Friday, March 24, 2006

House Renovations To Start Sometime In The Next Three Months

The builder we plan to use, a man who has an uncanny resemblance to Gene Wilder so we refer to him as Willy Wonka, popped around for a last measure and quote of the sun room we plan to add to the front of our place. We've actually signed the contract to build our sun room and the roof next door for a verandah. Our neighbour doesn't have the money to build what we had planned, which was twin sun rooms, and as it's only an extra $500 to build the roof over both sections than just building our sun room, it makes sense to do the lot and add more value. I think that it would look pretty stupid for us to have a sun room with a strange roof and I'd rather pay the extra money myself if I have to.

With our new plans I called the neighbour over and she agreed to pay $1000. I told her if she ever put the window and door out the front like we are going to have that she owes me $3500 as that will be her saving. Can't get it in writing or she just won't approve the job in the first place. We need the extra space and the job has gone from $6500 each to $7500 each or $12000 just for us. Yeah. All we need is for the neighbour to sign the consent forms as we have strata property and wait some 10 weeks for the council to give us approval.

A few minutes after the builder left we had a visit from a cabinet maker who will be replacing our vanity unit in the bathroom. He came for a measure and quote and, along with being on time in this very busy market, he was quite a pleasant fellow. Miky said that his first impression was very good. That was until I pointed out he is missing half a thumb and half a forefinger. Perhaps he hasn't been a very careful tradesman. No further description was required, she's a squeamish girl, and the impression was tarnished a little.

Aren't renovations one of the most stressful things for a marriage? Stand by.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You & your big mouth!

Joe said...

Perhaps you can get the mice to pitch in and help. It's about time they began to earn their keep.

Anonymous said...

renovations are stressful full stop.. BUT can always be alevated by careful planning and materials selection.. :) I find getting stuff flown from the US (for small items, such as sinks, showers, etc) usually turns out cheaper then buying the same item locally.

Leslie said...

I know this is totally random, but my husband has a job opportunity in Sydney and we are going to go. We live in the U.S.

Anyway, I'm trying to put together a budget so we will know how much to allot for rent, etc.

And was wondering about a few cost.
Sooo . . .your blog came up :)

Anyway,
How much is auto fuel?
How much does a typical family spend on groceries in a month in Australia?
Any websights I could use?

Thanks for simply reading, I understand if you are really to busy to respond this is kind of random.

Anonymous said...

Dad says, don't do anything untill she signs on the dotted line!