Tiles Done

We ventured in to the Tile Gallery on Friday 4th June to make our selections. Now this was one of the problem areas as Jas and I just did not see eye to eye.

In the end we compromised and used bits and pieces of each others ideas coming up with something a bit like this, only the floor tiles are a little lighter.

These are our selections but I have struggled to get a good picture of them.

The white gloss tiles 100x300 will be in the shower walls and behind the bath. While the brown matt tiles 300x600 will be on the floors and up the bath.

Wow I have been slack, haven't I, but finally I have some exciting news to post.

Our block of land finally titled on Tuesday 8th June and we have been informed that settlement will be Tuesday 22nd June (my birthday woohoo).

I can't wait to get things started.

Our Beautiful Block of Dirt & Street,

Our beautiful block of dirt and street, we are slowly but surely getting closer to our build now. Hopefully only a month to go.

I was very excited the other day to find the below image of the estate on the developers website.

I was also very excited when the Estate manager told me that on Sundays we can walk in to the Estate and have a closer look at our block so we will be heading out next Sunday. I can't wait to stand on my soon to be land.
We are still expecting titles late May.

Quick Update

Well .. today was supposed to be settlement day so i'm a little sad. We recieved a letter from the developers to inform us our new settlement date is 27th May 2010, so fingers crossed it wont be delayed again.

We went for a drive out to the estate on Saturday and found there were light posts in our street (well the dirt road I am calling our street), I was so excited.

I'm absolutely gutted, I just got a call from our CSO to tell me she heard from the developers and our land settlement has been delayed until May. I had an idea that it might be the case but just hearing it officially made my heart sink. The only positive I guess is that it gives us a bit more time to save. Not looking forward to telling my other half tonight.

The Wait

We have now signed the Land Contract, the Building Contract and I am picking up the Mortgage Documents today to sign. So the only thing holding us up now is the settlement of the land. We were supposed to settle on the 1st March 2010 but it looks like it is going to be a bit later in March at this stage. We are starting to get excited now and are visiting the developing estate at least once a week. I was so excited to see that our road is starting to form (where the truck is in the top left corner).

Adding The Personal Touches

Our appointment at the Simonds Gallery was booked in for the 24th September 2009 and the first point of call was the electrical layout, we decided to keep it pretty similar to the original as I am related to an electrician who I plan on getting in after the house is finished to make the changes i want. We added a couple of power points and moved a couple of things but that was about it.

After our electrical appointment we made the all important colour selections. Some of which I have listed below:

Bricks - Austral 'Hawthorn'

Mortar - Rolled 'Off White'
Roof Tiles - Monier Concrete Elebana 'Sambuca'

Garage Door - Panelmasta Caprice 'Paperbark'

Rear Garage door - 'Paperbark'

Fascia - 'Paperbark' (see above)
Gutter - 'Monument'

Aluminium windows & door frames - 'Merino'
Render - Unitex 'Bison Beige 2894D'

Internal Walls - Haymes 'Oak Buff'

Ceilings/Cornices - Builders White
Robe doors, skirtings/architraves & internal doors - Haymes 'Minimalist'
Kitchen benchtops - Caesarstone 'Latte'

Kitchen cupboards - Panelart 'Colombian Walnut'

Vanity benchtops - Laminate 'Desert Zephyr'

Vanity cupboards - Panelart 'Colombian Walnut' (see above)
Laundry benchtops - Laminate 'Desert Zephyr' (see above)
Laundry cupboards - Panelart 'Colombina Walnut' (see above)

Carpet - Carpet Call Hawkins Range 'Pod'

Timber Floor - Trueloc 6000 Series 'American Oak'

What a relief it was to walk out of that place with everything except the tiles chosen. It was one of the most stressful days, but I think we did ok.

Our Dream Home

Now that we had the land part sorted it was time to decided on our dream home. From the information we gathered from all the display home visits and the stack of brochures that were overtaking the back seat of my car we decided on a Simonds home, the Flagstone 2150. Only problem was we hadn't seen the display home which was in Geelong. We loved the layout of the house and how it would sit on our block, so we made the treck down there and fell in love even more. On Sunday 26th July 2009 we made an appointment with a Simonds consultant and outlined exactly what we wanted and put a deposit down for the build.

The changes we made included widening the garage by 1m, a roller door at the rear of the garage and raised ceilings in the kitchen, lounge & meals area.

Our Land

After a couple of visits in May & June to display homes and estates in the area to get an idea of costs, we made a decision on the estate where we would purchase our land, Summerhill "Your Place In The Sun". On Saturday 4th July 2009 we nervously (really I was the only nervous one) put a holding deposit on OUR block of land. We got a copy of the contract to take to our solicitor to check over and after getting the go ahead from him we signed our lives away on the 13th July 2009.

The Beginning

It all started early last year when we decided to purchase a house together. The $32,000 FHOG was a big influence, but mainly it was really time for us both to leave the nest and why pay someone elses mortgage.

We spent months looking at established houses and just couldn't find anything in our preferred areas at a price we could afford. I think the final straw was when we went to the auction of a house we both loved and it ended up selling for almost $100,000.00 over the advertised price. It was after that we started looking into some estates and house & land packages, much to my dismay.

After much persuasion from Jas it was agreed that this was the best option to get us started. The next decision was North, South, East or West. In the end after weighing up all the pros and cons of each direction we went with North. For what we could afford we got land closer to the CBD and closer to both our works.

I thought this would be a good way to document our journey as first time builders and first time home owners, so here goes .....