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.

Cover style

I have discovered over the past few weeks just how good magazine covers are for inspiration, you don't even need to look inside but of course most of the fun is flipping through the pages and reading about the homes featured.

Love the natural look with hints of blue and green...

Over the past few weeks I have have spent a lot of time in bed sick, firstly with a bad virus and then pneumonia, giving me plenty of time to look at magazines. Luckily for me I have two years worth of Home Beautiful and Real Living in my bookshelves, as family have kindly given me subscriptions to both for Christmas.

Oh and red and blue together against a white back drop (love the Christmas issues)......

We also have hit delays with the build, we are at fixing stage but now moving very slowly waiting for a tiler to come so others can finish off. I was warned this would happen, you think you are nearly there and then the last bit seems to take ages.

Got to love blue especially with white....

At least this has meant I haven't had to deal with tradies much while at home feeling rotten and I have been distracting myself with trying to figure out what style to go with in the new living space. These pictures will give you an idea of what I like, now just have to work out what elements to take from them.

And can't go past red, especially for Winter........

Chocolate cupcakes - healthy and easy version

Chocolate cupcakes, warm out of the oven so good with a cup of tea or coffee to warm you up. So good right now for the unusual really cold May weather Melbourne is experiencing .

The issue for our household is my little boy is allergic to eggs, the common ingredient in most cakes. So I was very happy when I found a recipe in the most recent edition of Better Homes and Gardens for a healthier version of chocolate cupcakes (well they say they are muffins but I think they are more like cupcakes) - instead of using egg you add mashed pumpkin. Sounds odd but delicious.

So how to make them? Simple, just buy a packet of chocolate cake mix and add to the mix two cups of mashed pumpkin and stir until smooth. Put the mixture into cupcake casings or a muffin tin and cook at 200 for 20 minutes.

The kids and hubby and I loved them. Plus it was a fun family activity making them. It will be even better when we get our kitchen and surrounding family space back! On this, the plasterer says he will be finished tomorrow so hope I have some images to share later this week.

To Move or not to move?

Is staying in the house while renovating a good idea or would it be better to move out?

Obviously in some cases there is no choice. On one side the renovation could be so extensive that you are forced to move out and on the other the budget might be so stretched that having to pay rent elsewhere is too difficult and there is no options for staying rent free with family or friends for a long period.

Building cubbies in kids bedroom as distraction

So what to do if you do have the choice? I got to thinking about this after reading an article earlier this week on Domain about a family that did stay in the house. The comments that followed were very interesting.

I then got asked by a neighbour on Friday about our decision to stay, especially when we have two young kids. In our case we have no parents here in Melbourne to stay with as some of my friends have done and we decided that the amount of rent we would have to pay to be in the neighbourhood and out of the house for at least six months was just a little too much.

And well it has been an experience and the week coming up is probably going to be one of the hardest. Thus far:

• We went without a shower in the house for nine weeks (we thought it would be three) while we converted the family bathroom to an ensuite.
• During this period hubby and I slept on a sofa bed in the lounge and the hallway between the bedrooms was out of bounds for the kids, which ended up meaning my daughter slept in the lounge with me (she got scared) and hubby slept in the bedroom with my son, not ideal.
• We now are living in the front of the house while we do our back extension, so all our furniture is squashed into two bedrooms, a lounge and the hall.
• The kitchen is being covered with plastic almost every day now, just a bit annoying.
  
• The mess is amazing inside the house and the mud outside and pile of builders waste in the back garden has made it out of bounds for the kids.
• And at times the tension is very high, the builders have heard me yell (well more to the point loose it) and seen me in my slippers and PJs at 7am.

Getting out as much as possible

The past week has been even harder with the plasterer here working not only in the back area but in the kids current bedroom and the weather has been freezing and wet so going to the park is not an option. This week the plasterer is sanding and ripping down and replacing old cornice in the kitchen so we have now been told to move everything out of the kitchen which we were just covering. (I think takeaway or visits to friends might be in order).

So as you can imagine the part of the house we are living in is getting more and more cluttered and I keep tripping over stuff. I hate clutter!

But by the end of this week things should improve dramatically, well that's what I keep telling myself.

And though it has been a nightmare at times I am glad I am here in my own house and seeing it all unfold around me. Would I do it again? Not sure ask me in another couple of months when it is all over.

So back to miving things around again. Hope you are having a good weekend.