I haven't heard back from Chris about his dealings with the kitchen company. Should make interesting viewing. I must email them to tell them I wish to change the colour of the cabinets and doors to Mountain Pepper. I did call their office on Friday (it is Sunday today) and left a message to say that I may change... just so they had it.
The kitchen company needs ME to tell them what size to leave the fridge cavity - I would of thought she would of made suggestions or even asked me what size fridge to give me a bit of an idea. Ditto with the washing machine.... From my investigations at the whitegoods store, the front loading washing machines are very similar... 800 mm I believe.
Some other decisions I still have to make at this moment are about - where the powerpoints and light switches will go, where the outside powerpoints should go, letterbox, width of decking in the alfresco area, paint colours, kitchen splashback tiles, bathroom taps, laundry & kitchen taps. Some things took ages to decide on so I am sure some of the above will also take time.
Today we drove back to the block and had another look around for tomorrow the paperwork goes through and we actually OWN THE BLOCK! The builder can officially start building even though he has already done so! He's just done the ground and dirt preparation for the slab. We'll be full stead ahead very soon.
I am already dreading having to do the garden. It is so much hard work to get a garden in order from a wide expanse of dirty to luscious lawns, garden beds, edging, paving, garden beds, paths and retaining walls if need be!
We will be travelling with 2 mad cats and we are sure they will love the new house as there is a really long walkway right down the middle of the house and they can chase each other like lunatics!
Stay tuned....
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Kitchen Decisions!
If you remember, I visited the infamous "Emily" at the kitchen company.
I was thinking of the colours I had chosen for the doors... not sure if I may change.....
I was thinking of the colours I had chosen for the doors... not sure if I may change.....
This is mountain pepper... I might go to this colour.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
We have pegs!!!!!!!!!
Not only do we have extra dirt and gravel, we now have pegs!!!!
The land has been surveyed and laid out so the slab can be laid.
The land has been surveyed and laid out so the slab can be laid.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The Kitchen
I visited the Kitchen company our builder uses. I have visited twice before and have never been fully happy at the service I received. The salesperson, for the purposes of this blog, I'll call her Emily, frustrated me. Every comment or question I made about a product, she'd say, "oh, that is dearer" or "that is really expensive" - let ME be the judge of what I can and cannot afford.
I had a sample clipping from a magazine of what I wanted. In our discussions Emily would say, "do you want a round edge bench top". Ah, SHOW ME what a round edge looks like. I had to continually ask to see things, such as the style of rubbish bin to go under the sink, the door handles, the size of the drawers and the profile of the doors. In other instances she showed me a catalogue and asked me to pick from that. Once again I said I need to physically see what I am choosing.
I was also told I would need to go and buy a rangehood as they did not deal with Bosch???? The builder had already told the kitchen company that they were to supply it. Since when did a customer need to go and buy their own rangehood?!!!
We have had a few difficulties in the layout of the kitchen. Emily begrudgingly said she could do certain things I asked. In the end, Emily thought we'd finished and all was finalised. However, I was concerned by the size of the kitchen. For example, the bench on the wall where the hotplates sit was supposed to be bigger than originally planned as the builder had lengthened the room to make the laundry area larger. However, in the kitchen maker's plans, the kitchen length was only 1500 mm instead of at least 1800.
After getting upset at the thought of having a small and ugly kitchen, I rang the builder and he said'd he'd fix things with the kitchen company and make sure the size of the kitchen was what he wanted.
Even though there are few things to be settled, we have chosen a very plain cupboard door. It is very square without a bevelled edge.
We have chosen to have the kitchen in high gloss to give it a modern feel. The cupboard range is Polytech in Cappuccino. I really like it.
We have chosen a double undermount sink. The sink has a removable drain tray so we can wash dishes and dry them without taking up all the space on the kitchen bench.
I had a sample clipping from a magazine of what I wanted. In our discussions Emily would say, "do you want a round edge bench top". Ah, SHOW ME what a round edge looks like. I had to continually ask to see things, such as the style of rubbish bin to go under the sink, the door handles, the size of the drawers and the profile of the doors. In other instances she showed me a catalogue and asked me to pick from that. Once again I said I need to physically see what I am choosing.
I was also told I would need to go and buy a rangehood as they did not deal with Bosch???? The builder had already told the kitchen company that they were to supply it. Since when did a customer need to go and buy their own rangehood?!!!
We have had a few difficulties in the layout of the kitchen. Emily begrudgingly said she could do certain things I asked. In the end, Emily thought we'd finished and all was finalised. However, I was concerned by the size of the kitchen. For example, the bench on the wall where the hotplates sit was supposed to be bigger than originally planned as the builder had lengthened the room to make the laundry area larger. However, in the kitchen maker's plans, the kitchen length was only 1500 mm instead of at least 1800.
After getting upset at the thought of having a small and ugly kitchen, I rang the builder and he said'd he'd fix things with the kitchen company and make sure the size of the kitchen was what he wanted.
Even though there are few things to be settled, we have chosen a very plain cupboard door. It is very square without a bevelled edge.
We have chosen to have the kitchen in high gloss to give it a modern feel. The cupboard range is Polytech in Cappuccino. I really like it.
We have chosen a double undermount sink. The sink has a removable drain tray so we can wash dishes and dry them without taking up all the space on the kitchen bench.
We have chosen a Quantum Quartz stone bench top in Royal Base. It is a little hard to see from the pic and I cannot enlarge it without distorting it. It is a cream colour with small flecks through it. 
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Our Land
This blog seems to flick all over the place. I should of showed your our land first. Here it is!
There is a slight slope from left to right. The builder says he'll cut out the soil slightly on the left and build it up on the right.
We have pretty views to the left and back. Our living areas will be on the left so we have a great view. We don't envisage anyone building behind us as there is a small creek way down yonder, but if they do, they won't destroy our view because of the slope.
We like to stand on the land and say..."it's ours!"
Selections!
I think one of the hardest things of all is deciding what to have in your house.
The colour selections can "make or break" the look of a house. Well, I think so anyway.
We had decided on the colourbond colour of Dune for windows and I confirmed this with the builder, along with the brick colours and room colour. He said that the windows don't come in that colour and told me where to go to look at the colours.
I went and had a look at what was available and there wasnt anything similar to Dune which is a greyish brown colour (sounds yuck but it is nice!). The closest they had was a traditional pale grey colour which doesn't match the bricks or the room. Ho hum... what do I do now.
After spending ages looking at the colours and deciding what would suit I came to the conclusion that NONE of their colours would look good so I am having to have them custom painted to the colour we want. Hooray, but boo because it costs more! Disaster averted after all.
The colour selections can "make or break" the look of a house. Well, I think so anyway.
We had decided on the colourbond colour of Dune for windows and I confirmed this with the builder, along with the brick colours and room colour. He said that the windows don't come in that colour and told me where to go to look at the colours.
I went and had a look at what was available and there wasnt anything similar to Dune which is a greyish brown colour (sounds yuck but it is nice!). The closest they had was a traditional pale grey colour which doesn't match the bricks or the room. Ho hum... what do I do now.
After spending ages looking at the colours and deciding what would suit I came to the conclusion that NONE of their colours would look good so I am having to have them custom painted to the colour we want. Hooray, but boo because it costs more! Disaster averted after all.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Still Introducing our house!!!
We decided on the layout of the house and the architect has drawn up the plans.
Here is the style of the house we have chosen....
We will be having similar colours. Our bricks are smooth face in an olive brown colour similar to the render on the portico here. Our roof will be in colourbond's Woodland Grey and the windows and fascia in Dune (a pale grey colour). Our garage doors will be the same style as the picture, also in Dune.
The front of the house will be rendered like the photos in olive/brown as the portico shows and the walls a grey colour. The remainder of the house will have the smooth face bricks left bare. We chose the smooth face bricks as they have a modern look. Above the portico in the darker brown/grey colour are stone pavers (if that is the right word for what tiles go on a wall!)
Our internal colours will be neutral - creams and browns.
Here is the style of the house we have chosen....
We will be having similar colours. Our bricks are smooth face in an olive brown colour similar to the render on the portico here. Our roof will be in colourbond's Woodland Grey and the windows and fascia in Dune (a pale grey colour). Our garage doors will be the same style as the picture, also in Dune.
The front of the house will be rendered like the photos in olive/brown as the portico shows and the walls a grey colour. The remainder of the house will have the smooth face bricks left bare. We chose the smooth face bricks as they have a modern look. Above the portico in the darker brown/grey colour are stone pavers (if that is the right word for what tiles go on a wall!)
Our internal colours will be neutral - creams and browns.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
More about our Builder!
Part 2... our builder continued!
The builder was actually building his own home in a similar style to what we wanted, so we figured if he used companies and products for his own home then he must be very happy with them.
Our initial discussion with the builder took 3 hours - a vast difference from the last builder who shuffled us in and out in 15 minutes. We said we'd discuss the possibility of him building our home and we'd be back in touch.
As I said in the previous blog, we both had decided he was the builder within 15 minutes of meeting him. It was wonderful to have your builder share your enthusiasm for your house.
We collected pictures and designs of things we liked and discussed it with the builder. He knew of the quality of things we wanted and was pleased that we knew exactly what we wanted. I had built a house previously so was aware of all the little things that needed to be noted or thought of. We departed after Chris said he'd work out a rough price for us and a list of inclusions.
We had decided on a 4 bedroom house, with 4 living areas, 2 bathrooms an alfresco area and are also pondering a pool. We're 95% sure the pool will go ahead.
There is a large master bedroom at the front, a computer room / office near this, formal living area, then through to the kitchen were there is a meals area, family room, and past the meals area there is a rumpus room. We are having bi fold or panorama doors that open the whole alfresco area. We also wanted raised ceilings to give the impression of height. The entry area is just a fraction under 3 metres. Oh, and we are also having a 3 car garage!
The builder was actually building his own home in a similar style to what we wanted, so we figured if he used companies and products for his own home then he must be very happy with them.
Our initial discussion with the builder took 3 hours - a vast difference from the last builder who shuffled us in and out in 15 minutes. We said we'd discuss the possibility of him building our home and we'd be back in touch.
As I said in the previous blog, we both had decided he was the builder within 15 minutes of meeting him. It was wonderful to have your builder share your enthusiasm for your house.
We collected pictures and designs of things we liked and discussed it with the builder. He knew of the quality of things we wanted and was pleased that we knew exactly what we wanted. I had built a house previously so was aware of all the little things that needed to be noted or thought of. We departed after Chris said he'd work out a rough price for us and a list of inclusions.
We had decided on a 4 bedroom house, with 4 living areas, 2 bathrooms an alfresco area and are also pondering a pool. We're 95% sure the pool will go ahead.
There is a large master bedroom at the front, a computer room / office near this, formal living area, then through to the kitchen were there is a meals area, family room, and past the meals area there is a rumpus room. We are having bi fold or panorama doors that open the whole alfresco area. We also wanted raised ceilings to give the impression of height. The entry area is just a fraction under 3 metres. Oh, and we are also having a 3 car garage!
Our Dream Home
A lot has happened and we have just decided to write this blog.
For the purpose of anonyminity on my blog, my name is Moreton, and my partner's name is Squirrel!! That's why our house is called the Squirrel's nest.
We had looked at property to by and we were not able to find anything we liked. We wanted a 4 bedroom house with at least 2 living areas and 2 bathrooms. Everything was just plain ugly, not our style or way overpriced for what it was.
We did our research and thought the only way to get value for money was to buy land and build our own house.... our "Squirrel's Nest".
We were not sure of what size land to build on. We originally thought a larger block, perhaps 2000 sq m or larger, but then we'd have a lot of work to doing the garden etc. We settled on a block of approximately 1200 sq m. It is slightly sloping with a rural outlook. Our street name is named after a very famous and popular person!!
We drove around the area and took names and numbers of builders. The first builder we saw, or rather attempted to see was not home... so he missed out. The second builder had no interest in anything! Over the telephone we had given him a brief on what we were after and when we visited him he just handed over a pile of house plans and said, "see if there is anything you like". Half the plans were not what we wanted (e.g. ranch style) and the other few were just doubles of what was there. Of the 50 or so plans he gave me, there were only about 2 or 3 that were "possibilities". My partner and I left his office and got in the car and we both said, "we're not going with that guy - he's not interested - he never asked us anything, not even what our budget was".
We visited a 3rd builder - Chris - (his company will remain anonymous just to keep things about us private!!). We visited him at a house he had just built and we knew upon walking in that this was the builder we wanted. He had quality fittings - not the normal "cheap junk" and the house was modern / contemporary, without being "too modern". We told him what we liked and had a rough sketch of the house we wanted. He gave us his idea, showed ideas from around his own display house, and my partner and I both got the impression that he was willing to do the job, and that his quality control was excellent and he liked "designer things".
For the purpose of anonyminity on my blog, my name is Moreton, and my partner's name is Squirrel!! That's why our house is called the Squirrel's nest.
We had looked at property to by and we were not able to find anything we liked. We wanted a 4 bedroom house with at least 2 living areas and 2 bathrooms. Everything was just plain ugly, not our style or way overpriced for what it was.
We did our research and thought the only way to get value for money was to buy land and build our own house.... our "Squirrel's Nest".
We were not sure of what size land to build on. We originally thought a larger block, perhaps 2000 sq m or larger, but then we'd have a lot of work to doing the garden etc. We settled on a block of approximately 1200 sq m. It is slightly sloping with a rural outlook. Our street name is named after a very famous and popular person!!
We drove around the area and took names and numbers of builders. The first builder we saw, or rather attempted to see was not home... so he missed out. The second builder had no interest in anything! Over the telephone we had given him a brief on what we were after and when we visited him he just handed over a pile of house plans and said, "see if there is anything you like". Half the plans were not what we wanted (e.g. ranch style) and the other few were just doubles of what was there. Of the 50 or so plans he gave me, there were only about 2 or 3 that were "possibilities". My partner and I left his office and got in the car and we both said, "we're not going with that guy - he's not interested - he never asked us anything, not even what our budget was".
We visited a 3rd builder - Chris - (his company will remain anonymous just to keep things about us private!!). We visited him at a house he had just built and we knew upon walking in that this was the builder we wanted. He had quality fittings - not the normal "cheap junk" and the house was modern / contemporary, without being "too modern". We told him what we liked and had a rough sketch of the house we wanted. He gave us his idea, showed ideas from around his own display house, and my partner and I both got the impression that he was willing to do the job, and that his quality control was excellent and he liked "designer things".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)