yes Wuff it was extremely upsetting. I used to go to my car after every visit & cry & cry! My little guy is the apple of my eye & just the most fun lovable thing that even people who don't like dogs warm to. He's so used to being with people & having people fuss over him.Not the girls at quarantine though! You could see in his eyes he couldn't understand what he'd done wrong to be locked up & shunned & he used to howl & cry whenenver I got up to leave. The last week he was there he stopped eating. My 2 cats were rescues. My Maine Coon, Mr Bubba Coon was dumped at San Diego County Animal Shelter because he was the runt of the litter & deemed to be not big enough to be saleable. It was the height of the GFC. I brought him back to Sydney with me. My other guy, Spooky Cat is black & he & his sister were dumped at a vet in Five Dock here in Sydney aged 4 weeks. He stayed locked up in a cage at the shelter until he was 16 weeks old as black cats & tortys are the hardest cats to find a home for. When i took him home he just sat on the couch for a week because the concept of being free to walk about wherever he wanted was so foreign to him. He is the sweetest, loveliest little guy with beautiful yellow green eyes.

Thank you so much for everyone's thoughts, it has honestly been very helpful. We are going to consider going right across the front of the house and over that problematic front door. Going to consider going across with the same space as we originally had going straight out. I'll keep everyone posted as I so appreciate all the help!!

We have been building our house for over two years now. The supply chain downturn has made it a nightmare. We are camping on the mezzanine floor of our warehouse so it isn't costing us to wait, but if I had rented a property while building we would be in trouble now. I purchased most of our plumbing supplies early in the build so at least those items have not gone up in price, but many others have. We ordered and paid for a cantilever pool awning in February this year, and it was sent in three lots. The last delivery was two weeks ago. I suspect the company was having a hard time getting it out of China, so not their fault. We had quotes for fly screens/security screens that totalled over $25,000. We had to forgo the security screens in favour of fly screens for most of the house. We had a quote for a large aluminium mesh panel to place on the front left corner of the house which was over $25,000 also. The fencing company got an order wrong and we ended up with the wrong colour louvre panels on the front driveway sliding gates, plus the wrong colour for a fence. We have managed to turn it into a positive by keeping the wrong coloured louvre blades, and they will now be put up vertically on the front corner of the house, instead of the aluminium mesh. They are six metres long, but the house is two stories, so all good. We had to keep the gate panels the same, so the wrong colour will have to be exchanged for the right colour. People are still building houses here, and some of them are going up very fast, so I don't understand why ours has taken so long. We have purchased most of the goods locally, but I suppose the suppliers are having trouble getting them from overseas. I am at the point where I am losing interest in this house, which is a shame because it will be a beautiful house when finished.

$3000 for new doors sound like a bargain but if that doesn't include installation i would strongly recommend that you invest in professional installation (at a fixed price) as replacing old hinges can be very challenging for the inexperienced and we've patched a 40 year old kitchen with very thin sheets of melamine placed over damaged shelves, renewed sagging doors by filling up old screw holes and tightened hinges, replaced damaged edges using a roll of iron on edge stripping tape but, the minor damage on your edges and the backless cabinets could easily be disguised with some paint but i have say that our now patched kitchen was designed and built for an architect, various other kitchen we've built or renovated and my newest kitchen also custom made at very high cost have all been made out of a variation of a laminated board ..luckily you love the "very expensive to replace" counters but i would also consider investing in new kickboards to get rid of the quad edges around the floor and a better location for your microwave..and look forward to seeing your results