2 More Days to Go!

2 more days till the action begins! Although the weather is not looking like its on our side. Not an overly optimistic Friday by any means.......

We are thinking that the weather may not make too much of a difference for the site scrape. Anyone out there with knowledge of this?! Fingers crossed.

Next Step - Fences Down

Photo Reel; photo number 2. Fences Down. This week we had to remove approx 8m of side fencing ready for the build. During our Tender appointment we were firstly informed that the construction of the garage would be built from the inside on the fence line of an existing neighbour. At Contract, we were then told that the fence would need to be removed for the length of our garage, plus an extra metre either side. We have met our neighbours on a few occasions and they are really lovely people. We popped over on the weekend to let them know of what we needed to do. They were really accommodating, but we could see that they were slightly nervous about it as well. I guess that's the thing when you have a house next to an empty block. You never know what will happen on it and it's ultimately out of your control. Their garage takes up most of this space so it was no big issue. It was nice to have another chance to chat to them and get to know them a little better. We had fantastic neighbours at our previous home and if they are anything to go by, we are looking forward to living next to them. 

The First Change

An interesting fact that we found out from chatting to the neighbours was that we had thought that our plans had been approved by them (we thought this was the process) due to our setback issues (that became non-issues!). We thought maybe they had agreed and that was one reason it bypassed council. In fact, they hadn't been contacted and had heard nothing. We had given them the heads up a month or so ago but they never heard from anyone officially. Who knows! Maybe our plans were approved because they were inline with our developer guidelines, regardless of the neighbours setback. We're happy anyway. They have been stamped with approval so there is no turning back!

First Official Photo

I mentioned in an earlier post that I want to follow this journey with taking a photo of every stage of the build. This may be daily or weekly - as the major changes occur. I have marked my tripod location across the road and set the camera, to hopefully take the photos in the same frame location. This is the first photo of the block for my Photo Reel.

The beginning

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Yesterday driving home from work I saw the most amazing rainbow. There is something about a rainbow that makes you shine on the inside! Something magical. Our kids love rainbows and to tell you the truth, in real life, I love them too! I was driving home from work and pulled over to take a photo. It was a complete form (although broken to the camera's eye). I was about 5 min from the block and thought what an amazing photo it would make before the build action begins. It was shining in the perfect direction, in the distance, arcing over our future home. As I drove onward hoping that it would last by the time I got there, it slowly began to fade from sight. Maybe it was a sign that; 

Somewhere over the rainbow

Skies are blue

And the dreams that you dare to dream

Really do come true..............

WE'VE GOT A DATE!!!!!!!!!!!

Received a very exciting email yesterday to say that we have a start date! Everything has moved along so smoothly. Can't believe that it's really going to start. We've been walking or driving around the estate nearly every day, watching all the other houses move and grow around us. It will be so surreal to see the action on our block!

Site scrape - 2nd May 2014

Drains - 9th May 2014

Slab - 13th May 2014

Should meet our site supervisor in the next few weeks as well.

Photography Plan

One of the reasons I started this blog was to improve my Photography skills. For Christmas my very generous husband bought me a new fancy camera. I had always wanted a good camera to take photos that you never seemed to capture with a basic. I've taken quite a lot of snaps on it but all very basic. I'm hoping this little project will inspire some art! I had a thought a while back that it would be cool to take a photo every day of the build process. Luke said if I marked the exact spots on the footpath (across the road) and used the same settings and a tripod then at the end we could create a pretty cool photo imagery of our journey. I think I'll head to the block tomorrow and take the first image! 

Huge Celebration!

We received very very exciting news tonight. Our building permit and siting have been approved!! Huge news! Following on from my previous post,  'Combating Council,' deep down we have been really worried about this. Sometime between Friday and today our plans have been approved at 4.5m! Massive win for us. Although it wasn't really a win because it actually never went to council! Instead, a private building surveyor has approved the siting as well as our developer. Whoo Hoo! Steph emailed us today and said that she will be giving us a start date Monday! Unbelievable! 

Slope Surprise!

As I mentioned in a previous post, our block to the (untrained) eye appeared to be under 1m in elevation. We knew there was a gradual rise from front to rear but the middle and main section of the block 'appeared' to be reasonably flat. After we had purchased the land and following our preliminary inquiries into finding a home, we had a builder view the engineering report and to our shock and dismay they informed us that the elevation from front to back was in fact 1.8m! We visited the block multiple times to try and see that rise but to the eye it didn't look even close to that. My husband is around 1.8m tall and from the footpath the rise only looked like it reached his knees, how wrong we were! This is all part of the fun in the build process. The unexpected! It made us slightly nervous as we didn't want to live in a hole in the ground with potential flooding risk (we had been there and done that - the potential flooding) or have a back yard on a 45 degree angle. But one of the biggest concerns was the dreaded site costs. We have learnt that it is the great unknown in building. Varying anywhere between $8000 and $80,000 (if you watch Grand Designs). I'm sure there are many many people who have had their heart set on a build only to have their dreams demolished by site costs. Once we had chosen Carlisle Homes to build, the great unknown began. 

We put our deposit down and the following day, yes crazy, but the following day the soil tests were conducted. We knew that there would already be an upgrade to a 'M' slab as another home had been built in the same area and required this. We also knew our costs would be above average as most blocks are close to level. So we estimated what they would be. One negative of the build process is that you go through all your colour selections and modifications BEFORE you know your site costs. It makes it really hard to budget. You could go on a mad shopping spree internally and not even be able to cover the site costs. The good thing is that you can make changes (free of charge) at tender if things are not as you expected. The site costs are given at your tender appointment. The amazing Steph (our CLE at Carlisle) was a star and actually emailed the tender document through to us prior to our appointment which was so helpful in making the final changes. When we got the email we flew straight to the site costs............................ To our delight the costs were almost spot on to what we had predicted. Initially we had been advised of a rough estimate of site costs. However, the final figure was significantly higher than this. We had done a little research and seen other peoples experiences and therefore knew due to our elevation it was likely to be higher. In the end we were happy. We got what we expected (pity we didn't get a pleasant surprise!), we didn't need to change our selections and our cut was better than we could have imagined. We thought most of the site would be cut, however the cut at its deepest at the back is 90cm with 30cm fill towards the front.Which will ultimately give us less of a gradient in the backyard (60cm from back door to back fence)

Site Plan, showing cut (back) and fill (front)

Cut and fill profile shown on siting plans (side of house)

A Word on Carlisle

We are still early on in the building process with Carlisle Homes having not yet begun the actual digging or building yet. But the process thus far has been unbelievable. So far (and hopefully we can say this at handover), it has been beyond our expectations. In the early part, we dealt with Phillip who worked at the Mernda display. He was excellent. Honest, genuine and able to tell us everything we needed to know. He responded to all our inquires in person and emails really promptly and gave us all the information we needed to know to move forward. Through the colour selection process, tender and final contract stages the same level of detail and professionalism has been provided. Our CLE (Client Liaison Executive), Steph has been unbelievable. She again has been able to pretty much provide everything we wanted. Any change we wanted to make has been done and her communication has been outstanding. We receive emails from her almost daily, letting us know where the process is at, what we need to do at our end and what is being done at their end. She really knows her stuff and has been so helpful with absolutely everything. There were a few reasons we chose Carlisle. Firstly, they had been recommended to us by multiple local builders, they are unlike other volume builders and only take a small number of houses per month in order to maintain their high quality standards, all their homes are amazing in look, quality and finish and their customer satisfactions reviews are considerably higher than any other builder. Like I said, it's early days but so far we could not recommend them more highly. We are so happy and feel so lucky to be building with them.

Carlisle Homes Link

Combating Council

Our land is located in a new estate. However, our block is the first block that opens into the new area of land release. That means we currently have one established neighbour (The house has been there at least 5 years). One of the reasons we chose this block was because there was already that house there. We knew at least one neighbour and house. The land next to us and behind is owned but yet to be built on. Our estate guidelines (one of the many) stipulates that we must build with a setback no less that 4.5m and no greater than 6m. This is great for us as the closer to the front we can build the more backyard space we would have. We never really thought about the established property as they were part of a different land release to us and therefore had a different set of guidelines. Yes, amateurs again! We have a good friends in the building industry who have been amazing informing us on the 'know', they have also been excellent at answering silly questions!! One day we were standing on the block mapping out designs and how they would fit. It was a 'light bulb moment!' I wonder if we need to think about the neighbours set back when we do ours.......... We were quickly informed that YES we would. So we headed to the block and measured it, we knew it wasn't going to be pretty and it wasn't. Their set back was 9m..........................arhhhhhhhhhhh. We were shattered. Couldn't believe it. We didn't even think the house would fit on the block if we had to match this. It was tricky as our guidelines were 4.5-6m and this was over that. Our friends explained that we could apply to council for a fee to have our plans looked at, considered and (hopefully) approved.

Once our plans went to tender and we were able to see the drawings of our house on the block with all the measurements the 4.5m set back didn't look dramatic compared to 9m. Our block is on a slight angle at the front and the 4.5m is taken from the portico. Our garage, which sits next door to the 9m neighbours, is at 7m. So all in all we are hoping that we do get approved. From the street our house will be slightly more forward but not dramatically and it will fit in with the houses that have currently been built in the new release. We have met our new neighbours a few times and they are lovely. We had a chat to them about the possibility and they had no problems with it either. So now we wait. The plans as I speak will be sent through by Carlisle and we wait, wait, wait. We are really undecided what to do if we have to have the 9m setback. We might be better off waiting till the block on our other side builds and then we have a set back that's an average of the two - that could be years though and is that even a possibility? We really don't want to end up with no yard. So the waiting game begins, fingers crossed.

Site plan with setback measurements, including neighbours

The Colour Spectrum - Exterior

We did a lot of research into colours before our colour selection day which was a HUGE help! We visited heaps of display homes, looked at colour selection documents from lots of display homes, visited stores and looked at the products and (much to Luke's embarrassment and disgust!) knocked on peoples doors and asked them! This for me was the most helpful and valuable. Everyone's house who I stalked was really helpful and happy to share their knowledge. I think people had a sense of pride in being asked about a product on their house that appealed to others! It was also so much more helpful for me to see colours and products in real light in the real size, rather than trying to picture it all on a 10cm colour swatch. I'm really happy with all the decisions that we made. I'm nervous about the colours on the facade because its so hard to picture it all together and it's not something you can hide if you don's like it. Hopefully the end result is better than we can piece together in our minds. Having a husband who is half colour blind also didn't help the process, "That will do," was his philosophy when he thought I had spent way too much time over analysing every component!

Here are some of our exterior colour choices made on February 14th 2014;

Front facade and colour choices = 

Bricks - Boral Mocha - Category 4 with off white mortar
Roof - Woodland Grey Colourbond Steel
Gutters and fascias - Woodland Grey Colourbond
Windows - Black Aluminium
Front doors - 2 x 2340mm x 820mm Wooden clear grazed doors - Rich Walnut (upgrade)
Render Area 1 - Hog Bristle 1/2 strength - lightest sandy colour (The largest part includes; garage, front around windows, all upstairs areas including gable)
Render Area 2 - Bed Box - middle brown colour (2 L shaped projection parts at front)
Pier - Tiled in Eco Alabaster Grigio Porcelain tiles (originally we were going to render in the charcoal - Terrible Billy but changed to tiles)(upgrade)
Garage Door - Decowood Timberlook Sectional - Bush Cherry (upgrade)

We have full render on the front facade, wrapped around the edges of the houses











Exterior Colours
                                     



















Render and Garage Door
(not using charcoal render anymore)

Porcelain Tiles for Front Pier - Sandy colour

Front Entry Doors

Garage Door - Decowood Timberlook Sectional - Bush Cherry
(Photo taken on a stalking mission!)

Our Land

Originally we had plans to renovate areas of our old house to modernise the kitchen, bathrooms and outdoor area. We never considered the idea of moving house, though we enjoyed searching through the local real estate options every week. When the time came closer to locking in a draftsman or architect and getting quotes from builders to make the changes we had planned we started to question the decisions we were making. We loved the house; it was our forever home. We had lived there for 11 years and loved the area, neighborhood and never really saw ourselves living anywhere else. The more serious we got about it the more we started to think about what we really wanted. Were we over capitalizing on the changes we would make? Did we really want to live in the one house for all our life? If we are going to move, should we do it before the girls start school? If we could live anywhere, where would we want to live? Do we want to change houses or suburbs? So overwhelming! We finally decided that if we renovated we would probably never get the money back on the house if we ever sold and we would therefore stay there forever - we would have been 100% happy with that decision had we chosen that. However, life was meant to be lived. So, we stepped out of our comfort zone and talked ourselves into starting a new adventure!!! Through our weekly search of real estate, we had always looked at the same location. Never really thinking we could live there, it was more a glimmer of hope than anything serious. Some houses appealed to us but nothing was ever quite what we were after. If we were going to move from an amazing home, we had to be moving into something even better. Then one Saturday night at about 11pm we saw a block of land for sale. Why don't we build? We have NEVER even thought of this as an option!! So the next day we looked at the land, the following week secured it. The land was ours! We thought if we changed our mind in a few months time we could always sell it, but that was never going to happen. The rest is history!

Our block is 663m2, has an 18m frontage and is approx 37m in length. It has a North facing yard and has an elevation towards the back. We didn't think too much about this when we purchased it (amateurs!). To the eye it only appeared to be about half to one metre.

The Beginning

This is where the journey starts! We purchased our land on the coast - on the Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria, in August last year 2013. Luckily for us the land was already titled so having sold our house we have been able to move straight into finalising our plans and build. Our land is 663m2, has no easements, has a right hand cross over and an elevation towards the rear.   

Our journey at a snapshot;

The last 12 months - been searching every display village and home under the sun

December 2013 -    Put our house on the market - 6 days later = SOLD!

February 2014 -      Moved into our rental house

February 2014 -      Colour Browse at 'SPECTRA' - Carlisle Homes colour centre

February 2014 -      Colour selection at 'SPECTRA' - most amazing day full of excitement, nerves and             overwhelming decisions (hopefully the right ones!) - photos and                                             descriptions to come.

March 2014 -          Contracts drawn up ready to be signed

April 2014 -            Contracts signed, sealed and delivered - no turning back now!!!

Right now -           Plans sent through to council - more to come on that.

Our Nelson 46 Floorplan

The floor plan of our Carlisle Homes Nelson 46.

The major changes from the standard home plan are; changes to windows and doors - we added larger windows/doors,  changed the style and added more windows to upstairs bedrooms, changed the walk in pantry into a butlers, added the deluxe staircase (as on display at Mernda), 2740mm high ceilings to groud floor, 2590mm first floor, square set cornice to ground floor,  extended the garage and extended the alfresco area and took out the extra upstairs toilet and converted into an extra storage cupboard.

We absolutely loved the display home at Mernda so we are hoping that our home has the same open feeling as this did. We have mimicked most of this with our own personal touches that suit our family and location. Fingers crossed that our build is just as amazing!

Ground Floor

First Floor 

Images of Carlisle Homes, Nelson 46, Mernda display

Choosing the Right House

After choosing Carlisle Homes to build our family home, the daunting task of locking in a house design and plan began. Our home for the past 11 years sat on an allotment of approx 600m2. It was a home full of character and heart. One of the best features was the size of the yard. The house sat close to the front giving us an expansive outdoor entertaining area and back garden. We are outdoor lovers and avid gardeners and therefore spent most of our time in this space. One of the significant challenges that we would face early on in the building process was the sacrifice of yard space to build  the home that we would want. We both wanted to build a home that would cater for our family for now and into the future whilst also maintaining the components we loved about our previous home.

We went between the idea of single and double story homes constantly in the beginning. Compiling lists about the pros and cons of each. We lived in a double story home so the idea of a single story was appealing in many ways. Carlisle Homes have 3 house collections. After visiting what felt like all their display homes in Victoria we knew that we wanted to build from their Affinity Collection. This series of homes is their luxury design collection and includes an enormous amount of items that were integral to the house we wanted to build.We fell in love with the Winslow 33. The floor plan ticked most of our boxes and was suited to our lifestyle, family and importantly, budget.  The Winslow design was part of the Affinity collection and we started to feel we may have found 'the one'. It's so easy to get swept up in all the bells and whistles in the housing world and when we started to pull everything away and think hard about what we wanted in a home, we started to find that the Winslow, in fact, may not be it. Although we liked the idea of a single story home, we were nervous about the length of this house compared to a double story. The Winslow also just happened to be the longest single story home - always the way! The house also had 3 interconnected living spaces that would suit us perfectly. Perfectly right now. But we want to see ourselves in this home for a long time and looking into the future with two teenage girls and a bunch of their friends, this home may not suit our needs forever. We definitely knew we wanted to stick with Carlisle but we needed to rethink the design. We wanted to consider the best option for us to suit the needs of our family, what we wanted in a home and to maximise our outdoor space and concluded this was going to be to build a double story home. One house stood above the rest for us and that is why we chose to build the Nelson 46. I still have to pinch myself to believe that this really is going to be built on our land! The house design is amazing. It is spacious, has open interconnected living areas, ideally set up for our family - our bedroom downstairs and the girls up, the living areas open up to become indoor/outdoor spaces and most of it is downright crazy in its luxuriousness and space. We will feel very privileged to live in this house once it is built. And so our journey begins...........

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!

This blog is aimed to document our build journey. It is a forum to share the highs (and possibly the lows) with family, friends and other people out there on a similar journey. I am hoping to experiment with blogging whilst also exploring new photographic skills with a new camera - both of which I have minimal skill! 

Our journey started with the sale of our very loved home of 11 years to build our dream home; in a location, growing up, I could only have ever dreamt about. We are first time house builders. Our family of four, including my husband and two young daughters aged 3 and 4 (and our 10 year old Labrador) are well and truly ready for the exciting adventures that lay ahead. 

We purchased a block of land on the Bellarine Peninsula, on the outskirts of Geelong in August 2013. After spending endless weekends looking at builders and filtering through display homes we chose one builder, that we believe stood above the rest. They came highly recommended from friends who were local builders and their designs and finishes were exactly what we were looking for. So we began the first steps of our journey with Carlisle Homes.