people in glass houses...

Internal Colour selections

2010-06-18T10:56:00.003+10:00

Internally we wanted to stick with a charcoal and white theme, but I also wanted something really "fresh". I've lost count of how many sample pots I've bought, but I'm sure Tom will count them all up!

Flow colour - Dulux Vivid White

Feature wall colour - Dulux Kelly's Flower (but we reserve the right to change our mind again). This is going on the inclined walls in the dining and lounge rooms and also in the wall niche at the top of the stairs, but will be in a Rockcote finish in the niche.

Skirting and kick boards - Powder coated aluminium in Precious Silver Pearl

Kitchen cupboards - Laminex Charcoal

Kitchen benchtop - Staron Aspen Dew.

Internal Blockwork walls - Dulux Baltica in Rockcote finish. This will go onto the blockwork walls in the family/dining rooms and also one side of the stairwell. The other side of the stairwell will be in the "natural" render that we are using externally. The "natural" will also wrap around this wall into our bedroom.

The floor in most of the house is the polished concrete of course. We are still to choose the tiles and carpets for other areas, but we're looking at a charcoal colour.

Laundry bench top - Laminex Ash Dust. We're using this downstairs in the kitchenette and in the computer nook too. Cupboards will be charcoal again.

As mentioned, window frames are Precious Silver Pearl. We wanted the internal exposed metal beams to blend in rather than being a feature, so we've used Dulux Acrathane Sparkling Aluminium and tinted it to get as close as possible to the Precious silver pearl. The guys at the Dulux trade centre were a great help and we're really happy with the result.

Now I just have to choose carpets and tiles...and then I think I'm done...I hope!

External Colours.

2010-06-18T09:30:00.001+10:00

I thought it might be time to post our finalised colour selections...

All external metal work - Colorbond Monument

External cladding - Porters Liquid Iron and Instant Rust

External Block work - "Natural" render

Rear walls and around bbq - Rockcote "Sandcote" finish in double strength Dune

Roof, gutters and fascia - Colorbond Dune

Window frames - Dulux Precious Silver Pearl powdercoated

Slowly getting plastered!!!

2010-06-17T20:59:00.000+10:00

Time for another update...

As the title suggests, the house is getting plastered at the moment...up stairs is sheeted and almost all stopped up. Down stairs hasn't been started as we are still waiting on windows...that would be about 2-3 months now (I've lost track!) that we've been waiting for windows. So the plastering that was meant to be finished by tomorrow, won't be, and our handover date will be pushed back even further.

Anyway, lots of piccies...

Kitchen, with recess for fridge on right

Inclined feature wall of pantry. The plaster box in the fore ground is a "lunch table" constructed by the plasterers...it has a note on top saying "lunch table"

And with an inclined wall comes a weird shaped door!

From family room looking into dining room and kitchen.

Looking into the Lounge room from the hall.

Lounge room from the top of the stairs.

Inclined feature wall in lounge room.

Telephone niche in hallway.

Hallway looking from kitchen

Hallway looking from laundry door.

Minor bedroom, showing BIR and desk space

Oooh and I almost forgot...we've got doors...well some doors, but they're not glazed yet.

And finally our water tank.

If you look really closely, you'll notice that we do actually have high-light windows in the hallway. Yep, 5 windows out of about 40 is a start. These windows sat in the garage for 10 days as when they were delivered, the glaziers showed up with only 2 people to lift a 5m long double glazed unit...hmmmm, I don't think so! AE was meeting with the glass company today...I wish I could have been a fly on the wall at that meeting.

More internal frame, plumbing and electrical

2010-05-01T00:08:00.003+10:00

About time I updated the blog. Progress has been slow and steady...it's really starting to take form now. The roof is pretty much done, but still needs a few little things to finish it off...facia in some parts and gutter in others. Internal framing is coming along very nicely and so we can really get a feel for all the rooms now. Plumbing is well underway and electrical started this week.

I think I'll just let the photo's speak for themselves, cos at this time of night I'm even less talkative than I usually am!

Entrance.

External feature walls near garage.

Bathroom under the stairs! This is just for the kids to use when they're in the rumpus, but may occasionally be used by guests if we ever buy a sofa bed for the spare room!

Downstairs bathroom viewed from store room. It's quite tight in there, but luckily we're all vertically challenged, so it will be OK for us.

Rumpus room, showing where the kitchenette will be on the right. Store room is behind this and my sewing/utility/spare room is on the left.

Entrance viewed from upstairs.

From top of stairs, showing half wall to lounge room.

From lounge room looking into hallway. The half wall will have glass on top of it going up to the ceiling, so it will still let light in, but not be open.

Wall niche...still undecided what to put here...

Linen cupboard in hallway.

Feature inclined wall in kitchen/dining room, with walk in pantry behind. The pantry will only be a bit smaller than our entire current kitchen. God I can't wait!!!!

Painted metal work in hallway. We had a colour customised to try to get a match to the window frames (Precious pearl silver powder coated)...it's quite a good match depending on the light. There will be windows above this beam, between the hallway and the kids rooms.

Sky light in main bathroom

Bath!!! :-)

Hot water cylinder. It's not hooked up yet as we are waiting on the walls to be finished so that we don't have to move it for the painters.

Frames for the Apricus tubes. We've gone with a 40 tube system and are optimising the angle for winter gain. Hopefully this will give us plenty of hot water in both summer and winter.

Electrical in the main bedroom, with ensuite behind and skylight in ensuite.

BBQ and wood fired pizza oven to be built here on the deck...one day.

Path down from bbq area to under the house

Water tank to be installed here Monday week.

And the sunset a couple of days ago. I stood on the deck for about half an hour just watching the light change and the rays of light hitting different clouds...'twas very relaxing!

Polished Concrete!!!!!!

2010-03-12T19:33:00.002+11:00

Yay!!!! The polished concrete is finally done...well almost :). How many times have I said that??? Seems like everything is almost finished. Upstairs is done for the time being and the concrete polisher will be back in a week or so to finish off downstairs. The final finish will be almost as shiny as the areas that are wet in the photos. So now for the piccies!!!

A bit of "crazing" in this area. Not sure what has caused this, but as we have been warned numerous times, they cannot guarantee a perfect finish, but we will if anything can be done about this. It most probably won't even be noticeable, but we were examining it pretty closely.

Now I feel like I can get on with my colour choices. If I have time over the weekend I'll be up at the house with all my paint chips and laminate samples!!! Yay!!!

Roof finished...almost!

2010-03-04T08:55:00.006+11:00

After a real burst of activity, things have ground to a halt...again! :( ... we're waiting on the concrete polisher (I think). But we do have a roof, mostly finished, still waiting on fascia, but AE is getting that made out of colorbond to save a bit of money...so it's taking a bit of time.

The roof gives the house such a different feel now. The rooms feel bigger...much to the kids delight...they (well one of them) were complaining that their rooms were too small. They are small rooms, but perfectly adequate as far as we're concerned and much more space than they currently have.

Anyway time for some piccies...I can't wait for the scaffolding to come down so we can really get a feel for the house.

Wall niche which will be a feature as we come up the stairs from the entrance. We need to decide on something to go in here. MC has suggested building a planter and growing bamboo. Sounds good to us.

View along the hallway, showing highlight windows on right. We're planning a full light door to the outside so we'll still get the view of the trees. We don't have to worry too much about privacy with our location.

And some more pictures of the view from the family/dining/kitchen...can you tell I like the view lol. (Would be better without the scaffolding though)

So now we wait...again. Once the floors are done things can move along a bit faster (so AE assures us) The window people have been on site to measure up etc. We've also had the external cladding people up...we're going with Express wall and will paint it with the Porters rust effect paint. We're hoping to imitate the Axolotl rusted look. I'll have to do a post about our colour ideas soon...

Roof frame finished...well almost.

2010-02-12T22:51:00.004+11:00

Things feel like they are starting to move again. I had a good meeting on site today with AE and we have exciting news...roofing starts Monday!!!! They've been framing the roof for what seems like an age...well all year in fact, so it will be nice to finally move on to something a bit more substantial!

Sorted a few things today as well, in fact I saved about $5,000 in one day. I told Tom that I don't need to work at all if I can save that sort of money every day ;). Firstly, I met with a plumber today who knows all about the wetback system I'm keen on for the wood heater (using the wood heater to boost the solar hot water in winter). I wasn't sure if it was really going to be worth it if it meant we couldn't have the evacuated glass tube system that we wanted (they are meant to be more efficient in our climate in Tassie). But there is an evacuated glass tube system that also has the roof mounted tank that we need for the wetback system. I know it's a silly thing to get excited about, but what's even better is that it's less than half the cost of the other system we were looking at. It is smaller, but if we find it doesn't do the job, then we can always add another solar system after hand over and it would still be cheaper :) The other thing that saved us heaps is me finding the perfect sized rain water tank. The designer had specified 2 poly tanks, but I found a steel tank which should fit very nicely under our deck and actually gives us more storage capacity...again for less than half the price. It feels so nice to have things coming in under budget for a change, so I have to savour the moment!

So piccies of the house as it stands now...

Internal wall between the stair well and our bedroom.

Internal walls between family room and study nook. Wood heater will go against the closer wall

And one of our neighbours, a beautiful little bennett's wallaby

Slowly taking shape

2010-01-23T19:54:00.004+11:00

We were quite surprised to see the builders working today (Saturday), but I think they will most probably take Monday off to make a long weekend out of Australia Day.

Anyway it's good to see it taking shape. I had another "How did we not notice this?" moment, when I saw the external wall frame. It's another inclined wall, which explains why the designer put the washing machine where he did in the original plan, and which means I can't have it where I decided I wanted it...no big deal. But the front corner is my WIR and now I have no idea how they'll put shelving and drawers on an inclined wall. All I know is that they will probably charge us twice as much to do it :-(

Looking across the hallway, through to the laundry and then the WIR (there will be a wall between these of course).

Roof frame started

2010-01-16T15:06:00.008+11:00

Roof framing started last week and they seem to be making steady progress. There are actually 3 separate roofs on the house. The first 2 are almost framed. I think they are waiting on the welder to come back from holidays for the third roof...it still needs a couple more metal beams apparently.

From the western side...

From the eastern side...

A "perty" rainbow when we were at the house the other day...And today (Thursday 21st) the excavator was back to back fill at the rear of the house. The way they've done it, most of the water should collect at the back of the flat area and run along there. Now we just have to work out what to plant here???

And more frame...

2010-01-13T17:25:00.006+11:00

So they've started the internal frame for the minor bedrooms which are all along the back wall. The frame stick up above the beam as there are highlight windows here. These will be the only windows or the kids' rooms...hope it will be enough!

Bedroom 2 DD1 has dibs on this room.

Bedroom 3 ... for DS1 or DS2

Wall niche at top of stairs.

Bedroom 4 for DD2

And Bedroom 5...again for DS1 or DS2. The smallest bedroom...it looks tiny. When Tom and I went up and saw the size of the rooms after they poured the slab (they had the rooms drawn on the floor) we couldn't believe how small this room was and how we hadn't noticed it before. Oh well, the kids will just have to make use of the rumpus...which is not that big either *insert shrugs shoulders emoticon* We keep telling them that at least they each get their own room, which has to better than sharing like they have to now.

Powder room...will have a small vanity on the left. Bathroom is next to this on the left. AE has suggested putting up some temporary walls in the bathroom so we can muck around with the bath, shower and vanity sizes to see what works best.

More frame

2009-12-30T11:12:00.005+11:00

Frame for the roof is coming along. This is where it stands as of Christmas. The builders finished up on the 23rd and will be back on the 6th January. When they get back, the priority is to finish the frame and get the roof on and to finish the internal block work walls. Once the walls are done, then the first grind of the slab will happen. I can't wait to see what it's going to look like.

Most of these photo's speak for themselves.

This is one of the few "issues" we have had so far, but it hardly counts really. Originally the window above the wall here was not going to be supported by a frame, but they realised this wouldn't work and so have added the frame you see. However it doesn't line up with the lower post...but that's OK as they will either remove the lower post (not needed structurally) or hide it.

And this is a repair job they've done on the upper slab. When they removed some of the "boxing" around the slab in the dining room they removed some of the slab, but they've patched it up when they poured the lower slab and hopefully it won't be noticeable when the slab is polished and with the window frame there as well.

More views

2009-12-30T11:04:00.006+11:00

One of my favourite things to do lately is to go up to the house and stand where our bed will be and just take in the view. I've told Tom that he's got Buckley's getting me out of bed on a wintry Saturday morning to take the kids to soccer. I'll stay in bed and look out at the view thanks. This opening in the frame will be all glass (windows and sliding door) and we're not planning on any window dressings at this stage, so this view will always be visible.

And this is the view from the lounge room. Again this "wall" will be mostly windows.

View from the entrance hallway.

Framed...well, almost (7th December)

2009-12-30T10:54:00.003+11:00

Frame for some of the internal walls and the roof has started. And they have also started the internal brick walls. It's great to start to get a feel for the rooms...although one of my girls keeps complaining that her room's so small (it is small, but that was the compromise...their own room...but a small one).

Looking down the hallway from the back door through to the kitchen/dining. The wall on the left closest to us is the wall between our bedroom and the stair well. The walls in the background are between the hall and family room.

Looking into the family room from the timber deck.

And looking from the dining room into the family room. The wood heater will be located in the nook created by the wall closest to us.

These walls will be full height when finished.

Lower Slab (11th December)

2009-12-30T10:42:00.003+11:00

So, once the top slab was poured, things slowed down again, but we finally got some more action in early December. They are actually working on the upper frame at the same time as preparing the slab for downstairs, so it's good to have a few things happening at once.

Reo in the entrance hall (1st December). The pipes you can see are for the downstairs bathroom.

And now we have the slab...in the entrance

the rumpus,

and the garage.

We've decided to go with polished concrete for all of downstairs as well (except the garage) including the bathroom and shower. We can always put a rug down in the rumpus if the kids need it. We've also decided to change the wall between the rumpus and utility room into bi-fold doors, so that we can open that whole space up if we need to for kids parties and the like. We'll use translucent glass so the utility room still gets some natural light.

Timber Deck started

2009-12-30T10:21:00.004+11:00

As well as the concrete deck on the western side (which is more of a private deck) we are having a timber deck on the eastern side off the living areas for entertaining. The joists for this have been done. They are not going to put in any more joists in the bottom corner of the deck as this is where we want to build our bbq and wood fired pizza oven. The plan is to use the existing footing, build the walls for the oven and put some concrete sheeting down in the front and then tile it to form a hearth. Very sketchy plans at the moment, but AE is very accommodating.

The joists from the under side...showing the quality of the workmanship. When we see the attention to detail like this we understand why things that seem simple that a bit longer than we expect.

And our water view. After completing the joists they put down some temporary wood sheeting and so we finally got to see what our view is like from the deck. It's not so much a water view as a water glimpse, but it's still nice looking out to the Eastern shore. We'll definitely be watching the New Year's fireworks from our deck this year!

A Slab...Finally (5th November)

2009-12-30T09:57:00.005+11:00

Well the slab was finally poured on November 5th. I was up at 6:30 as usual for my walk and saw this massive concrete pump driving up the road. I wasn't sure that it would be able to make it up the driveway, but it obviously did...without too much damage to the driveway. We could see the pump from up at the reserve where I walk...almost 1 km away!

And this is what we had by the time we got home from work.

From the east...

From the West. You can see the lower area of the slab in the foreground for the deck. The recessed area a little further in is for our ensuite which will be tiled.

This shows the blue gold recycled glass that we have used. After the slab was poured they seeded it with this glass as well as clear glass, which will become visible once the slab is polished. I can't wait to see this!!!

The day after the slab was poured, someone came up (on a Saturday) and saw cut the slab to prevent cracking. These cuts will obviously be filled with something down the track.

Everything looks really good, we've had no cracking at all. There is only a slight problem with water pooling in 2 spots on the deck. The first is near the back door. AE has suggested that they put a drain in here so nothing to worry about.

The second spot is in front of our bedroom. They did put an additional drain in here (not originally on the plans) but the fall isn't quite right and so it pools in the corner. Not sure what we are going to do here, but again we're not too worried.

Upper Slab - electrical and reo (3rd November)

2009-12-30T08:47:00.005+11:00

Upper slab with reo. Expansion joint for slab also visible

Electrical conduit in slab

Wires for lighting carport done before slab pour. Wiring for lighting in the garage has also been done.

Possible Slab date?

2009-10-10T20:12:00.002+11:00

I ran into AE this morning. He was onsite retrieving some equipment, so we had a bit of a chat. He said he has booked the slab pour for the last week in October. He was thinking about a week earlier, but didn't trust the weather. I still don't trust the weather, but we'll cross our fingers, toes and what ever else we can!!

Meanwhile, here's a pic of the view from the kitchen. There will be windows above the beam as well, so we'll see most of this while standing at the (future) kitchen sink. Soooo much nicer than the neighbour's brick wall we look at now!

Slab Insulation

2009-10-10T00:20:00.007+11:00

Well the insulation arrived sometime last week and builders got to spend a bit of time out of the wet weather and in the workshop cutting up the insulation. Tom spoke to AE who said that we need about 2 weeks fine weather so they can do the slab as apparently the insulation can absorb water and the if the slab gets water on it, it can lead to some discolouration. The BOM have predicted 20+ days of rain for October, so we figured that we'll never get a slab.

So we were quite surprised when we went up to the house at the beginning of the week to find that they had started installing the insulation. They finished it Thursday, and you can see the sort of weather they had to work through. Not only was it wet, but for most of the day they would have been lucky if it got to double figures!!! I'm amazed at the weather these guys will work in. And as much as the weather is frustrating for us...at least we don't have to work out in it.

Not sure what the time frame for the slab is from here...but between the weather and waiting for the concretor to fit us in...well I won't hold my breath.

Slab Postponed again!!!

2009-10-09T23:46:00.010+11:00

25th September
Well this time it's the slab insulation we are waiting on...apparently there's a three week wait on this (it has to come from Adelaide). So to keep themselves busy, AE has decided to continue on with the frame for the timber deck which wraps around the north eastern side of the house.

Deck frame from driveway.

Looking down from beind the house to give a better idea of the shape of the deck. They have also started some of the frames for the windows/doors between the house and the deck.

And from the east

Our front entrance. The frame shown here is for the portico, which is meant to be glass. The front hallway leads to the stairs to the first floor and so will be a void. Above the portico, on the first floor, will be a large inclined window, between the columns shown here. Should look pretty special once it's done. We were a little unsure about the glass portico, as I really don't want to have to clean it all the time...but looking at this now, I think it would look strange if it was solid.

Frame started, lower slab postponed!

2009-09-05T23:33:00.009+10:00

So with the bricking finished for the time being, they decided to start on the framing. I say "decided" as according to the schedule the builder gave us the lower slab was meant to happen soon after the walls were up. But the crushed blue glass which is meant to be scattered through the slab is not available for 3 weeks, so they will get on with the frame and do the lower slab after they do the upper slab. AE has said that they often do this, and it will actually protect the slab from the scaffolding...so no biggy I suppose.

Beginning of the frame. Frame showing the inclined columns.

Condeck for upper slab.And the view from the western side.
I was a bit nervous at first, but I ventured out onto the condeck to see what the view is like....AND we have a water view. OK so it's more of a water glimpse, but it's still pretty!! This is the view from our dining/family rooms. The deck will extend out further so we may get a better view from there. As it is, I know we can see the New Years fireworks from here as we watched them last year (I made everyone race up the driveway last year at midnight to watch them) so bring on New Years 2010...we might be in by then. Condeck completed.And from the front. On the right is the deck on the western side of the house. This extends around to in front of o0ur bedroom, and forms the roof for the carport.

Bricking, July and August

2009-09-05T20:59:00.010+10:00

Construction of the back walls of the house begins...
New footing for another retaining wall. this one is for the carport and fire truck turning circle.

Upper wall water proofed.

More bricking on the ground floor walls and the beginnings of a doorway (on the right). Doorway is from garage to entry hall.

Maddie wanted to take a photo of Tom and me!

We have a fuse box!!

Full height walls...I think?

Walls filled with concrete.

Evidence of furry friends visiting...lucky it's not in the slab.

First of the footings for the inclined columns.

Plumbing for ground floor!

Behind the upper walls needed to be back filled with crushed rock, but because the site is sooo steep the builders weren't about to push wheelbarrows full of rock up the slope....So we got a crane for a few days...$$$ :(

Our first power point!

Yet more footings...this time for the western deck and side entrance.

Long over due update...Footings

2009-08-22T16:46:00.010+10:00

So I've been really slack again, but finally feel in the mood to update the blog. We have started building obviously! Official site start was way back in May some time, and the build was meant to be about 11 months in total, but with the record wet weather we've had in both June and August, we are already about 2 months behind, but as I keep reminding myself...At least I'm not the one having to work out in this atrocious weather.

So anyway some piccies to get everything up to date...

Site cut, as left by the civil contractors...and we have a new little digger.

Site preparations.

Box work for 1st floor footings

Excavations for ground floor footings

Footings poured...yay!

Will we ever build???

2009-03-20T21:54:00.004+11:00

Sometimes I wonder if it will ever happen...I'm sure a lot of people feel like this, but we will get there eventually...won't we??

We have chosen the builder, and we are really happy with him so far. Great communication and very professional. We are yet to sign the contract though, as we are waiting on the titles to be issued so we can get some money!!! For some reason the builder doesn't want to start until he can see that we can actually pay him...picky, picky, picky...huh?

For some reason it hadn't actually occurred to us that we don't actually have any money at the moment. We were so focused on getting the subdivision finished, we hadn't really thought this next step through. So now we sit and wait until the blocks settle. I think I've said it before...I HATE WAITING!!!

The builder has some great ideas and is happy for us to do somethings ourselves to save money. So at this stage, we are looking at doing the painting and few other things, so we can still afford to have our polished concrete and a few other little luxuries.

The Finished Subdivision

2009-03-20T20:18:00.004+11:00

Well, how slack have I been!! But given that every one's favourite home building forum is down for the weekend, I thought I'd make the most of it and update our blog.

So the subdivision was finally finished at the beginning of February...3rd of Feb to be exact...that's when we had the Practical Completion Inspection, and that's when we were told that it would take them about 4 weeks to seal the plans and get them to the titles office. Oh gee, guess what...6+ weeks and the plans are still with council. We'll be lucky to get the titles through to the Titles office by the beginning of April, where it is meant to take another 4 weeks. We have to have Titles issued by 20th May or else the sales of the blocks fall through...:(

Soooo, some pics of the completed subdivision...

Our Site Cut

Retaining wall for our block.

And from another angle. Originally the wall was only meant to be 1m high...It's now 3m high. Hmmm, a slight miscalculation by the engineer???

And the finished driveway, with open rock drain along side, in which we now have a lovely assortment of weeds growing. Should be fun weeding that...not!

Our view now. Tom and I walk up the driveway just to take in the view and re-energise. It's our way of making ourselves realise that it will be all worth while in the end...whenever that may be!

Down in the Trenches!

2008-11-10T22:58:00.008+11:00

Progress! Progress! Progress!

2008-10-31T21:31:00.009+11:00

Well we finally have some progress on site. Officially work on the subdivision began on Monday but we didn't really see anything happening until Wednesday, when we got.....

a portaloo

Some site sheds

And 2 20 tonne excavators

Day 1...Knocking down my father-in-law's pine trees, that he loved so much :( , to create a barrier for rocks etc.

And clearing the way for the stormwater and sewerage

Marking out the driveway

Day 2
One trench
Lots of rock!!!

And some of these...

...manholes for the stormwater and sewerage.

Day 3 Some pipes in our trench (sewerage , stormwater and a subsoil drain)

More rock.

Any one need some pipes?

I have to say I was stressing a bit yesterday when I heard the rock breaker going all day. We have some allowance in the contract for rock, but I'm not sure how much...so hopefully it won't cost us too much more than their original tender. But on the bright side, we won't need to buy rock for landscaping.

I did an adult ed course a couple of weeks back on Dry stone walls and I'm itching to get my hands on some of that rock, but I'm not sure how much will be left once they take what they need for fill for the driveway.

On the house front, we are still trying to finalise the exterior cladding. I found something that I just love, but MC says it is very expensive and not really suited to the sloping part of our house. Problem is, now that I've seen this product, I'm not happy with anything else :(

Now it won't be to everyone's taste....it's a rusted, coppery metal looking material by Axolotl!!!

I can picture something like this on the house (or even in the house like in this last picture), but I'm still not too sure about the Indiana copper.

We pretty much have to decide in the next week or so. I picked up some more Alucobond samples today, and MC will be lending a couple of folders of samples to us of a different metal cladding over the weekend, so we will see if we can get any closer to finalising this!!

Oh and I almost forgot to mention that we are now officially selling our blocks of land!!! (I forgot to take a photo of the For Sale sign though...will do that tomorrow). We have put ads on domain.com (Property ID: 2007452942) and a few other property websites, as well as in the local realestate guide and we will be doing a letter box drop around our area this WE. We have already had quite a bit of interest so we'll wait and see how we go. We decided to sell by tender to get around people putting in dummy offers. This way people put in their best offer and then we chose...we don't have to chose the highest offer even...so we get to chose our neighbours :)

Finally, one step closer: we have a....

2008-09-13T23:01:00.006+10:00

Well we finally have council approval for our house DA. There are a few conditions attached to the permit (as always), but we have already met most of the conditions through the sub-division process.

The only thing of small concern is the colour scheme, which was not approved. Council did not like the Shale Grey colorbond for the roof. Too light they said, so it will be too visible. Given that our house is 100m up a hill from the nearest road, our roof is sloped upwards so it can't be seen from the road, we own the 4 hectares behind the house and it can't be subdivided, we only have one neighbour.....why are they worried about the colour of our roof.

"The colour scheme must propose exterior colours and finishes of muted, subdued tones that will blend in with the surrounding natural environment. Colorbond Shale Grey will not be permitted"

They didn't say anything about the proposed exterior cladding though, hmmmmm?

MC has suggested we use a product called alucobond, in Indiana copper, which is what that orangey colour in the rendered picture is meant to represent.

Tom and I are still not 100% sure about this, it's very hard to visualise and is a bit bolder than I am used to being!!

Anyway, back to the roof colour, I've been looking at the colorbond site and I really don't want to go much darker than Windspray or Bushland. They couldn't reject Bushland, could they, given their requirement that it blends into the bushland? I'll have to get some samples and see what looks OK with the Indiana Copper.

Things have been progressing on the sub-division front too. We put the drawings out for tender, despite them not yet being approved by council...don't ask!!! Well, tenders closed last Monday, and 3 out of the 4 contractors put in a tender, 4th was too busy, which is fair enough. The 1st one mustn't have wanted the job either as their tender was $90,000 more than the lowest one!!!!!

So we have chosen the contractor and they have said they can start Sept/Oct depending on when the drawings are approved by council. The tender documents stipulated a 12 week time frame, so we are hoping to have the driveway and services completed by February....please, please let it be so!!!

This would maybe allow us to start building by March, if they (the powers-that-be) are super fast and issue titles really quickly and then issue the building permit really quickly...I have my doubts. Strictly speaking they are not meant to issue a building permit until we have a title for our new block, and we won't get titles issued until the driveway and services are completed.

More to talk about regarding sale of the blocks, but I think I will leave that for another time :)

Must stay calm!

2008-08-19T18:15:00.007+10:00

OK trying not to let things get to us, me a little bit more successfully than Tom.

So we had some good news today...we got a copy of the tender papers for the subdivision works from our engineer, which he has sent to 4 contractors, with a deadline of 8 September. So we need to do a few things, like organise finance!!

The reason Tom was so stressed and the reason I'm now feeling soooo drained, is that I emailed our planner (RM) at the council to follow things up. It had been 2 weeks since I submitted the driveway information they had requested and we still hadn't heard anything. Well, we got an email back saying he was glad I had contacted him and that he was very sorry, but he had got confused and left our papers sitting in his intray for 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!! But to cut to the chase, the DA will be advertised this week. This, however did not please MC (designer) as he had forgotten that we are zoned discretionary and that it even had to be advertised.

It doesn't seem like that big a deal, but the communication from council since we submitted the house DA and the drawings for the services has been shocking. I shouldn't have to be chasing them to remind them to do their jobs!!

So, anyway, the plan from here....

we need to start to organise finance
keep clearing the blocks so we can sell them
speak to the conveyancer about selling the blocks
And I'm too tired to think anymore..........

Baby steps

2008-08-02T23:45:00.010+10:00

Well, it's been along time since I've updated the blog, but that's because nothing much has happened!! But I suppose each little thing is one step closer to our new house.

Soooo....

On the subdivision side of things, we have submitted the plans for the driveway and services to council...on May 9...but as fate would have it, the senior engineer is on long service leave and the remaining engineers are all flat out, as are the people in hydraulics apparently. We received an email from our engineer (RC) the other day, simply stating.."It may take forever"

Today we received another email from RC. Council now have new standards, which we have to meet, but they have only now informed RC of these requirements. He was not happy to say the least and let them know this, politely, but firmly!

Oh well, what can you do?

RC has suggested we start to look at tenders for the driveway and services now, before council have given their final approval, to help speed things up. Sounds good to me.

Council have everything they require from us now and so it is a matter of them doing their thing now. Part of their thing was to send us the bill for the 'Public open space' levy, which they did yesterday. Over $9000!!! But it was less than we had budgeted, so that's good.

Now we have to read through the 26 pages of the part 5 agreement, should make good bedtime reading.

On the house side of things, we hope council have everything they want. RM (the planner) said he would check for us, and as we haven't heard anything to the contrary, that's got to be good...hasn't it??

We submitted the house plans to council 23rd June, so they are just a little bit over their 6 week limit...NOT. They are using the excuse that it's because the title for our new block has not yet been issued, it complicates things. I suppose we should be grateful that they are letting us submit the DA for the house now and not making us wait until titles are issued, but their communication still leaves a lot to be desired!!

The detail drawings for the house are coming along, MC says a couple more weeks work there. And he's looking at builders to quote the house for us. He has also sent the drawings along to someone (AM) to do an energy audit. After a quick look at it, he said it scored 45 points on his assessment program. Apparently, 5 stars is 15 points??? So that sounds really good. We will know more in a week or so! And then we can meet with AM to discuss any additional heating requirements etc.

Well that's about all for now

The house design

2008-03-26T21:32:00.002+11:00

After going to a few talks and adult ed. courses, we decided that we wanted to build a passive solar house. We are being mostly selfish in this, yes there are environmental benefits, but our main motivation is to have a comfortable house. One that is cool in summer - like our current double brick house - and one that is warm in winter - unlike our current double brick house, with no wall insulation and drafty windows.

About 2 years ago we went on a sustainable homes tour of houses in and around Hobart. One designer caught our eye and from talking to the owners of the 2 houses of his we looked at, we decided to talk to MC (who has won awards for environmental design) about our project.

Jump forward again to March 2008 and we have a house design!! Yay!!

The brief was to have a 5 bedroom home, lots of glass to let in the light and warmth, rumpus room downstairs (very important), kitchen, dining room and family room on the eastern side of the house to catch the early morning light, separate lounge that can be closed off (so we can keep at least one room clean for when we have unexpected visitors), kitchenette in rumpus for kids parties, computer nook in a public space so we can keep an eye on the kids and all this in a house under 30 squares because we don't want to build a McMansion!!, nor could we justify the cost of building anything bigger.

Of course we went into more detail than this with MC and what he came up with is almost perfect. Now, I say almost because of course you never get everything you want, it's all about compromise. But we are happy and here's hoping council is happy too!

Plans should be with council in about a month, or when our planner gets back from his 6 weeks holiday!! Lucky for some!

The subdivision

2008-03-26T19:57:00.012+11:00

Jump forward to August 2007 and we finally get council approval for our subdivision, almost 2 years after we put in the original application!! Yay!!

We've subdivided off three additional blocks, leaving ourselves the balance (about 3.7 hectares) on which to build our "dream home".

Looking towards Lot 1 from the road

And towards the building envelope of Lot 2.

Tyre swing included!!

And towards the building envelope of Lot 3

View across the valley from near Lots 2 and 3.

And don't forget those views of the mountain from our first post!!

Still a lot to do though before we get titles.

Final plan of survey - completed

Blocks and building envelopes pegged out - done

Geotechnical report - done

Visual impact report - done

Bushfire hazard management plan - needs to be updated

Vegetation management plan - have seen draft

Forest practices plan - don't need one (hopefully)

Engineer's drawings for driveway and services - pending!!! must send him an email to get a progress report!

Hopefully, if things go to plan we will be able to put the blocks on the market this spring. We are planning to sell the blocks ourselves - that should be interesting...

Soooo.... if you want a lovely block of land in Hobart, sized to suit all needs, north facing, with great views of the mountain and only 4 km from the city centre.....watch this space!!

Our Block

2008-03-26T19:45:00.011+11:00

Some photo's of our block and our proposed building site.

Hopefully taking advantage of this existing cut and fill site will save us some money in the long run.
The planner a HCC also thought it would be looked on favourably from a bush fire hazard reduction point of view!!

We just have to get rid of the prefabbed concrete things that my father-in-law thought would come in handy one day. Guess what? They never did!

We love the aspect. It means that with a bit of thought going into the design, we can have a wonderfully comfortable house that is also environmentally friendly (if we don't think too hard about how much energy has gone into its construction).

And private...even though we will have neighbours near by, the slope means that we will still have uninterupted views.

Tom spent his youth exploring this bushland and hopefully our kids will do the same. We plan to replace the trees that we remove with new trees grown from seed collected on the block and maybe put some tracks or informal paths over it.

One spot I've got plans for...

Not sure what yet. A fernery if it wasn't so dry??

Something with a water feature may be???

Or just somewhere quiet to sit, drink 'tea' and watch the sunset over the mountain.

So much we could do, sometimes it seems a bit over whelming but exciting at the same time.

The story thus far

2008-03-25T22:56:00.007+11:00

The story of our house, beginning as just a dream and finishing, hopefully, with the construction of our Home.

The Cast

Leading roles - Tom and Michelle
Minor roles - AA aged 11

- SP aged 9

- MM aged 6

- and MK aged 3

Supporting roles - The Designer - MC
more to come later

Story to Date

About 3 years ago, we decided to start looking at building the house we had talked about for soooo long. With 4 kids now, we had well and truly out grown our 3 bedroom, 120m2 house.

We had our block - 4.34 hectares of partially cleared bushland situated below Mt Wellington, 4 km from the centre of Hobart (Tasmania), in an area sometimes referred to as "showers about the mountain".

We chose the site we wanted for our dream home - an existing quarry that would get almost all day sun and great views of the mountain - but it would require approx. 120m of driveway to get to it.

To cut a very long story short, we decided to subdivide some of the land and sell it in order to fund the construction of the driveway and the house.

Not quite as easy as we thought it was going to be!!

But the views will be worth it!