Progress...

It has been a while since I last posted... Things have finally started on the block. We've now got a slab. It was poured 2 weeks ago... The frame was delivered the following day and since then, nothing. We met our supervisor on site last Tuesday and he advised us that the carpenter would start the frames last Wednesday but that never happened. This building game is full of highs and lows, that's for sure...

We're approved...!!!!!!!!

Finally, after 8 weeks in council we got approved! A few changes to the plans though. Front porch has been reduced significantly, skylight in study and  our driveway is apparently too close to the water meter. But, we join the construction list today!!!
It seems like it has been one drama after another- but we're finally t the real start line. Two and a half years of waiting... Let's go!

Waiting for council...

This building thing takes a long, long time. Our plans were submitted to council on the 4th of June and we are still waiting. Desperately hoping for approval this week. I spoke with the council assessor who our plans are with and she did say that we should expect something this week. So, fingers crossed.

I also got a call from our CLO last week who wanted to touch base re going over our contract period yet again. Oh no, I thought. He told me that our house price has gone up $8k since our last contract period lapsed... (My heart sank). However, the General Manager, aka my hero, has come to the party and if we get our 'ACC letter' (authority to commence construction) letter from the bank within 14 days of receiving our construction certificate., MJH will waive the price increase.... Yay!!

A quick update on house purchases...

Bought these bad boys:

Also, bought this rug from Temple & Webster, for the Children's Activity room, but we opened it and it has some staining.... So I assume we will send it back and get a refund:

Got this light cover for bubby girls room... It wraps around the light fitting we choose:

We went off to Merimbula to stay with a school friend and her daughter and partner on the weekend and they took us to the Candelo markets. We picked up a 1920's chair for bubby girls room for a super bargain -$50. I am currently in the process of getting quotes to have it reupholstered.... It's looking like a minimum of $700!!!! Holeymoley. Matt is quite keen to just sell it and make a profit and buy a brand new chair with the profit...but I'd like to have it as a keepsake for our daughter... I will keep you posted on the result.

I am desperately trying to find dining chairs. I have found the perfect ones but they come with a hefty price tag (I was quoted $5700 for 8x dining (2 with armrests) and 4x bar stool)... But I realise this is probably too much but we just can't find anything we like. I rely on matt to keep me grounded but even he has shown signs of liking/buying these chairs....

Aren't they AMAZING???

Purchases...

Tonight we hit the shops for some retail therapy... And by therapy, I mean nightmare!! We got an invite in the post from Domayne to get some super savings! We have been checking out some furniture shops lately because we're keen to have a furnished home from the day we move it. (It was a nightmare as the kids were hungry, tired and were acting like terrors)

Anyway... Hopefully I can post some pics. 

Our dining table:

Our coffee table is the same, but smaller and square. Gorgeous, hey? I can't find a pic...but I am in love. I need to find some chairs.. I'm fairly keen on an 'eames' chair but Matt isn't convinced...they look like this:

We also bought these bad boys:

While I'm posting pics... These are the sofas we bought from freedom:

Good news, finally...

Well, finally some news!!!!

We are officially land owners as of may 26, wooooohoooooo!

And we're off to council TOMORROW!

Start line... fading...

We've been delayed again! We have now been given a settlement time of mid-may. I am not positive about it because it has all been for nothing every other month. It definitley looks like we will be charged extra for going over our contract time, so for every additional month after June 8, we pay $1000 on top of what we already owe.

I probably wouldnt care so much about the delays if they hadn't given us false hope every month! It is ridiculous that they have been telling us since September that it will be next month, next month, next month. It's a joke and a real flaw of the developer. Yes, we are excited to be part of the community, but we're losing money because they can't get their act together.

Are my posts getting progressively hostile???

I'm annoyed at our builder (CLO) at the moment. After seeing the display homes down here, we've realised the wardrobes in Beds 2, 3 and 4 are far too small! I want the kids to have room to play- not a room full of drawers and storage cubes. So I asked for our robes to be extended- I was told NO. I asked Matt to question their 'NO'... so I composed an email for Matt to send to the CLO. He replied and said that perhaps we can make the change.... however the builder reserves the right to refuse any variations after contract signing. Anyway, I called him to see what size robes we could get and if there were standard sizes. I also said that we wanted sliding doors. I was told that even extending to robes was a big ask, no way were we going to get sliding doors as well. Can you believe this? No one I have spoken to can believe that they're not willing to make this change (not even our original sales rep and his offsider)...

We are this week waiting to hear from the Operations Manager, who according to our CLO, is the person who will make the call on our wardrobe change. If he doesn't say yes, yes and yes, I will be furious.

We have been tossing up leaving the builder... but when we close our eyes we picture our MJH house and it seems weird to potentially not have that.

Anyway, fingers crossed it all works out.

In other news, we have decided (haha, so I say now) to build again! We haven't even started our first build yet... and I'm making these ridiculous claims, BUT we're not getting everything we dreamed of in this home. So, we'll do this build, hopefully the house will increase in value and we can start all over again. We're thinking of buying a couple of acres and  building the real dream... possibly owner/builder... Stay tuned... I'll probably have news of another delay in a month ;)

Start line in sight... Possibly...

We have a pre settlement site inspection booked in on Sunday morning... We will be driving in as we'll have the kids but it is exciting as it will be the first time we have been on our block! We'll be able to check out our outlook- finally...

Settlement is expected in the next 2 to 3 weeks.. Hurrah! Fingers crossed there's no more delays.

I called our CLO today to ask if we can raise a variation to increase our wardrobes in the kids rooms and he gave me a straight up no. I was pretty disheartened by the answer for many reasons:
1. The standard robes are so tiny - we only realised this after the display homes opened up here.
2. It seems unfair, we made our selections in jan to march 2013... A year ago!
3. Our land is unregistered... There's still time- we understood there would be admin costs.
4. We're stuck with these wardrobes forever :(

Apparently mjh aren't accepting variations for any homes in the next release. It's blanket 'no' doesn't take into account our circumstances...grrrrr... It makes me sometimes think it's worth losing our $3000 deposit and getting absolutely everything we could ever want!

Anyway, off to re-read our contract.

Refresh...

Am checking my email a ridiculous amount of times per day... We were told end of Feb for settlement notification... Tomorrow is March :(

Finally my colours...

Well the kiddies are meant to be sleeping, so I thought i would try and put up some photos of our colours and all our selections... The externals have changed completely since selections... So they're not included in the photos.

I will put a '$' next to items that were an upgrade to standard.

Exterior:

Bricks - Gertrudis Brown $

Render - Taubmans 'Coffee Cake'

Roof - Colourbond 'Woodland Grey'

Gutter and fascia and windows - 'Woodland Grey'

Tank and downpipes - 'Woodland Grey'

Garage door - Contemporary 'Caoba' $

Front door - Newington XN5 - 920mm - Stained $

Laundry Door- JST1 - Stained $

Timber feature above front porch - stained

Front door lock - trilock 'Satin Chrome' $

Fly screens throughout $

Interior:

Bathrooms:

Semi frameless shower screens $

Hated towel ladders (hard-wired) $

Shampoo nook in both $

Bathroom bench top - Essa Stone 'New Sable Luxe' 20mm

Cabinets - Formica 'Silver Strata Velour'

Sink - Manooga 70mm 

Bath - Caroma 'Newbury' 1700

Floor tiles - 'Hemp Brown'

Floor grout - 'Charred Ash'

Wall tiles - 'Tempo Ice' to ceiling $

Wall grout - 'Ultra White'

Bank of drawers in vanity $

Laundry

Tiling - same as bathrooms

Bench top - 'Stipple Seal'  $

Cupboards - Formica 'Silver Strata Velour' $

Overhead cupboards - Laminex 'White #200' $

Doors

Standard Flush -Taubmans 'Illusive White Gloss'

Handles - 'Amelia Lever in Satin Chrome' $

3 sliding doors - Lin1 translucent glazing 'clear lacquer' $

Pantry door - Lin1 translucent glazing 'clear lacquer' $

Pantry handle - horizon 520mm satin chrome $

Painting

Entire house - Taubmans 'Tombstone'

Roof and Cornices - Taubmans 'Illusive White'

Skirting, doors and architraves - taubmans 'Illusive White' gloss

Kitchen

Bench top - Essa Stone 'White Truffle' - 40mm $

Underbench - 'Stipple Smoke'

Over bench - 'White #200'

Sink - Clark under mount 'Monaco double bowl'

Mixer - 'Saracom sink mixer'

Water purifier - Square neck to match mixer

Pot drawers - either side of oven $

Splashback - 'white metal' on starphire glass

Bin - Hettich pull boy bin $

Water point for fridge $

Oven - 900mm smeg standalone (gas cooktop)

Rangehood to match

Dishwasher - Smeg $

Extras:

White Shutters throughout $

Flooring - Genesis 'Sandy Beech' Bamboo $

Carpet - Balieu 'Pumice'$

Tiles to Alfresco - 600x600 Porcelain 'Beryl' $

We have included a driveway... but we might decide to remove that from our contract $

That's all I can think of now, but here's some photos to get an idea of the look (very neutral) that we're going for.

Bathroom/Laundry Tiles and Grout

Our Kitchen colours

Bathroom and Laundry Colours. I am having second thoughts about the cabinets..

Carpet- Bedrooms and Theatre

This is our outdoor tile (alfresco)

Almost the end of February...

It has been a while since my last post... But with any luck, things will start moving along a little quicker. We are hopefully settling on our land in the next week, unfortunately it hasn't had all services connected but that should be completed in March. Our builder has told us from settlement it will take about 12 to 14 weeks to get started (6 weeks of that is council) so we're looking at starting in May or June. Really hoping to be in by Christmas.

Googong township has finally opened- 11 of the 12 display homes are open. There's a mix of homes but most of them are quite large... Some great and some that are not our taste.

We went to a welcome event on Wednesday night, we were running quite late but met a couple of future residents and some googong staff. Also got a nice bottle of Moët which we will have to keep keep to celebrate moving in.

Hopefully I'll have some good news within the week!

Still waiting...

Well, we're still waiting. It's crazy to think that we actually thought we might be midway through our build by now... No such luck! The latest we've heard from the developer is settlement is to be around the end of February. I am skeptical as are many others!

I am feeling a bit down about the waiting unfortunately. I think it's because I really like researching and working out everything to do with the house and now we're just sitting idle. I think I am finally almost 100% happy with all of our selections. We had a few more variations- one which was pretty major. If budgets weren't an issue I could very easily go all out with upgrades :)

1. We received notification that we'd need to change brick because ours had been discontinued. We decided to go with an upgraded brick- Austral's 'Gertrudis Brown'. To go with this we changed our roof, gutters, fascia, down pipes, rain tank and windows all to 'Woodland Grey' and the render to Taubmans 'Coffee Cake'. We also upgraded to laundry door to a stain instead of painted.

2. There was a heap of discussion on the homeone forum about the dreaded ugly cooker switch. We found out at our electrical appointment that the cooker switch was mandatory in all new houses and it needed to be clearly visible. We had to pay for it $150 and pay for a cut in the glass splashback ($70). Originally I wanted Saturn switches for the splashback but when I found out about the switch we just made the switches slimline white. Anyway, it came up on the forum that there is a Saturn cooker switch so our amazing electrical consultant edited our electricals for no admin cost and worked out that we could upgrade to Saturn switches too... Amazing :)

I also made an Enquiry about getting bifold s onto the alfresco but our CLO ruled that out pretty quickly. Such a shame but with all the admin costs it just doesn't seem to be worth it... Also you can't have fly screens on bifold s which isn't very practical here.

Well Christmas is only a week away now. Little miss 10 months' first christmas. Very exciting :) we're off down the coast for a beach trip on the weekend, then back for Christmas and up to Newcastle for New Years and more beach. I plan on forgetting all this house stuff while we're on our much needed break.

Merry Christmas xx

Update and electrical...

It's been a while since my last post... Things have been happening but now that I've returned to work after 8 months maternity leave, life has become a lot busier with a lot less time to contemplate everything that's happening.

Update on land- still no settlement, however we have a curb and gutter and maybe a road... We definitely had road base the weekend before last! The site is still closed to the public but the display homes are meant to open next month so we will get access then. Still looking for a late January/early February settlement.

Update on house- whilst reading another blog it came up that the everyday life bricks had seen some changes. I called austral who confirmed my fears... Our bricks were only temporary due to a shortage of new bricks... So we contacted MJH and they told us to select new ones... We've picked Gertrudis Brown from the Bowral range- a premium brick which is not often used in the ACT according to the sales guy at austral. With the change in brick, we've also decided to change everything else to do with the exterior. We're still waiting to hear from our colours consultant on this but we're thinking Colourbond "deep ocean" for roof, gutters, fascia and windows, surfmist render (or similar) and unsure of down pipes and tank. I really want a beautiful house!!! I have honestly been dreaming about bricks lately... I hope my colour choices work. Also, as we're getting shutters, I'm really worried that white shutters will look odd with blue windows.

Bank update- we've found a great mortgage broker and the paperwork is in progress. He doesn't like the variations that MJH does and when I asked our CLO about this he was rude and now I never want to deal with him again! Matt can have that job from now on. I just don't understand why a CLO would be rude... I worked in customer service roles for many years and I always ensured my phone manner was excellent. Matt and I feel our CLO is not suited to the job, but anyway...

Garden update- we have been slack and still haven't submitted our plans to MJH... Will do so in the next 2 weeks... We did however buy our hedge (photinia robusta)- we are desperately trying to grow it to an advanced size before we move in. We also got a quote done for our retaining walls... One large wall which spans almost the width of the back fence and all the way down the side of the house with a set of stairs and a low stone wall with letterbox pier to the front... All done in beautiful blue stone. The quote was under what I thought it would be (before the quote came back I was stressing it was going to be above $25k), so we're excited about this...

Hmm, electrical appointment went well. It was very very clear and organised. We definitely walked out with a sense of happiness and relief- we got everything we wanted. The time went over but I'm not surprised... 3:30pm appointment is a bit late- we didn't leave until 6:30.

Okay, so we got pretty much everything from my previous post...

Down lights throughout home (LED warm white with white casing)
Tastics in bathrooms (4 x heat)... We didn't get the $900 ones as I read a lot of bad reviews on them- they did require an extra circuit
Spotlight for above garage
Spotlight in backyard
Dimmers to media room
Sensor pantry light
Fluros in garage 2 x double
Ducted vacuum hills cyclonic
Vac pan (white)
Extra power points
2 x tv bracket combos
Outdoor lights for laundry and back of house
Slimline switches throughout
Pre wire for outdoor fan
3 pendants (concrete ones)
2, 3, 4 and 5 gang switches
2 way switches
... And I think that's all...

All up we spent $13.5k on extra electrical but we just wanted it all to be done and sorted before we move in.

Hmm... I don't remember doing a colour selections blog! That will be next! ... And photos too!

Electrical appointment...

Well, unfortunately still no news on the land. The first release people are closing in on settlement but have been advised that it will still be at least mid October before they're allowed to build. I think council take a minimum of 4 weeks.

I really don't want to stress about things but if we haven't received council approval by January we start paying $1k a month. We got in very early, so I guess we have missed at least 2 price rises... Possibly 3 price rises by the time we can start. I read a lot of blogs and threads about stressful situations and I just want to enjoy the whole experience. My partners sister had a very frustrating build and is now suffering through the drama of having post handover problems, so I'm very aware that it can all end in tears.  Fingers crossed we have a smoothe run!

Anyway, tomorrow is another pre build milestone. I love everything house related so I am really looking forward to it- it's electrical time :) They have allotted us 2 hours which I don't think will be enough, but we will see. We're taking baby L along... Hopefully she's on her best behaviour.

We have included an $11k allowance for tomorrow- fingers and toes crossed that we are under.

This is what we need:
Down lights throughout (not bed 2, 3 or 4)
Sensor pantry light
Tastics in bathrooms
3 x pendants
Exhaust fan/light in laundry
Fluro in garage
Extra power points (+1 outdoor)
Ducted vacuum
Vac pan
Tv bracket pack x2
Antenna (not sure if we need 1 though)
Dimmer for theatre and maybe alfresco

This is what we'd like if we can afford it:
Security sensor above garage
Alfresco fan
Fancy switches on the splashback
Slimline switches
Patio sensor down lights

I also think we need to get some extra vents put in for our ducted heating (7 are included) and that won't be enough and potentially we will need to buy extra circuits or something so we don't overload the power box... Like we do at our current house on a weekly basis... No washing machine while vacuuming or ironing. Perhaps our house now is allergic to housework haha.

Anyway, I shall be back with all things electrical soon :)

Waiting...

Well not much has happened lately. Our plan was finally approved by the developer, so now we just wait for them to tell us our land is good to go!

We have started speaking with mortgage brokers too. As this is our first home, we've never had to ask for hundreds of thousands of dollars so it's all very daunting. Thankfully we have good jobs so getting a bank to lend us money shouldn't be an issue (or so says mr mortgage broker man). At the moment we are just trying to save- which will be much easier to do when I go back to work in just over a month *cry*. Maternity leave is the best!

So apart from the money aspect, we've been doing a lot of thinking about garden plans. We are thinking native for the front and easy care, child friendly and nice looking for the back yard. Our builder has given a couple of plans (free of charge) to use. A garden plan is needed to gain approval.

Contract signed...

Well, it's done. We finally signed our contract! It took 3 hours but we took care with everything to ensure we haven't missed anything. At the office they have just done the colour studio fit out and we saw the pendant lights we want... They're big and a bit bling but I think they'll look great!

Our land registration has been pushed back to November now... It's not a huge concern for us as it means more time to save, save, save!

Next step... Electrical. We have budgeted $11k and plan to do everything through mjh. I hope we come under budget. We want LED down lights throughout, pendants in the kitchen, ducted vacuum, extra power points, and two tv bracket packs, tactics in the bathrooms possibly a fan too... Nothing over the top.

Patience...

We are patiently waiting to receive another deposit variation from MJH.... Because we have had some issues with our plans, we had to change a few things and add a study and change the style of the wardrobe. The problem being our block needing to have 2 rooms to the front of the house. Our original plan only had 1 room with the appearance of 2. Mjh are meeting us half way as we were assured back in oct/nov last year the the appearance of 2 rooms would be approved by the developer.

Waiting, waiting... We were promised we would receive it yesterday morning.. At the latest!

The very beginning...

So, my very first blog! Fingers crossed it is easy as I am not even slightly tech-savvy. I'm also not down with blog lingo, so you will have to excuse me, haha.

Well, a little about me... I am writing this as my babies are sleeping. I have Little Miss L who is almost 3 months old and Master J who is 3 years old. I am very lucky that Master J still has day sleeps. My partner, Matt and I have been renting our little free standing unit for 3 and a bit years and have decided to take the plunge and build our very first home. We have officially grown out of our little 3 beddy, it's bursting at the seams.. Overflowing with matchbox cars, dinosaurs, Lego, Tupperware and every other thing you can think of!

Early'ish last year we bought a block of land in a new development called Googong. It's just across the border and will be a new township.. It is unlike any suburbs in Canberra... Requirements such as electric car charging station in the garage, living space in front yard, garden completed within 3 months... With specific requirements such as an advanced hedge, 2 large trees, pathway... There's actually 70 plus pages of requirements. I am happy with this as it will ensure the town looks great. With the requirements, we will also be kinder on the environment... Something I think we can all improve on.

We decided  at the end of last year to build with McDonald Jones Homes. Their designs stood out, they're unlike any display homes in Canberra, where we live!  Also, they are part of the Guild and they are aware of the requirements of the township... Making it a bit easier for us.

We signed our first tender in January this year, completed colours in March and we are now waiting on final contract (I think)... Unless I have missed a step. We have had to modify our design a bit, to incorporate 2 rooms to the front of the house (another requirement for blocks over 18m wide).

Our house is the Veuve aka the Havana. It will suit our family perfectly. I will upload photos of our colours when I work out how to do this. I hope to do as many others have done with their blogs, documenting everything to do with building our very first home.

Oh, another thing, our land won't be released until September... As far away as that seems, with 2 children, time really does fly!!!!