Kate + Paul Construct!

One more week.....

2010-02-27T00:07:00.000-08:00

So I didn't move in today as originally hoped...handover is now set for next Friday and I'll move on the 6th, there are a few more little things to occur...pics:

Kitchen and my divine black splashback (love it!!):

Splashback again and 90cm freestanding oven!!:

Kitchen, including built-in shelves and floorboards:

Looking from kitchen out:

The beautiful decking:

Deck outside Bed 1:

Kitchen looking from outside:

Dining Room with floorboards down:

Both the sliding stackers looking from kitchen:

Family Room:

Kitchen built-in shelving:

Kitchen again:

Entry porch with feature tiles (same tiles still to be laid on the ground):

Side yard (left of house as you look at it):

Backyard:

Deck (alfresco area):

Backyard looking from other end (and the lovely fence):

Side of house (right side as you look at it):

Looking from the sreet:

And again:

Carpet:

Study:

WIR and Ensuite in Bed 1 looking from study:

Bed 1:

Entrance way to Bed 1:

From the porch looking in:

Rumpus Room:

Family/Dining:

From back hallway looking to front door:

Avie's Room when she outgrows the nursery/study:

Looking from WC down hall to Brynn's Room:

Bathroom window, funny story, they installed a standard window, then the glazier came to install the frosted windows but only did one side as you can see!!!...fully frosted window to be done this week:

Carpet in back hallway, door to Bed 4/Guest Room:

WC and hallway looking from Brynn's Room:

Guest Bedroom:

Brynn's Room:

The finishing touches part 2...

2010-02-05T15:45:00.000-08:00

We were at the house last Thurs to do a list of defects - not too many, mainly paint chips etc with inspectors/certifiers going through yesterday and on Monday. We are still on track for the 5th Feb!!

Pics:

Firstly, now that miss Avie is here, I can show you the feature wall in the rumpus room (girls playroom), it is Dulux Iced Vovo:

Light shades over island bench:

Feature light dining room:

Feature light entry hallway:

Deck almost done:

WC cleaned and shiny, just awaiting mirror for above basin:

Shower screen in main bathroom, bathroom nicely cleaned now:

Vanity and cabinet in main bathroom:

Mirror in ensuite, half if it anyway:

Freestanding oven ready for install:

Fully integrated Miele dishwasher, kitchen people have now measured and will be back to install front piece:

The finishing touches, part 1

2010-01-28T00:17:00.000-08:00

Out to the house today, carpenter has done handles etc and will finish the deck on Tuesday probably, plumber done all the taps, toilets etc and wil be back to do the dishwasher next week. Also out next week is electrician who will finish off the lights and powerpoints etc. Floorboard laying and landscaping will start 15th Feb, carpet and blinds after that, splashback has been ordered! Lots of final inspections 4th - 8th Feb.

Pics:

Posts ready for the deck:

WC in ensuite:

Shower in ensuite:

Towel rail and toilet roll holder in ensuite:

Vanities with taps in ensuite, mirrors to come:

Flyscreens awaiting installation:

Tub and tap in laundry:

Laundry:

Pantry shelves:

Handles on robes and doors:

Hanging rail in wardrobes:

Main WC:

Sink in WC:

Bath with tap and mixer:

Towel rail in main bathroom:

Vanity in main bathroom with mirror cabinet (the blue will come off!):

Shower in main bathroom:

Finally some more pics!! 3 weeks away from handover...hopefully:)

2010-01-18T20:17:00.001-08:00

Went to the house today and the painters have almost finished so the crime scene paper sheeting has come down so got some decent bathroom pics! From here the carpenter will build the deck and fit off handles etc from tomorrow, and plumber will be in on Monday so do taps and dishwasher etc. About the same time electrician will finish his stuff. Site supervisor thinking about Fri 5th Feb for handover, meet him again next Thursday to see where we are at and start pointing out defects to be rectified.

Paint Colour on all walls in Dulux Grey Pebble.

Pics:

Vanity in Ensuite with tiling complete:

Shower in Ensuite, can see bit of feature wall:

Ensuite feature wall in shower:

Ensuite floor (painters boots!):

Toilet tiling:

Main Bathroom:

Main Shower:

Main Bathroom:

Main Bathroom:
Fence on Northern Side:

Entry way coat cupboard:

WIR in Bed 1:

Electrical!!:

BIR in Brynn's room:

Feature wall in Brynn's Room (she will have an aqua and pink theme):

Storage!! In the laundry:

Kitchen and very dusty quantum quartz benchtops:

Kitchen:

Red Front Door:

Storage Cupboard in garage:

We are locked-up! Photos from the outside looking in...

2009-11-29T12:48:00.000-08:00

Floor tiles in the main bathroom:Laundry:

Laundry Tiles and Cupboards:

Laundry tiles again:

External feature tile in entry:

Feature tile again:
Cupboards in Garage, we can still get in there:

The rainwater tank works!:

Kitchen, laundry, vanities

2009-11-26T00:40:00.000-08:00

Kitchen, vanities and laundry are in, tiler started today in the bathrooms.

Kitchen:Fridge Space:

Where the convection oven will go:

Wine rack and roller door for appliance cupboard:

Wine rack:

Pot drawers:

Kitchen:

Laundry:

Vanity in ensuite:

Ensuite Vanity:

Bathroom Vanity:

Almost at lock-up!!

2009-11-16T00:17:00.001-08:00

The site supervisor has told us that the house should be locked up today! Which is exciting but bad because then we I can't go in anytime. We should have a roller door and a front door by now. The next two days the kitchen is being installed. Floorboards are being delivered next week to live in the garage until we are ready to lay them (thanks Dad!)

Bathroom:

Laundry:

Cabinetry for the kitchen:

More kitchen cabinetry ready to be installed:

Front door! This wil be painted red:

Shower in ensuite:

Ensuite:

Rainwater tap from the tank:

Tank:

Cornices and render!

2009-11-07T18:13:00.001-08:00

The house now has cornices and render!!

Kitchen:

Sliding stackers:

Looking from dining out to front door:

Kitchen, this is where cupboards, fridge and shelving will go: Bed 1:

Ensuite:

Entry hallway looking from outside:

Front door/porch:

Render:

Rendered poles:

House from through the fence:

The house has walls!!

2009-10-30T00:59:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went out and it's looking like a real house now! They will start tiling in 2-3 weeks. Pics...

Brynn's Room:

Hallway between bedrooms looking into WC:

Bathtub all waterproofed:

Main Bathroom waterproofed:

Family and Dining Rooms:

Kitchen:

Dining Room:

Rumpus Room:

Ensuite Shower:

Bed 1:

Entry hallway:

Garage:

Bath, cleaned bricks, power, plumbing, it's all happening!

2009-10-18T01:36:00.000-07:00

Went to visit the house today and the bricks have been cleaned, the electrical work is progressing, plumbing is all there and they are starting on the plasterboard, it's all in the house waiting to go up, and have started in the garage. We also have a bath! Rendering will start next week.

Clean bricks, stacking sliders:

The bathtub:

Plumbing in the laundry

Looking from the rumpus out what will be double sliding doors, into the study:

Air-con:

Sliding door into the ensuite:

The roof inside, electrical:

Clean bricks, garage. Poles still need to be cleaned:

The start of plasterboard in the garage:

Clean bricks, alfresco and back of house:

We have a beautiful colorbond roof!!

2009-10-07T01:45:00.001-07:00

Photo fest ahead!!

Front of house

Front of house again

Side of house with the completed roof

Alfresco area

Alfresco area and where deck will go on side of the house, and smiling daughter!

Stacking sliders that will lead out to the deck

Looking outside from Bed 1, the deck will start here

Family Room

Study

Dining Room

Rumpus Room

Bed 1

The roof from the inside

Rendered feature wall

More Bricks and Trusses

2009-09-28T02:32:00.001-07:00

Went out to block again on the weekend, bricks are halfway there and we have roof trusses!

Front of house, orange bricks is where the render will go, and is also the ensuite.

Garage

Laundry Door and Brynn

Side of house, can see rumpus rom and garage

Looking at Bub #2's bedroom

Side of house, bedrooms, laundry, rumpus and garage

Brynn's room and bub #2's room

Where the alfresco will go, through the bi-fold doors is the dining room

We have bricks!

2009-09-22T04:55:00.001-07:00

They look great, we chose Blackstone by Austral.

Garage

Bed 1, front of house

Where the render feature wall will be

Sliding stackers in the family/dining

Bi-folds in the dining

Let there be Frames!!

2009-09-12T16:18:00.000-07:00

Looking into WIR and ensuite for Bed 1

In kitchen looking into WIP

Spare Bedroom

Rumpus Room, this room is massive!!

Laundry

Garage

Where the stacking sliding dors will go for family and dining rooms

Entry hallway

Dining, that sliding door should be bi-fold doors

Where the future deck will be leading our from the many doors!

2nd bedroom where the bub will go

Brynn's Room

Bed 1

Bathroom

Future Alfresco

More Slab Pics!

2009-09-11T01:41:00.001-07:00

We have a frame now all put up! More pics of that on the weekend, here are more slab pics and a slab video.

The slab:

Our frames ready to be put up.

Brynn "sleeping" in her room.

Video:

There is a slab!!

2009-09-02T17:50:00.001-07:00

This must have been poured on Tuesday, pics taken Wednesday 2nd September.

Almost a slab!!

2009-09-01T18:35:00.001-07:00

These pics were taken on Sunday, so there should be a slab by now, our Project Supervisor said Tuesday which was yesterday but we haven't been out again. And it's very windy out in Forde which is why the fence is down!

Fences and pipes

2009-08-22T23:25:00.000-07:00

As the title suggests, we have been fenced, excavated, and there are pipes everywhere!!

The downside of the fence though is that we can't go in and look around.

We are hoping for a slab by the end of the week!!

Piccies through the fence in the rain:

We have a sign!

2009-08-08T19:11:00.000-07:00

And a massive pile of dirt!

The block next door is being built at the same time by the same builders and they have had their house marked out and site kind of cut, so hopefully we will be next!

Diggers.....

2009-07-24T02:46:00.001-07:00

will be on the block on Monday!!!!!

It is all systems go, loan done, contract done, go ahead done, lets build already!!!!

Re-cap on the block:

Rejection and Contract

2009-06-19T19:53:00.000-07:00

So we were rejected twice by Forde for our non-compliant plans, bah-humbug!!
We had to move our house forward by 40cm (yes that is a very small amount!), and then the architect got the garage wrong and had it 900mm from the fenceline when it should have been 1500.
So that it is all fixed now, our house is slightly smaller (and consequently cheaper!) and we will have a contract on Tuesday!!

We could start before July 1, how exciting would that be:)

Bricks and a start, almost...

2009-05-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

We have chosen Austral Blackstone as the new brick, for an extra $4K! But we are happy with our selection, this is the link: http://www.australbrick.com.au/nsw/product.php?ID=8999

So now Rawson will submit our stuff to Forde, to ACTPLA and then we can start building!!!

All things going to plan it will be about 1 July.

Final colour appointment/variations

2009-05-08T02:56:00.000-07:00

On Thursday we met with the colour consultant lady again to choose paint colours and to finalise everything, what we chose is...drum roll...

Bricks - Austral Blackstone
Exterior feature rendered wall and columns - Dulux whisper white
Eaves etc - Colorbond Surfmist
Garage Door and Roof and Fascia and Gutters and Water Tank - Colorbond Shale Grey
Interior wall paint colour - Dulux Grey Pebble
Feature wall in DD's bedroom - Dulux Watchet (aqua type colour)
Feature Wall in rumpus - Dulux Melissa (apple green colour)
Skirting boards and architraves - Dulux whisper white
Ceiling and cornices - Dulux grey pebble 1/4 strength
Windows - Boral Silver Grey
Internal doors and laundry door - Dulux whisper white
Front Door - Dulux Red Box (very excited about my bright red door!)

Other stuff
As part of the builders package we got a 900mm upright cooker and a canopy rangehood, but we changed the canopy to a slide-out
We changed the sink to an undermount which will look fab under the stone benchtop
We deleted the water purifier option, the water is fine in Canberra and it will look funny with the undermount sink
We upgraded the tiles so they go all the way to the ceiling in the bathroom and ensuite
Kitchen we chose vinyl wrap cupboards (would have loved gloss but budget didn't extend that far!)
Roller door for appliance cupboard in kitchen

I think that's about it, just waiting now for word back about the bricks, and to get the variations for the changes, all going to plan July is a realistic start time!

Pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-05-06T16:18:00.001-07:00

As promised, here are the pictures of our selections:

Ensuite including the fantabulous feature wall tile that we will also use as the kitchen splashback, I'm so in love with a tile!!The feature tile, dreamy:)

Main Bathroom

Floor/Wall tile will also be used in the WC and laundry

External Tile Colour for surrounding front dor and in porch area - the actual tile is textured.

I don't have kitchen samples but we chose Designer White for all cupboards, with Quantum Quartz Tornado benchtop, and of course the tiled splashback same as ensuite feature wall.

We have colours!!

2009-05-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week, but so exciting!
We have tiles, kitchen, vanities, colours and so much more...pics tomorrow!!!

But on the downside we have hit a hiccup with the bricks - we had chosen PGH espresso and went to have a final look, and they have changed their brick like yesterday, and now it is brown, as opposed to bluey browney (that's the technical name), so we looked for new blue bricks and everything we like is not standard, of course, so waiting on prices for this.

Be back tomorrow with the al exciting pics...

We own land!!

2009-04-09T15:25:00.001-07:00

We settled on Wednesday!! Hurrah for owning land and a mortgage!!!

Also have our colour appt booked for 4th May!! I can happily say that we have our external colours pretty much sorted, with a vague idea on the internals...still lots of "discussion" to go with the internals!!

We have a builder!!!!!

2009-03-28T01:33:00.000-07:00

Today we decided to go with Rawson Homes!! And then came home and drank pink champagne! Well, I decided that and Paul reluctantly had a glass:)
We just couldn't go past the quote.

As we have heaps of time, we will meet with our colour consultant in the first week of May and go from there.

Rawson Homes

2009-03-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

Our architect Tim sent us an e-mail this week recommending 2 builders. One of them was Rawson Homes, so me and DD (2.5) went out for a chat while Paul was at a bucks day!

The display Home at Forde is quite nice, nice design etc, so we had a wander and then spoke to one of the sales guys there. I had taken our plans and we had a really good chat about the plans and their inclusions etc.

There were 4 things that impressed me about them:

1. At the moment they are running a deal where you receive free Daikin reverse cycle air-con ducted worth about $15K, for free.

2. They don't charge extra to do a colorbond roof over tiles (a potential saving of at least $5K)

3. The service was fantastic and the guys was really down to earth and answered all my questions with DD running around and needing to use their toilet half-way through!

4. He made a copy of my plans and said he would have them in front of the estimator on Monday week (estimator is on leave next week), and will get back to me ASAP, so if we want to take advantage of the free Daikin deal we can (this ends 31 March).

So all in all it was a positive afternoon. I have confidence in any recommendations that Tim gives us, so now waiting to see what the quote will come back as...

The Block!!

2009-02-21T00:51:00.000-08:00

Pics below:

Final Plans

2009-02-14T20:36:00.001-08:00

The Plans:

Facade of the house

Landscaping plan (very basic)