Our land

Settlement

Well its official, at long last, we settled on the land on Wednesday last week. Ben and I are now the proud owners of six hundred and twenty-five square metres of dirt, time to go plant some crops. We are officially in debt for the rest of our lives!

Other recent revelations on the build, we have encountered a couple of unexpected 'after-we-signed-the-contract' expenses... unfortunately these weren't taken into account in our homeloan, which has already been approved so will now have to come out of our pockets, or rather, our of our wedding budget.

Both of these complications confirm the advice I've been given by several people which I will put out there to anyone about to build a house - QUESTION EVERYTHING!

Concrete piering: 

It appears the 30 lineal metres included in our contract wasn't enough. After the builders sent us an initial variation for $6000- of additional concrete piering, we consulted with my expert uncle the quantity surveyor, who confirmed our thoughts that this seemed fairly excessive. Additionally, friends who just built a two storey place in a nearby suburb didn't even need this ammount of additional peiering so surely it was too much for our little one storey house.

We left the variation unsigned while we were overseas for eight weeks then had a meeting with the builders. They explained the requirement for the additional piering, but assured us the price would be closer to $1500-$2000, much to our relief, however we still decided to wait for the surveyor's report before signing anything off.

The end result came back last week at ~$1900, still a decent chunk of money, but better than the original $6000 they told us it would be. Our house better be super stable after all that!

EER:

The next hiccup we faced was meeting the Six Star Energy Efficiency Requirements. Turns out our house met the requirements, originally. That is until we got to playing with the window sizes. Wanting a bright, open and airy house I had enlarged just about every window in the place.

And so it was, another unexpected variation arrived informing us we'd need to pay around $4000-$5000- for one of two options, both including double glazing variations and downsizing a number of windows, in order to meet the EER.

The double glazing I was ok with, after all in the long run this would save us a bundle in heating/cooling bills, but downsizing the windows was a definitive no-go. If I could have fit more windows into that place I would have, there was no way I wanted to make the ones I had any smaller.

And so, after numerous emails to the builders we were able to get the plan evaluated externally and a third option was provided to us - additional double glazing and leaving the windows all as is, and, it came in cheaper than the options of changing the window sizes!

Speed bump and metre boxes

This week we've found out we should be settling on the land in early November. I also stopped past to snap a few updated pictures and found we now have a speed bump right outside our place and the metre boxes were being installed.

Unfortunately though, with all the paper work that has to wait til settlement, this means our build most likely won't start til next year. So we won't be in by our wedding in April. 

DA plans and a street sign

Despite there still not being any word on the progress of our land, other than getting a street sign, the administrative side of the build has taken another step in the right direction.

Although the land still isn't registered, the surveryor for our builder was able to sneak on site and conduct the countour survey, which means our Development Application (DA) Submission plans could be drawn up ready to go. We received a copy this week and they look great. They've added in all our final external variations to the house, increasing a few window sizes and adding an external door to the garage from the back garden.

We just have to sign off on them and pay the next installment then, once the land becomes available, it all gets sent off for approval.

Land update

After being overseas for the last eight weeks we returned to find that not much had changed in the land situation. Apparently the development was delayed due to rain so the settlement has been pushed back to mid September. There are some additions though, the bike path has been laid beside our block as well as the footpath in front. The ashphalt has gone down on the road beds which were still just gravel before we left. However I'm curious to know when the driveways go in... seeing as they've already laid the gutters...?

 

As we drove past the other day, we discovered the fences had been left open so we snuck in for a quick look up close and took a picture. Lucky we're situated next to the bike path, otherwise we'd have never known which two little white sticks marked our block!

 

Electrical appointment

Late last week, Ben and I met with the electrician to work out the electrical configuration for the house. We had a lot of entitlements included in the build package but some things we wanted were considered upgrades and others we wanted more of then were supplied, like power outlets. A rough run-down of what we're havng includes:

• downlights for the living areas and al fresco area;
• normal light points for the bedrooms;
• a feature light in the rumpus room;
• a feature light over the dining table;
• additional external lights (security/sensor lights); and
• an external outlet in the al fresco area.

The feature lights we'll have to go out and buy ourselves, as well as whatever security lights we choose, and the electrician will install them for us.

That's the last of our input until the build commences. So now the waiting game begins. Hopefully the land will be released in late August and the fun can begin!

Tiles and Carpet

We had our tiling and carpet appointment this afternoon so all our colours are now locked in!

TILES/CARPETS

• Tiling to front porch and al fresco area - Torino Coffee matte 'grip' 450x450

• Carpets to all bedrooms, wardrobes and formal lounge - Sierra Vista, 140

• Tiling to the hallway, living area, dining area and kitchen - Torino Coffee matte 450x45

• Mosaic tiling splashback in kitchen, including behind rangehood

 

• Tiling to bathroom, ensuite and laundry floor - City Latte 300x300

• Tiling to bathroom, ensuite and laundry walls - Matang White 300x400 (laid horizontally)

*No picture*

• Mosaic tiling to bathroom and ensuite shower niches

 

Here's a combination shot of the kitchen with samples of the Ceasarstone bench top, cabinet colour and paint samples:







Here's a combination shot of the bathroom with samples of the Ceasarstone bench tops and cabinet colours:

 





 

Colour consultation

Ben and I met with the colour consultant yesterday to confirm our external colour choices. She was great and knew exactly what she was talking about making it so easy to put together a simple but effective colour scheme. Considering how indecisive and stressed I was over the choices a few weeks ago, its surprising how happy and confident I am now!

The first gem of advice she gave me was that the brick I originally wanted, Austral 'Latte', is a painted brick, so if it chips its immediately noticeable. The brick we ended up selecting is coloured through so chips won't matter. It's also one of the bricks in our inclusions so it doesn't cost any extra. I'm happy because it still has the varying colours through it that I liked about the Latte, rather than being a flat uniform colour.

The other colours I had down to one or two choices and once we started putting the colour scheme together those decisions were easy. The front door was a big difference to what I had in mind though... red! I love it and with the otherwise bland colouring, it's really going to make the house pop!

EXTERNAL COLOURS

• Bricks - PGH 'Gravel' with off-white flush mortar

• Roof, gutters and water tank - Colorbond 'Dune'

• Fascia, downpipes, windows (frames and flyscreens), eaves and garage - Colorbond 'Surfmist'

• Front door - Corinthian 'Madison PMAD101' in Bristol 'burnt toffee'

After working through the external colours fairly quickly we still had half our time slot left with the colour consultant so we decided to continue on with as many of our internal choices as we could, without having had our tile/carpet appointment yet. Wanting to bring the same colour scheme from the outside in these choices were pretty easy and we locked in the majority of the internal colours. All that's left now is choosing the floor tiles, carpets and finding the perfect mosaic tiles to be the feature on the kitchen splash back and in the bathroom niches.

INTERNAL COLOURS

• Walls, ceiling, architraves and cornices - Dulux 'natural white'

• Feature wall - Taubmans 'Quarry'

• Benchtop - Caesarstone 'osprey'

• Kitchen cupboards - Polytec 'classic white' 

• Bathroom/ensuite cupboards - Polytec 'Marni Lini'

 

 

Stay tuned for the tiling and carpet choices next week.

 

 

 

 

 



 

Curbs

On a routine drive-by of the developent yesterday, I noticed the first hints of our street have appeared. The road bed has been laid and the curbs are in. Seeing as the workers left the gates wide open and were all the way down the other end of the area working, I figured it wouldn't hurt anyone if I wandered in to have a look and take a few quick snaps of their recent handiwork.

Plans and elevations P1

A couple of days ago we got the plans back from drafting. Here's the front and rear elevations of the house.

And here you can see how the house looks on the block. Big backyard for ACT standards!

This morning we had a meeting to go over any alterations we wanted. There wasn't much we wanted to change, just a few little variations and minor tweaking.

• Our first alteration was when we noticed, now having side view images of the house, that the windows in Bedroom 2 and Bedroom 4 were tiny, narrow windows right up near the roof. At that height, any kids we eventually have in there won't be able to see out their window!  So we've switched them for 1600mm windows - the same size as the bathroom window seen between them in the image below.

• We had originally added a sliding door to Bedroom 3, seen below, to allow for the laundry having no external access. Howevver we decided recently that it might effect the resale value of the house later on down the track if its not considered a bedroom anymore. We switched it for a 1600mm window like the other bedrooms and instead added an external access door to the side of the garage.

• We made a minor adjustment to the window in the rumpus room / 'Formal Living' to allow for shelving we want to put up along the front wall. 

• And lastly, we added the fencing and landscaping into the tender to save having to fork out for it later on.

The plans have now been sent back to drafting where the final version will be drawn up!

From here the fun begins. Next up are the appointments with the colour consultant, electrician and working up our fit-out for the kitchen.

Civil work begins

We're at a standstill as far as the plans go. We signed off on the final variation list two weeks ago so the tender is now with drafting and the plans are being drawn up. We shoud have them back in another two weeks or so.

Meanwhile, the civil works have begun. The land clearing continues and the vague outline of the road has appeared.

Still no idea on our street name yet...

Deliberating colour schemes, P2

Bricks - check! Now time to choose roof colour and trim.

Trim colours were an easy choice - white. I want to lighten the front of the house and have a clear definition between roof and bricks. In Colorbond this is 'Surfmist', which will be used for the fascia, window frames and garage. The front door will be Corinthian Doors, Madison in white also.

I found some pictures of other houses with similar brick colouring, that use the Colorbond Surfmist window frames and garage and have a white front door. The house design here is actually very similar to our front facade, only we'll hae one big window instead of two vertical windows. The white against the brick makes it so fresh and bright. Just need to choose a roof colour that compliments it now.

I used a Colorbond visualiser to generate different images of a house with the white window/door/garage colour scheme I like, and different coloured roofs. The colours I'm deliberating are Monument (a dark grey/navy), Jasper (a warm chocolate brown), and Dune (a grey/beige colour), with the Surfmist (white) garage and trim. The Surfmist and Dune both look a bit greyer here than it is in real life but it gives a general feel for the colours.

  

 

Alternatively I could mix and match the garages with the roofs or have the same colour garage and roof, as below - Monument and Jasper, Jasper and Jasper, Jasper and Dune or Monument and Dune.

 

 

            

Remembering there will be bricks between our roof and the top of our garage, unlike the images above, I'm leaning toward one of the brown combinations but am open for opinions. This decision is still up in the air thus far!

Deliberating colour schemes, P1

And now we have come to the part I was most looking forward to, choosing colour schemes!

You may note I used the term 'WAS looking forward to'... that wasn't a grammatical mistake. With so many choices and being as indecisive as I am, this process has been driving me up the wall!

It all started about a week ago when I visited the Rawson office to collect my Owner's Manual, a brick of a folder containing thousands of brochures, leaflets and pamphlets of the many, MANY different options at our disposal. Ben wasn't much help at this stage, this was the point where he handed over the reins, told me "I trust your decisions and I know I will like what you choose", and stepped back leaving the entire selection process to me! Now don't get me wrong, I love that I get to choose everything, and it beats having to fight differing opinions on colour schemes, arguing with someone over whether we have round tap heads or rectangular tap heads, and what colour our door stops should be, but with his only preference being: "I want a Colorbond roof", I was at a loss for where to start...

Luckily, who should come along to save the day? My sister-in-law to be, the artistically gifted Hillory.  I had spent the majority of the week pouring over the Owner's Manual, trying to work out which tiny picture of brick (completely different from what it looked like in real life) went with which tiny picture of Colorbond roofing, and imagine it all on a large scale... needless to say, it wasn't working. So when Hill visited from Sydney on the weekend I took advantage of her artistic eye and we set out in search of the perfect external colour scheme.

We drove to some of the new suburbs in northern ACT looking at what colour combinations looked best, probably looking quite suspicious in the process as we crawled around the neighborhoods, scrutinizing each house, snapping a sneaky pic here and there and jumping out every now and then to hold a piece of Colorbond against someone's front wall to see if the combination worked. We didn't decide on a full colour scheme but came to the conclusion that bricks with differing colours through them, giving a mottled effect, less uniform, looked better than a brick with a solid colour, and that unless you have part of the house rendered (stucco type walling over the bricks) the really dark bricks looked too macho and full-on. Picturing these bricks on a cold, grey Canberra winter day was just depressing.

From there we headed out to the brick displays in Fyshwick, Austral, Boral and PGH. The brick displays are pretty cute actually, little courtyards full of half walls, each using a different brick. Its almost like a little maze. This was where the first decision was made, we found a brick that both Hill and I loved: Austral, Urban One - Latte. It's a warm caramelly coloured smooth surface brick that is slightly mottled with a browny grey. Its has a contemporary look, but won't age as styles change, and it still has a warm homey feel.

The first picture, above on the left, is from the Austral brick display, the Latte brick shown with two Colorbond colours, Paperbark and Jasper that are in consideration for the roof (not sure if I'm keen on the Paperbark anymore though, the brick gives it a yellowy tinge). The picture on the right is also of the Latte brick, from the Austral catalogue. This shows it laid with flush off-white mortar, which is how I want it laid for our place.

And so, since external house colours can be split into a 60:30:10 ratio (bricks:roof:trim/detail), at this stage I was officially 60% set on my external colour scheme! Next step, roofing and trim.

Still just a patch of dirt

A shot of the development in early February, not even a hint of  a road yet...

 

Photo taken on top of the hill I have nicknamed 'Moth Hill' - the area protected from further development thanks to the Golden Sun Moth.

The tender

By mid January we were settled on our house plan so it was time to start the tender.

We were pretty happy with the design as is but had a few little things we wanted to change:
- the wall between the kitchen and the rumpus room was modified from full height down to 1.2 metres, opening up the second living area into the first;
- a sliding door was added to the 3rd bedroom - our study/guest room, to rectify the fact that the laundy didn't have external access;
- the ensuite door was modified to a sliding door;
- the wardrobe in the 4th bedroom was extended to use up wasted space;
- the two narrow vertical windows in the front bedroom were swapped for one large window;
- the lounge room window was made a LOT bigger to let in more light; and
- the sliding door and window beside the kitchen (accessing the alfresco area) were swapped for full wall stacker doors to create an awesome indoor/outdoor living area.

At the time, Rawson Homes were running two package deals we were able to take advantage of. The Supplier's Bonus and the Living Sensations packages cost us $8,100- but gave us over $30,000- worth of extra inclusions including:
- Caesar stone bench tops in the kitchen and bathroom;
- soft close drawers;
-Daikin inverter reverse cycle air conditioning (heating and cooling);
- two feature plasterboard niches;
- an overhead rain shower in the bathroom and ensuite (Ben's favourite);
- an alfresco area (external tiling, roofing, columns etc.); not to mention
- upgraded kitchen appliances, paint and doors.

We opted for the Gold Inclusions package as well as paying to have tiles through all the living areas (rather than just wet areas) and to modify the ceiling height to 1.75 metres, to accommodate our extra tall family!

Within a week, Rawson Homes drew up the tender and we signed off on it in early February!

Fairview MKII

Next came the big decision... which house? With the orientation and layout of our block, 15 metre frontage and 42 metres in length, we needed a narrow design and wanted one with a living area at the rear where it would look out on the back yard.

After hearing great things about them, we decided on Rawson Homes as our builders. A perusal of their house designs and I was set on the Linley II with an extension to add a rumpus room/second living area. However this was soon quashed when we were informed of certain regulations in the ACT, because our land was greater than 500 square metres, requiring us to leave three metres on the north facing side of the house, thereby reducing our frontage to 10.5 metres and well and truly ruling out the Linley.

With such a narrow frontage the house design options were greatly reduced. Luckily we came across a second design we both liked that already included two living areas, situated at the rear of the house, and was narrow enough for our block. One of Rawson Homes' brand new designs, the Fairview MKII.