Our Forever Home at Cloverlea - we're in - some pics

Hi everyone, I am a (very) long time lurker on this forum and sometimes contributor and thought it was about time to start my own thread on our build, as we are now getting close to starting (hopefully only a few weeks!! ). I am doing a blog for family and friends but everyone on here seems great and really helpful so thought I would do this thread too!
We bought our block of land back in September 2013 – which is about when I started lurking – in the outer Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. At the time we were living in the home we had purchased in 2004 but we were slowly outgrowing it (renovated 70’s build – 14 squares with small living area and one bath/toilet). Ideally we wanted to buy established, but the prices for what we wanted were just too much. When the land – which was only five minutes away - became available (there isn’t much land available out our way) the cogs started turning….
We didn’t want a huge house, just something we could spread out in, and have people over without feeling like we were sitting on top of each other.
We originally decided on a Carlisle Home, the Randwick 26(square). After deciding on this plan we chose a block of land to suit – 695sqm, with a 2m slope side to side. Frontage is 17 metres. (We will have a bit of a view from where the alfresco will be, to the Yarra Valley, which is nice!) We wanted a ‘decent’ size block as we definitely wanted something of a backyard. However, we have since changed to builder called Ashford Homes. Basically, there were a few things about the Carlisle Randwick plan that bothered me (small alfresco, small linen closet, two living areas too close together…) that were all answered by a (modified) Ashford Home design, and then some. We really lived the Carlisle plan – we loved the Ashford one. Plus, it had basically the same footprint so it fit on the block exactly the same.
Ashford Homes also seemed to have better inclusions (and I still think this is true) and were willing to include evaporative cooling in the original quote (it seems my sales manager husband can be quite convincing).
So anyway we signed up with Ashford late last year, when we thought the land settlement was in March 2015. Our land settlement had been pushed back many times since we first signed. The original settlement date was supposed to be (ah-hem) May 2014 – we finally settled on 8 October 2015, more than 17 months later!
Here is our floor plan, which is our version of the Ashford Ancouley. We tweaked it to suit us – changes included a large back rumpus room and alfresco, walk in linen closet, extra bench/drawers in kitchen, etc. Hopefully no more changes before starting (or during the build!):


Floor plan


The house on the block of land


The front facade

We have already learnt a lot along the way and I am sure we will learn a lot more as we go! Welcome any and all feedback.

How exciting after such a long wait, I love the cloverlea estate.

Just one thing to think about with that big living area is the furniture placement. I only say this as our old house had a long rectangle shape room and I found it difficult to furnish.
Are you planning on keeping bed 2 as a bedroom or study? its quite far away from the toilet/bathroom. Could be tricky with young kids in the night

Hey! Thanks for your reply, it is hard to know if anyone will comment and follow your thread or not....
No kiddies here - just the two of us and our cat - so not stressed about the bedroom placement. Might use it as the study or a guest room, we'll decide that later on, all the three 'spare' rooms are the same size so it is not like the size will dictate what the rooms are used for.
We don’t actually need a four bedroom house but we really wanted two living areas, large alfresco, etc and looking for a three bedroom house that met all our ‘wants’ was hard, so we figured building a four bedroom got us what we wanted and it wasn’t that much more – plus you would think the eventual re-sale value would be more with four bedrooms (not that I’m planning on selling it!).

We do have something of a furniture plan for the lounge and meals area, but I know what you mean. I often look at floor plans and wonder how on earth the furniture will work. For some reason when I found this floor plan I knew how I wanted the furniture set out. And, we have been waiting for so long to start this build that we have already found a lot of the furniture! Just going to wait until the build is finished, or nearly finished, to make final decisions. We will be taking our old (current) furniture with us to start with, so there is no rush, we can wait and buy things gradually. I've got a pic somewhere of the furniture layout plan we like so will post it when I find it.
Thanks for your thoughts. I just had a look through your build and we seem to have picked similar colours externally – and some internally – great minds and all that!

Yes we are using some of our old furniture too. I'm not very good a visualizing things which is why I have not looked at curtains or blinds yet. I have no idea what will go so we are going to live in it for a while before we decide what will go best.
We have also built our house the way we like it and haven't worried too much about re sale value.
The living/alfresco area that you have planned looks great.
Can't wait to see how it all comes together

Congrats TashPaul! When does your build start? Looking forward to seeing your progress. Your backyard will be massive!

Our First Build

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We are at a similar stage so looking forward to following your build

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Here is the link to my thread that i have just started too! Same as you. ..long time lurker... first time thread lol

Hi everyone! It is funny how exciting it is when you get responses lol.
We should start building in the next few weeks - finally - expecting to get our site start date next week sometime and think that the actual start will be the week after.... fingers crossed!! been waiting for sooooo long, I've already moved in in my head....
Yes our backyard will be a good size - we really didn't want a small yard so we are pretty happy with it. Our first house was on 1000sqm of land, though most of the yard was out the front as it was a triangular shaped block. So, this will be smaller but definitely big enough and the shape is better so easier to landscape and use. We have a basic plan of what we are going to do with it, but will wait and see once the house is built as we might get other ideas along the way.
I will try and follow you all of your threads too

Some of our selections:

External:

Colorbond Monument - gutters, downpipes, elec box, window frames, front door, garage door
Colorbond Dune - fascia (wrong bricks shown, but they are similar)



The right bricks: Boral Mocha



We are going to tile the pillars instead of rendering them:


Garage door style (but in Monument)


Front door (but in Monument)



Door handle style (I wanted this look but we are getting chrome - husband was determined so I gave in)



Aggregate driveway



The bit between the top of the pillars and the roof of the front porch will also be painted Monument. Here is a mock-up that kind of shows the look we will end up with (not the right house, but is similar, and gives some idea):



I have a feeling the pictures will be large - sorry!!

I was tossing up between monument and ironstone for our colorbond. We have chosen ironstone but still have the opportunity to change and now I'm second guessing the decision! It's so hard! !

We did originally pick Woodland Gray but it can 'throw' green tinges and I didn't want that. The Monument is quite dark but I would rather that, than chance 'seeing' green/grey.

Hi again...
our internal selections:

Carpet in bedrooms: California Twist ‘Hollywood’ with upgraded underlay


Tiles throughout the rest of the house – Odessa BT White 400 x 400 glazed porcelain
Wall – Taubmans Tahira White
Skirts, architraves, internal doors: Taubmans Crisp White Gloss


Doors: standard flush panel
Door handles: Gainsborough Angular series in satin chrome


Kitchen:
20mm Qstone benchtops in Arctic, waterfall ends on island. Laminate drawers and cabinetry in Laminex White


Reece AFA Flow inset double sink


Kitchen sink tap


Westinghouse 900mm freestanding oven, cooktop and 900mm rangehood


Mirrortex splashback, which will look something like this:


Bathroom and ensuite:
Lustrous Elm laminate benchtop (in horizontal grain) and cabinetry (in vertical grain)


Sink: standard square inset
http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv26/nataisha19/bathroom%20sinks_zpsn2m9vzw6.jpg

Alto Bath tap set (main bathroom only) and Alto sink mixer



Showerheads: Fresco Rail with basket


Wall tiles: Gloss White 200*400

Feature tile in showers: Linear Interlock mosaic
http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv26/nataisha19/bathroom%20feature%20tile_zps9nnuy5mn.jpg

Towel Rails: Star double towel rail (the middle one)


Toilet: Star toilet roll holder (standard toilet)


and our huge laundry sink (cabinetry will be the same as the bathroom)

Loving all of these choices! You have fairly similar taste to me we decided to change our colorbond to monument with shale grey fascia and freedom said there is no worries with that so excited about that hoping to get our approved plans from council by the end of the month so fingers crossed.

That's great! Fingers crossed for you... We are just waiting on our start date now and it is killing me!!
Our selections are pretty 'safe' and neutral but i would prefer that as you can then change the look really quickly with either a feature wall or just changing some cushions! Glad you like them

Cloverlea is very nice. We left chirnside park after selling our existing home on a 900sqm block, prices on existing sure have soared in the area over the last 12 months. We also had a long lounge and at the unused end we turned into a bar/entertaining area, looked awesome. Your plan looks great, flows really well!


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Tash!!
Finally!! Looks amazing. All of it!!
Wowsers!! It's going to be soooo luxurious!! Can't wait to see it all unfold!!

Thanks Simmi - I can't wait either!!! I keep checking my phone to see if the builder has called.... hopefully soon! You must be itching to get into yours.

Thanks Charley, yes the estate is coming along quite nicely. I like that there are open spaces dotted throughout. We were living just up the hill a bit in Nth Croydon (which we've sold) and would have preferred to stay closer to there (a bit closer to work) but as you would know there is next to no land available. This is basically our chance to build in roughly the same area. The Range estate at Croydon was just a bit too pricey for us.
Thanks for your comments about the floor plan - we LOVE our floorplan! as I suppose everyone who builds their own places generally do. I think it helped that we knew what we did and didn't want, and the original plan just needed a bit of tweaking to make it perfect for us.
We did want a large kitchen as part of the main living area, wanted lots of storage, a large separate living area preferably off the alfresco, etc. We didn't want a 'theatre room', or front lounge room (would never use it), or an open study (will use one of the bedrooms for that - that way we can close the door so you can't see our messy desk!). The back living area will double as something of a theatre room anyway if we want it to.

We do have a rough furniture plan for the house, I will post it when I can find it. I made it up (to scale ) with little copies of furniture off floorplans - clearly I have too much time!!! But I think it looks pretty good. Even hubby has agreed. We have already found a heap of furniture we like but will wait to see if we think it will work once we are closer to that end of the build.
We will be having something of a bar in the large back rumpus/living room adjoining the alfresco (the 'man cave') but it won't be a huge priority when we move in (despite what 'he' may think) he he.

Very happy and excited right now - we have our site start date - next week! Feels slightly unreal after having waited for so long!

Awesome!


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