Taking Shape

I just can’t keep up with entries on this blog at the same speed that the builder is moving.

We are now in our 3rd month of building and the brick work is mostly complete, windows are in (mostly) and the plasterer is almost finished.

We have had a few little issues hence the majority of things which are currently “mostly” complete.  Our windows were installed back at the end of June and straight away we realised that the incorrect ones had been put in.  All along we believed we would have timber windows in our facade.  There was a bit of toing & froing between us and the builder however in the end they honoured what had been promised and the aluminium windows were removed.  This took about 2 weeks to sort out and when we finally did, the window supplier had a back log meaning it was going to be another 2 week wait for the windows.  As a result of this, the bricky couldn’t finish everything so finished the bulk with the rest to be finished once the new windows were available.

When the windows did finally arrive one was the wrong size and the other the supervisor wasnt happy with as it wasnt square.  Although some people may be annoyed at this, the manner in which Boutique have managed it has been commendable.  I didn’t have to say anything and although no doubt it is an inconvenience to the supervisor to remove the windows and have them remade I didn’t even have to say anything.

As the house is now basically weather tight, the plaster has been through and plaster has been installed (excluding cornice).  Cornice will likely be done in the coming days.

The house is really starting to take shape now.  There is one spot in particular which I love standing which is in the study door way looking along the wall toward the theatre room.  This sounds really strange but we have a lovely semi recess on this wall and I am in love.  Not sure what feature we will put in there yet, but once we are in we will have a good look and work it out.

Our flooring is going to be installed next week.  We were going to tile the floor as my fiance is a tiler, however had been unable to find any tiles which we really loved.  In the end we decided to price hardwood timber as this was what we had really wanted from the beginning although our budget initially was not as generous as it is now.

We went to Steves Discount flooring in Geelong and I fell in love with the Grey Iron Bark Hardwood.  Although the timber is about 3 times the cost of the tiles we were initially going to lay I just couldn’t find anything which came close.  In the end we decided that we could find the extra money and have committed to the timber.

Hopefully it will look something like this:

In the past week we have also decided that we will sell our existing house.  Although we initially wanted to keep it for an investment, I just don’t think I want the pressure of dealing with tenants etc.  The benefits mean we can take the equity out of the place when we sell it and do my fiance’s shed which would be impossible for the first 6 months otherwise as funds had been directed to other things 😛

We have started buying furniture and we are in love with Dare Gallery.  We have purchased our new dining table and chairs from there and a reading chair for our bedroom.  

 

Now we just need to update some of our other things like outdoor table, buffet, bed suite and a new couch for our theatre.

So many things to buy, so little money to keep spending 😛

Anyway, here are a few pic’s of the progress so far.  Sorry for the limited posts.  Time just gets away from you so quickly. 

     

Loving our bricks 🙂

  

This is where I love standing.  The photo doesn’t capture it and it probably means nothing to anyone other than me, but there is just something about the lines in this spot which I love!  

Until next time. ENJOY!

Waiting, Waiting…

It has been a while since I last blogged, however nothing of much significance has really happened over the past couple of months.

Since my last entry we have settled our land (which we frequent on a regular basis, perhaps just to make sure it hasn’t disappeared), been advised of our street numbers (number 6-8) and waited, waited, waited for movement with the build.

At this point in time, I am seriously considering either pitching a tent, or perhaps if we feel like living in absolute luxury, parking a caravan on the block as it feels like that will be as close as we get to ever living there.

The whole building process is long, drawn out and extremely emotional. We have been through the excited stage (“OMG we have found an amazing plan, OMG we can put that piece of furniture there, OMG imagine what it’s going to be like when we move in”).  This stage reminds one of a 15 year old girl.

We have also been through the doubt phase. Have we made the right choice? Did we rush into things too quickly? Will this be big enough? Etc.

My mum has recently built and the one thing we realised after looking through her house was the lack of storage space in the home. At the moment we have 3 bedrooms with large floor to ceiling robes (we have 9ft ceilings) which are all full. I was concerned about the amount of space we had and had a melt down. Although the builder was helpful in the early stages, they have been quite slow since we signed our preworks contract. This has planted far too much doubt in our minds and I have made the decision more than once to throw in the towel with the whole thing.

Given we were going so long between speaking with our consultant I decided not to say anything and rather just go around to various display homes and decide on a new builder and floor plan.

We spoke with Long Island Homes, Metricon Homes, Urban Edge and Carlisle.

What a mistake!!! They are all as bad as each other.  With the exception of Metricon!

I handed a list which I had compiled to the sales consultant at Long Island and it was as if he was paying me to build our home. Carlisle scared the heck out of us saying that we would be looking at at least $20-$25k for our site costs (so far by every other builder we have been quoted $10-$12k – although it ended up being more than this, see below) and every builder tried to talk us into something that we didn’t want, including a much smaller house!!!

We went home feeling deflated and exhausted!!! All we could think was “What on earth do we do???”.

We sat down and looked at the floor plan again for the Boutique. Although earlier I had been looking at the plan and thinking that maybe I didn’t like it so much, I instantly fell back in love with it. It was afterall the one we had picked from so many display homes earlier in the year. And looking at it now, I realised that we had been trying to modify every other floor plan to match this layout.

We had set out to build the 28sq (hence the name of the blog) however have changed our minds and have decided to build the 31sq.  The reason being that the study is an extra 0.5m wide which will allow for the inclusion of a large wall to wall, floor to ceiling cupboard for surplus items such as suitcases, sporting equipment etc.  The bedrooms are also larger, which is something I was very concerned about with the 28sq.

After much frustration with the builder saying he was going to get back to me with information etc, I finally blew my lid when a sales consultant called and asked if we wanted to book in the colour consultation. At this point we had no costings for the 31sq (which we had asked for twice in the past month), no idea around our site costs (which we had been promised for 3 months) and no recent communication of any substance. After losing my cool, I find out that our sales consultant had been trying to continue his work even though he was in hospital with a serious illness. This made me more annoyed at the builder that they had not provided sufficient assistance to someone who was so ill.  On top of this didn’t I feel like the worlds biggest BITCH!

Finally I was passed onto the sales manager who has been very helpful.

We finally got our site costs. This was a shock!  We have been advised that following the soil test we will be up for $18k in site costs due to the amount of fill on the block and over compaction.  Although disappointing we will manage and given the over engineering which will no doubt be completed as part of the site works, our house should be solid as a rock!!! 

It is likely that we will now not start building until about April/May next year as I don’t want to move in over the winter months. 

All we can do now is wait!  

31sq Floor Plan

 

The House

Below are some of the photo’s of the display with some of the features we would like to build in…

 

The Barcelona 28 Floor Plan

 

The computer generated facade we have chosen.

 

 

The Facade from side on at the Plumpton Display. Think we will stick with these colours. I am not very original!

 

Huge 1.8m shower!!! STANDARD!

 

The dining.  We have chosen to have a sliding door leading from the dining out to a future deck or outdoor area. 

 

Living Area

 

The “Home Office”. We will be placing wall to ceiling cupboards where the desk is in the photo. 

 

The ensuite. Love that big vanity!!!

 

The master bedroom. 

 

We have gone with the same bench top as the Waralilly Display and think that we will probably go with the same colours, although the wall to the left will be all white with a fridge space and white cabinetry.

 

We have also gone with the same brick work as the display home.   The bricks are a nice dark blue, brown colour.

And so it begins…

In commencing our journey to build a new home, I have decided to start my own blog given I have enjoyed other peoples so much.

This site will be a constant work in progress as our journey progresses and things no doubt CHANGE!!!

After buying our first home in 2009 and renovating the place ourselves (that should possibly read himself as I did almost nothing) we started to look for the next project.

Our current house although comfortable, is quite small and the set up of the block not completely ideal with my fiancé having 2 work cars as well as my personal car.

We started looking at older, large homes on big blocks which were structurally sound, but very dated and in need of some TLC. Although we found a few, nothing fell within our price range by the time stamp duty and renovations were covered.

We have always dreamed of being able to secure a large block of land (perhaps an acre) and so we began looking for large house blocks in Geelong and also some smaller acreage blocks in Bannockburn. Both had their draw backs. The large house blocks which were within our price range were sloping and generally useless for the purposes of having the “big back yard” with retaining walls required. The acreage blocks were fantastic however by the time you added sewerage, upgraded fencing to keep the dogs in and then landscaping, you may as well forget about your budget.

Almost having given up on the idea, my fiancé came home from work one day after having worked in Grand Lakes Estate in Lara saying that there were a heap of blocks for sale and that we should take a look.

Long story short, we found a large 854m2 block within the upcoming stage 18 which was perfect for our home and best of all within our budget.

Next hurdle, find a floor plan which we like.

I had spent some time in Adelaide in April for work, and on my one weekend home we decided to go and do something interesting on the Sunday before I flew back. New display homes had recently been opened in Williams Landing and we spent a good couple of hours going through the displays.

One really caught our eye. It was the Boutique Barcelona 31. There was something about it. We spoke with the sales staff prior to leaving who said she would send the costings through to me that evening.

Sitting in my hotel room in Adelaide I kept looking through the sales brochures which we had collected and kept coming back to the Barcelona. I didn’t really like the facade, the floor tiles were a bit blah, and the general decor didn’t really do all that much for me. But I just loved the space!

I could see myself cooking in the kitchen, relaxing in the theatre room on a rainy Sunday afternoon, or sprawling all my makeup from one end of the Ensuite vanity to the other!

When I returned from my trip away we went out to the Waralilly Display centre which also had a different version of the Barcelona on display.

It didn’t take us long to confirm that this was the house we wanted to build.

We have initially chosen the Barcelona 28 and chosen to upgrade a few things like 40mm Caesarstone with waterfalls in the Kitchen (same as display), 20mm caesarstone in Bathroom, Ensuite, powder room, evap cooling, 4 star heating with zoning, 90mm cornice, 450mm eaves all the way round, Gallerie Facade. In addition to this we are thinking we may increase the ceiling height to 2.7m and add a few more cosmetic changes including doors, upgrade carpet & tiles etc.

We signed our Pre-Works contract (PWC) with Boutique on 29/06 and paid our initial deposit. Now it is just a matter or waiting which so far is killing me!!!

Well, the first post was always going to be massive given the time which has elapsed since we started the process and now.

I hope you all enjoy watching my journey and I look forward to hearing other people’s experiences 🙂

I will put up some photos of the block and display with features we will be looking to incorporate into our home 🙂

Ciao, Pippa ❤