Weekend Activities

Well this is the first weekend in a while where I haven't been up late cleaning the house in preparation for an open for inspection, instead I am planning our activities for our new house.

Our task this weekend is to confirm our "Pre-Construction" materials which are

• Bricks
• Roof, Fascia & Gutters
• Windows
• Paint

We have decided on Boral "Nuvo" or "Escura" Victorian Blue Bricks

Our Roof Selection is a Monier Elebana Sambuca Tiles Our Fascia, Gutters & Downpipes will be Colorbond Monument

Our Windows will be Ultra Silver (no pics)

Exterior Paint will a mixture of Dulux "Surf Mist", "Shale Grey" & "Night Sky"

I have a few other questions about our concrete for the veranda & alfresco as well as the garage profile. I think I will want an upgrade there but it will depend on how much $$$

Here is a picture of our land, including our "Squatter" Trailer. I am thinking of claiming ownership very soon

We Have Sold Our House

Finally, after 5 weeks we have sold our house, well subject to finance and a pest & building inspection but I imagine that will work out fine.

Funny thing is I always thought I would be happy, yet its a bit anti-climatic. Unfortunately we got a little less than we hoped for but we did get the settlement date we were after. Also those late Friday nights of vacuuming, mopping & cleaning in preparation of an open-house is done, we can empty the grandparents lounge and bring the kids toys back and we can now get on with building our new home.

Its a major milestone so regardless of us feeling a little flat we have celebrated with a bottle of MOET as it is the last piece of the jigsaw, now we move forward and count down the days until we move into our new Home.

Land Settlement

Today we settled on our block of land so we now have two mortgages but also the builder can now lodge the building permits and with luck construction will start in three to four weeks.

Next major step for us is to sell our current home. There have been encouraging signs this last weekend and hopefully we will have a resolution by the end of the week.

The other task before us is confirm our "pre-construction" colour selections which are:

• Bricks - Boral Victorian Blue with white mortar
• Roof - Monier Elebana Sambuca Tiles
• Fascia - Colorbond Monument
• Gutters - Colorbond Monument
• Down Pipes - Colorbond Monument
• Internal Paint -Hogs Bristle Quarter
• External Paint - TBA

We plan to have a chat with the builder to finalise our selections and discuss some changes to some fret work as we are not too sure we want it.

Hopefully our next post is to confirm the sale of our current place and some pictures of our block minus the trailer that seems to be squatting there.

Colour Selections & Frustration

Well we have settled on a monier sambucca tile roof, monument gutters and downpipes, silver fascia & window frames so apart from paint we have almost selected all our pre-construction items.

Now the frustration and that is with selling our current place. Our agents change their story each day and I never know what is the truth and I find I am second guessing myself. This is a very stressful situation but my bank manager has given me another 4 weeks to come up with a contract of sale so I guess patience is the key. Lets hope we get some "written" offers after the weekends inspections.

Back to the fun part, below is our site plan and services plan

We will post some photos of the block soon, we just need to move this trailer that seems to live there, maybe once we settle on the land next Monday I can claim the trailer as my own

Getting Started

Well our journey started some months ago when we finally decided our current residence just wasn't big enough for the 4 of us and the search began.
Time went by and we couldn't find what we were looking for and then a flash of inspiration popped into my head, why don't we build! In reality a house & land package came up in our search so we thought why not, trying to find an established place wasn't working.
We went to the display centre and we liked what we saw, we asked about land and again we liked what we saw. Then the questions started, how much? what is included? how much? what is not included? how much? and on & on it went until we worked out we can do this.
So away we went with the standard plans and began to plan our "McMansion" in the "Burbs".
Now in the MaxyB family we don't muck around as we first spied the display home and available land on the June long weekend 2009 and in just under 2 months we will settle on the land and would have settled on the design. With luck construction will start mid to late August and the 220 day countdown will begin.
So we settled on a single story brick veneer home on a modest block out in the Outer Eastern burbs of Melbourne. The current known make up of the House are as follows:

• Bricks will be Boral Victorian Blue with white mortar


• Tiled Roof, haven't picked the colour as yet


• 4 bedrooms, lounge, family & rumpus


• 2 car garage


• Decent backyard for the kids


• Polished floorboards


• Ducted heating & refrigerated a/c (through the same ducts)


• Downlights in the living areas


• We think we have nailed the colour scheme inside but are yet to confirm tiles and everything else

This weekend we are going to pick up sample of the bricks and go and choose a roof, gutters and garage door and maybe some windows. Or should I say get samples and cards of them as I am sure we will be overwhelmed by the variety and then be hemmed in by what is actually in the standard range.
Well that's the end of my first post on my very first blog.