Plans being lodged with council Take 2!!

Our plans were lodged with council in the weeks leading up to Christmas. So in the first few days after the holiday's when Wisdom returned to business we were expecting to receive a DA number. This did not happen. Wisdom informed us that the plans had not been processed but sent back.
Penrith City Council has a requirement that there must be a minimum of 50% Landscaped area on the development. We came in at 47%!!

This was quite frustrating and came as a surprise as to us it looks like a few of the houses already built in our estate appear to have less than 50%.
This means our plans have gone back to the drawing board and Wisdom is working out a way to loose the equivalent of approx 1 brick in length (or less) from the house to meet this requirement, without making it a noticeable change to the house itself.

Another thing which I knew about but completely overlooked was that our block is on bushfire prone land. We were required to submit a Bushfire Assessment Report with our plans detailing the Bushfire Attack Level on the house. Thankfully this came in at 0-12.5 which is the lowest and should mean no extra changes to the plans or design of the house.

Hopefully this time we can comeback with good news and a DA number.

Kitchen Plans

We have received our draft kitchen plans today, and even though they are in draft form everything appears to be correct so we wont be changing much if anything at all.
We decided to go with the under bench oven and separate cook-top to make it easier to replace in the long run, if it fails. We also added an upgrade to the kitchen which includes the matching pantry and an appliance cupboard.
We changed the location of the sink and dishwasher to prevent the dishwasher door interfering with the oven door when they are both open.

Vanity's Front

Vanity's top 

Appliance Cupboard/Pantry/Fridge space

Sink/Dishwasher/Under Breakfast Bar

Stove/Side

Kitchen

Colour Update

We had our Kitchen/Vanity appointment and mad a few colour changes. We changed the vanity tops and the kitchen cupboard colours, which I have updated on our Colour Selection post. I have also added a picture of our glass splashback which we changed from Latte to Antique White.

I will post more on the Kitchen once we receive the plans back.

We Have Settled

We are happy to announce that our block of land settled today (8th Dec 2010). This is a major step forward and now allows us to go and have a picnic on our land!

Colour Selection

We have signed the building contract with Wisdom which meant we can start on all the little details of the house like colour, kitchen, electrical plan etc.

We met with Bianca to discuss and choose colours for the exterior of the house, kitchen, bathroom. Here are some of the colours we have chosen so far. We will add the rest as we go.

(Some of these colours may not truly represent the exact colour. They are only samples taken from online and some photos. It is as close as we can get for now,)

External

 Bricks        

                                                               

Austral - Everyday Life Leisure 

 Fascia

Colorbond - Surfmist

Roof Tiles  
                                                   

Bristile Roofing - Gunmetal

Driveway

Designer Concrete Coatings - Bluestone                

Windows   

                                      

Trend Windows - Anodic Off White

 Gutters/Downpipes/Water Tank/Meter Box

Colourbond - Monument

Internal

Some of the internal colours will probably change once we have our final Kitchen and tile appointment. But for now here they are. Once we have our tile appointment they will be posted up aswell

Kitchen Benchtop

Caesarstone - Osprey

Internal Walls/Skirting (in gloss)

Taubmans - Dove Wing

                Kitchen Cupboards                                                            Vanity Tops

   

Laminex - White

Laminex - Platinum Micro

            

Vanity Cupboards

    

Laminex - White

Kitchen Splashback

DecoGlaze - Antique White

Land Registration and Working Drawings

We have (finally) received notification of our land being registered and settlement at this stage is set for 6th December. This took a total of 53 days when it should have only taken 10. At least now we can relax on that front.

We also received the working drawings for our house and we have approved these which allows the final stages of the tender to be prepared, including the building contract.

It shouldn't be to long now until we have to finalise the colour selection process.

Colour Selection

Whilst we are waiting for the drawings to be done, we have made a start on our colour selections for some things including -

• Wet and dry area tiles
• Garage door
• Bricks
• Windows, gutters and fascia
• Roof Tiles

There is soo much to choose from and trying to get them all to match is a difficult task! We have already called on some friends to give us a second opinion on the tiles and a few other little things. Thanks to Leigh and Amanda for their help so far. I hope some of our other friends wont mind being called upon to lend their designing skills.

A quick update on the land registration. We are still waiting. It is now Day 36 of what should be a 10 day process. Hopefully it doesn't take too much longer.