I just looked up the 'canyon' and 'molten gold' bricks and they are really nice too - do you know approx how much extra it costs to upgrade? Also thanks for the details on the retaining wall guy - I think we will have to get in touch with him....our first quote wasn't very comprehensive.

I spent A LOT of time today calling up suppliers to make selections appointments - it was a bit harder than I thought. We were hoping to get out of it with only 1 day off of work, but in the end we needed to take a week day off for Sampina, another week day for APBC and then another for the final selection meeting with dechellis. Not super pumped about that, but it must be done. We manged to book the rest of the appointments on either of those days or on weekends. Unfortunately we have had to push back our 'final selection' date with dechellis-the date they gave us originally was the 9th of August, but of course we couldn't get all of the selections done by then. The next available date for our appointment is the 10th of Sepetember and they said our start and finished date will be pushed back as a result (which is a bit sad). It's exciting to see it all happening and we are looking forward to our busy weekends!! Does anyone have any advice/tips for selections?? to make sure the day goes smoothly and we can get things done efficiently?

Cheers
MB

Hi Monaco,

My partner and I just did our selections this week. We were in the same boat with needing to get it done ASAP, we had to push our final selections back until 13th August - we're very close to each other.

We visited Italia ceramics, Laminex Group and APBC. We also visited Designer Bug and Discount Carpets, Caspa Electrical and International Ceramics.

One thing that stuck with us was the Dechellis range at Italia was surprising. I had read on here that some people experiences with the range was not so great, but we actually liked on in the range better than another that was not! Depends on taste. We wanted to replicate the Display Home where possible, so we did not have to select paintwork, render colours/roof etc. The best place is def APBC, I thought. We have Sampina booked for 6th August, like you, we had to take time off work too!!

We found everyone really helpful, their experience is valuable for all their hints and tips, we found we overlooked some things. They definitely know what they are talking about!!

The colour of the paint in the Wild Orchid is Pelt in Solver. We're getting that too! We still have to organise paving and air con and downlights, but as far as Dechellis is concerned re Final Selections, I think we are on track.

Good luck! I am posting some pics on my thread of our selections, we kind of changed a few things, we fell in love with a tile in Italias which now is our splashback.

I'll look forward to your progress!

Amanda

We did take longer in all our selections than we thought so it is probably just as well that you have them spaced out a bit. Shame your final selections got pushed back so far though

No start for me yet I received an email to say tentatively next week (this Friday at the earliest subject to weather - well, THAT'S NOT going to happen!! pouring down outside )

AmandaC, Did moving your final selections day back affect your start date/finish date very much? I'm really glad you are having a good experience so far-puts my mind at ease a bit!

In regards to the solver 'pelt' paint....I have been looking at pics of it online and it looks more like a light brown beige colour, but from memory in the wild orchid display home I thought it was more grey. We are aiming for a light grey shade on the walls so really don't want anything too brown-what do you think? More grey or more brown? Has anyone else seen it in other displays or know of light grey paint used in other display homes?

The tile splashback from Italia sounds awesome!! It sounds very unique-I don't think I have seen anything like that before.

Dreamcometrue, even though it's not happening yet it's really good that they are still keeping you informed and making sure u are kept in the loop. It's POURING down here too-making some nice muddy blocks for us to work on (or mow) in our case!!!

Hi MB - sorry to hear the final selections date has been pushed back. Sometimes some people can get in earlier than the scheduled date so I will have everything crossed for you! But then I guess you have to take time off work for that day anyway!
I like the bricks you have chosen. They look nice on that display pic you posted. It is hard to decide just by looking at one brick (like they have in the office) and it is always nice to be able to see the bricks on a finished home. I hope your selections go really well.

The PGH display at Golden Grove has been recently updated, they're all outside so you can go look anytime, call them and they can send you a list of what is in the "standard" range. Also Austral bricks/roof tiles are just up the road from PGH, so you can see their roof tiles (also outside). Dech used to use Austral bricks, but dropped them, however I did read on H1 someone who wanted Austral bricks and got them for no extra.
No I don't remember how much to upgrade to Alchemy range - we didn't think it was worth it though.

Tips for selections: We went with the "as displayed" price option, and were happy with most of the items on display, and had lots of photo's from the display with us, which saved some arguments. We had most of our colors, and stone selections done before we went to see them officially. Checking older dechellis threads on H1 was very helpful for finding out what upgrades may cost. We went to Laminex in the city for a look at what is available (although they can't tell you what is in Sampina standard range) and found they offer a free "Selection Advice meeting" for Dechellis customers, so we took all our swatches and paint colour ideas along - we found it very helpful to have an Interior Decorator give advice on matching/contrasting colours and laminates, it was good to bring them all together and get options before going to Sampina

Our final selection meeting with D was the 17th May, and our original contract start date was 24th June. Hold-ups with Bank (SA) getting finance approvals through on time has pushed our contract start date out to 30th July - although we have started this week.

we used pecan bricks
we also have used the wild orchid paint colour, which is pelt.
have a look at my thread for pics, but sometimes in different lights it looks different colours, some people say it looks grey, but there is not one speck of grey in our house! all our selections are brown colours, i think the paint is brown, with a purple-ish undertone

I hope that we can sneak into an appointment of someone else cancels LinneY,that would be pretty awesome!! I'm not holding my breath for it though - by the sound of it those appointments are like gold.
The bricks we picked are also the bricks on one of the dechellis display homes (next door to the Monaco-I forget what it's called), but I remember commenting on the colour once when we were there.

DingoD64, That's a good idea about bringing lots of photos of the display home to the selections....we are mainly going "as displayed" as well so it will be good to have that reference to fall back on. That is also good advice on the free selection appointment from laminex-I would feel so much more confident having that meeting just to make sure everything we are picking actually looks good together and will come together properly. I am glad you didn't get help up too much with the bank side of things-it's hard when it's something that is not at all in your control that is stopping everything from happening!!

WO, That paint colour is lovely isn't it - I'm just not sure now if it will go with our grey accents...I'm leaning towards thinking it more brown than grey as well

i like having darker coloured walls, and it makes the architraves and skirting look nice and crisp.
sometimes a colour can change when with other colours, so it doesnt necessarily mean it wont go with greys. maybe get some professional advise, maybe laminex could help???
i went to this place once looking for a piece of furniture (a trunk i saw in a scott salisbury display) its called zest for living at norwood. the lady was so helpful and it turned out she does colours for display homes (she has charts up for each house) and she ended up in a really long conversation with us and helped us with advise on paint and kitchen colours. i felt heaps bad, people normally pay for that advise! but she just said, come back to me when you need furniture or prints/frames

It's been a while between posts for us but we have had a lot happening over the last few weeks/months. We sold our place and have moved....we were really surprised about how much stuff we actually have. It seemed like a never ending few weeks of packing and moving, most of our stuff is still in storage which makes life interesting!

Things are moving at a rapid pace in regards to our new house.....we have:

Had all of the selections! everything went really well and we actually decided on things very easily and managed to come out the other side without any arguments. I will upload the pics from selections shortly, we went with pretty neutral colours. Mostly grey and white and a bit of charcoal. ALL of the staff at the selections were very helpful and friendly, they actually made life really easy for us. I think it helped that we pretty much went with the selections in the display home though. In regards to the bricks which I was stressing about earlier, we did end up going with the oyster bricks and we think they will go nicely with the other colours we have selected (fingers crossed, its really hard to picture how things will look on a large scale when you see them on a tiny colour swatch or sample).

We selected the carpet for the 4 bedrooms and also the media room. We just happened to stumble on a really good deal for some really nice plush quality carpet. We decided on a charcoal grey colour which was a bit darker than we anticipated originally but now that we have seen it up against the tiles and other colours we are pretty chuffed.

We picked the tiles for the whole house. We were pretty happy ith the price but now need to find a tiler who has a good reputation and is skilled at laying rectified tiles.....any ideas/recommendations would be GREATLY appreciated

On Monday we had our final selections with Dechellis and they were really great. The girl we had was really helpful, spent a lot of time talking to us and answering our questions and made the process very smooth. Our original start date was the 25th of September, but we thought it would end up being October as we had to push our final selections back. It turns out they are actually going to start next week (crossing our fingers for the weather to hold up and things continue to go to plan). Once they have cut the site we need to get the retaining wall done basically straight away and then the slab works can begin.

We are REALLY excited with how it is all going at this stage and with any luck we will be moved in before the original finish date (but I won't dwell on that too much coz I don't want to jinx us).

I have been busily reading through everything that I have missed on here over the last month - how is everyone going? I would love to hear about the progress you have all made!

Pictures will follow this post (apologies in advance for the terrible iphone photos)

Bathroom and ensuite
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Front door
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Front door handle
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the bath
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Mixer tap
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Toilet
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Shower head
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Sink
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Colours
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Thanks for looking if you got this far - I know it's a mega picture overload!!!

great the hear things have moved along smoothly for you and all the selections done, I think that is the hardest part, going to all the different selection places and hoping all will work well together.
Which showerhead did you choose out of that selection?

Our build has finally started - trenching and plumbing finished, the mesh goes down tomorrow and slab pour on Saturday.

Well that's the hardest part done now you just wait ... and wait ... and wait ... till it's all done!! Good luck with your build and hope you finish up with a top quality house - keep onto them if anything doesn't look right - we didn't and now regret it ... keep us posted on your progress!!

Great to hear from you Monaco build. Your selections look great. Wont be long before you see it all happening.

Did you go through Dechellis supplier for carpets? Also can I ask how much was it to upgrade to that front door?

Our build is flying along now, the frame is up, as well as the roof, gutters and fascias. The bricks have started this week

Dreamcometrue, I totally agree - the time it takes to do all of the selections and the traveling from one place to another make it pretty full on. It would be easier if everything was in the one place (like other builders have) but it was really good to have so much selection and a wide range to choose from.
The shower head we chose from the photo was the big round on at the 'front' of the picture. In the ensure we have a double shower so will have one of those at each end.
It looks like the weather will be nice this weekend so the slab pour should definitely go ahead-I bet you can't wait!! Are you going to have a slab party?

McLaren you are right about the waiting-I think that will be the hardest part-I'm just so excited to see it all come together....I think I'm going to be driving past every day to see if there has been any action!

Stage#2 we didn't go with Dechellis for carpets, I actually can't remember who we ended up with but I will check when I get home. In regards to the front door we weren't given a price as we went 'as displayed' so it was included in our final price. I remember asking how much $$ we would get back for it though and I'm pretty sure it was more than $2k!!!! They are very lovely but very expensive!!!
I bet seeing the bricks going up at your place makes it all feel real and u can actually see the house taking shape. Have you been driving past a lot and checking up on how things are going?

Yes I did think the door was about $2K. As soon as the frame went up the feeling is amazing. Our house isn't on display so we had never seen it, other than a plan on a piece of paper. I must say we are super happy with the layout. Yes we visit site every day, and also as we had a bit of retaining to do, hubby has been on site most days for the whole day. Building great relationships with all involved.

Stage#2 those retaining walls are massive jobs aren't they-we are really excited to get ours done but know its going to be a lot of $$ and some serious work involved!! That's pretty amazing seeing your dream come to life, especially since your house is not on display-we have been lucky that we can image how ours will look based on the display home. If only it wasn't so far away I would be out there checking the display out all the time!!

WOW!!! I have been checking out everyone's Dechellis builds and they are moving along so quickly! Ours is starting to happen a bit more quickly now - we have had the block cut and filled and the mega retaining wall has also been done. We ended up using the guy that does all the excavation/retaining walls for Dechellis and he was excellent. The block has been scraped and today they started digging the trenches, some of the ones are so deep that if you fell down them you wouldn't be able to get out, over a person deep down to the bottom. I don't have any pics of the trenches but lots of the block once it was cut. Our site manager has said the slab will be poured this week, does that sound right? Did your slab get poured pretty much straight away once the trenches were done?

The sign before any action
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The block once the earthworks started happening
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Our monster pile of dirt (which was eventually pushed up against the retaining wall)
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All happening
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Flat block
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Once the trenches are totally done I will put some more pics up - we are hanging out for the slab to be done so we can see how big the house really is!!! PS we also have a porta loo but I forgot to take a photo of it!!

Sounds right to me, our slab went down as soon as the trenches were finished

Looks like a lovely spot too with all those trees, is that a reserve behind?

Dreamcometrue we have a large reserve on the back of our block - all of the other houses in our street have gates in their fence connecting them to the reserve. We are hoping to do the same, so it will be like having a huge back yard without all the up keep haha

The trenches were finished today which is pretty exciting, they had to go a fair bit deeper on the back trenches for the piers (1.6m) so we are hoping it wont cost us a lot of $$. Has anyone else had experience with this?

The plumber was also there while we were at the block today and they finished all of the pipe work. The mesh was also dropped off this afternoon and should go down tomorrow - I can't wait to drive past each day!! Here are a few more progress pics.

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