MaxyB Family Home- We have Moved In + pics

Howdy all,
well I have been surfing this forum for a few weeks now and not only have I found some great ideas I have been inspired to write a blog and now start a thread which will detail our journey from our current humble home into our brand new family home in the outer eastern burbs of Melbourne.

We have chosen a local company's design and they have engaged the builder. We have the plans and contracts signed and I have my first variation for my upgrade to Boral Victorian Blue Bricks which cost me just under $3K.

We settle on our land this coming Monday and according to the builder they will start within 3 to 4 weeks. Once construction starts the 220 day countdown will begin.

If your keen to see plans and in future, pictures please check out my blog

http://funmore-residence.blogspot.com/

I will load pics on this thread, once I have worked it out.

To date we have chosen the following:
Bricks - Boral Victorian Blue with white mortar
Roof - Sambuca Moniar Tiles
Windows & facia - Ultra Silver
Gutters & Downpipes - Monument
Tassie Oak Floorboards

We have one roadblock at present and that is getting a contract of sale on our current place. Its been on the market 4 weeks and according to my agent we have had some verbal offers but nothing good enough yet. Needless to say I aint enjoying the selling process and my relationship with my agent in not so good. Having said that I will maintain a positive attitude and my bank manager is giving me another 5 weeks to secure a buyer.

I love the forum and reading other peoples adventures and I hope some of you enjoy following the MaxyB family on its journey

Cheers

Nice brick choice...and good luck with it all!!

Thanks for that, we are very excited and cant wait to see some activity, even pegging out the block

Finally, after 5 weeks we have sold our house, well subject to finance and a pest & building inspection but I imagine that will work out fine.

Funny thing is I always thought I would be happy, yet its a bit anti-climatic. Unfortunately we got a little less than we hoped for but we did get the settlement date we were after. Also those late Friday nights of vacuuming, mopping & cleaning in preparation of an open-house is done, we can empty the grandparents lounge and bring the kids toys back and we can now get on with building our new home.

Its a major milestone so regardless of us feeling a little flat we have celebrated with a bottle of MOET as it is the last piece of the jigsaw, now we move forward and count down the days until we move into our new Home.

fantastic you've sold your home, now bring on the new build, your blog looks great too, no pics tho!

Best of luck with the house sale Maxyb...

We took 5 months to sell after three crashed contracts so I am crossing my fingers for you..

All the best

Yes, that will change this weekend. We have had a trailer squattiing on our land which spoils the pics but we will see if we can phtoshop them out.

I have been avoiding going crazy on the blog and plans for the new place as I have been focused on selling our current house, its was on the critical path so to speak and until we sold it I felt I couldnt enjoy the build, now thats over its full stem ahead



The buyer is financing under 80% and we have a place less than 9 years old so I am hoping everything is OK, but yes it aint done until the contract becomes unconditional but fingers crossed

Thanks for your best wishes

Well we are at that stage of the project where we are just waiting for the action to start. As we settled on the land last week we are now waiting for the building permit to be approved and works to commence on our site, until then we are left with colour selections, choosing taps etc.

Unfortunately while I am thinking about that my mind keeps drifting towards the backyard and what we will do with that. We have identified an area where we would like a "patio" but the questions come up, pavers, concrete....oooohh polished concrete and then comes the question that follows any flash of inspiration HOW MUCH $$$$

We originally paid for coloured concrete for our veranda and alfresco but that was before we upgraded the bricks and I now think polished concrete would be great and have asked for a quote. Now if that comes back at a not too unreasonable price and I say yes, what then the patio out back, where one would want to match the alfresco, I am sure it aint cheap to concrete and polish 24 sqm of backyard, as I said too much thinking time.

Now I don't have to make a decision for some months and a lot of this maybe decided for me as I may not have the cash but its just one of the dilemmas of building, what you want and what you can afford maybe two different things.

Well one thing we will have to do soon is go and chat with the cabinet makers and tilers so we can decide on the look of the kitchen and bathrooms, once we have done that the inside will be done and everything after that will become a dreaded variation, more $$$$$$

I have updated my blog with a pic of the land and some of our selections but until we get some real action I will refrain from posting pics on the forum (maybe I just havnt worked out how to yet )

Well after some consultation (many thanks to those on this forum for feedback and inspiration I found from looking at their own builds ) and finally getting Mrs B's opinion I believe we have nailed the exterior colours.

The Garage Door will be Colorbond Ironside to match the bricks and the Front Door will be Dulux Manor Red. The reason for our choice is that we didn't want the garage door to be a feature and we wanted the front door to be that focal point. The other reason behind the darker garage door is that we will get away with the traditional profile door instead of the upgrade, which as we are starting to run out of money I have decided we need to prioritise and save some cash for those extras in the kitchen and bathrooms.

Tomorrow we venture out to confirm our carpet as well as look at tiles for the kitchen, bathrooms, laundry & toilet. After that we will drive past the concrete supplier and choose the colour for our veranda and alfresco concrete. I did want polished concrete but I would prefer the fancy garage door, so if I aint getting that I aint getting polished concrete.

Later next week we will meet our cabinet maker to sort out our kitchen, bathroom, ensuite and laundry cabinets and benchtops which will be the final selection we have to make. All we will have them is to watch our house rise up from the ground.

Another significant event this week was that the sale of our house went unconditional this week which allows us to modify our mortgage so we can pay for construction. Its all coming into place

Great news maxyb....I like the way you think, spend more money on the kitchen and bathroom bits now here's a thinkin man for ya good that MrsB is being more vocal and I look forward to watching things develop.

Thanks, yes I have an idea on tiles etc and according to murphy's law what I want wont be on the standard list and will cost extra $$$ so I think it maybe wise to keep some funds available for that.

I cant wait until I can post real progress and pics of slabs, frames etc

oh well as the great oracle Rachel Hunter once said, it wont happen overnight but it will happen

Well I was right, I have spent more money in the Kitchen, who knew that Vinyl Wrap cabinets was so expensive , but then again they look so much better than standard laminate.

We have finished our product selections and I have pictures on the blog.

We also had a good meeting with our builder and he is telling me that the slab should be poured by Mid September, I hope he is right because this will be more than a monnth ahead of schedule.

He also threw in a suggestion that we change from Tassie Oak floorboards to Bamboo. Mrs B is happy with this as we can get a darker stain with Bamboo but I am not so sure. I think we will run with it but any comments, story's or feedback on bamboo floorboards would be greatly appreciated.

Lets hope with my next post I can announce construction has started

that looks great some of your picks are similaar to ours' our feature tiles are like yours but in a green tone

Cool, I will be interested to see how your place comes along

Its a funny thing about selected products without really seeing them all together in someone else's house, you just hope you get it right.

I worry all the time about the selection i fear its going to be awful and that i hate everything in the end.

Yes and you seek the advice of others but you worry if they are honest in their feedback

In the end you just have to do your best and then live with the consequences

I do think that unless yur going totally out there is your choices in most cases no matter what you you do I am sure it will work out

Looking great MaxyB. I love your colour choices on the blog. I look forward to following your new house come to life.
We love pics....

Thanks and yes once we get some construction happeining I will finally work out how to post pics on this forum, hopefully this is not to far away

Waiting, waiting and more waiting is all I seem to have done over the last couple of weeks. I am waiting for construction to start. I am waiting for my emails to be answered and I am waiting for the inevitable call for more money.

I have been in contact with my builder about Air Conditioning, specifically a quote for installing "add-on" air con. I managed to get a quote from a 3rd party and I got a 1 line quote from my builder, and that 1 line was the cost. It was 55% above the quote from the 3rd party, so obviously I asked for a breakdown, and it’s this breakdown I am still waiting on.

As I mentioned in earlier posts my builder suggested we install Bamboo floors instead of our Tassie Oak floorboards. I said no worries, get me a quote and we will see how we go. Again my builder gave me a quote that contained just the cost, so again I asked for more information, like what type of Bamboo floor will be installed? How do you intend on laying the floor? Guess what? Yep I am still waiting for this information.

It’s been over a week since I have heard from my builder and my most recent email is yet to be responded to, maybe it’s because I asked questions about my building permit and an estimated start date for construction.

As a result I have decided this will be my final post in my thread until I see some action, be that clarification on my air con & floor quotes, notification of when construction will start, or even actual physical evidence that construction has started, because this waiting is doing my head in!

Well we finally have some action, well no physical action but a building permit, confirmation of the “official” start date and some clarification on some of my variations.

Our Building Permit was issued on the 10th of September and I am told the “Official” Start Date is the 1st of October. Now the word “official” is a bit flaky as they do still mention starting earlier but either way I have a start date and I couldn’t be happier ………….. for now, next I want a slab.

As for our variations, I am still waiting on a breakdown of the AirCon but we have confirmed that we are getting Strand Woven Bamboo Floorboards, an external GPO for the water tank pump and Vinyl Wrap kitchen cupboards doors and draws.

So finally I feel as we are getting some where, even though we have achieved so much in such a short time. We walked into the display house on Saturday June 6 and now just over 3.5 months later our new house will spring from the ground and grow into our family home.