An empty block

We now have an empty block. Thankfully the heavens opened, meaning we didn't have to make use of our Water Permit for pre-wetting. After this photo was taken, so much rain occured that our block is now like one big swimming pool. We had a site re-survey on the the 15th of August, so any day now we should here of a site start date. Woohoo!

Timb...er

The Purple Palace is no more!

After phoning the gas ombudsman at 9am, they magically arrived at 9:30, therefore full demolition of the house could take place. I'll let the photos tell the story.

We will no lodge a claim for the day of lost work on behalf of GP and Sons Demolition, who have just been fantastic.

A Whisper in the past...

As the internal walls were getting stripped, a little suprise was found. A letter from an 11 year old girl. Here is a sample of it.

It was such a lovely gesture. We also found out why the purple palace was actually purple.

And not that I think it is linked to the letter in anyway, but this was also found - labelled Christopher 2 and 1/2 years. Looks like it would be from the 70's, going by the carpet colouring and clothes.

A few pics for starters...

P.S. The big machine is called an Excavator.

Today's the Day

The trucks have arrived on site - they are almost as big as the house itself.

ETSA provided a prompt, efficient service on Monday.

The Hot Water System has officially (with police and insurance) been reported as stolen. It was gone before the plumber got there to remove it for us.

The gas company are considered hopeless and may very well lose us as a future customer. After a lot of run around - having it booked at the same time as ETSA, follow up phone calls assuring us the meter would be removed yesterday at the latest, we are here now, with a statement saying it should be removed today, tomorrow at the latest.

Of course the demo team can't start until the gas is removed, so the gas company are holding everyone up now. I thought that's why booking a month is advance was meant to ensure work would be done. Seems not. Here's hoping it WILL get removed today after my angry outburst on the phone and that I can post pictures of progress soon...

10, 9, 8, 7...Demo about to begin, 3, 2, 1...

The Demolition of the Purple Palace is about to take place. The tenants moved out yesterday.

The hot water system is gone (hopefully the plumber did this as arranged 2 weeks ago, and it wasn't stolen - haven't heard from the plumber since 2 weeks ago)

The electricity meter has been removed by ETSA

The lovely looking gum tree to be removed because of borers :-(

View from the back of the house.

The significant tree has approval to be removed. Our new house will finish where that tree currently is.

The distance of our future back yard, from the significant tree to the fence. About 14m. Still a very nice size by todays standards.


Hopefully I can post updates of the demolition in the next day or two.

Our CSA today in an email said "It will all start happening for you now. It's an exciting time though it can be a bit stressful to some but just enjoy the ride as in the end you will have a beautiful new home to show for it."

It's getting exciting. We will soon see action!

Finance Approved

We have official word that after a lot of negatioting, revaluing, reworking - we have our finance approved. The bank had difficulty setting up the loan as it is of a complicated nature, but in the end our wonderful bank manager (Yes S, that's you if your reading) got everything organised. We would never go to anyone else. (And no S. you are NOT allowed to retire while we are on this earth - I know very selfish. but hey your great!) S. should be informing Henley any time now. Full steam ahead. Only a week and a half and I'll be able to start posting photos of our demolition. WooHoo!

Development Approval

We received confirmation today of having received our Development Approval for building. YAY!!!! Just awaiting finance and demolishment of 'The Purple Palace' for the next stage to go ahead.

Currently tenanted until Sunday 5th of July. Demolition to commence Monday 6th of July.

No Pictures Yet - but moving ahead

Sorry, there are still no pictures of anything exciting yet, but we have made some progress. In a nutshell:

• tenants given notice to move out by 5th July on 26th of May (held over from a Fixed Term Contract that expired on 3rd of April)
• received 2 demolition quotes ($10 450 and & $7500 - take a guess as to which one we are more likely to go with)
• further discussions with Bank about Finance (valuation came in lower than expected because we aren't building in a 'new' area)
• 2nd Stage of Council Approval received - Building Rules Consent.

According to our contract, the slab should be laid no later than 19th of August, but at this stage we are ahead of schedule, with the final council approval expected in next couple of weeks, along with Finance approval. Hope it all goes through smoothly.

Demolition Application Approved

We have received notice that our application for demolition and removal of the significant tree has been approved. In what was expected to take 4-5 weeks to come through, only took 11 days.

We potentially have someone who may want the house and take it away, but if that falls through we will simply go through a demolition company.

Spoke to T. from Henley today who is still trying to finalise pricing and break-down of costs with the electrical contractor, but other than that we are progressing well.

The bank pack has been submitted with BankSA and we expect to hear back from that late May.

T. expects final Development Approval to also come in within 4-5 weeks. So all in all, we are on track and will soon give notice to the tenants to leave so we can go ahead with the next stage - BUILDING! YAY!!!

Colours

Because pictures are better than words, here are colours we will use in our home.

Boral Roof Tile - Ebony
(looks much darker in real)





Render - Paperbark











Gutters and Facias - Monument
(looks much darker in real)


Aluminium Window Frames - White Birch






Kitchen and Bathroom Cabinets - Echelon Redwood

Kitchen Benchtop - Caeserstone Night Sky







Bathroom and Laundry Benchtops - Diamond Gloss Starlight










Stairway railing and Front Door - Jarrah

Front Entrance Doors - Corinthian Sunburst












Panelift Door - Paperbark but with Sherwood windows

Contract Appointment

Part A
I’m still up at 12:30 in the morning, researching and trying to prepare for our Contract Appointment at 2pm this afternoon. By no means are we ready, but really that is at no fault of our own as we still haven't received a quote for the electrical layout.

We are completely moved in to our new house. Our old home settles on the 16th of April (after a delay with finance from the buyer), so only a couple more days before we no longer have access. This place has scrubbed up quite well, with many thanks to D and K, D, and R, who have all helped with painting, cleaning, gardening, electrical work… and also M and J who helped with the moving and clean up of our old home. We had a BBQ as a bit of a house warming on Thursday evening, welcoming our lovely neighbour from our old home. I’m so pleased we don’t have to say goodbye to all the good things about our old home.

It has been an extremely busy and slightly stressful past couple of weeks, but in no way overwhelming. There is still so much to organise: fence, change of address details, cancellation of Electricity, quotes (driveway, water storage, solar panels, sliding fence), and lodgement of development application (for removal of the timber frame house and significant tree) with council.

On a more positive, less hectic note, congratulations goes to B and S who had their 1st baby this week – Jake John.

Part B
The contract is now signed, sealed and delivered. Well, received anyhow. We have our draft drawings, contract and bank pack. Whilst we finally received our quote for the Electrical this morning, T acknowledged that we didn’t have time to thoroughly sort it out and said it will just be recorded as a variation. As I now understand these are post contract variations which have no cost, it is only Building Variations that will now have a charge of $550. It feels even more real now that we actually have something official to show for it all in our hands.

What is wrong with the photo?

I hope we don't encounter this kind of problem!

Photo source from http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=15476&hilit=ratio

Tender Appointment

Fuzz mode! That is what my brain is at the moment.

Why?
Our tender appointment went rather smoothly yesterday (although after I explain it may seem like it didn’t) – but I guess it had to as there really aren’t many options, either accept the price and keep something in or not like the price and take it out (hence, not getting the upgrade you may have really wanted).

The initial price we looked at was really scary - not including any electrical work, nor extras such as driveways, fencing or demolition of the current house. However, because we have been active while waiting for the tender appointment I have received quotes for carpet, floating floors and tiling and no matter how we looked at it, it was less than half of the quoted price from Henley’s suppliers and tradies. Predictably we took these options out of the tender.

The news of our really bad soil wasn’t all that good though with Site Footings coming in at $27 285 plus Earthworks cut and fill at $5850, totaling $33135, which is $15135 over our provisional allowance of $18000 (which I also thought to be high). But what can you do. ACCEPT IT. Would rather the house to be safe and secure than go back to square one of the whole building thing.

Other minor variables were the cost of the air conditioning unit (which was quickly sorted out), additonal double hand rails in all bathrooms, changing of tile selection for the balcony and some thought being needed about downlights in the overhead kitchen cupboards and the porch cement slab based on cost. Each of these I will follow up as soon as I can.

At that point I discovered a current promotional Greenfields Saving (of living in a metro area) had not been discounted. YAY! – a saving of $10000, boy did we need that. I pointed this out to T, who thought I had it confused with the house base price being a certain amount and the discount already being applied. I restated that on our original meeting with V, Head Office agreed to us getting a certain discounted base price even though a price rise had just been applied through the Melbourne offices. I also followed this up on the Monday following our meeting via a phone call as V accidently recorded on our paper work two different amounts on 2 different pages. V. confirmed she would make the corrections on the paperwork prior to the Henley office receiving it. T tried to contact V at our appointment but had no luck. An email received today from T, tries to put it all back on us, saying V thought it had all been sorted out and we have to contact V who will explain it to us. Explain it to us I think not, we will explain it to her and she can correct it like she said she would in the first place. $10000 is $10000 and something I am willing to argue about.

On the positive side of things, through receiving the engineers report I now have a scaled drawing of 1:200 to submit to council to apply for demolition of the existing house. I just have to organise an arborist report to send along with the application.

So jobs to undertake now:
Get an arborist report for the significant tree on our block.
Get a quote on a cement slab for the porch.
Decide if $ for 4 downlights is worth it.
Visit Beaumont Tiles to ensure we are happy with our new tile selection
Phone V to follow up the house price.
Phone T to clarify - the type of Panelift door we want, the fridge width, and to request a detailed breakdown of costs for the Site Footings.
Submit the Development application to Port Adelaide/Enfield council for demolition.

Over the past week (through numerous emails and phone calls) I have also tried to follow up W from Henley’s recommended Electricians for a quote. On Wednesday (18th March) when I finally got hold of him, he said he would have a quote for us by Friday this week (originally told by Thursday last week). This still has not arrived by email as promised. He told me by having the weekend to look at it we could make an appointment next week to discuss it further. This of course will be delayed further as he has not come through with the goods. Under normal circumstances I would say stuff them – I’ll go elsewhere, but what can you do when they are the only mob Henley will deal with and it needs to be completed during the build process not after handover.

After a busy day at work, with many follow ups there needed too, my brain has kind of gone into melt down. I’m on my second drink and it’s only 6:20. For anyone who knows me, this is not good as I will be off with the fairies anytime now! Oh well, I must fly off for now, as another busy day ahead tomorrow painting our investment property. We have to move there by the 6th of April, not the 16th as originally thought. Blah!!!

P.S. Sorry for rambling, I kind of do this a bit. Will try to keep it to a minimum from now on.

Facade

Here is a copy of what the facade of our house will look like based on the changes we requested. In Victoria this exact design would be known as the 'Airlie'. Here, we were told we couldn't choose from the Victorian counterparts facades as their division was much bigger than ours in Adelaide and it would not be cost efficient. In the end we got what we wanted, just with out using the word 'Airlie'. Our tender appointment has now been booked for Thursday 19th of March. I'm feeling a bit nervous as I know after this it becomes harder to make changes and it will cost to do so too. Will keep reading the HomeOne Forums just to make sure we have all bases covered.

The settlement day for our current home of 9 years is the 16th of April. The rest of the packing begins!

Carpets and Floating Floors

After our busy day last Thursday and learning the quote for carpets to be $10440, we decided (well, I did anyhow) that we should make some comparisons and see if we could find a better deal.

The first place we went to had one equivalent carpet, but even more expensive per lineal metre, and a sales rep who barely even acknowledged our presence in their showroom.

Then we went to Carpet Choice, where I first went to learn about the difference between different types of carpets, however this time it was the Parafield store, not Modbury. The moment we entered, we received the offer for help, and the opportunity to return should we think of any questions.

In the end after answering many questions regarding ounce of carpets, branding, quality, wear and COST, we think we will more than likely get something through these guys.

Based on these rough workings, which were rather confusing to calculate, given my ignorance of the difference between square metre and lineal metre and not having the Carpet Choice quote in both measurements, Carpet Choice comes out a clear winner on COST at a saving of $4250.

The other differences are kind of counter acted, in that the greater thickness of the carpet may require modification to door clearance, a solution dyed nylon ensures the colour ran through the carpet prior to weaving ensuring less fading, and with the timber, even though it is less thickness, at Carpet Choice they assured me it is the quality of the underlay that affects the acoustics, not the laminate itself. Additionally, the Carpet Choice flooring has a greater variety of colours, coming in the Jarrah we were hoping for.

P.S A lineal metre is approx 3.66 larger than a square metre.

How wide is carpet? (How do I know how much I need?)The standard width for carpet in Australia is 3.66 metres; however, some styles of carpet can be produced in widths of 4 metres. The reason for this width measurement is that the machines used to produce carpet are constructed to allow 12 feet (or 3.66 metres) of carpet to be manufactured. There are only a limited number of machines in Australia that are capable of producing 4 metre width carpet.
(http://www.godfreyhirst.com/faqs.html)

P.P.S. D finds all this boring and is much more looking forward to setting up the Home Theatre! No great surprise there - hehe…

Colour Selection Appointment

It was an exciting day on Thursday making our selections, but also a learning curve in learning about different features e.g. types of tiles and all the elements of the electrical set up. Whilst I will go through our day process and the selections we made, I will have to add photos at a later date once I actually have samples of them all.

First appointment: Cosham Interiors

9:00am to 11:00am (1 hour less than expected)
First things first: the façade we chose – The Scottsdale, with the full balcony, and the side entry, being a grand entry from The Windsor façade did not really match together. T spotted the discrepancy questioning if the Sales Consultant had offered the suggestion of simply raising the roof above the door on The Scottsdale façade. We had not had that option presented to us, but yes it definitely made more sense, so we didn’t have two separate looking houses matched together. She will follow this up with the designers/architects.
Smooth sailing from then on.
Exterior
Bricks: to be rendered
Render: (Colourbond) Paperbark
Roof tiles: (Capri) Ebony
Gutters: (Colourbond) Monument (a very dark blue – blacks have been removed from their range)
Fascia: (Taubmans) Pebble Bay
Downpipes: (Colourbond) Paperbark (we don’t want them standing out)
Infill above windows: (Taubmans) Pebble Bay
Aluminium window frames: (Dowell) White Birch
Meterbox: (Colourbond) Paperbark (don’t want this standing out either)
External doors (laundry and garage): (Taubmans) Pebble Bay
Front door: (Corinthian) Sunburst – (Cabot’s) Australian Jarrah
Garage door – Front: (Panelift) Statesman – Paperbark (with Sherwood windows)
- Back: (Henley upgrade - Rollerdoor) Paperbark
Internal
Kitchen
Benchtop: (Caeserstone) Nightsky
Cabinet doors: (Laminex) Echelon Redwood (now comes with rounded edges as standard)
Kickboard: (Laminex) Echelon Redwood
Splashback tiles: (Beaumont Tiles) Gloss Stone (63201) 200x300 stacked
Frieze tiles: (Beaumont Tiles) (93246L) (to be laid one tile down below Gloss Stone beneath overhead cupboards)
Mixer: not the rounded one
Door handles:
Bathrooms and Laundry
Benchtops: (Laminex) Starlight - Diamond Gloss Finish 873
Cabinet doors: (Laminex) Echelon Redwood
Ensuite cabinet: (Henley upgrade) 4 doors and 3 drawers
Wall tiles: (Beaumont Tiles) Limestone Bone Gloss (48550) 330x330
Floor tiles: (Beaumont Tiles) Limestone Bone Gloss (48550) 330x330
Basins: rounded
Walls: (Bristol Paint) Moon River
Stairs: handrailing – (Cabot’s) Australian Jarrah (to match front doors)
Carpets and Timber Flooring we had quoted from Floors Plus but have since decided not to go with as the cost seems excessive.

Second Appointment: Meccair
We fit in time for a quick bite to eat prior to this appointment as we knew the remainder of the day would be really busy. We spoke to the Henley consultant, who was very helpful, especially in explaining the benefits of the system (which I had previously selected without D’s consultation) to D. The system we have selected (although expensive) is the Actron Plus, which enables us to zone 8 areas, but only have areas running that we need, helping reduce the capacity of energy the unit itself needs to pump out at any given time. The Sales Consultant commented that he wished all people were like us, to make the time to sort out their requirements (including placement of the unit and controllers) so we know what to expect when we get it and can have input into the placement, rather than complaining later that it wasn’t as expected.

Third Meeting: Clipsal Powerhouse
This was an impromptu decision, as once again, we were running ahead of schedule. D was highly impressed by the display which I had previously seen with D’s mum during the holidays. It helped create further excitement for him for our meeting with the electrician later in the afternoon.

Fourth Meeting: Corinthian Doors

Yet another impromptu meeting rather than an actual appointment, however, this yielded no successful results. When I visited during the holidays they informed me the Sunburst doors would be available for display in about a month. Here we are a month and a half later and it is still not in. We have asked Henley to quote us for it, but we would like to see it for real, rather that just a picture prior to actually getting it. Looks like a return visit here will be required. They will phone us when they come in.

Fifth Appointment: Star Electrical

For this appointment, I had very little knowledge and undertaken no research. I was hoping W could be the person to provide us with information. That he did. Lots of $$ worth.We had allocated/budgeted so much, but the new amount came as a bit of a shock. Why so much? Well, what we thought was a C-bus system turned out to be a whole lot of systems combined to produce what is really Home Automation. While the C-bus can be connected to most of the systems, we need to set up and install the other systems first. These include lighting, power points, security, and star serve (for home theatres). W discussed our lighting layout with us, but reflected that the other systems are a little harder to determine at this early stage as we are unsure about where we will set up furniture and what will be in each room. He suggested he will quote us on everything that we discussed, using his experience to estimate what things we will want and require, and then we can work backwards deleting off the things we don’t want, bringing the price back down. Sounds like a plan to me. At least we have made a start on this side of things. Thankfully, this doesn’t need to be finalised until the beginning of stage 3 in about 5 weeks time.

Sixth (and final) Appointment: Bank SA

Time to share the truth. It was great being able to see Steve before he goes on holiday for the month of March, and tell him we now have our house under contract, however the reality of the expected cost of The Majestic was harder to verbalise. Eventually we spat it out. While rather shocked at first, and questioning if we are building a mansion (YES), he sat down and worked through all the figures with us. Final word: some months will be very tight, but we can afford to continue. We could even borrow more according to the almighty computer, however, this is not a path we would want to follow nor could realistically do. At least we know we can keep our dream alive and continue to put in upgrades to our house that can only be done in the build process and not have to skimp and scrape and just build a mediocre home because it was all we could afford. This is our dream. We only plan on doing it once. We have to get it right the first time!

We arrived home at 5:30pm. Such a busy day, but ever so productive. No, not one fight! D and I were in agreeance with everything. We remain really positive about the process and look forward to the continuing searching of quotes for things like carpet, tiling, driveway…or in D's case Home Theatre requirements and accessories.

The night before Colour Selection

I feel like a child the night before Christmas waiting eagerly for Father Christmas to put the presents under the tree.

Our colour selection appointment is tomorrow!

Display Home Photos

While these do not represent our colour selections, there will be some similarities. These are photos of The Majestic show home in Adelaide which closed late in 2008.