Our settlement agents are the best. They processed our funds straight away and by yesterday the money remaining out of the first home owners grant was deposited into our account!!
Well it truly was nice to see the figure boosting our savings.
Before we got too attached to the money sitting in our account I called the car finance people and got the payout figure. And pay it I did.
We now own both our cars outright and have no loans (other than a whopping mortgage) now!! woohoo no more car payments. We've been so fortunate to have the grant help us to get ahead.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Come on council, hurry up please!!
We've got our rates already, how sneaky is that !!! That just goes to show how quick the council can be when they put their minds to it. I think the rates billers should go and work in the planning section and whip them into shape.
Michael's dad (knowing the biz) called them for us yesterday (thanks Andrew!) and it turns out we can sit on our hands for a little longer, 7 or 8 weeks longer. They've had our plans since the end of June so that's a month already.
I get that they're busy but I just can't imagine how any workplace can find that kind of turnaround acceptable. I know the expectations that are placed on me at work, and what I place on others - and that just doesn't cut it.
Clearly they either need to be whipped into shape or they need backup!!! Stat!!
Ahhh well maybe they'll surprise us.
Please surprise us council, we dare you!!
Michael's dad (knowing the biz) called them for us yesterday (thanks Andrew!) and it turns out we can sit on our hands for a little longer, 7 or 8 weeks longer. They've had our plans since the end of June so that's a month already.
I get that they're busy but I just can't imagine how any workplace can find that kind of turnaround acceptable. I know the expectations that are placed on me at work, and what I place on others - and that just doesn't cut it.
Clearly they either need to be whipped into shape or they need backup!!! Stat!!
Ahhh well maybe they'll surprise us.
Please surprise us council, we dare you!!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Pre-start? Done!
I'm proud to say we survived our pre-start appointment, Michael still has a full head of hair and I still have all my nails so it was definitely better than anticipated.
It was really fun actually! Michael's mum Phyl came with us which was awesome, she's so good with colour selections and has been such an important sounding board for us. We really appreciated her taking the time to be there with us and I think she helped keep me a lot calmer with all the decisions that had to be made.
We made all our selections, went through my page of notes and got quotes on absolutely everything we hoped to have included. Fast forward a few hours and we were told the total - and it was a brilliant surprise, we got everything we wanted for a very, very good price. Sweet!!
So what did we include...
After our appointment we met Michael's dad down at the - sorry make that our - block and cracked the bottle of champagne they bought from Wise winery to celebrate the settlement going through. It was so nice of them and felt so good to be celebrating something we've worked so hard to achieve. The rain actually held off so that was nice too!
After that we had an impromptu dinner down the road at The Gate (to continue the celebrating!!) which was such a nice ending to such a fantastic and exciting day.
I've got the day off today which is excellent, I'm trying to decompress a little before going back to hectic work tomorrow (lets not think about that yet).
It was really fun actually! Michael's mum Phyl came with us which was awesome, she's so good with colour selections and has been such an important sounding board for us. We really appreciated her taking the time to be there with us and I think she helped keep me a lot calmer with all the decisions that had to be made.
We made all our selections, went through my page of notes and got quotes on absolutely everything we hoped to have included. Fast forward a few hours and we were told the total - and it was a brilliant surprise, we got everything we wanted for a very, very good price. Sweet!!
So what did we include...
- We got our house fully rendered!!!! I am (not so) secretly thrilled about this
- Our beautiful door with the nice handle (pictured below)
- All our feature tiles and large tiles in the bathroom and ensuite
- Increased the shower height to the ceiling in the ensuite
- My kitchen splashback tiles which are big, beautiful and super glossy
- Overhead kitchen cupboards which go right to the ceiling, pantry to the ceiling too
- Upgraded the oven and hotplates (hot, literally)
- Added another colour to the underside of the kitchen bench, where the breakfast bar will be
- Added doors to the ensuite, laundry and an extra one to the garage
- Switched the walk in robe with the linen cupboard (which we removed). We've found some gorgeous wardrobes that we want to use
- Got the fancier toilets
- Moved some walls to open up the hallway
- Changed all the door handles to some satin lever handles in place of the round nobs
- Electrical bits and pieces, including Michael's pretty light switches - stainless steel with the black buttons
After our appointment we met Michael's dad down at the - sorry make that our - block and cracked the bottle of champagne they bought from Wise winery to celebrate the settlement going through. It was so nice of them and felt so good to be celebrating something we've worked so hard to achieve. The rain actually held off so that was nice too!
After that we had an impromptu dinner down the road at The Gate (to continue the celebrating!!) which was such a nice ending to such a fantastic and exciting day.
I've got the day off today which is excellent, I'm trying to decompress a little before going back to hectic work tomorrow (lets not think about that yet).
We own our land !!!!!!
I am so deliriously happy right now!!!!
We got the call yesterday, about half an hour into our prestart appointment with Goodlife (more on that soon).
Settlement went through no dramas and I'm so proud to say that it's all becoming really real. Finallllllly.
WOOHOOOOOO!!!!!
I can't wipe the grin off my face just knowing that our beautiful piece of land overlooking our beautiful park is actually ours. YESSS :)
We got the call yesterday, about half an hour into our prestart appointment with Goodlife (more on that soon).
Settlement went through no dramas and I'm so proud to say that it's all becoming really real. Finallllllly.
WOOHOOOOOO!!!!!
I can't wipe the grin off my face just knowing that our beautiful piece of land overlooking our beautiful park is actually ours. YESSS :)
Sunday, July 19, 2009
The first of the selections...
Last Thursday we had our colour selection appointment with an interior designer. It went pretty well, we had already chosen 97% of what we wanted and had a good idea about the rest...
A big thank you to Michael's mum & dad who have helped us prepare and have been a real support, particularly in helping us navigate through the field of decisions and coming up with ideas to really make the space work.
What we've put together should create a really nice flow, the colours and styles are pretty sleek and simple so hopefully they do their job!
Okay so I thought I'd actually put some pictures up showing what we've decided so far...
External
Render
We are hoping to render the entire house, we've upgraded to render almost half the house already but in a perfect world we'd love to do the whole thing, lets just see how the budget goes!
Nearly the whole front of the house is glass so we wanted to keep the render colour really simple, and one colour so that the glass is the feature.
In theory we won't have any bricks on show but just in case we do then they will be a limestone colour to match the front pillars. I'm pretty sure they're Austral Collie.
Roof
We've upgraded our roof to a monier horizon tile, its a flat tile that looks awesome. It's really sleek and we love it. The colour is Barramundi, a medium to dark grey. The gutters and fascia will be a colour that is slightly darker than the roof, and 1/4 strength dune.
Front door
We'd originally upgraded to a door which we affectionately know as PMAD04. The problem with building in an estate is that the house two doors down, and another across the street has the PMAD04.
So we've decided to go with something different. I'm interested to see how much the builder tries to slug is for this door at our pre-start appointment on Tuesday, I know the retail price so it'll be a good indication how much they're marking up the price. I actually had a (freaky? sad? weird? yes!!) dream the other night where the builder was trying to charge me $5000 dollars for this door. I really need to get some decent sleep, I'm starting to go crazy!!
It is a solid wood door that we are going to have stained in a medium to dark brown. The gable on the portico will be stained the same colour to tie it all in. HOT! You can't really tell in the picture but the surrounds is glass, as is the flowy s shape. We're going to get it in translucent glass so you can't see in, our house is exposed enough already.
The sliding door frames (these doors will open out onto the front alfresco deck, on our bedroom and the laundry) and all the window frames will be a dark charcoal colour.
I think that's about it...? Oh the garage door out the back is going to be dune so it melts in, it's just in the back lane way and in no way a feature for us.
Now to the fun stuff :)
Inside
Lets start with my favourite.....
Bathroom and Ensuite
I just LOVE my feature tile. They're the grey-ish with a slight tinge of blue colour that I love oh so much. I really wanted glass as a feature and yayyy we found some that worked. This mind you, is after about 12,568 trips to the tile shop and about the 6th scheme. This one really works because its back to the colour we love and to be honest, I don't feel like I've compromised on anything here. The day we chose them Michael's parents came to the tile shop with us and it was Andrew who picked up the charcoal grey floor tile. Now I've seen this tile a hundred times (slight exaggeration) but as soon as he put it on the ground I knew it was going to work. Thrilled.
The white wall tiles are a larger than normal (200 x 300) tile and they're pretty too.
In the ensuite our glass feature tile will be used as a large 306mm wide strip running down the centre of the shower. In the main bathroom it will be used above the vanity, just to spice things up.
Kitchen
Well the kitchen has given me grief since the beginning. In a perfect world I would have loved my stone (engineered not granite or anything thattt fancy) but when the builder came back to me with such an inflated price that could pay for half a car I quickly decided that I wouldn't be going down that road, at least through the builder anyway.
Our next choice was a product called laminate freestyle. It has a really nice finish and we were really happy with it. The builder, although they use laminates, doesn't have 'a relationship' with the freestyle product. Strike 2.
Okay next we explored a laminate called diamond gloss. It's a heap more resistant than the normal gloss finishes and comes with a 7 year warranty or something. Oh and it looks brilliant. I've seen some kitchens on the homeone forum where people have posted photos of it and I have to say it's nice. But the builder won't do glosses in any shape or form, not negotiable. Even if we signed a waiver. Strikeeee 3 we're out!!
Soooooooo over to boring old laminate we go. I wasn't thrilled with the idea and I think that's why I've had a bit of a hard time trying to visualise my kitchen together.
We're going with a waterfall / slab end on the end of the bench to create a real flow and define the breakfast bar. We chose some large super glossy natural coloured tiles which should look really good I hope. The cupboards are natural white, clean and fresh.
Oh and I forgot to mention, we got a new fridge!!!!!!!!!! It's so fancy and new it's like comparing wall-e and eva (just like I did when I got my fancy washer/dryer combo). It crushes ice and has an easy access door and came at an even better price. Excellent!!
Okay enough dribble, here are some photos...
I have to say the splashback tile looks a LOT better in real life, but you get the idea.
I can't wait to get my ice cubes for my wine from this baby - it's going to be a moment that's for sure!!!
Anyyyway I'm really going to have to get to bed, it's all stormy outside and my boys have all nearly konked.
More soon x
A big thank you to Michael's mum & dad who have helped us prepare and have been a real support, particularly in helping us navigate through the field of decisions and coming up with ideas to really make the space work.
What we've put together should create a really nice flow, the colours and styles are pretty sleek and simple so hopefully they do their job!
Okay so I thought I'd actually put some pictures up showing what we've decided so far...
External
Render
We are hoping to render the entire house, we've upgraded to render almost half the house already but in a perfect world we'd love to do the whole thing, lets just see how the budget goes!
Nearly the whole front of the house is glass so we wanted to keep the render colour really simple, and one colour so that the glass is the feature.
In theory we won't have any bricks on show but just in case we do then they will be a limestone colour to match the front pillars. I'm pretty sure they're Austral Collie.
RoofWe've upgraded our roof to a monier horizon tile, its a flat tile that looks awesome. It's really sleek and we love it. The colour is Barramundi, a medium to dark grey. The gutters and fascia will be a colour that is slightly darker than the roof, and 1/4 strength dune.
Front door
We'd originally upgraded to a door which we affectionately know as PMAD04. The problem with building in an estate is that the house two doors down, and another across the street has the PMAD04.
So we've decided to go with something different. I'm interested to see how much the builder tries to slug is for this door at our pre-start appointment on Tuesday, I know the retail price so it'll be a good indication how much they're marking up the price. I actually had a (freaky? sad? weird? yes!!) dream the other night where the builder was trying to charge me $5000 dollars for this door. I really need to get some decent sleep, I'm starting to go crazy!!
It is a solid wood door that we are going to have stained in a medium to dark brown. The gable on the portico will be stained the same colour to tie it all in. HOT! You can't really tell in the picture but the surrounds is glass, as is the flowy s shape. We're going to get it in translucent glass so you can't see in, our house is exposed enough already.The sliding door frames (these doors will open out onto the front alfresco deck, on our bedroom and the laundry) and all the window frames will be a dark charcoal colour.
I think that's about it...? Oh the garage door out the back is going to be dune so it melts in, it's just in the back lane way and in no way a feature for us.
Now to the fun stuff :)
Inside
Lets start with my favourite.....
Bathroom and Ensuite
I just LOVE my feature tile. They're the grey-ish with a slight tinge of blue colour that I love oh so much. I really wanted glass as a feature and yayyy we found some that worked. This mind you, is after about 12,568 trips to the tile shop and about the 6th scheme. This one really works because its back to the colour we love and to be honest, I don't feel like I've compromised on anything here. The day we chose them Michael's parents came to the tile shop with us and it was Andrew who picked up the charcoal grey floor tile. Now I've seen this tile a hundred times (slight exaggeration) but as soon as he put it on the ground I knew it was going to work. Thrilled.
The white wall tiles are a larger than normal (200 x 300) tile and they're pretty too.
In the ensuite our glass feature tile will be used as a large 306mm wide strip running down the centre of the shower. In the main bathroom it will be used above the vanity, just to spice things up.
Kitchen
Well the kitchen has given me grief since the beginning. In a perfect world I would have loved my stone (engineered not granite or anything thattt fancy) but when the builder came back to me with such an inflated price that could pay for half a car I quickly decided that I wouldn't be going down that road, at least through the builder anyway.
Our next choice was a product called laminate freestyle. It has a really nice finish and we were really happy with it. The builder, although they use laminates, doesn't have 'a relationship' with the freestyle product. Strike 2.
Okay next we explored a laminate called diamond gloss. It's a heap more resistant than the normal gloss finishes and comes with a 7 year warranty or something. Oh and it looks brilliant. I've seen some kitchens on the homeone forum where people have posted photos of it and I have to say it's nice. But the builder won't do glosses in any shape or form, not negotiable. Even if we signed a waiver. Strikeeee 3 we're out!!
Soooooooo over to boring old laminate we go. I wasn't thrilled with the idea and I think that's why I've had a bit of a hard time trying to visualise my kitchen together.
We're going with a waterfall / slab end on the end of the bench to create a real flow and define the breakfast bar. We chose some large super glossy natural coloured tiles which should look really good I hope. The cupboards are natural white, clean and fresh.
Oh and I forgot to mention, we got a new fridge!!!!!!!!!! It's so fancy and new it's like comparing wall-e and eva (just like I did when I got my fancy washer/dryer combo). It crushes ice and has an easy access door and came at an even better price. Excellent!!
Okay enough dribble, here are some photos...
I have to say the splashback tile looks a LOT better in real life, but you get the idea.
I can't wait to get my ice cubes for my wine from this baby - it's going to be a moment that's for sure!!!Anyyyway I'm really going to have to get to bed, it's all stormy outside and my boys have all nearly konked.
More soon x
Riverland: Sitting, waiting wishing... hurry up house!
While we are eagerly waiting for our house to start building river is of course happy to be enjoying the moment.
As promised (a few weeks ago) this is a video of his first real run around his park. We love that our house-to-be will be built directly overlooking this park and something tells me he's going to love living here... yayyy riverland!
Please excuse my shoddy camera work, oh and river christening the trees!
As promised (a few weeks ago) this is a video of his first real run around his park. We love that our house-to-be will be built directly overlooking this park and something tells me he's going to love living here... yayyy riverland!
Please excuse my shoddy camera work, oh and river christening the trees!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Finance is officially approved
WOOOHOOO!!!!!!! We have formal unconditional finance approval. YESSSSSSSSS that's right!
To say we're thrilled is an understatement, I for one couldn't wipe the cheshire cat grin off my face all night last night. It feels like a lot of the pressure I've been putting on myself for the last few months has been relieved. Not gone completely of course, but I'll take the relief!
So to celebrate we took River down to the block (of course), went for a walk and had a play in the park aka riverland. When I get home (and if I remember) I'll put the video I took up.
Next stage is settlement, our lawyer is starting the process asap and should happen within the next two weeks. That's when we'll be cracking open the bubbly on our patch of land! I can't wait to own a piece of Australia. I know it sounds a bit silly but I'm so glad I've waited until I was really, really ready to do this, because I really appreciate it now.
We have our appointment to go through our colours etc with an interior designer on the 16th and then prestart is on the 21st of this month.
So excited, it feels like it's starting to become real.
Michael is working on a 3D model of our house too, its all to scale and the colours are taken from our actual samples so it's really helping us visualise how it's going to be. The glass right across the front is going to look amazing (I hope!!) as we've got the view of the park and we'll be able to see it all from the living area.
All this stress is going to be so worth it. I can't wait !!!!!!
To say we're thrilled is an understatement, I for one couldn't wipe the cheshire cat grin off my face all night last night. It feels like a lot of the pressure I've been putting on myself for the last few months has been relieved. Not gone completely of course, but I'll take the relief!
So to celebrate we took River down to the block (of course), went for a walk and had a play in the park aka riverland. When I get home (and if I remember) I'll put the video I took up.
Next stage is settlement, our lawyer is starting the process asap and should happen within the next two weeks. That's when we'll be cracking open the bubbly on our patch of land! I can't wait to own a piece of Australia. I know it sounds a bit silly but I'm so glad I've waited until I was really, really ready to do this, because I really appreciate it now.
We have our appointment to go through our colours etc with an interior designer on the 16th and then prestart is on the 21st of this month.
So excited, it feels like it's starting to become real.
Michael is working on a 3D model of our house too, its all to scale and the colours are taken from our actual samples so it's really helping us visualise how it's going to be. The glass right across the front is going to look amazing (I hope!!) as we've got the view of the park and we'll be able to see it all from the living area.
All this stress is going to be so worth it. I can't wait !!!!!!
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