All Is Done Before We Go Away!

The great news for us before we go away on our holiday is that everything is finalised now! We got a letter in the mail yesterday to let us know that the plans have gone to the private certifier and they expect them to take between six to eight weeks to be approved. There were a few things that we have to check off our list before they will start building but nothing that needs to be dealt with until we get back. Which means we can have a lovely relaxing holiday and worry about those things when we return.

Right now I am busily washing and ironing so that we can pack this afternoon. I also have to clean the house before Toni gets her sometime tomorrow. She will be staying here for the (roughly) two weeks while we are away. We think we have everything sorted to go away ... just a little shopping this afternoon to get some supplies for the road so that our trip can be as uninterrupted as possible.

Will blog again on our return.

Covenant Approval

Yesterday we got an email from Philip to say that our house has received approval from the covenant committee. Yay! This means that the plans will now go to council. We just have one more hurdle to get over with council (we've asked for a relaxation of the building envelope boundaries) and then we'll be set.

Glad to know it's all getting sorted before we go away!

Things Went Well With The Bank

We had our appointment with the bank this afternoon and all went well. We took all of the quotes that we had for everything we wanted and they had no problem with putting them all through. At this stage the loan is approved subject to a final valuation. If the house values up better than what they've put in (which is the minimum at the moment) then we'll pay less mortgage lenders insurance....which is a very scary amount so we're hoping it values up nicely.

Milly and I also had a visit to the mechanic today to have the car serviced. Note to the girls at our service department. If you say two hours .... mean it. Don't mean three. Milly was very well behaved but it really set her off for the rest of the day!

End of rant.

Colour Selection finalised

Well, that's it! All of the big decisions have now been made for our new house. We just have to sit back and wait for the bills to roll in. LOL. We have made a few changes along the way, just basically upgrading a few more things, so we will now be charged extra for those items. Today we upgraded to Wash and Wear paint which we think is an investment considering the fact that the paint in Powells Rd was Wash Off not Wash and Wear. Every time you had to wipe it you'd take a small layer of paint with you.

Anyway, the selections are done and all we have to do now is wait. The plans are still with the covenant committee which is a bit of a pain but hopefully they'll be back soon and can go to council. Fingers crossed by the time we're back from our holiday they'll have been in for a couple of weeks.

A little bit of work... a lot of reward!

Today we were going to have a day at home... to relax and just get things sorted before the big week ahead of us. LOL. I don't do "relax" very well. Matt and I spent the first hour or so cleaning the rental and then sat down to work on our lighting layout for the new house. Once that was over I suggested we go for a drive to Bunnings to get colour samples, look at lights and check out their glass fencing, and then go to the block for lunch and a clean up.

We're not allowed to remove any of the trees in the bushland surrounding our house, however we are allowed to clean up the ones that have already fallen over. So, after lunch on the block, Matt and I set to picking up sticks. We cleared nearly the whole fence line along one side and into some of the bushland at the back of the building envelope. After two hours of picking up sticks we'd made about seven piles ready for Mum to come along and enjoy being a pyromanic. She loves to burn things off at home so this will at least give her a reason and I'm not that sure of what to do so it will be handy to have another person around who knows what they are doing. Matt is going to hook up a hose too just in case!

Our little Milly was such an angel today. We took a picnic blanket, three chairs and a selection of her current favourite toys including some babies and her new piano. She played so well while we cleaned up the block. She had snacks with her and used some of the Wiggles biscuits mixed with some of the water we'd taken to make a lovely "cake". Thankfully we weren't asked to taste test for her.

This week is a busy one for us. We both work on Monday morning and then will go to Toowoomba for final colour selection in the afternoon. On Tuesday the car is booked in for a service and then we have to go the bank in the afternoon for our loan application. Following that we both work the rest of the week and then start holidays on Saturday. Friday night will be the time for washing and cleaning. Saturday will see us iron and pack for the big trip away and then in the afternoon we're going to try and go to the Home Show. We have another big couple of weeks ahead of us then but at least they'll be fun and relaxing.
Aunty Toni is coming over to look after the house and the pets while we're away which we are very grateful for.

A big day for the Trembles

Today has been a big day for the Trembles! We started our day with a trip to the tile shop to do the final selection for the house. It didn't start too well with the lady announcing on our arrival that she didn't have the necessary access to our files and that we wouldn't be taking our selection away with us today. After some discussion I informed her that we would be taking away our signed paperwork today as we needed it for our colour selection on Monday. She wasn't happy but she ended up agreeing with us and we were able to take paperwork with us when we left.

We have selected a tile called Memory Warm Sand for the main floor areas (entry, hallways, meals/family and activity room) and a smaller version of this tile for the laundry. In the ensuite, bathroom and toilet we have chosen a small white octagonal tile with black diamond tiles offset on the corners. It is a very traditional look and will suit our house beautifully. It will be edged with small black tiles. For the kitchen, laundry, bathrooms and toilet wall tiles we have chosen a white brick tile.

Our really big news came after lunch though when we went to Freedom Pools and bought our pool. I phoned earlier during the week and was informed that they are changing their displays and are selling off the pools for less than half the price. We went down to have a look at the pools and found one that we absolutely loved, so we put a deposit down and are now the one fifth owner of this:


They are going to take it out of the ground and store it at their factory for us while we build. It's all very exciting because we are basically getting a fibreglass inground pool for the same price as a smaller above ground pool. Yay for us...finally things are working with us instead of against.

The final thing we did today was take a trip to the Coral display at Daisy Hill and chose some of our final colours for the exterior of the house. We are going to have a black roof with Colorbond Monument guttering, Surfmist fascia and garage door and white window frames. We meet with our Coral Colour Consultant on Monday to do the rest of the selection. Yay!!!! We're finally starting to see some progress.

This time next week we'll be loading up the car for our big trip to Sydney and Melbourne. By the time we get back our plans should well and truly be into council and hopefully we'll be only a month or so from starting.

Yay for us!!!!! (Finally)

Oh...and P.S......we got our OVEN!!!!!! Matt picked it up from the warehouse on Wednesday. The Ipswich Clive Peeters store closed on Tuesday which is a shame. John had worked really hard to get us our products and for that we are grateful. It's a shame to see him lose his job and to see such a good store move from Ipswich.

Contract Signed!!!!!!

On Thursday night we finally signed the contract on our new home. We now have working drawings and lots of paperwork to read! We're so happy with the final plans. Philip has really captured everything we spoke about.

Our next step is to pay the deposit and chose our colours. When we get the contract back from head office we have to take it to the bank with our other quotes and apply for our loan. Then we're off to Melbourne for a couple of weeks. When we come back we'll hopefully only be about a month off starting. Keep your fingers crossed.

More Good News

Things have been a little quiet on the house front which has worked out quite well as the last two weeks have flown due to all of our birthdays. We still have Paul and Nicky's birthdays to go but ours are all finished. Milly had a lovely party on Sunday at the dam with her little friends. She received some beautiful presents and really enjoyed spending time with all of her little friends.

This week should be eventful for our house planning. We are supposed to go to contract (hopefully this afternoon) this week and our Ilve oven is being shipped from Sydney today so things are looking good. We still will have a couple of months until the house is started but things are once again moving.