Formal Living 'Mood Board'

My Inspiration for the formal living areas of the house:

Feature Wall Colour Option - Dulux Lampoon:

 Main wall colour option - Dulux Handmade Linen Half:

Sydney Blue Gum Engineered Hardwood Floor (for entry, hallway and kitchen/meals):

The Carpet we like, Smart Strand IQ150 (we like this colour and pattern too):

The formal living area of Fairmont's display Dominico. We will have the same feature cabinet:

I love the Jasper line of sofas at King Furniture. I want Jasper pieces (or Jasper-like furniture) in the reading area (marked as formal dining on the plans) and formal living room:

We will have more custom cabinetry in-built in the reading area as book shelves (images from Google search "in built bookcase"):

(From left) Caesarstone "White Shimmer," Melamine "Classic White," Wattyl "Angora..." Wattyl "Hunter Grape." (Background: Dulux "Hogsbristle Quarter")

Spotted Gum timber floor:

http://www.northernriverstimber.com.au/spotted_gum.php

Kitchen 'Mood Board'

My kitchen inspiration:

Jo McIntyre kitchen with natural stone, wooden floors and handle-less drawers:

 Sydney Blue Gum Floorboards:

Caesarstone White Shimmer:

 Caesarstone Nougat:

 Handle-less drawers, wooden floors, glass-stacker doors, crystal rangehood:

 Calacatta Marble:

 Jo McIntyre kitchen with stone benchtop/splashback and wooden flooring:

 Caesarstone Free Spirit:

 Dulux Handmade Linen:

 Domayne Lulu Drinks Urn:

Beautiful glass jars (photo courtesy of B is Building a House):

 Marble benchtop and wooden floors:

 Skylights, wooden floors, white/handle-less drawers:

 Gorgeous, neutral kitchen with loads of texture from stone and glass:

 Our Smeg gas cooktop:

 Our Smeg pyrolitic, french glass oven:

 Our Smeg crystal rangehood:

 Our Teka sink:

 Gorgeous skylights:

(From left) Caesarstone "White Shimmer," Melamine "Classic White," Wattyl "Angora..." Wattyl "Hunter Grape." (Background: Dulux "Hogsbristle Quarter")

Spotted Gum timber floor:

http://www.northernriverstimber.com.au/spotted_gum.php

Our future dining room table:

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

Developer Approval an Early Christmas Present

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas. Mick and I had a wonderful, though slightly displaced, Christmas surrounded by family and friends. We are very much looking forward to having Christmas next year in the new house though, and we’re one step closer now thanks to our early Christmas present of Developer approval which came through on the 22^nd. I don’t think our builder was able to send it to Council before the weekend, so that’s a job for the New Year. But yay! We’re excited to be moving forward.  Stocklands only wanted one thing changed which was our garage door colour. They wanted it changed from white to off-white or surfmist…so we agreed to change it to surfmist as it matches the balcony railing. I had a slight doubt then about our window colour being white… perhaps we should have changed it along with the railing and garage door to cream but I think surfmist will look almost white and white windows go with anything which is a good option for if we want to change our colour scheme later (this was a tip from our builder).

We also booked our kitchen appointment for January 21^st and we’ve been looking into our splashback options. I have fallen in love (and Mick also) with Calacutta marble but it is expensive as it is a natural stone that is only quarried in one place in the world, Carrara Italy. It’s beautiful BUT expensive and not the most durable option as it is easily stained by acids such as vinegar, fruit juice, tea, coffee, wine etc (which aren’t good things for most surfaces but some are more susceptible to damage than others). An alternative is engineered stone such as Caesarstone or Quantumquartz and of course glass which has been the plan until now. We like the idea of having a seamless finish from benchtop to splashback and a white kitchen to compliment the bold feature wall colours we’re planning on having as well as the natural elements like the timber flooring, skylights and views to the timber deck and backyard. The current favourites for look and price are:

Quantumquartz “Turino” 

http://www.wk.com.au/Quantum-Quartz-Engineered-Stone/Products-By-Colour/Speckled-Lights/default.aspx

and Caesarstone “Nougat.”

http://www.caesarstone.com.au/Colours/Colour-Detail.aspx?Collection=6600-Nougat%E2%84%A2

So, Mick and I plan on visiting display homes and showrooms for inspiration though I have found my ‘dream’ kitchen which we both love. I found it via one of my favourite blogs, B is Building a House and it is a renovation done by Melbourne Designer Jo McIntyre (click here to view website).

Here are some photos of the kitchen:

I love everything from the stone to the handleless drawers. The long dining room table, timber floors, galley-style kitchen and even the doors help give a visual as to how our space would look with those finishes.

I’m very excited to begin the design decision-making process. I’ll have to finalise my mood boards and share them here, I do them up mostly for Mick as he isn’t able to visualise. I, on the other hand, have the entire house blue-print in my mind which has slowly been filled-in with detail like finishes and colours. I often “walk-through” our home J

So on into the New Year, and new house, we go!

We're on the market!

The unit is on the market and had its first showing on Saturday before it was even on the internet! Professional photos are being taken and a floor-plan drawn up on Monday and I look forward to seeing how it comes up and the response we get from buyers. Here's hoping for a good price and quick sale!

Final Plans off for Approval

Ok, we have submitted for developer approval this morning! That should take two weeks then, if it is all approved, we submit to Council who can take up to six weeks. We’re not in a hurry as building can’t start until we sell Mick’s unit anyway, but we just hope it is all approved without too much fuss…

Here are our final plans (note: they are copyrighted to Fairmont Homes NSW):

Here is the landscaping plan which has been a long-time in the making, but I am proud of what I achieved:

We’ll be installing more downlights in the Alfresco Area, upstairs hallway and Family/Media Room after hand-over. We’ll also be having cabinetry made for the formal living areas, the wardrobes fitted-out, the Alfresco Area decked and landscaping done after hand-over. We’re also contemplating having the painting done ourselves depending on how much Fairmont charge for feature walls, an extra coat (we want three rather than two) and to have all the coats rolled not sprayed. Having the painting done properly is especially important for new builds. If you spray the paint on (project home builders normally have at least the undercoat sprayed to save time and costs), it doesn’t adhere as well and no paint job ever done subsequently will ever be as “strong” as if it were rolled.

Final colour selection is as before:

Roof: Monier Tiles Elebana ‘Barramundi’

Gutter, Fascia and Downpipes: Colourbond ‘Dune’

Cladding: Wattyl ‘Maltshake’

Render: Wattyl ‘Romeo Romeo’

Brick: Boral ‘Rose Cove’

Windows: Aluminium ‘Pearl White’

Entry Door: Hume Savoy Range XS24 1200 Entry door in a dark-wooden stain and translucent glass

Garage Door: Panelmasta Caprice ‘White’

Balcony Railing: Colourbond ‘Surfmist’

Eaves: Colourbond ‘Paperbark’

Driveway: Coloured Concrete Colour-Thru 'French Grey'

See link below for post with full details:

http://mashbuild.blogspot.com/2011/10/external-colour-selections-and-kitchen.html

On the “home-front” Mick and I moved out of the unit (let me just say that moving is one of the most awful things!) but we still have some things to sort and either store or tip. That is waiting for Mick to get back from Papua New Guinea. In the meantime, the painting is done and vanity in. The bathroom mirror nearly fell off the wall (thank you Dad who managed to rescue it in the nick of time) and it appears that the handymen didn’t put it up as instructed so that’s another great job for Mick to sort when he gets back. A big thanks to Mick’s brother who put blinds up in the second bedroom, his sister-in-law who let the Salvos in to collect stuff, and also to my Dad who nearly wrecked himself cleaning the windows inside and out, which hadn’t seen a squeegee in a million years! And lastly, thanks to all of the friends and family who have helped us out with the unit and moving. Hopefully we can list the unit to sell this week and the financial, emotional and physical stress of it all can be over with. Moving, building and selling are hard enough but we both have chronic conditions which makes it especially taxing.

So, now we cross our fingers and wait…

Musings and Moving

So, we’re still deliberating on the raked ceiling in the kitchen/meals area. We’ve asked for an exact quote from the framers so we will see what they say. In the meantime, here is the sketch our builder did for us as to how it would look:

It won’t be a large rake, but enough I think to add architectural interest and even a slight angle makes sky-lights look more beautiful like in the pic below:

I also managed to find a light we like at Domayne which looks like a cloud of glass bubbles. It’s very long however and we’ve been unsure about where we would put it. It finally dawned on me…the stairs! That way we can feel as though we’re in the bubbles when we’re on the upstairs landing and below it it will look beautiful too…anyway, just a thought. We haven’t actually purchased the light yet, and thinking about these things may sound like I’m jumping the gun, but it helps us think about light placement (something we need to decide on now).

Photo of Fairmont's Display Dominico

Things are really moving on the home-front…literally! This Sat we move into my family’s home and it has meant that Mick has powered through sorting his stuff (he has years of it accumulated and, thankfully, a lot of it has gone!) and we are very tired as we spend our evenings packing. The tiling is finally done (no thanks to Strata’s tiler having to tile the shower three times!) and the painting will be done while Mick is overseas. Then there are two doors to fix, a blind to put up in the kitchen and vanity to install and we’re done and on the market!

Phew!

*Fingers crossed* If we can manage to submit for Developer/Council approval before Christmas, we can finally be under way!

Thank goodness for small mercies

Sorry it has been a while between posts. We have been extremely busy with work, looking after baby birds, packing up the unit, battling tilers (who finished their third attempt at the shower today!), Mick having to trek to Orange for two days and his Dad and brother kindly helping out with the unit renovation. Plus we hope to move out of the unit this weekend, before Mick has to go to PNG for two weeks....then there's Christmas... Phew!

I still haven't completed the landscaping plan (having not had the free time at the unit to sit and do it, and because the software we bought has virtually no Australian plants in the library! So I have done what I can with that software and now need to do the hard part of exporting the image to SnagIT and making amendments there...almost wish I had paid a landscape architect $1k!). With regards to the house, we have been asking a million more questions of our long-suffering builder mostly about lights (downlights cost a fortune!) and raked ceilings. Thankfully my mother has managed to find a good electrician who can wire up our media room and do any electrical work we'd prefer to do ourselves after hand-over. Here's the thing though, we've fallen in love with the idea of raked ceilings which we're considering doing to the back-half of the downstairs (i.e. anywhere without a floor above it excluding the Alfresco area). To afford it though, I'm considering trading-off the spa bath and timber floorboards...with the idea that these can always be installed later, whereas a roof is nearly impossible to rake after hand-over. It would also, I believe, give a "wow-factor" and make the two skylights "pop." Hmmmmm....decisions, decisions....

In the meantime, I have managed to purchase a Lulu Drinks Urn from Domayne (as seen in Donna Hay Magazine), which was no mean feat! Taren Point Domayne had sold out and explained that our only hope lay online where there were only a few left. I managed to order one and have it delivered to Taren Point so I avoided shipping costs and we picked it up today! They are now completely sold out and the worst part is, their catalogue featuring the urn only came out this week! And their supplier can't get that particular urn in for quite a while (it's from Spain). They will be getting another type of urn in over the coming weeks, but I prefer the Lulu.

http://www.domayneonline.com.au/christmas-drinks-by-louise-stewart.html

At this point I'm very proud of my (small) triumph :)