Saying goodbye

Well just thought I would post some pics of our house....that will soon be no more. The kitchen is gone, as too are the wardrobes. Although it won't be knocked down until after Christmas and new Year, we are all ready to go...

Hassle till you get what you asked for!

So no new reports as yet. Still waiting for Metricon to give us the go ahead to knockdown our house...We have, in the meantime been able to sell our old kitchen, wardrobes and even the doors! Thanks to Ebay we have been able to profit a little from the whole process. God knows we have spent enough!

All has not been smooth sailing though..we have had issues with the abolishment of the gas and electricity. I have been chasing Energy Australia for the past 2 weeks...everyday...to find out how long it would take for the abolishment to be completed.

Everyone I spoke to said to me that they couldn't tell me when the job would be completed, but that it had been processed with United Energy. WELL, when I rang United Energy they had no record of the job!

We were so angry. According to the rules of an abolishment, it can take up to 20 days for the Energy company to do the job...from the day of receiving the application. Nearly 15 days in and we only now learn that the gas was abolished but the electricity job was never ordered with United Energy!

On Friday we were notified that the job had been processed and was put on high priority. We will just keep hassling until it gets done!

"So you don't want the standard range?"

Today we had our tile selection at Beaumont Tiles.

Let's just say we had to shake that money tree again...really hard!

I was really disappointed with Metricon's range of standard tiles. All of the standard range were ceramic tiles..which were ok, but if you wanted tiles bigger than 400x400 then there was nothing to choose from.

I knew we were going to have to upgrade even before I walked in the store, because I wanted porcelain tiles. But I never thought it was going to be so expensive.

I have to say the service at Beaumont Tiles was fantastic. We got the right advice and the team was very helpful in choosing the tiles for our bathroom, Ensuite, laundry and portico.

Our appointment went for just over an hour and I think our choices were spot on.

We kept it very simple and decided to go without any feature look within the tiling. Not sure why, but the Beaumont staff were pretty adamant that most people don't do feature tiling anymore because once it goes in it's really hard & costly to change it. We decided to go with the 600x600 floor tiles and rectangle tiles (same colour) on the walls.

See pics below for our tile selection.

Next Big Drama - Tiles Selection

So we are still playing the waiting game, so not much news on the house. We have managed to sell a few items from our house on eBay which is great. At the moment we have our old kitchen on eBay so hopefully we can make a little bit of money before it gets knocked down.

The likelihood of the house being demolished before Christmas diminishes everyday but we still have a little hope. Spoke to our Customer Service Consultant at Metricon and we are still yet to get the plans to Council so fingers crossed but I'm not holding my breath.

Our next big step is going to pick tiles at Beaumont Tiles. I really have been dreading this. So maybe you can help. A while ago I posted a picture of our bathroom designs....see It's Never Too Late post.

The bench tops in the bathroom will all be Ceaserstone Ice Snow and the cabinets will be Laminex Nuance Finish Domain;

So my question to you is what colour tiles?  

I guess I will keep them fairly neutral but if anyone has any ideas or comments would love to hear them. We have our appointment on Wednesday...so wish us luck.

Where is That Money Tree Hiding?

After signing our lives away we are still no closer to demolishing our house, however we have made the move into my mother in law's house. So far so good, but since we are moving into a house which is already furnished there is just no room for all our stuff.  So the juggling of what we really need and what we can pack up for the new house has certainly begun and after 3 weeks of living here is still going!!

Today I put in the applications for the abolishment of the gas and electricity.  That was exciting...oh yes and by the way someone told me that there is no charge involved!  Oh yes there is!  The electricity abolishment seems to be at no charge but gas for some reason is going to cost us $150.  Let me just go to the Money Tree and get some change!

Another development was the decision to make our driveway cross over larger so that it will be easier to have car access to the driveway.  Again we need a permit from the Council and it is going to cost us around $2,000.  The hitch is that the permit only lasts a few months and we have a nature strip tree (a very ugly one) which could impede on the driveway cross over extension. 

With some running around we actually got the ok (in writing) from the Council that when it came time to get the permit for the cross over that it would be approved so I guess that is a relief for us now.

Another change we are going to make is moving the water meter.  Because we are extending the cross over the water meter will need to move...where was that money tree again....

We are still waiting on Metricon to provide us with the Building Permit.  Just a heads up, most Banks won't approve your loan unless you provide them with a Building permit, so make sure you highlight this with Metricon when signing your Contract, as there may be some issues if you need the loan to cover your deposit.

Oh yes and next week we finally have our Tile appointment.  I am not looking forward to finalising the tiling as it is going to be hard deciding on the right tile and colour.  Hopefully we can stay within our budget...so far we haven't been able to do that!  Where is that Money Tree????

Where do I sign?

We got it!

We got our contract!  Finally after weeks of delays....we saw the final price!  Well not exactly.  We did see A PRICE...but after all our variations we are sure this will change...

I must say we were surprised to see that most of our last minute changes including all the joinery changes were included..and were right!

It took us from 9am when we arrived at Metricon to 5.30pm when we finally signed on the dotted lines....yes lines...we had to sign hundreds of papers!

So I guess the next steps are getting council approval and knocking down our house.  More headaches to come!

By the way we finally made the big step of moving out of our home.  Last weekend with the help of a great friend and my dad we moved all our furniture etc into my mother in laws house!

Yes not sure if I mentioned that one before...we decided to move in with my mother in law...I guess the clincher for us was saving thousands in rent!  I  may need to start a new blog all together on just living here!

So Week 1 out of our house has been ok.  Bar a few things we are starting to settle in.  It is a bit tight but luckily there is a huge backyard for the kids to play so it isn't too bad.

We did make a little money out of the move.  We sold our dining table and buffet unit as well a the kids swing set on ebay which was really easy.  We also sold some rose bushes and some blinds.  People do love a bargain!

I have to say I am a little sad to say goodbye to our home...but I know that we are making a better life for our family and in the end, a house is just a house....it's what's inside that makes it a home!

Till next time.

It's never too late

It has been a while since my last post. 

Juggling work, three kids and a new house project it seems that time is getting the better of me.

We were supposed to have our Final Contract viewing back in September, but it has been moved once again and now we look forward to seeing the Contract on the 31st October.

We have had so many variations that my head is spinning.

Most of the delays came about when we were organising all the cabinets and joinery for the house. What started off quite simple became a logistical nightmare as we ended up having to change the colour scheme of the house to suit the new cabinets and kitchen layout.

After all this we are very excited to see the final outcome looking amazing.  Below is a picture of the kitchen.  We will be using two colours for the kitchen now..top cabinets will now be in Nocturne Oak and lower cabinets will be in Parchment silk (off white).






Butler's pantry - same colour scheme as the kitchen....




Family room cabinets to be in parchment....

 
Our Ensuite WIR room - colour Domane Nuance Impressions









Dining room cabinets will be in the Nocturne Oak






So now we sit an wait for the Final Contract date...

In addition to all the joinery changes we have also been looking into the Brick fence we would like to use....this has also been a hassle as we need to make sure the concrete driveway does not cut into where the brick fence pillar will be!  Although I think we have sorted this out now.  If anyone has had any similar experiences would love to hear about them.

And then there is the outdoor room. We are hoping to have an outdoor bbq kitchen area so we just needed to make sure the gas and water pipes were going to be placed in the right positions!  Thankfully we have done our homework and all these additions will be made to our final contract...fingers crossed! Below is a picture of what we are hoping to do....


So that is where we are at!  Aahh yes nearly forgot to mention.  As we are knocking down our home  to build our dream home we need to move out!  The big move is scheduled for next weekend...so will definitely keep you posted on that.