WHILE BUILDING YOUR HOME….

Our painter was fantastic. He gave us heaps of ideas, and made lots of suggestions along the way. He suggested a colour for the ceiling of our alfresco which we went with, but then we decided to go back to white, and it was no trouble for him to repaint it. Even after I gave him the wrong paint colour (porpoise blue) and insisted to him that it was the right colour (it was acually porpoise place), he didn't even get angry when I finally realised I was wrong. He had already gone out and bought a different colour (porpoise) before I remembered the correct colour. We rang him numerous times as we kept changing our mind on feature colours, but he always listened to us and never got annoyed (to our faces anyway). He was a champion.

Gee, we've had our share of them in the reno work at the old place....

Usually I do everything myself, but there are times when a tradie legally has to be called in for certain jobs.

I've had some good & bad experiences, but mostly good.

Plumber:
We used a fantastic plumber on the reno in the old house who expained exactly what was needed, the timeframe, and cost, but he then went one better and asked about our long term plans for the house, and suggested some additional work that would save money later.

I've sice had him do many more jobs, and also recommended him to many friends & neighours, who have all had nothing but praise.

The only worry is that he's due to retire soon so I'm hoping he can recommend another good local plumber!

Sparky:
Had a sparky who wanted to tack a security light onto the existing outside light circuit, without a seperate switch, which meant we would have needed to remove the bulb from the lamp beside the front door otherwise it would burn all night. I asked if there was any other way & he shrugged & refused to budge. I gave him marching orders.....

Next sparky was far more sensible, and suggested that the single light circuit was already marginal for the lights & fans already installed.
He recommended a seperate 10A circuit for all the external lights, to take the load off the already stressed light circuit.

The tastic was also rewired into it's own circuit, as it could pull 1500w out of an 8A light circuit (8A = 1920W theoretically). I couldn't believe the time-bomb we had been sitting on, and not only that, the 8A fuse had the fuse wire doubled up in it, done by previous occupants, so we then realised it already was a problem.......

At the same time as sorting out the light & tastic circuits, he also suggested an upgrade of the meter box from the old ceramic fuses to a modern DIN rail & MCB/RCDs on each circuit.

So we ended up with a safety switch on each individual circuit, the tastic on it's own 10A circuit, and the 2 new security lights on the front, plus all the other exterior lights (incl 2 x 500W floods out the back) all on their own outside light circuit.


Concreter:
Wanted to do a large stencilcrete driveway. Problem was a zero fall between the lip of the garage and the street, and this was already a major prob with water getting in the garage even with light rain.
Concreter worked around this by raising the centre join of the driveway by 2 inches, which allowed fall to the street, and fall to the garage. He put a strip drain along the garage, and a seperate stormwater pipe to the street, so it wouldn't back up with the roof water. The job was perfect, a 120 sq. metre driveway that had absolutely no puddle spots, and the garage never saw water again.


Builder:
We wanted to make a swinging door into a cavity slider. Simple job really, but we had 4 weeks left before having to vacate for our tenants to move in, and I simply didn't have time.

Rang 2 local builders (yellow pages) and both were going to see me on the same day, so I took the day off work.

Builder # 1 turned up as planned, looked in the roof & said "nope, have a look here, you have a roof strut above the double stud in the wall you want the cavity to go in. I can do it, but it's a lot more work, and not worth the effort"
He suggested $300 if it was a non-load bearing wall, but thousands to build sufficient props to allow a work-around.

Builder # 2 didn't turn up, nor did he ring. My thoughts on people like this is to say 'stuff em' if they can't even ring to delay or reschedule, and I'm very easy going so an excuse like 'my budgie died' would be fine.....

2 days later he rang my mobile to demand where I was, as he was wanting to see the house! Luckily our neighbour was cleaning weekly for us (paid) and had a key, so I rang her & she let him in.

I arrived home to a quote of $450 supply & fit. I rang him to ask why it was $450, and the reply was "why, is that too dear" and I said "does the $450 include all tbe work in the roof" His response was a very demeaning "we're putting a door in here, not a manhole, there's no need to touch the roof."

I asked about the strut & double stud in the desired wall, and the phone fell silent! Needless to say $450 was not going to cover it, and it made me wonder what the cost would of blown out to had we commenced with him.

For the record, builder # 1 suggested a different type of hinge that got us a workaround for our problem, and allowed us to retain the swinging door.