Never ever cut through a Telstra lead-in line

 Our fencing contractor did this last week and he is $3000 poorer. I don't think insurance companies pay out claims for those that don't dial before they dig.

A lead-in line isn't the phone line. Well it is but it is Telstra's infrastructure carrying phone lines for more than one house. In this case our lead-in line carried 10 phone lines. It was buried under our fence line in a galvanised metal pipe. Our fencing contractor chainsawed through said metal pipe...

What ensued was a debacle of ridiculous proportions over a week and a half to get a permanent fix. Interestingly the actual Telstra employees who worked on the issue were excellent. The contractors to Telstra, however, were abominable.

 If you want the full story, read on.

If not just remember - always Dial before you Dig. Always.

 Full debacle:

• Thursday June 16 I report that our phone lines are dead.
• Friday June 17 3.30pm - Telstra contractor arrives to fix the phone line. There are 10 lines that need repairing but he only fixes one of them because that's all his order sheet said to fix - despite the other nine lines, which came out of the same cabling flailing about in the breeze. He explains that the other neighbours would have to call for him to fix the other lines, at a cost of $105 call out per line. I tell him that the job was to fix all the lines and he wasn't going home until it was done. This would have taken a total of 10minutes to do. He then grabs his stuff and walks (very quickly) to his van. In a movie-like sequence I run after him but he runs to his van and speeds off, leaving all the other lines dead.
• Friday June 17, evening - I talk to a genuine Telstra employee who cannot believe that this has happened. We arrange for a genuine Telstra technician to rectify.
• Saturday June 18, 2pm - Telstra Joe turns up, fixes all phone lines, is courteous and has a cup of tea and swaps italian recipes with my neighbour Linda and I. Explains that we need to call Silcar (a Telstra contractor) to replace the lead-in line. This will be charged to our fencing contractor.
• Friday June 24 - Silcar sends a sub-contractor to replace the lead-in line. The line they assumed was the lead-in line was actually our neighbour's Foxtel cable leaving them without phones, Foxtel and internet all in one swoop. After some not so gentle conversation they deign to fix this problem before heading off to the pub. They need to return on Monday to finish the job.
• Saturday June 25 - Another sub-contractor turns up on our property to fix the lead-in line. I explain that we've already had someone over to start the job. They produce official paperwork saying it's their job. I get the two contractors to talk together and to Silcar - turns out that Silcar have double-booked our job to two sub-contractors. If I wasn't at home at the time we would've been charged twice for the work and had a fight on our hands.
• Monday June 27 - the first Silcar contractor comes back to finish the job.

None of these sub-contractors had services maps of our property and didn't seem to understand the issues. None of them could relate to the services issues in an old suburb viz the easy to maintain new suburbs on the outskirts of the city.

 Aaaargh.  All of this happened in the last week of term with seemingly a gazillion school events and while my husband was away overseas. I hate first world problems.

The Rabbit-proof fence had nothing on this one

We've got a new border fence to two sides to our property.

It's a huge mother of a fence. And it's built of hardwood.

But the neighbours insisted they wanted it to be big.

Before and After: the ensuite

Before: this bathroom was not an ensuite and was probably the original bathroom to the house, renovated last in the 1950s or 1960s. The RHS wall backed onto a wardrobe in our daughter's room.

After: We knocked through to the wardrobe and increased the size of the room by 50cm. The door you can see to the right is the original wardrobe door. It is now an ensuite with a second door to the hallway.

After #2: view of the ensuite from the bedroom. Above the tiles the walls are wallpapered in a vinyl waterproof fabric with a basketweave texture.

Before and after: the main bathroom

Before: this bathroom was a reclaimed verandah last renovated in the early 1990s. The stained glass window was beautiful but not original and didn't fit with our plans so we sold it to a renovation company.

After: We added a bay window and gained and extra 1.5m which makes a HUGE difference to the space. We can now fit a generous bath in this room.

After: looking back towards the door.

Weird neighbour update

Froggie asked for an update on our crazy neighbour, so here 'tis.

The good news is that they've sold their house! Not sure when they're moving but hopefully soon and hopefully the new neighbours aren't weird/crazy/petty. In the meantime we have planted a hedge of Lilly Pillys which will sheild our house from theirs and should reach full height in the next 18 months - 2 years.

These neighbours are a couple, about my age, who are renowned in our area. They have no children, live in a five bedroom house on a 1/4 acre block on the lower north shore and the wife has no discernable occupation unless you count annoying neighbours and pestering council as an occupation.

Throughout our renovation the wife would call Workcover, the local council or whoever to complain about anything. If the builders stepped foot on our property at 6.59am she'd call, if they swept up and dust blew anywhere near her yard she'd call.

At the back of their house is a large conservatory with no blinds on any of the windows. Any passerby can stare straight into their house from the road and yet they objected to us replacing our entry stairs to the property because it would affect their privacy. They objected to their other neighbour's plans to increase their deck by 1.5metres (which sits on the service side of their house) because it would affect their privacy. They objected when the other neighbour enclosed a 1.5 x 1.5m section under their entry stairs to create a small cubby house for their 18month old because it would affect the filtered light coming into their property.

But the kicker is that even after they had sold their house they insisted that the above matter be referred to a full council meeting AND turned up to argue strenuously against the changes.

At that point I think even the council realised they were crackers and approved all requested changes.

We're not sure when their settlement is but there will certainly be a large street party to farewell them. And I doubt they will be invited to it!

Renovation before and after: The Powder Room

The downstairs Powder Room had always been a talking point with its red suede walls, dark red carpet and 'crystal' taps. It was very Bordello.

We wanted to maintain the sense of drama in the renovated version. This time we went for a swanky nightclub feel

The wallpaper is an Ostrich Egg texture in pearlescent green (IRL it shimmers!), the toilet is wall hung and the flooring is wool carpet. Boys who cannot aim correctly can't use this bathroom unless they sit down.

Still to come is a rectangular, bevelled mirror which will reflect the shimmer.

Library

Before: a sun room that became a general junk room. We think this was a partly-enclosed verandah in the orginal house.

Now: a library. We've added a small bay window and shelving to create a fantastic space to sit and read (window seat cushion still to come...) or to do homework on the table or at the desk.

In keeping with the Arts and Crafts ethos the house contains a lot of hand-carved detailing added to match the original house.

I know I've been a bad blogger but here are some before and after renovation photos!

Gosh, where did that five months go since my last renovation update? I've been around but just not here. I've been boring relatives silly with endless renovation photos on my private blog - really, you've been spared.

But for those of you who are interested we are seven months in to a renovation/restoration of a 1912 early Arts and Crafts style house in Sydney's lower north shore. After living elsewhere for seven months we have now moved back in. The house interior is mostly complete but there is still a bit of work to do on the exterior and in the landscaping.

We have had huge cost overruns, of course. Due to the complex nature of the job it was done Cost Plus. We believe this was the best way to go as we had ultimate flexibility but it is hard to keep control of every cost. This has been a HUGE project especially given that we wanted maintain respect of the Arts and Crafts movement in everything we did inside.

So a few before and after shots...

Kitchen before...

Kitchen after.

We love this room. The kitchen is a pleasure to cook in and has had a huge workout in the last week. Special favourites: Stainless Steel island as a workspace (love that it doesn't have the sink in the island); the scullery/laundry set up (accessed via a sliding door) and the induction stovetop.

Renovation update

The kitchen area is now gutted.

The bathroom floor is gone. We weren't quite expecting that.

View through the kitchen to the family room and the new opening which will have double full light glass sliding doors.

And here is another lovely surprise. It was a miracle that our other bathroom hadn't fallen through to the kitchen. There was no wall holding it up. This room has now been completely gutted with floor and ceiling removed and this wall needs to be replaced.

Really there is very little of our house unscathed at the moment.

Do you want to hear about our lovely neighbour? She's gone quiet in the last week but over the last month has been going overboard calling the council. The council have been around three times with complaints that the builders start too early. This is the classic Sydney complaint. Builders can't start noisy machinery before 7am. My neighbour was calling council if the builders walked onto site before 7am. One time the council decided they needed to do something so they told the builder that they needed an extra permit for the cement pour. Cost of this permit? $2000.

Sadly, talking to friends and work colleagues it appears that we are getting off lightly in the neighbour department. A brief survey of experiences reveals that everyone has one difficult neighbour during renovations. One friend had a neighbour who was so incensed with their (approved) building works that he would go behind the workmen with a shovel scraping off cement render from their fence as the builder was applying it. A work colleague (from the UK) said one of his neighbours would fire his shotgun into the air when he was unhappy with anything - trying to intimidate the builders.

We have friends who are about to do a complete knock-down/re-build and they have 13 neighbours due to their unusual block design. Heaven help them I say.

Why are we so uptight about change? If you live in a good council area with the proper approval processes renovations should result in better surroundings, not worse. Really some people just need to get a life.

For clarity: pictorial evidence of how petty my neighbour is

If you've been following so far, in a case of the straw that broke the camel's back my neighbour finally pushed me over the edge when she rang to complain that I'd removed a 'screening plant' from our side of the boundary without telling her.

If you look in the above picture to the far left you will see a strappy-leafed ginger plant. Ignore the lilly pillies - they are still there.

We removed the ginger plant to make way for the camellias we need to transplant. The neighbour rang to complain. I used my most fierce growl.at.the.children.voice to make her go away.

This is the spot now. Planted out with two beautiful camellias. Cripes I hope they take.


My latest thought is to get that lovely blue shadecloth that builders wrap around building sites and spread it the entire length of our boundary in a 6ft high fence. I'm mature like that.

Warning: Neighbour bites

There is a lot of excavation work happening at our house. Who knew that excavating a courtyard could produce MOUNTAINS of dirt?! Most of the dirt is being re-directed around our yard to even it out.

Along with the excavation a few of our plants need to be relocated away from the building works. We have potted up three camellias and a couple of roses. Today I went to site to direct where to re-plant the camellias (and hope they survive the upheaval). We decided to remove a Ginger plant from near our boundary to insert the camellias as we are slowly building a Camellia hedge which should look fabulous when in flower.

Guess who is freaking out about the ginger plant being removed?

Street cancer strikes again.

This plant was just below shoulder height at its tallest and about 1.5 metres diameter. It was one plant in from our boundary and about to be replaced by the camellias above. Street cancer does the following:

1. Stands at the boundary shouting at the person who is digging out the plant - "You can't do that, I'm calling the council". Apparently being quite abrasive.
2. Then calls me to say "You should've told me if you were removing that screening plant".
3. She told me she had sent a voicemail and an email on the subject.

I may have lost my temper a little. She has form in attempting to intimidate workers at my place and she has been actively dissing our proposed works to all and sundry so I was not in the mood for conciliation.

I told her that I can remove plants on my property as I wish and without interference from her. Further I told her that if she took the time to call the site manager per our agreed process she would've found out that the plant would be replaced by mature camellias. She started with "but but but..." at which point I said "No, this time you will listen to me. I am disappointed that the only time you call me is to complain about inane issues that don't concern you."

At this point she hung up.

I checked my phone for voicemail and emails. None to be found. I feel good that I've stood up to her. Let's see if her husband calls. I hope he does because Firegazer will have fun with that one.

She freaks out about us removing 'screening plants' from our side of the fence. Guess how many 'screening plants' she has planted? None. Not a single plant.

The woman is completely unhinged.

Edited 7 october: I spoke with the site manager today. Apparently she also sent Workcover around this week. What a complete nutter.

How much do you think it would cost to remove asbestos panels from a shed?

Old shed with asbestos panels.

Going...

Going...

Gone!

$5,000

Owch.

Kitchen ... gone!

Kitchen...

... gone!

Meals area ...

... gone!

Oh No! They clipped a BMW

We have dual street access to our property. This is a photo of one of the ways in. It's too narrow to fit the sort of machinery needed for excavating a yard.

So this week the stairs were removed and a road installed. I quite like the road. Am thinking that a paved version of this would be excellent fun for riding one's skateboard/ripstik/insert-dangerous-activity-here.

This is the sort of thing that now drives up our road.

Thing is, the machinery still needs to be craned over our garage to get to the road. On Tuesday one such crane managed to side-swipe the side of the BMW belonging to one of our neighbours.

Luckily not the scary neighbour. But still, not a good start.

Rather than stress out about it I'd rather look at a photo of our magnificent Banksia Rose which was heavily pruned a few months back and has returned with a vengeance.