Cal & Matt's PD Kensington in Doreen - bit of a rant

Hi H1 champions.

I’m Cal and my husband is Matt and we’re building the Kensington 24 with PD.

I’ve been looking at this forum for 12-18months and have gained incredible information over that period so I thought it only right that I commence a building thread of our own to track our build.

We also have a blog, which is listed at the bottom of my post.

So we signed tender in December 2009.
Signed contracts and did all selections in Feb 2010.
We are scheduled to commence building in July 2010, however we have just had our build loan approved and mentioned to our CSA that now the loan is in place we’re good to go and she has just come back and let us know that at the end of April our file will go to ‘Construction’, so who knows, maybe we’ll be laying a slab in May!!!

Our builder is notorious (as most volumes builders) for their high turnover of CSA’s. Well, we are no different, after having a pretty good experience up to this point, we’ve been told she is leaving the company at the end of the month.

Here is our floor plan:


So, I know how much people love pictures, so here are our colour selections

External Colours
Bricks: Boral Jarrah with Off White mortar (posh I know)

Roof: Monier Elabana tiles in Mocha Choc

Gutters: Colorbond (CB) in Jasper

Fascia: CB Evening Haze
Downpipes: CB Evening Haze
Portico & Alfresco Pillars: CB Evening Haze
Meter Box: CB Evening Haze (I know, who knew you had to pick this aswell?)

Garage Door: Panelmaster in Contemporary Profile, CB Jasper
Front Door: PMAD 104 with clear glass in CB Jasper (sidelights will be translucent glass)

Windows: CB Jasper

Internal Colours
Walls: Wattyl Kid Leather (can be seen in carpet pic)
Ceilings: Builders White
Skirting & Architraves: Wattyl Astor White
Carpet: Reflections 'Game Keeper' (Charcoal Grey for all of you playing at home). The pic doesn’t really show the true colour of the carpet, but hey, I’m not the photographer in the family, Matt is.
Floor Tiles: Neutral Grey Tile - Actual name is Portifino Matt Grigio Satin (400mm x 400mm)


Kitchen colours
Under bench cupboards: Laminex 'Smokey Sapelle in Natural finish

Overhead cupboards: Laminex 'Moleskin' in Natural finish

Benchtop: Ceaserstone in Osprey

Glass Splashback: Dulux Sea Creature (deep turquoise) with clear glass (no need to starfire)


Laundry colours
Under bench cupoboards: Laminex 'Mushroom Linea' in Natural finish

Benchtop: Laminex Brook Pebble in Dimensions finish


Ensuite colours
Floor & shower base: Portifino Matt Grigio Satin (400mm x 400mm), which is the same as floor tiles throughout the house.
Shower wall: Portifino Gloss Grigio Satin (400mm x 400mm), which is the same as floor tiles just in gloss.
Shower niche: Square glass mosaic.

Vanity splashback: 2 rows of White Gloss Rectangular Tiles (100mm x 300mm) with 3 rows of glass mosiac tiles before mirror.

Vanity: Laminex 'Mushroom Linea' in Natural finish (see laundry colours).


Main bathroom colours
Floor & shower base: Portifino Matt Grigio Satin (400mm x 400mm), which is the same as Ensuite.
Shower wall: Portifino Gloss Grigio Satin (400mm x 400mm), which is the same as floor tiles just in gloss.
Bath hob: Same tile as the shower walls
Vanity splashback: 2 rows of White Gloss Rectangular Tiles (100mm x 300mm) with 3 rows of glass mosiac tiles before mirror.


Vanity: Laminex 'Mushroom Linea' in Natural finish



I'm exhausted doing all that. So I'll finish up this post now.

Will regularly update the thread throughout the build.

I will also try to upload an image of our house superimposed on our block courtesy of hubby later this week.

wow, arent you clever!
you must be really shattered...good job though. Just looked at your blog, love what hubby did, he is clever too!!
look forward to seeing it all come together

Hi ThatGirlCal

Post the 3d picture from your blog, i love it.

Seeing as it's in high demand. Here is the pic of how our house should look, with colours as per our colour selections etc (as well as a little landscaping done)...

Matt is a 3D modeller by trade so this wasn't too much of a stretch for him I guess



Seeing it certainly made me extra excited.

It's just the look we're going for.

I know some people might think it's boring with no render or fancy windows etc, but I wanted a simple brick facade with the wood posts under the portico so I can have some climbing roses tangled around them one day

We had our new CSA from PD call today. So yay to not being forgotten about I must admit, I was a bit worried with the file changing hands that we might not keep progressing at the nice rate we have been thus far.

So the exciting news is that our site scrape is due May 13 and they expect a slab to be laid by the end of May...Woohoo...

So I'm pretty excited. Although we're still trying to get the builder next door to clear their mess from our block, so that's a bit of a worry. If they don't clear it, it will probably cost us a bit to get it moved grrr...

The latest from the builder is that the site supervisor claims he went and checked our block when we reported the dumping issue a few weeks ago and there was nothing on our block and now when he checked again this week there is (magically). Does he think we reported rubbish when there wasn't any and then dumped stuff to amuse ourselves?

This is just a silly fib by the SS because we have a photo of my car in the drive of the block a few months ago and the rubbish is there, which doesn't seem significant, but it is when that particular car was written off due to the Melbourne storm in March. So I've not had it in my possession since mid march...Why do site supervisors make stuff up!!!! Even if he honestly believes they didn't dump it, why make stuff up!!!

Well, Matt and I have been up and back (too quickly) to the Gold Coast and upon our return we visited the block (like total building tragics).

To our complete excitement we found in our 5 day absence, our block had been scraped and a whole lot of pipes are now sticking out of 'our dirt'...Too exciting, I know.

Even more exciting (is it even possible you say)? We have a port-a-loo on site also...We are really going places now people...

Bring on the build...
This is how we left the block last Sunday


And this is how the block looked on Friday afternoon...

No not at all. I find fully bricked frontages very refreshing these days. Nearly every house has render on it! We'll be going pretty minimal with our render if we can too

Hooray for the scrape and Outhouse too!

congrats! colours look great, and YAY site start

Love the 3D picture , very clever

Yay on the portaloo and scrape !!!!

Congrats on your site start! We are also with PD, about a week from handover and on our 5th CSA since site scrape!

My tip, based on our experience, make sure that your SS is up to speed with any issues that you had in play with your former CSA. The SS is the man, the CSA is really irrelevant from site scrape forward.

Good luck with your build!

Congrats Cal! i now know to walk down that end of the street to have a squiz. I was down there last weekend and saw the pegs marking out the house and got a lil excited! I know its late but love the colours! I also think that a plain brick facade is great as there are not many around.... I think stack stone is over rated and render is just so common now, so plain is different and as said before refreshing! Although I do love my render but meh.... Can't wait to see more!

Excellent, another build to stalk ...

Colours look great, and glad to hear that you got a site start earlier than expected. Hopefully this weather will not hold things up.

Thanks Guys and Girls for all your encouraging words. We are definitely super excited (probably an understatement) about the whole thing actually starting

We will be up first thing on Saturday morning to see if the actual slab has been poured, apparently it was due to happen yesterday and our PD 24/7 site states that it was complete as of today...

I wouldn't be surprised if some time this week we get a little invoice for the slab stage, I'm sure they don't waste any time

Richo, thanks for the comments on the colours. It's pretty damn neutral I know (read, boring), but we'll see how it all turns out soon enough.

I keep looking at the colour samples we have and then have a little panic about things like 'oh god, have I made the kitchen to bland, will the cupboards look ok with that turquoise splashback etc etc", but Matt takes the samples off me and tells me to relax, and also mentions that "it's to late to change now"...so that helps

Just thought I'd whip out a quick post, because something made me feel good and I wanted to share

Tonight when we arrived home, we had a letter, the sender was our future next door neighbours.

It was the invoice for the fence we will share together. Obviously, this in itself is not special. It's the same fencer that we used for the back fence so nothing special there either.

What I LOVED, was that on the back of the invoice was a nice note from our future neighbours, introducing themselves and their small son.

The letter was so lovely, it mentioned that they would like to go ahead and fence as they're moving in soon and they've obtained this quote as they know the company has completed work in our street and the work seems to be sound. They also offered for us to get additional quotes if we liked as they are really not fussed (incidently, we will use them as their work is fine).

Then to sign off they listed their contact numbers and asked if we'd call them just to touch base and to get things under way...

I just love personal hand written notes (old fashioned, I know), but for it to come from a complete stranger, who incidently may turn out to be a great neighbour really made me smile.

It also makes me really want to do the right thing by them, so I will call, first thing tomorrow morning and I will pop a cheque in the mail for our portion of the fence asap...

Just thought I'd share a positive 'fencing' story

Yay for a start! I'm sure your house is going to zoom along.... the Access division seem to be champions at speedy builds.

ThatGirlCal ,

Great 3D! when i read that pic, it seemed ur hse was already there!

i love boral Jarrah! i remembered H2b and several others here have that too

I remember ur avatar, so great that ur built started. Must be v excited!

cheers

Nott, I love the 3D pic...my ideas for the front yard have evolved since hubby did that 3D image (no surprise I've changed my mind ).

We can't wait to see the bricks...I really think they're going to look lovely.



Thanks Kek! We're so excited at the moment. Every time we go out we get so excited and always leave the area with a smile, just can't wait to get in and start living there, so hopefully the Access boys keep up the speed

Ok so here's the latest update:

We did our weekly pilgramage to the block today...and we have a slab

We also have all our windows, which have been left on our slab...doesn't seem very secure to me

Pity the sun didn't turn itself on in Melbourne today, but here are some pics...Bring on the frame

Oh, I almost forgot...We had an email from our CSC the other day about our roof tile. We've picked Monier Mocha Choc...She was letting us know they have changed the colour slightly and it will now be called Mocha Choc J...The J being for Jasper. Apparently they're changing the colour to be more in line with the colorbond 'Jasper' colour...Which is fantastic, seeing as this is the colour for our gutters (amongst quite a few other things)

Looking good Cal, I saw the slab on Sunday when I went up to have a look at the progress of neighbouring blocks up in stage 5.

You'll probably have a frame up in no time!

Looking good Cal I'll put dibs on a frame by end of the week! My cousin is building with PD access also up in stage 5 and they have flown with their build!

Yay Cal!!! Slab... on your way to a frame!!! Definitely worth a trip out on the weekend to try and find your build.