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. 

Waiting

We are currently waiting for the Land to settle. The plans are currently with council for registration/approval. This process is supposed to take 10 days. We are currently at 25 days.

The other thing we are waiting on is the final drawings of our home. Exciting times!!

Facade, Variations and inclusions - Tick!

We have viewed our tender and paid the next installment to enable the architectural drawings to be done. We also made a few changes to the plan. Nothing to major, they are listed below:

1. Add wall, door and change nook into robe in bed 4
2. Remove feature from leisure area, finishing wall in line with bench
3. Add internal door access to garage

Floor Plan with Changes

Original Floor Plan

We went with the Portico Facade.

We also took advantage of Wisdoms upgrade package. You know the normal thing - Pay $$$$ and get $$$$$ worth of value. A full list of the items that are upgraded can be found here (link to PDF File)

Now comes the time when we start pulling our hair out. We have to choose the colours of the Bricks, windows/sliding door, roof tiles, water tank, caesarstone for kitchen and finally the Gutters and Fascia. This is only the beginning!  

Site Survey

The site survey came back with some positives and some negatives. We knew the block had a slope on it and we expected the worst. The block has a 2.0m fall from front boundary to rear boundary. The sitting of the house has a 1.2m fall from front to back and all we have to cover is the 0.2m as wisdom allow for 1m fall in the price of the standard house package. This works out to be about $2000. We are also required to place a retaining wall along the southern boundary, but that comes later.

One other thing that not only hurt the budget a little but came as a surprise is the relocation of the kerb and guttering and replacement of the driveway. This is a moment where I wished we had rolling kerb and gutters as its $4000 to re do approx 6m of kerb and gutter.

Oct 2010 Land Update

We have received a letter from the conveyancer saying our subdivision has been lodged with council and is currently in the process of being registered. Hopefully this doesnt take too long This is an exciting time!!

Choosing a Home. - Providence 24MkII by Wisdom

With our wishlist in mind we looked at many display homes before deciding to go ahead with Wisdom.

At first we were 95% sure about going with Eden Brae after looking at their Oxford 23 design on display at Ropes Crossing. That was the first display home which we looked at. I am So glad we didn't go with it because now I think of it, it was totally wrong.

Next was Clarendon, we like their Kenthurst design but after reading through some of the forums and reviews, the major concensus was delay and poor quality workmanship, so we crossed that off our list.

After about our 3rd visit to New Home World Kellyville, we were heading home and decided to drop by the display village at The Ponds, we had a look at all the display homes and narrowing it down to Wisdom's Providence 24MkII.

We were amazed by their design and the quality of their workmanship. The House ticked all our boxes except two. It did not have the walk-in pantry or the master bedroom at the back, but thankfully these two things were very low priority on the list so they were easily sacrificed. 


The Providence has a great layout and we feel that there would be no wasted space, and thankfully it is within our budget.

This is a picture of the house on display at The Ponds.

Our Wish List

Its a list that could never end. Once we had chosen the land it was time to do some ground work and start looking for our "Dream Home". We started off by creating a list of everything that we would like in our home and it looked a little something like this:

• 4 Bedrooms
• Double Garage
• Home Theatre Room
• Walk in Pantry
• Master bedroom at the back of the house (This was a tough one)
• Have lots of room but be small enough to provide a nice size yard and side access. 

Not much of a list but it provided a starting point. The list didn't change too much as we went along

Nov 2009 Choosing the Land

After many discussions and many many nights/days of extremely annoying neighbours we decided to look for some land and build a house. We wanted to stay in the Penrith area and we had a pretty tight budget.

These two things presented a challenge, as there was not much land available around Penrith without paying through the roof! We visited Waterside, Ropes Crossing, Glenmore Park and looked into some of the new estates coming including Jordan Springs and Glenmore Ridge.

We had forgotten about one suburb which we didn't find out about until reading the local paper. Claremont Meadows/Orchard Hills. We headed out the following weekend and checked out the Rolling Hills estate Claremont Meadows and it sure lived up to its name. Lots of sloped blocks which we seen as Extra $$ in site costs.

On the way home we drove past another little estate we had seen nothing about anywhere. Sienna Gardens, Claremont Meadows. This looked good. Level blocks, nice sizes,delayed settlement, close to schools, shops and only a small development. It ticked all our boxes so we put down a deposit.