The roof is out there...

Although there were many potential lines to do with the roof (my personal favourite is from The Hangover "why don't they call them floories, because you're more likely to hit the floor than the roof"), the 't'roof is out there seemed appropriate, as our new home has a roof now. A big shiny Woodland Grey colourbond roof (provided by Bluescope Steel of course) has been placed on top of the big wooden frame of the Cranbourne North site that will become our home sooner, hopefully, rather than later.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond (or perhaps completely under) my control, I've been unable to get out there and view our future home. We spent Friday night and Saturday moving into our new temporary digs in Armadale and then I've been up in Darwin for work since Sunday. Whilst it's lovely up here (weather excepted, with it being hot. Then wet. Then steamy. Then dry. Then hot. Then thunder. Then wet. Repeat…) it's a long way away from being able to view the construction taking place. I'm sure our possum friends in Chadstone are now missing us, but at least our new temporary home is exceptionally comfortable and close to the city. I'm sure it's going to be difficult leaving in a few months time, even though we'll have our own new home to be moving in to.

Although I didn't get the chance to visit Cranbourne North, Sare was able to take her parents out to view the work that had been done in the last week. The following photos show the progress that has been achieved since our visit on the previous weekend. Windows are now in, the roof was mostly completed by Sunday and they are now able to start work on the bricks to give us a proper appreciation of what the house will eventually look like...

 Shirley admiring the magnificent entrance hall, with 3m ceilings and plenty of space  for us to fill.

 Some instructions noted on the wall by our helpful builders.

 The underside of the roof.  Maybe our Chadstone possum friends will come out to visit us sometime?

 The big window out the back of what will become Sarah's Studio in the future.

 The view through the rear door of the rumpus room.

 On the outside looking in through the rumpus room.

 Our al fresco area on the side of the house.  So much natural light, so little time to enjoy it.

You turn your back for just a few days...

And all of a sudden, there is a frame on the slab that is on your block of land!!!

It's been a hectic couple of weeks since we got back from holidays, and we've barely had time to stop to smell the roses, let alone watch the progress of our home.  Apart from a quick visit shortly after getting back, Sare and I have been busy with work, birthdays, and just catching up on everything that needs to be caught up on.

It was with huge anticipation that we visited our block this afternoon, and we were thrilled to see the progress.  Before going into detail on that, it's worth updating on the build administration going on while the real work happens in Cranbourne North.

We hadn't been in touch with Metricon since our return, thinking that we would leave it to them to get in touch if they wanted to issue the invoice for the slab.  Lo and behold, on Wednesday afternoon I had a phone call inquiring whether we'd received the invoice.  Bingo.  Since nothing had arrived in the mail, I requested that they forward it to me again so that I could pass it on to the bank.  Easy.  Upon passing it to the bank I was advised that they were still awaiting a copy of the building permit to proceed.  Not too difficult to arrange, but it would have been nice to have been asked for it, as we received it over a month ago.  With a bit of luck, everything should be sorted early this week.

The second phone call received from our builder this week was in relation to, wait for it, another one of their oversights.  This time they had forgotten to include in the contract the plumbing for our recycled water that is one of the estate covenants.  Quite how this had been missed not only by Metricon but also the developers when they gave their sign-off is quite beyond me.  Needless to say, the only way to deal with this was through a variation (number 9, and counting) and of course an extra cost to be added to the build.  My enquiry as to whether this should have been included in the fixed site costs was rebutted with a simple 'No'.  I guess that's not negotiable then!

The third and final call this week was from our site-supervisor.  He gave me a quick run down of the expected progress over the next few weeks and promised to call each week to update me.  It will be interesting to see if he follows through or not!

Anyway, on to the more exciting developments now.  The slab was finished on October 5 and looked absolutely huge when I went out and visited it.  Everyone has been telling me how the slab is supposed to look small compared to the finished house, so it may be that our home is going to even bigger than imagined!

 The slab, in all it's glory.  From the rear of the block, the bathroom plumbing centre left and wood for the frame at the far end.

Over the space of the last week and a half, the entire frame has been put up and the chippies were putting the finishing touches on the roof trusses.  With the guys still there doing their works, we decided not to venture on to the site to explore any further.  There will be plenty more opportunities in the weeks ahead.  The expected progress is that the fascia will be done on Monday and the roof shortly after that.  Then it will be on to the bricks, which we're both really looking forward to seeing the end result of our choice of colour!  The windows had all been delivered as well, so it won't be too long until the house is looking like a proper house, at least from the outside.  

 The view from the street

 Down the left side, with the windows in the foreground and the side al fresco jutting out

 The front entrance.  Garage on the left.

 The view from the rear of the block.

With this rate of progress, we may even be in by xmas.  Okay, that's way too optimistic, but at least it's full steam ahead at this point in time!!!

Back to reality...

We're back.  Our three week dream holiday to the States is over and it's a case of back to reality.  It's been a whirlwind week since getting back, work has been going at a million miles an hour.  Lots has happened to our block since we left, and I managed to get out there for a quick look during the week.  I'll update the blog with some photos of what's happened when I get a chance, but I thought I'd digress from the usual topic in the mean time and list out my top holiday highlights.

Top ten holiday moments:

10.  Getting our room upgraded at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas to a strip view Charlie Sheen themed room with a view of the Bellagio fountain.
9.  The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, seeing the history of human flight from the Wright Brothers plane through to the space capsule Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin travelled to the moon and back in.
8.  Seeing the Cirque du Soleil show 'Zumanity' in Vegas with Sare wondering when the animals were going to appear...
7.  A spur of the moment bus ride through Brooklyn with the guidance of a very helpful local bus driver.
6.  Our anniversary in LA, spent at the beach at Santa Monica and a five course Asian dinner at RockSugar in Beverley Hills.
5.  Riding bikes through Central Park to Harlem, experiencing a gospel church service and eating soul food on a beautiful Sunday.
4.  Seeing How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying with Daniel Radcliff and John Laroquette on Broadway.  Fantastic show, and boy can Harry Potter sing and dance!
3.  Attending the taping of the Hamish and Andy Gap Year show and getting a front row seat to see Coldplay.
2.  Taking a Mustang out for a cruise to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas along Route 66.  It was red, went fast (120mph fast!), and the Canyon is pretty spectacular too.
1.  Living like a local in a Fifth Avenue apartment in the greatest city in the world, seeing all of the familar and yet entirely new sights of New York and surviving on a diet of bagels, burgers, burritos and slices of pizza.

 So now it's back to the job at hand.  The house has now begun and the next few months will see our home take shape and we'll become residents of the Avenue in no time at all!

It's only the beginning

The beginning of the build that is!!!

The final building permit has been granted, so we're all set to get going now.  The only casualty as a result of the permit being issued was that we've been forced to reduce our al fresco area by 20cm on the west side of the house to bring it in to line with the council requirements, but at least this resulted in a nice credit in the variation.

Finance was approved, documents have been signed and returned and were today handed over to the settlements department.  Hopefully they don't have any issues with them, because I don't like the chances of them being amended before we head off on holiday!

We spent Sunday afternoon (following a lovely breakfast with the old man for father's day) on the lot clearing it of the debris that our neighbour's builders had kindly left for us.  Mowing the grass was a whole lot of fun too.  I did make a promise to Sare that it would be the first and last time I mowed the lawn there, so we're probably going to have to go shopping for either some fake grass or some concrete and green paint at some stage...

Today I spoke to Metricon and was advised that the site start would likely be sometime between September 12 and 14.  It will probably mean that by the time we get back we'll have a nice shiny new slab to look at, and potentially even the very early genesis of a frame.  Unless of course the weather degenerates over the next week in which case we'll come back to a patch of grass that will probably need to be mown again.

It's going to be fantastic to see our new home taking shape in the very near future!!

Time keeps on slipping, into our future home...

Small but significant steps have been made since our selections a couple of weeks ago. Over the last couple of days the Developer's Approval has been given to build our house, without any changes required and the bank have finally managed to find the contract I sent them (only two weeks later!) and given us the approval for our finance. It would seem that we've nearly cleared the last of the hurdles on the way to getting the build actually happening. Next up is the Casey City Council granting the building permit and it'll be time for us to get out to the block to clear the debris left by other builders on our land.

Without getting too ahead of ourselves, what with the building yet to start and all, we've been putting in some thought about the important additions to our new house (no, not the driveway, landscaping or even letterbox) but the pendant lights to go above the kitchen bench and the roof mounted speakers for the living area! For some reason they seem like the most irrelevant things in the grand scheme of things, but also two of the easier ones!!! Of course, we're hoping to pick up a couple of nice designer items on our trip to NY for the new house somewhere along the way as well.

It now looks as if it's going to be a race between Metricon to start finally building our new home and us heading off on our holiday. There are only 19 days (14 work days!) left for them to take the chequered flag first. Not that I'm counting though!

May the house be with us (one day...)

Well, it's out of our hands now. The house selections are done, it's now up to Metricon to build our house as quickly as possible so that we don't have to wait any longer than we really have to.

Saturday was shaping up as a really big day. Following on from our contract and electrical appointments, we had our tile appointment at Beaumont Tiles on Saturday morning and the big one, our remaining colour and fitting selections at Studio M in the afternoon. Although we'd been to Beaumont's three or four times previously, we still hadn't settled on our final colour schemes for the wet areas in the ensuite, bathroom and laundry and splashback for the kitchen. Typical of us both, we managed not to stress too much about it, and within an hour we'd sorted out everything we wanted and were pretty happy with ourselves. Neutral tones won the day, with slate grey floor tiles, white wall tiles and 'Donkey Grey' as our kitchen splashback tiles.

(from bottom) floor tiles, laundry splashback tile, bathroom/shower tile and kitchen splashback

Having taken less time than anticipated with our tile selections, we were able to run off and have some lunch before steeling ourselves for the anticipated five hour epic selections appointment with Studio M.


I think we must have set some sort of record, as the majority of our selections were completed within an hour! We'd picked our bricks (Maldon), Colourbond roof and fascia (Woodland Grey), garage door (Dune) window frames (Woodland Grey again) and front door (merbau stain) within ten minutes of arriving at the studio. No arguments, just get it done seemed to be the best approach.


Next up were the door handles, which took all of about one minute (prior preparation prevents poor performance!) before moving on to the kitchen. I tell you, if when this place is finally built the kitchen is not the most impressive one ever built, I think we'll have to sell and build another place! Added to the already planned 900mm upright cooker, extended caesarstone island bench (in ice snow) with undermount sink, pot drawers, soft close hinges and walk through pantry, was the parchment coloured gloss finish wrapped vinyl cabinetry. We encountered our first proper moment of indecision when it came to the handles for the cupboards and drawers before finally deciding on the satin chrome coloured square set ones. I promise that the first dinner party that we cater will be a cracker. I've already been working on the menu...





Next up was the ensuite and bathroom fittings. Another little luxury I'd been angling for was the rainfall showerhead in the ensuite. For some reason, Sare didn't put up any resistance at all to this one, but ominously warned that she "was going to pick her fights". I figure it will nicely complement the extra large shower with the tiled base. The square inset basins were already planned and will match the bath nicely, which will have the floor tiles extended up and around it. The last touch were the mirrors, which are nice simple satin chrome framed ones.



The final part of our selection appoint revolved around the floor coverings. This one proved more tricky than the rest of the house. With several wood colours to choose from and a carpet that needed to nicely match, we spent almost as much time deliberating on this as we had on everything else combined. Finally we committed to the Ironbark coloured wooden floor to complement the Surf coloured carpet for the bedrooms, rumpus and rear hall.


And with that we were done. Six long months of looking for houses, deciding to build, buying a block of land and deciding on our house had led to all of the design features and colours we have now committed to over the past week. Next steps are to get that finance approved and let the fun and games of the actual build commence.

Oh, and to get onto the plane for New York in five short weeks for our long awaited honeymoon!!!

How I learnt to stop worrying and love the contract.

Finally. It is done. Well, mostly!

After nearly six weeks of sitting around watching the grass grow on our block and having nothing of any real note happen (well, there is now one fence up, but that's about it) we've finally signed our contract! This of course, was not without excitement on Sare's and my behalf. Chantell had sent through a copy of the contract with the drawings in advance of signing the contract, and after careful inspection, we identified several things that were, shall we say, not quite right.

Instead of the site costs we'd been advised of, there were extra charges of $8k! Other minor details included our verandah not appearing on the drawings, no door in the garage, the window on the studio not being increased in size and windows and sliding doors being reversed. To Metricon's credit, Chantell and Jamie acted rather quickly and ensured that all items had been adjusted as variations for when we signed the contract.

After we'd managed to sign the contracts (every page of the document, in triplicate) we started to feel like superstars having to sign our autograph for the fans. Of course, the only fans in this case were Metricon, as we've just committed a sizeable chunk of NAB's money and our next thirty year's earnings over to them.

Thankfully after the contract was signed we managed to complete our electrical appointment with a minimum of fuss. Ensuring that plenty of powerpoints were added was the priority, although the additions of Cat 6 Data cabling to four different points of the house was also pretty important (to me at least!). The dream is to have the entertainment completely integrated, although that's probably going to take a little more effort down the track. At the cost of not getting the house completed with downlights, we will have the speakers wired throughout the house, which will definitely make Sare happy as she won't be tripping over wires everywhere!

So all in all, some pretty good progress. NAB has been provided with a copy of the contract now, so hopefully there won't be any issues with getting it all approved. All that's really left now for us is to complete the tile and Studio M selections appointments on Saturday. How exciting!