Getting things ready for the big move on Friday...

Well it's been a long week since we had handover last Friday. I've been working flat out night and day to get our home ready for official "occupancy" this Friday!

I've been lucky to have had some great tradies help me get to where we are so far, and sometimes we've been "not so lucky" with other trades.

Nava to do:

Nava still needs to finish a couple of things off, but they are very minor, and did not hold up handover. Still to come by Nava is the kitchen splashback (here tomorrow) and a bit of concrete repair to the back alfresco their bobcat damaged when they cleared the site prior to handover. "J" also said he'd try to have his rubbish remover take all the excess rubbish on the block next door, much of which is actually my rubbish, not theirs... so here's hoping he can, otherwise I think it's about $80 min per load to have it taken away.

They also need to have the appliances installed thursday, they waited until we had our floor coverings down. fair nuf!

Wallpaper

We also chose to pay a wallpaperer to do our wall papering because my GF Debra assured me my attempts would be lame - and I'd regret it. So invest in a wallperer I did. I had the entry feature wall done in a cream embossed scroll pattern.

Front Entry scrolly embossed wallpaper

The other rooms as shown in my past posts on this Blog.

Wallpaper feature wall in the master bedroom

All up I was charged me $1,600 (incl GST) to do all the work, and I have to say their work is flawless, but for $1,600 I'd want it to be flawless - so lucky it is!!!

They also put on a basic primer which ensures that if I ever want to remove the wallpaper it will come off quite easily and not damage the walls. Something I probably wouldn't have done had I done it myself!

Painting

As you probably remember, I was not happy with the colour of the paint I chose from Nava, so I wanted just about everything repainted post-handover. For $140 a colour consultant came to my home and went through all my questions and colour choices - I highly recommend this service. Don't waste your money with online consultancies, I found this route (a few months ago) disappointing - and twice the price!!!

So far, I've finished repainting 95% of the house. It appears i have been doing quite a bit of painting lately as my DS's first three words strung together were "mummy painting house" = isn't that cute (well in his voice it is!)

I painted the majority of the home in Hogs Bristle Quarter Strength (most of you new home builders will know this colour well, one of Dulux's most popular colours right now!) and I can see why - it really makes the rooms look great - well worth repainting...

I put a feature wall into our study (Dulux Log Cabin) and this colour also adorns our Home Theatre, completely (walls & celing) = it looks sensational and as a result the Home Theatre is def one of my fav rooms right now.

Home Theatre room - bit messy here, but in real life it's amazing!

I painted my WIR a blue colour to go with the feature wall paper on the opposite wall!
Gorgeous too!

Master WIR blue colour

I decided to paint something more contemporary on the feature wall of the kids playroom, it's Bristle's Lime Sparkle (def a lime colour) and I love it - Actually I love it so much I've painted it on the ceiling of our alfresco too - it also looks amazing against the chocolate colour fans I've had put in.

Play/Rumpus Room feature wall colour
It's so "now"

I painted my DD's room in Light Leather (by Dulux) and her WIR in a pink colour (can't remember the name!) She has embossed wallpaper under her bedhead wall and in most of her WIR, but it is all painted the same colour - looks amazing and a lot of people comment on that room in the affirmative.

Here's J hard at work painting my DD's bedroom!

I painted my DS's room in Hog's Bristle, it has the feature wall paper (which looks stunning BTW) and his WIR is in a bright white blue - just amazing! His room is def my fav right now!

My DS's Feature Wallpaper (Looks much much better in real life)

My DS's WIR blue!

BTW, I reckon I've spent well over $1,000 on paint and as I had a Dulux Colour Consultant come out to my home prior to handover to chose the actual colours I wanted, I get a dollar back for every litre I spend on paint with Dulux (when I send the reciepts in to the company). Dulux also have a special offer on right now whereby if you buy 2 x 4ltr cans or one 10ltr can of their paint, you get a free 4ltr paint can of jelly beans - so you can take a guess at home many of them I've scored, most of which i've given to the tradies who have worked tirelessly with me to finish the home over the last week.

Hired Help

I've had my handyman "Otto" work with me pretty much each day since handover (about 5hrs per day) and he referred me onto a VCE student "James" who wanted some short term work for a bit of cash, to help out finishing the home off. O can do anything, and has all the tools etc, so he has been invaluable to us, not cheap I might add, but certainly not expensive. EG. Our front merbau path, which he has created from scratch, cost me about $2,000 in timber/material, and his fees have turned out to be about $2,000 in labour ($4,000 in total). I had the alfresco guy out the other day and he insisted on giving me a comparable quote to show me he was not expensive for timber work - so I appeased him by saying - ok, give me your price. His price came out to $5,700! So me and O were pretty happy about that!

Cornices (strapping)

Another disappointment for me was to receive a call from my cornice manufacturer today to say that their expected delivery date (TODAY!) was not going to happen, in fact it will be next week. This is so annoying to me, they had ample opportunities to let me know this order was not possible for today, but waited till today to tell me!

All rooms to have the upgraded cornices are the living rooms (incl study) and the master bedroom.

The rooms where it is going to be put have not been painted to the top of the wall, as the strapping will cover that gap eventually. Unfortunately, due to the delayed delivery, this work cannot happen until next Monday, bit of a pain with the kids around!

Essentially, what we are going to do is put a "strapping" along under the existing cornice Nava installed to jazz it up. Nava wanted to charge us an extra $1,500 to upgrade our "living areas' cornices to a three step cornice. This amazed me because it is exactly the same size as the one they offer standard (so same amount of glue etc) and the extra cost for the better cornice worked out to about $200 retail. Def a scam.

But rather than argue the matter I went about looking for an alternative. This is what I have come up with and I think it is much better than the three step cornice, it is a 1/3 of the cost, much bigger (170mm) and unique (a three step cornice is 90mm). So I'm pretty happy now... just bummed it can't get here till Monday! but not the end of the world...

We've picked a strapping like the one in the middle of this pic!
It will look fantastic.

Alfresco

Well the alfresco is def going through some development right now. So far I have the pergola ($4,000 incl permits and plans) finished - I didn't take a pic tonight of it finished - sorry about that, but I have to say it looks sensational - I'm very happy about it. It is a basic flat laserlite roof design which is attached to the house. We will be investing in some cafe PVC blinds to enclose the whole alfesco area thereby making it an all-year round room. Tomorrow the sandstone paving begins for the alfresco, and hopefully it will be completed in within a week. We can walk on it within 24hrs, so that's a relief.

Pergola in progress (it's actually finished today)


PIZZA OVEN
(built by Nava Homes)
Everyone comments on the pizza oven - def a feature of the rear yard!

Landscaping

I have to say this part of the development has been quite stressful for me - I can't believe how some businesses operate, and continue to operate despite their obvious shortcomings.

We ordered our soils etc from Soil Worx in Deer Park. I have to say their prices were good, not great, but good. But their service was attrocious on the day of the deliveries. I can't begin to tell you that if you need soil - DON'T ORDER FROM THEM - they wouldn't know their asses if it bit them! They kept telling me that the loads had already left (around 9am in the morn) and by 5pm I was still waiting for some material - just pathetic. They really peeved me off by the end of the day - but hey, live and learn. GET THINGS (like delivery times) IN WRITING - otherwise, they can pretty much do what they want.

The other disappointment with our garden fiasco was the bobcat I arranged, called Dial a Digger - please do yourself a favour and DON"T Dial A Digger! The guy came out with a small "Stand on Kanga" digger (NOT A BOBCAT) and an excavator that looked like my DS should operate it - just toys, AND it took friggen ages to get anything achieved. Throw into the mix that the kanga broke down before lunch (and he could only use his mini excavator) and you can see how this day went.

Side path - spread out by J

Essentially, when I booked the machine (2 wks ago) I thought it was a bobcat, that's what I asked for and no one told me differently. I also discussed the size of the job, to which the guy who booked it for me stated would take about 5 truck loads to remove the amount of soil I wanted removed. OMG, he barely took 2 loads in total in the end. I told them over the phone they had to assist in digging a drain trench, spread the sand and crushed rock in that area too (Put Put about 30sqm). I also needed some pebbles down the side of the house placed (no excavating there) and the front and rear yard had to be excavated about 50-100ml and garden soil (or other) put back there.

Put Put area
(marked out in pink where the edge of the fake turf will go)
The sides will have longer fake grass and sand banks!

He arrived at 9am and left at 6pm. His kanga was broken down for about 2hrs and there were not dumping fees because he dumped it locally in a "free clean fill" site. Their company charges $85 to come out, $85 to go home. They then charge $85ph (min 3hrs). On the phone I had suggested that with the amount of work I had it would take about 3-5hrs IMO, and the bloke agreed.

ALL their guy got done in the whole day was the put put area and the side of the house. He managed to excavate 50ml in half the rear yard, but my bobcat I had come out the next day (which charged me $140ph because I booked him at short notice on a Sunday!) still had to do work where he had been anyway! The Dial A Digger guy on the day kept apologising for everything and saying that I would be taken care of with a good price under the circumstances, however, they still rang me today asking for the full $1,100 - WTF. You can imagine my response to him, I won't repeat it here, but I assured him he would have to see my in court to get any money after his attitude to the whole thing (I actually offered him $500 but he refused). It's not the money, and it's not the principle, It's business! Put simply, I watch every cent I spend, I expect people who are paid by me to provide the service the offer before they ask for money. AND the guy who did the work (although he was a really nice guy, was VERY VERY SLOW - clearly only been working for about a week!) soooo painful to be paying top dollar for a "learner" so to speak!

I then had a bobcat arranged by my DH on Saturday night to attend at the property on Sunday at 8am who took care of everything in 6 hours - thank god - sooooo hot atm in Melb too! His normal rate is $70ph - so how did I get sucked into the Dial A Digger bunch of children for $85ph (plus travelling costs!!) RIPOFF!

Rear Yard cleared with top soil down

MOVING ON...

Plants are arriving tomorrow, instant turf arrives next day.

My letterbox is up.

The front feature doors (study and home theatre) are finished and look great! Although O's paintwork leaves a little to be desired, I'm just too tired to tell him to do it all again - he claims it is my paintbrush - I pointed out that's no excuse, he should have asked for another... he disagrees, the argument goes on... lol

The Skylight guy is coming Friday morning, can't wait for that.

The Blinds/curtains go up Thursday by O,

The floor coverings come in tomorrow, although I'm told it will take two days - this really shits me because they didn't friggen say that when I booked it - WHAT"S WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!!!! I've got appliances coming in on Thursday, so the floor coverings better be done by then or a few people might get a bit shitty - ie ME!

Most of the feature lighting is in, I just need to get a couple of things tomorrow, and they are finishing off tomorrow.

Thanks to O the fountain the rear yard (put put) is up.

The fake turf for the Put Put is ordered, but I won't be putting that in till next week (not so urgent).

The irrigation and mulch will go in next week when I can come up for air...

We have KEYS!

Well guys I'm verrrry happy to report that we now have the keys to our new home. I met the Nava guys there this morning at 9.30am and went through the usual chat, key explanations etc, signed off and got me keys!

There are a couple of things that need to be followed up next week, but we have the Cert of Occ so essentially, they were prepared to hand it over to us a bit early so we can re-paint (as you know I don't like that colour we first chose, and I wanted it painted BEFORE we move in, not after.) I have everything scheduled down to the last hour, so no room for waiting another week for handover, just for a splashback (which is coming Monday) and one outdoor drain (also Monday).

So I was ever so grateful to "J" the Nava CS who made sure we got the keys today to keep our plans in place without changing (eg removalists, painters).

We have to finish the painting, do all landscaping, put up blinds, put in a couple of skylights and have floor coverings put down before we can move in next Friday.

The appliances are also yet to come from Nava, but that is because I won't have floor coverings until next Weds, and they can't put in appliances until floor coverings are down. But this all fine by us!

I have to say that I'm pretty tired, and next few days will wear us out no doubt, so I may not post for another week, but I will check in from time to time.

here's a pic of me and "V" from Nava who is my customer service girl who was ab fab! Always replied to my emails or calls usually within 30mins, always happy to help me! I really felt good when I dealt with her. (Please excuse my painting clothes - not my BEST look!!!)

here's a pic of me and "V" and "J". You all know I got on very well with "J", he was also ab fab, and as a company, I recommend Nava. Honestly, I've had hardly no problems with them, and anything I wasn't happy with, they fixed, no arguments!

Because Nava gave me permission to put down my front Merbau pathway, that is another thing I now don't have to worry about, post handover. The photo above shows it, which built by my handyman cost me under $4K (all up incl lights), still to be stained...

So if you are thinking of building with Nava, I say go for it. ALSO, my contract build time was 9 months, "I" (sales) advised us about 5 months, and it actually came in under 4.5 months. [/color] I hope you all benefited from my posts and I love hearing your opinions too.

I'll post more pics as the home is finished over the next week! (when I've got time of course!!!)

A & T

Handover this Friday...

Yes we finally have a date, this Friday.

I'm quite busy this week with lots of errands etc, so I won't be posting much this week.

I've already posted about what needs to be done by me post-handover, so I won't write it all again! Although I've added a little bit of work, I'm going to have the kitchen doors on the upper cabinets on the back wall replaced with new laminate, like a feature. I felt the standard ones I chose didn't have enough *punch* to them. I love it when people mix up their laminate cabinet door colours...

There are only a few things outstanding for Nava to chase up, and by all accounts, none would hinder handover. So that's all good news. Essentially, if handover is this Friday, then Nava have completed the home two weeks early. Needless to say, we are pretty pleased about this, and I've had a bit of a smile on my face over the last few days too! *sigh*

Also, Nava were great and gave me permission to send my handyman in to do a few jobs pre-handover like the merbau porch/path at the entry, and hang a couple of feature doors on HT & study. This was great news for me because it meant less headaches for me post-handover. So I've been ever so pleased with Nava of late.

It must be sign of professionalism when you call your CS (ours is "J") and when you calls he knows who you are, why you are ringing and explains what's going on. I find this amazing. No "Oh, I'll have to check your file" or "I'll have to call you back on that" - and then they don't call... So I pretty much can't fault Nava staff either atm.

Here's the porch during construction, it's nearly finished, not quite, this is just the porch, not the full path to the road...

I'll post again after handover!

Nearing completion...

Ok, here's the quick status checklist:

Heating and cooling - Check
Tiling - Check
Concreting - Check
Electrical fit off - Check
Plumbing fit off - Check
AND
Laundry cabinets - Nearly
Shower Screens - Nope
AND
Pizza Oven put in the wrong place - Check
Tiles missing in the Family Bathroom - Check
Kitchen Sink in the WIP put in back to front - Check
A crappy paint colour that I will have to completely repaint post-handover - Check
Water Meter stolen so require a Police Report before Water Co will replace it - Check
Garage door crappy colour (against red crappy bricks) which will require re-paint post-handover - Check
Splashback ordered only a week ago with a four week wait time for delivery - Check
Ceiling insulation still to do - Check
AND
STILL don't have a handover date - Check (which is really annoying - as fellow builders will agree - tradies to organise post handover (eg, TV Antenna, Foxtel etc) want a date!!!)

Our side fence (which currently "exposes" us) will be up within a week!


LANDSCAPING/GARDEN

I have been busy organising the landscaping requirements. We are hiring Grevillea Nursery & Landscaping in Werribee to handle this task for us. M has come out onsite with me to go through everything we require and she has already got back to us with a virtual "mock up" of how our garden will look completed. Once we approve she will organise the landscaping and planting of everything too. Amazing service! $250 per yard (so for both front and rear we paid $500) and then if we buy the plants off her company, they deliver them for free and place them where they are to be planted. It is up to us if we want to plant them or they will plant for us for a small fee - I'll be going with that option - FOR SURE!

Our landscaping will include:

FRONT
- Merbau path from front door to road
- Front feature fountain surrounded by pavers set in moss
- Various shrubs/trees/flowers set around the borders
- Crazy paving spray on paint to drive and path up to the merbau path
- No real grass (ie. low maintenance)
- Merbau letterbox
- Sensor security lighting
- Large pots

REAR
- Put Put Green
- Child soft ground play area
- Large real grass area
- Surrounding shrubs/trees/flowers
- A designated raised veggie patch
- A feature fountain outside the dining room doors
- An enclosed pergola/alfresco area
We have decided to spend a bit of money on our outside room "Alfresco".

It will have:
- Built in dining merbau seating with table
- Sandstone paving throughout
- PVC cafe blinds right around
- A Built-in Pizza Oven
- A full kitchen bar (bar fridge, BBQ grill, sink/taps)
- Bright coloured Lounge Suite
AND OF COURSE - Kids stuff (slides, tractors etc)

Me and the liddle fella went around a few nurseries
today to get some ideas...
we found these feature walls which I think I will hang one of each outside the two kiddies bedrooms which face straight onto a boring paling fence! (with a few preddy plants of course)

Problems:

We've had a couple, most are fixed pretty quick by our CS. The latest concern to me is the placement of the pizza oven on the alfresco concrete. I went to the block b4 the brickie got there to map out exactly where to put the oven. I "pegged" it out with bricks. He's come along, and put them in a different place. Very close to where I had it marked, but not close enough. Where he has put it will conflict with our pergola timber posts which will render the pizza oven unusable. Therefore, it will HAVE to come down. Can you imagine how frustrating this is for me to find considering I went down there and carefully measured and mapped it out b4 he turned up - WTF!

Our Pizza Oven too far left

Another problem we have come across is our kitchen "pull out pantry" in our WIP. This is supposed to be 30cm wide. However, it is 28cm and the shelves apparently only come in 15cm or 30cm - so we got 15cm. Our CS rang me offering to pull it out and re-do it, but that would make it eat into our fridge area in the WIP which is already tight, so I said "no" don't worry.

Our *Skinny* Pull Out Pantry in the WIP

The WIP sink has the tap on the wrong side -
why would a plumber put it there???

Our WIP sink

So I'm hoping this week will finish all these little things off, without too much problem. I think the CS is having the council inspection this Friday, so Cert Of Occ by next Monday, and then we can arrange the financier's valuer to attend by early next week and final payment made. Therefore, HANDOVER!!!

Of course the first week there I'll be painting - inside & out - night and day - but it will be worth it, not a labour of love, but well worth it...

Our Liddle Boy's Bedroom!

For my 2yo boy, I decided on something not so "bold" as many current little boy rooms (red, navy, white) and not too wishy washy (white on white) as many boy rooms are at the mom.

So I decided on a feature wallpaper for his bedhead wall, the other three walls will be neutral:

(see my wallpaper post for details: $105.00 per roll)

Then I decided on painting his WIR in a beaut blue colour, yet to be picked and I need to chose a light fitting for his bedroom. The batton light fitting above is for his WIR.
(onlinelighting.com.au # $30.00)

His room, as all other carpeted rooms, will be vanilla in colour, and he will have a chocolate rug under his bed:
(DealsDirect.com.au # $150.00)

***************************************************

There will be a beaut simple timber single bed
which I nabbed on Ebay for $102.50:

The sheet sets I have bought him on Ebay for under $50 each should work well with the colours in the wallpaper:

Dinasours

AND

Pirates

I have also bought him a cute swivel occasional chair on Ebay for about $250.00 (it's fantastic)

I have bought him a slim tall boy set of drawers to go in his WIR, it came with a mirror and side table which I'm sure I can use in his bedroom. In total, it was $150.00.




The A4 pictures below I have bought for his room so far from ETSY should also work well with his colour scheme.
I'll need to spend about $100 on frames for them as they were sent from the US!

The first set of two are by an artist called Kylie Parry, and they are original works of art! Just gorgeous, I'm seriously considering buying another couple as they sell for just $20 US each!

FLUTTER

and

SPOTS

The second set is a set of three, which I have posted two of below, by an artist called Rebecca, of Barking Bird Art. These items were bought for about $20 US each too...

Bird Riding Bicycle

AND

Bird Playing Trumpet

And the final set of artworks is by Jennifer of Little Monkey Doodles, whose work I love too. Again, I only paid $12 US for both prints:

Firetruck Puppy Tales

AND

There will be an "all important" change table which I purchased from an
online store on EBAY for $99.00:

I have bought these blue suede curtains for his room, and there will be a fitted suede cream roman blind under the curtains. I think I paid about $30 for the blue curtains and I bought the suede roman blind from Spotlight for $70.00 on sale.

He will have some fun decals in his room, I've bought these ones of Ebay for about $20
(although I'm a bit worried about the pink ones - maybe he won't notice for a few years!) It may end up in his WIR as I don't want it to compete with the artwork - we'll see what works when we get there!

Two side table drawer sets, from Provincial Home Living
(OUTLET) for about $80 each:
The reason they were discounted was due to damage - these were missing handles and had a scratch)

The feature of his room is the amazing library I bought from Provincial Home Living (OUTLET) for just shy of $1K (I think $995): It comes with a ladder (not shown in pic)

SEEN below with the ladder:
(sorry about the poor quality pic taken in store)



I can't think of anything else right now, but you get the idea.

As always, it's a work in progress...

Concrete and Tiling done!

CONCRETE

We went to the block today and organised for the concreter to do some extra concreting for us on the side.

I wanted a concrete path around the house and i wanted our alfresco space doubled. For this area he charged me $3,500 (cashola) stating that was about $50sqm. It didn't seem like that much space to me, but it probably was (bearing in mind the builder pays for the front driveway)... oh well, it's all paid now anyways...

I only took one photo of the driveway (oops) below.
Next we have to get a few quotes for stencil pattern...
(add that to my "to do list")


This is the alfresco area (concreted to the fence line)...

This is the path along the back of the house
and up the side for the clothes line.

TILING
The tiling is also now complete.

Below is looking into the family bath...
AND

This is the ensuite...

AND the ensuite shower...

BUILDER Still to do before handover:
- Install outdoor pizza oven
- Ceiling insulation
- Plumbing fit off
- Electrical fit off
- Council inspection (for Cert of Occ)
- Final inspection


PS: I have now decided to paint most areas that are the current beige *pink* colour. I will paint it an appropriate beige, not *pink*!!! (add that to my "to do list" too!!!)

Baby Girl Bedroom

For my DD, I have chosen a taupe and pink colour scheme.

I don't know the source of these pics below, I found them about a year ago on a website where people posted pics of their own nursery. I fell for this room immediately, like no other nursery...

These are the pictures that inspired my desired look for my 1 yo DD's bedroom:

SO FAR, this is what I have got together for her room

I wanted to do something subtle for wall treatment. I have chosen this wallpaper below, which will then be painted the same colour as the rest of the room. But it will only be on one of the four walls, it will be the wall her bedhead sits on. There will be white shelves on the wall too with soft lighting.

The paper will be throughout her whole Walk In Robe too (painted) with custom shelving showing the paper/colour through the shelving.

Her wall colours will be taupe (see above pics).

I know people say "don't paint over wallpaper!!!", but who cares... I like it. If I change my mind, I'll have someone take it down (not me of course!)

I have bought this chandelier I bought for her room:

AND I have bought this pendant for her Walk-In-Robe:

I have purchased two of these white french provincial side tables for her future bedroom set (on sale at Home Provincial Living's outlet in Maribyrnong for $70 each! (with a scratch or two of course!)



She doesn't have a bed yet, so for now, she will be in a Boori White Traditional cot, which converts to a toddler bed. Only when she grows out of that will I start to hunt down a gorgeous French Provincial style single bed...


She will have a similar display cabinet in her room similar to the one below, but her's is white with two drawers at the bottom.
This was the closest I could find on the net to hers.

I bought this for about $900 from Elequence, a gorgeous French Provincial furniture and accessory store at Highpoint (aka knifepoint) in Maribyrnong (they don't have a website)... There is a two month waiting period for this kinda furniture, lucky I ordered months ago!


Here are some pics I have bought for her room direct from the artist's at Etsy (a fabulous global artist's website where they sell their own product direct to the customer) These four pics are divine, I purchased them from the Little Monkey Doodles (Etsy).


AND these two below are quite small original canvas artwork by Anais (Etsy), very cute, will sit on her bookshelf above her bedhead!

AND


I was also fortunate enough to pick up a Gail McCormack original piece online from her online shop. Gail lives in Mornington, Melbourne where she works from home continually churning out the most gorgeous shabby chic artwork... amazing items! (her DH makes furniture too - I wish they were my Aunty & Uncle!!!)

She also exhibits her work at the Mornington Antique Centre and local markets from time to time. Check out her website to either buy online some of her work (original and prints) or to find how you can visit her in person...

Did I mention she has a blog!

Here's my gift to my DD,
~ The Shabby Chic Dressing Table ~


General Accessorising...

Obviously, keeping thinks as white as possible, the main colours being the soft pink and the taupe brown colour.

For example, Her lamp is a pink handbag from Beacon Lighting and her blinds are white sheers with poker dots on it with soft pink curtains draping over that.

I am going to have her most pretty dresses framed (once she has grown out of them) and maybe some cute shoes too...


Personally, I'm a fan of trying things out before deciding if they will work or not. I'm aware that some of the artwork is modern and others are traditional. But I don't see the need to have a "perfect" room, just beautiful.

So I'll let you know if some of the ideas I have put in this post just don't work out in the end... I hope they do, because I love them all!


ANYWAYS, this post is always a work in progress, until the room is finished, so I'll be adding to this blog over the next month.

Pink walls anyone???

YOU DECIDE!

I think our internal wall paint colour has a "plum" tinge to it.

See this pic below from my other blog, A View On Design from a luxury house currently for sale. This room reminds me of the kinda pink tinge I'm talking about on our walls.

They have put it with white, and that goes great, I get that...
BUT we want to show it with beige and browns, that can't work surely???

Here's a mock up of my unfinished curtains we took to the house today to put against the walls to see if it worked ok...
I'm not sure, I may get away with it.

(please excuse the strange curtain hanger
I have used in this photo - AKA DH)

My curtain has two fabrics to it, cream textured fabric on top and bottom, with a light cream satin insert through the middle... Here it is placed next to my wall close up.

Very close up

I guess I won't know until we've moved in, the flooring is down and the curtains are up - only then can I walk into the room, finished, decorated and say "yes this is great" or "OMG, this looks shyte!" And if that happens, I'll simply paint that room and the entry area.
(I'm already planning to paint my daughter's room, the rumpus/play room and the Home Theatre & Study)

ALSO I am thinking of changing my accent colour from orange to pink, therefore, the pink tinge on the wall may look planned - or completely wacko - don't know yet!!!

I'm considering this IKEA rug currently for sale for $249.00 as the floor rug in the living seating area as a colour springboard... just thoughts going through my mind at the mom (bloody expensive for a pretty flat rug - wool will do that I guess!) I just checked and it's outa stock in Melb anyways...


Here's a sample of our vinyl timber look flooring, against the offending wall, it didn't look too bad actually... I would personally like it darker.

FINALLY, we have our rear garage door in, it's burgandy, which my DH is really liking at the mom (and he wants the front door painted this colour). I don't think it's a great colour against our red bricks, but what the heck, just another colour stress to put on my list and pretend doesn't exist...

AND did I mention in my last post that all the things in my list to be done/organised, have been done/organised by me, not DH, he's not a fan of that thing called "organisation" - you ladies know what I'm talking about... CYA

Painting done! Here comes the tiles...

The never-ending stress of colour selections...

Colour Selections at Nava Homes

Well, I've been a bit stressed over the colour choices for my home I've chosen. I have to say, in my defence, although I have mostly good things to say about Nava, I'm afraid their colour selection (specifically paint) choices, are terrible. It is quite frustrating to know that your local paint shop will mix any colour you want, no charge extra. However, when we made our colour choices for our new home with Nava, we had only a few choices of colour. I was told that to choose another colour (not on their list) would incur "upgrade fees" and TBH, I didn't even ask how much. I thought to myself, go neutral and you will be safe!!!

*Famous Last Words*

Anyways.... lol

Whether it be the brick colour, the wall colour or the cabinet colours, I'm afraid it has caused me an ongoing subliminal amount stress...

The colour of our front doors is Morroccan Stone. It is a terracotta colour (I wanted a burgandy colour, but Nava didn't offer one) and I thought it would be OK, but next to our *ewe* red coloured bricks (another selection disappointment) the front doors don't work well.

Therefore, we (and when I say "we", I mean "I"!!!) will be painting these front doors burgandy post-handover and the whole porch area will be rendered a chocolate brown to soften the redness of the brick facade.

Here's the Moroccon Stone paint colour on our laundry door, but I can't be bothered changing that one!

INTERNAL WALLS

There were only two choices of beige in Nava's internal colour paint chart (Wattyl from a 1990 paint chart!!) and I chose the darker one. It is called Your Shadow. Unbeknown to me, it has a slight "plum" tone to it, very peculiar, I know you can't really see what I'm talking about in these pics.. In these pics, it appears to be a nice dark beige - BUT - it's not, it's a pinky/purply/plumy beige. I wonder if anyone knows what I'm talking about??? I am aware, that as the light level changes in the rooms, it becomes more or less pinky, and obviously the furniture and flooring (once installed) may also affect the overall colour, but until that time, I'm a little stressed over this fact. I'll get over it... here's some pics!

They look quite nice here. This room will have very light cream thick texture curtains with a thick satin piece inserted right through the middle of the curtain (about 40cm worth) midway down the curtain. I chose this to give the room a soft light feel.

KITCHEN TOPS

Yes, they are in, here are some pics!

There will be a glass splashback on my kitchen (incl the Butler's Pantry)

Undermount sinks...

View below to the outdoors, from the kitchen...

Timberlook Garage Door
Also now installed, although the colour is quite drained against the red bricks...
I think when our driveway is in, brown sprayed crazy paving style, it will come up ok actually.

My DH having a laugh...

My DH not laughing anymore...
ohh honi, r u ok?
diddums

Tiles are here!

And finally, our tiles have arrived.

I really like them, gawd wouldn't it be nice if one of my colour selections gave me no stress...
OK, I won't get ahead of myself... fingers crossed!


Just role playing here...


*****************

STILL TO GO!

Next WEEK (1 week)
Tiling

THEN (2 weeks)
Driveway & Path
Plumbing & Electrical fixing off
Ceiling insulation
Council inspection (certificates)
Our final inspection
Final Payment
Handover

THEN, I move in immediately and ensure the following tasks are completed:
(DH stays home with the kids till we move...)

• Flooring installed
• Skylight to Kitchen
• Skylight to Butler's Pantry
  
• Feature wall painting
• Wallpapering
• Front Landscaping
• Front Merbeau steps
• Front fountain installed
• Front brown crazy paving look drive & path
• Front porch rendered
• Front porch painted choc brown
• Black ornate security gates installed
• Doorbell installed
• A feature door to the study installed & stained
• A feature door to the Home Theatre installed & stained
• Home Theatre projection, sound system & screen installed
• Shutters to all front windows installed
• Wardrobe fitouts to all bedrooms installed
• 6x4 pergola extended from existing alfresco area
• Awning installed outside dining room
• Electrician install our feature lighting
• Plumber install our iced water fridge
• All curtains, blinds & windows furnishings installed
• All Bookcases/shelves put together & installed
• All plasma/LCD's hung
• Foxtel installed
• TV antenna guy install free-to-air TV
  
• Feature TV wall installed in living area
• Feature TV wall tiled
• Doggy doors installed where appropriate
• Clothesline hung
• Rear yard landscaped (incl instant lawn)
• Mini golf green installed
• Lay sandstone in alfresco area & pathways
• Put together all new kit furniture
  
• Pack existing home for move
• Unpack items at new home
• Organise removalists to move all our items from storage (1 day)
• Organise reovalists to move all our items from home (next day)
• Put up shelving & place decor
  

***********************

My main contribution to the above list is painting and laying the sandstone.

My DH's is to pack our existing home (which he doesn't know yet!!!) and to put together all new kit furniture (which he volunteered for)!

(I only wrote all this boring stuff because I'm still waiting for the photos to load... gawd they are so slow to load on blogger...)

Painting nearly done, tiling to start

Well I'm glad to see the paint on the walls, more a relief I suppose!

The colour gave me stress (as many of my choices along the way building has) and I can relax a little now, because the colour is quite good IMO. I'm sure lighting and the colour of the floor will all make a difference to the final colour/accent, but I'm feeling a bit more confident now.

Living Room

Rumpus Room

sorry about the pics, i couldn't get into the house, locked today. So I had to take these pics through the windows (with the rudy flash on, i have no idea how to turn it off!)

And here is the colour of our front doors currently, they are supposed to be Moroccon Stone, which is a burgandy, nothing like this. So I'm wondering if this is the undercoat???

Mental Note to Self - call builder on monday and check colour of front doors!

Liddle bit not right...

Chippy mistake...

Well we all make mistakes, it appears that our chippy built our WIR entry off centre. I personally wouldn't worry, in the big scheme of things it doesn't really matter, BUT, it has to be fixed because one side of the WIR is about 40cm, whereas the other side is about 80cm. They should have both been 60cm, and essentially I can't really put any shelving etc in the 40cm side (because it will "jut" out and it will be very noticable when you look into the WIR).

Below standing in the WIR looking out to the bedroom, see the left wall is smaller than the right wall (NB My building inspector is assisting me with this appraisal)

The pic below demonstrates it too...

Nava Homes have been great about the mistake, the CS "J" met me on site this morning at 9.30am and basically told me it really has to be repaired, and I agreed because I couldn't really see how I could put shelving in there without it sticking and looking like a "shoddy" job!

So, the CS then told me he'd have his chippy down there today to rip out the old, and put in the new - therefore making it as per our original plans. This was good to hear, it was also good to hear that it would not hold up the build!

They were putting in the doors/skirting boards whilst I was there today. The CS said that painting should be happening by Friday, and I think tiling next week, but I'm not completely sure, I always get confused.

The CS also gave me the heads up that we were running ahead of schedule and we would be in the home in less than 2mths time, probably 6wks...

Nava Homes

I must say, that so far, I have nothing but compliments for Nava and ALL their staff. No one, absolutely no one, has provided me with poor service so far, been rude, unprofessional, in fact quite the opposite.

EG. When I email Nava's CSO, "V", she is great, she gets back to me within 1/2hr - EVERY TIME, and I can call and chat to her anytime, she always knows who I am and is on top of my query within hours.

The CS "J" is also great, friendly, flexible, professional, and clearly takes pride in his work. He seems to be the type of guy that doesn't want you to have any excuse to say Nava's work is not up to scratch. He gave me his business card right from the beginning and said to call him anytime, for any reason.

The Sales guy, "I" is a friendly guy who knows who you are, can have a laugh with you, doesn't worry about you being happy with Nava's work, because he hasn't had any clients with any complaints (or major dramas!)

Even the owner, "V" is a friendly old chap who wanders around their head office and always says hello when he walks past you. Obviously an "open door" policy applies there with their heirachy if you do have problems.

The owner's nephew "L" who is sort of the manager, is a really nice polite guy. He takes a lot of pride in his work, he is a genuine person, and always wants to hear from you if you are NOT happy. He reacts immediately if you say something is troubling you or needs to be addressed.

I'd say, overall, this is a company that I will be recommending to a lot of people in the future. I really can't think of any other building company in Melbourne that gets this kind of comments/feedback... they just don't exist anymore.

Victims of mud abuse

Kitchen & Bathroom vanities have arrived

Yes it's true we have succumb to a mud attack around our ankles as we innocently went to visit our house when we were there today!

I had attempted to put my DD in the stroller and take her into the house as well, but that didn't work out either!

(that's one of our puddy cats inspecting the mud assault evidence back home).

Yesterday was quite wet in Melbourne, and it seems to have soaked well into our soil! Unfortunately my DS didn't come out well from this experience as I found him sitting in the mud quite confused after I had told him very clearly and carefully "don't move from the garage" - you guessed it, he moved. Only a few steps I might add, but that was enough to mark the end of his visit!

Of course as a diligent mum, I had a spare change of clothes in the car and he was promptly changed, but then he was quite upset he couldn't run around the house and inspect as he usually does!!!

Nevermind, there's always tomorrow, I said to him!

BUT, I had to fight the elements of mud and proceed into the house to take pics of our kitchen which appears to have just been installed!

Facing the kitchen from the living room

These cabinets look white to me, even in person, they look quite white. But they are not, they are called Parchment by Laminex which is a very soft lemon (sort of...) see below.

CAN YOU SEE the colour sample ABOVE???

Here's some closer up pics...


Here is a sample of an island bench just like mine, with the stone bench top, with my Franke undermount sinks I have had installed.

There is a slight colour noticeable in this photo... but otherwise, you'll struggle in this light I think.

The bench top I have chosen is an ESSA STONE colour, Sable Luxe. The builders have put a temporary timber top for now, and that will be replaced with the stone tops b4 handover.

This is a pic of my bench tops from the web.

Our benchtop will have an "overhang" (like a breakfast bar) to allow for 4 stools to slide under the countertop of the island, which will look almost the same as this display home kitchen below.

In the Butler's Pantry (WIP) I was not permitted to have the ESSA STONE bench tops (unless I paid quite a hefty upgrade fee) so I chose from the Laminex range another laminate Fudge Stream which I think looks good with my stone top choice of Sable Luxe.

Here's a couple of photos, there's not much light in there at the moment...

I think the cabinets more "off white" too in the pantry, don't know why!

Below is a pic of a kitchen very similar to mine in formation (and similar colours),

Differences are my splashback is clear glass, I have darker bench tops and I have two ovens (one to the far right (under microwave) and one under my stove top in the middle of the back wall.

Similarities are the size and placement (and SS) of fridge, I have microwave over my oven to the far right, I also have stove top in the middle (but with a canopy overhead) and in general it will appear like this kitchen.

This is a kitchen of a recent family building in Melbourne who used exactly my colours. Don't the cabinets seem more "off white" in these pics???

AND

AND

AND

THEN there are the bathroom and ensuite vanities.

ensuite

family bathroom

Both bathrooms will have the Sable Luxe stone bench tops (with a large white basin - double in the ensuite) and a Laminate cabinet colour is called Ebony Macassar by Laminex.

SABLE LUXE stone top

EBONY MACASSAR cabinet laminate

The Bathroom vanities will be like these from our builder's display home...

See the white bowls sitting on top of the bench top...

Finally, I didn't see any laundry vanities, but I can't remember if I looked in the laundry!

They've started to lay the skirting boards, cut the electrical points through the plaster boards and cleaned the outside bricks.

That's about it for now...

I think next will be finish laundry, tile and paint.

We've been plastered!

Finally, we can walk around our new home and see how our rooms "feel", compared to how we visualised them to be.

Living/Dining

As we did not go with a display home, we drafted our home from scratch incorporating a few ideas we had seen around in other display homes. But there is no home out there exactly like ours, and for most of it, not even close.

Living/Dining

Until the plaster went up, it was really hard to see what we would have in the end.

But now, we have plaster & Cornices!

The Boss "riding" the left over cornices...

Facing the Dining area

Facing the Dining area with the IT Nook and

Butler's Pantry to the left of the pic

The Boss in the Butler's Pantry

(standing where the 2nd fridge will be)

next to the gap in the wall for the pull out pantry

The Boss leaving the IT NOOK area

Living/Dining (from the kitchen)

The Boss' Boss surveying all

Facing the KITCHEN from the Dining area

Facing Rumpus Entry (from Living/Dining)

Rumpus Room (kids)

and

Family BATHROOM

and

Master Bedroom from the WIR

and

HOME THEATRE

and

STUDY

AND FINALLY... outside

I'm being told by the builders that the kitchen is next, hopefully in the next few days... that'd be nice!

My New Blog

Hi guys,

Come and check out my NEW Blog Project,

A View on Design!

It's a bit of a dreamer's blog...

http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/

I'm still doing my building blog, but when the home is finished, I won't be able to continue much on that blog, so I decided to get my new blog project started, and I hope my new blog will be around for a very long long time... like me!

This is the picture from my first post....

Lock Up at Last!

BRICKS, INSULATION & ELECTRICAL

aka pre-plaster

We have our "pre-plaster" inspection with our independent building inspector, Kevin, on this Tuesday with Nava's site supervisor, and us of course! We are only intending to have an independent building inspector for the pre-plaster stage (aka Lock Up) so we are looking forward to it.

DA Front of House

DA Front Entry

I took these pics a couple of days ago when we had quite a few tradies on site continuing to get the place ready for the inspection on Tuesday.

DA INSULATION

DA PLASTER

I have decided to concrete all the way down the side of the house from behind the garage to the end of the alfresco. I'm not sure exactly what it will cost, I'm thinking about $50sqm.

Then we've decided to buy some sandstone to pave over the whole alfresco and the adjacent concrete are.

I bought this sandstone on Friday, and they agreed to keep it on their site until we could take delivery in November. Lucky for that because it was about 3 crates of the stuff, and I have no idea where I could put that until November! btw, it looks fabulous once laid! And I intend to lay it myself directly onto the concrete simply with glue (as they are calibrated) meaning they can be laid on glue!

I'll post again after lock up inspection!

Final Lighting purchases

HO HUM.

I'm glad I took a while to decide on the final electrical fittings, these kind of things can go around your head for a while before they fall into place.

I've deleted two of my prior choices from Beacon Lighting (see my previous post), and I've now added the following fittings to finalise my purchase requirements.

I have purchased these online from Online Lighting, which had an absolutely huge range of choices available. The total cost to me was just over $1,000 including delivery.

My original purchases from Beacon Lighting was nearly $2,000 (deducting my returns of $153) leaves a total lighting purchase for the new home of $2,800 approx - that's about $1,400 over my budget, not too happy about that! oh well... (I can't believe I spent that much on lighting, bearing in mind these are things you can't take with you when you move on!!!)

ENTRY / FOYER

KITCHEN: Pantry

MASTER BEDROOM BEDSIDE

(instead of traditional lamps)

colour: Brown

MASTER BEDROOM: WIR

colour: Silver

Baby Girl's WIR

Young Boy's Room

colour: Coffee

Young Boy's WIR

colour: Coffee

SPARE BEDROOM (future nursery??!!)

colour: Red

Family WC

(this is the only one I'm not 100% sure will work, but I figure, if it doesn't I'll sell and buy something different! I just love it, but I'm not sure it will work with my decor and themes everywhere else in the house)

ALFRESCO

between the two large fans

If anyone has an opinion on the toilet light fitting,

I'd love to hear it, good or bad!

BYE FOR NOW

Exterior Colour Ideas

DILEMMAS DILEMMAS

OR

I have been quite stressed about the colours of our bricks, and I have been lucky enough to find an online software program at www.studiom.com.au/ennvisage) created by an Aussie builder (one of the bigger ones) Metricon Homes. It has a virtual colour program for basic colour scheme ideas (internal and external). It's free and pretty easy to use (unlike a lot of virtual programs like this one).

I have chosen Austral Bricks "Red Gum" (which are basically red, even though they are supposed to have greyish/black parts through the bricks) with a cedar look timber garage door, and a dark terracotta colour front door colour (Wattyl: Morrocon Stone). All our window frames are black, and the roof and gutters etc are all black too.

My dillema (or shall we say concern!) is that the red is "too" red and "too" stark for the black. My DH quite likes the way it is looking, I don't want anything this stark, I want it toned done a bit. I want to take some of the redness out of the brickwork.

AND If you were wondering...

Q: WHY did I select this colour brick if I have so many issues with it?

A: Because I was only offered about 3 colours in the standard builder's range of bricks: CREAM, which our neighbours have; TAN, a plain tan coloured light brown brick with no other colours going through it, which DH didn't like, I didn't mind it, but wasn't keen either (BUT I actually didn't like because it's almost exactly the brick we have where we live now and this place was built in the 60's!1!); AND the RED! So that's why we chose red.

Q: WHY did I select black to go with it if we didn't want the red to look so bright?

A: I can't stand red brick with grey or cream contrasts, I find it pasty, and I think it looks old fashioned (especially with our boring house front exterior).

Q: DO you wish you selected an upgrade on the bricks with the builder for approximately $2,500 more?

A: YES, everyday since I made the decision not to upgrade (due to cost)!

SO, with my colour choices so far, which I cannot change, I am thinking of applying a concrete render to the front porch area, and then painting it a colour to tone down the red. (Render, for those who don't know, is a thick slapping of a concrete mix over the brickwork, to the point you can no longer see brickwork. Then it is painted any colour.)

I'm considering a dark chocolate colour or a dark grey colour. Here's two pics of that idea with a very similar front facade to my home design (not exactly, but close).

THIS ONE is the one I prefer.

It has a dark chocolate colour feature render. I'd def like to put some wide merbau steps down to the street, and I would def like to have some high gloss tall ceramic pots in the same colour as the front door, probably one as a water feature.

THIS ONE is with a grey feature stone wall around the porch area.

My DH doesn't like the stone look because he feels it "clashes" with the bricks.... and I don't really like the grey as much as the chocolate colour.

Our builder also offered a more "trendy" exterior facade, but we passed on that too because it was about another $5,000 to $7,000 on top of the price. When building, you have a budget, and that pretty much determines what you will get in the end. We didn't have a budget for a "trendy" facade - bumma.

Would def love to hear from anyone with an opinion, or another (hopefully better) idea or colour!

(and that includes young Maria!!)

Still bricking along...

As you can see below,

our brick layer is still hard at it...

Not too much to report, I'd hoped the bricks would be finished by now, but it seems they take a few weeks! Below is the house from the front,

showing the parts that still require bricking...

I was down at the block the other day and my new neighbour saw me wandering around with my camera, and he promptly advised me that they hadn't finished yet (funny man??) and then told me how the brickie turns up every day at 6am, on his own, and lays bricks to 3pm. No one else helps him and he works come rain or shine. He also observed that the brickie's workmanship was Very Good IHO!

But there has been some other things moving along, including some doors,

like our front entry doors below...

and the bath hobs...

Here's the house from the back, looking through the alfresco... along the side of the alfresco (to the left of the pic) will have a mains gas fitting and hot/cold water taps fitted ready for a future BBQ/outdoor kitchen.

And this is what happens to people who buy gumboots especially to wear to the construction site of their new home, but don't bother to put them on...

Not just wallpaper!

One of the fun parts of setting up a new home, is decorating it!

The wall coverings are just as important as all other areas, and there are so many ideas out there at the mom! It's no secret that a recent "come back" in decorating is wallpaper, and I have always loved wallpaper, it's just that it is currently "trendy" to do so.

Anyways, here are my current selections of wallpaper for my future home! AND thanks to Maria at Colour Me Happy (blog) who wrote on her wonderful informative blog that you can "capture" images on the net, that don't normally allow a download of. I've not grasped that ability myself!!!

(and check out the prices I paid!! Bargains - I bought direct from UK at Select Wallpaper. They sent me samples of the papers for $6 (Aus) and they take that off the roll if I end up buying it too! - Locally I would have paid 3-4 times more than these prices (and that's including the cost to send them over to Aus)

HALLWAY

Fine blue pinstripe on feature wall.

NAME: Galerie Primavera

AUD51 per roll

MASTER BEDROOM

Blue leaves falling.

NAME: Cole & Son = Octave Leaves

AUD84 per roll

In full, in another colourway...

SON's BEDROOM

Blue multistripe on bedhead wall.

NAME: Coleman's Grand Estates

AUD105 per roll

DAUGHTER's BEDROOM

White Embossed paper, to be painted over by me with same wall colour as the rest of the room (a "muddy" colour! Yet to be decided!)

NAME: Dryden / Classical / Anaglypta Original

AUD18 per roll

and finally

THE STUDY BACK WALL (with cupboards under the pic and over the pic)

AUD95 for the WHOLE MURAL

(bargain! - IKEA sell something like this, but smaller for $250)

Here's a pic of it up...

AND if you want to have a squzzie at a few more wallpaper ideas, check The Stylish House's latest post on wallpapers.

Bitter Sweet Bricks!

We are glad, of course, to see our bricks.

But it is bitter sweet because the colour of the bricks are called "Red Gum" by Austral Bricks, and they are not the colour we anticipated.

You decide for yourself below...

As you can see above, the bricks being laid at our home are quite red, in fact, there appears to be no other colour in the brick.

However, the sample of the bricks at Austral Bricks (Red Gum) on display at their sales centre are somewhat different, in that they have a black streak through some.

It just mixes the style of the brick up a bit, and to say I'm dissapointed, is an understatement.

I guess there is nothing I can really do about it now.

The photos below are of a person who recently built their home nearby and they kindly provided me with these photos

of his home to show me the completed look of the Red Gum bricks.

As you can see, there is colour through his bricks, (a greyish/black)

and his bricks look really quite nice,

well a lot better than mine -

THAT'S FOR EFFIN SURE!

Oh well, you win some, you lose some I guess...

AND

I wonder whether I will even both mentioning it to my builder...

I'm sure there is a standard

"Bricks have unpredictable variance" standard reply...

THE BELOW IS AN UPDATE ON THE BRICK ISSUE

5 August 2009

well I spoke with builder today, and I actually went out to the block for a close up look, no one was there, so we just wondered around. It def is Red Gum, because the pallets say so! There are some with black through it, but very few. One wall along the garage has 50% with no black hardly at all (maybe one or two bricks) and the other half of the wall has a bit more black. V from Nava was her usual courteous self and said if we weren't happy they would meet onsite with a rep from Nava and Austral to discuss the overall inconsistencies, so we were happy with that for now. I might add that DH was really happy with the way everything is going, so he sort of got distracted from the issue at hand and said he was content with it as is. So I guess I relaxed a little then too, and I'm still going back to my original thought for our front of house to have a bit of stacked stone somewhere to distract from the crappy bricks and draw attention to a nice looking exterior (well, that's the way I fantasize about my exterior anyway!) So brick issue, issue no more, and hopefully this will be forgotten soon!

The Plan

The Final Plan, in all it's Glory, 32sq

Custom designed by us.

Looks like a roof, smells like a roof

...it must be a roof
not quite complete, maybe by the weekend!

AND ON A SIDE NOTE...
my little 9mth old girl decided it was time to get herself up into the sitting position, and have a look around for the first time...

Here she is enjoying the moment!

BUT OF COURSE,
these things never end well...

Ohhh, she was not a happy pappy all day!

Gutters etc

Well me and the kiddies went for a little drive today and took a couple of pics of what we found. It appears the gutters are on and they are preparing to tile the roof!

I'm no rocket scientist,

but I'd say those there on the pallet are our roof tiles!

And here is Mr Owner trying out our bedroom windows (which is high to allow for a bed under it), which as you can see, has a wonderful view of our neighbours' garage... hmmm, me thinks a good window covering needs to be thought through for this window!

AND of course, who could forget our little building inspector,
Mr Wags himself, just checking the stability of the external frame wall...

And I had to put in a pic of our little cav, who was NOT so happy with us today because we had the hairdresser come around (aka the dog washer) who gave him a 1.5 hr deluxe wash'n shampoo, coat trim and pedicure (or is it manicure??), which I take he wasn't too happy about by the way he tried to avoid going near her when she arrived (in vain of course).

Them's the breaks you smelly pup!

Sofas

We've now purchased a 2 & 3 seater sofa set called "Melbourne" from Plush Sofas for $2,600 on sale.

3 Seater

2 Seater

Mr Owner's only request was that it was comfortable to sleep on which I thought that was a good idea too! (of course I made him actually come in and lie down on it to make sure it was suitable for his fat a***!!!)

I was very nervous about this purchase because I actually wanted a sofa that was a little less modern, perhaps more provincial (like the Early Settler range of sofas) but I'm hoping cushions and colour I chose will soften the look a bit!

And it had the all-important straight back enabling a large sofa table to sit behind it, as we have open plan living/dining.

The photos I took in store above of the sofa on display are in the Taupe colour (left swatch), we have bought ours in the Kangaroo colour, which is the middle swatch below, slightly browner. For the sale price, we could only chose this fabric. Very thick, will absorb most spills/stains too.

We will be having matching ottomans made by a factory direct outlet in Laverton called TLC Upholstery, who offer a huge range of ottoman sizes and fabrics, for bargain prices. I was considering this swirly chocolate colour for the ottomans, I'm not sure yet!

They take about 3 months to be made, so they should be arriving around the time we move in, well, that's the plan anyway...

Windows

AND DON'T THEY LOOK JUST DANDY!

AND I can't believe that amongst all the hundreds and thousands of (allegedly) intelligent people I know, no one has had the common decency to advise me that if you walk on fresh soil, after it's been raining, that things get muggy underfoot very fast! My nice new black, light, dainty, comfortable shoes, soon became big brownish, heavy, clogs quite fast today... ewe

See that brown stuff in front of the house, that's not soil,
that's mud disguised as soil!

However, it was worth the dirty soles in order to get a closer look as the house slowly takes shape. It's so hard to conceptualise a custom designed home because there is no "display" home out there where you can walk through before you buy. It's a combination of homes you have seen over time, and sometimes, like ours, the room proportions are not really exhibited in any display home, so you just close your eyes and hope it will look OK!

Mr Owner won't be happy about the fact that you can see the rear bifold doors leading out to our alfresco right from the front door! He gets a bit paranoid about those sorts of things, but I think I will be able to fix one of the front double doors so that when the front door opens, it directs the visitor's eys to the right of the entry, which is a wall! AND I've decided to put a mirror on that wall, so basically they will be looking straight back at themselves... ewe

This pic below shows the view from the living area out to the alfresco.

The Rumpus Room has been the one surprise for me in this house, it is much larger than I anticipated! The pic below shows the view from the Rumpus Room looking out to the alfresco.

Although most of the windows in our house are pretty average, we had to go with a higher window in the master bed because it was the only external wall, and the bed worked best in the space along the same wall.

I assume the next photos will have bricks...
not sure really!

Wall Frame complete

Although it was a sunny day today, it was also a cold windy day in Tarneit, but we still couldn't resist a quick walk around the framed house.

Mr Owner escorts our little building inspector to the front door!

Mr Owner and our little building inspector enter the front double doors!

When you enter our front doors, you can go left to the Study...

Looking into the Study from the entry area, this is a small study, 3m x 2m. Just enough for a desk, chair, and one wall of bookshelves.

When you enter our front doors, you can turn a sharp right to enter the Home Theatre. Our Home Theatre will obviously be set up with a great theatre system with recliners, but it will also have a little stage under the big screen with curtains drawn for the kids to play make believe shows and plays...

Looking into the Home Theatre from the entry area, this is an averaged sized Home Theatre 5m x 4m.

When you enter our front doors, you can turn also turn right to enter the Master Bedroom (no pics).

If you walk through the entry area which also has a large linen closet and the internal access door to the garage, you will then walk into our main living area which houses our kitchen, dining and living room (open plan).

Looking into the main Living area from the entry area, Kitchen to the right, dining sharp left and living at the far end of the room leading out to the alfresco.

Looking out to the alfresco from the Living area which will have bifold doors.

Looking back into the Living area from the alfresco through the bifold doors.

Facing the Kitchen from the entry hall showing the doorway leading out through to the kids Rumpus "play" Room.

Looking into the Butler's Pantry from the kitchen, which will supply a second sink, fridge and pantry.

The Kids Rumpus "Play" Room is a large room off the main Living area, next to the Kitchen. It leads to all the kids bedrooms, the laundry and family bathroom. It also has it's own direct access to the Alfresco area.

Facing the Rumpus Room from one of the bedrooms.

BED two
(little baby girl)
Facing Bed Two from the Rumpus Room



BED three
(little boy)
aka: Little Building Inspector
From in the room



BED four
(spare - future nursery??)
Facing Bed Four from the Rumpus Room

Nava have advised us that the trusses will be up by Tuesday and pipe/gutters will be done by Friday!

++++++++++

There's a frame on the homefront

Well I did get an email from Nava's head office earlier this week to say the frame would be up by the weekend, and indeed, it appears to have made it! So we are quite happy about this, as you can imagine!


We will go by there tomorrow, hopefully with no men sitting around eating lunch in my future backyard (lol) and have a walk through.

Until then, these pics are the best I could do without looking any more of a weirdo slowly driving around my block taking pics from the driver's seat!

Lighting purchases

12 July 2009

Just thought I'd post some pics of the lighting I've purchased today from Beacon Lighting. They've got quite a good sale on at the moment, and although my purchases totaled nearly $2,000.00, I paid just over $1,500 after discounts. My lighting budget was $1,500 too, so I'm pretty pleased, although I still need to buy a few more, I don't expect those purchases to exceed $300 , maybe less.

I should explain that most of the house will have low voltage down lights everywhere, supplied by the builder. However, I had requested that in some rooms, and in some places, that a batten fix be placed so I could add my own feature fitting.

The following are my own fittings which I will have installed by an electrician when we move in, or by Nava when electrical time comes around (or us if it's a DIY batten)...

ENTRY

Geneve (black) $63.00
ceiling mounted (no long rod)

DINING
PARIS (black) $295.00
with long chain

KITCHEN
(over island)

Envirolux Terrasini $260.00
(1075mm wide)

WIR to Bed 2
(baby girl's WIR)

Seville (white) $63.00
(ceiling mounted)

WIR to Bed 3
(Little Boy's WIR)

Mara II (white) $27.00
(ceiling mounted)

ALFRESCO (x2)

Seville (white) $295.00 (each)
(ceiling mounted, no extension rod)
WITH a HALO 3 light attachment ($50 each extra)

I had already bought this chandelier
for my baby girl's room off ebay for $130.00

STILL TO COME

I am still deciding on our WIR lighting, the two master pendant side table lights, the spare bed lighting, WC/laundry battens and any accent lighting for bathrooms.


OUTDOOR LIGHTING

I haven't chosen any outdoor lighting as the alfresco will have the fans (which will have three HALO spotlights fixed to each and I have paid for the builder to supply sensor lights to all entry points of the home (front, laundry, dining & alfresco).

BYO SLAB

2 July 2009

And then there was a slab! (fenced in)

AND doesn't Mr OWNER look happy today,
giving a big hello from the dining room!

AND the office...

AND the entry...

AND a little emotional (or confused) in the home theatre...

Yes it is exciting to see your slab down...
The virtual tour of your future home,
There's no denying, it's a buzz!

Building with Nava Homes

Our builders, Nava Homes, have been very patient with us, as we had a bit of a delay after initially signing because of the low bank valuation. However, they did not apply any price rises on us, and before we did the final sign-off on the plans, we had probably had over 5 re-draws, and essentially, they didn't complain or charge any fees for the redraws.

The rep, Ian, was great. He encouraged us to make sure we were 100% happy with our choices, and as a result of that support, we are now very happy. Nava's sale manager, Leo, was also very helpful and supportive. Leo is the owner's nephew, obviously a family business, and they appear to all get along very well with each other.

(or they are very good actors)!!!

I am aware that although Nava has been around for over 30years, they only recently (over last 5 years) started to deal with customers directly, like us. Prior to that, they only built for developers. As a result, people, like us, have found it difficult to get honest feedback about their company, their workmanship, their true business ethics and so on. So I know my blog will be viewed by a few people who want a basis to form an opinion on Nava before signing with them as it is hard to find honest feedback on them at the moment.

For that reason, if they are great, I will say so.
If they are not, I'll say that too!

First there was a tap...

26 June 2009

As time slowly ticked by, our spontaneous visits to the land were becoming fewer and fewer, as nothing ever changed, and then one day, there was a tap.

We know it's not a lot, but when you are building,

it means so much more than just water!

It means building is nigh...

Then comes the portaloo...

(which btw, is probably the crapiest crapper I've ever seen! - hope I never need to use it!)

Then comes pipes...
(like little aliens coming up through the dirt)

AND ALL THIS MEANS
"Site Preparation"!

How it all began...

Well we bought our land in Tarniet, Vic (west) - very west,
that's all I'll say about that for now!

Yes, it is quite a way out, although, in Melbourne terms, it's the same distance to the city as Ringwood (in the east),
so we can live with that for now!

Below DH and I are standing on our front lawn ...

(I'm referring to the lovely council tree).

Our land is 615sqm in a court location.

It has two driveways, but we intend to only use the left one.

We paid $152,000 in February 2009 (when it settled).

AND It is flat as a tack (like most of the west!)

Too cold that day to bring out the littlies, they were sitting in our nice warm car watching their DVD's, our lovely new neighbour captured this moment in time for us!

*******

We then had to apply for further finance for the build, and on valuation our total land/build valuation came in under what we were paying. We fought it with the bank, to no avail. We had to raise the extra funds ourselves. It took us another couple of months of mucking around to sort all that business out, but that is all taken care of now.

It's no secret that the FHB's areas (eg. Tarneit, Cranbourne) are valued harshly by bank valuers. It is almost a given that any new home area will drop if there is a fire sale of a house. It was a shame that this was applied to our home as we had tried hard to ensure we were building a quality, stylish and popular styled home, but to no avail, as the bank valuers believe that if they have to sell by mortgagee auction, then people always pay less than if the vendor is the owner. I don't agree with this, and it is quite unfair to a lot of people.
We were fortunate enough to have funds to cover the shortfall in our valuation, but other home buyers have not always had it so easy, and some have had to opt out of the how purchase because of some narrow minded valuer.
Just ridiculous me thinks.