The Rough Draft

Ok, i have finally recovered from the final tender meeting... I may never build on a slope again... then again i may love living on my hill so much i may never move again!  Only time will tell :)

Here are the rough drawings, including the split.  There is a considerable amount of footing at the rear of the house, we are really hoping the council give us the go-ahead... or i think i will just cry :'(

The Front of the House - of course the picture is crooked, not the house ;)

We have Stairs :o

Should be plenty of backyard :)

Check out the Height, at least the views will be great!

The kitchen, we are putting open glass shelves above the sink area rather than closing it in with more cupboards, very excited!!

Final Choices

Well here it is from head to toe...

EXTERNAL

OLD BRICK

• Roof:      Colorbond -   Evening Haze 
• Gutters:  Colorbond -   Evening Haze
• Facia:     Colorbond -   Woodland Grey
• Bricks:   Austral Bricks - Homestead Blackwood  actually looks browner in real life.... very orange/red here.
• Render:  Tabumans -    Smokehaze
• Windows: A&LWindows - White Birch
• Garage Door: Madison Panel Lift - Woodland Grey

NEW BRICK

This size door did not
 fit in our house, plain doors
only now.

INTERNAL

• Walls:  Taubmans - Breaker Beige
• Doors: Taubmans Gloss - Milk Cloud
• Ceiling: Taubmans - Milk Cloud
• WIN5G with clear glazing to Front Door
• Corinthian Rockport 5 Panel doors to Main living doors.

Due to the East side of the house being higher than the fence as we head down the block we have to have special glass in these windows - i like it and i will call it the 'bobbly glass' with clear awnings at the top of the windows.

Bathroom and Ensuite only now!

Kitchen

Kitchen wall tile

• Kitchen Bench: Quantum Quartz - Polar
• Kitchen Cabinets: Polytec - Melamine Porcelain Sheen
• The Window doubling as a splash back is totally WIN!
• Wall Tiles: Beaumont Tiles - Sequenza Almond Gloss Foliage 300x400 (a white tile with light brown leaf pattern - this is going to be a great feature and most likely absolutely hideous to clean >.<)

Laundry - will match the kitchen as it will be visible from the kitchen.

• Laundry Cabinets: Polytec - Melamine Porcelain Sheen
• Laundry Bench: Polytec - Laminate Pearl Fabrini Matt
• Stainless steel trough! (what a winner)
• Wall Tiles: Beaumont Tiles - Sequenza Almond Gloss Foliage 300x400

Ensuite

• Ensuite Cabinets: Polytec - Melamine Gesso Lini Sheen
• Ensuite Bench: Polytec - Laminate Alabaster Matt
• We will be putting in our own stone (marble) basins after  -  a little nervous about this, but it is going to look awesome!!

• Wall tiles: Beaumont Tiles - Gloss Stone 200x300 - basic beige gloss tile.
• Shower feature strip - Beaumont Tiles - Listello Mondo Lamina Cement 50x200
• Floor Tiles: Beaumont Tiles - Lifestyle Almond 400x400.

Floor tile for wet areas

Bathroom

• Bathroom Cabinets: Polytec - Melamine Gesso Lini Sheen
• Bathroom Bench: Polytec - Laminate Pumice Micro Matt
• Wall tiles: Beaumont Tiles - Gloss Stone 200x300 - basic beige gloss tile.
• Shower feature strip - Beaumont Tiles - Listello Mondo Lamina Cement 50x200



Bathroom/Ensuite Wall tile

• Floor Tiles: Beaumont Tiles - Lifestyle Almond 400x400.

The rest of the house are standard inclusions.

Still to choose:

• Carpet
• Hard Floors
• Dishwasher.

Tender

I swear i just aged another year in about 1 minute today!

Ah heck, we have more slope than we had anticipated, 3 metres over the house.  But they have made a really good go of the layout of the house and we really like what they have done. 4 steps in the middle and enough room underneath to put 2 more rooms down the road; a games room and shed for now and probably a bedroom later on if needed ;)

Of course with all those extra bricks comes the extra price... not exactly what we had bargained on, but we really like the end product and we are willing to put those luxuries on hold like landscaping for a little while!  (we are just going to have to simplify :)

We are happy with the prices of the extra power points and light points! And they have been willing to let us finish the ensuite ourselves with our lovely stone basins!!

We are looking at finishing around May 2012... 10 months from walking through the door.  Not what we had planned, but what can we do right?  Asking around most builders guarantee around 9-10 months as a large builder from first meeting to handover so considering our start we are not doing too badly!

3 More days!

Friday 11 November 2011

I received a phone call today... just a little concerning...

Hi Kate, you have quite a lot of slope on your block..

yes, i say

you would probably be better if you split levelled your house..

yes, we requested this

oh? well thats good news..

we want to keep site costs as low as possible

we will and keeping that in mind how would you feel about stumps, we are thinking this might be the best option...

yes, we requested this

oh? you did? with your sales rep?..

yes and with head office!

OH! well great! I will work on that and have everything ready for Monday!

/sigh

Colour Selection

November 2nd, 2011

What a great appointment! Our colour selection specialist was the most patient, un-opinionated person i have ever met!  She was open to all the directions we took our colour selection and came up with complimentary suggestions with ease.

We are extremely happy with the amount of choices offered, their Laminex laminate choices for both cupboards and bench tops are limited mostly to creams and browns (the current trend).  I would have liked to see a few different textures and options in a more 'stone' look and 'wood' look and possibly something like a 'sand' look.  Similarly, Beaumont tile choices were really relegated to the world of browns and creams with very few options in border tiles unless you went for actual stones.

The Taubman paint choices were great, the Colorbond and Quantum stone bench choices great also.  Overall it was just the 'brown' themes that have let them down with the interiors.

Never mind! We are doing our own carpet and floorboard, followed by feature walls in rich burgundies or greens down the track. the kids have already chosen a feature wall colour which we will do before we move in.

Lets get moving!

October 28th, 2011

It seems that I am living in a world where I act quickly and my builders act slowly, although I have read this about Fairhaven in other forums.  I believe once we get to the building stage things will move more to my expectations.

Telephone calls in the morning are returned just before the end of business.  Emails sent in the evening are replied to anywhere from 24hours to 3 days later.  Perhaps I just high expectations as I do not work with that kind of mentality.  I receive an email, i reply... now.  Maybe I am just a nag... :)

No matter the timing, i cannot fault the customer service and quality of service offered by all the staff in Fairhaven's main office and i have since travelled around and visited some the displays in Cranbourne East and Narre Warren and all seem absolutely fantastic. I just started at the wrong display.

Either way after several phone calls and emails to put a push on things we have finally got an appointment for our colour selection. Yay!

The Standard Plan

http://www.fairhavenhomes.com.au/our-homes/ascot-222/

We are going to flip it and possibly split level it as the block runs down away from the road. It will be interesting to see how they draw it up, although i am very nervous about what kind of cost they are going to be coming back to us with.

Fingers crossed they don't break us!

It is very hard buying a house you have never actually SEEN, buying off the plan is a bit of a risk, however the Narrabeen 183 is on display in Narre Warren and seems to be a very similar design, only on a smaller scale; and i really liked it, so i am feeling optimistic :)