Hi All,

To avoid being blamed for hijacking some other threads around here (daveandally1), I thought it is probably now time to start my own, even though our house is still on paper and somewhat imaginary! I've enjoyed reading everyone's posts over the last few months and it's wonderful to see so much support and positive feedback going around - and also to know that I'm probably not as crazy as I think I am when I end up having nightmares about choosing the wrong type of cornice or how deep the breakfast bar should be.

My partner and I started our building journey about 9 months ago, when we decided to do the complete opposite of what we'd always been looking at doing as 'first home buyers'. We'd done all the research to buy an established property, been to countless home opens and even made an offer on a property (which later fell through)...and then one day, we just thought - Let's Build!

To make things even more interesting, being NoR people all our lives, we thought we'd go for something SoR. Sure, our friends think we're disowning them and our parents are worried that we're too far away for potential babysitting (if and when babies arrive....sometime far far far away..). So, even if no one comes to visit us, we're still in love with our little pile of dirt in Aubin Grove and we're so looking forward to watching our house become our new home over the next few months.

We're building an 'Individual Design' with Scott Park Homes - we've got an ordinary shaped corner block, however there were some design restrictions put forward by the land developer which meant we ended up having to change so much from most of the designs that SPH offered, so it became a plan that took inspiration from several of their designs.

We'll be doing our best to recreate our version of a Federation style cottage, with a couple of modern touches. I will post plans and colours and all that once I get home and have all that info in front of me

sounds good, can't wait to hear more

Yay for your own thread! Very excited to watch your build! Welcome to SoR!

Woooo! Hiya JJ's! I won't blame you at all We all hijack each other's threads around here

Look forward to hearing more!!

And like Jennifer said... welcome to SoR!

Ohh Wow your plan sounds fantastic and one of a kind, cant wait to see it unfold... btw Welcome to SOR your gonna love it here

looking forward to see your build journey.

Zoning requirements allow us to build up to 60 percent of the total block size (360m2) and we've managed to use up 59.25 percent of that allowance, so I think we've done quite well!

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Front Elevation:

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Bricks: Austral Geographe Limestone
Render: Colorbond Paperbark
Roof: Colorbond Surfmist
Gutter & Fascia: Shale Grey
Timber Finial/Barge (Gable): Shale Grey
Gable Lining: Cedar Bondall (Woodgrain)
Posts (Porch): Colorbond Surfmist
Window Frames & Glazing Bars: Pearl White
Garage Door: Surfmist

Front Door & Side Light
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Internal Doors
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Cornices (I'm too ashamed to say exactly how much of a chunk these took out of our pre-start budget
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As you can see, we're going for quite a traditional sort of look. Completely opposite to my usual taste, but we've as done everything else opposite to how we normally would so far...we're going with it!

Beautiful choices JJ's, I love the different doors. And the cornices are divine!

I'm jealous of your plan where the laundry is attached to the kitchen.... And congrats! 59.25% is awesome

Thanks Ally We've had friends build with Dale Alcock and you get the fancy cornices there for no extra cost, but we reeaaally wanted them (???) so we paid. No one else will really notice or care though, hahah, but we might have to force them to acknowledge how awesome they are.

I haven't been as diligent with taking pictures of things as I thought I would be, so I don't have pictures of my floor or wall tiles samples in the bathrooms yet. A lot of our friends seem to be more excited about the building process than we are, but I find it so hard to get super excited right now because we've had to wait for so long to get to this point, and things hardly feel real yet. Anyway, here are a few more pics:

Kitchen

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Bathroom & Ensuite

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Laundry

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Flooring (All bedrooms and living areas except theatre) - Kaindl "Highland Oak"

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OooooOOOHHH! I love the floorboards! That's a gorgeous colour. Re-engineered floorboards/compressed/laminate? I'm a fan of having hard floors throughout

Kudos on the diamondgloss benchtops as well, we're having them too. One of my friends has a plain laminex benchtop and it looks just that - plain.

Can't wait to see it all come together!

I love your internal doors! They are the ones I want to upgrade to! Do you know the code? And if it's not too much to ask how much it was to upgrade them!

Love your layout too! Fantastic having the garage door right near the kitchen like that!!!

The doors were one of the upgrade items which worked out cheaper than if we were to do them on our own later... We're paying around $800 in total for 11 doors throughout the house. The shopper entry/garage door is a little bit more expensive than the others because it needs to thicker/stronger (there's some technical requirement, I can't quite remember it now). When we went to get our own quotes, it worked out to around $95 per door, without installation. Installation brought it up to the $200 ish mark.

Also, I'm not sure of the code, but they're called Corinthian Rockport

They're timber laminate - I'm pretty impressed with the quality of timber laminate these days, so it wasn't too hard to choose - and we got a really good deal with our flooring package when we first signed up.

NICE! We're going with laminate as well... they look so nice and cost half as much

Thankyou so much! I just worked out ... 17 doors! But should be within budget... I hope so! I think the detail in the doors takes it from just a house to something that looks... expensive!

Have they given you any idea how far from construction you are? I hope the council doesn't take too long!

Oh and interesting fact about Cockburn... we get recycling bins taken every week not every fortnight! (i live in Yangebup at the moment, not sure if too many other councils do it yet but it is awesome!) And the Cockburn shops are about to undergo an extension which should be good and finished in 2014!!!

I like the cornices but then I've got the same one! Your external colours are quite similar to ours, too. Ours is Geographe Limestone brick, Shale Grey Roof and gutters with white verandah posts and front doors.

Love the rest of your colours, too!

Jennifer,

The lady I've been speaking with at City of Cockburn has said that it's likely our building permit will take 6 weeks to come through. Arrrgh. So, worst case scenario, I think we'd have a slab down late May? How about you guys, have you been given any dates?

Glad to hear about the recycling bin being taken every week - will definitely be making use of that. I'm living in City of Stirling now and we don't even get a separate recycling bin!

Hi JJ,

My plan was sent in on the 23rd Feb and it was approved by the City of Cockburn on the 9th March just make sure the council isnt waiting for indemnity insurance from the builder after the council has received that its all good to go

Hi JJ,

Love your plan!! And your style - those cornices are devine

We love the weekly recycle bin too. Not sure what we'll get when we move to the house we're building as it's in a different shire.

All the best. Hope all of us SPHers have a smooth build