Allworth Avalon / Sonata Our Dream Home - Handover on Wednes

aphsta · Aug 05, 2017 7:18 pm

Hi!

I've been reading these forums for approximately 6 months and finally getting to the point of it being worthwhile making a thread.

We are from Sydney but have a holiday house down the south coast near the St Georges Basin. We go down there every school holidays, long weekends and in the warmer months every few weekends.

Hubby really wanted to move down there but I was unsure because all my family are up here and I have an 18 year old up here too living with us, but he now works full time in a good trade and has a car. He said he won't come with us but I'm making sure the house is big enough if he changes his mind.

I agreed to move if we gave him 2 more years in Sydney to establish himself. I'd always wanted to build but put it in the too hard basket when we bought our last 2 house so this time I am going to build my dream home walking distance from the water. Hubby said as long as we agree on the block, floor plan and budget and I do all the work and selections I could build. Sounds excellent to me because we have very different taste and I am a control freak so I'll get to get my own way with everything!

We soon discovered the scattering of empty blocks of land were fast running out (we didn't want to build in the new estates) and increasing in price on what seemed like an almost weekly basis so we kept our eyes peeled for block that ticked all our boxes.

We made an offer on our block but it wasn't accepted. We wouldn't pay the full asking price because it was the most expensive block in the area and we thought although it was good it was overpriced, they refused to negotiate. After getting gazzumped on our first block after that an hour before exchange our second block choice just happened to be hubbies estranged uncle who accepted our offer but changed his mind 30 minutes later.

I called about the original block as a month or two had passed and they'd lowered the price a tiny bit, we negotiated and they gave us a counter offer which we accepted. Settlement went through 6 weeks later in mid June. It's now ours!

It's a gorgeous flat 650sqm 15.2 x 42.2 block on the best street in town. The side street only has 4 or 5 houses either side with stairs going straight down to the water's edge. It's a quiet street where my little ones can ride their bikes or play cricket without traffic coming through.

It's a corner block which was good so we could have a second garage but councils rules were 3.5m setback from the side street which was a real pain in the butt when looking at house plans so any plan we chose would need to be customised. We worked out if we went with CDC it could be only 3m instead.

A 2 story house would have produced beautiful water views but I've lost count of the operations I've had on my back so we decided to stick to single story. We got tenders with 3 builders and chose Allworth, but had to get a second tender because we changed house designs.

We needed the garage on the left, and laundry and alfresco on the right, it also needed to be slim enough to extend the garage and versatile enough to add in a big butlers pantry and study so the Avalon ticked all of those boxes. We'd gone through so many builders and designs I was starting to lose hope lol, this had already taken over 2-3 months of getting tenders and going to appointments.

After our second tender came back from Allworth we still wanted a fair few changes but decided we definitely wanted to go with them, so we paid our deposit. We were a bit annoyed that even though we gave them a survey which they used to work out site costs they couldn't use it to draw up their plans because it wasn't one of their accredited surveyors.

So far it's been 4 weeks and the survey just came back yesterday so they can finish off the plans and get them off go to CDC.

I've nailed down our external colours ready for them, and are getting low profile tiles as we didn't want colourbond so close to salt water even though it was included in the price.

I'll post plans, selections and pictures below after cooking dinner

aphsta · Aug 05, 2017 9:03 pm

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The block, facing the backyard, behind that is the water

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Plans so far, there's a change to every room except the family, with a butlers pantry and study added and increasing garage size. We moved one set of the stacker doors to the side of the house and we're going to deck in the side and up past the back of the house, including alfresco, with a swim spa or plunge pool off the side door with privacy screens.

Colours are;
Bricks PGH Gibson - dark brown
Roof- Monier Horizon barramundi
Gutters Monument
Fascia, windows, garage door, down pipes, water tank and paint on front door all Windspray

building-expert · Aug 06, 2017 9:07 am

I know it may be too late now but I would have gone for water views. Did you know there is a Tasmanian company "Residential Lift" that does them for around 20K?
Lovely block BTW

charlibear · Aug 06, 2017 9:48 am

Found you!!
What a great back story you have with your block, it was just meant to be

and your Street is just stunning

Wow, you had a lot of boxes to tick, so great allworth could deliver

Can't wait to see your plan with your new changes!!

Your selections are great (I googled the bricks) all together they will look divine

aphsta · Aug 08, 2017 10:48 pm

building-expert

I know it may be too late now but I would have gone for water views. Did you know there is a Tasmanian company "Residential Lift" that does them for around 20K?
Lovely block BTW

I thought something like that must have existed that but by the time you add the extra cost of building 2 stories and the lift, plus I don't like a house divided in half, up and down if you know what I mean. We will just have to get off our bums and walk a little if we want to see more than our one story offers

aphsta · Aug 08, 2017 10:52 pm

charlibear

Found you!!
What a great back story you have with your block, it was just meant to be

and your Street is just stunning

Wow, you had a lot of boxes to tick, so great allworth could deliver

Can't wait to see your plan with your new changes!!

Your selections are great (I googled the bricks) all together they will look divine

Gah I don't know what to do, the original plan had the kitchen bench attached to the wall but I've pushed it out to be an island because I like having the options to enter and exit from both sides when the kitchen is full and also when the dishwasher is open having trouble getting out.

Cons for having it as an island is

1. We are pushing the kitchen up towards the back of the house almost 30-40cm to add room to the butlers pantry so the Island might either be too close to the wall with the doors or we might need to make the island shorter
2. Having to pay for 2 waterfall edges.
3. You can enter the pantry without having to walk around the kitchen bench.
4. You can put the bins on the wall side of the bench without having them be too obvious

Pros having an attached bench
1. Only have to pay for one waterfall edge.
2. A bit more cupboard space, but the kitchen is 3.6 and the pantry is 3.6 x 2m so not sure I'll have an issue with storage space
3. My husband thinks it looks neater.
4. Can fit one extra cupboard in the bench and fit a garbage bin in it so it's not seen at all.

I saved a few pics from the Allworth Facebook page. Let me know what you think, remembering the shape of the house. Only difference on the plans above is the pantry will open next to the wall on the far side of the house, not the hall on the plans

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This will be the actual layout

Or we could do this
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charlibear · Aug 09, 2017 7:57 am

I love island benches my that's just my personal taste, I find that attached benches end up with clutter at the end of them...

I think it just comes down to personal taste and functionality for you, your family and what is going to work for you.

Also you could just do on waterfall on your island they look really striking with just one, again it's personal choice but just food for thought

aphsta · Aug 09, 2017 8:58 am

charlibear

I love island benches my that's just my personal taste, I find that attached benches end up with clutter at the end of them...

I think it just comes down to personal taste and functionality for you, your family and what is going to work for you.

Also you could just do on waterfall on your island they look really striking with just one, again it's personal choice but just food for thought

I love the Island too an although that kitchen is nice it's making me feel a bit claustrophobic. I feel like the Island is more modern too. My current kitchen has an Island and I love it so don't want to attach it just because husband thinks it's a good idea and have regrets.

I could never waterfall only one edge of an Island, it would completely mess with my OCD lol. I've already made the entire hallway straight because it had rooms pop out unevenly and I couldn't cope with that.

Here's a picture of the original plan lol

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charlibear · Aug 09, 2017 10:14 pm

I feel like the attached end does make it feel a bit claustrophobic, but each to their own.

Oh my gosh, you have indeed made it perfectly straight!! Well done lol!! Could you maybe have one waterfall edge and put shelves at the other end? Kind of like this (these pics are from townsvilles thread) she built a freakin gorgeous house, search her by her name if you want to see her thread

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aphsta · Aug 09, 2017 11:46 pm

charlibear

I feel like the attached end does make it feel a bit claustrophobic, but each to their own.

Oh my gosh, you have indeed made it perfectly straight!! Well done lol!! Could you maybe have one waterfall edge and put shelves at the other end? Kind of like this (these pics are from townsvilles thread) she built a freakin gorgeous house, search her by her name if you want to see her thread

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Yep I got a ruler and drew two big lines down the middle marking the new hall lol

The bathroom gained 1m in width so we could lessen the length to add to pantry too which was a big plus, we just have to shuffle everything around in there, but we have to do that with the ensuite too because we moved the ensuite door to inside the WIR so we can have a BIR in the main also as the wardrobe seems tiny. We have a similar layout here and my hubby ended up building a BIR because only my stuff fit in the WIR

It made the media smaller, but also made the two bedrooms on the left size bigger, to match the one on the right so all 3 kids rooms are exactly the same size and shape, so no need to fight over them. The two at the end of either side of the hall furthest from the main will also have sound proofing along with the media (it was a fixed price for 3 rooms, but mostly just wanted it for media), so the pantry and laundry noise will be blocked out to the kids rooms but also the noise the kids make will be too haha

The paying for an extra waterfall isn't a big deal, I was just trying to come up with pros and cons to help decision making, but it's not a huge factor and I think it comes down to me just preferring an Island so much more.

Thanks for the replies Charlibear, it's good to have someone to bounce ideas off and share the journey with

aphsta · Sep 02, 2017 6:14 pm

We received our plans yesterday and have an appointment tomorrow to fix up some mistakes and changes and sign off to go to CDC. I've got my external choices ready and filled in, so very excited!

We had a look at the in inbuilt outdoor kitchens today and hubby was excited by them. We are having plumbing in the alfresco so we can have hot and cold water in our outdoor kitchen

Main issue with plans is the pantry is meant to open out to the kitchen. The draftsman probably put the door at the hall because the kitchen bench is attached to the wall but we are changing it to an island. It was also meant to be 2m deep but it looks fine on the plans so I'll leave it as it is

There's a few other bits and pieces I've noted down but it's looking pretty good.

There's still 13.1 x15.2m of backyard space and we're also putting a second garage in the backyard as it's a corner block

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aphsta · Sep 08, 2017 10:28 pm

We had our appointment on Sunday, made the few changes we had wanted and signed to go to the certifier for CDC.

They've already been updated at head office, emailed to me and we signed off on those too.

I have already had a call for colours, which I'm doing on Tuesday morning then tiles later in the afternoon

Very exciting, bring it on!

aphsta · Sep 13, 2017 9:32 am

Yesterday's selections!

It was quite a fun day out and my Aunt came along for company and to help. I booked internal selections in the morning and tiles after lunch and we had time for a lovely cafe lunch in between.

Tiles, tempo charcoal. Gloss for walls, matt for floors, and rough finish for front porch.
I can't remember the name of the feature tiles but this is for the shower niches with silver trim.

We are doing vinyl planks after handover to the whole house including bedrooms as it's close to the water, have lots of animals and I just hate carpet.

We've got a really good quote here in sydney and will go down the coast to lay it at no extra cost. We only have to book it in a month before, so we won't finalise colour the choice until then. I think that will be good because I will have s feel for the house since it will be close to finshed by then

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Wattyl Solver washable 3 coat paint system,
Wattyl White for architraves, ceiling, cornices and doors

Low Cloud for Media Room and all Bedrooms

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Soft Apparition for all living areas, bathroom and laundry, and anywhere else I can’t think of

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We chose a pretty basic build package because we are renting the house out for a year or two first so will be redoing a lot of stuff when we move in, like putting stone in the kitchen, nice lighting, ducted air con, and fitting out the butlers pantry.

We have upgraded anything that can't be done later but left everything we can, like shower niches, capped off plumbing in pantry and alfresco, sound proofing etc.

I upgraded all taps to flick mixers for this reason, $120 each x 4 and chose this nice bath spout / mixer combo for $315 , I asked about the nice big shower heads with the 2 heads, one fixed and one small movable that are about $300 at bathroom fitting stores, they were $750 (ouch) I'll get them when we move in lol. I upgraded to long double towel rails $30 x 2 and also nice sturdy toilet roll holders $15 x 2, the included ones were very thin and flimsy looking. The last thing I upgraded was frosting in the front door glass $30, no idea why this wasn't included!

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I also remembered to take pictures of my brick and roof tiles.
PGH Gibson

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Monier Horizon flat profile in Barramundi
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Gutters are Monument to match the roof tiles
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Fascia, panelling, garage door, front and laundry door paint, all windspray
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Windows were originally windspray but changed to Monument when we submitted the plans to have dark stacker doors

Hailsm · Sep 14, 2017 4:26 pm

Love your thread. I'm following along. We have the same roof tiles, ours were fitted yesterday but still need the ridge capping completed

charlibear · Sep 14, 2017 9:29 pm

Gorgeous selections!!!

Great idea about vinyl all through the house

What does your front door look like?

aphsta · Sep 14, 2017 10:46 pm

charlibear

Gorgeous selections!!!

Great idea about vinyl all through the house

What does your front door look like?

Front door is exactly the same as I have in this house. Standard size with 4 pieces of glass, painted with colourbond windspray to match the garage door.

aphsta · Sep 23, 2017 12:14 pm

My update for this week

Strangely discovered our plans were submitted to council on their DA tracker last week while checking on our extra garage.

They’ve gone through the vetting process and neighbours have been notified, I don’t think much will happen until the expiry date for neighbours notifications. I was surprised as we were told all along we’d go through CDC.

I had a whole heap of vinyl plank samples from Karndean delivered and I layed they out at work so we’ve spent a few days looking at them and both fell in love with the same one. It’s called Stamford.

This is it
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And this is it in a room with similar paint colours to what I’ve chosen

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I’ve spoken to Allworth and am now having the darker grey called Low Cloud that I’d chosen for the Media room to now be in all the bedrooms also, and keeping the very light grey called Soft Apparition everywhere else

Now the most exciting part of my week was my kitchen appoint yesterday!

I kept with my plan of polar white cabinets in matt. First we have the fridge spot on the left, then we are installing an appliance tower so I won’t need to bend for the oven or microwave with 2 pot drawers underneath and next to that is two lots of wider 2 deep, 1 shallow pot drawers, on top of them is the cooktop on the bench, next to that is the door to my butlers pantry

I changed the other bench into an Island as it was attached to the wall originally and reduced the length from 3.3m to 3m so I won’t have a join in my stone bench top.
Now because the kitchen juts out into the dining and living areas I left the end on the outer corner without a cupboard underneath for the first 30cm so you can use the end of the Island to sit at also, like this picture below
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Facing the bench the dishwasher is on the right, with a two bowl under bench sink and I bought a pull out tap to swap when we move in already so we will have the upgraded mixer tap that it comes with until then. Under the sink is your standard cupboard, next to that is a set of pot drawers 1.05m wide! They will house my cutlery and plates etc. There’s a few cupboards deleted by doing this plan but my butlers pantry is 3.6m x 1.8 m and we will have full bench and cupboards along one side and the other wall will be 3.6m of shelving!

I’ve chosen jet black caesar stone for the bench tops with a waterfall end on the side without seating. We are doing the splash back after handover and I plan on choosing glossy black plainish tiles to keep with the black and white theme.

I have requested a quote for the jet black Caesarstone as a splash back too, hoping it’s not too expensive since that benchtop is much smaller due to the appliance tower taking up a 3rd of what would’ve been bench space.

The back and seating side of the Island cabinetry will be done in Polar White also, I had thought to change is to Polytec Aluminium because of scuff marks but went back to white after a week of agonising over it.

I kept my bathroom cabinets polar white but switched them to polytec sheen and upgraded to floating. Handles will match my lower kitchen cabinetry and upper cabinets will be handle less

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We also did our electrical plan end of last week. We’ve added 3 in 1 heat lights to both bathrooms, an extra TV point in the living off the kitchen, power points to both sides of the Island and exhaust fans in the laundry and butlers pantry.

We didn’t change other power points to double as we will upgrade almost all of the power points to doubles with USB ourselves after handover because we want to future proof the house and can do those and all the fancy lighting himself. The power points that really needed to be doubles already were.

So all I need to do now is get the kitchen all costed and drawn up and DA to be approved and we ate ready to go!

The kitchen quote is expected to take 2 weeks and my sales guy said his last one at Shoalhaven council took about 6ish weeks.

aphsta · Oct 07, 2017 9:44 pm

We’ve come down to the coast this weekend and visited our block.

We had such a lovely surprise when we got there. Our rear neighbours have put up a fence which is our back/their front side fence, they’ve done all the work and not asking for any money, saying they wanted to help out because they know building is expensive. Another plus is it’s exactly the kind of fence we had discussed with them and wanted. They’ve even planted a couple of lovely flowering creepers to fill it in.

That’s one less job we have to do over the Christmas holidays which is fantastic!

Neighbour vetting has been completed for our DA and we are having our plans fixed up to have a 7.5m front setback as per councils request, we’d submitted it with 6.5 or 7, and they should be completed and sent in within a week.

I’m still waiting for my kitchen quote but am pretty sure that is coming early next week, our kitchen guy was in contact on Friday getting our requests right for the estimations team so I had answered all his questions as they came through.

Not much else to report other than the fact that every time I see our block I just love it more and more!

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aphsta · Oct 11, 2017 4:14 pm

We received our kitchen quote today. Ive changed the sink to 2 double bowls with no drip tray. All the cabinetry was reasonably priced so I’m getting all my pot drawers and appliance tower and upgraded it to Laminex Silk in Polar White. I’m excited that the only cupboard on the bottom is the one under the sink and everything else is pot drawers. I love them!

We said no to the caesarstone and have decided to just go for 180FX Carrera Matte in Absolute Matte finish. It looks really gorgeous, I considered going for the same but in diamond gloss finish but was advised it scratched and the kitchen place wouldn’t warrant it.

We have caesarstone at our current house and have already had 2 cracks repairs and a bunch of chips. The crack repairs look horrible though, so my husband was really against getting stone again due to this. I think our benches are either osprey or more likely ocean foam

I was hoping that maybe we just got a bad batch. We weren’t able to claim warranty because the previous owner had put in the new kitchen to sell and he didn’t give us all of the receipts

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Homestead2017 · Oct 17, 2017 8:36 am

Just read though your thread. Love all your choices and floor plan. What a beautiful part of the world you'll be moving to.

You made the right choice going for the island bench 😉

Sounds like you're on a very similar timeframe to us. We are currently almost 7 weeks in council and praying we hear some news this week!! Also waiting on the kitchen plans to come back.