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wow, you have been busy choosing everything.
good luck with your build,
(why no planter box on the estate?)

No planter box because the estate restrictions state we must have an entry porch a certain size, so garage door was moved to the other side and a few bits and pieces had to be moved around, thus loosing our planter box, which is a pity because I thought it added a bit of 'oomph' to an otherwise fairly boring front!!

it does, I agree.
can you have a smaller one? even greece have small planter boxes, with geraniums in....they look so cute.

I guess if you were building in greece, everyone would covet your LARGE planter..

so everyone has to have huge big entries then? with double doors?
so they all look the same?
are you building in oz, or on the truman set...ha ha

crazy talk.

are there lots of covenants, or really just this one.

will you lose your storage area in your garage then?
shame, cos that is a great use of space...all those bikes and boogie boards etc.

lovely plan though, and I am sure it will be stunning once finished.

Haha sorry forgot to mention - the plan i have posted is our finalised plan, with the changes already in it. The original plan didn't have the storage space we have in the garage, so I guess I should just stop my whinging and deal with it! The original plan also had the garage door on the other side.
There are HEAPS of restrictions in our estate, but none that affect the building side as much, mainly things like
-you cant have company/work cars parked in your driveway
-not allowed to see your washing line from the road ( i think this is one of them)
-your garage can not be your main focus on the house , something like that anyway??
Just a range of strange bits and pieces, but I guess in the long run it all helps in keeping the place pretty
What do you think of the colours we have chosen?

well the colours...mmm, considering they are VERY similar to mine, I LOVE THEM!

if I didnt, I guess I should change mine.

I wanted horizon tiles, but too $$$$ so have picked villa tiles over hacienda, as we had them on our old house and everyone has them here so will pick something that no one has...(cos they are probably crap and that is the reason!)

I am getting hapuka (dark grey) for the roof,
manorstone firth bricks http://www.firth.co.nz/product-informat ... stone.aspx
and titania joinery, door and garage..which is similar to surfmist I think, well it looks like your garage door colour anyway!

http://nzexplorer.co.nz/colour_swatch_l ... _basic.php

it is on the 3rd row

burnished wood on the kitchen bench (100mm high) and light cream drawers etc

so I am liking what you have picked...your plan is great, that door is not that big. it will look really nice finished.

Just the update for Zarli. You have the slab

And a bit of landscaping too

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THANK YOU SOO MUCH FOR CHECKING THAT OUT, and OMG we have a slab!
So excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its all GO from this point on, right?!!?!?
Can't wait to tell my DP! He will be stoked. I can't thank you enough, but gosh it looks tiny doesn't it?!

And hasn't the area changed sooo much since the time I saw the block, no other houses around it before!

Hey Zarli
My slab look tinnnnnyyy when it was poured, you'll be swinning in your house when the white set is done
The building restrictions SUCK, as a result i have the ugliest verandah on my house and had to spend so much extra to meet the enviro requirements... LWP have no idea tho, all driveways should be in grey tones in MS but most in my street are brown and cream?! always the way!

I totally agree that the restrictions are very unreasonable in some ways, some work in our favour to make the place a bit neater, but I can't understand how they can use such an open term like "earthy" colours required, everyone's ideas of that could be totally different!
Bit worried about the size of the slab , how can that be my huge (huge for us, not everyone else!) house we are building, haha but as you said it will get bigger! Do you have a thread? What builder if you don't mind me asking?!

No problem at all Zarli

My shop is only about 1 km from your site.

Don't worry about the slab - when I looked at mine I run home to check the plans as I felt I'm missing half of my house. After they put the roof I was even more horrified as I had a feeling I won't even fit dining table in my living. Then white plaster came and we said WOW that is big house. It looks funny in different stages. I will let you know when you get bricks. Pm me your email so I can email you pics in the future as my photobucket getting clogged.

As to the restrictions - I love the idea that there will be no ugly houses around but I don't understand why some people getting away with breaking them. My street is not allowed to have tiles on the roof - says clearly - colorbond only!! two houses away someone just put the tiles on the roof and the most disgusting color - poo brown. I don't want to look at that - that street was supposed to be in grey only

Haha yeah the trend for earthy tones in my street are purple and blue..

I had a thread but didn't really update it.. I'm building with Aveling homes - the below link is the plan but mine is modified to the max (close to 40k in mods and upgrades, ugh ).

http://avelinghomes.com.au/floor-plans/traditional-floorplans/odyssey/

I turned it into a 3 bedroom home, (BM3 on the plan was removed), then extended the size of BM2 & 4, added in a wall of storage to the laundry and made a huge 2nd bathroom (it currently sits where BM3 was). I'm use to space and hate cramped up small rooms etc.
I've kept fairly nuetral internal colours - the bathrooms and laundry have white tiles throughout with a grey toned glass feature, whiteish benchtops and grey cupboards. The kitchen is white cupboards with a brownish feature on the underbench cupboards where the oven is, with white benches. Eternal is a surfmist roof, cull grey render at the front with white garage door, front door and window frames - my brick is midland limestone hue..
I'll be painting internally in solver cape horn which is white with a grey tone instead of beige and my flooring is a dark toned engineered board throughout. The flooring is a HUGE feature so keeping the walls pretty plain.

Should have the keys in two weeks, just waiting on a new front door frame and door to be installed.

Slabs are deceiving - only thing you can tell now is the size of your backyard! Your house doesnt look like it will be small at all. When we were drafting up ours we constantly compared and got out the tape measure in our little house we have now - always ended up saying 'Yep thats heaps big enough'.

Dont understand why they give us covenants and then dont really make people follow them. We have followed ours to the T. We are a "Landmark" homesite, so there was limited Colorbond colours(and only Colorbond allowed), a front fascade highlight material as well as render, a roof gable or portico required. Spent a lot on it. And somebody has gone and put cream pavers down when they are meant to be grey tones. And the neighbour has Ironstone paint colour on front - thats not earthy.

I agree - it's annoying - I actually plan to call LWP and ask them what the hell

I just got off the phone with LWP - they say they have no idea why people did something different then covenants say. They promised to drive past and get back to me. I spend almost $ 3000 to get the stupid portico which was supposed to be 1.5m deep and min 2.5m wide and the people next door have something which is wide as the door and 1.5m deep. Now the builder tells me I have to spend more money on some stupid eves ventilation -covenants again - and I'm going to fight it.

re: the eave ventilation - surely if your pad has gone down you must already have approval from LWP as is - there should be no need to add anything extra, even if they are in a convenant as it's approved by LWP!

I managed to get them to put the whirly bird (asif i was paying their prices) and rain water tank on the plans as owner to do after handover and LWP were happy with that. I just had the separate plumbing done for the grey water..

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