Page 1 of 2
G'day all,
I have only just found this forum.
My family and I are just about to lock up stage of our dream house near Mildura.
House Plan by
aslackigan, on Flickr
We took an existing plan and modified it.
We signed on 27 January.
Slab poured 6 April.
Frame up 28 April.
Frame by
aslackigan, on Flickr
Frame with roof by
aslackigan, on Flickr
View from family room by
aslackigan, on Flickr
Hmmm, maybe I need to do something about those weeds!!!!
Frame with roof by
aslackigan, on Flickr
Front Bricked up by
aslackigan, on Flickr
Congrats on your progress so far
We are also building a house with GJ's but are behind you with work only starting on our block last week.
What are you colour selections?
Some history for our build!!
We have outgrown our current house, with 12 year old twin boys and a 20 month boy (this makes my wife the only female in the house).
We had another little boy, Finn, in 2007, unfortunately he was stillborn. Hugh was born in September 2009 and my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2009, she has just finished her treatment. Then my wife's mother passed away in 2010. So we have had a fairly torrid couple of years.
So rather than buy an investment property we decided that life is too short and we should spoil ourselves. Hence the rather large home, with 5 bedrooms and 3 living areas on a large 3000m block. We started with the Palomino and modified it.
We moved to Mildura, from Queensland, in 2002 for my work and all our family is still up there (mostly around Goondiwindi). This is the reason for the fifth bedroom, as we spend quite a bit of time with visitors.
We have put caesarstone bench-tops throughout (except the laundry), Buttermilk for the kitchen, Ivory for the en-suite, and Almond Rocca for the bathroom and powder room, the ceilings are 2700mm.
Ivory Caesar Stone by
aslackigan, on Flickr
9241_Almond_Rocca_l.jpg by
aslackigan, on Flickr
4220_Buttermilk_l.jpg by
aslackigan, on Flickr
The roof is Bushland grey, the fascia is classic cream with manor red gutters and copping over the gables, the brick is Jarrah. We are rendering around all the windows (front) and the garage door. The front verandah and porch have fretwork with a curved underside (perhaps a acknowledgement of our Queensland origins). The two end gables have gable vents.
Roof, Fascia, Gutter, Window Frames by
aslackigan, on Flickr
In the en-suite there is a free-standing bath with telephone style tap ware.
Interior walls are Crystal White. Floor tiles to Kitchen, Family, Bathroom and Laundry are
http://www.nationaltiles.com.au/tile-design-gallery_dynamic.php?subimage=/MG_6343&&num=153.
En-suite tiles are travatine look alike with the floor laid on the diagonal. The kitchen splashback is a plain white 100X100 Johnson Brothers tile, laid on the diagonal with a straight border.
We have a 900mm freestanding dual fuel stove in the kitchen.
Cabinets in Kitchen and bathrooms are 2 pack (colourmatched to the walls) with cage handles. The overhaed kitchen cupbords have halogen downlights.
We are also installing a 1080p projector in the home theatre room with a Onkyo AV receiver, and Sonos sound distribution to the master bedroom, family/ living room, and alfresco. We are also installing TV points to all the bedrooms with a booster and 4 source av injection to the coaxial cable (so you will be able to watch up to 4 sources of AV from any TV in the house).
The plan is to put a pool in, although this will have to wait until we sell our current house.
I will try to find some images of the other colours for you to see.
G'day all,
Hopefully we will have our grid connected 2kW solar system installed this week. Had to wait for the wall the inverter is attached to be bricked up.
Also we are meeting the fencing people this afternoon to discuss our options.
Regards,
Andrew
Plaster went in yesterday and today. Although we called by today and asked if the sound proof insulation had gone into the wall between the theatre room and bed 2. Guess what no insulation so the plasterer rang the ss and had to take one side of the wall of so it could be installed today. The plaster will back up tomorrow. The 9' ceilings look much taller than our current 8' ones.
We have just received word that our Worm Farm waste (ie septic) system will be installed on the 11th of July. This has been a bit of a saga as the engineer appears to have had some issues with doing this. We wanted to do sub surface irrigation, but the report came specifying surface irrigation. After some fairly concerned phone calls it appears that the 2 systems are interchangeable. I suppose the main thing is that the Council are happy and have now issued the permit to install.
Hi!
Your house looks excellent!
Sounds like some really nice finishes you have decided on too.
Your block is such a great size. I love looking at the big long houses that can fit so comfortably on the blocks around Mildura. Certainly not many places with blocks that size!
I hope that the build is going smoothly for you and your family.
Good luck with everything, sounds as though you all deserve some happiness.
Thanks for that bobbin_84.
The block is just over 3000m2 and is 48.5 m wide. The house is 36m long so we have just over 6 m each side.
It is a little hard to see in the photos but I think we are going to have to put a retaining wall in on the right hand side of the house. The pad for the house is about 800mm higher than the ground (the block slopes a bit and we put the house on a loam pad).
We were going to go with vinyl fencing but are having trouble finding a colour to match our scheme. We may have to go for a tubular fence.
Having a lock up site meeting with the SS tomorrow.
G'day All,
We finally have the solar system installed!! Now we just need to get Powercor back to set up the meter for the feed in tariff.
The 9 Solar Panels 2 Kw by
aslackigan, on Flickr
The bricklayer knocked back over 2 thousand bricks as being too chipped to use, which is why the bricking in is still not finished. The replacement bricks have just arrived today.
The Solar Inverter 3 Kw by
aslackigan, on Flickr
On a side note the salesman we have dealt with asked if we would consider letting them conduct an "Open House" once our home is completed, but prior to our moving in. He says the house is a good example of a Homestead style home.
It would involve the house being open to the public from 10:00am to 2:00pm on a Saturday and or a Sunday. I am assuming that anything broken would be fixed and that any public liability risk would be born by Gardners.
It would be good to know peoples opinions/ experiences. Do we need to put anything in writing and should we ask for anything in return?? Gardners have been pretty good to deal with so far.
Brickwork is looking good.
Sorry don't have much info on open to the public. The only open house I've had is when selling a house. A house that was built on the same street as our block had an open to the public when completed. I'd be looking to get something in writing about it.
Hi aslackigan,
Looking great
Love the palomino and I love your color selection its looking great
Cant wait to see it all come together.
Sounds like you have had a rotten few years and now its time to spoil yourselves
Cheers Janet
Thanks Janet,
Actually I have been lurking around your thread for a little while, it was one of the google search results when I entered "GJ Gardner". I hope your splash back saga gets resolved soon. I like your colours too. We have also suffered from the "Ohh my God.....WHAT HAVE WE DONE?", but now it is all coming together we are getting excited.
Sorry to hear about your cat, fox bites are pretty nasty, maybe not quite as bad as a carrion eater like a goanna, but because they leave very fine deep punctures they are very prone to infection. Our old (13 years) ruby Cavalier spent the afternoon at the vet today, he has a cataract on his eye for a few years and apparently he has developed an ulcer on the eye. We think our youngest (20 months) may have hit him with something and being practically blind he did not blink and got a scratched eye which has now ulcerated.
Met the neighbours the other day on one side there is a local detective, on the other is the parents of one of the teachers at our son's school. Up the road is the school librarian's parents, and down the road is a flight attendant from my work.
Found a link to the tapware for the bath in the en-suite
here.
Also a link to the free-standing bath in the en-suite
here it is the 1700mm Fresh at the top of the page.
Hi Andrew (great name - my son is Andrew)
I love your house design, so roomy and it is a great idea to have a guest room. I will have one when one of my sons leave home
Your house looks very impressive
and there's plenty of land for the boys to enjoy.
Love your bath and tapware too - are you going for a country style home?
Thanks dreamcometrue,
Yes we are going for a country homestead feel with maybe a French provincial twist, my DW intends to shabby chic a fair bit of our furniture, and we have a 6 light chandelier for the master bedroom. The size of the block was a prime consideration, as was the long shallow house which uses the whole width of the block and gives us maximum back yard.
The permit to install for the septic system arrived yesterday, we are installing an
A & A Worm Farm, and it actually says sub surface drippers.....YAY. We decided to use the Worm Farm due to the fact that we only have to inspect it every 2 years and we don't have to put any chemicals into it. Some of the other systems cost as much as $300 a quarter to run with power, chemical and inspections.
Some history for our build!!
We have outgrown our current house, with 12 year old twin boys and a 20 month boy (this makes my wife the only female in the house).
We had another little boy, Finn, in 2007, unfortunately he was stillborn. Hugh was born in September 2009 and my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2009, she has just finished her treatment. Then my wife's mother passed away in 2010. So we have had a fairly torrid couple of years.
So rather than buy an investment property we decided that life is too short and we should spoil ourselves. Hence the rather large home, with 5 bedrooms and 3 living areas on a large 3000m block.
Hello there - just found your thread - wow house looks great so far!! Great choices. Love the attitude - we are in a similar boat - I had bc 3 years ago and it really does put things into perspective doesn't it? We decided last year to sell our house and build a new one and really spoil ourselves. Look forward to watching your build come together. Good luck with everything. Annette
Thanks for that Annette. Yes it does rather put things into perspective.
Had a quick look at your thread, looking good. I like your plan.
G'day All,
Managed to take a photo of the Front Elevation, it gives you an idea of what we are trying to achieve with the house.
Front Elevation by
aslackigan, on Flickr