Browse Forums Building A New House Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 21Jul 24, 2014 10:19 pm I know what you mean about Tokyo kitchens We lived in Seoul for a year with a teeny kitchen and 3 kids! We had to move the fridge into the laundry just so we could move. I don't think I baked a single cake that year, and I love to bake. We are spoiled for space in Australia. http://www.housebythewater.wordpress.com From blank block to new home in Mandurah, Western Australia. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65564 Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 22Jul 24, 2014 11:17 pm ardie514 Looks great. Really beautiful facade. Sorry did you mention what colours you are thinking about? I like the ones in the picture. Wonderful outdoor space. That WIR will be amazing!!!!. Could you change the laundry entrance so it's off the kitchen, then push WC up against media wall and give yourself a little bit of pantry space? Not sure if that makes sense or how much it might cost but just a thought. I think your idea of a full length cupboard is an excellent one. Have seen that in some displays and they're really spacious. Hi Ardie514. We have chosen almost identical colours for the façade and we are pretty happy with it. We are still trying to work out what to do with our garden. Ive researched a bit and it seems we can consult with a landscaper for a fee and they will give us a rough plan to work with which we can then implement as we get money. We are hoping to make the alfresco bigger down the side of the house behind the garage. I think we will have quite a decent sized backyard at the end of it which is what we wanted and why we went for this Breakthrough range. It just made sense to us to have a smaller footprint and have the space for a backyard. I love your idea about making the space for a pantry but the budget is tight and I am ready for construction! Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 23Jul 24, 2014 11:31 pm I totally understand. I can't wait to get to the actual building part of this process. yes budgets get in the way don't they?! well I love the colour scheme. We've gone very white on our exterior so I'm pysched there will be another light house around. Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 24Aug 04, 2014 11:47 pm Our building permit arrived today! Yay! No idea what this means in the grand scheme/timeline of things but any progress is good progress...right? right??? I must check with APG tomorrow to find out what the go is. I was told that we have to wait for the titles on the land to transfer over and that they are currently in process with Landgate and that was about two weeks ago (?). I just want something to START!!!Deep breath,drink wine, exhale....repeat. Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 25Aug 04, 2014 11:57 pm Congrats. Hope you're enjoying your wine. This whole building process might just turn me into an alcoholic:) drink to celebrate every milestone, drink to drown out stress and disappointment... For what it's worth we were told about 2-4 weeks after permit our file would be out of scheduling. Then 2-3 weeks till site works commence. We'll see... Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 26Aug 05, 2014 11:36 pm Hey Ardie514 Thanks for the congrats. We seem to be working our way around Margaret River with our wine choices. Perhaps we should convert the under stair storage to a wine cellar...hehe. Why is there no smilie holding a wine glass? or sucking the wine out of a bottle with a straw? or chugging the wine straight from the bottle? I think these would be excellent additions to the smilie range given the amount of drinking this process necessitates. Its like one of those drinking games you play as Uni student, every time a character on xyz drama says abc you drink , except in this case its everytime there is a delay, or you pass a certain milestone you open a bottle of wine. Anyhoo, contacted APG but as expected the titles are still with Landgate and we are ...patiently waiting for the next stage. Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 27Aug 06, 2014 12:04 am You made me laugh, thank you! I'm sure I don't know anything about those games you speak of Hope you get titles asap so you can celebrate Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 28Sep 22, 2014 11:35 pm Progress! Since I last posted we have had an extremely long wait for the titles of the land to be transferred into our name. That finally occurred after...6 weeks? I finally got fed up and contacted Landgate and they got back to me quickly saying they needed some more information from a company I had never heard of which turned out to be the conveyancing firm acting on behalf of the bank? I don't know ..... Axiom and DAH came to our rescue and sorted it and the everything was action stations. we sent more money to APG, they sent us our dates and we danced a little happy dance. Then we stared to visit our block and right on cue our block was cleared and levelled and today .the.footings.went .in. Wooohooooo! I have photos. But im still technologically challenged in regards to posting pics here so imagination will have to do. Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 29Sep 23, 2014 12:04 am Great news! Slab v soon and more happy dancing Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 30Sep 23, 2014 4:18 am That's great news. You are going to have to figure out the photo thing, otherwise that's just teasing! There are various instructions for this on the forum, but basically you need to store the photos somewhere on the web (most people seem to use photo bucket) then copy and paste the URL for the photo into your post using the "img" button in the full editor. I am aware that that could sound like a foreign language. If so check out some of the instructions by other posters. http://www.housebythewater.wordpress.com From blank block to new home in Mandurah, Western Australia. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65564 Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 31Sep 25, 2014 10:05 pm Slabs down!!! I will figure out the pic thing..soon as I finish my oh so not interesting assignment and have a bit of time to spare.( Or I start to procrastinate because my assignment is oh so not interesting !) Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 33Sep 26, 2014 1:01 am Jealous! I hope your assignment doesn't get in the way of an appropriate celebration. http://www.housebythewater.wordpress.com From blank block to new home in Mandurah, Western Australia. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65564 Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 34Oct 04, 2014 3:34 pm Assignment finished . Happy exhausted dance! On to far more interesting non theory based writing. Last time I checked the progress there had been some exciting developments- the soakwells had been delivered and ...the builders ablution facility. Lol! In other news we opened the newspaper homes section today to see an ad for apg breakthrough range so we thought we would have a bit of a look on the website.The whole range has changed. Ours - The Noble- has been replaced by its lookalike v3 ( the original was the Marconi). quite interesting to see the evolution of the design as some of the things we discussed here have been put into place. The kitchen has been redesigned to incorporate a walk in pantry-in a very similar manner to that which you described Ardie and also has more cupboard space. It looks really good and far more practical for a family. I guess we will just have to look into the overhead cupboards and a built in cupboard that will go next to the pillar at the end of the bench at a later date. On the other hand we have had some really nice people working with us from APG. Our prestart consultant was lovely and our new client liasion seems good too. She has sent us all the info we need so far and called us to introduce herself so Im a happy customer. I am enjoying this part where each time we go to visit the block there is something new- no matter what it is . Who knew I would get excited over the soakwells! Lol. We have started looking at flooring. Carpets for upstairs, stairs and media. The remainder of downstairs will be timber. We like the look of walnut as a shade but plan to go around to some displays again just to see decorating ideas. We visited the new apg display in Harrisdale and its just lovely. We had been debating whether to have timber or carpet on the stairs for ages. I love the look of timber and think it would wear beautifully but have slipped down various stairs far too many times to want to risk my 3 year old doing the same. ( he has my fab ability to just not look where he is going sometimes) . So we have decided to go for carpet. The apg display has carpet on the stairs and it looks great. One of these days I will remember to ask if someone at APG can tell me what that carpet is! The bank we took out the loan with is a good but a bit weird sometimes. We sent through the request for them to pay apg for the next stage. 5 days later we got a letter from them enclosing an unsigned version of the signed document we had sent them saying they had received a request for payment from us ( which is the document we sent them) and could we sign the same document again and send it back. Im wondering what happened....someone at the bank spilled water/coffee on it and they couldn't read the signatures? Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 35Oct 04, 2014 9:55 pm Glad you can lift your head out of the books for a while. Sounds like good progress. Maybe APG have been hanging out on your thread getting ideas! I'm surprised you went for carpet if you are worried about slipping on the stairs. I know it is a softer landing if you fall, but I would have thought that the chances of slipping were higher with carpet. Were you advised otherwise? (I expect it depends on carpet type.) http://www.housebythewater.wordpress.com From blank block to new home in Mandurah, Western Australia. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65564 Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 36Nov 15, 2014 4:07 pm Time flies and so too does the building of our house. We have been really happy with the progress so far. We had a meeting with our site supervisor who advised us of approximate start times for the brickies. They actually started a week earlier than he said and caught us by surprise. A week before they were due to start I was at home ,trying to get my son to eat dinner in less than the usual 2 hours he takes ,when my husband sent a photo from the block.There were well and truly walls up! I got all excited , so did my son so that was the end of dinner. I admitted defeat , bundled him into the car and hooned off to the block where as a family we did a happy dance in the privacy of our own walls. The brickies actualy started two weeks ago and they have finished the ground floor. Now its the next round. All the bits and pieces (technical term there) have been delivered to pour the upstairs slab so its just a wait and see now. The SS told us it would take 3 weeks to cure so I suppose that takes us up to Christmas period . Had a nice experience with meeting a neighbour from down the street who seemed very pleasant. On the other hand I greeted an older gentleman who just stared at me as though he wished I would wither and blow away in the breeze ....but I wont..and instead I will continue to smile and greet and hope that my sunny smile and politeness annoys the hell out of him. Im going to post some pics that Ive uploaded into photo bucket.I dont have any of the completed walls as my iphone is officially out of storage until I do something about it but I do have other pics starting from the beginning. Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 37Nov 15, 2014 4:16 pm Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 38Nov 15, 2014 6:09 pm Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 39Nov 15, 2014 9:23 pm That's great news. I was beginning to wonder if everyone in Perth was waiting for brickies. You never know, the older gentleman may not be good at first impressions. If you maintain your friendliness he may turn out to be OK! I look forward to pics of bricks. http://www.housebythewater.wordpress.com From blank block to new home in Mandurah, Western Australia. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65564 Re: APG Breakthrough in Harrisdale 40Nov 15, 2014 9:45 pm HI KSmum, Congrats! We are building with APG too - there aren't that many APG threads so it's great to see one! Have to admit I never got around to starting ours! We are at lock up now, so it seems a bit late in the day! We are building a small two story on a rear block in a suburb close to the CBD. We are trying to maximize our outdoor space (we have two small kids) and have managed to squeeze in a small plunge pool and space for a trampoline...but that's about it! Priorities!! We have been really pleased with APG. They've been really good at communicating with us, and even though I've been frustrated with progress at times, they are on schedule really (I just think their schedule should be faster!!). We had no issues with brickies even when half of Perth seemed to be waiting weeks and weeks for them so I was very pleased about that. Quality has been really good too. Ours was not the Breakthrough range, but we started with the Merganser which is one of the less expensive ones, and then totally redesigned it to suit a rear block and what we wanted. Anyway best of luck with the rest of your build! I will be reading with interest Maggie |