After many weeks of lurking and reading up on lots of building threads on this forum, I guess it's about time I start my own thread as the ball has started rolling

BLOCK:
Suburb: Wattle Grove Grove
Estate: Gum Brook Estate
Size: 532 sqm

HOUSE:
Builder: Dale Alcock
Design: Pisa

ORIGINAL PLAN:
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FINAL PLAN:
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So far we have been pretty speedy in our progress in getting our block of land and choosing a design for it. It was a little bit too fast and scary for me too!! We have had our colour selections meeting last week. I'll post more about it later

MILESTONES:
30/01/12 Offer on block of land
01/02/12 Land Offer accepted
06/02/12 Deposit on land
11/02/12 Deposit on paid to Dale Alcock
21/03/12 Settlement date for land
31/03/12 Colour Selections
04/04/12 Building contract signed
14/05/12 Pre-start meeting

Hi meifong16 - glad to see you started your own thread...

The plan looks good and I hope that the pre-start was a good experience for you. Mine was a bit rushed but I still enjoyed the process

Hi meifong16

Love your floor plan. Is Wattle Grove in WA or NSW?

Hi Onewheel,

Wattle Grove is in WA

Hi Bagheera,

We haven't done our pre-start yet. We just had our colour selection meeting last Saturday. I'm actually thinking twice about my internal wall paint colours at the moment. Never knew there were so many shades of white???????????????

oh ok - got confused... noticed that you asked Jemima the colours from Frangipani - we ended up doing the same for our exterior colours - we used the Amari colours.

It is much easier if you like a colour combination you know at least it is tried and tested .

I had hundreds of colour cards and charts - spent a lot of time in the tile shop thinking and re-thinking the selections... was fun but tiring as well.

We had our colour selections on the 31st March and here's what we've picked so far:

External Selections
Face brick: Austral Cervantes
Roof cover: Colorbond Shale Grey (I'm currently thinking of changing it to Surfmist)
Window frames: White Lustre
Garage door profile: Grange Georgina
Garage door colour: Colorbond Surfmist
Main paving & colour: Designer Pave 60 Pewter

External Paint Colours:
Render: Solver Patrice
Contrasting Render: Solver Kanga
Gutters: Colorbond Shale Grey (I'm currently thinking of changing it to Surfmist)
Fascia: Colorbond Shale Grey (I'm currently thinking of changing it to Surfmist)
Downpipes to render: Colorbond Dune
Downpipes to brickwork: Colorbond Paperbark
Front Entry Door: Sovler Whitetone

Internal Paint Selections:
Doors & Frames: Solver Misty White
Walls: Solver Misty White
(I've heard Misty White can be a bit on the yellowish side?? Does anyone have any other suggestion?)

Glass splashback: Haven't decide on a colour yet, would appreciate recommendations

Cabinet Selections:

Kitchen:
Benchtop: 30 mm Caesar Stone Nougat (hubby prefers Cracked Pepper)
Fronts: Laminex White Silk Finish (do you think Polar White will be better?)

Bathroom/Ensuite/Laundry:
Benchtop: Laminex Moose Natural finish
Fronts: Laminex Zincworks Silk Finish

Tile Selection:
Most of our tiles are from European Ceramics

Bathroom/Ensuite/WC/Laundry
Wall tiles: V233A Carrara White Wall 200 x 400
Floor tiles: E825G Enviro Flint 200 x 200

Kitchen
If we're not getting the glass splashback, we will use wall tiles instead: Streak Metal Wall 400 x 200

So what do you think of my selection so far? I hope it's ok!!!

Hi meifong 16

It seems that a few people building with DAH went for the Austral Cervantes bricks - including ourselves still in love with them.

Re your colours for the downpipes - why don't you ask DAH to paint them the same colour with your render. They will blend in nicely rather then becoming a feature. E.g. if any of the downpipes are on the wall with Solver Patrice they should be painted Solver Patrice - same if they are installed on the area painted with Solver Kanga.

We got them to match the render and you can barely notice them.

Re
Walls: Solver Misty White
(I've heard Misty White can be a bit on the yellowish side?? Does anyone have any other suggestion?)

Would be a great idea to go to Solver and get a sample of the colour then use a large piece of board and paint two coats to get the real colour. Use the board around the house to get an idea if it does look yellowish.

BTW if you are an RAC member you will get a 25% discount of the sample. You just need to let them know. I think it was 25% or there abouts

oh and I forgot - if you are determined to have the garage door as Surfmist I will probably match the roof.

Is Shale Gray is a nice colour going with the scheme maybe use it for gutters or fascia or both.

I'll have to look again at some samples when I'm at bunnings to remember the colours

Hi Bagheera,

Thanks for the input. DA asked if we wanted to upgrade the gutters, fascia and downpipes to colorbond because she said it's easier to maintain and look after (in terms of colours?) I think we'll be paying $300 for the whole house for this option. I guess we can use this option for the rest of the house but get the downpipes painted to match our render?

Great plan for your block! Your colours sound fine.

Don't feel forced to stick with the colourbond colours as downpipes can be easily painted and even the colourbond ones do scratch.

Given that you have a narrow front elevation you will probably have only 2 downpipes to paint. You could keep the rest of the gutters/fascia and downpipes as colourbond but I would highly recommend to paint the downpipes on your front elevation.

You selected Dune which is a creamy light colour. As such they will seriously stand out from your dark render - Kanga is dark. As well you are introducing another colour to your front scheme - 2 colours in the render, 2 colours from your roof and garage door, another colour front door, another colour window frames and Dune for downpipes.

Even with the other downpipes on the bricked walls I would recommend to use the same colour you decide for your gutters or fascia so they tie in nicely. They don't need to match the brick e.g. surfmist is a nice light colour and will look good on the Cervantes wall.

Just suggestions

Hi Bagheera,

I really appreciate your suggestions and I think I'm actually agreeing with you here!!! Thank you so much!!!! I must now write down all these notes and bring them with me when we go for pre-start next time

What colour did you use for your downpipes on the bricked walls since you have "Cervantes" wall as well?

I used the same colour with one of the colours used for the render to our front elevation and garage door Colourbond Evening Haze.

Hi there, another Dale Alcock here!
We paid the extra for colorbond gutters/downpipes etc, but for our front render we got it to match the render. From memory, we have 3 downpipes at the front of the house (18m wide frontage so a big frontage!), and although yes they will need repainting, it is only 3 and they are on the side away from the wind and rain, so hopefully not needing a repainting too often!

We also copied another Dales house, this time; the Archer. We just loved the colours and have stuck to it, except for brick colour, which we didn't like, and the window frames as a newer colour was available and looked nicer (i think!) and no regrets going with all their colours.
We have woodland grey roof/fascia/gutters and surfmist garage door and it looks lovely. We don't have surfmist anywhere else. if you are worried about having an "odd colour" have a look at our colours on my thread. or, put your fascia/gutter as surfmist and keep the roof colour as is.

We also have cervantes brick and we went with paperbark for all our brick downpipes. They are up and look really good. we also used paperbark on our rear roller door, as we didn't want that to be a feature and wanted it to blend in more. so far, colour choices look good! (or so i think!)

Can't give you advice on your other colours as I am not familiar with them. when picking your benchtop colour, just take into consideration any staining if you drink coffee and/or red wine (obviously not at the same time!)...we drink both, and whilst they don't stain, sometimes I miss a spot and you can see it on the lighter surface.

to reduce the amount of colours, would you consider changing your window frames? storm front sounds like it would go with shale grey. it depends whether you mind the dark colour on the inside of the house (we are in a rental with dark frames and it doesn't bother me at alll)!
Maybe also, have your front door as surfmist, to match the garage. just trying to reduce the amount of colours to the front!

As for whites, definitely get a board and paint it up and check out the colour. Also compare it to other whites. Solver now have the colour samples which makes it really good to compare. Only comparing white against other whites will show you what tinge it has to it. from memory we went with deigner white...we wanted WHITE as we are going with a grey brown colour scheme, and this seemed to be the whitest. we didn't want any cream, yellow or pink at all. I know I looked at it against the colour they have as their default colour, and it was a lot brighter white, but I know it is the better colour in our colour scheme!
They should be able to show you though when you go in for prestart. use the chart to go with your tiles/laminates etc. we told them what colour we were going to have on our walls, (solver amelia, we are doing after hand over) and that helped us select our tiles and laminate benchtop. i think we have now changed our minds on the colour but still similar tones.

Apart from that, just want to say, plan looks great! love your portico! and what a nice amount of storage in your linen cupboard!!!
Looking forward to seeing your build come along!

Hi,

Awesome plan - nice and simple, but very practical. Will keep this in mind for my own design. I'm also looking to buy and build around the Wattle Grove, Forrestfield area. May I ask how much you paid for the block and who did you buy it from? Also how much was Dale Alcock asking for building of the Pisa model? I couldn't find pricing on their website.

All the best!

Hi meifong16

We have Caesar Stone Osprey benchtop, which is a similar colour to the Nougat but with a smaller fleck. We chose the Fools Gold splashback which I think gives a nice, light, neutral look. In a large space, it looks a lot more silvery than I expected. We have chosen laminex white for the fronts and it matches nicely with the benchtops.

Cheers

Hi kimu,

Many thanks for the suggestion. I have been thinking of Fools Gold colours as I'm leaning towards light colours instead of dark colours now

Hi dakr,

I've sent you a pm

Dear Vans,

So sorry for the late reply. I really appreciate your feedback and have mentioned them to my hubby. Hopefully we will be able to make bettter choices soon. Things are gonna get exciting!!!!!