Costruction Has Commenced

Once the plans were approved we had to get construction approval which took a further two weeks. As soon as that was approved our final site survey was locked in and before we knew it our site was level in the middle of November last year.

 This photo is of the leveled block and also the form work is started and the piers are drilled and poured. I think it was around 60m of piers all up which was allowed for in our contract.

 Pipes for plumbing installed and slab poured. This was taken at the end of November.

Our neighbour's houses have shot up so quickly.

Sorry, Completely Forgot to Update This

Once council approved our plans we were then able to select colours and materials for doors, kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry.

This part was pretty exciting for us as our plans were becoming real!!!!

We chose the following fittings and fixings;

Kitchen

• Gloss white cupboards on the top and malamine on the bottom cupboards
• 40mm Caesar stone bench top
• Tinted mirror splash back
• Misted glass pantry doors
• Frosted metal handles
• Frosted metal tap
• Top mounted double basin

Bathrooms

• Dark grey tiles with a slightly lighter feature tile
• Chrome fittings and fixings
• Wall mounted vanity
• Clear glass shower

Laundry 

•  Dark grey tiles
• Gloss white cupboards
• Black benchtop

I do not have pictures of all these as we selected out of a books and leaflets they gave us.

Plans Submitted To Council !!!!

Our plans were submitted to council at the start of August and they have estimated it will take six weeks to be approved. Some other plans have been submitted and approved in two weeks but this does not seem to be the case for ours. Fingers crossed it doesn't take six weeks.

A week after the plans were submitted we had a minor hiccup due to a roof being positioned over our courtyard area at the side of the house. After a sleepless night thinking we were up for an expensive variation the staff at Huxley changed it with no drama or cost at all. Thank god for the staff at Huxley for their swift rectification, crisis averted.

This is one of the plans submitted to council.

External Colour and Materials

During our settlement period we decided to complete our colour selection form.

I thought this was going to be easy, but, many trips to existing buildings with certain brick and mortar colour combinations, window frame and fascia combinations later we made our decision. Then when we thought we were finished the bricks didn't match the roof tiles or the render colour clashed with the facia. It is mind boggling sometimes the amount of slight combination changes we made but we have made up our minds (or have we?) and submitted the form to Huxley

 

 Bricks from Boral - Oasis Mountain.

(selecting a brick colour was the hardest part because once it is in, it is in. The actual brick colour is browner and less grey than this picture in real life, especially in the sun)

 Garage Door from Gliderol - Cedar Timbergrain

(this is aluminium with a timber look. We have seen a few of these around the place and look awesome with neutral bricks)

 Fascia and Gutter from Colorbond - Basalt

 Front Pillars from Taubmans - Popcorn Ball

(we are unsure about this colour but it will be easy enough to change if we have to)

 Roof tiles from Boral - Gunmetal Grey

Window and door frames from Trend Window Frames - Anodic natural Matt

Finally Registered

Our block was finally submitted to council in mid May, it only took 3 weeks to register. Now we have 2 weeks to finalise our finances for settlement, which is on the 19/06/2015. In the mean time we have been granted access to the block. We have advised Huxley and our site survey has been booked in (should have it back in a couple of weeks).

Here are a few photos of our first visit. This was pretty exciting for us as we have been waiting for this since October last year.

 First drive down our street. (Dashboard needs a clean)

 Panoramic shot of our block taken from the back fence boundary. (We parked in our "Driveway")

 Once we submit our colour selection (This is for the external colours and materials of the home) form to Huxley and our survey is complete we then have to submit the plans to the Estate. Once the Estate approves them we can submit them to council.

Finally we have reached a milestone.

The House Plans

We have the plans for the Avalon 32. We opted for a few upgrades before we signed the contract. The upgrades are 2 zone ducted a/c, 2.7m ceilings, upgraded stove/oven, timber look garage door, bigger front door, bigger interior doors, 4.3m bi-fold. Haha lots of door upgrades.

Also we got the tiles and slab moved from the alfresco to the side courtyard at no extra cost. We plan on building a timber deck in the alfresco area.

    Floor Plan

    Back and East Elevation

    Front and West Elevation

We planned on putting a pool in the backyard near bedroom 4, but, due to us getting married this year we have decided to postpone this part of the project and build it in years to come.

House Selection

We now had an unregistered block that was due to register in February 2015 but has been delayed due to all the rain we have received in Sydney. Registration has now blown out to the end of May.
We are lucky to be able to stay at my parents place and pay minimal rent for the build. This has been rather difficult as we don't have our own place and the fact that I live with my parents sucks.

We did a fare bit of research into what house to build and how to do it. Below is our thought process.


Owner Builder
Pros: custom build and possibly cheaper
Cons: time consuming

Project Home:
Pros: know exactly what we are getting, see it before hand, and have some-one responsible
Cons: very rigid with plans and expensive if variations arise

Independent Building Company:
Pros: custom build and unique
Cons: expensive

Anyway there are a lot more pros and cons for each but these were the main ones we were most concerned about. After much discussion we decided to go with a project home.

We looked at a number of project homes to build and we ended up going with Huxley for a few reasons. Firstly Alison our contact at Huxley was upfront about a lot of information we had to dig out of other building companies, and secondly we really liked the house which is the Avalon 32.
(4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 car garage)

 Avalon.