Design Ideas

Yes I know its a bit early....however I need a "Vision" so I have already started a scrap book from all the home design & house & garden mags I waste money on!
I also take photos of furniture/ colour schemes I like.
I think having a father-in-law who is a carpenter/builder is a major advantage, as I just take a photos of the furniture I like and he can whip it up! (well....with a bit of bribery and some pleases too...)

I love this bedroom, the lightness & freshness of it, its simple, clean & elegant. Timeless.

Matching side table, simple

I like the colours used here, and the lounge / ottomon

I really like this, thats an inbuit fire there...

I have the same painting! its great to see it can work in the lounge room too, I like the lounge, however the backs are a bit too short

I love this study! again its very simple, light (even tho the pic came out dark) and clean

Really like the glass side tables, and the wall paper is pretty

Pretty blue, and love the floor lamp

Nice mix of dark wood & white

Loved this, a good way to pretty up a big wall

                                                    WIR drawers

nice big lounge

                                          love the bed head!

Excavation ahoy!

Finally! We are about to start excavation this Thursday coming!
I have waited for some movement on the block for so long, it finally feels like we are getting somewhere.
Once the block is excavated the retaining wall will start, should take 5-7 days they say.

Then the slab will be poured! This should be the 1st week of December :)
This means we should be in our home by May-June 2012!

Photos to come!

Retaining wall

Retaining walls.....

Our block of land we purchased, would have to be one of the flattest blocks in the stage we bought in...if anything the whole estate also!
The estate is very hilly, with mostly "mountain goat" blocks.
However because we are cutting 900mm and filling 900mm we need to put a 900mm retaining wall on the LHS of our house.

Our neighbours on that side have started to build and have filled 500mm over natural land level, so they are also in need to a retaining wall.
We put our heads together and decided to do one "BIG" (1.8mtr) retaining wall, and go halves.....
well......how hard is it to get quotes!! We wanted to go `bessa block` so its there forever..instead of treated timber which will require changing in 10-15yrs, however no one would quote on `bessa block/ cement' and if they did..they were what they call in the industry `F*&k off` prices....ie over quote the job so we don't take it!
Finally our lovely next door neighbor found a retaining wall in the estate which is similar to what we would need, however in treated timber...but after the saga with trying to get quotes for cement...we decided to go with it!
We phoned them for a quote within a day, it was reasonable, quick and in our/ their budget!
Just goes to show that trying to get a good job with good material isn't always easy!

                                                This is what we wanted....

                                          ..............................................

                            This is what we got........

Hawthorne 27 - Colour selections & Kitchen

This time around we were prepared for the colour selections, and we knew what we wanted.
It was a trip down to Sydney - Bella Vista for this, however we didn't mind - an excuse to get away and be child free!

This is what we selected:

External
-Facade: Birmingham with "Foxtail" Moroka (paint/cement) "Pebble bay" Moroka to small area & blue/grey stacked stone to entry pillars. Bricks: "Cement" by PGH
-Front door: Cabots Jarrah stain with glass paneling
-Garage door: we upgraded to "Caoba Dawn" (a wood grain-Jarrah colour)
-Roof: we upgraded to a colorbond roof in "Ironstone" the same for the gutters
-Driveway: Fench grey in a classic finish

Internal
- Paint: Ceiling: Princess Bling & Walls: Tundra Mist by Taubmans (how many shades of white are there....!?)
-Kitchen cabinents: "Moleskin". Island bench: "Licorice Linea" by Laminex
-Kitchen benchtop: "New Cairo" by Essa stone
-Bathroom cabinents: "Licorice Linea"
-Bathroom benchtops: "Platinum Micro" by Square Form
-Tiles throughout: "Latte" Matt porcelain
-Carpet: Garrison "Husk"

Kitchen
-The kitchen we changed from a U shape, to a "Gallery" style, more open plan.
we opted for pot draws on all bottom cabinets, with the top cabinets overhung so they don't require handles, the pot draws have C channel handles, so they too don't stick out - its streamline.
The microwave is built in with a trim kit, as is the dishwasher.

Front Facade - Birmingham

Front colours

Front colours and garage door colour

Kitchen re-design - standard is U shape

Our garage door and front door, love the jarrah finish

Flooring

The flooring....strange as it would seem, this has been our most stressful part to date with EB.
We had our tile selections back in May, our consultant is lovely, she was a great inspiration and taught us so much about tiles and the right flooring for what we wanted to achieve.

We have tried to keeps things neutral, as I don't believe permanent flooring is a place to make a fashion statement or play with bold colours... (that's what rugs are for....right?...)

We upgraded the tiles throughout to porcelain 600mm x 600mm, as the thought of cracked tiles which cut, hairline cracks and ugly red chips are a worst nightmare, I don't believe you should skimp on flooring as it gets the most ware.
We are going with the Matt texture, as I cant stand the marks that come up on gloss, we had Jarrah floorboards in gloss at our last property, and grubby/ sticky feet marks would appear in seconds!
We also opted for the 1.5mm grout line, which would jack the price up as its harder to lay so the labor cost was more, so seeing as I hate dirty grout lines...I believe it was money spent well lol

The bathrooms we have kept very basic and clean, with med brown tiles to the floor and white tiles on the walls, with the shower niches in a square stone (see below photos).

The kitchen splash back we chose long rectangle tiles, stacked long ways in line, they are an off white with light stripes, high gloss (photo below) again with minimal grout lines.

The carpet we kept standard 50/50 wool & polyester, we upgraded the underlay to gold...(I thought it would have come with it..other builder do..anyways)
After all the selecting, and a 4 year old running around a tile shop for 2hrs...any quick and easy option looked great!

When we left and signed off, it was going to take 2 weeks to get our quote back.
6 weeks later, 4 emails, 2 promises , 2 phone calls to the tile shop, 3 to our EB consultant and 1 phone call to the manager of the tile shop in Syd....and we get our bloody quote!
Believe it or not, they only have one estimator...and he was either on `annual leave` or `sick` depending on who you spoke to...1 estimator for a large tile company who looks after 3 shops and a couple of dozen builders.....stupid.

Bathroom tiles, for both bathroom & ensuite

Left hand side tile is the kitchen splash back

The 600x600mm porcelain tiles, we are going for the Matt

Close up of the tiles

Carpet, has a grey/ ashy colour

The slate stack stone we are using at the entry of the house

The house plan

Lighting

I LOVE lights.....anything sparkly....
We have spent up big in the lighting department, because we are wanting to go `Green`.

We have added over 20 extra light fittings for the LED downlights

- We have decided on LED 5x3 watt downlights throughout the house, we have found a great website which sells them for $80 each, unlike the stores who start at $100-$130 each!
http://www.ledcentral.com.au/online-store

-In 3 bedrooms we are having the fan lights with the clear arms that fold away, I have found a few different makes and prices ranging from $270-$350

-In the kitchen we are having 3 x feature lights over the island bench, I haven't found the right ones yet, but it doesn't mean I don't have fun looking ;)

- Outside we are having downlights in the alfresco area with 2 x stainless steel fans, a sensor flood light at the back and up-down feature sensor lights at the front near the garage and front door.

We are getting EB to install all the lights, we have had to paid extra to put all the light battens in (as they only give you one per room) we are purchasing all the lights for them, as they are extremely expensive through them...which is expected

I have posted some photos of light fittings we like, just for some inspiration. There aren't many lighting shops up here in Newcastle, besides the franchise's like Beacon, Rovert, Eurolight & Cetnaj. We may have to take a trip down to Syd ;)

                                              White glass pendant - Rovert

                                             Brushed chrome pendant - Rovert - One of my faves so far

                                  Larger brushed chrome pendant - I also love this one

                                      Fan-away light with T5 globe - energy efficent $272

The funky touch screen LED remote it comes with - only $85

More pendants.......

....and more...bit retro..

Fan-away light + fan - FYI Aussie invention, $350 tho

Love these floor lamps!

Lamps.....love a good lamp..

way too many choices..

Touch lamps are great!

DA Approved

10th August 2011

Today is the day, our DA has been approved!
Its been a long road, we purchased the land back in November 2010 and it only just registered March 2011
We are building in Northlakes Estate - Cameron Park NSW at the top of the estate overlooking Lake Macquarie from the back and Sugarloaf Mountain from the front! Beautiful bushy area with wildlife, bike tracks and a great community atmosphere :)

Early views of the block - water views are to Lake Macquarie

Gorgeous sunset over mount sugarloaf

Dusk at the block

December 2010, rd going in

July 2011, neighboring blocks being cleared

Cuddling a peg!