Packing, Waiting and Invading!

It's been a long time since that last post. Basically we are playing the waiting game now. Our administration stage is complete and we are waiting for Porter Davis to start building. About 6 houses have been started on our street. More on that in a moment.

We (and we I mean me) have started packing. We need to be out of our unit by the end of September. Which is just in time for my trip to America so Simon will be left to take care of the moving and cleaning. Thankfully Louise has volunteered to help him out. Girl translation "Don't worry Val. I won't let him mess it up like last time." I have about 6 boxes packed and I'm already over it. I need my official mover here to help....OH EDDDDDDIEEE!!

So the house next to us is being built by S1monds. They are using our precious EXPENSIVE piece of Australia as parking, a rubbish cage (which they have their own!) and storage facility. As Queen of Lot 633, I view this as hostile armies invading my territory. So we have dispatched the guard (called S1monds and said STOP!). Hopefully this takes care of the issue. If not I have suggested building the Great Wall of Australia (temporary fencing) to keep them off my LAND!

So it's all happening slowly but surely. P.S. for those that care. I have tickets to NEW MOON ON WEDNESDAY THE 18th!!!!! One of the small benefits to moving across the international dateline.

Pictures from the display- kinda like ours but not 100%

Here are some pictures from the Manchester 1. Unfortunately they haven't built a display (model) of the Manchester 2 yet. This one is almost the same shape but smaller than ours will be. Enjoy!

This is the from the front door looking back to the kitchen etc.
My awesome walk in pantry. Mine will actually be slightly bigger.
The fake grass...just for Mom.
Home theater room.
Kitchen. Ours will have a slide out rangehood and kitchen cabinets above the counter.

The Floor Plan

Click on picture. It opens larger in a new window.

Various Pictures

April 10, 2009 our block of land the day we signed the paperwork

Simon standing on our block.

Standing in our backyard to looking to the left.

Standing in our backyard looking right.

Standing on the back boundary line looking towards the street.

The two happy land owners.

Colour, Tile and Electrical Selection

My favorite part of building the house was knowing that I could pick absolutely everything that was going to go into the house. After weeks and years of looking at display (model) houses, I thought I had everything decided. Well who knew that I had 16,429 different choices I had to make!

So now after all the hard work here are our selections.

Bricks: Amber Blaze

Mortar: Natural with Ironed Profile

Roof tiles: Magnum

Aluminum Windows: Woodland Grey with Screens

Garage door: Panelmasta Caprice in Woodland Grey- automatic (no more manual!!!)

Gutters/Fascia/Downpipes: Woodland Grey

Render/Front Door/Door from Garage to backyard- Bushland

External Front Door Handles: Gainsborough "Trilock Comtemporary Angular"

Internal Walls: Whitestone

Architraves/Skirting Boards/Cornice (trim and baseboards)- Whitestone Gloss

Benchtops (Kitchen Counters)- Sail White Oxide

Kitchen Cabinets- Doe Skin

Bathroom Vanities- Mushroom Linea

Internal Door Handles- Lemaar "Avilla" in polished chrome

Cabinet/Vanity/Closet Handles- Laminex "Bow" handles

Plus like fifteen more decisions on bathroom sinks and faucets!

Welcome to the Building Adventure!

So we have finally done it! We have purchased our own little piece of Australia. I never in my life thought I could get this excited over a large expanse of dirt and four wooden pegs in the ground. Which Simon wants to hammer down tightly into the ground after he heard that we would be charged a minimal fee to place them back into the correct spots if anything happened to them.

After 3 years of knowing we would be building the Paddington 23 by Porter Davis, we will be building the Manchester 2 by Porter Davis. The bank suggested that we find a way to shave $10,000 off our loan. So we started looking at alternate land. However, our options were limited because we would need a very wide block (lot for those Americans reading). We had three choices. First, we could move WAY OUT to the middle of the bushfire zone and have an hour commute each way everyday. Second, we could find a new house to put on a small block. Finally, we could do nothing and stay at the top of the price range. 

So we went to speak with the Porter Davis sales consultant to discuss options. While we were waiting for him to finish with the people before us we started speaking to the other lady who answers all the questions when the sales consultant is busy. She began to show us other floorplans similar to the Paddington 23 but made for a smaller block. So by the time we talked to "T" our sales consultant we were pretty sold on the Manchester 2. The best part was it fit on a smaller block of land and was a cheaper house to build.

So as they say the stars finally aligned and that is how we got into this whole crazy mess. The picture is our street before any work has been done to it.