Old Stairs, New Stairs

The old stairs are finally gone. Apparently it was a close thing - the builders claim they just about crumbled in their hands.

Now we have beautiful new stairs with a gate that opens easily, stunning lighting and a post box that fits loads of stuff.

First World Problem - I drowned my iPhone

First world problems have been getting a bit of airplay with that excellent First World Problem rap that has gone a little viral.

Before I showed my newly teenagered Blossom the You Tube video I stopped to explain what a developing world problem would be first. She thought the vid was hilarious. Before I could show my eleven year old the video I heard my mobile phone ringing.

It was the eleven year old calling me from the landline in the upstairs study to say that he was hungry and could I please bring him up some lunch.

Aaaaaaaaargh.

No.

Mind you this system was in place long before mobile phones. I've just watched the most excellent new series of Upstairs Downstairs and they have little buttons in every room which ring a bell in the basement kitchen calling the downstairs staff to attention. To my son I am simply the downstairs staff.

My son's first world problem was that he was hungry, yet busy playing computer games...a dilemma.

My first world problem was that a couple of months ago I drowned my iPhone. Quel Horreur! One day during a typical Sydney torrential downpour when the water pours from the sky as if from a giant bucket my iPhone slipped out of my handbag and into the river that was flowing past my parked car.

The thing is, I didn't realise this for a couple of hours.

Once I realised I went back to look for it. I didn't for one minute think it had survived but the thought that my phone with all its contacts and whatnot was out in the wild was all too much.

I found it wedged up against a car wheel seven cars down the road in a bunch of leaves. Despite efforts to dry it out it was completely drowned. I still had 8 months left on my phone and data plan.

My pennance, and to set an example for my kids as to what would happen if they droppedbrokedrowned their phone, was to buy this phone. The cheapest I could find.

Now I hate to appear ungrateful but I'm going to be.

This phone is CRAP.

Oh it looks deceptively benign, but it is truly evil. The buttons are hard to press and quite frankly once you've had a QWERTY keyboard forget going back. Texting was a nightmare. To top it all off it didn't tell you when there was a voicemail message, didn't receive emails and couldn't bluetooth to my car.

See what I mean by first world problems.

I truly perceived that this phone dragged my life to the dark ages. I mean I've seen homeless men on the street in Sydney with iPhones.

So I was SO relieved today to be gifted an old iPhone in a corporate phone re-shuffle. I feel whole again.

The cheap Nokia will be kept in our house as a reminder of what happens to those who don't care for their stuff.

A Typo to be sure

One of Blossom's favourite stores is Typo - a stationery store. The Greenwood Plaza directory in North Sydney, however, has taken the typo concept seriously and has it listed as a stationary store.

Stationary
Typo

Store Contact Details
Phone: 02 8904 9022
Typo Website
Inspired by the hype of the stationery industry, Typo is a one stop concept store with irresistible product to fill your space with confidence. Taking trends from the fashion industry and applying them to notebooks, decal wall art, printed gift wrap and other speciality, items Typo offers product with attitude and is fast and affordable.

If you love fashion and love stationary, Typo will be your new best friend

Well I guess Greenwood Plaza could mount a reasonable argument that the store is, in fact, stationary.

Spot my car

Parking for my son's swimming carnival earlier this year something about this photo struck me. Do you see what it is? My little Golf definitely was the odd one out (can you find it?).

One clearly needs a 4WD to negotiate school ovals... I must have missed the memo.

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.

New Stairs on the way

Our new stairs from the street have started. Visitors either need to abseil in, or come via our other street entrance.

Stay tuned for the finished product.

36 Hours in Beijing

I spent 36 hours in Beijing for work. Sixteen hour flight there (via Singapore) and 16 hour flight back, one night on the ground.

I saw a lot of freeways.

I saw a lot of the inside of taxis (Volkswagen Passats, very cheap).

But I managed to steal two hours to take a taxi downtown to see the Forbidden City.

It's a fab place to visit. Cost AUD12 to get in and it was really the only place I saw mobs of people.

For a HUGE population I was struck by two things in Beijing - the complete lack of people walking around the centre of town, and the lack of bikes. Cars can only drive on the road every second day (it goes by number place odds and evens).

Had to have Beijing Duck in Beijing. We were directed by the concierge to a great place called Hua's Courtyard Restaurant. I definitely recommend a visit. The Beijing Duck was excellent.

Restaurant strip in downtown Beijing.

While I was at the office we had the May birthdays celebration. The Black Forrest cakes came in these amazing boxes. I wanted the boxes more than the cakes.

On the last evening before my flight out we went to the Beijing Workers Stadium to this beautiful restaurant. Sorry can't recall the name but it's on the outskirts of the stadium. This is a photo of the inside.

A super quick whirlwind of a visit, but fun nevertheless. Must return to have a proper look one day.

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.

Happy Easter

May the Easter Bunny's evil cousin have by-passed your house last night...

May your kitchen bench be overflowing with chocolate eggs...

May a Haighs Super Frog have hopped by your place...

Happy Easter!

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.