Slab Party!

We came back from a trip overseas to see the shape of half of the house start which was great. We had always hoped to be in by christmas as my daughter starts school in the Feb but with the previous delays and xmas shutdown our date now is the end of march which is a nightmare as I dont want her to start school with a 2hr car trip every day from where we are living now, but we will figure it out.

The slab is now in and it sgreat to see progress. A bit of rain slowed it down a bit but its now in and the frame can start with the next payment!

Heres some pics....

Starting to see the shape of something...

What on earth are we going to do with all this garden...

All ready for slab to be poured!!?//;'';..l;;;;;;; ( My son helping with the typing!)

We had our own little slab party with a bottle of petersons bubbly and our electrical and tile plans!! W-hoo! Go us crazy kids!!! Anyway slab is in and ready for next stage (ill find a pic soon Darren must have it on his phone) Next electrical and Tile appt.....yes I am dreaming about the Tile appointment.

Trees gone, land cleared and ready to go!!!

The build has finally started aso Im all motivated to get creative and start reallt thinking about the house. We both switched off for a while and wanted to run away from the whole project. Mostly due to dramas with the bushfire restrictions (and subsequant whopping great big budget blowout!) Me having a strop about $25,000 for ugly metal shutters but realising they do keep the house preety safe. It all seemed to be taking forever and messages werent going through. The lack of control was really hard to get our heads around but guess we have to get used to that! 

So, DA approval was lodged in Jan and was approved 19.3.14!!!!! The process was actually pretty smooth and took about 8 weeks so what we expected. As soon as that went through we got onto our wonderful arborist and started clearing the trees that were needed. I would highly recommend him, his quote came in way under everyone else as he seems to have the massive equipment needed for our HUGE gumtrees...much to the kids entertainment!

It took longer than expected to get the construction certificate, I think so many people are involved between finance, planner, building co etc that the messages went through so slowly that the "2 weeks" we were told from getting DA approval to build starting turned into 2 MONTHS! Finally we started on the 14.5.14

Trevor in action

...and the rest is gone!

These videos are pretty cool and amazing how big those trees were! Stumps gone land cleared and readdy to go!

The build started while we were on holiday in the UK and it was great to come back and see a fence, portaloo and the start of the slab! Just seeing anything happen was pretty exciting and felt like all this planning, meetings, talking, budgets were actuially getting us somewhere. Beacuase we dont live in the area and dont see so much of what happens behind the scenes it feels like nothing ever happens. All I see is my scrapbook getting bigger and my neverending piles of home magazines getting bigger and bigger!!!!

The almighty kitchen selections!

I've been pinning on Pinterest for monts with kitchen design and I'm still questioning bits. I want a modern shaker/country style design that looks quite individual. We have gone for standard Matt white cupboards and hopefully a nice blue subway tile for the splash back. We had managed to add into the plans a HUGE walkin pantry which we were quoted over $3k to fut out so we are going to plan if and fit it out ourselves. Here's some pics and I'll try and get the kitchen plans too to load on. 

Polytec laminate lismore Matt White

Big handle dilemmas.....

I like the top ones but not sure black will stand out too much. 

We have also got paneling on the ends if the island bench to match te cupboards rather than caeserstone waterfall ends ($$$$$) 

This is kind of the look I'm going for with alpine mist benchtops which has been an upgrade but so worth it. The pic doesn't do it justice it's a beautiful grey and white.

With hopefully these tiles from EARP if they don't break the bank....Devon sky hand painted subway.

I'm sure I'll still be doubting it when everything is signed off but ill def be researched out! Having so much fun!! 

Colour selections

This is the part I have been most excited about the whole process but my god its hard when you have no imaging to go by for the house. This would be one critisism of montgomery as a firm and Im not even sure if other companies do this but a virtual tour of your actual plans and choices surely cant be that hard to do when you are working on a pre designed home and choosing from a set selections range? I think I can visualise quite well but it would really help those who cant and just confirm the decisions that you are making. So our selections are: Brick - PGH Northbridge http://www.pghbricks.com.au/Bricks/Show_201.aspx Roof - Colourbond Woodland Grey http://colorbond.com/colour Windows, front door and bi-folds - WIdeline Pearl White (we have been debating between surfmist and white but I love the contrast and brightness of the white for windows and doors and probably surfmist for downpipes eaves etc.) Cladding - Aspen snow (White really) Internal walls - Frosted Ice (Now thinking maybe a more noticable grey) Internal doors and archatraves - gloss white to coordinate with windows and contrast light grey internal walls. The kitchen selections i could talk about for days Im so excited about kitchens so ill get some images and post them seperately.

PGH Northbridge brick Off white mortar (Raked finish)



5 door bi fold white aluminium



aspen snow cladding

Colorbond Wooodland grey roofing

This is the year....Plans and plot.

So Im new to this blogging business but have been so insipred by others i have found I want to start one to hopefully insipre others and to keep track of our build. Quite a lot has happened and a lot of decisions have been made so I thought Id track a few on here with an idea of times. Firstly our plans have been finalised and will be going to council as soon as work starts again after NY. I think it has taken 5 or 6 tenders in total a lot with minor chamges and a few delays such as loosing our original sales guy which was a shame as he was brill and really helped us out with a lot of queries (some Im sure quite naive!) The biggest hurdle we have had is that our plot although huge (1590sqm) a lot is exclusion zone for bush fire so we cant put a structure up in over 2/3rds of it and its sloping. Hence our decision to build with montgomery. We have gone for a full split design which we are really happy with and flipped the design so living areas are downstairs and living/rumpus upstairs so a bit more traditional but easier with young kids. We have extended the house at the back to get a few more sqm on the floor plan and added a nive big alfresco that we will oneday hopefully be able to afford to make into a nice big deck to sit and chill on with a glass of wine looking out on the bush! We have made a few changes to the layout and windows etc and really happy with the resulting plans (fingers crossed).