Rush before the xmas break...

Spoke to C (sutomer service) today as we had received another set of plans which had gone to council with the whole house flipped and back to the basic 1st set of drawing which were done around April. So i rang to let her know that we had made many many changes since this first set of drawings. I also questioned which side the cross over was on as the drawings were showing them at the left side, even though the contract, lot drawinngs and the actual block showed it on the right. she said the council plans were right and she'd send out the new drawings.



We went for a drive out to the block to check that we actually had the right block as i thought maybe we had been looking at the block next door. But i counted the lot numbers back from the house 3 doors up that has a sign with the lot numbers, and we have the right block. So now i have to wait til they are back in the office 5th Jan to call them and tell them. Not even sure who will be back, but this is just dragging on too long and i want them to start builging already..

So much for having a slab before Christmas. ha

Waiting for settlement.

Settlement for land is meant to be the 27th of November, i have called the property conveyancing and asked it to be moved closer, so we are just waiting for a reply from the vendoors solicitor. Hopefully we can settle land asap, then the council approval can go in and then we should be able to go to site. I'm hopeing by the end of November, that give them a couple of weeks for site works and the slab before the Christmas break. This whole process take so long i wish we would have known what was going on so we could have taken less time on our end.

Bricks: I finally re found the photos of the same bricks being used on another build and they really aren't what i had in mind, i wanted a darker more chocolate brick. Hopefully they will look darker with the off white mortar in them.

I'm really unsure about the dune for a render colour, i think it looks to grey and too light, i think its easily painted though, so not too worried.

Final Documents sent, decisions made, now we just wait.

This is the last set of plans, everything is right except for laundry door.

Sent off all our paperwork for bank, conveyencers and the PCV to builder

Changing to exposed aggregate driveway, mixer taps in bath and shower, off white mortar. Now that its all finished i'm wishing i would have made a few little changes, like adding 2 wall lights to the portico and another couple of tv points. We will be getting the Home theatre room wired up so i'll probably get some cat5 and tv points put in then. I also want to change my handles for the kitchen cupboards they no longer have the bar handles that i want so we chose like a satin curved one, but i don't really like them, and would prefer to mount them horizontaly on cupboard roors. This was all the choices we had.

Still lots to think about even though the big decisions have been made.

Hopefully our next drive out to the Block in a couple of weeks we may see some action. I think it still needs to go for estate approval and council. Wish they could give us a date for site start. Its all getting very exciting now.... waiting is killing me.

We had our coloutr appointment today, met with out colour consultant at 9.30 am and i think we got out of there just after 12.00.
I knew i would be indecisive but it actually wasn't too bad.

There are only a couple of things that i'm not sure of, such as the colour we have chosen for our bricks, they just look a bit too light and there isn't much colour vatiation. Would be good to see it on a house. Off white mortar should look good with them though.

Happy with the rest of the exterior colours, dune and paperbark, and charcoal roof tiles. Also having aggergate driveway. I would just love to see it all together now.

Interior we are having

walls: wattyl Kid Leather

white ceilings and architraves

Pearl dust kitchen cupboards with an Osprey Cesar stone bench top. white tiles (as in pic) for kitchen and laundry splashback.

Bathroom cupboards are going to be pearl bisque with ginger Ceasar stone bench and a brown 400x400 floor tile. (its called Chicago Khaki)

they probably took the longest to decide on because there was nothing there that i liked. everything had a pattern going through it and was too light.

Recieved another set of plans and variation quotes via email on 12th Sep. Still a few mistakes so emailed back yet another list, basically the same as the one i sent ages ago. Hopefully they get it right this time, its just causing so many delays, we could have stated by now.

So firstly here are the photos of the block, titles have now been released

Pretty boring, just a flat piece of land. Not much of a nature strip But we do have nice vacant land across the road ( until they divide it all up and it gets built up also.

Went to the displays today and met with SCJ we finalised our upgrades and all the bits and peices, now we only have to decide on our flooring. Whether to supply and install ourselves after hand over or get them to install solid wood or cheap laminate. So we decided on the square sinks with flick mixers, tiled shower bases and those cool shower heads with a hose type thing. we are putting in a small wall at the end of the pantry shelves to section it off from the 'mud room' type area.

want to get something like this for the laundry, we will just get the lower cabinet under sink and bench top through builder then i will Put in some shelves.

The land is also coming along we drove past on the weekend and there are now foorpaths and crossovers. They have also left the big bum trees along both sides of the road which is surprising, but i think its a good thing. Forgot the camera will take some photos next time.

Upgrades and colours

Here are a list of our extras and changes we plan to do/make

Double shower
900mm oven and hotplate
remote garage door
Walk in pantry
2 Robes to Study
Doors to HT
stone bench in kitchen and bathrooms
Laundry Cupboards with bench with SS sink
Doors on robes instead of mirror
Alfresco
Coloured concrete Driveway
Flyscreens On all opening windows
Drain laundry
waterpoint to fridge
cupboard handles

square sinks in bathroom,

extra electrical (power points)

Alarm

sound proof 1 wall between HT and bedroom

hardwood flooring to living areas and entry/ hallway

It surely does all add up, still deciding on colours. Hopefully we will have our colour appointment soon.

Plans and Land!

We received our home contract a few weeks back now, however we had to make a lot of changes and weren't prepared to sign anything even though they tried to talk us in to it.
Our names were wrong and there were so many things on the plan that were different.
So i submitted the changes to them on saturday, with the electrical plan and they have agreed to re do the contract.

The land titles havent been released yet and we still don't know when they will be released, they are saying July.

I finaly got some photos on the weekend. I think this is where our block is, its hard to tell, so we just had to count the cross overs from the corner

Loans, pre approval and more decisions!

Went and saw mortgage broker last night and put in the application for the pre approval, at this stage we are just going for the land loan, which will be settled late may - june. Then we'll pay that off for a few months, save a bit more money and go for the construction loan. So i don't think we'll start til the end of the year or maybe even the begining of next year. ( to avoid christmas break)
I think things will go slow on the house plan/design side of things anyway. Even though i was hoping to be in by christmas and the start of the new school year, just don't think its going to happen.

Decisions!

There are so many decisions to make, things i would hve never thought about before now.
How do people choose colours for their new house, how do hey decide what to upgrade and what to change. How do you know your not getting ripped off and paying a normal price for everything. I've done endless hours of research, trying to get informed so i know what to expect but there is just too much info. i think this is why people chose to buy established homes.
I wish i could speak to someone who knew what they are talking about with out being a sales person.
This week i need to organise finance, whether to use a morgage broker or to find a good deal on my own. I basically know what sort of loan i want and how flexible it needs to be.
I was hoping to leave it for another few weeks so we'd have a better time frame for the savings pattern, but i think we'll be ok having about 10% and then the first home owners grant.

Today we went for a drive to the 'estate' and they have half finished the road, and the roads around the block, Pretty exciting being able to get close enough to it, as we couldn't see it before and just guessed where it was in the distance. Wish we would have taken the camera, i will take it next time so we can compare the huge differences over the next couple of months.

These are the original plans that we will make changes to.

This is looking from the kitchen to the HT/TV Room. We will put double doors on, so we can close it off for when watching movies. There wont be a tv in the lounge/sitting area, so we'll just have the couches and a coffee table or side table.

We are thinking of timber floating floors or even laminate flooring. They make the house look much warmer and 'homely' i think, i'm so over tiles. We'll just have to confiscate the ride on toys from the kids so they don't get wrecked and maybe anything with wheels, sharp edges etc etc. Maybe the laminate is the way to go with young kids then ;)

Not much happening at the moment, we are waiting for the land to be titled and soil test done. Also for our plans to be drawn up including the changes we've made.
We have been deciding on upgrades and things we want included and its scary how fast it all adds up.
We have changed our mind several times about the laundry, and now i have decided that we should put in a bench top and cupboards., so today i've been listing washing machine and dryer on ebay so i can make a bit of money to buy a washer/ dryer combo, so we have more space to put in a bench, cupboards and shelving above.

Change of plans, change of builder, from the original post.
We've put a deposit down for house and land in the estate we originally wanted to buy in. Very hard sourcing land it just gets snapped up so quickly. We decided to go with a 576m2 block and put a 27m2 house on it, we will have about 6 m to the back and 6m to one side around the alfresco. We made a few changes to the plan, and added a walk in pantry which goes through to the garage. and also put a big robe in the study. Doors on the theatre room and added the alfresco to the side.

It's all coming along with the plans and changes, title release on the land isn't until June so a bit of time to keep saving.

This photo shows about how much back yard we'll have.

So the settlement will be before the financial year ends, and we could begin building in July if all the building contracts etc are done. So we should be in our house by christmas as construction only takes 4 months.. Fingers crossed everything goes to plan with finance etc.

Decisions decisions!!!

We are now in the 'about to do' phase. About to take the plunge.
Need to speak with finance broker, and get a pre approval. Think we may have found a house and builder we like ( after months of research and looking)
We're looking for a larger block of land 800m2 -10000m2. Really would like a decent backyard for the kids, seeing they have been so deprived here with concrete and rocks out the back where we live now. The house we are deciding on is about 29sq and has 4 bedrooms with a theatre room, study and a kids zone. We are also wanting to put in a walk in storage cupboard.
There really aren't enough hours in the day to research and find info.