Absent but still here .....

It has been an amazing, frustrating and emotional time since my last post. I am back on deck and working hard to have the new shop up and running as soon as possible. So lets recap on whats been happing here at Casa Fabulous shall we?
We left Moranbah on Sunday October  13th and drove through the night to arrive at Ballynde Street in the early hours of Monday morning ~ around 3am.
With mounting trepidation and excitement we opened our shiny new front door and walked inside to finally ~  after 18 weeks ~ see what all the money, drama and stress had become......
Both of us walked around for about 30 minutes not saying anything as we were in complete and utter shock.

The house was dreadful and while there were no tears or tantrums ~ the disappointment was literally crushing. Remember Hesham from Brisbane Floor Sanding & Polishing beautiful floors?
They were white ~ covered in plaster dust and boot prints, sneaker prints and various other prints I could not identify ( remind me never to become a CSI as I would fail miserably identifying clues)
The kitchen benchtops were smeared and coated with the same white residue. The rubbish and CRAP in the front and back yard was indescribable.......

We set to work at about 3.30am after discovering the hard way that the Downstairs Toilet was still not finished or working after 18 weeks ......... and did not stop till late evening when we fell into bed. It has been a very very long week and a half but we are finally making some headway. Endless cleaning, endless Tradies finishing "little jobs", endless tip runs to clear away the mess and rubbish.


*sigh*


I could go on and on about how horrific the whole thing has been and continues to be ~ I could go on about responsibility and finishing a job properly ....... but you know what? *shrug*

Moving on ........

How bout some pics?

Before Kitchen

AFTER ~ Kitchen

Kitchen After

Best thing I ever did was remove the Dining Room.

 

Dining Room ~ Before

Dining Room ~After

Still learning how to use the new camera and trying to take some worthy pics to show you what we have done. I have also been revamping the old furniture and should have some before and afters tomorrow.

Yesterday Mr Fab said:

"Enough ~we need a break from all this so lets take Dexter to the Beach "

Dexter

 

We did and it was beautiful .....

Stay Fabulous

fs vintage

xx

Week 17 ~ End of Hell week

Thats right ~The end of Hell week although with this morning shenanigans it is shaping up to be worse. As you would know it was Kitchen Install week. Before I begin my waffling ~ Let me be PERFECTLY clear. We still think the Kitchen company we chose and have paid a large sum of money to ~ create a high end quality product.
What has done our head in?

We were dissapointed to find that they also use the "Thats not our Job" catchphrase.

I was stunned!

See the torn ceiling and gap in the left corner?

More Gaps

We are NOT gap people. We wanted stylish and seamless

The kitchen went in and WOW is all I can say ~WOW! It looks amazing in the pictures but I noticed a tear in the ceiling at the top of the cupboards and of course worried myself into a flap ~ as ya do. To be honest I am pretty sure I was thinking ..........
Pfffttttt it will be nothing and I am a sillybilly ......

Then the phone calls started .... yep it seems that while we paid $862 to:

" To Fill the space above your cabinets and extend to the ceiling" ..... apparently that does not include Cornices.

Whats your take on that statement Reader? They made MDF Bulkheads and installed ..... with a gap around the whole thing and cut out bits near the Cornices. When asked by our Builder about what was going in ~ he was told ~ That's not our job to do Cornices. We then feel stupid that we obviously misinterpreted what we agreed to.
I called the Kitchen People and were told they had discussed this ~ Ummmmm no ~ I am absolutely positive I would NOT have paid $862 for MDF strips and a gap. POSITIVELY positive on that one.
Once again it is a lesson ~ DOUBLE and then TRIPLE check everything. Even if you think you might be annoying people? Remember it is YOUR hard earned money so make sure you TRIPLE check everything. Also remember we are doing The Long Distance Renovation so maybe it is easier when you are on site all the time?
Bottom line is ~Our Builder called the Kitchen People then they called us to inform us they would pay to have the Cornices replaced.....

*Blink*

Provincial kitchen starting to come together

Our Blind and Floor chap arrived this morning and called to say he could not do the Floors downstairs because of the rubbish ~ *sigh*
Another round of calls with everyone blaming everyone else ~ of course that is the ones who actually answered their phones.
It also appears our Rangehood did not go in as planned last week and is sitting downstairs on the floor. I had to call to find out.
A simple email or text message or call to advise what is happening. We are starting to believe that unless you have actually done a Long Distance Renovation you cannot empathize or understand how awful it feels. That must be the reason why people seem to dismiss us when we try and find out whats going on!
The above picture was kindly sent to us by our Blind chap to show us his work. You can see the Cornice chap has been in and put the Cornices up as we thought they would be and I am thrilled with how much better it looks.I am pretty impressed with how it is starting to look and cant begin to describe how excited we are about arriving home in 6 short days. We know there will be massive amounts of work ~cleaning up and moving stuff from both balconies (Thats where the Trades put anything) ~there will be hosing and sweeping and preparation as we have a day full of deliveries and all of them will be coming up through the Back Man deck so that area must be cleaned of all the dust from various workmen.

So the update in the last week is:
* Final Grouting in upstairs Bathroom and Downstairs Laundry
* Splashback in Kitchen
* Ceiling in Bathrooms/Toilet/Kitchen
* Stairwell Painting
* Shower screens and Downstairs toilet
* Downstairs Floors
* Security screens

When we arrive next Monday 14th ( we are leaving earlier to ensure we can get the work done before the movers arrive so will arrive about 3am and start work) we will have to:

* Clean Mandeck and hose down
* Clean Zen Balcony and Hose down
* Start cleaning up the garage and moving rubbish outside to load in trailer
* Mr Fab will collect trailer
* Clean down each room including washing the shoe prints from the newly polished floors even after Trades were asked NOT to wear shoes ..... (we have pictures)
* Collect lighting from Carseldine
* Unload car and start to unpack in preparation for the Movers arrival

I am feeling overwhelmed .....

Stay Fabulous

fs vintage
xx

Kitchen ....... Its a happenin thang ... Oh yeah

Week 16 is here and we are heading toward the end and Moving Day. We have been in a kind of limbo the past few days as we have heard nothing from anyone. Nothing at all ....... not a call or txt or picture ... zip, nada, no comprendo senor.
I finally decided enough is enough and called everyone to see where they are all at!

Its a happenin thang people *insert really cool disco moves here*

All the Lads are working toward the end and all of them say they will be done and dusted by the time we arrive. The stone Benchtops are ready to be installed on Monday and a round of frantic phone calls ensued as the Floor Sander is going in to start sanding back the floors on Monday.

So for your viewing ~a not normal Blog post ~ an extra special Blog post ..... May I present .....

PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!

 

*swoon* The Kitchen Carcass

I didnt think I would be so excited to see this!!! Yes it is a mess but OMG!

*faint*

Bathroom just before screen install

 

The Floor ~ designed by me and saved us heaps!

 

Love the square mixers

 
I wanted everything in the Bathroom to be squared ~the ONLY round things in the room will be the vintage Mason soap dispenser and the Chandelier 

New Toilets ~ Image via Google

 I am so darn excited and absolutely squirming with anticipation and pretty sure I wont be able to ......


Stay Fabulous


fs vintage
xx

Tradies & Tiaras ~ Week 15

Leftover from Week 14 ~ Kitchen was delayed ....

Of course it was delayed......
Of course the only rain that Brisbane has is when our Kitchen is being painted .....

*sigh*

Ok Mrs Positivity ~come on down!

Lets recap : The removalist is booked. We are using the amazing Rite Price Removals Moranbah ~ Kylie promptly returned our calls , gave us a fair quote, allowed for my brain being in neutral , forgetting things and kept us in the loop constantly.  You need moving? Go see Kylie and tell her fs vintage sent you. All booked and deposit paid for pickup on the 12th October.

The Tiles Have begun ....

The Bathroom Tiles ....

We are doing floor to ceiling in The upstairs bathroom, toilet and the downstairs Laundry/Guest Bathroom. We are also using the same tiles throughout the house. Yeah Yeah ~ I know it was the perfect opportunity to try something different but honestly? We had reached the stage of bone weary where we thought ~ Lets just do it already. Heaps easier for the Tiler thats for sure. We also chose to lay the tiles on the side. Well no that is actually not entirely true ....
I chose to lay them on the side after seeing a friends renovation and saw she had used this idea so I pinched it. Mr Fab HATED the concept and thought it was a little bit to crazy and odd and non traditional.
Pffftttttttttttttttttttttttttttt seriously?
I think it looks AMAZING! (Guess who now thinks it is Fabulous?)
The Border is interesting. It is strips of Marble Tile in various degrees of Black & White with random stainless steel. Yep you read that right ~ stainless steel. Very Industrial, Very FS VINTAGE?        

Floor Tile almost done

The bottom Border came about because I had the tiles laid on the floor here to see what they looked like together and noticed at various times of the day and in various lights ...... the white was noticibly different.
*SHRIEK* (The bottom border was ANOTHER problem for the delightful Mr Fab ~ way too out there for him .......)

So I put one layer of the Border tile in between to see if it made a difference and ............. TA DAH ..... Now the tiles look to be the exact same White. I did not want  the room to look like the floor tiles were a creamy white and the walls a stark white .....
The floor ones came about because it was DOUBLE the cost for the Mosaic version of this look. I absolutely love the mosaic version but had to be strong and find an alternative. We found some large white tiles on sale along with the smaller black ones ..... asked Jason The Super Tiler can he do? ........... 
He did!
Perfectly Fabulous in our opinion! Plus saved us about $30 a square meter.

Inside of window

It's the little things that do you in .......

The Kitchen has been confirmed for install on Monday the 23rd of September. It was a major drama because it put EVERYONE back a few days and we were getting close to the Floor Sander deadline of the 30th start on polishing the Floors. The usual rounds of phone calls to everyone over a few hours and it was kinda sorta sorted out. The most easy going and laid back of the whole bunch is Mat The Painter. He is the most Zen person I have ever met ...
As you already know ~the floors need at least a week for to be really ready to walk on so I had organized that in the down week where nobody really needed to do anything. The best laid plans blah blah blah. Monday morning dawned bright and sunny so armed with my CAN DO POSITIVE ATTITUDE I made more phone calls to my gorgeous Tradies to confirm everyone was on the same ....... page?........ Planet?.... To my utter delight they are all on track to be out and gone by the end of the weekend so our Floor Sander can go do his thing. Chris The Scottish Builder confirmed the Kitchen chaps were installing the Kitchen Carcass ... ( I just love how they call it a "Carcass" ) and apparently the Stone people are there as well.

Oh yeah.

I cant get any of them to take a picture as it seems they are all ... apparently ......... old....... and therefore have no idea how to use the Phone camera ......
(I can use a camera and I am old .......... Do you follow us on Instagram

I still dont understand why the tiniest little thing can set a problem in motion that seems to be as big as Godzilla and causing as much destruction. I have come to the conclusion that Tradies & Tiaras go hand in hand .......
In between this place looking like the aftermath of a small but effective explosion I have been finishing a wedding order and some Vintage quart Masons ....

Everything for FS VINTAGE will be packed away this week and will not be reopened again till maybe the third week in October? I will keep you informed as the new and shiny shop is my number one priority .... after setting up the new King Size Bed of course.

Till next week when it is getting mighty close to MOVING DAY ....

Stay Fabulous

fs vintage
xx

Week 14 ~ Hello Kitchen Week

Ohhhh yeah ~ Finally after all this time ~ it is KITCHEN WEEK!!!!! On the 19th of September our kitchen will be installed. (Along with the Bathroom cabinet)

*squirming*

We made a last minute decision to change the Laundry cabinet top to stone last week and our wonderful kitchen Dude ~ Paul from Starkey Christoe Kitchens made it happen. We just thought if the rest of the house was stone tops then we may as well go the whole hog and ~ DO IT!
There have been hold ups and it all goes back to the whole Mates Rates thing. The Downstairs Guest Shower and Laundry Room is not finished due to other commitments by our tradie so the walls cannot be finished which means the Plasterer cant finish which means the Tiler cant finish which means the painter cant finish and so it goes on ..... I said from the get go I did not want to have to use the Mates System but unfortunately we had no choice. To be fair ~ the Lads have done an amazing job and we cannot wait to see their work! So ~ we have contacted Paul and asked for the Laundry cabinet to be postponed till the 27th September and have fingers crossed it is all done and ready to be finished by then.

Downstairs Guest Area

fs vintage shop all plaster boarded and ready for paint!

I cant even begin to talk about the sheer frustration I am feeling at this time. This last few weeks to the finish line is doing my head in and while I strive to make sure everyone is happy ........ I have reached the stage where I just want to scream :

GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!!!!!!


At least Chris The Scottish Builder has sent us some pics! He is definately getting better isnt he?

I do so love a Nook & Waterproofing in the Bathroom

Brendan our AirCon Dude from Cross Air has installed all our Air Conditioners so that is ANOTHER job out of the way. Pretty neat and tidy job huh?

Main Bedroom Hitachi Unit

Units mounted outside

We had confirmation today that all our screens and doors ~ from Absolute Security will be installed on the 8th October. Adam has been amazing and damn if he is not working round all the little ups and downs involved with a Long Distance Renovation.
It also seems all our Upstairs Waterproofing has been done today and the Tile Bed is done tomorrow in preparation for the TILING!!!!
Then of course the Bathroom Cabinet ~2 pack Cupboard with Black Rock Stone Top and Square Basin goes in on Thursday!
Today we have a Removalist coming to quote and we hope to lock that in ~ it seems all the ones I have contacted have no time to get back to us ........ so it looks like this one may be the one!

Oh my this is starting to get super exciting!

Till Next Week

Stay Fabulous

fs vintage
xx