Electrical Appointment done and dusted !!

It is nearly 9pm on a Friday night, Cam is out on the town with his mates for the night, the boys are in bed, one glass of wine has been consumed and I have been staring at this computer screen now for 1 hour (well, that’s not entirely true, I have been watching the box too and trying not to laugh at Gary Mehigan every time he says “spotted dick”, juvenile, I know)

So here goes… the dreaded electrical appointment. The time when you go and spend exorbitant amounts on tiny little lights and powerpoints.

“Yes, add 6 more lights to that room please, another double powerpoint there and there, and here's my right arm and left leg to pay for it all” LOL.

Cam and I spent a lot of time thinking about the electricals, we had grand plans to put in the minimum amount of lights (battens) then get Cam’s Dad who is a sparky to help make them into downlights later one. We went along to Habitat Consultants with our house plans with powerpoints, internal and external light points and switches all nicely colourcoded…Hmmmmm

So in the end here’s the damage…

• 4 Junction boxes for future lights to the front of the house
• Extra exhaust fan for the boys toilet upstairs (LOL)
• Prewire for ceiling fan in grand outdoor room
• 64 additional downlights spread throughout the home ($101 each)
• Most existing battens moved and converted to downlights
• Provision for 2 pendant lights to be hung above the dining table
• A few dimmer, 2-way switches
• Provision for future evaporative cooling
• Provision for future downstairs split system
• Spotlights for outside x 4
• Extra light circuits
• Bigger meter box
• Upgrade all powerpoints and switches to Slimline (remain white in colour)
• Stair lights in the wall and provision on ceiling above stairs for feature light
• Waterproof powerpoints at back
• Surge protection
• One additional TV point upstairs

All up these cost in excess of @10,000 which is mindblowing…

On top of this we upgraded the ducted heating to a 4 star Bonaire system, with a remote control to use upstairs and added 2 additional ducts to the Ensuite and bathroom (the cost of this upgrade for the Nelson design was about $1800 but well worth it in my opinion).

The one thing that I was disappointed about was that we weren’t able to use the new technology LED downlights as they were an additional $100 a light than regular halogen downlights. Hopefully over time we will be able to replace these lights with LED, they are so much more energy efficient and I feel a sense of guilt at installing such energy hungry downlights, especially cause I am an environmental science teacher by trade!!!

However, as we paid our deposit prior to 1st May 2011, the new regulations regarding only being allowed to have an average of 5 watts per square metre doesn't apply to our build. Whilst I totally understand why such stringent regulations have been implemented, I am a bit relieved that we didn’t have to consider this on top of everything else.

I guess in time we will have to post photos of what lights we are thinking for the dining table and stairwell.

LET THE SHOPPING BEGIN  ;)

Kirsten

Studio M at last!!!!

Tuesday was a big day for us! After months of planning, stressing and changing our minds we finally had our colours appointment at Studio M.

We arrived bright eyed at 9am at Studio M, we had Hamish along for the ride and although he wasn’t asleep when we arrived, it didn’t take him long to drift off in the pram (perhaps all the talk about brick choices wasn’t riveting enough for him?).

So… brick choices… we spent a ridiculous amount of time choosing our bricks, went to Austral display centre, looked at our chosen bricks in not one, but 4 locations across Melbourne’s SE suburbs (with an overtired screaming 12 week old bub in the back on one afternoon). We were decided, it was to the the Austral Latrobe Brick.

Perhaps the universe had other plans however, Larissa (our Studio M gal) couldn’t find the sample hanging on the wall and we soon discovered why. 2 weeks ago the Latrobe has been discontinued by Austral and was no longer an option. It was a shame however that the people at Austral failed to tell us that when they gave us the addresses of homes to look at when we went there 10 days ago. Hmmmm…

Our second choice the Hawthorn bricks, part of the lovely Melbourne brick range, these too have been discontinued (lucky as they were a Cat 5 and more than we wanted to upgrade). So we ended up choosing a Selkirk Brick called Tawny Heritage, which even though it is a Cat 3 apparently Selkirks Cat 3 are cheaper than Australs, I am sure this is the first of many “what the?” moments that we will have! LOL

We got off to the rocky start with the bricks but it wasn’t all doom and gloom, au contraire… The rest of the appointment went smoothly and we are happy with the choices made.

We are waiting for our list of colours from Metricon but in the meanwhile time for some of the details that you all want to know……

OUTSIDE

Roof Tile – Boral Ebony Classic Profile

Brick – Selkirk Tawny Heritage

Aluminium Windows, Sliding and Bi-part doors – Black Satin

Garage Door – Gliderol Tuscan Profile – Colorbond Monument

Cladding – Heifer (the lightest colour)

Render on far left study wall and around garage – Champignon (medium colour)

Render on front pillars – Raku (darkest colour)

Front Door

• Corinthian Madison 101 pivot door (1020 wide) in Monument with clear glazing insert and clear glazed sidelights

• Gainsborough back to back pull handle with roller bolt mortice lock

INSIDE

Paint

• Walls –Beige Royal Half


• Ceiling – Lexicon Half

Kitchen

• Pantry Wall and overhead cupboards – Polar White Vinyl Wrap Gloss
• Island Bench and Underbench cupboards – New Graphite (Natural Finish) Contour Edge
• Benchtop – Caesarstone White Shimmer

• Handles – Drawers to have large horizontal square handles (top in picture), cupboards have medium vertical square handles (middle in picture), this is for all bathrooms too.

• Baumatic 900mm multifunctional oven with 900mm 5 burner gas cooktop in lieu of upright all in one.
• Baumatic grill/microwave with trim kit
• 2 x Clark Epure large undermount sink

Laundry

Under and overhead cabinetry – New Graphite Contour Edge

Caesarstone Benchtop – Osprey

Clark Flatline 8420 Stainless Steel Trough

Powder Room/Upstairs Bathroom

• Under and overhead cabinetry – New Graphite Contour Edge
• Caesarstone Benchtop – Osprey
• Basins – Fowler Regent inset (x2 in family bathroom)
• Tapware – Vito bertoni Vito CD Fixed wall taps/spout (x2 in family bathroom)
• Fowler Regent toilet suite – soft close

Ensuite

• Elevated wall hung vanity unit in Polar White Vinyl Gloss
• Caesarstone benchtop in Urban


• Basins (x2), tapware and toilet same as powder room

Flooring

• Downstairs entry, hall, kitchen, living and dining room – “Style” Strand Woven Bamboo Timber flooring in Coffee

Study, Sitting and Rumpus, Stairs and Whole upstairs Carpet – “Andrew in Karaoke” colour

Miscellaneous Inside Stuff

Jetmaster Gas Log Fire – Ours is bigger than this and will be wall mounted rather than floor mounted.

Internal Door Handles - Elena

 Upstairs Linen Cupboard Handles (the middle ones)

PHEW, what an epic post… I;m exhausted!

We are moving into our rental on Tuesday, going to electrics this Thursday, final contract on the 30^th… yay yay yay!!!

xoxo Kirsten

Preliminary Contract - a retrospective entry...

Well it has been one week since we signed out preliminary contract and things have been well and truly moving. And when I say moving, that is exactly the reason why it has taken a whole week to write this post.

We have signed a lease to rent a townhouse for 12 months and are moving out of our home next Tuesday. Packing up the house in short burst whilst the kids are sleeping is proving to be a long and arduous process although we are getting there in the end.

We attended our preliminary contract meeting last Tuesday with Linda at Metricon HQ. The meeting went well although it we got off to a bad start. You never want to hear “so… do you want the good news or the bad news first?”. In our case it was mostly bad news. Initial soil and site tests on our block have revealed that the extra 1.1m we were hoping to add to our garage at a cost of around $3,000 is now going to cost in excess of $15,000 because we will need to prop up the neighbour’s garage footings on one side… Needless to say that threw a spanner in the works and we are contemplating what to do. At this point in time we have decided to go leave the extended garage in the plans and get a more in depth footings probe done under the neighbour’s garage to see what the exact figures will be. Watch this space.

Apart from this item and a few others blowing out our site cost budget by an additional $20k the meeting was reasonably effective. We saved a bit of money here and there (only to spend it again at Studio M and probably electrics too). The only other bone of contention in our plans that we can see (well I am particularly p*#*ed off about) is the need to put obscure glass in one upstairs bedroom and on the landing to protect the neighbours privacy. I am all for respecting the new neighbours right to get around their own house starkers, but this obscure glass also means that the windows have to be awning (rather than sliding) and can only open 125mm. I have a thing with awning windows… I really hate how they don’t allow air flow, now I have them all through my new house and there isn’t anything I can do about it!!!!!

After a few variations and a nice cuppa tea so we could discuss aforementioned garage disaster (as it shall now be known), we signed the prelim contact, handed over the dosh and away we went.

Today we went to Studio M to complete colour selections but as I am now a stay at home Mum again, my brain is too tired from thinking about ADULT stuff all day and I cant be bothered writing the blog entry about that. I want to do it justice as we all know it is the most exciting part of the process before any dirt gets moved… So perhaps tomorrow if I get some time away from packing I’ll get that entry done…

Au revoir!

Kirsten

Settlement - Finally!

Well tomorrow we finally settle on our new (old) property, some 3 months late. 

Going back 5 and a half months, I received a phone call from a real estate agent saying he had just signed up a new property he thought would suit our needs.  Yep, a real estate agent saying they had the perfect property for us - wow... never heard that before.  We had accepted the year was all but over. Anyway, this agent is a reasonable guy and I'd been in contact with him over a period of time so we thought it could be worth a quick look.  The property was to be shown only once pre christmas with an intended campaign in the new year leading up to an auction date late February. 

It turns out the property was being sold under power of attorney.  The old lady who owned the property had taken a turn and her daughters moved her into an aged care facility in November.  Kirst drove past the property, we googled it and inspected the property at the open (all of 15 minutes) and after a little bit of negotiating we signed the contract of sale mid December with a short settlement on 28 February.  We were looking for a long settlement but at a price we were very happy with, a short settlement was appealing enough to get the deal done.

All was going to plan until... (unfortunately for her), the old lady died in January whilst in care.  If that wasn't bad enough the settlement of the property couldn't be finalised as the power of attorney was no longer valid (thankfully the contract was) and the property rolled into her estate and needed to pass through probate.  Well, its now passed probate and tomorrow afternoon we should get the keys.  Only 3 months later than expected.

The delay has actually worked out pretty well for us largely because we were able to keep the money in our account - realistically delaying the need to draw a mortgage.  Plus allowed us additional time to work and rework on the plans for the new house build.

A quick update on the plans, we received an update of the site plans yesterday from Lynda our contract administrator.  Interesting enough, Lynda is the wife of our SC.  She seems knowledgeable and very accommodating emailing a copy to me, with a mobile contact number and per my request leaving a copy at reception of HQ for pick up. HQ is all of 10 minutes from home.  Anyway a few things are not quite right and we have raised a few questions but overall not too bad.

Until next time - after our preliminary contract meeting on Tuesday 31st May.

Cam

The countdown is on....

Settlement is about to occur any day now on the old house and pretty soon the demolishers will  move in and knock it over.

We have been in discussions with our Sales Consultant and our new CSC (incidentally, our second CSC in as many weeks), we didn’t even speak to the first guy. After speaking with our new CSC yesterday, Cam felt that we were in good hands. She was knowledgeable and pleasant and seemed to know what she was talking about, which is great.

We have booked in to go over our preliminary contract on 31 May and have another appointment on Tues 6 June to make our selections at Studio M. Exciting times ahead.

So now I am starting to stress out. There are so many decisions to be made and I am worried that I haven’t given the paint colours etc much thought at all L.  I am interested to know how others chose the colour scheme. Did you do it all on your own, or just say I like that colour in that display house etc? Looks like a trip to look at more display homes is on order! The kids will be so pleased…

Speaking of kids, I thought that now might be an opportune time to add in some photos of our darling little boys.

Our ‘Cheeky Monkey’ Lachie (3 years)

 Our ‘Lil’ Monster’ Hamish (14 weeks)

Until next time…

Kirsten

Здравствуйте/ zdravstvuite - TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE!

This morning I was checking out our blog stats page when I noticed that 269 of our thousand or so page views come from Russia!

So a huge Welcome if you are in Russia and enjoying our home building blog.

In other news, another letter has arrived from Metricon letting us know that the initial tests (soil etc) have been completed and the results are with technical department who are reviewing our chosen house, plans etc on the block and looking at building regs etc. Hooray.

Also we received word yesterday that probate has been granted to the estate of the elderly lady whose house we purchased. So settlement should be completed on the block in the next fortnight. Over 2 months after scheduled settlement. I hope this tardiness is not a sign of how our new home build will progress from here on in. Although after reading Shayne and Tonia's latest posts, i'm not holding my breath. Lol!

Some design ideas...Am I obsessed???

Nothing much is happening on the new home front. Still waiting to hear back from Metricon regarding the soil tests so in the meantime I have started what I imagine will be a long obsession with design and potential furnishings for our dream home!

Here are some of the things that I like...

So many lovely things, needs a splash of colour though wouldn't you say?