Tender loving Hank

We've received our final tender most of which we are happy with but we need to check a few things and will remove some variations we asked for. Hank is shaping up rather nicely now. Allcastle came back to us to ask how we went with their tender to which we told them we had gone with our current builder as they were cheaper and we felt their design was more modern. The sales rep at Allcastle was surprised to hear they were more expensive and offered to renegotiate but we passed as their quote was higher and they hadn't even added the double handing and traffic control cost yet (which was again more than what our current builder quoted). At any rate, we are happy at the moment and don't want to delay much further as we figure each week of delay is costing us now that Nora has joined the family and isn't able to earn her keep!

So hopefully in the next few weeks we will sort out the details, sign and submit to council.
Next weekend we are off to the snows!

... introducing Nora and Hank

Well today settlement for our land was finalised, so we are now proud owners of a little rectangular patch of dirt. Here she is:

I've decided that its a 'she' since she's a slim little thing and have decided to call her 'Nora' for no particular reason. As you can see, she's wearing very little! And just to be fair, the house can be a 'he' whom I'll call 'Hank' in reference to David Duchovny's character in Californication cos I'm a bit of a fan of his.

oh and while i'm posting pictures, here's our ground floor plan:

Its based on the Fernleigh design from Masterton but with only 1 garage due to council restriction and with shower option on ground floor. The study has replaced the dining room to become more of a 5th bedroom with a built in too. Hank is a social butterfly and likes to entertain so we've added an alfresco area out the back with stacker doors. The top floor is pretty much the same, we havent changed much at all there so no photo provided.

The tide has turned, let the flooding begin...

The builder has told us that council require a flood report so we're waiting on the costings for that. Hopefully it should be too expensive? I am anticipating numerous incidental costs occurring so hopefully the ride isn't too bumpy. On another note, went to check out boral bricks in Castle Hill (the only boral bricks site open on a sunday) and finally picked our brick. Its Desert Sage, i know you were on the edge of your seat waiting anxiously to know. We also went round to a house that had this brick in Bella Vista (bella indeed and also grande) and this brick looked a'ight! With some lovely assistance from the lady at Boral we also went with ironstone guttering and fascia, paperbark downpipe, ironstone equivalent color for window frames, barramundi roof tiles and bushland garage. It sounds like it was a simple decision but there was lots of flip flopping. I always thought the downpipes would be same as guttering but hubs said its good to have guttering to match the brick so you don't notice it... And I guess the eaves will match the brick color as most houses seem to match.

stuck at the desk for lunch today, anyone watch ramsay last night? he made a nice looking steamed black bream. Am thinking of trying my hand at salmon carpaccio later in the week. But this is an entree style dish, what to have for main? hmmnnnnn

How much is that landscape designer in the window?

Well I rang a couple (ok two) landscape designers to see what their price was like compared to what Masterton were offering with their landscaper. Both claimed that minimum cost would be around $800 from scratch without seeing anything or getting site plans etc. But if they could work with the draftsperson from the builder, then it could be something like $450 instead as the draftsperson would have drawn up part of the requirements already. This price is already fairly close to Masterton's quoted price so we have decided to just go with theirs rather than organise the landscaper to meet with Masterton etc. So this seems like a reasonable quoted cost. Masterton's designer also does not charge for any amendments if required by council though I'm not sure if that happens a lot or whether that is the norm for most landscapers anyway, but I'll let you know.

on another note, another busy day at work, my desk buddy just asked what cinderella's horse and buggy turns into at night, better get our noses back to the grindstone!

its a pumpkin btw!

Bricks, glorious bricks...

Now that we have decided on our builder, it was time to take a look at their product range. We will be given just one day to decide on all the details so its best to have some idea prior to this day. And just as well!! we went to the PGH brick yard first and saw the roofing tiles, pipes and the bricks in the range. Choosing a colour for the roof seems easy enough so we're not too worried there, we'll prob go for either Caper or Barramundi Traditional tile (we have the mansion package option with masterton). However the bricks were another story! We have always like white plantation shutters and possible white venetians for a cheaper option so had expected that we would go with the white window frames. We flipped and flopped over brick colours quite a bit, I kept going back to a darker brick for contrast but then back to lighter colours as this was a more safer option. Generally we wanted a flat smooth face brick so there was not too much to choose from and I am trying not to upgrade every option there is. Anyway, after a lot of deliberation, we changed our mind (again!) to currently have the dark grey window frame (although we've asked the price for silver) with white shutters, Desert Sage brick from boral (nuvo pastel range), dark piping and roof tile that is a bit lighter than the piping. (i expect this is likely to change again as we have not seen this brick in real life).
At least my baby boy had a terrific time in the brick yards!

Tiling was a bit of a disappointment. There weren't many tiles that we liked in the builders range and there were costs here and there to upgrade the tiles and also the labour for the upgraded tiles! mosaics were the nicest. Floor tiles had a lot of options but kitchen splashbacks were limited but we decided this would have to be upgraded as the splashback is important and the tiles for the bathtub in the ensuite would also be upgraded. The addition of border tiles would also require upgrading.

At any rate, I highly recommend at least one trip out to inspect bricks and tiles prior to actual selection. Bricks look completely different from brochures or computer screens. We also found out selection can only occur on a weekday so we would both have to take a day off work to do this.

ps settlement for our land is due at end of july (only just took pictures of our land on the weekend)

Ready, set, go!

Off we went to Masterton to further press our requirements and get more answers to our question. I must say that the salesperson has been very pleasant and accommodating throughout. We have requested again that they consider allowing us to have a 900mm stove top and rangehood which this time they said should be possible at least with the stove top which i suppose is the least we want. They were not able to give us the same deal on the air conditioning but still gave a reasonable price.

I spent most of the time trying to amuse our son whilst the hubby went over the details but all in all, we are happier with Masterton's design, quote and service. So we have put down the deposit to continue on with the tender and submission to council.

In case I haven't specified yet, we are going with the Fernleigh design with Vogue facade but for a single garage given that our frontage is only 11.6 metres wide and due to council restrictions. Strangely enough, the Fernleigh appears to be identical to their Villina design but the Villina is more expensive. We have also opted for the alfresco at the back but will probably handle our flooring and alfresco deck ourselves.

So now we are waiting on the tender to be redesigned and a contour survey to be drawn. Will take a few weeks still prior to council submission.