Category: Delivery

Things aren’t always what they seem….

This basin image informed the overall concept for the shower room vanity. We’ve come a long way from the original concept!

I’ve previously outlined my predilection for buying stuff online. Usually it’s something that’s secondhand, but I also buy new ‘cheap and cheerful’ stuff from online retailers. I figure if it’s just got water or waste going into it then function is just important as form.

One of the builders I met in September told me about Trade Depot who provide basic items at reasonable prices. Since I’m going for the simple look I decided to use them for some of my bathroom and kitchenette products.

First up was the basin for the shower-room vanity. My niece had in mind a nice curvy vessel basin to act as a counterpoint to the rimu tongue and groove sarking, and the lines of the vanity.

We finally settled on something that closely resembled her concept image. Then the cabinet-maker who was modifying the vanity unit alerted me to the fact that my elbows would be at ear level when I was cleaning my teeth. Not a good (or comfortable) look I thought.

We settled on an alternative that has some curves but was about 2/3 the depth. Job done I thought. I picked it up from the store during a road trip to Auckland in January, and handed it over to my stonemason along with the granite slab I purchased at the same time.

I haven’t been in a hurry to get the granite cut, polished, and the holes for the tap and waste cut out. I figured that it was a finishing element that could be done at a later stage.

However, I’m trying to choose fabric for the shower-room blind and stool, so gave the stonemason a bit of a poke last week so that I could get a small off-cut to cart around with me. (Did I mention that the granite slab needs at least two people to manoeuvre it – it’s fecking heavy.)

Unfortunately it turns out that the sink I bought five months ago isn’t suitable as a free-standing basin. One side is an unfinished ugly terracotta colour. My stonemason contacted me to let me know so that I could get a replacement before he cut the hole for the waste.

It’s been more than a month since I bought the unit, so the supplier charges a 20% ‘restock’ fee. I have to pay to have it couriered to Auckland, take a loss on my original purchase price, as well as paying full price on a replacement item.

Note to self: take stuff out of boxes and check it when your receive it.

I’m currently mulling over a few options. Plan B is to source something locally and take the hit on the original item.

Danik Art basin

The preferred third option is out of stock, so we’re now going with this number!

Next time: A view from above

Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness (John Wesley – 1791)

One of my design aesthetics is for the building to look as though it could be returned to it’s previous use without undoing all of the new elements.  The vestry was the area where the minister would get into their robes (vestments) prior to a service.  It was also used as an office for meetings.

For phase one of the conversion, I’m turning this area into a shower-room, kitchenette, and bedroom.  The bedroom and kitchenette are relatively straight-forward.  The shower-room is where most of the design and construction challenges lay.

There’s no water or sewerage connections to the church, so the nearest toilets were attached to the back of the church hall next door.  (I still have the tags that were on the keys for each toilet.)  The nearest available toilets are now at the park around the corner in Conway Street – a bit inconvenient.  Boom tish!

The new layout will see the shower to the left of the window, vanity straight ahead, and toilet to the right of the window.  I have a thing about noise so the toilet is as far away from my bedroom as possible!  I’ll also be using sound-deadening plasterboard to keep the noise levels down.

One of the early layout designs I was given had the vanity squished in next to the shower so that there was wall space for a mirror above it.  I’m not that vain!  Nor am I an exhibitionist.  As the locals have a tendency to use the grounds as a short-cut I’ll be putting a mirrored finish on the bottom half of the sash window for modesty purposes……………

I like good design but that comes at a cost.  I’ve opted for bog-standard things like the hand basin, shower, and toilet which I’ll source from Trade Depot or TradeMe.  The vanity cabinet is coming from BespOak NZ and the granite top is secondhand.  However, I’ve struggled to find basin and shower mixers that I like.

Well, that’s not quite true.  I have found a brand of mixers that I like but the prices are eye-watering!  I’ve opted for an Italian brand priced between the cheap-and-cheerful Australian and well-engineered German products.  No surprises there.

Yet-to-be-resolved is what type of oil finish to apply to the rimu sarking on the walls and ceiling.  My choices are an interior oil that gives a milky-white finish, tung oil, and danish oil.  I also need to decide whether or not to install a glass panel above the shower-room door to let more light into the kitchenette.  What do you think?

Next time:  The end of an era

Call me (call me) on the line. Call me, call me any, anytime………….

This is my pile of insulation made out of recycled wool.  It’s going under the floor and in the opened-up bathroom walls to keep everything toasty.  It’s my building’s equivalent of sheepskin boots and a woollen coat.

The tyranny of distance is one of the challenges of this project.  Most suppliers have their deliveries taking place during the week when I’m at work in Wellington.  Fortunately the door to the vestibule has a code on it so freight companies can put their deliveries inside without me having to be there.

Fairly straight forward you would have thought.  But no.  Suppliers don’t always think to obtain delivery instructions when you place your order.  Then you find out that the goods have been dispatched for delivery without delivery instructions.  You’re reassured that the freight company have been instructed to call you prior to delivering the goods.

Should be ok you think.  But no.  The tracking link you’re given shows the goods were out for delivery the day prior.  But you’re reassured that the freight company have been instructed to call you prior to delivering the goods.  You check the tracking link which shows the goods are back out for delivery so you wait for the call.  They don’t call.

So you check the tracking link again which shows that the goods were delivered and signed for by someone you’ve never heard of.  So you phone the supplier who suggests you call the freight company.  You call the freight company who confirm they had your contact number and promise to look into it and get back to you.  They don’t call you back.

You call the freight company a few hours later and get someone more helpful.  They put you through to the depot who say they didn’t have your number in their system.  They try to call the driver but can’t get hold of him.  They finally get hold of the driver who turns out is the person who signs as having ‘received’ the goods except they didn’t.  What they did is leave the products outside the building in public view.

So you contact your helpful neighbour to see if she can check it out when she gets home from work and put the products in the vestibule.  You get a text to say it’s all done.  Phew.

You decide you owe your neighbour so buy her a nice bottle of Central Otago Pinot Noir as a thank you.  When you give it to your neighbour you discover that the products were left outside the wrong building.  Not ok.  You let the supplier know what’s happened and trust they’ll sort it out with their freight company.  Radio silence ensues.

This is just the beginning of the project so I’ll have a lot more deliveries over the next few months.  It could end up costing me heaps in wine!  “You can call me any day or night.  Call me.”

Next time:  Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness