Floorplan and external selections

Here is the floorplan for our house.  We haven't done any changes to the layout as this house fit the bill for us.  The only addition was 1m to the garage (for extra storage space) and we changed the two rear windows in the living and theatre rooms to 2 awning windows in each room.

    

And the facade that we chose looks something like this except the render doesn't go all the way around.  It's just on the portico part and also the house that is shown in the pic is not our house design.

While i'm on a roll, here are examples of our external colour selections. Just indulge me here...haha...we have to remember that it will be another 9 months until this all pulls together and i have to keep reminding myself that the colours do all go together,,.ha!

So that's what our outside will look like.   Wrapped with the selections if i do say so myself (",).  Think Rob and I did well on our compromises...

The blank canvas

Rob dropped by the block today to see the final result of the demolition.  We now have a blank canvas on which to build our dream house! (thank goodness they didn't touch our workshop or vegie patch!)

It's amazing how big the block looks and they did a good job making it flat as a tack...less work for
PD to do, they can just get on with the task of building the house. :)

Funny thing about this whole thing though, the demolition company completed the job 5 weeks after we initially requested it, yet it took them minus 12.5 hours (yes you read that right MINUS TWELVE AND A HALF HOURS) to send us the bill.  They hadn't even finished the job yet but sent Rob a nice email "here is your invoice...we expect to have the job done by 12.30pm tomorrow." haha! Keen much??

To fence or not to fence???

hmmm...after viewing the photo's i just posted, Rob so kindly asks me to zoom in...i zoom and there we see that the side fence desperately needs to be replaced.  Why is it that when you think you can save a lil bit of money, there always seems to be something else that comes up?

Anyone seen the movie the money pit??

Guess it's as good a time as any...also might tell the neighbour he may as well get that water tank he's been wanting to get in and roll it through our property :)

And so it begins...

Oh My Word!  Received a very excited call from my friend on friday to say that all of the roof of the old place is gone and that the front bricks have disappeared...this phone call placed at 1.30pm.

(quick background story on demo - it was to have been done beginning to mid feb but the demo guy was a bit slack (?) in getting back to us about when they would be starting (he said we hadn't organised for the permits etc but R and I emailed it all end of January to him and the permit people so don't know what happened there)

So i mosey on down after work to see the start of the demolition and lo and behold, no house left! Just neat piles of scrap metal and wood and small pile of bricks. Those little demo men are very very good at their job!

Must admit got a bit of a lump in my throat to see the old baby gone, but hey, onwards and upwards! We are that much closer to the construction stage. (i'm standing at what used to be my front door in the pic above. I can't find the before pics, i think i packed the memory card away and there is no way  i am going through "box mountain" in the garage for that)

Popped in today on my way back into the office and the guys were busy at it again, ripping up the last bit of the slab.  After having a bit of a chat he said everything will be done tomorrow morning.  Wow is all i can say... (and i think i am in the wrong job for what they charge for 2.5 days work! lol!)

So straight onto the phone to our CSC to confirm that the second soil test will be good to go from Wednesday and even greater news given to me to say that our site start is March 31st, with expected site cut to be mid April (yay before easter!)

R and I were really scared that because of the delays with the demo we would be pushing it to have a site start in April but looking like we're on track.

Bless... (",)

Our colour selections

So we have completed our colour and electrical appointments, after a lot of trawling through the homeone forum and display homes and interior design books and i think we have a pretty good idea on what our colour scheme is...earthy tones to then add splash of colour here and there...


It's not the best photo but here is our selection for the kitchen and bathrooms:


All cabinetry (kitchen/galley/laundry/powder room/ensuites) - natural finish burnished wood
All benchtops (kitchen/galley/powder room and ensuites) - Caeserstone in Osprey with pencil round edges and 40mm drop on kitchen benchtops)
Glass Splashback in main kitchen - standard glass with a raspberry red (Can't remember the exact paint name)
Tiled splashback in galley and laundry - cat 1 long gloss tile (sorry i can't remember the exact names as don't have the spec sheet with me.  I'll edit once i have them)
Floor tiling in entry/cloakroom/powder room/dining/kithchen/pantry/laundry/storeroom/living/ensuites - plateau matt (cat 1 tile)
Carpet in study/lounge/theatre and all upstairs bedrooms and hallways - inspirations range brown earth
Feature tile - the one in the top right hand corner is an indication of the colour only, it's a metallic shimmer brown/gold/silver, we chose rectangle shape as feature tile in ensuites 2-4 with 2 stripes in the shower and on the splashback. In our ensuite we have the bottom right tile (metallic deck 600 x 900) in our shower on all walls, splashback and on the bath hob. 
Wall paint - Flokati

The story so far....

Hello! Hello! Time to introduce myself!

I am Mel, first time blogger but not afraid of a chat :)

My partner Rob and myself first started our home building journey early 2010. 

I recall a conversation early one morning. "I think we need another bathroom!" said as i was standing in the bathtub, applying makeup, getting ready for work, whilst Rob was using the basin to shave. Talk about just a bit cramped for space.

Our conversation that night then extended to where would we put in an ensuite, then a fullon conversation on reconfigurating the layout of the house. Rob, being ever so practical, said might have to look at building upwards...after a bit of investigating and also realising that we were still going to have to compromise on what we want, we thought of maybe just updating and then renting out the house and purchasing another for renovation. Ideas go on and on... 

Long story short, after about 8 months of looking at all options (renovating, renting and purchasing investment property, buying into new estate, demolishing existing) as well as visiting countless number of display homes, we ended up deciding to demolish and build our dream home! We thought after having just returned from our dream holiday overseas, we might as well look into building a home that is kitted out with everything we want now, rather than later, as we both have good paying jobs, don't have dependents (yet) and love the location of our existing home. Close to work, friends and family and all on a big block!

So here we are.

Our dream home is the Waldorf 44 from Porter Davis.  We knew it was the one, after putting next to it our sketch up of what we wanted in a 2-storey, nearly the same footprint.

It gives us plenty of space inside to add a brood in the future, we can deck it out with all the mod cons that we both want, still gives us enough room for our two 4-legged friends and there is even a room and rumpus for my mum to come and move in with us so that she can save a bit of $$$ for when she retires (mum's current rent is astronomical!)

I was told yesterday that our demolition is going to commence today! YAY! so the journey has begun.

I hope you enjoy the journey of our build!

Cheers,

Mel