Colours, Landscaping, Flooring and Kitchens

Hey guys,

Since our last update, a lot has happened...

We had our file handed to management due to the extensive administrative delays, so we were fast-tracked into our colour selections as a result. Our compliance officer in charge of the file has been amazing, and our plans were sent to council this week. Hoping for good news...

These are the selections we've made...

Exterior/Interior

Brick: Austral 'Wilderness' range in Blackbutt

Colorbond "Monument" roof, fascia, gutter and down pipes

Dune Cement Render Portico

Dune Windows

Internal Colours: Taubmans "Pebble Bay"

Kitchen:

Benchtop:
Caesarstone 40mm in "Organic White" (upgrade: Deluxe Range) with 2x waterfall edges 

Base doors: Poly "Reserve White Pointer" in satin finish

Upper doors: Laminex 'Impressions' range (upgrade) in "Lustrous Elm".

Splashback: Glass, "Natural White"

This is close to how our kitchen should look when complete...

Flooring:

Carpet: Minster "California Gully 2" with (upgrade: underlay)

Flooring to living areas: Preference Oakleaf in "Seashell"

Bathrooms

Wall to shower only: "Almond Gloss"

Floor: 450mmX450mm Mocha Satin (upgrade: installation of larger tiles)

Vanities: Laminex "Lustrous Elm"

Bench: Caesarstone "Organic White" 40mm


Other stuff...  

Landscaping Plan

Upgrades

Okay, now for the nitty gritty. Wow, they certainly get you with the extras! We knew that upgrades were how most builders make their money, but its amazing how the money goes...

We already had a lot included in the package, such as flooring, air con etc, but you still end up paying extra. This is how they catch you...

Carpet: Flooring is included, but the included underlay is about as thick as a slice of ham. 
$500 for underlay upgrade.

Timber-look flooring: again, included, but $500 compulsory "floor protection" against numerous trades. Also skirting removal and refit $440 extra.

Tiles: 100X100 tiles included, you can go for larger tiles at no sost but extra $$ needed in labour to lay them. $300

Kitchen:

Happy to pay these upgrade costs. Knebal Kitchens were fantastic, and prices were reasonable for upgrades.

Soft Close Hinges: $240

Additional Pot Drawers: $435

Microwave Provision: $281

Stone Upgrade: Bench and bathroom $406

Waterfall edges X2: $1734 Soooo bloody excited that this was well within budget!

Other Costs:

Timber-look Garage door in "Caboa" stain $550

 Phew, that's it for now. Really happy with the warm, neutral colour tones and ready to  match with some gorgeous splashes of colour. 

Hurry up and build my house, Wisdom Homes!!!!!

Administration Woes

We have officially hit the 24 week mark since we signed up with our builder. 6 months, and we are still nowhere near starting construction.

So far, it has taken:

• 11 weeks to receive the initial tender (told 4 weeks)
• 2 weeks for tender revision: change of facade (the only change/ delay caused by us, the client). 
• 11 1/2 weeks to receive the architectural plans, with the final two weeks of this time frame spent amending errors made by the draftsman (told 4-6 weeks) 

 Plans were finally approved, so we headed down yesterday to sign the paperwork and pay our next deposit. We are then advised at the beginning of the meeting that the compliance team picked up on a major issue with our driveway, the problem being due to the cul-de-sac and subsequent house set back.

CDC/private certifier will no longer be an option due to this, so we are left with no choice but to get our DA approval through council. This was unexpected and soooo disappointing. 7-10 days DA approval has now turned into another 6-8 weeks waiting on council to approve us... or not, which may be the case.

Needless to say, I folded up the bank cheque I'd busted my arse to get organsised the day before, placed it back in my purse and we left with our two overtired children, as we needed to talk and consider our options.

I'm happy to report that management contacted us a few hours later and our file will be passed on to the director at Monday's management meeting, in the hope that some things can be expedited for us.

I'm really happy with this course of action and really can't fault Wisdom Home's customer service. They have an extremely high sales volume at present and all calls and emails have consistently been returned in a timely fashion, in particular our tender presenter.

Hoping for some good news soon!

In the meantime, here are some images...

FACADE

A nearly identical facade on a local home. Ours will have a double garage rather than the twin, and we'll have a cedar infill between the portico and fascia, as well under the fascia to the left of the portico.

EXTERNAL COLOURS

We are aiming for the following colour combinations. The following image is a mock-up with our preffered choices

Monument Colourbond Roof
Austral "Urban One" bricks in Pepper
Portico render will be "Dune"
Caboa stained cedar infills and garage door

PLANS: Florence Facade

 PLANS: Front and Side Views

PLANS: Floor Plans

Patience is a virtue.

Long time between updates because the tender process was incredibly, frustratingly slow. We paid our initial deposit on the 22nd August and it took 11 weeks for Wisdom to come back to us with the price.

We spent much of that time doing drive-bys, gazing forlornly at our block of land. The only thing of interest within those 11 weeks was some low-life dumping rubbish on our block the day AFTER a scheduled community council clean-up. Nice. Great fun to tidy, especially after dogs had rummaged through the bags of dirty nappies and copious amounts of takeaway, leaving it in the condition below.

Word to the wise... when dumping rubbish, don't leave identifying letters, invoices and paperwork buried within the broken garbage bags. Whoops!

Tender came in at $10 000 above what we were quoted. We can thank the saline-affected soil, building adjacent to the Sydney Water sewer line and H-class conditions for that!

During our time waiting, I also did a lot of research into the 'Promenade' facade we originally had costed. I was able to get my hands on a 3D representation of the facade and we immediately changed our minds (after dry-heaving, of course). We're now going with the lovely 'Florence' facade. So back to the tender office to make the necessary changes. Luckily this only took a bit less than 2 weeks.

 These are our current working/draft drawings.

We'll need some cut and fill done, as well as some drop-edge beams at the back and right hand side of the build. Luckily we can go through CDC rather than council regarding approval to build. Now just waiting on formal house plans to be drawn up. The fun begins! 

We also received our colour folder in the form of a USB stick as soon as we accepted the tender.We think we've narrowed down our external choices. 

Austral Urban One 'Pepper' brick

Same brick on a project builder display home, along with 'Dune' cement render.

So, that's it for now. Cheers and thanks for reading! Now off to trawl the internet for more colour ideas ;-)

Building with the Robbo's...

Hello all! I've started this blog as a way of keeping friends and family up-to-date on the progress of our build, as well as serving as a way of preserving the process for us along the way.

We've purchased a 670 sqm block of land in the Wollondilly Shire. We settled on the land last week and paid a deposit on a house through Wisdom Homes about 2 weeks ago. Just waiting now for the tender presentation. Very exciting!

I'll leave you with some images of the Prosperity 26. The display home is at Oran Park and the design fits our block perfectly. We have a large cul-de-sac fronting our block, which complicates the home setback but we found a floor plan that fits like a glove.

View from the land...

Floor plan Prosperity 26

Prosperity 26 Display Home Images