Exterior Colours

So here are the (unconfirmed) choices for the exterior:

 Roof: Colourbond 'Pale Eucalypt

Gutters: Colourbond 'Wilderness'

Facia: Colourbond 'Paperbark'

Eaves, front door & garage door etc: (paint colour to match 'Paperbark') perhaps Haymes Paint 'Thistle Flower'??

Brick: PGH townhouse range 'Colonial'

House Number

I see that Mia's Folly has a house number so i thought i would tell you ours.

We will be living in a number 47 house, which i think is a nice number. I just didn't want it to be a 33, 66, 13 etc lol. I wanted a number like 25, 7 or a number with 7 in it. I asked the builder what the street number was when we first started looking into the block. I think he thought i was a bit mad or something. He said he had never been asked that before and they usually didn't find that out until you actually move in and have to get a mail box! Anyway, when we signed the contract we found out it was 47 :)

very happy with that :) It also has a nice ring to it when you say the whole address :)

Bricks

I also went to look at bricks yesterday. Stupidly i went in the afternoon on a near 40* day!! The walls were all outside with no shade so by the end i was sweltering : (

We have to choose from the PGH range. I really liked the sandstone range, then realised that they will be an extra $2k --> $3k :(

There weren't that many i liked in the standard range, and the ones that are ok are blends so we would still have to pay a bit extra. I went by the block to have a bit of a look-see - and the builder was actually still there working on our neighbours place (which is rare as he actually lives in a town 2hrs away)

I talked to him for a while and he said the brick ranges are all changing so there might be some new ones we like. He also said that as we are half way between Sydney and Brisbane he sources from both states (which have different ranges at no extra cost to us) So i'm going to check out QLD's PGH range and hopefully find something i like!

kitchen!!

Yesterday was a busy day for me, first I went to the kitchen shop to have a look at choices. It was lunch time so i was free to roam and look at whatever i liked while all the assistants had their break. I think  i prefer it that way as i could think for myself without being followed around. Anyway I had a look at some of the larger samples of Laminex and other laminates.

At the moment we are looking at getting Laminex Coolum (pale blue/green with cream tints). This was a compromise between DH's blue bench and my choice of creams/browns etc. It will still be fairly adaptable but will add a splash of colour. It's fairly light so it won't be too obtrusive even if a future buyer doesn't particularly like it. See sample below.

and here is a sample of it as a laundry bench (it changes colour with the wood pattern they have used)

and as a kitchen bench:

I went through all the creams, beiges & brown laminate brands to find a match. I ended up choosing Laminex stone beige. It picks up the cream/brown flecks of the benchtop.

The colours together. Benchtop: Coolum Laminex, Kitchen cupboards: Stone Beige Laminex, Paint: Hogs Bristle Dulux (idea only)

I love the look of the kitchen doors with an arch design (eg in photo above with coolum bench and white cupboards) but it is going to be too expensive so i will just have to stick with plain laminate cupboards.

While i was at the shop one of the assistants gave me a copy of the kitchen plan :) He had only just finished drawing it the day before so the builder hadn't given it to us yet. I'll post pics once i have scanned it

furniture

Ok, to give you an idea for themes etc i have taken a few pictures of our furniture. We decided to update furniture before we build as we weren't sure if we would ever be able to afford to replace things once we have a mortgage. We bought quality stuff with the intention of it lasting for at least10 years.


 Our bed

  Lounge recliners (yes i used the same cushions from the bed, hehe)

  Rest of lounge room (sorry about clutter but you get the idea of furniture)


 Main dining tablethe table we eat at (the other one is too big for just the two of us!) 8 chairs in total. 

update

It's been a while so i better update:

We still haven't decided on a feature tile after 3 trips to the shop :( i'm happy to pay the difference if i have to but DH is not so convinced.

We went to the carpet shop yesterday and chose a nylon twist carpet in a latte colour. DH wanted cream but i think we will stick with the latte as it should hide stains that little bit more. The room will lighten it anyway and i don't want a cream carpet that will glow once it's in the room. The carpet is right on budget which is great as i was worried it would go wayyy over. This means we might have a little more leway with the tiles :)


The builder rang last week to tell us he was sending out a colour selection pack :)  (we do it all ourselves as we are not building through a big company) It is now thursday and still no pack so i might ring him tonight to find out if he was slack or if it just got lost on the way!

Our neighbour now has walls, trusses with support for the tiles/colourbond & has been wrapped :) At the same time the one across the street (by the same builder) also has walls and trusses but hasn't been wrapped yet. It is going so quickly so hopefully ours will too. :)

Anyway that's all for now. I'll update when there is some more news

Our block :)

And this is the block! The edges are marked by two white posts at the fence. One marker is near the lighter brown pile of dirt, the other is just to the left of the for sale sign (on the next block). Tamworth is infront of the hills but mostly to the left of this shot. The block looks small from this angle as it's quite flat. It's actually 900m2. And also notice our lamp post :) It has underground power which is nice too.

Tiles that we have considered

The tiles we are thinking about at the moment. The two big cream tiles are the wall tiles, the brown/cream tiles with diamonds & triangles are the feature tile. This photo doesn't really do any of the justice. The feature looks like marble in real life and the wall tiles are a nice gloss. There are three choices of floor tile. The lighter brown (at bottom) is ok but costs more, the middle tile is prob the best colour match and the top tile is a 200x200 version of the 400x400 living area & kitchen floor tile. DH likes the top one and doesn't want brown floor tiles so i think we will end up going with the same floor tile with 200's in the bathroom/laundry and 400's in the kitchen/living.

I want to keep it simple and light as it is a small house and we don't want to over do it. We also have to keep future buyers/renters in mind as this is a 'stepping stone' house

Anyway let me know what you think!

The blue feature tile i liked on my first trip to the tile shop.

more tiles...

haha.... well I got the tiles and showed hubby... and he said he didn't like them at all :( He didn't like the feature tiles and he wanted blue floor tiles. I asked him why he didn't tell me this before and he replied with 'well, I didn't think you'd choose tiles like that'. In the end we decided we wouldn't have any blue at all as I didn't want a blue floor and he didn't want the feature. He did like the floor tile for the living area though so we will stick with that. So cream and brown it is! I asked DH to look at some pics of bathrooms and tell me what he liked. We both liked a pic that was all cream tiles with a brown/cream feature tile containing triangles and diamond shapes.

After we decided this I also went to the two other shops in town. One was very modern and WAY out of our price range. It didn't matter anyway as the sales assistants treated me like I didn't exist. They didn't even pretend to serve me. For your information I AM a realistic buyer but you're not getting one cent of our money!!!

The last shop had a really friendly & helpful guy but he was new to the tile selling business and didn't have much range. I tried really hard to find something we would like but he just didn't have anything we were looking for. So the first shop was the best one all along.

Anyway I went back to the first tile shop and politely explained that we had completely changed our minds and would need to pick all new tiles :( I showed the assistant the pictures and he was (again) very helpful. We managed to find some tiles that were very similar to the picture and I was very happy with the results. I took the tiles home (hoping that they would be accepted by DH). When I showed them to him he said that they were ‘ok’ but he didn’t really like the feature that much!!! Argh. Anyway I asked if he could live with them and trust my judgement and he said he thinks he could.

The only problem with these new tiles is that they will cost more. The walls are right on budget, the floor is $2/m2 over (added cost will be an extra $100 for the floor) and the feature is a fair bit over :(. I worked out how much it would cost to put the feature on the entire length of bathroom and kitchen walls and it was going to be $370 extra :( then I realised that we would only need it in actual shower, above vanity and above bath. Now I estimate it will cost an extra $280. The guy also said he might be able to give us some money off if we buy them ourselves so hopefully it will be cheaper than that again. I offered to pay the extra money for the feature as I don’t want to go back again and I really like this design.

So now we haven’t officially decided on anything but I’m hoping DH will come around and agree on these ones. I told him if we are changing again he has to come with me and we won’t leave the shop til we have something locked in!!!

We also looked at the colorbond website. They have a really good interactive section where you can change the colours and features. As a roof colour I liked jasper (a medium brown) and DH wanted zincalume – a silver colour like a shed. We ended up compromising and deciding on paperbark – a cream/pale brown colour) which we were both happy to have. Its funny coz we have never disagreed when making choices like this before (eg when getting our furniture etc) Maybe houses are more long term and the colours are harder to change later on.

And in other news… I rang the builder and asked him a few qns. He is happy to do gloss or diamond gloss laminex bench tops (some builders won’t as they can scratch easily) I think he may have even said we can get diamond gloss at no extra cost! Fingers crossed.

Also he said our start date will be mid January – first thing next year as far as builders go, considering that they have their Christmas break. So that’s the news at the moment. Until the next dilemma…!?! hehe

TILES!!!!!

Today I went to the tile shop :)

Even though it was the first visit to 'just get some ideas' I fell in love with some glass feature tiles :) Dark blue, light blue, med blue & turquoise. What won me was that they have a kind of silver 'glitter' (for want of a better word) at the back of each tile that makes them sparkle. They look so light and fresh. They are little glass squares and they come as a sheet. I would prefer the long thin rod shaped ones but they only come in squares. That doesn't matter though coz they still look awesome!

I also found a large square cream tile (400x400) for the open plan living. It has a sort of white & brown vein in it which up close I didn't at first think looked that great but from a distance they look really good. I found all of the ones with only a feint vein in them just looked like plain cream at a distance. That same tile also comes in a 200x200. I haven't decided yet if I will just use the exact same design in the living areas and bathroom. As it is a small house I think it will be too busy to have too many changes in designs. But then is the same floor tile throughout too boring? I need to have a think about it and get back to you.

The guy there also found me a wall tile for the bathroom. It is a plain cream gloss tile that matches the floor tile. I haven't completely decided on it though, it went well with the other tile but it is fairly plain. I imagined the wall tiles with a bit of fleck or something, but I guess with the floor tile and feature having detail it will be ok to have a plain wall tile. I think I would prefer the floor to have the detail if I had to choose ones that's plain. It will make the feature stand out more which is what I wanted and I think plain cream will look clean and fresh. I'm glad it's gloss coz it will open the room up and it will be easier to clean :P

So there are the ideas so far. I'm half considering just using the same feature tile in the kitchen and be done with it. Like I said, the house is small and I don't want to add to many different ideas. The guy suggested I could use the same feature tiles but put them differently like in diamonds in the kitchen rather than strips. That way it will keep the theme but not be too monotonous. Hmm... something to consider anyway.

There are two other tile shops in town so I’ll have a look at them before I make any choices. Then my hubby & I need to sit down and agree on them all (he just wanted to see the choices and have a say, rather than waiting around in shops for hours & hours)

Anyway that’s the latest update for now. I’ll try and up load one of the pics of the tiles together. Bye for now :)

Example of vanity with feature

Here is a nice vanity that a girl from H1 added (sorry can't remember name) I like how it is just one strip but it makes a difference. Simple but effective :)


http://media.photobucket.com/image/new%20bathroom/donuts_011/IMGP0667.jpg

and below: examples of how a subtle theme is carried throughtout, the feature is even in the floor tiles! you can see the same tiles in the shower, over vanity, in kitchen and on tiled floor!

http://www.davidbrighthomes.com.au/home/marketplace/detail.asp?qid=23&cID=3&s1ID=&s2ID=&s3ID=


and lastly (excluding the kitchen which i think is overdone)you can see the shower and vanity both have a feature tile.

http://www.davidbrighthomes.com.au/home/marketplace/detail.asp?qid=21&cID=3&s1ID=&s2ID=&s3ID=

photo uploads

arggghh... what is with the photo uploads on this thing? It makes it so hard to add pics!!

Very frustrating. Maybe it's preparing me for the building process...hehe

Solar Passive

Just thought i'd tell you about why we choose this particular plan & block.

A solar passive house basically means it makes the most of the sun, garden & breezes along with choosing appropriate building materials. Basically we want a house that is (as far as possible) naturally warm in winter & cool in summer. It doesn't mean that we are hippies or have solar panels. :) It is the one basic principle that can have a big impact on your heating and cooling bills - believe me, my parents built a solar passive house and on a hot 30*C day in Australia it was naturally 10*C cooler inside and 15*C cooler in the basement.

We'd been looking into solar passive house designs for a while and decided we wanted to incorporate these ideas into our house plan where possible.

I won't go into big explanations here as i'm prob not good at explaining it. Basically you should have the long side of your house facing north so you get lots of warming winter sun & sunshine. It's best to have living areas on this side and not waste sunshine on your garage or wet areas.

We are actually placing our house closer to the southern fence (we have a fair bit of leeway with our block size) so that we can get in more of that sunshine & not be shaded by the neighbour's house.

The western side heats up quickly from the summer sun so it's best to have a short side of your house face that way. pref the garage to absorb extra heat. We have a bedroom facing west but it is shaded by the verandah and we can also cool it with flow-through breezes.

Another way we are keeping the heat down is by having a light coloured roof and brick. Think about how a black shirt heats up on a hot day - bbq anyone? We are also having a whirly bird to get all the hot air out of the roof cavity.

In summer we will open all the windows up at sundown and close them early next morning to let all the cool night air in. Keeping doors, windows and curtains closed during the day also helps keep the house nice and cool. In Winter we will close all the blinds & curtains at night and keep all the doors closed to help keep the warm in. We have standard insulation supplied by the builder.

Lastly we plan to plant some decidious trees so they shade the house in summer but let all the sunshine in in winter :)

So there you go, sorry if i bored you but it was an important part of our planning process.

We don't have solar panels or any 'weird' energy saving things in our plans. We will be on natural gas though so that means an instant gas hotwater system - no more running out of hot water, yay :)

Colour schemes

Last night i was awake for ages thinking about different colours for everything. I know we have a while to choose everything but i would like to have an good idea in my mind so that it is easier when it comes to choosing later on.

DH and I both like blue (royal blue to navy, not so much lighter blues) and neither of us like the white and black colour schemes that seem to be popular at the moment.

We also plan to have this as an investment at some stage down the track so we want it to be 'us' but also work with other peoples tastes too.

My idea at the moment is cream & light browns (eg latte) with a few dark blue and chocolate highlights.

I'm thinking latte carpet, large cream tiles and cream kitchen cupboards. We both like the idea of blue bench tops but will this be too much?? Should we stick with cream and brown with just a highlight of blue in the tiles?? hmm.

If anyone actually reads this let me know what you think!

This is a copy of our house plan.

Additions/changes ....
1. We added 40cm across the house to stretch bed 1 and family room.
2. We also added 20cm across the house to stretch bed 2 and living room. This means we can now fit a queen bed and two bedsides in these two rooms and also have some extra space in the living rooms.
3. We also added a verandah to the front of the house which will be good in summer as it will block the western sun.
4. When walking in the front door there will be a little cavity space built into the wall in the corner identified as shelves on plan opposite kitchen. This will be for a feature such as a vase and it will have a downlight above it to light it up. I saw this idea in the builder's display home and loved the idea.

I have taken out dimensions etc as i'm not sure if i'm allowed to post it with all the info. Anyway here is the plan. Like i said it is only small but will be good as a first home / future investment :)

House plan property of Hunter Prestige Homes Pty Ltd. 'Billabong' (modified)
contact: Po Box 913 Singleton, NSW


I can't make it big without making it blurry. Click image for a clear view of it!

This is the first blog of our building process, yay :)

My husband & I are building a new house in Tamworth, NSW.

So far we have chosen a plan and a block, have pre-approval and signed contracts.

As FHO we didn't want to build anything too huge so it's a 3 bed 1 bath but on a larger block (900m2). The block is in a new subdivision in one of the outer areas of Tamworth. The back fence looks out onto a paddock with cows & views of Tamworth in the distance :).

We signed contracts before the end date for the FHO grant so we should get the full 24K.

The builder made arrangements with us so that we would have extra time to save deposit without missing out on the grant. So.... at the moment we are saving the last of the 5% deposit which we should have by mid december. Once we have the deposit and official approval / paperwork from the bank the builder will start building :)

I'll try and get a photo of the block next time i'm out there. At the moment we are doing a little bit of research into furnishing etc. Can't wait to start!
Fiona