Progress Payments

Today I received an invoice for my next progress payment. It's the frame stage one, and definitely looking at it, I have a frame! I still don't have a receipt for the slab payment so I sent off an email reminder tonight.

I also received a call from the kitchen company, About Kitchens to say that they had commenced construction of my cabinets and asked for the sum that I will be paying over and above the allowance in my contract. The contract allowed for $8k for the kitchen. Before I signed the contracts, I needed to make sure that I could actually get a kitchen for that much. The allowance is worked out based on the cost of the house, not necessarily the kitchen that the architect sketches into the space shown as kitchen.

I went to About Kitchens which is the one that my builder, Solid Constructions use. I explained that my budget had no budge in it! The kitchen they drew up for me came in at about $10 under. Then I added the waterfall edges and that pushed it over a little.

The Kitchen. The island is in two shades of Mocha and the cupboard doors are just off white. No doubt it will date badly. The bench top around the stove is also in the mocha colour.

The laundry on the other hand, had a budget of just $1500 and I blew that by as much as the kitchen! All the cupboards and the hanging rail over the bench were over the budget. But a house must have cupboards!

The Laundry. Space for washing machine on right and under bench space for dryer on left. My current dryer is wall hung and I can't actually reach the things in it! To the right of the cabinetry will be the linen press.

And the house by day reveals more!

 First thing this morning, Kate had a flute lesson and as the new road into the suburb was open, making it easier to drive from old to new house, we did a drive by.

 Kate went round the side and pointed out what I hadn't noticed the night before in the dark...

 They have put the piping in for hot and cold water!

 So here we are on the 13th with a roof frame and some plumbing and some bricks.

 It has been a week of noteworthy progress

After I dropped her off at the lesson, I went carpet shopping. Before I accepted the contract on the house, I went and got a quote on carpet to make sure that it was going to add up to an affordable bundle. I haven't checked my figures from today but I have a sinking feeling that it was significantly more expensive today than in March/April when I first asked. I am peeved and annoyed and somewhat worried. I have been to Carpet One and Carpet Choice.
I am waiting on Carpet Choice's estimate, but the estimate from Carpet One is that I need 62.5(m?) of timber laminate and 16-17m of carpet. All up laid I am looking at $8,300. (Builder's range). I think that is about a thousand more than the original price I was guestimated. Hurrumph

And now a roof by night!

Today I finished my second week at the new job. After a sick kid and two visits to the dentist, I was feeling like things were not progressing fast enough. I needed a bit of time at work just to read up on a few things. So I stayed on late to read about formatting ministerials and minutes. And tried to find a legend for the icons in our email system (unsuccessfully). The end result was that by the time I got to the house, it was dark.

At first as I drove up and aimed my lights at high beam on the house, I thought they had only finished bricking the garage. Well that was a little disappointing...

Then just as I was reversing out, I realised that they had put the roof trusses on!
Tadah

Well I was so excited, I jumped out of the car, in the dark, and took photos of the house in the headlights... then noticed the car was still in reverse....eeeeek
Jumped back in and drove off a happy camper.

With Roof Trusses by the full moon and under headlights!

Progress Report in Pictures

Here are a few photos of the progress so far. Pretty much as I reported in the last post

 Looking from the North West. It looks bigger than it will be. Note the mess on the next door neighbors block. Hope my folk didn't do that!

The bricks are sitting on the mound that eventually will be the patio. There will be a pergola over the top of it. I am not really sure what is going to retain the dirt. The builder said he would put in footings. I hope that means bricks and not just the cement outline that is currently there.

 These are bricks. That much is obvious! The colour is called Urban Mist. The pink is the part that is not so much seen and the white is the outside part.

And from the front. Now sign of the garage which will be all brick and no timber framework. The Zafira and Erin pose for photos

Why a Blog?

The reason I am writing this blog is because I need somewhere for my memories to live and my head isn't reliable :)
This is my own adventure so the memories are really for my own benefit and blogs make a good place to store them.
As the direction of my life has changed I have written different blogs. I have a quilting one, a Second Life one and now I have this one which will be about building a new home and a new life.

I began by writing the story in my SL Blog as my two lives began to merge. Now though, my SL has become something more like a curtain than a life. It is in the background, it colours my life but it isn't my life anymore.

So now this blog is about 9 months behind where things are up to. I may lift whole pieces from Audslife and bring it over, or I might just do some quick summaries. I will think on it :)

Meanwhile, yesterday they built half the frame of my house!

Yesterday was much like today. Gorgeous sunny day and clear skies. Not much wind. A fine day to be a builder I guess. But so cold! Minus 6.5 this morning. (that's 20F) we have been having very heavy frosts and I am happy to be working inside at 9am

Where this adventure began

My plan was to find a home for myself and the 4 kids. Easier said than done on my budget! I searched on line for months trying to work out how I could manage it. Slowly but surely my focus began to settle on building a new home. It's not the first time I have built a new home and I guess the reasons I end up making this choice remain the same.

New homes tend to be in the furthest flung suburbs so you don't pay the premium that more centrally located homes attract.
New homes don't need bathroom and kitchen make-overs and don't smell of other people's lives.
The potential for ghosts is a bit more limited (don't laugh!)
You can put the garden in as you can afford it rather than pay up front for some one else's effort.

Now and then I would decide it wasn't possible and I would give up. Then my friend Wendy came to visit and we wandered through the display village at Crace. Oh! In the bottom of my stomach I knew it was time to take action and grasp my new life. Crace is far too expensive for me so I wandered round, spoke to agents and visited display houses. I worked out a budget and thought I had nearly found a home through real estate agent Frank, who was representing one of the big track builders. The house he was offering came with very little room to move as far as what I could choose. Pick one of 4 colour schemes, then move in in 8 months. That really isn't my style at all so I felt my feet slow beneath me. I was keen on the location though.

Casey

High up on a hill and with a reserve across the road. Quite stunning though the northerly orientation of the house missed all the views to the south. I wandered again through a display village with nagging doubt.

Solid Constructions Kitchen and Family

After walking through one by Solid Constructions, I slowed to talk to their rep, Joe. He asked what I was looking for and I told him I was looking for the impossible. A house with 4 bedrooms, double garage in my budget. Joe said he had something that just might meet my criteria.

He had a block that he said some one had had to withdraw from and that the current display house could suit it. I sat down and showed interest! The price was right He sent me to look at the block and meanwhile he got the plans off to the architect to have him look through combining the two. I went and saw a few homes that Solid had built and all looked well finished off in an understated, simple way. I have no money for fancy so if Joe could figure it into my budget, this was looking like a very good option.

Well Joe sent me the plans. The block he thought looked flat enough wasn't and they had introduced stairs halfway through the house.

That meant trouble. My brother is in a wheelchair and building a house that could not accommodate him was not an option. I asked Joe if we could put sliding windows into my bedroom at the rear of the house so that perhaps a garden path could get access to the rest of the house that the internal stairs wouldn't allow.
Joe thought this could be possible.

A meeting was arranged with the builder to finalise. This was when the wheels came off.
The builder sent his eyes swiftly over the plans and realised that the split level arrangement had compromised the design of the house in several ways quite apart from the wheelchair issue. Neither builder Mark nor Joe could come with an idea that would resolve both the slope and the wheelchair issues.

I drove off feeling quite down but as soon as I got onto the open road I started having ideas. Moving my bedroom and ensuite to the front of the house and having the living areas at that level then having the rest of the house at the second level would make it possible for Michael to visit and have access to everything he could need in a stay. I sent Joe a text and before I knew it he had got new plans that I really really like.

The price has gone up though. The house footprint grew, corners and stairs have cost me my stone bench tops. Somewhere along the way I lost the cement under the pergola. I have 3 meters by a meter or so of ground to retain and I am not really sure what the builder means to do with it. He said he was going to build footings. I hope those cement pads with no height is not all he means to build because I haven't a clue what I am going to do with them. I am hoping that bricks get put on top and a wall appears to hold that dirt back. Fingers Crossed!

But what I have is a plan, a block of land and by the beginning of June I owned the block of land for it to be built on!