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Hello everyone.
Like a lot of people I have been stalking various blogs, and asking for advice, so I thought I should start a thread so that some of the stalkees can become stalkers!
So, to begin at the beginning. We had a 3x1 in Queens Park, which was fine, but we yearned for something more. I happened to see an ad for Taylor's estate back in 2011; we had a look and decided to sign up. The thought of being in amongst the wineries and 5 minutes from Guildford was very appealing! And the land titles weren't due until the next year, which suited us, as we had to smarten our house up and sell it in order to pay for the house and land.
We sold our QP house last March and moved to a small rental close to Caversham, expecting our titles around a month later. To date, we still don't have them!! From memory, They were due last April/May, then July/August, then October/November, then December/January, then March and now April. I may be slightly off with the exact months, I can't quite remember now, but I'm close.
The constant delays have been very difficult for us emotionally. Everyone says every time, "we'll, at least you can save more", but they don't really understand and hearing them say that becomes very annoying and to be honest we would rather just be in. We had hoped to be in last Christmas and now it's not looking very likely for this Christmas! The place we are renting was ok for a short time, but not so good for longer, and to make it worse we got burgled last year and now I hate the place. So, yes, it's all been a bit stressful! We have looked several times at buying existing, and could probably get a bigger place then the new build, but we really want to have a house the way we want it. We've also looked at other land, but nothing that fits all our requirements within our budget has come up. So on we plod with it.
But anyway, pity party over!
we do see light at the end of the tunnel - titles SHOULD be issued any month now!
We have already done our pre-start - Redink have been great all the way along, and got us in for pre-start so that they can jump into action the moment they are allowed to. The developers have also said that the builders will be allowed on site to do whatever it is they do before the titles are issued, once they get to a certain point with the land (I don't know what it is they do really!) The developer is apparently doing all the pre work, so once the land is ours we can start building - I've heard of other people getting titles early but then they have to wait ages for stuff to be done to the land?
So, pre-start and interior designer done. I have to send back our extras costing this week. We added quite a bit! We found on the whole that the prices for extras haven't been too bad, and a couple of things appear to be cheaper than you can buy them yourselves.
We went for redink because a) we really liked jamie and b) they give you lots of cupboard space. The house we went for is the Benchmark, but we made quite a lot of changes, so it doesn't really look like that anymore! Jamie at Redink (who is excellent - I think he's at the harrisdale show home at the moment) said he'd just use that as a starting block - hence its name I suppose!
Although there is just me and my husband, we wanted a 4x2, so that we could put friends up in comfort, and overseas family, of which there is quite a bit. We also wanted an activity - for my husband to keep his graphic novel and comic art collection in! And a theatre, which will be my library! (Ah, the life of the non-parent, lol) so that's what we got. It's not big, but hopefully big enough for two!
Am jumping around a bit, sorry, but if you would like to know our choice they are:
Brick - provincial Calais
Porch render - solver beaver (unless I change it!)
Mortar - white
Roof - surf mist
Fascia - surf mist
Garage door - surf mist - Corinthian cosmopolitan
Gutters and down pipes - dune
Front pavers - pebble beach (upgrade)
Back pavers - seaspray - boral
Signature series (upgrade)
Windows - white
We were going to render the front, but changed our minds in the end, as we think (hopefully!) that the brick and mortar will be enough of a feature. I still worry that it might look old-fashioned, but worry is my middle name anyway, so what the hey! We have seen one or two houses built in that brick without render and they look fine, so hopefully we'll be ok.
We've upgraded the ensuite sinks to caroma carboni II and the other bathroom sink to the orbis, and the en suite shower to the caroma overhead with track
Ensuite tiles - white walls, black floor, black stripe, white cupboard, black bench
Other bathroom I'm not too happy with so it may change but at the moment it's a tile called silver on the floor, white walls, a feature stripe that has glass, metal and a wood effect in it, and slalom cupboard and bench top. ( I wanted a beach feel).
Front door will be PSLM 208, with the Gainsborough omni pull handle set.
We're having a glass panel rather than a shower screen for en suite, a solid door from garage to house, and glass doors on the theatre (library!
) and the pantry. I think that's mainly it.
I will post a plan when a) I work out how and b) will probably wait until we get variations back to them and an updated plan, as over the 1+ year we've made so many changes to windows, walls, etc!
I hope you enjoy reading this thread as it goes along, and I hope I help people with ideas and questions, as other people have helped me.
Hello!!
it seems Jamie is good at selling Redink
He was a major selling point in our decision as well and would recommend him to anyone considering redink as nothing is too much trouble!
We did wonder when he managed to find time to sleep though lol
Our external selections are very similar to yours! Surfmist roof/facia/garage and dune gutters
and also the solver beaver render. Are you having that at 100% or darker? Beaver is used on the corimbia (landsdale) display and we are copying the colours from that but they couldn't tell us the strength
Would love to see some plans
photobucket is really easy and once you upload the photo on there you just click on the url link and paste it in here
Im loving all the redink builds on here at the moment! Fingers crossed your title isn't too far away...
I just googled your bricks...I loved them but was too worried they would be really expensive and then totally forgot about them at prestart! They will definitely be enough of a feature at the front with your rendered porch
Well hopefully you can get titles soonish and get the ball rolling it's been a long wait but looking forward to seeing how it pans out for you.
Oh gawd, I just wrote a reply and then was asked to log in?? So, here goes again!
Xxkatxx - it's reassuring to hear nothing but good things about Redink isn't it? I wonder how he finds time to sleep - and make babies!
( they are expecting a baby very soon I think).
Beaver is full strength at the moment. Originally we had mouse but then thought it might be too light, but now I think beaver might be too similar to the brick. I have to remind myself that I'm looking at a colour chart, which can be quite inaccurate. Have seen it on this brick and it looks ok ( although that house is rendered in two colours, so I've only seen it on the side of the house).
Might pop into the landsdale house next time we visit friends in pearsall, thanks for the heads up!
They actually gave us the bricks for free! I can't remember exactly how it came about as it was a long time ago, but it went something like this - we picked a brick they no longer produce. I asked if the Calais was included in their standard bricks. I may have been told yes, can't quite remember, but it wasn't, but they said we could have it anyway. They've been good about giving us free stuff, at the Jamie stage at least. I suppose they wouldn't do it if they weren't making money, but still, they don't have to do it, so it's been appreciated.
How do I get to photo bucket? Is it connected to this site? (I'm not very technological!)
Thanks for the reassurance about the lack of render.
Hello ac27! Thanks for your wishes.
I think that was all I said in the first effort!
Yes Jamie was good with the freebies but Im sure the cost is in there somewhere lol Nice genuine guy though and yep baby on the way
Www.photobucket.com is where you need to go but it is completely separate from this site. You could use any photo hosting site but this one is easy
Just need to sign up and then upload photos. The site will give you the codes you need to put them in here
Don't try and do it on a phone though...too hard!
The other render colour on the landsdale display is solver shiralee. Its the really dark one on the porch! If you have a brick take it with you to the display
Hi xxkatxx, I uploaded some photos to photo bucket but can't find how to put them on this site (told you I was dumb about these things!)
Hahaha it takes a bit to figure out in the beginning but its easy once you get past the first photo
can you click on the photo in photobucket so you are viewing it in there? There should be an IMG and a URL bit next to it with web addresses. You just click the IMG code and your computer will copy it automatically. Then you just paste into the reply section here and the link will show. Once you post the photo will be there instead of the link
good luck! Haha i hope my memory was correct :s
Yay! Thanks xxkatxx!
So, this is the plan we have at the mo, not quite what we're having but close enough.
The bricks and pavers ( the paver that the brick is sitting on). As you can see, we had a bit of trouble choosing! The trouble with that brick is it doesn't go with anything!
En suite will be a bit like this, except we have a double length shower, there won't be a black tile skirting, and the stripe is off-centre and only one tile wide!
We bought our flooring at one of the times when we thought we were getting titles! My husband has a friend who is a vinyl fitter and he got us a good deal, so we had to jump on it at that time. This flooring will be in the halls and the living/kitchen/diner.
Kitchen bench is new basmati.
Woah!! You definitely figured out the photos
haha Love your colour choices!!
we are having new basmati in the kitchen too! Tiles were our hardest decision..still not 100% sure but i keep my thoughts to myself or my boyfriend will kill me.
Your plan has really changed a lot from the benchmark, looks well thought out!
I love all of your linen storage!! I really wanted to have the sliding cupboards all over mine but it just didn't work
Can't wait for your titles to come through so we can start seeing some action!
Plan looks amazing. what are you planning on putting in between the entry double garage and the study? a water feature or something perhaps?
Interesting design, I like it. I like the his and hers wir's. We didn't do it because the wife will need more than me. Too late maybe but I would recommend some things. Make the BIRobes 1.8m wide and I'm not sure how long your garage is but with 6m you tend to cram the cars in. Add another 0.5m maybe. Also the noise factor. If you are entertaining at night, the kids are going to hear it all. Also if you want to blast a movie in the theatre room, they'll hear that too. I would wall off that whole area and put doors there. I would wall off that interior wall to the activity room as well. Just my opinion.
Since signing off our plans i wished we made our garage larger
it was on our measure and check for practicality list but never got done :s i think ours is 6x6 external and raised the ceiling to 28c so just hoping everything fits in ok!
Xxkatxx - lol, yes I got there in the end with the photos! We have had a lot of time to play with the plan, and it is really designed specifically with us in mind, but also resale. There are some more changes - improvements
so when we have that plan I will reveal all!
the bathrooms are the weak point of the design i think, but we only have so much room on the block and would rather use the space in areas we are in more often. I'm not 100% on our tiles either, am surprised my husband hasn't blown his top at all my deliberating yet!
I can't wait for the titles either, believe me!
Ac27 - yes exactly that!
hoping to do something a bit Japanese.
Rex77 - having never had a double garage I think we just assumed they were all a standard and adequate size, but since joining this forum I've seen a few people say they are a bit small. We couldn't change iteven if it wasn't too late, as we would have to take space off the house which we wouldn't be prepared to do. That is one thing that the salesman, who designed the house, was remiss in not pointing out or discussing with us. Never mind, we have a drive!
In relation to the garage, we've extended it a little at the back, to make a small storage area - you can never have too much storage! Especially on the blocks these days, where there's no room for a shed. We have extended the robes in all the minor bedrooms (may not be on this plan as it's old). We don't have kids, so no-one to disturb with our carousing!
and the theatre is a library and has double doors. I did want a plan that had the theatre well away from the living area and from the main bedroom, but this was the best we could do - you can never get 100% of what you want, eh? The activity is my husband's area for his hobby, and he was happy to have it open. His hobby isn't noisy and doesn't need the rest of the house to be quiet, so all good there. Believe me, I worry and think laterally and think about the future and uses of space and all that, and although as I say not perfect, we think it will serve us well and if we ever sell it will also be fine - I've seen so many displays with theatres that don't even have a fourth wall let alone doors, and are right outside the bedroom or right next to the family, and have open activities, so I don't think ours would be at a disadvantage if we were selling to a family. That's what I think anyway!
My husband's due home from working away in the next hour. I promised him I'd have made my decisions and got the costings sheet ready for him to sign by the time he got back, but I'm still tieing myself in knots about a few things!
like do we have clear glass in the front door and do we have black or white tiles on the en suite vanity kick board. Arghh!