JG King modified Heywood - Landscaping

Very happy so far, obviously too early to comment on reliability but they work very well, best appliances I've had. Previously the best I have used were Miele and Smeg in rentals. We did upgrade the ovens to a model with more functions so that I could cook without the fan when I need. Internal space in the dishwasher and ovens is amazing! No complaints.

That's good to hear. I've kept the ovens the same but upgraded the cooktop to induction. Trying to keep the costs down but a little bit of luxury in the kitchen never hurt anyone 😊
I haven't hit the colors part yet, did you find the Allure builder's range generous? I'm not really into high end trends, I'd just like a nice selection.
I have been told they are changing the Allure range into something between Allure and Alpha. Something to do with it not being as popular as Alpha.
The one thing we struggled with was finding an Allure that had decent sized living areas. The master/ensuite and kitchen are amazing but the rest of the house was lacking in size. In the end we chose the plan with the best kitchen for us.
We tried to build up an Alpha but once we got to the Allure price it was still missing things we wanted. Sometimes you can't have it all.

Mostly we didn't need to upgrade much. Tiles is probably the area that it is easy to spend more, however you do get a better range than alpha and we were able to keep most of ours to the standard allure range. Oh and electrical! The electrical inclusions are pretty good compared to most but we still added a dozen or so power points, more lights in the garage, dimmer switches etc, it adds up quick!

I think they just need to sell the Allure range better rather than water it down. A lot people end up upgrading to that sort of level anyway, I just don't think people see that its better value to start at a higher level. We looked at alpha plans because I would have preferred a slightly smaller house but the smaller size of the kitchens and bathrooms put me off.

I felt we got really, really good value starting with an Allure.

Absolutely. The inclusions are very generous. We are splurging on stacker doors to the alfresco and put into the budget 10 extra power points and 20 downlights.
Hopefully our build is a lot smoother than what you went thru. I was thinking of starting a build thread, see how things go. Thanks for all your help 😊

Landscaping update...
We've been slogging along doing everything, excluding concreting, (we did the drainage, excavation and crushed rock base) ourselves. It's bloody hard work, especially removing a huge amount of clay, but we're thoroughly enjoying it! Fence painting and concreting were done about six weeks ago, then we finished off some drainage and filled and planted out the garden bed on the dead side of the house. We added some hanging pots outside our daughters room and across from the alfresco, not sure what the long term plan here is, we have lots of ideas, but for relatively little cost this will help green it up in the meantime.
Then the plan was to take a bit of a break, but taking a long weekend for Melbourne cup seemed like a good opportunity to get turf down. So the last few weeks have been spent working towards achieving that. More clay dug out, then we did the redcor retaining wall, filled and mulched the back garden beds and got rid of our huge pile of clay from the nature strip. Next weekend we bring in dirt for under lawns and turf on Wednesday! Can't wait to see that down.
Other than concreting the outside the laundry area we haven't touched the north side yet, we're working our way back to our best access point. There's much more garden down that side so I'm thinking I will wait until next spring before I get too carried away. We'll hopefully use autumn and winter to do a little bit of paving, the alfresco deck and maybe a small deck outside the dining room door.



Cousin Its along the developers retaining wall:





Redcor freshly in, this is the 390mm profile, it will be exposed 290 once we backfill for the lawn.







Mulched and ready to plant out as soon as I figure out what I want to do. I'm torn between a single row of dianellas or a mix of mostly natives like the front yard. North side with its bigger garden beds will be a mix.



Front yard is going gangbusters, so much love for my globe billy button:










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I was scrolling through my photos today and couldn't believe just a few weeks ago all we had out the back was clay, concrete and a few pots! Grass went to plan and is still alive . Actually I'm pretty sure it's growing already, on track for its first mow next weekend.














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Looks great! Do you want to come do mine

It was probably my least favourite landscaping job!

I would like to get the garden beds planted out in the next couple of weeks before the weather warms up any more but I can't for the life of me decide what to plant! When I planted the Cousin Its the plan was a single row of Dianellas but hubby planted the seed in my head that that would be more formal than everything else, so now i'm considering a mix of natives like the front??? So confused, everything else, I've known what I wanted.

Depends whether you want something low maintenance and low water (like natives) or more flowers/colour, but possibly need replanting each year and more watering.

That looks amazing Bank!!! What a great job you guys have done.

Mali looks so cute <3

My house looks terrible right now, the yard especially needs some loving, but my dear Cassidy cat passed away on Friday due to a brain clot and I just can't be bothered with the hiuse right now. ;;

Oh no! I'm so sorry. That's a shock, she wasn't very old was she?

Mali is wonderful and couldn't be more loved! Amity particularly is ridiculously in love, she fusses over her so bad, always want's to get home quickly so Mali isn't alone. During the daylight hours she is pretty much an indoor/outdoor cat now. Although about 95% indoor because she doesn't like it too cold, or hot, or windy . She is scared of pretty much everything, especially strangers, so she just stays in the back yard with the occasional visit to the neighbours vegi patch, which is just on the other side of our fence, to chase cabbage moths. She is absolutely not allowed out in the dark though because then her alter ego comes out and she is suddenly very brave! She also enjoys chasing the rabbits and trying to get them to play, Ginny either joins in or tries to defend herself by launching at her, I haven't figured out which . Neither of them are scared of her (still terrified of other cats) and seem to understand that if they just stop running she does too.

Today she made a bed out of a cousin it, not sure how I feel about that, but she was too cute to move!

Hi,

Came across this thread when searching photos of ‘cretement ash white tiles’ laid. If not a hassle would it be possible to upload some images of this tile laid in your home. Some closer and long distance images would be great. Thank you.

Hi, not sure if this is meant for me or trimum? We didn't go with the cretement in the end, i was too scared having never seen it laid. Not that it helps you in NSW but I recently saw what I was pretty sure was cretement ash white in a display home in Torquay VIC. It looked good, I would have been happy with it. I do love the axis white that we ended up picking!

Oh,
I think I should have msged Trimum actually. Will do that now. Messed up with the threads. 🙄. Sorry and thank you very much for your positive opinion too about the tile. And yeh in NSW won’t help.

Oh she is a gorgeous fluffy girl!! D She sounds like she's in heaven. My parents have her sister Bella, and she's quite a small cat but also super fluffy.

Yeah my Cass was not even 4 years old when she passed ;-; some sort of congential lung/heart defect. Still miss her even though its been months.

I haven't been on here on ages, because....I'm pregnant I found out the same day I lost Cassidy, but I'm 22 weeks now.

Wow congratulations!! Exciting times!

The photo of Mali above reminds me how much everything has grown around here. Cousin its are much bigger now!



Cooler weather means Mali is seeking out our laps again. She’s such a hot cat, doesn’t last long under blankets or on laps before she has to stretch out on the floor to cool off.

Wow your garden is looking amazing!!! I'm still struggling to get the back to grow and I had a lot die off in the summer heat. I've replaced them, but they need to grow again ;-; We did install a sprinkler system out the back now so hopefully this year will be better, previously I didn't have a tap out the back so watering was a pain.