Bagging

We are having the front of the portico bagged and painted. Yah! Paint colour to be decided.

See some you win, some you lose. It's all about the balance.

Kitchen extras decided

So we are not having the glass cabinets. They cost about 2 grand which was ridiculous so they are OUT. The silver kickboard was only $300 but Michael isn't keen now so there wasn't a point. No canopy range hood. I really, really wanted it but Michael doesn't. I have also been looking at various kitchen designs and have got used to the slimline style. It will work with our kitchen well.

Included is

1. wider caesarstone bench 920mm plus add 3 meters of bench top
2. extra cupboards
3. moving sink and dishwasher 
4. kitchen extension to end wall
5. 820mm high kitchen cupboards to suit the higher ceiling height

It's going to look nice.

Something is happening

We signed the variations and preliminary drawings on the weekend.

And drum roll...the contract for the land arrived. Far out it is huge, over 100 pages long. We are seeing conveyancer on Monday to go over it properly. It's exciting.

What's New Haven About!

New Haven is just dedicated to the specifics of building our new house. So everything to do with the land, builder, actual building and colour selections etc. I have decided, after trying to have three blogs(what was I thinking!) that I  will not keep much on the side bar as it is too hard to keep all the new additions up to date. For my fav blogs, day dreaming, inspiration or all the goss on the move or anything else plus Chloe updates go to http://sweetpeatobe.blogspot.com/ that's my main blog.

I am thinking once the house is handed over and we move in I will keep New Haven as an archive about the build.  That's the idea.

Our Block

We are wondering if you will still see some of the rolling hills once it is all built. The block is fairly high. Of course unless some person builds a double storey behind us. That would be awful!

Exterior Colours

We decided after much debate to not go with the crema brick. It's nice and classic but I couldn't decide on the other colours and I didn't want everything to be cream. Michael wanted black which I didn't want this time. I just don't think it would look as good as out current homes facade and I didn't want to feel disappointed. We saw the new house built by another couple in all cream and it looked so bland and dull. Neither of us liked it. Plus I really wanted white windows and that would look crapola.

So we have decided that this is going to be the colour scheme. The only thing up for debate and decision is whether to use the charcoal brick named espresso as a feature on the front portico (Michael's idea) or to bag and paint in mid grey (my preferred option).  

Actually it is going to be quite different to any other house in the area, hopefully in a good way. I didn't want a stock standard house facade. The facade on our current home is so lovely and it is going to be hard to beat so I am hoping that going completely different this time will pay off.

It is hard to get a real idea from the samples below as the brick will make up 60% of the colour so it is a bit disproportionate but you get the drift. I'm actually excited. I can see it finished in my head and it looks good.

The kitchen is going to be great, money dependant of course.

Meet with Mario from Brindabella on Friday. Spent an hour and a half going over the changes we would like. He had a few drawings ready from our telephone discussions.

I wanted a white kitchen but then saw alabaster and it looks so much like white but a bit warmer that I started swinging towards it. Looked at Caesarstone benches. Still like osprey but also like white shimmer it is osprey but with a shimmer, very nice and different. Also liked white snow. Michael likes them all. Am off the cracked pepper as different samples have different composites of aggregate in them and the one I saw on Friday had a lot of black which I didn't like. Anyway made preliminary decisions.

Variations include(essential)

moving sink
moving dishwasher
adding breakfast bar of 1.5meters(there wasn't enough bench space)
adding extra cupboards
caesarstone benches at 92cm depth not 74cm.
add to over head cupboard height(not essential but recommended as ceiling height is 2.945 and bulk head would look strange they say).

Other options I would love are: polyurethane doors(I like satin), glass overhead cabinets and canopy range hood. Michael would like silver kick boards. Michael isn't as into the range hood or glass cabinets but I am. So we just have to wait to see what the first lot of variation costs are like. I guess they can be justified if they are in budget but I'm really not sure the budget will allow the changes but a girl can dream big can't she. Some compromises will have to be made and these items are luxuries not essentials.

So on Sunday arvo I started to feel a bit better(I've been quite sick) so Michael asked me to go to the show home up the road from us so we could look at the benches in the house there. When we got there low and behold they had the kitchen I dreamed of sitting right there with the same colours and everything we have already chosen or would like. High ceilings, white cupboards, bulk head, osprey caesarstone, same door handles, double sink, lots of bench space, silver kick boards, polyurethane doors(I like satin), glass overhead cabinets, 900mm oven with gas cooker and canopy range hood. IT LOOKED AMAZING. As I said I won't get it all but it did look super and even with what we are already getting it's going to look great. I'm so excited. 

More praise for Casaview

Again Bill at Casaview has been great. He met with us last Friday with no appointment, spent ages with us discussing our needs and then got our second  lot of drawings back to us by yesterday. Speedy.  I just spoke with him again and he went over some small tweeks he has made to the drawings.

The kitchen wasn't quite what we wanted and even with the changes it looks too small as I said earlier. So I called the kitchen company Brindabella Kitchens and Mario called me back within minutes. He was extremly nice and accomadating and I have an appointment to work out what we want on Friday of this week! He will then do a quote for the variation, he said within a few days and then we will know if it is possible. Wow that's service for you hey.

Mario at Marvel Tiles also without an appointment spent some time advising us and letting us browse the show room, even though our tile selection won't be for a couple of months at least. He was chirpy and helpful and likeable.  

And I forgot to mention that Marian the sales person, besides her intial mistake which was in our favour,  was very helpful, friendly, kind and warm. Great to deal with.

I am loving casaview and associates at the moment. Really if you align yourself with good people it truly reflects so positivley on you or your company. I hope this is an indication of the build experience to come.

Just a couple of changes. Ha!

Preliminary Drawings B

New drawings showing:

split level

new changed windows

larger family room

larger bathroom

second linen press

larger wardrobe

slim line water tank

two steps at rear

kitchen - which is wrong - needs more changes. It's not what was dicussed, well kinda but not.