Onsite photos - yay!

From water tank slab looking up the side...towards garage

From backyard to the house

From rumpus room to kitchen/pantry

Rumpus room window (room with a view - NOT!)

Where the front doors and sidelights will be

For AJ - the mudroom area

Family room & alfresco from doorway

Photo fest today. I was fortunate enough to have a site visit for the first time today. I am still buzzing! So excited. Tim, from Hayward Landscapes, and I walked around the site so that he could get a better idea of the lay of the land to put together a quote/concept plan.
I was able to meet Troy, our SS, today as well. Good to put a face to the name. I am confident in his ability to deliver us a quality house. He did pick up a brickie error today.

As you can see from this photo, they have bricked where there is meant to be cladding (roof gable). Troy asked if I wanted it left this way. No, thanks! It will be pulled down in preparation for the cladding to be done.

Impeccable timing - NOT!

The landscape quote from Outback Landscapes came through yesterday right in the midst of sorting out the bank issues. Whilst I was reasonably happy with the quote considering the scope of work & the size of our land, my Mr Finance was not. I did include my big wish of semi frameless glass for the pool fencing. There is only a difference of about $3.5K between that & aluminium fencing. Well worth it, I say, as long as it is the kids job to clean it! I have also asked about masonry retaining walls out the front of the house and along the side - this will add another $2-3K to the quote.
 I will sit on this for a while and possibly get another quote from a local company for comparison.

I tried to post the quote without actual figures and personal identifying information. It was all edited out but when I uploaded to this blog, the information magically reappeared?

Thinking about the landscaping too

While I am twiddling my thumbs here waiting for the build to move to construction phase, I have been continuing the process of thinking about landscaping. We have a plan submitted to council already which we have to adhere to fairly strictly. We also have a council DA requirement to maintain canopy cover by planting 3 indigenous trees that will grow in time to a minimum of 15m high.

There is a local company called OutThere Landscapes & Design who have done some work for a friend who built with Eden Brae further out west. I really liked the look of what they have done to complete their house so I am keen to get them to do a quote for us. I have sent off my details for a prosposal to be out together. I am looking to 'stage' the development of the gardens (as with the interior decoration of the house) Stage One will be the basic requirements of retaining walls, pool surrounds, turf, tree replanting and possibly creating some garden beds.

I like the look of this pool - simple, practical & easy on the eye.

Trying to keep the interest alive ;-)

With the lull in building works, I have vaguely thought about some interior decorating although I am leaving most of that to my gorgeous friend, AJ, from http://www.redomyspace.com.au/

I have been wondering for a while what to do with the large vertical wall area left by the walkin pantry in the kitchen near the cooktop run. See the plan below.

Whilst away in the summer holidays, I found this wall hanging that I love. Sounds like what we are trying to achieve in our family. I would love to find a way to add in 'We do Jesus'. So I am thinking that the kitchen/family/meals area will incorporate this red colour into the decor.

I also contacted a local landscape design company today with the hopes of getting the ball rolling on the gardens. My hope is to do the bare minimum initially and then add more in stages as money allows. I have sent them a copy of our landscape plan, designed by another company, as a starting point.

Gardens

My dear friend, Lucinda, and I took a stroll around the garden this afternoon to try & work out what can stay and what can go! The demolition company will lop whatever we want and we have permission from council to take down anything on our land. Pretty much we have decided to leave the palm tree in and 4-5 camellias for privacy along one boundary fence. Everything else can be lopped so that we can start from scratch with a more uniform look. Happy with that.....

Landscape design

Not sure if you can read this - I have issues reading the original as the font size is so small. Basically they propose some tree removals and some additional plants like camellias, gardenias and frangipanis. A retaining wall on one side of the house and a driveway, of course.

Further developments

The last few days have seen a few hiccups....

1) A frantic call from our CSO on Friday was received asking me if we were having a pool. (The landscape designer had mentioned positioning of the pool.) I replied YES as per the provisional allowance in the contract that we have both signed. Rania asked if we had wanted it excavated/shell before build or we wanted to look after it all ourselves after settlement. Confirmed the earlier as per conversation with Sara upon contract signing. Oops - it wasn't put on the plan by EBH! A quick call was made to the pool company to start the planning of the pool. And the plans will need to be redrawn soon.

2) We need to approach neighbours to ask for an easement right over their properties as we have no stormwater drainage. Firstly EBH informed us that we REALLY want them to say no so that we can use absorption trenches (quicker & cheaper). Counter advice from our trusted plumber and the hydraulic engineer employed by EBH saw me a little jaded. Furthermore, we were advised to approach the incorrect neighbour (upslope rather than the logical downslope neighbour) So glad that I didn't rush in and go doorknocking!

* Today we had an appointment to design our pool, right down to the last tile! Very exhausting, technical 90 minutes. We are building a rectangular pool with a 'wine & cheese' ledge across the width of the pool and a smaller, deep water ledge. A very fine, smoothish pebblecrete finish with a blue fleck in it. Needed to move the position of the pool from where I had thought it belonged due to lay-of-the land - no biggie!

* Moved straight onto a consult with the landscape design company. It was fairly straightforward. The brief is 'as little as possible at this stage' as I am thinking we will need to take out another mortgage for the retaining walls on the property! We can always build on the garden later down the track.