Monument out - Woodland Grey in

Exterior house colour selections

Sorbetto brick(surfmist and white with it)

 gutter - woodland grey

fascia - surfmist

window frames - white (with white shutters later)

 

Our bagging colour was going to be Taubmans Dutch Metal but we are, well I am, second guessing that.

So I am getting a few sample pots to try tomorrow.

Contenders are:

Not our house but this home has many of the coloures we have chosen.

Gunmetal roof - woodland grey gutters - sorbetto brick - charcoal driveway - surfmist render

We don't have any stained timber or slate. I personally don't like the brown with this colour combo and I have said before the slate will date. Although at the moment my favorite "under construction" house has this gorgeous pale cream and almost white slate on the front pillars and it looks AMAZING. I even contemplated asking Michael if we could change all our colours and have that slate. I should take a photo. I will take a photo. It's almost complete.

Water Pump Update

Just quickly. I have not heard back from the builder officially but I did a drive past on the weekend and the water board have started the job. Hole dug, area fenced off, pipes and pump looking stuff all there.

I went past on Friday arvo too but there were no workers. I guess being a Friday at 2.30pm they were at the pub!

Front Elevation

Kitchen Tap

Dorf Kytin Single lever mixer tap for kitchen. It's a goodin'

Doors and handles

Our front door. We were going to get glass but everyone seems to have the same cookie cutter front door everywhere you look. So we chose this one. It's more traditional but still contemporary. Paint will be colour matched Surfmist.

This is our external door handle

Internal door handles like this in brushed chrome(chrome pictured). I don't fancy having to clean little finger prints off shiny chrome handles throughout our home. Dirty chrome will drive me INSANE!

There may be light afterall

I spoke to Casaview who have been quite helpful this afternoon. It's certainly not their fault this water issue but it is there problem as they have all these clients waiting to build. Casaview informed me they have 11 DA's waiting to go to council. They are just sitting there waiting on that sub division being registered. They said they have been concerned as well and want this resolved ASAP. Otherwise they will have to do basix again and they also don't want all their clients waiting to start building much longer. I guess it costs them money and time too.

So where is the light? Landcom have finally got an answer from the water board and they say they have plans to install the pump at the end of this week. Casaview should know by early next week if this has taken place and they will then inform us late next week. Hopefully everything will go according to plan.

I raised the issue of them building the same house next door to us and they said they are planning to do that but that they will make sure that the colour selections are completely different from ours. That we have chosen first so the next client will have to have something different. This is a minor relief but until I see both being built and that they are in fact different, I won't be completely at ease. There is also another Majestic(our design) in our street, our small 12 house street but she assures me it is a Majestic Mk11 model and is slightly different in design on the front. I don't want to live in mushroom city. The brick, gutter, fascia selections are one factor but I guess with the other factors in play like rendering, bagging, slate, paint, roof tile styles, window styles plus all those colours there will be many factors varied. We will see.

Trouble has started

We have encountered a few issues this past week and we are not happy.

We have just found out that the water on our land is a trickle and the water board need to install a booster pump to rectify the problem. Until this is done council will not register the land. We cannot exchange or settle until the land is registered. Landcom say they were told 8 weeks ago that it would be rectified in 4 weeks! Now they are saying that it might not happen before Xmas and not to be surprised by this. What are they joking! No they are not! So we may have to rent until this time next year not as planned until March/April next year.  We thought they would be breaking ground for the slab in October and now find out more like January. So frustrating. Then this morning our solicitor said that these things can go on for 12-18 months, add 9 months building to that and that is 2 and a quarter years! 27 months!OH F#$^&%$%&&^$%&*& many swear words here. I am freaked out!

I feel as though our life is on hold. We can't plan anything! Not having a timeline is frustrating. Anyway if we don't get into the house until, let me do the maths...December 2012 or January 2013 then we can't move forward. We are stuck. OMG Chloe will be four and she isn't even two for six months. Oh man. I am freaked.

Then to top it off I found out by chance they are planning on building the exact same house as ours next door to us. Michael thinks it will be fine with all the different details but who knows if there will even be a house now. I feel very low.

Movement

As we were doing the very last check and clean of our beloved Callicoma on Monday Casaview called to make the appointment for our colour selection. Through the tears running down my face I managed to make the appointment for this Friday. Michael can't do it any other day. It was a timely phone call and did remind me why we moved in the first place but I still cried as we shut the door and drove up the street.

Yesterday we got our electrics plans to play around with.

We signed the land contract on Monday arvo.

We have movement!

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.

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.