Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 23, 2012 8:17 pm So I stumbled on this website about a week ago now while searching for some advice on my colour selections for our first home build..and well I haven't been able to stop coming back since! What an awesome place to come to find information on anything and everything house related! I especially love all the pictures and cannot thank everyone enough for all the inspiration offered in each thread. I'm not sure exactly how this works but I have decided to start my own topic on our own house build as I would love to gain other people's perspectives on the choices we have made. So this is our story so far... I'm 22 years old and me and my partner finally decided to go for it and buy a block of land late last year (2011), the settlement went through on the 12th of February. After quite a bit of research we decided to build with Hotondo Homes as they have a fantastic reputation in our area and are just an absolute pleasure to deal with, so far only fantastic things to say about them! We completed our colour selection on the 29th of November 2011 and have just today signed off on our building contract! We are more than a little excited as this is our very first home and can't wait for the build to get started. The house plan we have chosen is fairly basic as it is just the two of us and comes in under 200 metres square altogether, however this is the biggest house we will have ever been in together and I know I'm still going to have trouble keeping up with cleaning it! After looking at hundreds of photos online of various bathrooms and kitchens, I have realised that our colours are quite dark in comparison, but I'm hoping this will look okay, there is also alot of contrasting. The following is a list of what we have selected - please let me know what you think! Our front facade: We have gone with a cream coloured brick called Old Teak by PGH Bricks and white mortar - http://www.pghclay.com.au/Uploads/Download/174/OldTeak_highres.jpg (just imagine with pure white mortar) Our roof tiles are an almost black colour called Sambuca in the Traditional profile - http://www.monier.com.au/Uploads/Tile/12/Traditional_Sambucca_detail.jpg Our windows and gutters are a dark charcoal Colorbond colour called Monument - http://www.colorbondcolours.com/go/bsl-colour-centre-swatch/monument Fascia and downpipes are Colorbond Classic Cream - http://www.colorbondcolours.com/go/bsl-colour-centre-swatch/classic-cream We have chosen to do a double front door with 8 clear glass panels by Corinthian Doors- http://www.corinthian.com.au/Uploads/DoorProduct/64/INF8G_double.jpg (Just picture clear glass and a 600mm round bar handle on the right door, deadbolt on the left. Also it will be stained to match our garage door) Our garage door is a timber look door by B&D its called a Panelift Seville in Timbagrain Classic Cedar - http://banoragaragedoorsgoldcoast.com.au/garage-door-range/panel-lift-garage-doors/panelift-seville/attachment/bd-panelift-seville-4 We will also have a front porch with a 150x150mm cypress post, also stained to match the garage and front doors. And the porch will be completed by ourselves in some sort of timber, not sure of the colour yet but we're thinking something a few shades darker than the garage and front doors. Interiors: We have chosen an off white paint colour called 'Simply White' by Solver-Dulux Floor tiles to wet areas are a 400x400mm semi-gloss dark charcoal, we are also using these around the bath hob and as a feature wall in both the bathroom and ensuite showers. We have a 333x333mm off white matte tile for the bathroom/laundry spashbacks and also for the other shower walls. Our kitchen splashback is 300x600mm off white gloss tiles, yay not much grout to clean! We are also having a cavity in each shower which will feature beautiful glass mosaic tiles and a silver trim around the outside - should look great with the dark tiled feature wall. The cabinetry is all going to be black matte and benchtops are a grey stone look Laminex colour called 'Vulcan Stone' - http://www.laminex.com.au/uploads/products/vulcan_stone.jpg We are yet to confirm our othe floor coverings, but are fairly set on bamboo to the passage ways and living/dining and a charcoal coloured carpet to the bedrooms and media room. My only concern is that there could possibly be too much dark on dark with the charcoal tiles, black cupboards and dark grey benchtops, however the walls and splashbacks are all neutral so I think the contrast will work. I'm so excited to see the finished product, I don't know that I can wait another 6 months, it's already driving me crazy and we are yet to even do the site cut! Kayla Re: Our first Home - Deck has been stained ! *pics* 2Feb 23, 2012 8:47 pm I have just worked out how to put some of my own photos up, so here are a few I have taken of our samples to help you get a better idea of how it might look altogether: http://i1071.photobucket.com/albums/u509/kjw7/img5.jpg Our bricks! http://i1071.photobucket.com/albums/u509/kjw7/img4.jpg The large tile is our roof tile, the charcoal colour is going to be our gutters and window frames and the cream is for the fascia and downpipes. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The shiny tile in the background is our kitchen splashback, the black swatch is the colour of our cabinetry and the other sample is going to be our benchtops. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Top tile=kitchen splashback, middle tile=floor, bath hob and shower feature wall tile and bottom tile=bathroom and laundry splashback, also shower wall tile. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Our beautiful glass mosaic tiles that will be in the shower cavity (they look better in life, photo's do not do them justice). Kayla Re: Our first home !! 3Feb 23, 2012 9:28 pm Uploaded a picture of our floorplan and elevations Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Edit: I should add that the island bench in this floorplan is not accurate as the sink will be in the middle of the island bench. Kayla Re: Our first home !! 5Feb 24, 2012 4:42 am Kris-Kate Cool its so exciting check one of my posts have photos of plan and block you plan looks good Hey. I can understand as we too hv just begun our journey Yr color selection looks and feels great. Im sure when u see them in the end together ull understand u hv done a good job.. Good luck Re: Our first home !! 6Feb 24, 2012 5:49 am devils_advocate Kris-Kate Cool its so exciting check one of my posts have photos of plan and block you plan looks good Hey. I can understand as we too hv just begun our journey Yr color selection looks and feels great. Im sure when u see them in the end together ull understand u hv done a good job.. Good luck Thank you, it's so great to hear that someone else agrees with our choices. I had a look at your thread and although I'm not too sure about the type of package you have, I would definitely suggest an independent building inspector if you are at all worried, it may just give you that peace of mind. Good luck to you too I look forward to reading about your build Kayla Re: Our first home !! 7Feb 24, 2012 8:01 am Hi! I love your colors. I think it'l all look very stylish. cant go wrong with black and white. I love the glass tiles, wish we had thought of doing something like that in our showers. weve got dark grey floor tiles and white gloss wall tiles, that sparkle would have topped it all off! Re: Our first home !! 8Feb 24, 2012 8:14 am Hi kjw7, your colours sound great! Your feature tile looks to be the same as mine, I also have it laid in the shower niche on a charcoal feature wall! It has just been tiled (not grouted yet) so if you want to see photos, they are on the last few pages of my thread. Link in my signature. I'm on my phone now so will bbl to check out your plans! So exciting isn't it Jess Re: Our first home !! 9Feb 24, 2012 8:19 am Congrats on the build!!!!! I really love your colours too. It is so difficult choosing them and not seeing the finished "look". Hope you have a smooth build. Our house building blog: http://shellgavshouse.blogspot.com/ Re: Our first home !! 10Feb 24, 2012 9:14 am boganswife Hi kjw7, your colours sound great! Your feature tile looks to be the same as mine, I also have it laid in the shower niche on a charcoal feature wall! It has just been tiled (not grouted yet) so if you want to see photos, they are on the last few pages of my thread. Link in my signature. I'm on my phone now so will bbl to check out your plans! So exciting isn't it Jess Hi Jess, I had a bit of a look at your tiling and you're right they're very similar - its so great to see the same kind've thin being done. I hope ours looks as good as yours Kayla Re: Our first home !! 11Feb 24, 2012 9:30 am Thanks, we are pretty happy with them, can't wait to see it grouted. Ours are called Nero black stone and glass blend, from Beaumonts. It's hard to tell from the photos but they are really sparkly, then the stone tiles are quite matt and give a good contrast. Your floor plan looks great, you managed to get all the good stuff in! I love that big pantry. Good on you for making a start at such a young age, DH and I were 21 when we bought our current house, it has put us in a really good position. At 28 we are now building our "forever" home on acres out of town. Trust me, you will have your fair share of sceptics who don't have faith that you can do well. It just gives you more incentive to succeed, and more satistaction when you acheive your goals!! Good on you and good luck. Re: Our first home !! 12Feb 24, 2012 11:46 am boganswife Thanks, we are pretty happy with them, can't wait to see it grouted. Ours are called Nero black stone and glass blend, from Beaumonts. It's hard to tell from the photos but they are really sparkly, then the stone tiles are quite matt and give a good contrast. Your floor plan looks great, you managed to get all the good stuff in! I love that big pantry. Good on you for making a start at such a young age, DH and I were 21 when we bought our current house, it has put us in a really good position. At 28 we are now building our "forever" home on acres out of town. Trust me, you will have your fair share of sceptics who don't have faith that you can do well. It just gives you more incentive to succeed, and more satistaction when you acheive your goals!! Good on you and good luck. Aww thank you very much for your kind words, it means alot I think our tiles are National Tiles, there's four different coloured ones in them but yeh they have ones with sparkly bits too. Our floor plan is very small compared to most of the ones on here but it's all we can afford at the moment and we have decided to go quality over quantity. I love our pantry too, at the moment we only have a 20cm wide cupboard for ours, so will definitely be a nice change! Thanks again Kayla Re: Our first home !! 13Feb 24, 2012 1:39 pm kjw7 devils_advocate Kris-Kate Cool its so exciting check one of my posts have photos of plan and block you plan looks good Hey. I can understand as we too hv just begun our journey Yr color selection looks and feels great. Im sure when u see them in the end together ull understand u hv done a good job.. Good luck Thank you, it's so great to hear that someone else agrees with our choices. I had a look at your thread and although I'm not too sure about the type of package you have, I would definitely suggest an independent building inspector if you are at all worried, it may just give you that peace of mind. Good luck to you too I look forward to reading about your build thanx for lookin at my thread yes, we hv made our mind (& cost) about the independant inspector, just like you said, for the peace of mind. thanx for your feedback Re: Our first home !! 14Feb 24, 2012 2:37 pm Wishing you good luck with your build and don't worry about your choices ... I always say if you love them now you will love them always ... and I agree quality beats quantity every time. Look forward to watching your house grow ... For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: Our first home !! 15Feb 25, 2012 7:05 am Just a quick update to let everyone know where we're up to..we're currently just waiting on the building insurance, then we can get our building permit, finalise our finance and get a start date! They've told us they want to start ASAP, yay so exciting !! Kayla Re: Our first home !! 16Feb 25, 2012 1:58 pm Just wondering if anyone can tell me approximate prices for Blum soft closing pot drawers? We are upgrading to 3 of these all 900mm wide on either side of our oven and are waiting on the quote. Has anyone else had these included and know how much we could expect to pay? Kayla Re: Our first home !! 17Feb 25, 2012 3:17 pm Also, has anyone gone with Laminex 'tightform' edges for their benchtops? We chose this option as I prefer the square look but hate the joins, however I can't seem to find any examples of the tightform benches on the Laminex website..it's definitely a Laminex Colour that we chose, can anyone help me out? And if anyone has used any of the same colors that we have chosen, especially the 'Vulcan Stone' benchtops, I would love to see some photos! Thanks Kayla Re: Our first home - Got our permit !! 18Mar 02, 2012 8:20 pm We received our Building Permit today, just waiting on our finance to be finalized now! I know this thread is a little boring at the moment, but I promise there will be plenty of pictures when I have something to take them of! Maybe then it will be a little more interesting and comment worthy? Kayla Our first home !! 19Mar 11, 2012 4:56 pm Hopefully it all gets underway soon! Our house building blog: http://shellgavshouse.blogspot.com/ Re: Our first home !! 20Mar 11, 2012 6:11 pm sydbuild Hopefully it all gets underway soon! Hi there, well looks like things could be underway very soon as our finance has been approved, I'm hoping the builders just get underway and don't wait until we've signed papers..fingers crossed we see some action this week I had a quick look at your blog and was just interested to know if you found out about the shelving for the pantry? We will have melamine shelving in ours and our builder recommended putting a power point in there for the microwave, but like you I'm not actually sure it will fit! Kayla Hello everyone, I have a question regarding moving a chandelier after it has been mounted. The chandelier in question is quite large, measuring 4 meters… 0 72334 You have mandatory building inspections and privately engaged building inspections. The difference between the two comes down to inspecting the building so it's safe and… 3 18063 Hi All, we are starting to think of building with Masterpiece Builders in Victoria, has anyone had any feedback or experience with them 0 13587 |