About Me

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EDIT - Now a 'work at the local school' mum a few days a week while juggling the job of parenting 3 teenagers! I am a SAHM who does work from home occasionally, dedicated to raising 3 Godly, independent, healthy children. Loving the home building process though it is not without challenges. I have fairly free reign over the creative aspect of the project...just not the financial side!

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Joinery time

I am busy behind the scenes working, with Anastasia  from re-do my space, on the final few rooms in the house. It will very exciting to get them usable and looking complete - kids' study, adult study/with sofa bed and lounge room.
We are working with a joiner, Darren from Davella Kitchens to fit out the kids' study with desks and bookcases. Here are some plans....
The girls' side of the room

    
My boy's desk with bookshelves and lower cupboards

While he was here, we also had plans drawn up for some other joinery to fill in niches.

Opposite kids' study for school bags and some floating shelves in the media room

The large upstairs niche will gain some floating cupboards and cubes

And the laundry will get some more cupboards so a hanging rod can be attached

Looking forward to this all being installed sometime in the next month or so.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

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

Monday, August 4, 2014

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.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

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.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

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!

Friday, May 2, 2014

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.....



Thursday, May 1, 2014

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 ;-)