Get A Good Footing

...things are about to move!

After multiple drive-by's at the block this week, things looked as if they would be on track for footings and slab to be poured this Thurs 30th and Fri 31st Jan.

A visit to the block this afternoon has left us very pleased as things are very much on track!

We have footings!

Footings Poured 30-Jan-14

The black plastic and mesh have been laid also, so we look to be on track for a slab tomorrow! 

The window frames have also been delivered, so things are definitely moving along now! Lets hope they can keep up the pace the whole way through! 

Frames!

There is still some earthmoving machinery left on site, so we are hoping it will be used to smooth out some of the fairly harsh cutting which was done to the site, leaving us with a sand hill border around the side and rear of the house, but I suspect it may just be waiting to be picked up and we might need to install some retaining, which is not what I want to spend the money that should be going toward the pool on, but of it has to be done, it has to be done! 

Next step: Slab

Playing in the Sand Pit

...and confirming the colours!

I have been stalking the block like crazy this week, with the anticipation of the footings & slab being poured by the end of the week. Around Wednesday it was very clear to me that things were taking longer than originally anticipated (as I suspected!) and I sent a message to the husband telling him there would be a late night if they were to be ready for the footings the following morning.

Within an hour I had received an email from the builder advising me that the siteworks weren't yet complete and the footings and slab were pushed back until Thursday & Friday of the following week.

As disappointing as it is, its not the end of the world, and we have seen how hard the earthworks crew have been working, so its not like things have been sitting there an extra week not moving. Perhaps being in the industry has given us more compassion to the situation than if we didn't know the processes!

So, the block has been cleared, and the sand has been compacted. We're not 100% sure whether the sand currently there will have additional clean fill installed on top and compacted, in preparation for the concrete slab, or if that's it. We're hoping there is more to come as that cut area at the rear of the house is quite high, so we may end up needing retaining if that is the case, which is another expense we really didn't want to have to deal with.

The Sand Pit

I also had some time this morning to actually pop into the paint supplier, Solver, to pick up some sample pots of the colours we have selected, and paint them out in a larger area than the tiny paint swatches we selected from to ensure we were happy with the colours. I am very pleased to report that the colours are better than expected, and we will be sticking with them. Such a relief - I had been thinking about these colours ever since they went to print in the official contract documents, and worrying they weren't going to look like the swatches! 

So, the front elevation render will be Solver Shagreen, to compliment the cedar garage door and stone feature piers. The internal doors & door frames (and skirting when we install it) will all be Solver Breeze and the walls will be Solver Low Cloud. I also purchased a sample of the Low Cloud in half strength, but I think the full strength is lovely, and will give the walls a bit more 'warmth'. The picture below has been tweaked to show the real colour of the green, but in doing so, the greys look darker than they do in real life. The full strength Low Cloud is not that dark in reality!

Paint Colours

I'm excited to see it all painted up now. One step at a time though. Hopefully concrete soon!

Every Beauty Needs Accessories

...Pendants for the Kitchen & Dining 

We had always planned to have pendant lights over the benchtop, and had the standard light fitting positioned over the end of the bench to allow us to change this out and add more pendants in after handover, but the dining area had always been a bit of an "unsure" area. 

Browsing online last night I found some lights, and after some consultation with the husband, we decided to go ahead and order them. Due to the angled shape of the dining room, and the way the dining table will need to sit in that area, I was never 100% certain the position of the standard batten fitting shown on our electrical plan would be correct for the light to hang in the right position over a dining table once we get one in there.

So, now, we will take the lights to site and ask the electrician to install them for us while he is there instead of installing the batten fittings for us to change over later. This way, we can tape out the dining table position on the floor and check the light positioning before we have any holes cut in the ceiling and avoid the issue of potentially having to patch the ceiling. We were also unsure whether we would need 3 or 4 over the bench, and 1 or 2 over the dining table, so we have ordered 4 + 2 just to be safe.

Dining Room Pendant

Benchtop Pendant

In other news, the big tree has now been removed. Its actually a little sad to see it go, it was a beautiful tree, and its a real shame we had to lose it, but it was just in completely the wrong position. If we moved the house to keep it, the branches were so far spread that I'd be concerned in every big storm that one of the massive branches would come crashing down, so we made the decision that it had to go. 

4 Days til Slab!!

There was Movement at the Station...

...for the word had passed around!

A drive by the block this morning has left us with massive grins! The siteworks have started, and boy have they made light work of it! I am honestly surprised at the progress they have made. I drove past yesterday afternoon around 4pm, and they had made a start but you could barely tell, apart from the sight of an excavator sitting in the middle of the bush with no visible sign of the track he'd used to actually get in there! Today they are probably 65% through, and it was only 10.30am!

Taken from the side of the block, roughly half way along the long side. The big tree between the two machines is inside where our Garage will be.

I always knew an acre was big, but with the thick scrub and trees, it was very deceiving as to just how big it was. Oh my, it is HUGE!!! I am so excited (and a little daunted thinking about the landscaping of it). 


We also paid a visit today, to the air-conditioning supply company who the builder uses. We are  ecstatic with what we are getting! Up until now, all we knew was that it was reverse cycle and that we got a bargain. Today we went to co-ordinate diffuser outlet locations with them to ensure that we wouldn't have to move them to suit our future light fitting placements. 

Turns out we get a fancy touch pad system, and the touchpad is white and silver which matches my kitchen perfectly (score!). The main living/kitchen area is "common" but each other room in the house becomes its own zone, so we can have all or only one room running at a time. I was expecting 3 or 4 zones, and having something like all back bedrooms linked, and maybe the master and theatre in a separate zone. Having them all programmed as a separate zone is fantastic! Very happy campers, so far! 


Stay tuned - hopefully this time next week I will have some slab pictures to share with you!

On Your Marks, Get Set...

Go!

We have a date! The builder contacted me today and advised that shiz is about to get real. Obviously not in those words, but we have some start dates! 

Earthworks should be complete by Wed 22-Jan-2014
Footings are booked for Thurs 23-Jan-2014
Slab is booked for Fri 24-Jan-2014
Just in time for the Australia Day long weekend, and perhaps a few cheeky *cheers* on beside the slab!

[source]

We're still a little unsure as to exactly what date the earthworks will actually be commencing. We think it will take around a week to clear the block, so based on that, hopefully we should see some movement this Wed 15-Jan-2014, but if the builder only thinks it will take 3 days, the earthmovers may not come in until Mon 20-Jan-2014. We're really hoping they do start this week, rather than next because if the block does take longer than anticipated to clear, it will push the concrete works out, and with the long weekend, that will cause even more delays!

Not our house, obviously [source]

We're just itching to see the changes start!

Stay tuned for pictures of actual progress next week!

This Week?

...Maybe?

With the builder having been back at work for a week now, we are waiting (im)patiently for the word that works are going to start on the block! 

 

[source]

With any luck we should have earthworks and the block clearing done this week, with the concrete slab being poured next week! We can't wait to see how it looks with the block cleared out, to give us a better idea of how much space we really do have! Its all very deceiving when all you can see is bush, bush and more bush!

Fingers crossed!

Lets Get This Show On The Road

... Ready to Rock'n'Roll

With the finance having been approved, and everything ready to go, now its just a waiting game! 

I can't wait to see this home we've put so much thought into, come to life! 

Floor Plan

Front Elevation

Bathroom

Ensuite

My glorious kitchen

Laundry

And our first progress shots of the process:

January 1, 2014:

The Block - Before any works have commenced

One of the native trees which will remain along our front verge to form part of our landscaping

Front Verge

Water Meter

Colours & Selections...

...AKA I hope this all looks OK!

I think I must be the only person in the history of time to think the building process was happening too fast! Life & Work were incredibly busy, and everything just seemed to creep up on me! With the administration process well and truly underway, and rocketing along at whirlwind speed, the time came for us to make our selections. 

I had an idea of the type of look I wanted to create, but selecting something for an entire house off a tiny little swatch is harder than you'd think! In the end we decided on:


Kitchen:
Benchtops - Essastone Sorbet
Cabinet Faces - Formica Snowdrift Gloss
Kickboard - Formica Brushed Silver
Splashback - White Glass Mosaic Tile

Ensuite / Bathroom / Laundry:
Benchtops  - Formica Pure Marble
Cabinets - Formica Burnt Strand
Floor Tiles - Charcoal 300x300
Wall Tiles - White Linea 200x400 (laid horizontally)

In addition to these, the main bathroom will have Impulse Dolphin Listello laid vertically on one wall of the shower

The ensuite will be tiled floor to ceiling, and will have a beautiful 900x300 pearl sheen Qatar Nacar tile laid on the rear wall as a feature.

We have selected a ceramic tile which looks like timber, to be laid throughout the entire house (except bedrooms & theatre)

And a gorgeous stone cladding to be a feature in our front elevation, to go with the Solver Shagreen render and cedar finish garage door.

Our internal doors & door frames (and skirting when we install) will all be Solver Breeze and the internal walls will be Solver Low Cloud, possibly in half strength, but we are yet to confirm that 100%.

Lets Start At The Very Beginning...

...A Very Good Place To Start!

For those who don't know us, this is how it all began! (For those who do, feel free to skip past this post!)

Way back in 2011, the husband and I decided it was time to upgrade from our little 4 bedroom unit, into a decent sized house. A new housing estate had just opened up less than 5km from where we live, with 1 acre lots. After living in such a small house for almost 5 yeas, and being so close to our neighbours, many of whom were quite inconsiderate of the proximity of our houses to their stereos,  an acre in a quiet estate with little to no contact with our neighbours sounded like heaven!

So, we bit the bullet, and put an offer on a block in the picturesque Bountiful Estate in WA's Southwest, subject to the sale of our house, and put our home on the market. Our offer was valid for 3 months. 3 months came and went, and we were lucky enough that the vendor was willing to extend our offer acceptance by another 3 months. With the lull in the housing market, we were having no luck with the sale of our house, and it seemed like we were going to lose the block we'd set our hearts on. With 6 weeks to go, things were not looking good, but thanks to some creative accounting and fast research, we managed to secure a loan from a lender to enable us to purchase the land, regardless of the house not having sold.

Cue celebrations and hopes being raised sky high for the sale of the house so we could start the build process! We spoke with a builder, decided on a design, and paid the deposit, with the hope that the house would sell soon and we could continue the process and get the new build underway.
 
The market remained dismal, and after 12 months, we decided to take the house off the market, and see what we could do later in the year instead. In the meantime some circumstances changed with the husband's employment, resulting in him being offered an apprenticeship, which was a fantastic opportunity, but also meant the savings we had been building would not be growing as fast.

Fast forward to early 2013, and we had some serious discussion about how we could get this house happening. I created spreadsheet after spreadsheet, weighing up options and cross checking numbers and scenarios, and discovered that if we tightened our budget a little, we could manage to hold onto the current house whilst building the new one, and then sell as we moved in. More celebrating, more creative accounting, and in August 2013 we got in touch with the builder to give them the green light to get this show on the road! 

The plans were drawn, the building permit was received, the selections were made, and on 30 Dec 2013, we received the unconditional finance approval, which means that as soon as the builder re-opens on 6 Jan 2014, we are ready to start!