A Correction.

Firstly- I have to post a brief correction. In our last post we stated that we had learnt budgeting and goal setting from my brother and sister in law. This was incorrect. My brother has taught us nothing! My sister in law (yes I am still going to call you that!), is completely responsible for that way of thinking, and has taught my brother and us, everything we know!

Slightly off track for a moment.

We've been formulating a list, that seems never ending, of things we want to purchase or finish once we move in to our house. Some things like fence and fridge are obviously higher on the priority list, than say decorative cushions, but nonetheless we are keeping our eyes open for anything that fulfills our brief so we can get prices and have goals to work towards (I've learnt this lesson from my brother and sister in law).

Anyway my point of all this is to show you the pendant lights we have found. We want to have 3 pendant lights hanging over the kitchen bench. These are by far the best we've found and reasonably priced too.

We thought the square shape would work with the square sink and the satin chrome finish matches the finish of our cupboard handles. They are also not too obtrusive or too much of a statement and should blend nicely.

Just thought we'd take another brief moment out of the build to show you more of our decorating ideas.

Drive by.

I did a quick drive by yesterday, and can tell you that the frame is complete, the windows are in and the gutters and fascia is up! I am very happy with the colours of these so far, hope everything else keeps falling in to line this nicely.

We've also spoken to our Site Manager and he said that roof tiles were arriving today and bricks were due onsite next week! We've got an appointment with our site manager on Thursday morning, just to have a look at everything and talk about the build and stuff. We'll ask then when he thinks we may be finished, of course we know it'll only be a guesstimate, as so many things can still hold us up before completion.

We'll head out there tomorrow for a sticky so expect some photos to go up over the weekend.

Red and yellow and pink and green...purple and orange and blue....

A brief moment out to show some of the interior and exterior colours we chose. They haven't shown up too fabulously and we don't have samples of everything, but they give an idea nonetheless.

The majority of our selections were done at Studio M, a HUGE studio at Metricons headquarters, full of samples and displays. We tried to arm ourselves with as much information as possible before hand, spending days going from supplier to supplier and weekends flicking through magazines. Needless to say though, it was fairly gruelling having to make so many decisions all at once, giving thought to dollar values and good taste.

We were very definite on the floor boards and benchtop, so the rest began to formulate around that. The bricks caused some angst. We originally saw some lovely oversized bricks called "Calais" from Boral, but were told we couldn't have them because of the variation in size and the difficulty to the pre measured wall/window size. So second choice was "Mist" at Boral, which, probably fortunately given their extra cost, were discontinued when it came time to make the final selection. So we settled on "Nougat" and chose our exteriors based on that.

A little frightening not knowing how it will all pan out, but ultimately I don't think we've chosen anything too offensive.

The last thing selected were the tiles for the wet areas and butlers pantry splashback. We completed these at Beaumont last Tuesday. They were really difficult to choose, so we kept them fairly neutral and classic, as tiles are probably the first thing to date in a home.

We've got a lot to thank Fiona at Studio M for, she was a godsend during our major colour appointment and certainly aided us in making our decisions.

Floating Floorboards: Spotted Gum (Corymbia maculata)

Kitchen/Pantry Bench: Caesarstone "Cashmere"

Kitchen/Pantry Cupboards: Laminex "Pumice"

Kitchen Overhead Cupboards: Laminex " Pesto Linea"

Kitchen Splashback: Glass "MAC" (indicated by the dulux colour, it's slightly more orange though)

Bathroom/Ensuite Vanities: Laminex "Pesto Linea"

Walls and Ceilings: Dulux "Natural White"

Cornices and Skirtings etc: Dulux "Hog Bristle 1/2 strength"

Carpet: Cosmopolitian 26

Roof Tile (not shown): Walnut

Brick (not shown): Austral "Nougat"

Gutters/Windows/Garage: Jasper

Fascia and Downpipes: Dune

Facade Render: Pearl Ash

Build it and they will come.

We're now officially presenting to you in 3D! Well, the frame began to hoist its way up mid week. We can't believe what's been done in such a short space of time since starting on site. Our online information building page says the frame is due for completion by the end of the month, but we wouldn't be surprised if it's sooner.

I think I've got the photo text thing happening now, but it's a little tedious my way (Ben I think I need a crash course in html, that'd be much more efficient).

There she is, the new kid on the block.

Our ready to go window frames outside our garage.

Standing in the dining/lounge facing the front of the house and the kitchen.

The view down the entrance hallway.

From the side of the outdoor room, looking up our entertaining side to the servery in the butlers pantry (ooh la la).

A corner of our outdoor room.

Some small guests come to visit.

We've had a lot of friends and family come to visit the block. Here's two particularly adorable handsome ones! Noah and Hunter (Pauls nephews), certainly worthy of a photo and a spot on this blog.

One small step for man.....

Behold, the foundations of our home! According to our report from Peter (the inspection man), the slab is well done, to a quality finish, of solid workmanship with no visible faults.  All good news indeed, no slopes, no holes and everything is where it should be. It was great to see the dimensions of our house taking shape, although everything feels tiny when there's no walls and roof.

P.S- Does anyone know how to write comments under each photo? I'll have to work on it.

You say po-tay-toe, I say po-tah-toe.

Well Peter, our independent inspector,  went out on site this morning to inspect the form work done. He only just managed to whirl through an inspection before the concreters arrived to start pouring our slab! This rush could have been avoided, had Peter been able to obtain the details of the concrete firm and establish exactly when they would be pouring the concrete. There have been some noses out of joint, I think, by our decision to bring in a third party inspector, particularly from our Site Manager. Exasperated also by Peters attempts to speak to the site manager directly through repeated calls to Metricon.  Anyway we have now spoken to the site manager, who initially made his opinions clear, but then seemed to come around to our reasoning and our rights. He has promised to call us every Wednesday (we'll see), and have a "meeting" before completion of the frame stage. On a good note though, Peter said there weren't any real problems. He's taken photos and we'll receive the report in the coming days.

And did I mention we now have a poured slab?!!! That's a bit exciting. We'll be dancing on the base this weekend! Expect some photos very soon.

Awww

Humphrey arriving onsite to give his two cents worth.

All boxed up.

This is where we're at today. The boxing/form work (I'm a true builder now) is complete and concrete is due to be poured by the end of the week. The slab is all laid with polystyrene, which is called a waffle slab (not a poly-waffle slab, what idiot would say that?!), it's all new to me, but apparently it's all the rage.

We have Peter from Finalinspect braving the cold tomorrow morning to inspect our slab pre-concrete and he'll be back out there again on Saturday to inspect the poured concrete- hopefully there aren't too many problems. We're really looking forward to the frame stage, when things start getting a little more 3D.

Pipes and.......stuff!

Not really sure how to describe things here. Lots of pipes, some holes, stones, a meter box and a fairly handsome man on site!

Site scrape!

We wander out to our land and much to our surprise the elves have been to work! Our barren land has been converted to a real work site, complete with porta loo, temporary fence and rubbish bin. We also have two taps at the front, the purple one is the recycled water tap which will be pumping with recycled water in 2012. We were probably most excited however to discover Eucalyptus trees have been planted on all the nature strips, should be lovely when they grow up big and strong.

Land Ahoy!!

This is what our land looked like before the build began and before the rains came. It amazing to see in such a short space of time how many houses have gone up too. When these were taken earlier in the year it was a wasteland. Now it's like a massive construction site with unfinished houses all over the place.

Floorplans

These are the floor plans for our house. A nice and simple 28squares, with plenty of space for the three of us. We chose this one because of the big open plan layout- the kitchen flows in to the dining, which flows in to the lounge, which then opens out to the alfresco. Too many houses we looked at tried to do too much with limited space and they felt cluttered and claustrophobic. This one was an instant fit.