I'm new to the boards. I've been lurking for a bit and am really impressed and pleased with the level of knowledge on the forum and the wonderful people full of honest and helpful advice. (Thanks to JohnandTarin for pointing us here!)
My husband and I have been househunting for a few years and just couldn't find something that suited our needs. We have two small boys (3 1/2 and 1 1/2) and one of our requirements was that we have enough yard space for the boys to run around in. Every house we saw that was fairly newish had almost no yard space. So we finally decided to knockdown and rebuild.
We're building the Santorini Grande with Masterton Homes in the Bankstown City Council area. We've been told by our Masterton Sales Consultant that we should expect at least a four month wait before approval, assuming nothing goes wrong. Sadly, it is likely to be worse. The house behind us is in the building process and we remember getting Council's letter last April advising of the build. They finally knocked the house down about a month or two ago and have just bricked up in the last week. So a full year to get to this stage (and probably a lot more, taking into account all the work that goes into it before Council notifies neighbours). They're building with Roselea Homes.
So, we got our draft plans and last week met with our Sales Consultant. We made our final changes and are now waiting to hear how long it will take before they're ready for Council. SC was very vague about timing. She wanted us to sign all the go ahead documents before the plans were finalised so that we wouldn't have to wait. My husband and I are quite pedantic though, and I have a Legal background, so we declined to sign anything until we were completely happy with the final plans. I'm trying to chase up our SC to see what our new timing is but suspiciously, since we paid our $4000 deposit, she's been a lot harder to get a hold of. (Trying not to be cynical at this early stage...)
We have a few dilemmas at the moment. One is involving our stove but that's a story for another time. Our current problem is our external colours. We made our selections with PGH and handed them over the our SC but we've been stressing about them ever since and we're just not happy with the choices we've made. We really don't want to go to Schofields again! After three trips, dragging the boys around and trying to wrangle them while concentrating on colours we were happy just to be done with it but I don't think we are. So we are hoping for some advice...
We are building the Executive Facade: http://www.masterton.com.au/MASTERTON/LIVE/RESOURCES/IMAGES/Facades/Santorini/Santorini_Executive_jun05.jpg
Our colour selections have been (using Michelle's colour template):
- Roof - Monier Traditional in Sambucca
Gutters - Colorbond Monument
Fascia - Colorbond Paperbark
Bricks - PGH Cement (with PGH Greenway feature bricks for the Portico - the orange bit in the picture)
Downpipes - Colorbond Monument
Eaves - Paperbark
Soffit to underside of Eaves, Verandas & Portico’s - Paperbark
Balustrade - Black
Windows - Black
Doors - (Not sure yet)
Garage - Colorbond Paperbark.
We have decided against the Greenway, which is a turned brick, but can't decide on a suitable replacement. We're thinking about Nutmeg. We've also decided to change the Garage to Colorbond Monument which I think will link it all back together.
Having read a few of the colour selection posts, Dune seems to be quite a popular colour and we're also wondering whether we should replace the Paperbark with Dune, given the grey colour scale that we're using.
The colour consultant at PGH wasn't all that helpful so I'm reluctant to go back and ask for advice. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Otherwise, just happy to be here and sharing this journey with you. Good luck everyone!