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!

The Finer Details

This past week we have been patiently waiting for contact from our CLO regarding some minor final plan changes. We originally asked our sales consultant to quote on LIN 1 doors to the media room but he never included this in the DV and we totally missed it given the mass of other Lin 1 doors around the house. We are hoping we can add doors to the media room without being stung for a structural change to the preliminary plans (apparently the doorways need to be narrowed). Fingers crossed she will get back to us soon as we are very keen to get everything signed off and on to council.

In the mean time we have been musing upon the smaller details of our new home, particularly artwork. We have collected a small number of pieces and prints in our travels that are carefully stored in their bubble wrap, waiting for walls to live on. 

There are a few prints we picked up in Hawaii by an artist from Oahu named Heather Brown. We hope to one day purchase one of her originals, but she has become very popular and they are hard to come by, not to mention expensive! We have visited Hawaii these past few years and it has become a very special place to us. We are hoping to capture a small part of it in the design and the art of our new home. 

Here are some of the Heather Brown prints we have collected which will most likely live in our kitchen and open plan living area.

We also have a large canvas by Australian artist Deborah Broughton, who sometimes frequents The Rocks markets in Sydney. 

We definitely have a Hawaiian/coastal theme going on! There will be many picture recesses to fill in the house so there are some other pieces we picked up in a gallery in Melbourne. They are by Japanese graphic designer Heisuke Kitazawa and American Artist David Burke. 

The first might go into the entryway and is our favourite, it's called 'The Sound of Light'.

The others will most likely live in our media room where the color scheme will be a darker brown

The anime inspired artworks are a bit unusual with the Hawaiian pieces but they will be in separate rooms. There is also a significant Japanese influence in Hawaii which ties them together in a funny way. Having been an exchange student in Japan, I have a love of anime and the general quirkiness of all things Japanese. We have had some very mixed opinions in our art choices but honesty, we love them and couldn't care less about what anyone else thinks! 

And thus concludes today's exhibition ;)