Colour Selection

Today we met with the builder to finalise our colour selection, it was quite a smooth appointment as we did not have far to drive and Erin was very well behaved. Today a great deal of decisions needed to be made.  This time around we have chosen a very neutral palette of colours.

Boral Port Phillip Brick

Jasper Colorbond for the garage door, window frames and downpipes

Paperbark Colorbond for the Fascia

Alice roof tiles Bacchus profile, slate colour

Wilson Art Loft Oak for the Cabinets throughout the house

We have selected to have this laminate installed in a horizontal design, giving us a warmer feel.

Quantum Quartz - Luna White Kitchen Benchtops

Wilson Art - Monterey Haze for the Laundry and bathroom bench tops

Taubmans colour China Beige for all internal doors

Taubmans colour Torte for all internal walls

The computer has not picked this colour up too well, it is a much warmer dusty light brown in real life, and matches the doors well, following the earthy colour scheme that we have gone with.

These are the main colour schemes of the house, we have also chosen floor coverings, appliances, door handles, and mirrors amongst so many other things, my goodness the list is endless.  One thing that we can say is that the rep that helped us out at Cavalier homes today was extremely supportive, helpful and very professional and for that we are so grateful.

Tonight DJ and I are very relieved that this process is over and that we finally seem under way with the house.



The house

I have just realized that we have a lot of documentation on the blog about the land but absolutely nothing about the house or the builder. DJ and I have been working hard over the last few months to decide on a builder and style of house to suit our large family. After a lot, and I mean a lot of researching, we have decided to build with Cavalier Homes and have chosen the Coventry 32 house plan with many modifications to suit our needs. The pleasing thing about this house is that we have been able to keep a single story which suits not only our family but also our extended family in particular, where there are a few loved ones that would not be able to make it up to the upper story related to their physical needs. The original floor plan gave us a lot of scope to make many changes.

We have chosen a fairly large block which is 722 m2, it will fit the house on it as the frontage of the block is 17.50m and the width of the house is 15.75m including the garage, this means however that we won't be able to fit the caravan along either side of the house. It has been quite a challenge trying to figure out a way to get the caravan on the block, we have made some modifications to the garage to try and fit it in, however the land has an incline so we are not sure if we will be able to get it into the garage, if not we will face that challenge when we need to and try and figure out where the caravan will go.

The features this house are that each of the kids will have their own bedroom, DJ will have a study AT LAST, the downside for DJ is that it has a beautiful walk in cupboard with a lot shelves that I am sure I will take over with most of my quilt fabric and scrapbooking supplies - sorry DJ ;) There is a rumpus/play room, great sized laundry and kitchen and an alfresco/outdoor area which is under the roof line, great for BBQ's all year round.

We have chosen a classic facade so the front of the house will be all brick, the next stage is colour selections, we have an appointment with the builder in the next week or two so we have to make some final choices on our colour schemes so that we can sign the contract and get things underway.

Footpaths and street signs

The progress is slow but we seem to be getting there. On our visit down to the block today we were all very excited to see that the street signs, footpaths and crossover driveways have all been completed.  The land has also been cleared and levelled.  The original estimation was that the land would settled in Feb, however, due to the rain etc it has obviously been delayed, we are hoping that it will settle soon, but we have been told by many that the land titles office has quite a backlog and it may be a little time yet before the land is titled, which will then allow us to start building.  Here are some pictures of the current progress.

Footpaths are in, and crossover driveways have all been completed, you can see our car parked up on our driveway way off in the distance.

The land has also been pegged out, so that we can see the exact boundaries of all the blocks in the court, lot 833 is us :-)

Not only has the block changed over the months, but Miss Erin has also grown, she had a ball today running around exploring the land now that it has been levelled and there are not so many mounds of dirt to climb.  It was freezing out there today, we found one of Laura's old jackets in the car for Erin to wear, a little over sized but it did the job keeping her warm :)

A picture of all the kids in front of the street sign by the footpath, you can see our back fence off in the distance.

Laura and Miss Erin still exploring together like they were the night we first found the land.

Asphalt is down

More work has finally been completed up at the block, there was quite a wait due to the heavy rain that we had, but when we went down there today the roads were finally open for us to drive into the court. It was exciting to see that not only were the roads open but also the gutters, curbs and street lights were also in. It is all starting to shape up - the kids are smiling and we keep telling them it will be "any day now" that the house starts :-)

And the rain just continues to fall!

Photos from our town here in Vic this afternoon - we use this bridge at least twice a week to get the girls to netball - Not today! The rain has been constant, not as devastating as what is going on in QLD right now -our prayers are with all Queenslander's tonight.

In amongst all this rain we decided to drive around and check out the block, to see if the water was flooding or if it was running off. It was difficult to get through as the roads are still unmade, but from the main road leading into the estate we could see that our block is up quite high and no water was collecting on it.  Here are some pics of the estate and the creek bed near our block that has been dry for many years with the drought, it was flowing today!

This road will lead into our court, the asphalt hasn't been laid yet, the heavy rains have totally flooded it.

Our block is way off in the distance, there is no rain settling on it, which is great to see it running down the hill into the creek.

 The other end of the estate was also closed off due to the rain.

The creek bed near us is usually bone dry, I mean not a drop of water, today it is totally flowing, what an amazing site after years of no rain.  This will surely delay work on the estate and slow down the land getting titled, oh well the upside is we really do need this rain, it is long overdue.

Deposit paid

Along with it being Miss Jen's 15th Birthday today, it was also an exciting night as we paid the depsoit on the land that we will call home.  We are all relieved tonight, that the search is over, it has been a long process of deciding to sell our home and build a new one and we are finally on our way.  Though we know that the wait is still going to be quite a long one our answers to the many questions from all the children  have been "Any Day Now", which we have chosen as the title of our blog.

When will we find some land dad? - "Any day now"

When will the land be ready dad? - "Any day now"

When will decide on the house plans mum and dad ? - "Any day now"

LOL there have been so many questions from the children,

DJ and I have built before and we know the looooong process that we are in for, it sure is going to be a lesson in patience for the rest of the family though.

At least tonight we are one step closer - we have found and paid a depsoit on our new block of land *huge smiles all around*

Finally found some land!

After a lot of searching, we think we found the perfect block of land for the new house, it will be in a court that has not yet been completed, the land is a long way off from being titled which means we cannot start building for quite some time, but it looks like the hunt is over.  The kids had a great time tonight running around on the block and exploring where their new bedrooms might be, it was a fun and exciting time.

Here are quite a few photos to remember this very exciting night for our family.

The view at the back of the block, we have a farmer for a back neighbour at the moment so there is land as far as the eye can see.

This is our car parked in front of what will be the driveway of the new house.

A photo from the very back left corner of the block showing the street view and our car.

The drains getting laid with the kids behind the huge pile of dirt, Erin thought it was terrific!

 Here is Miss Erin on the run, exploring on her own.

Laura finally caught up with Erin and held her hand as they climbed over the mounds of dirt.

 Laura climbing up the back fence, which I am sure she will do plenty more times over the years.

Miss Erin on the loose running with DJ and Luke in the background

A view of the court under construction  from our block.

Finally a street view of the drains and the kids having a ball exploring.

We are pretty sure that this will be the site of our new home, we have a hold on the land and will pay the deposit later this week once we have finally decided, fingers crossed the house plan we have chosen will fit nicely on the block and the search will be over :-)