So far Casaview have been great.

Firstly their sales person when I made my initial enquiry stuffed up and told us the package was $7K cheaper than it was supposed to be. I enquired on one lot in our to be street and she directed me to another saying I had it wrong. Now apparently I was not wrong but she was. When this came to light and they realised what she had done, they called us to explain and after a few calls, with no stress on our part honoured the cheaper incorrect price. I have to say I think this was great.

Secondly, I spoke to Bill the architect at Casaview today about various things and he seems so lovely. He returns my calls promptly and takes his time to discuss our needs. He has done this since my first contact with him last week. So far so good.

We got the quote for the split level today, which may I say was done within a week, thank you to Rob. I was a bit scared as I have heard horror stories of variation quotes taking forever but it seems Rob has it sorted. Anywho...drum roll...it is totally doable! YAH! Michael was right! Yah! So we are having the house split level. It is going to be lovely. Almost the entire house will have higher ceilings. 500mm higher than the norm. This reduces the level at the rear of the home. It may even remove the need for a deck completely which will save us a bundle because there is stenciled concrete included. Bill is checking the new elevations to be exact and will get back to us soon. I can see it now, the high ceilings will certainly make the space seem much larger which helps as our home is not going to be huge. 26 squares if I didn't mention that previously.

We will be getting our new drawings once we decide what to do with a few other areas under discussion. This is a direct paste from Rob's email to Michael and myself. "Note – the alfresco enclosure will be drawn on the next set of dwgs you receive."

Yah I am soooo excited! Now if I could just learn or unlearn how to stop mistyping the word "teh" or sorry the! Please forgive my lazy brain and fingers.

House Facade

The illustrated house on the title is for illustration purposes only. Our facade will be different.

1. No slate - it's very expensive, will date and is not a priority for our budget. Maybe bagging or different brick - not sure yet. We may just bag ourselves later when we see the finished home.
2. No tiny square windows. We will have a third long window in its place. We think they look dumb from the interior.
3. We have requested french style windows. Of course a modern look a like, not actual french windows.

Window example. Gosh I love that tumbled brick but Michael doesn't go for it.

Preliminary Garden Design

After much discussion preliminary garden design(very basic) but teh ideas are there.

House Colours

I went over to the display room today and had a first look at the colours for real.

Found a lovely paint. Taubmans - moonlight frost

Mixed n match the colours Michael and I have been discussing for the exterior and to me the cream and dark grey seems to work better with the brick than the light grey, white and dark grey. Another couple were in the SR at the time and I asked them and they agreed. Of course Michael will have to have a look himself. I brought home some samples for him to have a look at so it will be interesting to see what he thinks.

I saw samples of the Caesarstone tops, most are lovely. I saw the Osprey and Snow both are how I imagined but what was a real surprise and not even on the spectrum - Cracked Pepper. Oh it's so nice. I don't know how it would go with everything else or Michael's opinion but I liked it.

1.cracked pepper(much nicer in RL 2. osprey(much whiter in RL) 3. snow(white)

I went to the tile place which is two doors away and had a look. Wow lots of nice tiles are included so I can't imagine the endless possibilities. I saw gorgeous main floor tiles in a cream stone look. Oh la la. The tiler was there and said on the diagonal will cost about $6/sm2, that adds around $470, not sure if that is workable yet with our other changes but we don't have to decide on tiles until the frame is up, so a while yet.

I saw gorgeous blue glass mosaics(not included) but divine and tempting. A really nice white matt tile with a stripe pattern impressed into the tile(included) for the kitchen, something I never imagined but also really  tempting. Modern taupe and grey striped bathroom tiles that just said wow factor. The tiler said we can have them as a feature(inc) he would work them in for us. If I was choosing today and alone I could have gone classic and chosen tiles in 20 minutes or I could have made more on the pulse choices but that would have taken all day. What will win for us? The classic plan that doesn't date or the on a whim what we like now? I wonder what Michael will like? We had no probs picking tiles for our current home so hopefully it will be the same.

Speaking of extra costs we are awaiting so many price variations and have not heard back anything as yet. It makes it so difficult as to know where to spend money or cut it.

We need the cost on the split level and/or the cost on the deck and pergola. We need a cost on the kitchen extension. We need costs on retaining walls and possibly painting Chloe's room a different colour to every where else to save me the hassle after we move in and the carpet is down. 

I had a lot of fun looking around today but I didn't see nearly half the tiles. Michael is having a day off soon. Guess where some of the day will be spent?? I'm guessing much to Michael's disdain but I LOVE IT.

Interior colours

This is a direct copy form Sweet PTB really it needs to be over hear.

For the interior I like white. I was talking to Michael about the kitchen and I said white cupboards, white tiles and white caesar bench. I like snow and osprey. He just walked off saying and I quote " white, white, white and more white, everything is going to be WHITE!". Owww sorry, I thought you knew I liked white but at least I am not trying to "shabby chic your life!". There will be NO shab, maybe a little chic but I would like a classic but modern look.

I still love Ikea so there will be ikea too, I can't help myself and I have no intention of disposing of my current furniture whilst it is in perfect condition so there will be ikea. I am hoping that through some clever design, bargain finds, second hand fixer uppers and a little muscle to be able to have a lovely, lovely decorated home that doesn't cost the earth.

Now remember this is what I would like. Michael still has to have his say but this is my blog so this is what I want, whether I get it is another thing but indulge me please.

So you know I want a white kitchen, that goes for the bathrooms and laundry as well. I like cream natural looking floor tiles the same as in our current home. Large format for the living spaces laid on the diagonal with a border. A similar colour smaller format tile for the bathrooms/laundry. I am thinking either dark taupe carpet or possibly dark grey, I like it's ability to disguise any marks. Off white walls and trims. White furnishings with some natural timber pieces to warm the space. Cream and white couches. I have also been thinking too much white may look cold or lack some depth with the all white kitchen and so many white furnishings and pale walls and floors so I think we should splash some colour about the place through pictures and cushions and ornaments. Things that can be changed easily should we tire of them. Maybe a couple of feature walls. I was thinking taupe in the family room but that doesn't add much colour, I just had an idea - pale icy turquoise for the family room I can see that now, Oh that would be lovely. Dark blue like almost navy would be fabulous in the media room, very moody and would set the scene for dark DVD viewing during the day. I wonder if Michael would go for either of those, he is pretty adventurous with colour. Michael wants to add doors to the media room to block out the light and I think the blue would absorb more light. I'll have to talk to him about colours once we move into the house and see how the light plays in each room. For now it's all white on white with a bit of cream, taupe or grey I guess.

It's so exciting. Of course the house won't be what it is supposed to be when we first move in. I wish I could fast forward five years and have a peek around. I would love to see the garden too. Oh this is so exciting.

House Plans

Original plan from builder

Our first rough lot of changes to the plan

Brick colour

Crema by PGH

What's happening stage 1

for the start of whats been happening follow the link to my other blog

http://sweetpeatobe.blogspot.com/2010/07/we-are-in-cooling-off-period-house.html

New blog

You may be a reader of my other blogs Sweet Pea to be or All things Bambini  or you may be a new reader only interested in homes etc. You can read more about my family at Sweet Pea to be. Since we are building a new home soon I have decided to create a new blog. it will be dedicated to the building of our second home so we can look back and remember all the details plus it will be a great "scrapbook" of sorts. The house is being built by Casaview Homes.

A little background as to how we got here. We had been tooing and froeing(?) about what to do next, install a pool, extend our current home, sell, build, buy or stay and then Michael saw this great deal on realestate.com for a great house and  land package.  We looked into it and thought it was a sweet deal, then the government stopped stamp duty on newly built homes under 600K and well, we couldn't resist the added sweetness, so the decision was made.

At this stage we have just received our preliminary drawings which have gone back to the architect for him to make the changes we have asked for. I am hoping that this building process will result in a quality and quickly built home and that all goes smoothly without too many extra costs. That's what I am hoping for. Oh and I hope there is a dash of fun thrown in along the way, after all this should be an exciting time for our family.

Here is our family