quote and tell him Kerith sent you.

HOME Magazine

To celebrate hitting a WHOPPING 70,000 page visits, I thought I would post the magazine article done for the Telegraph paper a few weeks back. Even since we did the photoshoot, we have put up more artwork and got more furniture to fill in the gaps - an ongoing process that my husband loves so much (sarcasm)
A kind friend, looking to rebuild herself was sent this article by Eden Brae. I was waiting to see if I could get access to an A3 scanner!

I also ordered some new Freedom scroll armchairs for our bedroom today to take advantage of their sale of 50% off the second furniture item. Unfortunately, I will need to wait around 14 weeks for them as they are not in stock.

I can see clearly now

Our pantry window yesterday

Our pantry window today!

A big difference. I haven't been reporting in each day with the 'window journey' The short story is that Airlite rang last week and informed me that despite 3 of their representatives telling me I had ComfortPlus glazing, I didn't! They still believe that the damage is from the brickcleaning. Airlite were happy to replace any window in the house that I wished from them to replace. The following day, a glazier and I selected 20 to be replaced which happened today. If I feel the windows that have stayed are damaged (compared to the new ones installed today), I am to call for replacements. After six months, I can see clearly now!

Window issue STILL NOT resolved

I posted back on March 20 that the mystery of the cloudy windows had been solved but not yet resolved. Unhappily, I report that from my perspective we seem to be no closer to a resolution. It seems that Airlite cannot quite believe that one of their employees made 2 errors (installing a special glazing despite the work order stating it was to be standard clear glass AND installing it on the wrong side). I have had 3 people from Airlite out to check on the issue and assess the windows and now it seems they want to send out yet another to write a report. NO WAY! Enough of the round table discussions and buck passing, I want this fixed now. Six months of living with damaged windows is more than enough. And I don't want to wait around at home for tradespeople anymore than I already do.
Airlite need to replace the damaged windows (all parties agree) and flip the remaining undamaged but incorrectly glazed on the outside windows (all parties agree). I have requested that the new replacement windows be glazed to be like the other windows in the house (Airlite apparently are not agreeing to this as yet) Surely as a goodwill gesture and as compensation, this would not be an issue. I have been told that they wish for these windows to be as per my contract - standard clear glass. The only other option I will accept from Airlite is for them to replace every single window in this very large house with standard clear glass as per my contract with Eden Brae. I can assure you this is not on their list of preferred options at all.

A reminder of what some of my windows look like.....

Update on Di Lorenzo

The tiler did show up, shortly after I hit the 'publish' button on yesterday's blog post despite not getting the call to confirm whether he would be making it or not. Fortunately for them, I was at home. The tile was replaced as requested though the tiler did say that the colour would be a little different due to being from a different batch. He wondered if this mattered to me given the tile was right in the middle of the bathroom and therefore very obvious. I felt I didn't really have a choice - a chipped tile or a slightly different shade? It looks fine!
Interestingly, I was able to view his job sheet for the day. Our job was listed for 10am (3rd job of the day) NOT the 7am timeslot. That information was not shared with me yesterday morning when I rang to ask where the tiler was ;-)

Maintenance - where are we up to? PART 2

Di Lorenzo, Di Lorenzo a) why is it so hard to replace a tile? b) provide a level of customer service/communication?
The chipped tile in the ensuite needs replacing as previously noted here on the blog. I am wary of these tiles as there have been no sharp objects in our bathrooms to cause damage yet quite a few chips?

Visit 1 by DiLorenzo - no spare tiles left on site for our ensuite. Will need to return.

Visit 2 by DiLorenzo - they wanted to come in the school holidays. OK by me but requested a call a few days prior to inform me of approximate time of visit so I could plan the day around them. No such call. The MJH contractors asked them to call first thing that day to let me know whenabouts they would be there. I went off to the gym at 6am and received a phone call from them at 7:15am to tell me they were 20mins away! Quickly rang my husband to get him to get up & shower before the bathroom was out of action. He arrived 10mins later to children too scared to answer the doorbell and a half naked husband. Guess what? He had been given the incorrect tile to bring. After my coplaint to MJH Contracting about the situation, I receive a baffling call from Di Lorenzo asking me what we selected for our ensuite flooring tile - they do not have the records anymore. Excuse me?! Why send a tiler out with a tile to replace if you have no idea which one needs replacing? Does not make sense to me. I look up my colour sheet, read out the colour and size and I am assured it has been ordered. I book the new appointment for 'the first of the day' on 30/04/14 which is around 7-7:30am, knowing I am always around then.

Visit 3 by DiLorenzo -Waiting today from 7am for a doorbell ring. Nope! I ring DiLorenzo at 8:15am who manages to ring the tiler to see where he is. He needed to collect some materials from Pitt Town before starting his day and he should be there at 9am. Ummmm, no! There was a reason I requested 7am. Blood was boiling. Please reschedule for first thing tomorrow was my curt reply....or I will be home between 11:45am and 2:45pm. The representative said she would recontact the tiler and find out if he could make it today and call me straight back - well, that was 3 hours ago!!

That is just the tiles. I will return to post about the window saga later.....ongoing!