Ugh. What a horrible experience this shed has been for us. The pieces of the shed are still sitting on the ground outside and every time I go out there I look at it and feel like crying. I’ve paid $9,500 for a shed that I’m not getting an ounce of benefit from – in fact, this shed is costing me $55 a week by having my stock locked in a bulging storage unit down the road while this shed is laying on the friggin’ ground, not to mention the fact that since we demolished the old shed in April we’ve had to share the house with garden tools, power tools and future furniture projects. As you can tell, it’s now starting to grate on my nerves.

The guy from Fair Dinkum came Tuesday the 4th of May to erect the shed.  The moment he got out of his car he was complaining that the pieces of the shed were too far away from the slab (the pieces were only 15 metres away) and that it would take his three guys 4 hours to move it (needless to say, Tim and I moved the shed closer to the slab that same afternoon amd it took us just 1.5 hours); he complained that the slab was not level and was out of square and was short on one end 3cm and told me I needed to spend $1,800 on having the sides of the slab cut and having the pieces of the shed cut to size (I am so friggin’ cheesed off with my concretor. I specifically asked him if his work was square and level and he categorically told me it was. And I’m cheesed off with myself for not friggin measuring the slab before that concretor guy left. That guy stood against his car with his arms crossed and said “I’m not leaving until I’m paid”. So I stupidly gave him a cash cheque to get him to leave and off he went into the sunset [well, he naturally went to the bank first to cash the cheque then he disappeared into the sunset]).  The shed guy told me that he could build the shed using the slab as it is (out of square) but that the end result wouldn’t be pretty to look at and I wouldn’t be able to sell my house because the columns on the inside of the shed would be criss-crossed and the walls on the outside would be in the shape of a tee-pee (yes, he made a tee-pee action with his arms).  So after the doom and gloom of never ever being able to sell my house becase of an irregular shaped shed, they left pretty soon after that and I was left to look at the shed on the floor – once again.

When Tim came home that evening I told him what had happened and explained to him what the shed guys told me. To my surprise, he was confused about why they couldn’t erect the shed even if the slab wasn’t square. He looked at the plans for the shed and drew me out a few quick sketches and showed me that even though the slab was unsquare, the shed itself could still be built square, because the bolts weren’t attached to the side of the slab but were to be placed about 9cm in from the slab. It turns out all the shed guy needed to do was run a piece of string around the outside of the slab, take some key measurements, make a few calculations and then the shed can be built nice and square on the unsquare slab (sure, there might be 1 or 2cm gap between the outside wall of the shed and the end of the slab, but that can easily be filled in and it will cost a damn lot less than the $1,800 the shed guy was asking me to pay!)

After the shed guy left that day, for the next few days we took the time to speak to numerous people and some friends and family and most said that there must be a more simple and less expensive solution to what the guy told us needed to be done. After all, not every single slab in the world would be 100% square and perfect, there has to be some special tricks that are used by those in the trade to get a shed erected nicely – right? Fromwhat other people have said they’re really confused about why this guy didn’t just run the string line around the slab and just erect the shed and get it over and done with. At best, the guy was unwilling to provide a rational solution for us. At worst, he was incapable of thinking of such a solution (or perhaps he was trying to secure some work for his concrete cutting friends hmm?).

Almost 4 weeks after the installer guy came, complained and left, we’re finally at the point where the owner of the shed company has spoken to the installer guy and we’ve made a new time for the installer  guy to come and put up the shed. So the new date for the beginning of the shed is 8 June 2010 (well, we’re aiming for 2010 anyway).

I’m really upset about this delay because the owner of the shed company knows how important it is to me to have the shed up quickly. It pees me off because on their website, they have numerous testimonials from their previous customers who were all apparently so happy about how promptly they had their new shed installed. Yes, good for them. Unfortunately I haven’t had the same experience as those people.

I even went to the trouble of preparing a Visio diagram for these guys which sets out exactly what the installer needs to do and where the bolts need to be positioned.  So far, I’ve done more work on this shed than the friggin’ shed company. We’ve done what the shed guy asked (moving the shed pieces, grinding the rough, raw edge of the concrete slab off) and we’ve waited patiently for the return of phone calls which never come when promised. We’ve always had to follow these people up and press them for answers. Like yesterday afternoon, the installer guy said he was on his way home and would be in touch with us in an hour when he gets home and he can look in his diary for his next available appointment. We had to follow-up an hour and a half later, then he said “Give me half an hour and I’ll call you and let you know when I’m coming to install the shed.” We waited the rest of the night and still no friggin phone call. So 9.00am this morning we called him and the explanation was that he’d gone out to dinner with his wife! Great, how nice for you!

Argh I know this is a really long and uninspiring post but I’m so frustrated and I just had to get this off my chest. This project has now been going on since the beginning of April and going by the testimonials on the shed company’s website I would have bet that by now I’d have a shed to store my stock in and be able to get my packing room moved out of the house and into the shed. If you’re interestd, here is what the shed should look like when it’s finished:

For anyone who is reading my posts because they’re interested in moving to Tasmania, or if you are already in Tasmania and want to have work or improvements done to your house in Tasmania, please get in touch with me and I can certainly tell you those people whom I DO NOT recommend for various building works. One thing is for certain:  we are gathering plenty of experience as we proceed in our little renovation adventures here in Tasmania.