The Roof.. The Roof.. The Roof Has Tiles!!!

Well boys and girls.. more progress! I'm really starting to like our SS even though I havent met him yet, but he has been pretty straight up with what's been happening with our house. He said that we'd have roof tiles by Christmas, and there they were, nearly finished on Christmas Eve. We've also had all our plumbing finished, our bi-fold doors installed, and the outer wall insulation put in as well. YAY!

Our bifolds.. from the inside..

and from the outside..

You can see some of our roof tiles here in front. You can also see the green, outer wall insulation which has been wrapped around the house.

And the same angle but with something different.. our tiles are up! Well, most of them.

Sortta close up of the roof tiles.. we chose "Gunmetal" cuz it was the closest colour to the one we wanted to upgrade to, but that cost too much!! Also, it matched our guttering and window frames.

Picture from across the road just to see the whole effect.. looks pretty good huh!?? There's a pile of sand in our driveway.. that means that they're gonna hopefully start bricking when they start back again in mid January. Yay!

Minor Update

Kir went to check out the site as we have recieved the second invoice from PD which means our frame is totally complete!! Woo hoo!! But there has been more progress...


They've started the plumbing and electricals and put up the guttering as well as the safety rails for the roof tilers, which definately means roof tiles by Christmas!! I'm hoping they can finish it in a week and a half.

Our plumbing? Or is that electricals.. LoL

Our bi-fold frame.

We Have Been Framed!

Ladies and gentlemen.. we have a frame and some windows!! YAY!! It took them an entire week to put up a house.. the mind boggles!

It's a little bit flooded.. haha.. the ground was so soft! But we had a look anyways! Everything seems to be in its place.. the only thing we're worried about is the fridge space. It doesnt look like it's the right size so we'll have to do some measuring, but it probably is.. no harm in checking.

Anyways.. roof tiles next!! More excitement to come!!

Progress!! Stage One Complete!

Well.. things are certainly happening quickly. Just two weeks ago we had nothing but a scraped site, a port-a-loo and some temp fencing. Last weekend, some friends drove past and said that they saw our pipes and electricals had been done. Kir went to check out what was happening on Thursday night and they had put up all the forms for our slab!

We were told by our Site Supervisor (SS) that the slab would be poured on Saturday, so come Saturday afternoon, we were driving up to see what was going on. On arrival, the concreters were still there and had just about finished the job. A cement truck came tearing up the road with the last of the cement needed to finish off. And voila! We had a slab!

Yes people.. a slab! All nice and freshly laid. This was taken on Sunday afternoon. I cant believe we're standing on concrete laid just the day before! So it's all progressing nicely so far.

We went again today to have a look as SS said the frame should be starting on Monday. Again.. SURPRISE! We had half the frame up for the house already! In one day!

So the time marches on. Progress reports as we visit the site.. hopefully at least once a week!

Finally... Something's Happening!

We visited our site last weekend and surprise!!..we have progress!! They've scraped our site down so it's flat and marked out the building envelope with pegs spray-painted a pretty pink colour! Hee hee!

Here are a couple of piccies!

This is a pic of our site from across the street.. we have fencing and a port-a-loo!! (for the builders of course!) And on each side, our fast-progressing neighbours.. Henley on the left, and Porter Davis Prestige on the right. Thank God they're both single story!

This is from the right side of the block.. can you see the pretty pink pegs? :D




This is from our driveway cross-over.

Hopefully we'll have pictures of the slab next week!! I cant believe it's finally happening!! Like really, really happening! AHHHHHHHH!!! :D

Quick Update

We went to visit our land on the weekend, and lo and behold the houses on either side of us have started building! The houses next door are thankfully not double story as we first thought they might be.. thank God.

So our we recieved our final plan drawings on Friday and there are MISTAKES!!!! I almost spewed!! After all our blood, sweat and tears.. they still stuffed it up.. Isnt it in their best interest to get started ASAP so they finish on time and dont have to pay us for going over contract? Kir thinks they're stuffing us around to push back site start, but we got all the paperwork to them on time so it's all up to them. We've emailed our CSC so she can get the mistakes fixed so we can finally bloody START damnit!!

12/11/08 - Edit: We've got site start! We've been informed that they will scrape our site on the 26th and then slab will be poured on the 28th!! WOO-bloody-HOO!!!

Full Speed Ahead!

Well! After months of stressful phone calls and emails to our CSC and our mortgage broker, and meetings with the consultant at our colour and tile selections, we finalised our variations, submitted our loan request to our lender and were finally approved for our loan late last week. We spoke to our CSC and everything seems to be in order and we've been told that we are to commence building on time!! WOO HOO!!! About bloody time I say...

Anyways, here are our final colour selections:

EXTERNAL:

Bricks: Boral - Jarrah

Mortar: Off White

Roof Tiles: Boral Macquarie - Gunmetal

Windows: Satin Black

Mouldings/Sill: Wattyl - Moroccan Stone

Garage Door: Jarrah

Guttering, Fascia and Downpipes: Colourbond - Night Sky

Front, Laundry, French and Bi-fold Doors: Timber stained - Rosewood

INTERNAL:

Walls: Wattyl - Kid Leather

Architraves: Wattyl - Oriental White

Internal Doors: Wattyl - Flokati

Benchtop: Quantam Quartz - Tornado with Aris edging

Kitchen Cabinets: Sarsen Grey

Kickboards: Brushed Silver

Glass Splashback: Dulux - Whisper White on "clear" glass (it's got a greenish tinge, but looks OK)

Vanities: Oyster Linea

Laundry Benchtop: Stipple Seal

Laundry Cupboards: Oyster Linea

I found the Wattyl colours a bit weird on the website so I'll leave them out, but it all looked good at our colour selection... hopefully it all melds in well when it's in the house! We're hoping to put in a charcoal/slate coloured exposed aggregate driveway, and perhaps render the front facade after handover ie: when we have the money! Ugh!

So now the wait is on to see when they actually start clearing our land and digging the trenches for the pipes and laying the slab. Hopefully it's within the next week or so.

I'm so excited I think I'm gonna pee my pants!! :D

Pics!

Well, finally have some time to post some preliminary pics for you guys to enjoy!

This is a pic of our lot looking at it from the footpath. Doesnt look like much now, but it looks pretty massive! I cant wait to see something on it!

Sold to us!! Hee hee hee!

So, it's been nearly 3 weeks since our contract appointment with our final variations. We havent heard hide nor hair from our Customer Service Rep since that meeting and our site start date is fast approaching. We havent signed off on our final variations because we havent even seen them fully to read over them and make any corrections if mistakes have been made. Grr.. if site start is pushed back then it's not our fault. We have given them everything they've asked for and they've given us nothing but grief.

On a lighter note, our tile appointment on the 6th went great! We managed to get what we want for a price that even surprised us! It also took less time than we we told to allocate. I guess that comes from us doing our research before-hand (a good tip to remember when you're building - DO YOUR RESEARCH and dont go in without a clue of what you want... you'll be there forever!!).

So that's it so far.. hopefully more to come!

The Time Is Near...

Countdown to:

Colour/Interiors Appointment: 4 days

Contract Signing: 7 days

Tile Appointment: 14 days

Approximate Site Start: 9 weeks


Well, nothing major has happened since the last post. We've just been going over and over our tiles and colors and door designs and cupboard designs and I think we've pretty much got everything figured out. Hopefully these appointments wont take long, as we've heard they can go for hours! I've also found out our CSC is an extremely hard person to get in contact with. I sent an email regarding some queries I had, but still havent got a reply yet, and that was 5 days ago! I rang the office this morning and apparently they're sick and will be back tomorrow. *sigh*

We spent a few hours at National Tiles on Saturday looking at tiles that we liked, speculating on whether we should have feature tiles in the bathrooms and showers and which tiles were upgrades etc. We then spent yesterday going to random display homes (mostly looking at the bathroom and what tiles and designs they've used for the vanity) but also looking at what colours go together in other rooms of the house, and ideas for the backyard. Both were pretty good exercises as we saw a few nice bathrooms with designs we liked, and got a few ideas on what we can do with the other rooms in our home.

Ugh.. Tender...

Well, we finally made it to tender, only to find out that having a pre-approval from the bank (which our mortgage broker said was ok) wasnt enough of a guarantee that we were serious about building, and we are going to have to pay 3% of the quoted price up front!! Apparently, no other builder does this except the one we're building with! Hrmm.. I feel like we're being jibbed..

Anyways, we added all our structural variations and upgrades and it didnt come up too badly. Our site costs, which we thought were going to be sky high, only came up around $900 more than what we were quoted which was great! This included an upgrade to the concrete slab as well, so I guess that was pretty good. At the moment, our structural variations include:

• upgrade concrete slab to "H-Class" slab
• upgrade to higher door height for all room doors
• added cupboards to both sides of the rangehood
• added pot drawers
• added a cupboard to the top of fridge space
• widened fridge space to 950mm
• added a door to the ensuite and rumpus
• changed the window size of two bedrooms
• changed bi-fold doors leading to proposed alfresco area to french doors

I think that's about it off the top of my head.

Next up is our colour appointment in about a week. I'm talking wall colours, bricks, roof tiles, door, locks, handles, cupboards, garage door, front door, sinks, taps etc etc.. you name it, we have to pick it.. argh.. Then about a week after that is our tile appointment. I'm still not ready!! :) And what about the upgrades that we might pick?

Oh dear.. what have I gotten myself into?

Finally... Tender!

Just a quick update...

• We got finally got the call from the north office and they have all our papers in order (thank God) and have tender booked for two weeks away!! So next stop, colour and tile appointments! It cant be this soon!! I still havent finalised my colour scheme!!! I think I've gone to Bunnings so many times people might think I work there! I need to see more Laminex colour chips! I need to go back to the interiors show room!
• We still havent decided on what colour we want our floor, but we're leaning very much towards strand woven bamboo. Apparently it's a lot more durable and waterproof than normal timber floors which would be a lot of help in the kitchen area.
• We've been traipsing through lighting stores and furniture stores all weekend looking at down lights and dining suites and we bought a couch! It's HOT! It's red leather with chaise lounge and ottoman. I am in love with my new couch! Hahaha

That's it for now.. We'll keep you posted!

Our Little Piece of Australia

Hi everyone!

Well, it has been decided by Kir and I that we would start a blog to keep all of you, our close friends and family, updated as we endeavour to construct our brand spanking new home.

This is how the story starts..

Earlier this year, after much debate and procrastination, Kir and I finally decided to commit to purchasing a piece of land. It wasnt an easy decision to make, but we weighed up the pros and the cons of buying land and building versus buying a place that was already established, and buying somewhere that was further out versus somewhere closer to the CBD, and the pros far out-weighed the cons for buying and building somewhere a little further out.

So, on April 27th 2008, with much trepidation, we put a deposit down on a fairly decent sized block of land (16 x 32 M) in Craigieburn. Contract signed with the land developers, we headed off to see a mortgage broker to see if the bank would give us poor, unfortunate people some money to make our dream a reality.

After many phone calls and a ton of paperwork, our loan was finalised and we became proud owners of Lot 4245 in Craigieburn.

Now the fun part begins.. building the house! We have decided on the Heywood28 by Porter Davis. It's pretty much exactly what we want.. spacious but still cosy enough for the both of us.. for now.. :)

We had our variation appointment about two weeks ago, but we couldnt get the quote that night due to their system being down. We had to wait about 5 days before we got a copy, and even then, we had to chase them up for it!! Not only that, they had our paperwork sent to their East office instead of their North office.. great start guys.. but things are fixed now. The north office has our paperwork and we have been contacted by their manager.

Anyway, we are now currently waiting for one of their Customer Service Consultants from the North office to contact us so we can book our colour and tile appointments as well as a date for tender.

So that's as far as we are at the moment. Hopefully you can tune in occasionally and join us on our journey to becoming brand new home owners!