Boxing Day Sale Splurges...

As the festive period draws to an end, our sights have been set back toward house planning. We started doing some furniture shopping, not being sure if we have started a bit too early! It takes 10-15 weeks for most pieces to be made, so I'm not sure what stage our house will be at by the time the items we have purchased are ready for delivery. Hopefully we can arrange for the items to be held and delivered after we have the keys (or start hoarding in our garage!).

We were terribly spoilt this Christmas by our families and have a collection of gift vouchers to my favourite homewares store and also for bunnings (always useful). We also were given a new iMac which I am so excited to set up in our new study (instead of on the dining room table where it is currently living). 

                               

Facing the hoardes of buyers at the Boxing Day sales paid off this year and here are some of our purchases:

The Calibra bed frame and matching bedside tables were a fab buy from Domayne. We are looking forward to having a king size bed and also splurged on a good quality Sealy mattress.    

      

                                          

As we are completing a small amount of electrical after handover we started purchasing fans and bathroom lights. We saw this amazing Vento Uragano fan on Grand Designs and searched high and low before we finally found it. This clever fan has a reversible summer/winter switch which changes the spin direction to circulate cool air in summer and push warm air down in winter. Great way to reduce heating costs!  Ours will have clear blades so that the presence of the fan does not overwhelm the other feature lighting in the room.     

           

      

Builder installed 3 in 1 bathroom lights were over priced and from a very basic range of fixtures. We will have these circuits pre-wired and have purchased these modern Jantec heat/fan lights in silver and stainless steel for each bathroom.

                                 

                             

  

We are still undecided on a new lounge for our media room but are considering a purchase from Bay Leather Republic. We are waiting to get the dreaded plantation shutter quote before doing any more shopping.

Who else made exciting purchases in the sales and what has been your favourite purchase for your new home? 

Merry Christmas!

Today marked the last day of work before Christmas and the frame is looking great. It's exciting to see the shape of rooms and the facade emerging. Here are our last set of snapshots before we go away for the holidays.

 

   

Grande alfresco and the large window opening to the living room

  

Our soon to be kitchen and open plan living area

  

Framework continues

Today was a very productive day and when we got home from work we were surprised to see the tradies still working after 5.30! Tomorrow will be the day the roof framework goes on I think because pretty much all of the walls are complete. We were SO excited to see the framework for our fireplace! It's going to be amazing (if I don't say so myself!). 

One little thing we noticed is that the bathroom door is on back to front so it walks into the shower... We might casually mention that to the guys tomorrow before they get too far along! 

The photos I took today are a bit dull as it was getting dark when we went by the block.

Here is the fireplace and picture recess above it. (I'm literally bouncing and clapping my hands at this). This is shaping up to be my favourite room.

         

   Front entry and hall (not sure how I managed to shoot this on an angle)

                            

Main bath 

                            

From the front. 

       

The start of a home

Today we received a message saying that framework had begun and were very pleased to see half of our rooms framed out today. We are loving our big picture window that we upgraded and the high ceilings and doorways. They tower above when you are standing underneath the framework. 

Here is the picture window at the back of our house

        

   

Bedrooms and bathrooms 

       

Front corner

      

   

Frame Delivery

This morning a rather large truck arrived bearing our lovely blue frames. Delivery was due tomorrow but came a day ahead of schedule, which hopefully means the carpenters will get an extra day to work this week. I keep wishing my work days away so that I can get home and see what exciting things have happened on the block. 

       

     

Slabbed!

In a perfect ending to the week, we now have a completed slab. The weather was perfect today, albeit a bit hot for the poor guys working. We made a quick trip to the block early this morning to see the concreting action underway and to chat with our slab supervisor. It was surprising to see how quickly the slab went down and they were able to pull off the formwork. 

This afternoon our SS rang to fill us in our the plan for next week. Monday is termite barrier day and a fellow is coming to push some fill up against the slab to make life easier for the brickies after Chrismas. Frames are due for delivery on Tuesday and the carpenters will be around the same day to hopefully get started. Roof will also be delivered next week and they are hoping to install over the Christmas break.

The fascias and gutter arrived today and were sitting next to our block this afternoon. I LOVE the paperbark colourbond, it's not commonly used but there's something eye catching about it. 

Photo bomb time!

All of the action from a distance

      

Pouring the front entryway

                                

The glorious slab

       

 Master bedroom and alfresco. Did I mention how high the slab is, it's going to be one tall house!

       

Paperbark gutters and surfmist fascia

        

  

Oooh Waffles!

The last two days have been full steam ahead on our block as the formwork and waffle pods have been laid. The waffle pods look to be mostly finished and slab pour is still set for this Friday, pending good weather. So far the forecast is clear, so stay away rain! 

We have been having fun watching all of the neighbours and surrounding residents pulling up in front of our site to check out the work. Boy I can't wait to see their reactions when the moroka and stacked stone eventually go on!

Below is the work completed yesterday before a storm rolled in

       

       

    

And here is today's final product

       

Mini Break

On a topic totally unrelated to building for a moment - After 6 incredibly hectic months of house planning, working, taking students and studying, we decided a mini break was due. We spent this weekend in the Hunter Valley Wine Country at the stunning Deja Vu Estate. If anyone reading is planning a trip, do yourself a favour book at Deja Vu. Jillian and Brent have two villas which are beautifully fitted out private sanctuaries, amongst the grape vines and bushland. It was a fabulous weekend and we came home today having consumed and purchased more wine that I'd care to admit!

 

Here are a couple of snaps from Deja Vu Estate (plug!) Just look at that tub!

       

        

     

On the drive home we had a call from our building supervisor and spoke for the first time. Amazingly our piering was completed today (at some point I will calm down and get used to this cracking pace) and we did go a little over our allowance. We needed four extra piers on the advice of the engineer and the deepest have gone 1.8m down. It will be a bit more cost, but we had a feeling it would happen given our neighbors needed more piers when they built. 

Our slab is due to be poured on Friday, only 8 working days since starting on the site (mind blown!). I'll be watching the weather forecast compulsively for the next few days. Our frame will be delivered early next week along with the fascia and gutters AND some of the tradies are working over Christmas so there will still be a bit of site action. 

Yep I am absolutely flawed and so so excited! 

   

Below: Piers in and formwork showing where our gas bottles will go.

                                    

Formwork started and view from the front. Our side clearances are so narrow, we are thinking of putting a gate in at the back (which is reserve) for access. 

         

Formwork and piers looking from the back where our master bedroom will be. 

         

    

At the speed of light!

Wow the blog has now had 3000 hits! A warm hello to everyone who is reading from around the world! 

Today was another exciting day on the block. We left for work this morning and there were 4 tradies, three trucks and a whole lot of machinery at our site. Another drive by this afternoon revealed finished plumbing, a meter box and fences. I'm blown away by how fast things are moving and just thrilled with the work that has been done so far! 

We were also surprised to see another site up the road be cut today. There aren't very many houses being built but MDJ are doing ours and the one up the road, our neighborhood will be very busy for the next few months! 

Lots of new pipes today!

       

From the back of the block.

       

Funny to see the meter box just floating in empty space!

       

       

    

     

Plumbing begins

Today I arrived home to quite a surprise, the site cut only happened yesterday and today we have plumbing! It looks as though just over half of the plumbing has been completed despite having rain today. We haven't met our building supervisor yet but he obviously has the tradies working hard. Well done MDJ! 

Here are some photos

Site Cut

After the excitement of the portaloo arriving yesterday we expected to perhaps see pegs today. This morning the following message arrived:

                            

We spent the entire day eager to finish work so we could check out the block. After racing home we discovered that it has been cut! There wasn't a lot that needed to be cut and filled but we do have a little mountain of grass and clay at the back of the block.

Here is the block from the front

     

From the back

     

And our mountain of clay 

      

   

   

I am beyond excited! Can't wait for piering to happen. Our neighbors said they went over on their pier allowance because the clay is highly movable as water absorbs. We have a $4000 extra provision which we hope will cover the costs. 

   

The Throne

Today is the 11th day on the construction list and this afternoon we found this on our block

        

Finally signs of activity! We haven't been pegged yet (the pegs in place have been there since we purchased the block) but hopefully it's coming. 

A few other small developments this week, the best being that we got our saturn cooker switch and it is being installed by the builder - thanks MDJ! Today we also had a call from our CLO to say that the original surveyor measured our block incorrectly and it is actually 80mm smaller on one side. As a result we need to decrease the size of our media room pop out. The pop out was only there because of local building requirements so we weren't too worried. Fortunately we don't need to go back through council!

We are hopeful we will have a site cut to report soon. 

A few missed details....

Currently we are at day 7 on the construction list and there hasn't been any activity on the block yet. We are hoping that there is some form of activity before Christmas, that would be the best gift! 

In the meantime we have been sorting out some details that were missing during colour selections and electrical. Our colour consultant contacted us to inform that selection of bath spouts and mixers for the shower/baths had been missed during our selections appointment. She was kind enough to have estimates conducted for products outside of the standard MDJ range. Here are our new selections:

             

I really love the bath spout, it is a Phoenix Kubus Hob Outlet. The mixers are from the Caroma Quatro range. They were our second choice behind the Gessi Trasparenze Mixer below, however these came in at $640 each. Just a bit too much for mixers!

             

After discussions with others building with MDJ, we have discovered that there is a way to get rid of our 'ugly' cooker switch. This is a new regulation and new homes need a cooker isolation switch within view and 2m proximity to the stove. Our consultant said there was only one option available which is an ugly cream switch that has to go into our lovely yellow splashback. We weren't that keen to have pure white saturn power points and then an unsightly cream plastic switch, so we put it in the back corner of the kitchen bench. 

Yesterday we discovered that there is a whole range of cooker switches including one that matches our power points. Now that there is a matching cooker switch we would ideally use it instead but changes after contract signing attract a fee... It would be a bit rough to be billed for a variation when we were told no other products existed. We are hoping they will try to accommodate this change, especially as we spent extra money upgrading all of the other switches and powerpoints. I purchased the saturn cooker switch just in case so we can swap it after handover if needed. 

Here is the 'ugly' switch and new replacement -

The second one is so much better! We can keep admiring it while we wait to see some building action :)

Construction List!

This afternoon I received the following message:

                            

Which made me look this like this :

                             

Building works to commence within 20 business days. Possibly before Christmas, we are just so happy to know it is finally happening! 

Pre Build Phase: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

After another two weeks, we have navigated our way back from no-mans land towards the golden beacon of hope - the construction list. This past fortnight has been made bearable with wine and a deliberately full work schedule. I recall reading on another blog that 'weekend dread' sets in at various points throughout the building process and I can honestly say I've never looked forward to Mondays until now. Weekends have been a black hole of nothingness given that banks, valuers and McDonald Jones are closed. We have made it through and now have sent our 4% payment  AND our bank manager is writing up the authority to commence construction letter on Monday. I will be so happy to know that the planning is done, the bank is sorted and that it is time for action. To mark the end of the pre-building phase I thought I would share some experiences and thoughts for others embarking on the same journey.

The Good

Display Homes

Those first steps into the display home are magical and for us it really was a matter of walking through the front door and knowing that we had found our house. Display homes are a wonderful tool for inspiration, exploring how different colours and styles work with a design and deciding what changes you might need to make a plan suit your lifestyle. We visited the display of our home a half dozen times throughout planning, it was especially helpful in deciding where to put lights and switches. 

My Choice Colour Studio

Colour selections are a huge undertaking and it is hard to get a grasp on the world of upgrade options. Enter the colour studio, the wonderland of colour swatches, fixtures, fireplaces, tile and brick samples. Everything you can imagine for your new home from the type of brick to the colour of the grout between your tiles is in the studio. The selection process is well organized with McDonald Jones and we felt that we had enough time and resources to put together a well finished home. The staff are helpful and lead you through the options. The only downfalls are the inordinate amounts of money you can spend and that some items are a bit overpriced.

Council (Yes I actually said council)

Right through the planning I was having nightmares about council and obsessing about their requirements for residential dwellings. I heard horror stories about friends and colleagues waiting months, having to make radical changes and paying lots of extra money to meet requirements. In our case council took three weeks from the day they logged the DA and we tracked every step on the council website. Three weeks felt like a long time but in the scheme of things, it was actually quite good! 

The Bad

Building: An Insider Experience

As first time builders we chose McDonald Jones, not only for the great quality of their homes but also on the assumption that they would have established processes to lead clients through the building experience. Boy did we think wrong! We have a two page brochure which lists the steps in the process - great, kind of exciting to tick the boxes however there is very little explanation of how long steps take or of all of the building terminology along the way. We didnt really have anyone sit us down and explain what would happen or what we should be doing. Having been through the process now, I would be much more relaxed in doing it again. Our saving grace was the building forum and blogs, where others kindly shared their own experiences along with very handy tips. 

Customer Services and Communication

It's no secret that there have been a few issues throughout the paperwork stages. It started out great but sadly that didn't last... Now I admit that I am an absolute perfectionist and think communication and professionalism are incredibly important in maintaining good relationships with my own clients. Throughout the process we have seen a number of mistakes, delays due to error and a bit of excuse making when deadlines were not being met. We have watched other people fly ahead of us in the process and sometimes wondered why we were not getting the same service others were describing. We aren't the sort of people who complain about every little thing and we know plenty of people who have had great experiences with MDJ. The lesson we learnt was to speak up, review documents carefully, do what YOU think is right and strive for perfection even when others do not. After all, a house is the biggest investment you will ever make and will be the backdrop to so many life experiences. It is important to get it right! 

Distance and Appointment Times

At the start of the process we paid our deposit at Port Macquarie and assumed we would attend appointments at their studio. It wasn't until we received a letter in the mail with an appointment time that we realized we would be driving a 5 hour round trip to Newcastle for each appointment. There wasn't really consideration for people who work full time, appointments are allocated on week days and often at short notice. We had to take 4 days off work across a 2 month period and often had to cancel our own appointments to facilitate this. A little more notice to plan ahead might have made it all a bit easier (and our boss a lot happier). 

The Ugly

Bank Valuations

Ah home loans, what a traumatizing process. In our case, buying our land was a confusing, horrific ordeal involving the Commonwealth Bank running us in circles. At the time a friend gave us the name of a credit union manager who came with nothing but praise. Coastline sorted us out and we kept in touch throughout the entire planning process with no problems at all. We thought we were in the clear until the time for bank valuations arrived. Our first valuation came in $45,000 under target and we (including the bank manager) were flawed. Nothing is selling our area and the median market price is incredibly low, which ultimately impacted our valuation. It then became apparent that we might not be able to get our loan with such a low valuation. After a very anxious fortnight we got a second valuation that is a bit higher and we are back on track (not without more costs though). We had no idea how loans or valuations work and it has been a steep learning curve!  Funnily the second valuer said we over capitalized on our electrical and 'over lit' the house, yet here I was thinking that I was being fairly restrained! Good lighting is so important for the ambience of a home and there is nothing worse than a dark, dull house. We have joked with the family in Newcastle that if they someday notice a faint glow on the northern horizon, that will be me in the new house with my LEDs on ;) 

Overall the process has been full of highs and lows, but now we are so excited to see our home take shape. 

From somewhere in no man's land....

One week since our council DA was approved and very little is happening. We are waiting for the private certifier to complete our construction certificate. Interestingly the building inspector from our local council said it could have been completed on the same day our DA was approved, but our CLO said it had the go through the certifier. 

In the mean time we have been in touch with the bank to arrange property valuation and our loan paperwork. The valuation came in a bit lower than we wanted (resulting in a grumpy Tom and an apologetic bank manager) but the valuer based the price on 'standard fittings and fixtures'. Given the number of upgrades to our home, there is very little 'standard' left. Our bank manager is having it valued a second time by a different valuer and we are putting together a very clear list of upgrades as they never bothered to look at the colour selections document the first time. Hopefully the next one is a bit better!

Again I will wait in hope that the construction list is on the horizon for us, whilst living vicariously through our fellow bloggers whose homes are talking shape (keep posting those photos guys!).

Council Approval

This afternoon our DA was marked as approved on the council tracking website! One step closer to the dream becoming a reality!

When moments seem endless...

Tomorrow marks three weeks since our DA was sent to council and they have been going very slow. Currently our application it sitting on someone's desk and local people are telling me horror stories about how long they waited to build their own homes.

Our bank manager waited 16 weeks earlier in the year. 

My hairdresser waited 9 months for approval on his salon because someone went on holidays.

It's freaking me out!

In the meantime we had our electrical appointment last week, which I really enjoyed! We spent quite a few evenings after work putting together a checklist of electrical upgrades and marking every single light, power point, TV point and switch. We also marked out the number of switches on each plate and which lights would connect to each switch on a plan of the house. The appointment took around 3 hours and we came in within a few hundred dollars of our budget. Our colour consultant did our electrical and said it was the most she had ever done on an electrical plan, which we thought was surprising. Our house will be completely wired by MDJ except for the fans and bathroom lights. We also couldn't get Clipsal Saturn switches for our fans from MDJ. It worked out better this way as I was able to get custom made Saturn switches from eBay which have LED light switches and fan controllers on the one plate. The complete upgrade list is in the electrical tab. 

We also visited the bank last week to provide our building contract, plans, electrical and carpet quotes for our home loan. The valuer will be looking at it all in the next week and the bank manager said he was confident our house and land would be valued at more than or equal to what we are paying. I have to say our bank manager Jeff has been so wonderful throughout the entire process of buying our land and preparing to build the house. So here's my plug:

The folks at Coastline Credit Union have always made us feel comfortable and secure with our loan decisions, they offer very competitive interest rates and it is so much better to be able to have face to face meetings to discuss loans rather than just being a file on the desk of an anonymous stranger who decides if you are loan-worthy. Coastline are based on the mid north coast of NSW but do loans for people all over Australia, so if you are having problems with the big banks or just want great interest rates give them a call! 

So now I shall continue to wait for council, whilst distracting myself by re-reading my entire book collection and watching the box set of friends from start to finish!

A big thanks to everyone who is reading the blog, I am astounded that there have been more than 1600 hits so far :D

On to Council

This week felt very long and tiring. Our plans were due on Tuesday afternoon but never arrived and there was a lot of backwards and forwards with our CLO due to mistakes. I can't say it was a pleasant week. Neither my partner or I like confrontation (we don't even argue with each other!) but we have had to be a bit pushy. I've felt a liitle bad for it, but finally yesterday we got a correct set of plans and a contract amendment for our stacker doors.

Yesterday was a good day all around. I've been completing my masters degree over the past two years and attended my graduation ceremony. After the ceremony I took out my phone to take a photo and saw a message from MDJ saying that our plans had been sent to council! So now we wait and hope that council are kind to us!

Signed, sealed and almost delivered....

IFinal contracts are now signed, huzzah!

The day leading up to our contact signing was eventful due to severe bush fires along the mid to north coast of NSW. The hot and windy weather made for dangerous conditions and we had an emergency alert issued at work mid afternoon to leave due to the risk of being cut off from our homes. Unfortunately the fire was uncontrollable and spread too quickly, resulting in us (and many others) being cut off for 8 hours. Fortunately they were able to contain the fire when the wind reduced and saved all of the homes that it surrounded. We got back through late on Thursday night with time to get some rest and then make the 2 hour drive to Newcastle yesterday morning. We will definately be drawing up a bush fire survival plan for our new home and would urge anyone who lives near bush land or in an area at risk to do the same. Below is a photo of the fire near our home, courtesy of the mid north coast emergency alerts Facebook page. 

After all of the drama, we were very happy to get to our contract signing appointment. We were a little surprised at the pace of the signing. Everything was a bit fast and sort of skimmed over, which creates opportunity to miss important details. The contract was ok we did however come across the following issues:

- Our most recent adjustment (increasing stacker door heights) had been completely excluded despite multiple emails, a quote and phone calls between myself and MDJ. This means they will need to raise a variation and edit the plans for us to correct the error. 

- The contract was drawn up as if our land was unregistered. We did provide verbal and written  notification of this 6 weeks ago and our proof of ownership *sigh*. Those who have read the blog will have seen me post on this back in August! Fortunately all our CLO has to do is ring and get the DP number. 

- Upon returning home I got my ruler out and checked the plans only to discover that none of the internal door heights had been increased (per the contract) and one of our external taps was MIA 

( I was getting a very big headache by this point).

I'm amazed that there are oversights on such common features of the home. Surely if they did it correctly the first time it would be much more time effective for the company, not to mention pleasing for customers. I feel like we have to go into every meeting feeling suspicious and looking for errors, which we really shouldn't have to do. I'm just relieved we picked up the issues at signing. 

So now we wait for the revised plan which has been promised by Tuesday. We are also waiting for the person who deals with council applications to let us know if we will need DA approval or if we can get a CDC (please oh please let it be a CDC). 

A little more progress...

In the last month I have been getting a lesson in patience. My patience isn't a strong point when I'm paying for a service and have a deadline (read: end of fixed price period) hanging over my head. I was very happy to hear from our CLO today who has arranged for us to sign our final contracts next week. A colleague at work started at the same time as us but is building with a master builder... They are nearly at lock up and I'm a bit jealous! It only took them a couple of weeks to clear council so we are praying we have the same good luck!

This week we have been playing around with landscaping software (Garden Designer available on the App Store) and trying to envision what our garden and landscaping might look like. We really have no idea about the layout but do know what sort of plants we would like. Last year we visited Kauai and had the privilege of staying at the Grand Hyatt Resort in Poipu. It had the most magnificent tropical gardens, full of colour and lush green palms. Here is a photo we took whilst there -

We are planning of using similar tropical plants which are suited to the Australian climate. Neither of us have done much gardening and I have been known to kill the sturdiest of plants, so I suppose we have some learning to do. Luckily my dad ran a nursery selling palms and tropical plants as a hobby while I was growing up and has lots of knowledge to share. Here are some of our favorites so far:

Hibiscus flowers are beautiful and come in so many lovely colours. I love the white hibiscus which are a Kauai native because they are one of the few varieties with a fragrance. I doubt it would grow well here in Australia though.

Bougainvillea is another pretty one that we could use a climber.

I've read that cannas are hardy and flower for long periods of time, not to mention all of the bright colours they come in.

This is shell ginger, I spent days snapping photos of it before I realized what it was. There are lots of great unusual flowers that come from ornamental gingers. 

Finally the bird of paradise, an old favorite. 

So it appears we have lots of flowers! I would love to try growing a lychee tree, they are my absolute favourite fruit. I'm sure the fruit bats would have similar feelings, and that's the last thing we need!