dilla's place - we've got curtains!

dilla · Sep 19, 2009 3:58 pm

I've finally decided it's time for me to start my own thread. Myself and DP are first time builders and homeowners. We bought our block in July this year, it's due to settle at the end of October. Our building contract has a January start date but the builder says that if he can get the roof on before Christmas he might start in November! We decided to go with a small local builder with a custom design.

Ok, so ....... floorplan

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Site plan

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Our block, from on top of the hill behind it. The block slopes slightly from the front to the back.

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We've decided on Labassa bricks

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and Monument roof, gutters, facia and garage door

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I would also like to get some rendering done across one portion of the house, but not sure what colour would look good - any ideas?

Luxe Creme 400x400 tiles throughout, with the same colour but 200x400 for the walls in the showers / bathroom / ensuite. They look a lot nicer in real life, they're quite grey looking here but actually have a nice creamy look.

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Our kitchen colours:

Limestone benchtops

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Shadow for lower cabinets

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Slate Grey for upper cabinets and for back of island

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Although I would have LOVED a glass splashback, it didn't fit into the budget, so we've gone with some glossy white tiles 100x300 that we will lay horizontally instead.

As for the bathroom and ensuite, we've got White gloss cabinets with Canyon Zephyr tops.

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We couldn't agree on what feature tiles we liked, so ended up not going with any! Figure we can add a bit of colour with towels or pictures or something else.

We're not really expecting anything much to happen for a while, so if anyone has any suggestions or ideas for us, let me know because it's not too late for us to still make changes according to the builder!

cazoraz · Sep 19, 2009 7:16 pm

Plans look great - your pantry is huge!! I've got a similar kitchen to yours, love the nice open feel of it in the family and meals area.

We are also going with the Monument roof but still undecided on dark chocolate or latte bricks - might see if you have pics up before I get to that stage!! We are going to render some of the front later on with a colour like this Dulux LittleLamb:
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nice one!

Caz

shell83 · Sep 19, 2009 8:20 pm

Hi Dilla, looks great, love your colours. Something you might consider is moving the garage right to the edge of the property if you can, instead of having a 1m gap, seeing as you already have access through to the backyard via the garage. There's not really much you can do with that 1m of space, and it would give you 2.2m on the other side.

Good luck, hope they're able to start building earlier for you

dilla · Sep 19, 2009 9:46 pm

cazoraz

Plans look great - your pantry is huge!! I've got a similar kitchen to yours, love the nice open feel of it in the family and meals area.
Caz

Thanks Caz! We love that the open feeling too. It should be really bright and airy, the entire wall will basically be all windows so we will get lots of morning sun.

shell83

Good luck, hope they're able to start building earlier for you

I hope so too Shell! Though I think I might drive myself mad over the christmas / new year period knowing there is a half finished house sitting on my block!

shell83 · Sep 19, 2009 9:49 pm

dilla

I hope so too Shell! Though I think I might drive myself mad over the christmas / new year period knowing there is a half finished house sitting on my block!

Going mad is all part of the process

dilla · Oct 11, 2009 8:15 pm

bugger! just been told by our builder that he definitely won't be starting in november, so january it is i guess!

aaaanyway... went out to the block yesterday and some little hooligan has bashed in the back fence with a post or something

It's got dints all along it now. We back onto a public reserve and the estate developers have paid for all of the fencing along our rear boundary, what would you think the chances are of them replacing the fence? or is that unreasonable? we haven't settled yet - that's coming at the end of the month so it's still their responsibility I would think, but I don't know. I'm going to run it past our real estate agent this week.

Speaking of settling at the end of the month, titles still haven't been issued

hope that happens soon or it will be delayed.

On a lighter note though, our finance has been unconditionally approved

. looking forward to get it all happening now that i know there is a big fat cheque with our name on it sitting at the bank lol.

alexl · Oct 26, 2009 11:55 pm

Hi Dilla,

Love your plans. It looks very practical and spacious. Good on ya.

Alex

dilla · Oct 27, 2009 10:47 pm

Thanks Alex,
We tried hard to make the most of the space, it's quite small compared to a lot of the houses on here - it's only 16.3sq + garage + alfresco - but it will be ours, and it's our first home so we don't need anything huge. Pretty pleased with the way it's turned out, just waiting for the real stuff to start happening now!

dilla · Oct 27, 2009 10:53 pm

Well today was supposed to be land settlement. Didn't happen! Titles still haven't been issued even though when we signed the contracts 90 days ago we were told they would be titled within a couple of weeks. So glad our builder decided not to start until January otherwise they would have been ready to build and we wouldn't have anywhere for them to build on!

Grrrrr... silly developers and their silly holdups ::sad::

Mia's Folly · Oct 27, 2009 11:31 pm

dilla

Well today was supposed to be land settlement. Didn't happen! Titles still haven't been issued even though when we signed the contracts 90 days ago we were told they would be titled within a couple of weeks. So glad our builder decided not to start until January otherwise they would have been ready to build and we wouldn't have anywhere for them to build on!

Grrrrr... silly developers and their silly holdups ::sad::

Hi Dilla and don't you just love developers. We've been waiting since July for our land to title with the same ol story from the developer, "It should be ready in approximately 2 weeks". In fact it's been quite the running joke amongst a few of the prospective residents at where we are building. What I would be asking from the developer is have they submitted all documents to the State Revenue Office so titles can be issued.

At least ours were submitted last Friday and should be ready for release in............ yep you guessed it, two weeks..lol

We are booked in for a December build but it's not looking good, hopefully we might get a slab before Xmas but not overly confident. Hope yours titles this week Dilla.

dilla · Oct 28, 2009 12:56 pm

oh yes, that magical 2 weeks! will it ever end? Hope you get yours soon, a slab would be a very nice christmas present!

dilla · Dec 01, 2009 9:48 pm

Some more bad news for us today unfortunately. Apparently there's been some sort of a hold up with the titles being issued, so we're looking at January until they title. The problem now is that our builders can't get a building permit from council becuase there is no title, so they might not be able to start building in January any more. ::frown::

Why why why would they tell us back in July that titles should be issued in 'the next few weeks' when they would have known it would be longer than that! ::sad::

wemyss_castle · Dec 28, 2009 8:49 am

Hi Dilla

Lovin your plan

and your colours look great!

We just found out that there are delays in settlement of our block too... yay... the joys of building!!

We seem to be in very similar situations... this is our first build too... we wanted a glass splashback... but not enough $$$ ::cry::

and our house is small compared to some of the others on here!! .. well we all have to start some where!! At least your place has a study..and alfresco... two things we couldnt afford! I think your place is going to be great!!!

looking forward to watching your place grow!!

dilla · Dec 28, 2009 12:45 pm

Another day, another setback

Our builder had booked our slab in for Jan 18th, but with the holdups with titles we had to cancel the booking ::frown::

I'd like to pass on a big fat Grrrrrr Hurry Up to the titles office!! I want my house to start ::hyst::

Anyway, we may as well look at the positives - it's given us a bit more time to save some money as we're not paying anything off at the moment so now we can hopefully get the driveway done before we move in and fully furnish the house as well, with maybe a little left over to make a good start on the landscaping too.

dilla · Dec 28, 2009 12:53 pm

wemyss_castle

Hi Dilla

Lovin your plan

and your colours look great!

We just found out that there are delays in settlement of our block too... yay... the joys of building!!

We seem to be in very similar situations... this is our first build too... we wanted a glass splashback... but not enough $$$ ::cry::

and our house is small compared to some of the others on here!! .. well we all have to start some where!! At least your place has a study..and alfresco... two things we couldnt afford! I think your place is going to be great!!!

looking forward to watching your place grow!!

Thanks wemyss, it's pretty exciting but the holdups make it disappointing at the same time don't they! We'll both get there in the end though - we've been in our crappy rental for long enough, I think I can wait an extra few months.

Hope your land holdups don't take as long as ours ::hyst::

We're looking forward to seeing it all come together too! I'm so keen I've even started shopping for house accessories and we don't even own the land yet :lol:

dilla · Dec 28, 2009 9:15 pm

Nothing else to add here for today, but this is my 200th post ::celeb::

Thought it may as well go here :lol:

bobbin_84 · Dec 28, 2009 9:40 pm

dilla

Nothing else to add here for today, but this is my 200th post ::celeb::

Thought it may as well go here :lol:

.............. ::smile::

CONGRATULATIONS on this milestone Dilla! ::celeb::

.....................

:z:

bek7708 · Dec 28, 2009 9:57 pm

Hi Dilla,
Sorry to hear that your land is taking so long, we have put a deposit down on a block and are crossing our fingers that this doesn't happen!
I do love your colours and your plan looks great too.
Hopefully things start happening for you soon, looking forward to seeing your progress.
Bek

wemyss_castle · Dec 29, 2009 8:54 am

Dilla, its so frustrating huh ::angry::

bloody titles office...grrrr dont worry, as soon as the site works start thing will get rolling and before you know it you will be planning your next build !! ::wink::

Congrats on the 200th Post ::celeb::

You're not alone with the shopping thing... I have been buying new towels, and lots of shiny new things to put in my shiny new house......now.... just need the shiny new house to put it all in!! :roll:

bobbin_84 · Jan 03, 2010 9:10 pm

Any news yet? :th: