A woman's work...

Kitchen installation: 3rd time lucky?

2011-10-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

The 3rd set of kitchen installers from Magnet started today. So far so good, they arrived promptly at 8am, worked solidly and there were about 3-4 on site at any one time. They were polite and just got on with it. Why wasn't it like this the first time?
I have ceased feeling anything about the kitchen now. Just want the job finished, and people out of my house. It has been the worst experience of the house so far, despite being one of the most expensive things we've done to date.
We are still in ongoing discussions with Magnet senior management with regard the problems we have had previously. It's clear to me the subcontractor they used to install the kitchen was a rogue trader and a complete villain, and we are now having a war of words about who said what/did what to ascertain who is liable to pick up the additional costs passed on by our builder for the works needed during the installation (round 1). Just a horrible, upsetting experience. Yet still we need to get the kitchen finished and agreed.
The guys this time seem fine, and I hope will do a good job. It just makes it painfully apparent that all of this aggravation could have been avoided if they'd sent out decent people in the first place. I am still looking to them to show me they can rectify this for us and deliver excellent customer service now to make up for the past problems. All I can do is wait and see and hope common sense prevails.

3 to 1

2011-10-12T01:35:00.000-07:00

Just when I think the house can't get any more horrible, it does. For a 3 bedroom 4 reception house, the four of us are now down to having access to only 1 reception room and 1 bedroom. And the rooms we are using are piled choca block with stuff: loft stuff, kitchen stuff, now kids stuff, and stuff stuff for areas of the house we can't use fully yet. I try to put some organisation into the chaos but it's not easy with 2 under 5's chucking things around (not to mention a husband who likes to leave piles of everything everywhere! grrr).

The new window has been put into the kids bedroom (a huge sash which took 3 men to put in). They are plastering around etc. In preparation for this we have cleared the majority of things from their room into ours, but each morning and night we have to take down/set up their beds and linen as well as hoovering and dusting before the kids go to bed. Trust me, at 7.30 in the evening it's the last thing I feel like doing.
I am going to ban dust sheets after this.

Grandma Jones is coming tonight to pick up the kids. The entrenched habit of trying to convince them I'm domesticated finds me trying to dust round the piles of paperwork downstairs. One question springs to mind 'Why?'. Why indeed...

No Doors

2011-10-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

The internal wood doors have gone to be stripped today. It took 2 of us to try and get them off the hinges and we couldn't get the (smaller) bedroom doors down the stairs. They weigh an absolute ton. The guy that came to collect them today picked them up easily and got them up into his van. Clearly he's done this before. Or perhaps we are just unfit?

Anyway, it's blowing a gale through the house when the back doors are open right now.

Can't wait to see what the doors look like on their return. Am hopeful they will return soon (or just return, full-stop really): I didn't get a receipt, he looked at me as if I was a bit barmy when I asked for one.

The company restore fireplaces and front doors too. If this goes well I think we'll get those done too.

Strippers !

2011-10-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

That's 'door'-Strippers to be precise. This is the rather coy name of the company that we're using to strip our internal wooden doors this week.

In preparation for this, today we have (ie my husband has) taken the huge, heavy original wooden doors off the downstairs reception rooms and the upstairs bedrooms. All the door furniture has had to be taken off as they are literally just dunked straight into a solution to strip away the paint.

It's feeling very open plan in the house at the moment!

For £97 we get four doors stripped and neutralised including collection and return. This seems like a relative bargain to me: anything has got to be better than the 6 layers of off-whitey-cream gloss paint not to mention the 100+ years of grime and grot, currently on the doors.

Will let you know how the door stripping goes.

blinds in a box

2011-10-07T05:13:00.000-07:00

We bought some temporary blinds for the front sash windows from Blinds in a Box. These are in essence paper, folded blinds up to 6m in length. They come in White or Black and to fix them to the window they have a reusable sticky tape across the top which you can peel off and then just stick the blind to the window or frame. It comes off easily (not too easily) without any damage to the window afterwards.
The blinds look ok, our middle bay window pane is wider than one blind, so they recommend using two blinds and cutting them down. This looks ok, not perfect, but they are only temporary blinds. the side panes are narrower than the blinds and we have cut them down. These look fine.
They provide complete privacy, let light through (we have white ones). They can be pegged back up if you want to see out/in etc. The pegs aren't great in quality, one or two keep pinging off which is a bit annoying. However as we have sash windows we've only used the blinds on the bottom half and so don't bother trying to peg them up during the day as we have enough natural light coming in and at night no-one can see over the half blind anyway.
A good idea if like us, you have just moved in, are mid-decorating/building and need a quick fix for privacy. At c. £25 for 3 blinds, they are also economical, easy to use (cutting to size is a bit of a pain, but I am lazy), look quite cool for paper blinds, and do the job they are meant to do.
I picked mine up from the office in Totteridge, but for a delivery charge they will post to you direct. They operate on-line 'www.blindsinabox.com'.
They also appeared on Dragons Den and got a Dragon to make an investment!

A day in the life...

2011-10-05T12:04:00.000-07:00

Sitting here now typing this, feeling knackered, on the sofa it struck me that my day today has involved the following:
Put washing on & did kids breakfast before school 7.00
Dropped alice at nursery at 8.30 am
Dropped william at school at 9.00 am
Picked up car with broken boot (due to the bifold doors truck reversing into it last week) and took it to Kilburn for an insurance estimate 10.00 am
Dropped damaged car off and picked up hire car to get back to house by 11.00
Spent an hour with Magnet Area Manager & Store Manager going through the issues with last weeks unfinished kitchen installation 11.30
Put washing out 12.00
Collected Alice from Nursery 1.00 pm
Did shopping at Sainsburys for packed lunches for William.
Attended Williams school for a parent/children session involving telling a funny story about when William was a baby and bringing a photo along 2.45
Collected William from School 3.25
Took Willliam and Alice swimming 4.30
Came home, cooked tea 5.30
Kids in bath 6.30
Kids in bed 7.15
Typing this on sofa, knackered! 8.00

Is it really only Wednesday today?

Kitchen installation round 2

2011-10-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

Having had to call a halt to the recent kitchen installation due to a hatchet job last week and appalling service, I had the Magnet Area Manager and Store Manager visit the site today to view the problems of the recent, still unfinished, kitchen installation and talk through a resolution.

A new installer is due to start next Thursday and some new design solutions have been put forward on how to address the space.

I am hopeful that they will demonstrate in the next couple of weeks that they can resolve this fiasco fully. If they can turn it around, propose a sensible solution and an appropriate financial resolution then I will shout their praises going forward. For now, the jury is out.

It's all going Pete Tong

2011-10-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

The kitchen has stalled to a halt. New fitters came into day, and their opening gambit was that we'd need to move 2 pipes a GCH and a water pipe for the washing machine to fit. which means that every single space has been measured incorrectly and 'nothing fits where it should'. They told me the best thing to do would be to rip everything out and start again. To be fair they were voicing everything I have been thinking the last few days.

They seemed pretty sound, but I told them I wasn't prepared for them to continue until I'd raised this with the store. The thought of hacking through more pipes or compromising on more units has got to me. The fact that we are spending a small fortune on the kitchen, yet have been treated appallingly, had our kitchen chopped and drilled apart in the space of 3 days, and to top it all we still don't have a kitchen is finally getting to me.

Enough is enough. I need to get this fiasco sorted out. What a fricking mess. It's time to get tough Maccy. Watch this space...

Cowboys (& it's not 'yee harhh')

2011-10-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

Bad week last week. I decided after 3 days of hell with the kitchen fitters, that I wouldn't have them back on site. The fitter was subcontracted by Magnet to fit our new kitchen and from day 1 it has been a fiasco. Every (and I mean 'every') space had been mis-measured (by him) at the survey stage, and as a result our builder had to drill into every newly plastered and painted wall to try and squeeze in the various units. Some doors / plinths were missing and when I told him theywere available for pick up at the store, the fitter told me that '(he's) not a driver' and that it was for me to source them and ring him when they were delivered.
Having turned up at 3pm on Thursday, he told me at 5pm as he was packing to go home that he wouldn't be back on Friday, and 'would only do 1 more day', once I'd sourced the missing bits from Magnet. Seeing him leaving, I asked him to ensure he had moved all the packaging (piled high across the width of my garden) out to the front, to which he refused, despite my pleas that I had 2 children & the weekend was looming. Given he wasn't coming back to finish on Friday I would need to use the garden over the coming days. Still telling me he wasn't moving it to the front, he only relented when I said if he didn't move it out, I would have no option but to sue Magnet in the event of any harm coming to my small children in the event of accident.
He left me with a messy, unfinished kitchen, holes gauged out of walls, a cooker hood that bowed in the middle where it had been badly fitted, a back-to-front wall unit light, missing units, and doors that wouldn't open due to being poorly fitted. And more than that he left me feeling sick to my guts that someone could be so rude, surly, and downright maverick, while in my own home, providing a service I had paid for, and which was ultimately paying their wage.
I decided this couldn't go on, and on Friday, I rang the store, cataloguing the issues and said I wasn't prepared to have him back on site again. To their absolute credit the manager from Magnet took it all on board, he visited the site today, apologised profusely and appears to be taking steps to rectify all the issues including getting us another fitter that he has worked with previously. He told us that all the staff have changed, and he as the manager is new to this store, that he has no relationship with this fitter and did not know he had been allocated to us. And that this fitter has made mistakes previously and they were not using him anymore. Hopefully he will now rectify the problems, deal with it swiftly and get our kitchen finished, perhaps better than ever before.
I really appreciated his honesty today at any rate. It was a big decision for me to make the call not to have the fitter back again, I'd found myself thinking that perhaps the chaos and the rudeness was normal, and it was me being a difficult client. So, I hope to put the experience of the last few days down to a maverick fitter, not the store. If they can remedy it quickly and correctly with no further issues, then it will undo all the pain of the last week and I will feel positive about this kitchen again rather than ground down by the whole thing.
The fitter we had was 'Jopar's kitchens', a rogue trader if ever there was, in my book (blog!) at least.

kitchen catastrophe

2011-09-30T14:57:00.000-07:00

I woke at 5 this morning feeling sick with progress on the kitchen fitting and the experience of dealing with a maverick, rude kitchen installer. (Jopar's Kitchens - subcontracted to Magnet). Following the experiences of the last few days, I have come to the decision the relationship has broken down irrevocably.
Walls have been hacked, cupboards botched, I've been left to source missing unit doors, the list goes on: I rang the kitchen company Magnet, catalogued the issues we've had, told them that the fitter has been horrendous to work with on site, and concluded we aren't prepared to let him come back on site.
I can't see any way round it. We've had builders working here without any issue for the last 4 months, and in 3 days, one man has made what should be an exciting experience, almost unbearable.
I am hopeful that I can write this off as a bad experience with one installer, not the company itself. We'll see. I rang Magnet today to outline the stage we were at, and stated that I now wanted to hand the situation over to them to resolve, so that I could try and get back the dream of the new kitchen and not the reality of this nightmare installation. They have 5 days to sort it out. The worktop goes on next Thursday.

Kitchen continued

2011-09-29T05:15:00.000-07:00

The templaters came in to measure up for the worktop today. Can't wait. It is almost palpable that we'll actually have a clean, new kitchen one day soon. True to current form, their plan only shows a template needed for one side of the kitchen, not both.

Our kitchen supplier is rubbish from what I can see, as at design stage we agreed the kitchen would be templated both sides. What would we do otherwise?The price we paid assumed it was all accounted for.

My husband gets fed up with me sometimes because I'm usually really anal about the level of control I exert over things, yet when I don't get everything written down, i's dotted and t's crossed, double and triple checked, I can guarantee I wish I had. Damned if you do, damned if you don't?

Kitchen fitter fiasco

2011-09-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

Sadly, this blog seems to be turning into a lament on all things construction. Today is no exception.

The kitchen fitters are in. They guy who runs the fitting (and who surveyed the site 6 weeks ago) didn't turn up day 1 (he was in court (!), apparently). Instead, his proxy crew flagged a number of issues with the measurements: Somehow we lost 150ml between a wall and chimney so a cupboard we've ordered is too now too big for space. And so it went on ...

The main man turned up last night at 5.30, while I was doing tea time for the kids and looking after a friend of williams from school. On anyday this time is a busy time in our house. Yesterday, it was mayhem. My 2 year old kept pinching my son's friend, my son shouting and telling her off, all of them screaming in between telling me they needed a 'wee wee'. In the midst of this, the fitter man was trying to tell me all the survey shortcomings was the builders fault. Apparently the plaster the builder put on must have expanded to make the 150ml difference on one wall. Or maybe the guys ruler wasn't working... I got cross, not like me, and had to tell him we should call it a day. I'd had enough by then.

Today, more problems. The bay window has hit the same problem. Its 200ml too small (now) so the cupboards don't fit: the plug for the tumble dryer has had to moved: the pipe plumbed for the dishwasher has to be taken outside the wall, not behind the units. We've had to re-site a spur for the dishwasher. The latest problem is the free-standing w/machine which is to be housed behind a unit door. I specifically discussed this issue with the fitter myself when he surveyed, but the fitter feigned complete ignorance and says he doesn't remember it, and so hasn't planned for, and essentially, it's not on his 'notes'.

What can you do, record every conversation? get him to write down what we've agreed? well, yes, seems to be the answer. Except when you are face to face with someone who you think knows their job, it doesn't cross your mind that they are incompetent and dodgy. I think we have a rogue trader on our hands and I feel stuck between a rock and a hardplace.

As a result, our builder spent the morning carving up the work he's spent 3 months doing. All the while the kitchen guy saying it's everyone else's fault not his. Absolutely farcical. I have been fuming today. To boot, he's rude, patronising and I don't trust a word he says. I never realised how emotional a kitchen could be. I used to close down companies without batting an eyelid, much, yet this makes my heart pound, and I can't seem to hold a rational conversation with this man without getting cross.

2 more days of this to go. Joy.

Kitchen capers

2011-09-27T03:54:00.000-07:00

The kitchen fitters are in today. This is quite exciting.

We have hit some problems already as it appears the survey didn't take into account the walls would be plastered(!) and so one cupboard is already too big for the size available between the wall and the chimney breast. I have spent the morning liaising with the fitters, our builder, and the supplier trying to agree a solution. We have one finally. Though I'm trying not to dwell on the comment made by the manager as he left that it may be a further 3 week wait for the alternative door needed now. Surely that won't be the case for me..

In any event, having done the school run, then spent 2 hours arguing the toss over whose fault it is /not, what cupboard widths and doors will fit the remaining space, and what 'compo!' I can get back for the problem along with trying to sort out a replacement hire vehicle while my car is repaired (having been reversed into by our bi-fold company's van last week) I couldn't help ponder my husbands glib comment last night that, 4 months in, 'this project has run itself'.

blind-ing discovery

2011-09-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

We have no curtains in the front room. I took down the existing salmon-grey coloured ones to wash them, originally intending to put them back as a temporary measure but I haven't put them back yet. Don't want to either.. we have big Edwardian sash windows, in need of some tlc and the curtains ran on a track under a nasty looking 80's pelmet. Not really me.

The problem however, is that as the nights draw in, the lights are on earlier and earlier which means that anyone walking past can see in: unpacked boxes, piles of interiors mags, bric-a-brack... our lovely dismantled table from Heals propped behind the sofa.. and so on.

The other day I made eye-contact with one of the parents from my sons school, obviously a local, from behind the glass divide of our windows. Not good. The situation will surely only get worse as we head into winter and a 4 o'clock sunset.

I don't want to invest in curtains (yet) until we have decorated this room. But I have found an answer to the problem with 'blinds in a box'. These are paper blinds that can be 'stuck' to the window frame, cut to size and provide privacy, yet light. I saw these while walking past a local street today and was struck by how nice they looked even though they were clearly made of paper. It's only a temporary measure, but temporary chic is better than temporary goldfish bowl as far as I'm concerned. I'll let you know how I get on with them.

And then there was light!

2011-09-23T05:28:00.000-07:00

The bay windows are here!! yes, it's true, who would have thought something so boring could be so amazingly fantastically wonderful? ... Me!!

To say I am happy at this development has to be the understatement of the year. I am absolutely chuffed to bits.

The bifolds went in yesterday (absolutely lovely), and the bay windows have been put in today. Frame to follow. The back of the house is bathed in light. It has truly transformed the (newly white) box into something that really nearly almost resembles a room.

The kitchen fitting starts Tuesday and the worktop is being templated on Thursday. I think i know what heaven might be like. I can hear singing in my ears and a sense of inner peace I lost the day we moved in to this rambling old wreck.

Having had a night of raging rows (me) and gesticulations (him) with my husband last night, courtesy of the continued, agonising delays and let-downs of the last 8 weeks, calm has descended: I love my husband, i love my children and i even love my 2 burner gas stove (with grill). All is well in the Jones household today.

Tra la! :)

bifolds and a bump

2011-09-22T02:34:00.000-07:00

The sliding doors arrived today - something at last seems to be happening on time. They are going in as I type. I think they'll look great. There will be day light in the back of the house at long last!

Unfortunately the van that delivered them reversed into the back of my car on arrival this morning.

I know because I was looking out of my bedroom window at the time and saw it unfold. The driver (not knowing it was my car) didn't mention it when he knocked.

When i took the kids to school i discovered my boot is dented and the lock doesn't work. Buggies and scooters are locked inside.

We've swapped insurance details.

I honestly couldn't make it up if I tried.

It's beta-blocker Tuesday.

2011-09-20T04:36:00.000-07:00

The deadline for the bay window has come (and, at 12.30, is going fast).
So far, no windows & no builder.

...Can you get valium over the counter?

Ha ha ha

2011-09-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

Some jokes my 4 year old has brought back after 3 days in school:

Q. Why did the cow cross the road?
A. Because it wanted to go to the MOO-OO-vies.

Q. Why did the cow get in the rocket?
A. Because it wanted to go to the MOO-OO-n.

Q. Why did the bread loaf go to the doctors?
A. Because it was feeling crumby.

Q. What do you get if you put a rabbit in the oven?
A. A hot cross bunny.

These made me laugh. A lot.
(I don't get out much)

Woman HSNW (Has Shed No Windows)

2011-09-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

The title of this post says it all.

The good news is we have a shed.
...And our builder turned up today.

The bad news is we don't have the bay windows (still).
...And our builder is starting to look a bit stressed.

Kitchen arrives Wednesday (though I won't count my chickens) and the bay is supposed to be in, finished around, and decorated up to before the kitchen units go under it.
A lot can happen in 24 hours, but can this much happen in that time, given they've taken 8 weeks already.

The shed looks more appealing than my home at present. At least it's got windows...

To be or not to be...?

2011-09-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

Far from me to be cynical, but I can't help wondering as the new week approaches, whether :
a) the builders will turn up tomorrow (they haven't been here since last wednesday); and,
b) if they do, whether they will actually have the much-anticipated, long-awaited bay window for the kitchen with them.
Quite a bit is riding on it (mainly my sanity), having delayed the kitchen installation a further month because they weren't ready when they should have been.

I have a sense of trepidation about all this. In a way, it's like when you're a child, waiting desperately for Christmas to come every day from November onwards, and every morning you wake up, and it's still not Christmas day. You hope it's going to happen, you know it's got to happen (hasn't it?), but it hasn't happened, yet.

Can't say I'm enjoying this feeling in all honesty... let's see what tomorrow brings.

Door Knockers

2011-09-17T06:07:00.000-07:00

A kind neighbour knocked at the door today to introduce himself and to deliver a bag of figs from their fig tree, 2 halloumi cheeses, a huge watermelon (for the children) and a bottle of brandy he'd just brought back with him from a recent trip to Cyprus. So kind.
Yet, so ashamed am I of our wreck of a home that I find myself saying thanks from the doorstep with my head wedged between the smallest possible opening of the door I can create in order to hide the dirty battered, woodchip walls which cover the extent of the hallway, the bare gap-ridden floorboards and the tatty stair well where we've ripped up carpets beyond. I know I shouldn't care, it is a building site after all, but I do.
After profusely thanking him I said we would invite them over for a coffee once things were a little further forward (understatement being my strong point). As I closed the door I found myself pondering just when that might be.

builders block

2011-09-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

No builders today, we're at that limbo stage of almost being finished, but not quite there yet. there are still a range of itty bitty jobs to do here, but nothing substantial. I know that they have a new job with another client starting next week and I think they are being pulled off here to put a good show on for the next job. I don't mind this in principle, just keen to make sure they don't let the last bits of our project drag on and on interminably. We have half the loft boxes from our old house piled up in our grotty old bedroom still, and can't unpack this until they move their tools from the spare room. Bit like a Rubics Cube, before one bit can move into place, 3 others need to have moved (in the right order) first.
They are usually here at 8 am and leave at 5pm everyday except sunday. So I found myself checking the clock once 8am came and went with no sign of them. At 8.30 I took william to school (first day, a proud moment, and a bit of a sad one too), came back at 10am to find the house still locked up and no sign of builders still. I did discover 2 used mugs, empty, in the sink, and a warm kettle. The only sign that (presumably) they had been here today, within the hour. A radiator they are replacing from the back bedroom has also disappeared. I presume the 2 factors are linked.
Don't mind that they aren't here today, don't mind they helped themselves to a cup of tea in the half hour or so they were here.. but they could have washed their flipping cups up!

Open House

2011-09-14T12:35:00.000-07:00

I found myself sitting in John Lewis cafe (topping up the caffeine levels) with my son (starts school tomorrow, can't wait!) talking on the phone to a man I didn't know, from a company I've never used, (and who was at that precise moment already in my house), about sanding our floors.
It appears the appointment I'd booked with the floor-sanding company and thought was due to take place tomorrow was in fact today. The chap rang me slightly angst-ridden to find I was not in fact at home. I of course apologised profusely for not being there (though I really don't think the fault was at my end), and suggested he ask the builder to let him in. It was at this point he told me he was already in the house and in my front room.
Now, the house may well be a building site, but it is still my home. Despite this, and the vague sense of unease that all our personal correspondance, valuables, not to mention passports, keys and so on were there for the taking, it seemed a bit unreasonable to suggest this man vacate my house and wait until we could rearrange the appointment. And so, in a situation I wouldn't have countenanced 5 months ago pre-house move we proceeded to discuss the various options & logistics of sanding the floors, the man in my house and me 5 miles away in a shop restaurant.
I'm sure it will be fine.
I just haven't actually received the quote as yet.

Dre-e-e-e-eams.. dreams, dreams, dre-eams....

2011-09-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

Next week is a busy week for the house:
On Monday the shed arrives (I feel disproportionately excited by this) and... the bay windows (aka bane of my life) for the back bay/kitchen arrive.
Tuesday the bay sash windows will be fitted;
On Wednesday the kitchen installation starts; and,
On Thursday the Bi-fold doors and single leaf door will be fitted;
On Friday, we might have something resembling a room by then.
What can possibly go wrong?!

Just call me Dorian Grey

2011-09-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

Almost through the summer holiday and the majority of big build phase 1. My 4 year old starts school on Thursday, a big day for us all. I can't wait, yet at the same time don't want to let go of him and join the treadmill. Feel old as I think about his starting out on school life. Perhaps it's the mid-life crisis. I feel like the picture in the attic, growing visibly older, greyer and more knackered looking while they grow stronger and more gorgeous, bounding through life with more energy andoptimism each day. The quid-pro-quo of being a mum I guess. i wouldn't change it (but a spot of Botox and a brace may be in order before I hit 50).