Hank, waiting patiently

Well we have been told it will take another 3 weeks before we present Hank to council. Not sure why but its been over a month since we signed off on the final design and landscape.

On another note, we requested pricing on having shower recesses in the two showers on the second floor as well as getting silver gloss window frames ... prices came back as the silver gloss colour being free but the two recesses came in around $900! kind of evened itself out but we really want them as they are neater and look cool... so we're thinking of cutting down on fancy tiling for the bathroom... we still havent decided on tiling for bathroom in terms of feature tiles or mosaic on the tubs but i think we can get away without too much cost as these tiles and the laying of the fancy tiles cost extra.

Hopefully with some nice accessories the bathrooms can look modern still, will have to go to display homes and see what kind of layout and design looks ok but still reasonably priced.

oh and Hank's neighbour is apparently for sale too which hopefully might mean they won't complain too much about Hank when they get notified by council. we really need to look at the fencing on that side as it is wooden and slanting towards us already but i haven't really committed myself to changing it yet... would want the neighbours to share in the cost.

First day of spring!

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)