Our new home

Hi all,

A bit of a story/history to begin with:

So we are in the process of selling our house so we can build. It will be our first time building so it's all very exciting!

We have put a deposit on land, which is still being developed. We are eagerly awaiting the time that titles are available and its officially ours.

We've just put our house on the market, so we will see how that all goes keeping it spotless with young kids around!

New house:
I have been looking at buying an established home/building for around four years now (That's checking out realestate.com.au for established homes, visiting display homes throughout Victoria and also checking our plans of local builders online). I got to that stage where I couldn't find anything established that I liked/big enough in our price range. So just decided on building something that I wanted from the beginning. Around a year ago when we decided on building and the land estate we were going to build in we started getting prices and going a little further with things. Looking at plans we couldn't settle on one we really really liked that wouldn't involve changing something. We found a plan that we liked which required minimal changes. We were set to go with another builder and had prices, but ended up thinking it wasn't a good idea due to them changing how they sold their houses and the price increasing before our eyes.

So after many more plans and looking at more houses, I started looking again at J-G King plans.
We finally found a plan that we both liked that didn't need any changes to layout, the Odyssey 2.

--Update--
We had issues with Kings and have now changed to a small local builder, who have been amazing from the get go, we are so much happier with this decision.

Colour Selection: 19/06/17
Contract signing: 17/07/17
Loan approved
Hurdles and line markings 07/08/17
Site works- plumbing and electricity pits- 08/08/17
Boxing for slab started - 11/08/17
and finished on 14/08/17
Slab done- 17/08/17
Frame started- 21/08/17- All cut onsite
Wall Frames done- 22/08/17
Trusses arrived onsite- 23/08/17
Roof frame started- 24/08/17
Gutters arrived onsite, finishing the roof, scaffolding around front porch- 25/08/17
Gutters and facia on- 28/08/17
Roof on- 29/08/17
Electrician rough in 02/09/17
Windows and door frames, Bricks arrived, plumbing rough in, doors onsite- 04/09/17
Gas pipes in 06/09/17
Cabling for NBN etc in, bath frame- 07/09/17
Bricks started, Front door in- 14/09/17
Garage internal and external doors in 18/09/17
Insulation arrived, bricks continue, first visit with site supervisor 19/09/17
Wall insulation installed, bricks continue- 20/09/17
Heater and ducts, cooling ducts installed- 22/09/17
Bricks finished- 25/09/17
Site clean up- 27/10/17
Plaster installed- 02/10/17
Bricks Cleaned- 04/10/17
Cabinetry installed!- 09/10/17
Stone Mason and painter onsite- 17/10/17
Paint- First coat- 19/10/17
Down pipes, cabinetry and tv antenna- 31/10/17
Screed- 3/11/17
Water proofing, Driveway and alfresco boxed up 8/11/17
Drive and alfresco etc done, Gas meter installed- 10/11/17
Tiles getting laid- 20/11/17
Plumber in- 30/11/17 sinks and some taps
Electrician in- 01/12/17
Vinyl flooring started- 04/12/17
Vinyl completed- 06/12/17
Carpet started- 07/12/17
Carpet and electrician finished, cleaner started- 08/12/17 120days
Plumber finishing, hot water service, oven and dishwasher installed, Cleaner in- 09/12/17
Painter in- 13/12/17
Certificate of occupancy and final invoice, feature wall painted 14/12/17
Solar finished 15/12/17
Roofer back to fix birds nest 19/12/17
Final payment paid- checked online at 11.30pm 19/12/17
Final Clean- 20/12/17 - 131 Days

So this is our plan (hopefully it works!) although this is not the final one as there are a few things that need changing. I also realise in my first post I mentioned finding a plan that needed no changes, but infact we have altered the plan.

The original plan fits perfect on our block, but doesn't allow quite enough room to drive 'down the back'. So one of the alterations we have done is too extend the garage so that the rear door is wide enough to fit a roller door for a car to drive through. Now this has put our garage basically on the edge of our block. But atleast if we need to we have the option of driving the car out the back. The block we have is around 770sq. Let us know your thoughts!

We haven't done colour selection or anything yet but I'm already set for internal colours, excluding tiles in the bathrooms and laundry. I will post these at a later date when I get a decent photo of them and get everyone's opinion!

What I am struggling is on the facade. I have pretty much narrowed the bricks down to two, but I want to have a look at one more that's included as standard. Selkirk's ironstone, Honeystone and goldfield haze which I haven't seen the last one in person yet. We would be going with a natural rolled morter. I quite like the colorbond colours wallaby and gully, which I was thinking one of those colours as the roof but can't really pictured it yet. I also like the darker look windows and I was thinking I'd like the woodland grey for this, and then I was thinking I'd need a little lightness in there in the surfmist maybe as the render on two pillars of the facade. I will post a photo of the facade at a later date also. The garage will be in a colourbond colour too.

We both really like the Honeystone brick colour, but I think it would best suit the light colours and I think I prefer the dark, rich colours. More similar to our internal colours. So now we are leaning towards the ironstone.

Samples of the bricks: ironstone, Honeystone and goldfield haze.

hi everyone,

So here are some photos of our land estate. We have been taking them every week to see the changes (although haven't taken them if nothing has been done). We will also continue taking them when the house starts getting built. It's super exciting. We are in stage 2 (originally we were going to stage 3, but we were impatient and the price was right!) the estate will eventually have a park and as you can see in the photos a lake area that will have a little walkway around it etc. Anyway to the photos now....







As you can see in the last picture a little flooding! Set the stage back by a week (titles were originally meant for September but they only started in August! So we are expecting titles will be available by February but more then likely March at this stage!

Congrats on building . We to sold our house to build but this was our second house . Few tips
If you have space how about opening the wip door the other way out instead of in
Watch the little spaces in bathrooms between showers and basins .maybe you can make shower bigger or basin but in doing this you will need to add a nib wall . Enjoy building

Hi Melsie thanks for the tips! I will definately speak with hubby about the wip door, we had been discussing moving the return air vent for evaporative cooler to behind the door and having the door swing that way, but it meant the gap on the other side would be narrower as the box is slightly bigger then the existing shelves. So thought we may as well leave as is, but I like the idea to swing it outwards- it would mean we would have to keep it shut more often thou haha. Not to fussed about the teeny gap in the bathroom, but the ensuite I plan on leaving, the shower is incorrect and will be fixed on the next lot of plans- it will be narrower across that wall and longer along the window wall as I want a walk in shower. This would leave a wider gap between shower and vanity, where I plan on hanging towel rails. so far we are enjoying it! Did you mean you have built the odyssey before? Have you finished building?

I built in wa . With redink . My build is finished and been in my new home for 7 months . Its still a work in progress a lot of little things to be finished .

Oh I have my wip door opening out . My door should of been moved over abit though coz its in the way of the fridge door opening as well as the wall something I should of looked at . Things we miss on these plans . But apart from that the door works well opening out . Or maybe even a cavity sliding door would of been better for us . I wish builders sometimes would of given us these little ideas lol

Oh righto, hope it all went well for you!
I had a look at my plan, if we decide to open it outward I think it would have enough room, wouldn't hit the bench I would probably have it opening away from the fridge door so it could be left open when needed. We actually moved it across to be the centre of the wip away from the fridge, to allow us room to put more shelves on the wall behind the door, otherwise a cavity slider would have been an idea for us too.

Onto a few of my colour ideas! Appreciate your thoughts on the combos I have chosen! I will add a couple of display home shots of what I imagine my kitchen to look like also.

In the main living area I have chosen to have bamboo flooring, the reason being we didn't want laminate or floating floor and couldn't afford actual wood. We have wooden floors in this house we are in and love them. The colour we have chosen is Arc Quick Step Champagne. We also didn't mind the coffee colour. We chose this because it's a similar level of colour as what we have now, it's not too dark or light.


We will have tiles in the laundry, bathroom and ensuite with remaining areas and bedrooms to be in carpet.

The kitchen bench, bathroom and ensuit benches are to be Essastone, we only had a choice of french nougat, crystal chalk, new crystal salt and new sable luxe. Not a great choice in my opinion and didn't want to upgrade if we didn't have too. So we both liked french nougat the best.


The kitchen will have a waterfall bench, the cupboards underneath I am thinking a medium dark brown colour. So have picked out Formica Bark for the lower cupboards.

For the top cupboards we have picked out Laminex Ash White (although haven't really looked at too many white colours, as I ordered a couple of swatches online, the other colour I ordered was too white and bright.


We have glass splashbacks as an inclusion so I have narrowed it down to Haymes Yorkshire Brown


Wall paint I think I have settled on pale mushroom 2 it has a little more tint then pale mushroom 1

Although that colour looks rather dark. I would have pale mushroom 1 as the trim colours.

I'm holding the colour swatch in my hand and it's not anything like the picture so I'm confused it's a lot lighter and creamy rather then grey. I feel the website makes everything look grey does anyone have this colour paint and if so did it come out like the swatch colour or the website colour?! I'll see if I can get a photo of the colour in my hand to compare later!

I'll also add the bathroom and laundry later.

congrats on your land . with my wip i used a sliding door and it works perfectly and saves space also check your fridge area as if you want a large fridge and it might not fit. there is also a handy thread on here called things i forgot and this will help alot.
love the honey stone . for me i would go a dark color on roof. i have a light brick called hotham then went for monument on roof and dune for the garage doors. and black for windows

Hi 1rocky,

I've had a look at the fridge space its plenty big enough for what we already have. Our fridge is under 950mm and this space is 1035mm or something along those lines.so it would fit your regular style fridge fine and I don't like side by side fridges.. I like the honey stone, but not sold on it as yet. I got some sample bricks from Selkirk today n ironstone and goldfield haze, still waiting on the honeystone. I actually don't mind the goldfield haze and there is none in my area at all but about 6 of each of the others.. So that could be the way to go. I think it would suit the colorbond gully/wallaby roof colour I had in mind too..

So I recieved my bricks, or atleast some of my bricks in the mail today. I'm still waiting on Honeystone to arrive. We also went for a drive yesterday to go to the brick shop and had a look at a few houses. There is only one house around with goldfield haze and too look at more we would have to drive around an hour and half..so won't get to do that soon . But plenty of ironstone and Honeystone too see.

I kinda like the goldfield haze and have once again put the ironstone in last place, the hubby still likes it thou.. But I'm the one that will end up making the decision.

So as I also got a couple of colorbond samples to look at I've added what we like with goldfield haze in this picture:


Brick: Selkirk Goldfield Haze
Roof and gutters: Gully
Fascia and windows: Woodland Grey
Pillers (render) and garage door: Evening Haze

I wouldn't mind doing a mockup of those colours if I could find somewhere with goldfield haze or similar in the designer.

Let me know your thoughts. I will end up doing similar when the Honeystone arrive too. But so far I think I like these. I have also thought that the ironstone would need the dark monument so similar dark colour as the roof and the lighter surf ist otherwise it all blended in with the other colours I liked.

Just ordered these for above the kitchen bench. Hopefully I like them as much as I do when they arrive! This should give the kitchen a little more light as we only have one regular light in there. Apparently you can buy the globe in the picture as an led light so that's what we will get too.


http://www.ivoryanddeene.com.au

Filament led globe- Es pear shape

You have really good taste .

Thanks! I'm hoping it all works out in the end!

Bathroom and ensuite will have the same vanity, not too sure about tiles as such but have an idea of a warm 'darkish' grey colour tile (it will have a brown tinge too it)

The cupboard doors will be in Laminex Amari Oak.

As you can see its a wood grain finish with some grey highlights to it.

The benchtops will be Essastone french nougat again.


The laundry will have the same Amari oak cupboard doors and the bench top, the very little benchtop will be in Formica Ameretto Stone

Love the pendant lights but do you think you will lose the effect if you change it to LED?

I'm not sure what you mean? Do you mean the colour of the light or the look of the light? I have found LED lights with the exact same shape and the 'filaments'.

Would have been more concerned with the "look" of the bulb, but that bulb looks awesome for a LED!!