Thursday 6 December 2012

Colours Appointment

We went for our colours appointment and I was a little nervous even though I had most things worked out. The night before I sat with all the folder pulled apart on the lounge room floor writing down what I really liked. Our Interior Designer Lesa was excellent, she listened to everything and always gave feedback, she wasn't too sure about the colour selection for the outside of our house, she thought it might be too dark, until we showed her a picture and she quite liked it, she gave us advice on how to accesorise outside like the colour of the driveway. The Kitchen was the hardest decision we found, in the end we decided to go with what they had at the display home at Kellyville, we all wanted to have a modern "ish" house (well sort of), I love Country decorating but we all decided we wouldn't do it in this house as it really isn't designed that way. I was going to put in a Shaker Style kitchen but after talking to Lesa about it decided if your not going the full style it will look odd. We upgraded the kitchen a fair bit, we got the 40mm ceasarstone benchtop, the Polytec Thermolaminated cabinets and 2 banks of drawers with soft closers, and we picked the Baumatic Appliances. We had decided to get the dishwasher and microwave package but in the end we took that off, we will buy a dishwasher when we move in and we already had a microwave. Other upgrades were, 2 metre cupboard for the laundry, I'm so happy I'm getting it, I've always wanted a nice laundry, high ceilings, high doors and some of the main ones in the Lin 1 doors, lever handles, we increased the height and width of the stacker doors in the family and dining and we got the 4 LIN 1 doors (2 fixed) in the media room. So hopefully with all this our house will look very nice.

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Getting it Right!!! The Extra Garage

We went back to the planning stage again with our block change. We decided we would like to put a double garage up the back of the block seen as we we have 2 driveway access being on a corner block. I have put a pic below to show how it would look. BUT,,,, then we got the tender back and the price was ridiculous so that idea was scrapped much to our disappointment. I might add the 2nd double garage is actually a brewery for my husband. We had to go back the drawing board and work out what else to do. We asked to have it attached to the side of the house next to the original double garage but we weren't allowed because of the mine subsidence board. What we finally were allowed to do was add a 3200 wide extra garage to the side of the house, it will be in-line with the other garages and will have 2 windows instead of a garage door. So after all that we finally signed off our CT!

SOLD!!!! We sold our house

After six weeks on the market and quite a few inspections we sold our house to a elderly couple who need somewhere flat and with a low maintenance yard. The 10 day cooling off period was nerve racking, this is the first time we have sold a house, and hopefully the last for a while. By the final day I was a bucket of nerves, but it all went through with no hassles. What we didn't realise was our settlement day was in 35 days including cooling off, so we didn't have much time to pack up. Fortunately the couple buying our house kindly offered us to rent while our house is getting built as they are in no rush to move in, there are really some kind people in this world. Now we can just relax and get ready to go away for Christmas and slowly pack next year.

Thursday 8 November 2012

Starting from the beginning again!!!

We got our Consolidated Tender back and were very happy as there was a few thousand $$$ taken off for the site costs,but when we worked out how they were digging out our block we weren't very happy with it. We held off signing our Tender and went looking at other blocks and there was a nice big (huge) 1/2 acre corner block that was flat, that wouldn't need retaining walls anywhere!!! We spoke to the developer and MJH and everyone agreed we could do a swap, so that's what we did. We started the whole process again with MJH Oran Park(he is the best). We went back to the original floor plan of the Monaco 1 and have added a double garage up the back of the land as we have 2 driveways, this will be a "Workshop" for my husband. It will go straight to CT and we can have our colours appointment at the end of this month as previously booked so we should stay on track time wise.... We are extremely excited now, we will be able to have chickens and the developer said we can even have 1 goat, I don't think that will happen.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Bricks Arrrggghhhh

We have been to pick our bricks and didn't really like the range from Austral except for an upgrade Gertrudis Brown. We went and looked at PGH Bricks and really liked a few of them, although they are all upgrades as well. I haven't got a picture of the Gertrudis Brown but that's what we are going with after getting a price from McDonald Jones for the upgrade its not too expensive.
Belgenny Brown
Blue Steel Flash
Gledswood Blend
Mowbray Blue

Sunday 14 October 2012

Deposit Variation & Pre colour Appointment

We accepted our 3rd Deposit Variation and are waiting to get back our consolidated tender.

We have had our pre colour appointment which was great, a little overwhelming walking in and all you see are colour charts on every wall. Our consultant was great, she went through our folder and gave us a little tour. We have been busy every weekend going to the display home to check this and that. We have been out looking at flooring options, i think we will go with 600x600 porcelain tiles and last weekend we went to look at bricks!!! Aaahhh how scary - we have picked 2 from the selection ranges and 1 we will need to get a quote on "Getrudis Brown".

Our 1074m2 Block

8/10/2012 - Our corner block in Bingara Gorge, Wilton. We are building the Monaco from McDonald Jones.

A little bit about us: There are 4 of us myself, my husband and our 2 teenage children soon to be 17 and 14. We have lived in our current house for 13 years and have finally found the courage to move.