Before pics: Top floor

As you can see, we're basically slobs. Due to a lack of clothes storage and six years of accumulated crap; our bedroom is a dumping ground instead of a nice place to hang out. I'm posting these as a reminder to myself as to how NOT to live.

Here's my pet peeve: A stipled ceiling. It will be so nice to not have to look at this ever again.

The roman blinds were leftover from the last owners. No idea why we didn't pull them down earlier. They are hideous.

Before pics: kids bedroom

End of an era...

I leave my job at Wallpaper* in two days time. There's a massive restructure going on and I applied for voluntary redundancy. My motivation for applying was primarily down to two things: firstly, the payoff. Secondly - six years in digital for one company is a long time, and I'd been thinking about when to make that leap into something invigorating and scary (as change is often scary). The timing couldn't have been better.

And it means that in a week or so, we'll have the funds to finally finish the house! There have been entire houses built from scratch in a fraction of the time it's taken to renovate this one [refer: Grand Designs]

The good news is, the builders gave me the quote today and it's only a bit over what I'd budgeted. My original plan of having the summer off might be curtailed if the cost of the renovation creeps up buy hey, I'll be a much happier human being having a proper wardrobe, a floor that doesn't creak and a bathroom that isn't embarrassing to show guests.

Even better news is they can start next week - not quite sure if that's feasible given that we'd have to empty the top floor of all our stuff - including the furniture - but if they can then I'll be able to tick one massive thing off my to do list when people ask me 'What's next?' - my answer has been pretty standard:  Have the summer off, finish the house and then find something exciting in digital - to that end, if you need my skills - I'm available for freelance, contract or permanent roles - my LinkedIn profile is here:
 http://uk.linkedin.com/in/kaymcmahon and if you work in marketing for a brand and you'd like to come to a workshop on Designing Disruption (in east London) I'm one of the speakers, details here: http://www.iabuk.net/events/library/designing-disruption

And I guess this means with building work imminent, at least this blog will get updated more regularly!

Wobbly fence

Spring is a month late this year, so this shot taken a few days ago looks like the middle of winter when normally those bare trees would be full of green buds. The reason for this post is that next door has decided to landscape their garden by removing most of the foliage and decking the entire space. It means the wonky fence that you can see will be replaced with something more solid - and taller. There were plans to put in a gate so that the kids can easily pop over, but this has been shelved in favour of a lower fence closer to the houses that the kids can climb (as they do now).

The lovely Polish builders are doing that job so we've briefed them on doing some more jobs for us while they're here. The first thing was to measure up a new front door, as they'd be the ones fitting it. I'm so happy that we've found a place that manufacturers composite doors to a high spec for way less than Anglian Home Doors - it has the rather SEO friendly name of http://www.bespoke-composite-doors.co.uk/ and the door we've found (which does allow a letterbox slot!) comes in at £700. The installation should be around £350. The second thing was to quote for finishing the rest of the building work - ie the top floor of the house. Will update in due course!

Vodafone sucks

Ok so this blog is a journal of events around possibly the world's slowest renovation, but hey, it's also a place for me to vent. And as I've been updating recent posts with the torture that is dealing with Vodafone I thought I'd better update with the very good news that I now have a working HTC One S phone.

This is unfortunately not the phone I was originally issued with (refer earlier post on an unsuccessful SIM removal for the full story). And it was far from easy to sort: after the 'repair' the phone was sent without a back and Vodafone couldn't source a replacement. After a couple of weeks they told me to find my own and send proof of purchase so they could credit my account. It took me all of 1 minute to find the part online and order it. It arrived a few days later. I took it into Vodafone in Westfield (where unsurprisingly the store manager recognised me) and I got my nano-SIM fitted about 15 minutes after arriving.

At this point, I should have been happy to finally have a phone that worked after five long weeks but no, I'm a sucker for punishment and asked that they 'red box' the contents of my old HTC onto the new one. I thought that apps, contacts, messages and photos would be transferred in about 30 minutes.

Long story short: they don't move apps... (wish they'd told me that before starting the red box treatment) and four hours and fifteen minutes later (with numerous visits to Vodafone to see how they were getting on....) the chap handed me a phone with 2,200 contacts. No wonder it was taking so long: these people are clearly idiots.

I had to pay for the carpark (grrr) and take my two fractious children home where I did a factory reset on the phone.

It took me FIFTEEN MINUTES to sync my contacts book with Google. And was very easy once logged into the Play store to re-download all the apps I'd had before under the useful tab heading 'My Apps'. This is why Android is such a great platform - it's easy to transfer between phones. This whole ordeal has strained my relationship with Vodafone. I don't think I'd respect myself if I stuck with them when my contract's up for renewal. Any recommendations for alternative companies are welcome!

Cushioning the impact

Maybe it's advancing age, or maybe it's because our sofa is getting on, but I've found the need for cushions has outweighed my previous need for minimalism.  One tucked behind makes an evening spent glued to back-to-back episodes of Breaking Bad fly by.

So I thought it was a good idea to buy new ones to replace the sad flat boring black ones that came with the sofa. I found these three beauties which appealed to my kitsch sensibility, yeah I thought it had long been suppressed too. The best bit? £4 EACH from Primark! Rob nearly had a coronary muttering  'Why are we buying home furnishings from Primark?' Sure, like he'd have been thrilled if I'd bought three cushions for £40 each from a reputable department store. 

Anyway, cushions aren't a lifetime commitment. By the time these need replacing I'll have upgraded my need for kitsch, though maybe not my need for a total bargain...

Leaky loo

The top floor bathroom knows I hate it. I'm just letting it hang on until we get the funds together to rip it out and start again. It's not doing itself any favours by developing a leaking cistern. Rob noticed the floor around the loo was wet and after a couple of days of strategically placed kitchen roll to soak up the moisture, he called up our ever reliable Polish builders.

The only way they could look at the cistern was to smash open the tiles which had boxed it in. (On what planet does someone think that's a good idea? Who on earth would imagine they'd never want to access their cistern at some point?). Sure enough, the inspection revealed corrosion and after repeated trips to the plumbing supply shop around the corner, we had a new cistern fitted, the tiles temporarily stuck back, and the toilet resealed.

Everything in our house that goes wrong (the leaky ceiling, the blocked sinks, the temperamental dishwasher...) all seem to be related to water. Is there an exorcism for such matters?


Vodafone HTC S update

Five days after submitting my HTC S for 'repair' I hadn't heard from Vodafone so tweeted about it. Which got their social media support team involved. Whether it was a co-incidence or not, the phone showed up at the Vodafone shop the very next day. I left work a little early to collect it, thinking it would be a good idea to get the Micro SIM installed and migrate the contents of my current HTC phone over.

This would have been a good plan had the phone arrived in one piece. Actually, it wasn't the phone I'd sent away at all. This one was a newer, less battered version in a nice shade of silver, so I guess all that poking really did screw it up (take note SIM-removal amateurs!). Anyway, they'd sent it without the back.

Apparently I should have been given the back in the first place. My back was a different colour but whatever, they hadn't given it to me. They've ordered me a replacement so I'm waiting for that to show up, so I can then take the phone to a Vodafone store and get a Micro SIM fitted... let's see if this happens any time soon...

They're baaaaackkk!

I just had an unusually healthy weekend of very little booze (not counting Friday night), lots of sleep and two art exhibitions. I should be feeling well-rested and sedate, but after wasting my evening heading to Vodafone in Stratford to be told that they couldn't sort out the problem I saw them about yesterday, I feel exasperated and exhausted.

Long story short: I need to use an HTC One S for work. My regular SIM from my current HTC phone won't fit it. I rang Vodafone and ordered a Micro SIM. They sent me a Nano. Which I dropped into the SIM slot. Of course it promptly disappeared as a Nano is smaller than a Micro. I rang Vodafone customer care who said to try a pin. A pin wedged the SIM in further. They couldn't send me a Micro SIM as their 'systems were down.' They told me to go to a store. Only there are no Vodafone stores open in central London on a weekend (I KNOW!).

After a Tweet exchange with Vodafone I discovered that there was a store open in Westfield Stratford on a Sunday - so I put the kids in the car and went there. To be told that the tech guy doesn't work Sundays. So I made an appointment for tonight. I hastily gobbled dinner and drove back to Westfield. But the tech guy couldn't get the SIM out - he doesn't have 'HTC tools'. He took it out the back for a fiddle but said 'the prongs are holding the SIM in there.' He was clueless about what to do next as the phone didn't come from Vodafone, but said I have to talk to Customer Care. I lay the blame firmly with Vodafone: if they'd sent the SIM I'd ordered in the first place, this wouldn't be an issue. (Also - when I ordered the Micro I was super clear that it was for an HTC One S as the person assumed I had an iPhone 5 which is the only phone that actually uses a nano - obviously they don't listen!)

I'll phone customer care tomorrow and let you know what they suggest.
In other news: there is a slow, intermittent leak from the glass roof extension. Rob is going to email Sunfold Systems (again). I was hoping that the leaks we saw after the last visit were an anomaly, and it was pretty dry for the last few months, but the frame is slowly filling up with liquid (it hasn't rained here for over a week) as the drops started today. Happy happy joy joy.

PS: Vodafone update

I rang Vodafone's Customer Care this morning and ran through the story so far, and was then put on hold... and then cut off. So I rang back. Got another chap, ran through the story so far, again. And was then put on hold. His advice after double checking with someone was to take the phone to a Vodafone store for them to post back to get repaired by people who have the tools. SERIOUSLY. I was actually in a Vodafone store last night (and the day before that...) - why couldn't they have thought of that at the time?!

So on the way to work I stopped by a Vodafone store and had to run through the story so far THREE TIMES TO THREE IN-STORE BLOKES. I reiterated the bit about Customer Care saying it has to be sent away for repair but two of the blokes chose to ignore me, took the back off and started to get out a paper clip! I nearly lost the plot at this point. Fortunately a paper clip wouldn't fit into the SIM card space. Nevertheless, one of the blokes took the phone out the back (away from my prying eyes no doubt to shove something smaller than a paper clip in, just in case...) I have no idea why these people choose to ignore the request to just send the thing off for repair, maybe they think they're being helpful, personally, I find it disrespectful - as if I'm so stupid I can't possibly know what I'm talking about.
Anyway - the phone is now in transit. Will let you know what happens next!

Anglian Home door quote

I made an appointment for Anglian Home Improvements to come round on Friday night to give us a quote for a new front door. Their advertising had gone through the roof - there was a 50% off insert in one of the newspapers, and after a quick visit to their website I now get targeted display ads showing me their 50% off products on every other website I visit. I'd gone from never knowing about this company to being reminded of them every hour.

A quick search online revealed many frustrated customers who simply wanted a quote but were punished with outdated sales techniques. There were tales of salesmen taking hours to leave and trying to wear the customer down. Crazy examples such as 'If you don't commit now this offer leaves when I do'. I had a momentary panic but decided that if the salesman tried any of this schtick on us, we'd deal with it.

I'd blogged about Silvelox doors three years ago (£3,000) which are top of the range. Friends recently had two Welglaze doors installed (£1,600 for a door including 'furniture', fitting, a full-size side panel of glass & VAT) and neighbours had a quote for a local company to fit a standard wooden door with glass (from £450 plus 'furniture'), so we knew the range was varied.

When I made the appointment I asked for a ballpark range of door prices but was told that they only discuss his with the client in person.

I was expecting Anglian to be a mid-range product (ie around £1,600) and with 50% off be an £800 door plus letterbox and a nice handle. It turns out I was wrong. The salesman arrived (early, despite the snow) and brought in a little DVD player to show us their cheesy sales video. He had a heavy holdall with paperwork and brochures, but oddly, no samples to show us how the colours look in real life. He insisted the colours in the brochure were accurate, when I showed him the printed colour swatch and the accompanying photo didn't even match hue, he just shrugged.

When I asked him if the handle could be fitted on the other side of the door instead of the side shown in his brochure he said 'I don't know. I don't see why not!" (Seriously, isn't this the sort of thing he should be briefed on?!)

Long story short: He stayed for 45 minutes and managed to bring down his £3,000 (!) door with the basic sandblasted glass to £1,495 including VAT and installation. I balked at this and showed him the additional £150 off voucher I'd been emailed for making the appointment directly. "Oh, no, I've already included that discount in my calculations." Really? Pfft. So we pointed out that not being able to have a letterbox fitted into the specific door we liked was going to be a problem (we'd have to investigate other methods of collecting the mail). He did some more calculations on his notepad, muttering "30% off..." (his scribbles were ilegible) then he said '£1,200. That's what I can do this door for, any less and we won't be making a profit.'

I suppose we would have been happy with £1,000 but after the video, the fake calculations and the constant deferring to Rob instead of me (what year is it?!) I didn't feel like stretching the extra £200. It's so close and yet... well, we may still go with it if we can find another mail solution.

In the meantime, how hard would it be for Anglian to just publish guide prices for their products and save their sales people wasting hours of their time? Surely a false economy? We would be far more likely to purchase the product knowing the cost instead of wondering how much of the quote has to cover the salesman's commission.

Holiday season comedown

Christmas feels like a distant memory. The actual festive week was spent in Suffolk with a group of friends at two converted farm houses on Partridge Farm. The region is famous for its fixation with food, and there was no shortage of really impressive pubs, farmers markets and restaurants. Aldeburgh is worth a visit for (apparently) the best fish and chips in the UK. We ate at The Regatta instead as the chef used to be at The Connaught. Might go back in summer to sample the fish and chips.

Christmas itself was spent gorging ourselves on smoked goods from the nearby Richardson's Smokehouse in Orford, and watching lots of movies. No stress. It rained cats and dogs pretty much non-stop but when you're in front of an open fire in a onesie no-one seems to mind. Actually that's not entirely true - I kept dropping food on myself and remarked that the onesie seems to be repelling food and my pal said 'It repels more than food.'

Just after New Year (spent in London - rare) we took the girls to Paris for four nights and despite a long list of 'must sees' only managed a fraction. I really recommend Paris in January - it's virtually deserted compared to London. We went up the Eiffel Tower and didn't have to queue (€16 for all four of us) - I had the best frites of the trip up on the L1 cafe. We stayed a hotel recommended on Trip Advisor for families - the Residence Foch. Get a Junior Suite aka a family room if you go - it means the kids are in another room with their own TV. We shut the door on ours and watched back to back episodes of Breaking Bad.

An efficient way to see the sights with kids is the Fat Tire Bike Tour - nearly 4 hours of gentle cycling with an English speaking tour guide (with the kids on a tandem, or if they're really small in a baby seat) for €90.

So, back to London and this year probably won't see much in the way of renovation as we're saving up to go back to New Zealand for a (long overdue) trip to see friends and family. One thing we would like to address is our front door though - I've got Anglian coming round to give a quote on Friday night. I've read about their heavy handed sales techniques but am optimistic that the sales fella will want to be anywhere than our house all night on a Friday night. Will report back!