Approval at Last

"Approval's in the mail," we were told by Council on Tuesday, who took over two weeks just to "finalise the paperwork." Of course though, when our builder called them this morning, they hadn't sent it at all. So our builder personally went to pick it up today...and it STILL wasn't ready and he had to wait. Poor Daniel.

But folks, WE HAVE IT! Finally!

Now, the site cut is scheduled for some time over the coming weeks, and one month from then we should have a slab.

Time for one last look over the plans...

Final Colour Selection and Stair Update

We have made our final colour selection, so there's no going back now...

All Wattyl Paint Colours-

Main wall colour: Natural Angora (B300-A)

Ceiling/skirting/doors/trim: Wattyl White (E070-A)

Formal Living & Dining feature wall: Hunter Grape (B080-G)

Hallway niche: Hunter Grape (B080-G)

Family Room feature wall: Hunter Grape (B080-G)

Study feature wall: Citadel Blue (C200-D)

TV Room feature wall: Hunter Grape (B080-G)

Main Bedroom feature wall: Eternal Dark (C320-D)

Highlighted below are the locations of the feature walls:

All I can say is that we had better love Hunter Grape! Though having said that, it will be muted by mostly light finishes and people won't be facing it all the time. We hope that the overall effect will be bold and warm.

Also, we have finalised the stair case (of course this is having not realised that it needing finalising until yesterday!). 

After immediately discounting a solid timber staircase simply for the cost of it, we have opted for a bullnose timber tread for the first step (this will look good and wear better than carpet), with standard carpeted MDF for the remainder. We have also requested that the first four stairs be open plan i.e. starting the balustrading from step five. We're also getting a solid maple handrail, as opposed to pine, so that it will be a dark colour to match the front door, floor boards and first step. Lastly, we're getting stainless steel balustrading.

One thing I've noticed from my failed Google search to find stairs that look like ours is that American's have lovely staircases. Even the most basic ones have lovely, dark hardwood treads and detailed balustrading...*sigh*

Colour me Mine

Ahhhh, the decision I've been simultaniuosly looking forward to and dreading...paint colours.

Mick and I are an interesting pair when it comes to colour. I LOVE colour, especially bold colour and Mick...well, he's pretty much as colour-blind as you can get, and I mean that literally. He can't distinguish between red and green, can seldom see red (though interestingly he is attracted to it, which confused me no end in the beginning of the relationship when he said his favourite colour was green but he would choose red things!), and when I ask him to describe a colour, he usually answers, "dark?" So, you can understand my stress? Luckily we came to an agreement fairly early on that, as long as Mick didn't perceive the colour as heinous, I could pick what I like.

Now, my favourite colour is purple and left to my own devices I would probably put it everywhere. My next favourite is black (though not a colour technically), then red. I do not like green or brown, and whilst I can appreciate a neutral, white or pastel colour scheme (especially with pops of timber, black or bold colour), I would not paint them myself (much like lovers of those schemes probably would avoid my choices).

It all started with a clear vision for the formal living space... I have been unable to find an image that encapsulates exactly what I want to do but I've always felt strongly that I want the first impression upon opening the stained wooden door to be of dark floor boards in the entry and hallway, light creamy carpet (possibly with a pattern) through the main body of the living area, creamy/parchment wall colour through the hallway and most walls and a bold, deep, purple/red/taupe main wall colour framed by white skirting and architraving. I love the idea of a rich, warm, regal purple/red/taupe muted by lots of cream (not too dark or yellow) with timber accents and a shot of greenery through large windows. Here are a few images that inspire me (I've tried to give sources for images where possible, but some of these images are from my ancient web trawls before this blog existed):

Smart Strand IQ150 Carpet

Feature Wall Colour - Wattyl Hunter Grape

Main Wall Colour - Wattyl Natural Angora

Skirting/Trim/Ceiling Colour - Wattyl White

Now, the kitchen/meals (as I have covered earlier) I envision being white with timber accents and a pop of aubergine/grape and black (through appliances and crockery). I also want glass to feature and both Mick and I want a large, long, rustic timber dining table (likely about 3m long). It will be our only eating space and we want it to be large and inviting. Here's one we like at the moment (if only we had somewhere to store it):

http://www.dtll.com.au/rabbit-trap-timber/product/792-farmhouse-tables

The Media Room is the tough one. I think we're going to attempt to carry-through the grape feature colour and hope that it plays nice with Mick's chocolate-brown, sued lounge...If not, it's only paint...right?

I can't remember exactly how the concept for the Study started (possibly from a Rawson brochure from way back when we first bought the block), but we want that to be a masculine space so we've chosen a blue feature wall colour and will accent it with (and this part we're not entirely sure-on yet) either chunky white or black furniture. At this time, we plan on having a long computer desk, which can accommodate two computers, floating shelves, a small sofa-bed and floor lamp. Here is my inspiration:

House to Home UK

Ikea

All Things Lovely

Wattyl Citadel Blue

Then we have upstairs. With no set occupants for most of the rooms, we're leaving those cream. We've decided to paint a feature wall in the TV Room and Master Bedroom, so that when you're sitting in one (with all the double-doors open), you can see the other, and when you come up the stairs you can look straight ahead at the view of the golf course, or see colour to the left and right. We' will also stain the stair balustrade the same colour as the floor-boards to carry the timber upstairs.

So, the TV Room wall colour will be the same rich grape as downstairs and the Master Bedroom will have a black feature wall that wraps around the "floating wall" that separates the wardrobe from the room. This will mirror the black and white scheme in the Ensuite (as I have posted earlier).

Here is some black and white (or cream) inspiration:

Home and Decor

Belle Maison

Belle Maison

Wattyl Eternal Dark

So, our scheme is bold colour (black, blue, grape) layered on linen/cream framed in white with timber accents.

Here's hoping it works!

Will We Ever Have a House..?

So, today marked the sad realisation that we won’t be in by Christmas.

I’m beginning to doubt that Council will ever approve our plans, and so understandably we’ve nearly run out of passion for the build. But, backed by the logical conclusion that one day we will have our house, we have made some changes to the bathroom selections purely to save some money. It’s always a difficult balancing act between what you need, what you want, what you can afford, what is good for re-sale, what will last etc.

We’ve made the big decision to get rid of the spa bath and simply have the bath version of the same tub. It’s still built for two with the waste in the middle and sloped sides, but it’s significantly cheaper. When we really thought about it, it’s unlikely we would use the spa much, it doesn’t really add to re-sale and they aren’t ideal for small kidlets which we, or future owners, may one day have. We’ve also gone with standard sink mixers and towel rails, removed some robe hooks and picked a more simple/cheap vanity in the Main Bathroom. These are all things we can upgrade later if we want. We’re leaving most of the upgrades in the Ensuite however.

A few more cost-saving choices we’ve made are to install our own flooring, data-cabling, extra joinery i.e. Laundry, wardrobes, garage etc. We’re also planning on doing a lot of the landscaping ourselves and we’ve gone with the sheen finish for the kitchen. It’s still an upgrade, but it’s considerably less than the gloss.

*sigh* So, shall we start taking bets on if/when we get approval..? It’s all apparently approved in principal and should have been rubber-stamped as soon as Council had the new survey and plans….that was several weeks ago...