Kids comments on renovation make me smile

"Oh no my house!" - This said by my two and half year old boy with wide eyes and a big round open mouth, when he saw the builders ripping down our deck and back wall.

The renovation has been hard, with the feelings of being trapped in the front half of our house, frustrating when delays happen and often tense but the kids can be counted on to say or do things that make you smile."Hello boys" - the kids loved running out the first few days of the build and shouting this at the builders at the top of their voices and then laughing and running off again.

Once the builders had broken through and were working inside my little boy often offered to help running off to get his Bob the Builder tools.

"Can we paint the house red, it would look great," said my little girl with a very serious face while looking at her Dad painting the weatherboard. She got quite upset when we said no as we don't think the neighbours would like it.

Following on the red theme when I told my five year old the plasterer was working on her new room she went up to him and said 'can you make it red? I want a red room'. A girl that knows what she wants!

And seeing the roofers climbing on our roof and putting the tiles on my daughter announced she wanted to climb on roofs for a job. Not if I can help it!

And one I try to see the funny side of - at the moment we have one toilet in our ensuite as still have no family bathroom. This toilet is a fair way from the living area and it seems every time I go my daughter suddenly needs me and starts screaming at the top of her voice "Mummy, where are you?" This is said over and over while I scream back louder and louder "I am on the toilet." I am sure our neighbours can hear this exchange.

Nearly there - the slow reveal begins!

We are heading into the last week of our building contract and even though the builders will not meet the deadline and be finished, we are certainly getting there.

And so over the next little while please join me on the journey of the slow reveal - before and after shots and finally photos of rooms as I finish them off with interior decoration - ideas which I am getting from the many wonderful blogs out there.

We have spent the last few months, when sitting in the lounge room staring at these doors, not being able to open them due to builders working on the other side.

And as much as I love the doors I have started to feel a little claustrophobic having lived in the house for seven years with them open or half open most of the time.

Well just recently we have been able to open them again and start to decorate the area on the other side.................

This used to be our family space but now we can use it for it's original purpose, a dining room, as we now have the new family area beyond the kitchen (at the left of this picture).

Also loving this new servery, it really opens up the space. This used be a solid wall.

So we still need to paint and I have so many more ideas for decorating the space (including revamping the dining setting) but I have to be patient as other things need to be finished off first. I also can't wait for the alfresco deck to be built on the other side of the stacking doors. Good thing it is Winter so don't really want to sit outside as yet but in a couple of months I hope to.

What is it with builders and timelines?

Have you actually ever had a builder meet a timeline? If so would love to know about it. We are just over a week out from the end of our contract with our builder and I can tell you there is no way they are going to be finished.But before I go into that, thanks for all the well wishes, am on the mend but have been told to rest up for another few days. I am going a little stir crazy and not having the tradies here that I think should be, is even more noticeable.

I am not surprised mind you, as even though we have a 'Project Manager' (we are onto our third for this job), we have never seen a project plan, been able to e-mail them lists or really got to get them to put much in writing (since having the contract in place that is). When we speak to them on the phone they avoid telling us anything more then a few days in advance. Extremely frustrating! And I am learning quickly that delays seem to be due to the project management, as some of our very reliable tradies are questioning why things are taking so long too.

Now a little about myself, I like to be in control and organised. I work in the communications / public relations field where project plans are a must and deadlines need to be met. When running an event, things are organised to the minute. So the way Project Managers in the building industry work is beyond me.

Maybe I am being a little harsh as don't understand all the ins and outs but in my opinion they could be a little better organised and better at communicating to keep their paying clients happy.

It is like when you are expecting a delivery or someone is coming to fix something at your house and they say we will be there between 10am and 3pm. Can you imagine if we all worked this way!

Enough of being on my high horse but I am extremely frustrated at the moment and just want to know when my tiler is coming so we can then have our bath put in. We have bought a Kado freestanding bath, like the one pictured above. I am so looking forward to sitting in it with lots of bubble bath and maybe some champagne.