The slab

Yay, we have a slab down! Was laid on Wednesday. Still looking a bit wet. Now looking forward to seeing a frame delivered (just like every next step in the build!)

Certainly looks different with a slab down and is good to make out the rooms and get a better feel for the house.

The waffles are down!

Thought we would drive by the land this evening and to our surprise saw that the waffle pods and steel had been laid. Pleasant surprise considering the weather this week and the rain this morning. Last night it was pretty wet and thought unless the sun is out for a few days they wouldn't get laid for some time. So hooray and now fingers crossed this weather holds off for them to lay the slab sometime this week!!!

The plumbing

Yay another drive by today and the plumbers had been. Really starting to look like a house with the pipes all sticking out of the ground. Makes it easier to make the rooms out.

Hoping the rain stays away for the waffle pods and steel to go down for the slab tomorrow. Still have not heard from any one from McDonald Jones.

The waffles and maple syrup

Yeah well maybe not those kind of waffles but the big foam ones and some steel for the slab :)

Where were the plumbers? Hopefully they do their stuff tomorrow!

Lots of Waffle Pods

The formwork and piering

Well another drive by today and the form work is done and the piering as well :) Step by step getting closer to a slab!

The loo and fencing

The port-a-loo and fencing are now residents on our land... Hoping this means more progress in the coming week.

The Scrape

Things are moving along this week. We were red pegged and today we were scraped. Looks different with no grass/weeds on it and all levelled out.

Be good to see if the next step happens tomorrow???

Lachlan in his PJs again excited to see the land scraped and the girls photobombing in the background.

Panoramic shot of our piece of land

The Red Pegs

Well we finally have red pegs on our land. Thanks to Richard for the heads up :)
Not exactly sure what they are marking out they say 3m O/S on them?!?! Hopefully it is the sign of things to begin this week and they clear the land and get it underway.

Also noticed we have our water meter on the front tap.

Soon to be cleared

Red pegs are hiding in the long grass

Riveting photo of the water meter...

The Beginning

Received news today that our file is being released to the site supervisor for construction to begin! Hopefully things get underway this week or next.

The Waiting Game

Waiting, waiting, waiting... No updates, no calls, no contact from anyone, while the grass continues to grow and houses keep popping up all around.

The building certificate

Another step closer today. We received the building certificate. Can't be too far away from seeing action on the patch of grass...

The exchange

Well finally we have signed the contracts and sent it back to the lawyers. Contracts should be exchanged this week. Hopefully not long after this progress should start.

Block behind us has started to be pegged out.

Lots of houses popping up in the estate over the last 2 weeks.

Can't wait to see our block pegged out and progress start!

The kitchen appliances

Found a photo of the oven, range hood and dishwasher.

Omega OF901XA

Smeg K181X90

Omega DW401XA-1

The ridge

Found a good Aerial view of Glenmore Ridge from nearmap.com. Interesting to see how much it has changed in just a year!

Weeds taking over...

The colours

After a big day yesterday here are the colours:

Brick	Austral Urban One Pepper, Flush joint, off-white mortar
Roof	Colorbond Windspray
Fascia	Colorbond Shale Grey
Gutters	Colorbond Shale Grey
Garage Door	B&D Contemporary style in Windspray
Bradnams Windows	Bradnams Ultra Silver
Front Door	Hume Nex35 clear glass
Flyscreens	Bradnams Ultra Silver
Bathroom/Ensuite/Laundry Floor	RB Hemp Grey, Misty Grey grout
Bathroom/Ensuite/Laundry Walls	Origami Mocha, Misty Grey grout
Other tiled rooms	RB Hemp Grey, Misty Grey grout
Carpet	French Toast
Kitchen bench top	New Cairo
Kitchen kickboard	Formica Silver Shadow Velour Finish
Underbench colour	Laminex Lustrous Elm Natural Finish (Vertical)
Overhead cupboard colour	Laminex Pearl Grey Natural Finish
Glass splashback	Standard Clear - Cosmic Aura
Computer Desk	Laminex Lustrous Elm Natural Finish
Bathroom/Ensuite benchtop	New Cairo
Bathroom/Ensuite cupboards	Laminex Fossil Natural Finish
Walls/Skirtings/Doors	White Pearl
Ceilings/Cornices	Illusive White
Front facade piers	Backdrop
Front/Laundry door	Grey Gamut
Eaves	Colorbond Surfmist
Downpipes	Backdrop
Driveway	Cova Bluestone

Urban One - Pepper

New Cairo

Fossil

Lustrous Elm

Pearl Grey

The air-conditioning

We were going to get the ducted system that McDonald Jones offers which is by Derby, but after a quick google and reading some feedback on the unit we decided to get something better, more reliable and efficient, especially when outlaying so much money and I am firm believer of you get what you pay for.

After sending off quite a few emails to different suppliers/installers we heard back from Ample Air first. About 2 weeks later we heard back from Frost Air. Ample Air supplied a great quote that was posted to us with all the information about the proposed ducted system and parts etc that will be used. Frost sent me an email with 3 options and prices and a form to tick and pay a deposit, no information regarding the ducted and materials used or information regarding the units.

Needless to say we are going to go with Ample Air and a Toshiba inverter unit. Met with Daniel from Ample Air on Friday to discuss a few things about the system. Very helpful and professional. We are going to get 3 zones with 9 outlets. So that is one less thing to worry about organising when the time comes.

The kitchen

This is pretty much the colour of the kitchen, except it doesn't have a glass splash back and we are not sure of the colour yet.

Rangehood and freestanding oven

Cupboards and benchtop

The colour selection

Today we visited the office at Norwest to go through the colour selections.

We were shown 4 variations for the outside and luckily for us one of the options was exactly what we were going to choose anyway. I thought we were going to have certain colours, materials etc to choose from and pick and choose as we like but they had set colour packages to choose from that had already been selected by the interior designers at McDonald Jones.

After choosing the outside colours which was easy as we knew exactly what we were after, it was onto the interior. This was tougher as we liked different colours/materials from all of them. So it became a process of elimination by choosing the colour/tiles/benchtops we didn't like from each package and eliminating it. Actually made it quite easy and also made it easier once we had the outside colours to see next to the interior colours.

One package we liked didn't have the top and bottom cupboards in different finishes, which is something we liked after looking at the display homes. So this was eliminated. 2 other packages had wooden floors which I was against although Katie liked, but I gave in on the facade so we agreed against the packages that had the wooden floors. Another package the main floor tiles were too dark and we wanted something lighter so that was out. The other package after looking at it was too plain, so it made the decision easy.

We were shown the tapware, bath, toilet, basins, shower, laundry sink which we had no choice over. We liked everything anyway although I would have liked the chrome surround or frameless shower, but no big deal.

We had a choice of the oven, cooktop and range hood. We went with the free standing Omega oven and cooktop and the stainless steel flat (industrial looking) range hood. We had an option of the glass curve or glass flat range hood, but preferred the stainless steel flat to match the oven.

The other choice we had was the kitchen sink. We chose the new design under mount drop in double bowl sink. This was in the display home at Jordan Springs and looks great.

The garage door is B&D Contemporary and had no choice over this so it was good that this was the one we liked anyway even if we had to choose.

They didn't have a couple of the items there as they were still getting the boards made up in Newcastle. We didn't get to see the colour of the glass splashback, the driveway colour or the carpet colour/style. We can't change these anyway but it would have been nice to see the colours. When we got home we found the driveway and carpet colour anyway.

Also found out that we get a whirlybird installed (which I noticed in the contract yesterday).

All in all we walked away very happy and glad that it wasn't stressful. It was good that we had to choose from the packages available as it takes out the guess work of matching colours and also knowing that interior designers have chosen the colours and they know what works best together.

Other exciting news today, we found out our number -30- so now we are not just a Lot.

The plans & contract

House plans and contract arrived today. Happy days!!!

Floor Plan

The block

Photos of the block.

Tall Tress Drive :)

Nice view of our block

Me & the girls

Me and the kids

Katie, Sasha (our toy poodle) and I

The block

The initial deposit

All looked good and we were happy with the quote and the next day paid the initial deposit to secure the package. All too easy!

The revised quote

Emailed the sales person to let him know we like the block and would like to progress and also asked a few more questions. Responded with more details and after a few emails back and forth he sent through the revised quote. In between emails he also gave us for free the rendering of the two front piers, which we were happy about.

The meeting

So after deciding that we liked the house we went out to McDonald Jones Homes at Jordan Springs to see the sales person. We spoke to him and we went through which blocks were available for the Havana One and all the inclusions etc. He emailed me the next day with the details. We went out to the block and liked what we saw, well I was not too keen on a side block mainly for all the extra mowing I will have to do, but overall it was a great block.

The past and how it started...

After reading other blogs and stories/nightmares about building we thought we would share our progress on building our first home. We are building the Havana One by McDonald Jones Homes. We are hoping for a pain free process with no horror stories during the process.

So a little catchup on the progress so far since it all started...

A long time ago (many months searching)...
After many months of searching for an established home and not finding one that was up to our standard/style as there was always something that would have required replacing, such as some disgusting colour scheme in a bathroom or kitchen and end up costing $000's on top of the purchase price. If we did find one that we could have lived with it was out of our price range or we didn't have enough of the deposit ready including stamp duty! Plus the fact I think so many houses out there are over priced for what you get and would need to do to them to revitalise them.

Not long ago...
So while we were searching for that elusive established house we spent quite a bit of time on the weekends looking through display villages and also looking for land just in case we were to build a new house. It was then we came across a house and land package from McDonald Jones Homes in a new estate called Glenmore Ridge (which we had been looking at but unsold lots were hard to come by) and this is when the journey began...

13th.August.2011
So off we went back out to the display village at Oran Park and looked at the Havana One. We were both very impressed.

• Main bedroom away from children - CHECK
• Walk in robe - CHECK
• Ensuite - CHECK
• Dedicated media room - BONUS! As we both love watching movies and I can watch motorsport loud!
• Open plan living/dining/kitchen - CHECK
• Lots of cupboard space in the kitchen - CHECK
• Kids activity room - BONUS! (plus it has a built in desk for the kids to do homework or use their computers)
• Alfresco - CHECK
• Automatic double garage - CHECK

So the house ticked all the boxes. There was nothing we did not like about the house and the bedrooms were all a pretty good size compared to other houses we looked at and in most cases bigger. Would have been nice to have a study but it was not a deal breaker and unfortunately could not fit the study option on the block that the package was proposed for.