7.11.10

Settlement day!!!

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , , ,

Well this is just a short post, cause we're right in the middle of moving.... but yes we have settled and the house is ours!!


We are currently moving in amidst painting some feature walls. We had originally put feature walls into the budget for the painters to do, but realised we could save ourselves $1500 doing the painting ourselves! Something we wouldn't have attempted unless we had painted quite a few houses previously.

In the family room we have put a beautiful caramel colour, and in the next couple days we will add a chocolate colour to the rumpus room, which will blend in with our kitchen cupboards. The caramel walls will also go with the caramel splashback in the kitchen.

Our watertank was delivered and connected last week, to keep with our 5 star rating required in the Laurimar Estate.

There is still last minute things to be connected and installed so I will update again later in the week with photos etc.

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29.5.10

An exciting afternoon

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , , ,

Two blog posts in one day is shocking I know. But I was so excited I had to do an update tonight after the last dismal post.


We got ourselves geared up to go out to the block this afternoon to start bludgeoning the dumped rubbish to bits. I had been to Bunnings and bought heavy duty gloves and plastic sheets to fill our car boots with rubbish. As it had also been raining and muddy, we were all dressed in old clothes and shoes.

Imagine our shock and surprise as we ascended our hill to
find our block cleared of rubbish, site scraped, and pink markers everywhere for the slab.

The rubbish had been bulldozed to the side, and neatly put out of the way so building can begin.

We will have to remove whats left of it at some point, but such a pleasant surprise to find that site start has begun and the rubbish can go at a later time.

They have even delivered a porta-loo, cut out the driveway and garage, and put down wooden slats in our driveway for easy access.

What a difference a week can make. As we live about 10-15 minutes from our block and both work all week we only get out there every weekend, so I'm thinking every Saturday is going to be a treat seeing what else has happened in our new home.

So we're underway, and because were building with Porter Davis we have a 20 week build guarantee, so stay tuned for lots more photos and updates!!

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22.5.10

Woo hoo - the smallest start!

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , ,

Today is Saturday! We apprehensively drove out to our block today to survey how much more rubbish had been dumped in the last week, as we are still waiting for site start and for the fence to go up.


Not only were we pleasantly surprised to see that the rubbish dump had NOT increased, but there were signs of building activity.

The first thing we saw as we ascended the hill to our block, was a wire cage, commonly used by builders to collect all the building rubbish. (Something other builders had obviously forgot about, hence using our block for their rubbish!) I guess if you're going to start a build, having a rubbish bin is a smart thing to start with.

Secondly as requested, the next door builder had removed all his bricks & trusses after parking them on our land. So it was looking much more cleared.

The thing that excited me the most, was the new water meter and pipe installed in the front yard. With new gleaming pipes and its store tag still hanging off it.

Progress!! It might only be a wire cage and a tiny little water meter, but to us it was pure joy!!

Almost one year since we settled on our block, building is about to start.

It's the little things in life that sometimes mean the most!!
:)

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15.5.10

Being the last block on the block.....

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , ,


You may have mistaken this picture to be of a random rubbish dump. You would be forgiven for thinking that! But imagine if your beloved, expensive block of land turned into a rubbish dump.


This is the result of being one of the last blocks to start in the new estate of Laurimar. Apparently this is common practice for new estates, and commonly done amongst builders.

I mean where else are you going to dump your dregs of cement from the mixer, that annoying tree stump you just pulled out of your front yard. Broken bricks and half cut-off roof trusses. Even that broken pram you had filling the back of your ute. "Ahh theres an empty block that's not being used, and look there's already a pile of rubbish!"

Every week we've been out to our block, we've noticed more rubbish collecting. It seem the builders have a strict code of disposing of their cans and wrappers on someone else's block!!!

So boo to the care-less and selfish builders that grace our lovely estate! We will have to fork out around the $1000 mark to have our block cleared before building starts in a week.

But the beautiful thing about building with Porter Davis, is that unlike many builders, one of the first things they do is put up a fence around the entire block. So hopefully short of someone scaling our fence, we will be done with the rubbish dump!

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20.8.09

Facade-ing away!!

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , ,


We were a little saddened to have to change our facade yesterday. My husband got a call from our Porter Davis rep to say that where we're building in Laurimar, you can apparently only have 1 in every 5 houses with the same facade.


It just so happens that one of our neighbours (across the road, and 3 houses down) has already built with the facade we had chosen which was the Balgowie facade.

I drove down to have a look at this other house. And yes it had the same facade, but it was built down the hill, and you could only see from the windows up. But I guess rules are rules (even if they're dumb ones)!

So we are back to picking facades. Annoying given we really liked the Balgowie!

I want a portico! So we're trying to find a facade that includes a portico, (not a port-a-loo)!!

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10.7.09

Corner block & Custom builders

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , ,


Custom builders are great if you have a specific idea of plans for your home. If you're happy to just go with the standard plan, any mainstream builder will help you out.


But what if you need to move walls, add a room, or fit the plan to your block? Something we have learnt along the way is that if you make too many changes to a standard plan, you need to check that you are still eligible for the luxury upgrades so many builders include in their advertising. If there are too many changes to standard plans, it's then classed as a custom build, and you may lose the luxury inclusions.

We have a corner block, its around 19m wide and 32m long, its a 600m size block. Not huge but not tiny either. But because this block is on the corner, we lose a couple of metres of the front corner.

So whatever plan we choose, it has to fit on the block with the garage to the left and enough room for the corner.

The other thing that is a requirement for having a corner block at Laurimar, is we have to address the corner. Which means that whatever facade, windows, render etc we have on the front of the house, has to carry to a certain percentage of the corner and side. This can make things a little expensive, we have to allow about $3000 to our budget just for the corner treatment. Ultimately it will look great, but it's also finding a plan that has a good corner layout to fit our particular block.

For us we are looking very hard for a custom builder who will help us to build our home and not shoot us if we want to change the plan a little. As for luxury inclusions, you don't get something for nothing, so my advice is to always read the fine print and make sure you are aware of all costs hidden or not, because luxury inclusions will have to be factored into the overall price somewhere.

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3.7.09

The Land Has Settled

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , ,


Our land in Laurimar has settled!!!


What a good feeling to know our land is approved and settled. This happened a couple of days ago, and Saturday we went out to see if the for sale sign had a 'sold' on it. Still no sign, but it was quite a liberating feeling to know this little piece of land now belongs to us.

Houses are going up very quickly around us. When we first looked at this block there were no other houses in the estate, now they're all going up very fast.

I think the time it's taking us to find a builder, we'll be some of the last to build in the estate, but I guess the perk of that is that we won't have to live through the noise of houses being built next door. (sorry to our new neighbours)!

I continue to breathe sighs of joy, everytime we visit Laurimar. It is such a beautiful estate, and they haven't even finished developing the lakes and parkland yet. It will be a very beautfiul place to see my kids grow up.

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16.6.09

Laurimar Town Centre

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , ,



I did a search on the Delfin Laurimar website to see what the new Town Centre was going to look like. I was pleasantly surprised to see the artists impression and virtual tour.


Laurimar Town Centre looks like it will be a beautiful tree-lined estate with sparkling waterways and manicured landscaping.

Definately in my opinion, a nice place to come home to.

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16.5.09

Land ahoy!

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , ,

We have started the wheels in motion! Our financial planner (Martin) has begun the search for the bank that will lend us our dream.


We live in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, and have been looking to the outer suburbs, we're a bit tired of the city rush and we're hanging for some country air!

A friend who lives out at Doreen told us to call into the Delfin office in the Laurimar Estate. Doreen is beautiful, with views to the surrounding mountains and then back to the city skyline. Kangaroos roam freely throughout the rolling hills.

We casually went for a visit to the office and spoke to the salesman who told us there was not much left in the new estate. But he showed us a block on the map which was around 600m2 and offered to take us up to see it.

As we drove into the new estate, my husband and I both agreed this block, being one of the last, would probably be the worst block in the estate, in some dark valley no one wants. As we drove up a hill, our salesman turned into a nice new street and stopped and got out. We followed and thought it would surely be the block going down the hill, but we were very surprised as we walked onto the block right at the top of the hill.

The views were beautiful, the block was relatively flat, and we were blown away.

We both fell in love with it instantly, and after much pacing and dreaming, we told the salesman we were very interested.


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