It's McSlab Time!

So sorry guys, been a little while since we have blogged, but we have both been quite busy with work and life in general.

Just wanted to let you all know that we have now got a slab! WOOHOO!!! It was poured on 15^th and has been curing ever since. J  All the external plumbing has also been done along with the connection of the electricity to the mains.

Not much else to report on at this stage, we just need to clear a bit of extra soil (approx. 40 ton!!) this weekend to get ready for the frame. Considering our site is so tight, we want to give them as much room as possible to work.  The frames are due in at the end of next week, so we should have another update in the next week or so.

We haven’t got a full pic of the completed slab; every time we manage to get out to the block it’s always too dark!  But here are some pics we took while it was getting poured.

PIERING TO CHINA!

We had a very eventful day today! Hubby and I both had the day off as we were invited onsite by MJH to measure our piering!!! J

After praying the rain will hold out and checking every weather forecast we could find, we woke up at 6am sharp to a wonderful sunny day! We were onsite bright and early at 7am and found that the concreters were already on site preparing for the piering.

I must say that I never thought that watching tradies do the same thing all day was an interesting sight, but we parked ourselves on our neighbours land, in our picnic chairs and watched the boys working all day and loved every minute J  It really is amazing watching the process of a house come together and we were pretty lucky that MJH provide the opportunity to come onsite to inspect the pier depth.  

After what seemed like such a short period of time, the big drill bit made its official appearance and we knew it was time to start the piering!  Hubby and I were both holding our breathe… we had so many questions that were about to be answered… How deep? How many? How much more? How much less? And so the first hole started being dug and I swear it felt like it just kept going and going and going!  The first hole was 1.4 metres deep, the next was 1.5 and they mostly hovered at 1.5, some going as deep as 1.6 and shallow as 1.2.  The piering didn’t take a long time and whilst this was happening (and much to our surprise) the formwork for the slab was being put together.  We then found out that the piers would also be filled with concrete today! WOOHOO Triple whammy for us!

LUCKILY for us we came in under our piering allowance, so won’t need to pay any extra! We did however realize that we had a little more spoil than expected, and at the same time realized that our home was going to sit higher than we originally thought; so again luckily for us we figured we will need most of the soil.  In having said that, we now need to do a little retaining wall at the back, so we can back fill the yard with the extra soil!!! Not a biggie as we think it will look a lot better now.  

Our concrete supervisor mentioned that the plumbing will be coming in next, which will be followed by the reo’ for the slab, then the actual slab!  Can’t wait to see it coming together!

In the meantime, we will leave you with a few photos of our day trip to lot 975!

Also, thanks Suzz and Bill for the fancy schmancy sign!! :D

This just in… Lot 975 is Officially Under Construction!

Ok so it’s been a little over 2 weeks since our last post and A LOT has happened in that time!  

Firstly we will start with our electrical appointment, we met with the lovely Christine who took us through our inclusions and added selections. We were originally booked in with Craig however he was unavailable on that day, it really didn’t matter to us as Christine was just as brilliant, I think it’s safe to say that everyone at MJH has been amazing so far and I am super confident that they will continue to be!! Now in terms of the light selections, I never thought that choosing lights and connecting them would cause some disagreements between the hubby and I!! Let’s just say, I thought that some things were going to go in one spot and he had other ideas, but with Christine’s help we definitely got there in the end! MJH have a really cool program to help you visualize the locations of the lights and then link them up, which was extremely helpful.  So in a little over 2 hours we had our electrical appointment done and dusted, although we did go back at about 4.30pm that day to make some changes we forgot about! Christine was more than happy to quickly fit us in at such short notice! J

Straight after our electrical appointment, we decided to go and visit the new MJH display homes that recently opened at The Ponds.  One of them is very similar to our house and we wanted to check out the décor for some much needed inspiration!! This is where the story gets a little interesting!  I had entered one of the homes ahead of my husband and was busy admiring the main bedroom’s ensuite. I was under the impression that my husband and I were the only ones in the house, when I partly yelled out “Look at this babe” and I thought that my husband was right behind me, but as I turned around there was another fellow there checking out the bathroom! I was quite embarrassed at the thought of yelling babe to a man other than my husband, however quickly apologized. As I was doing so, I noticed that the fellow had a MJH shirt on, and I then asked ‘Do you work for McDonald Jones Homes’ and he turned around, stuck out his hand out for a handshake and said “Bill McDonald”  Yes you read correctly, I had just met the MR MCDONALD JONES HOMES HIMSELF, THE BIG M, HEAD HONSHO! My husband overheard me and came in to also meet him! We were both in awe, me slightly star struck! Never in a million years did we imagine meeting Bill McDonald! He was a typical tradie, inspecting the homes and looking at every detail. Seeing Bill at these homes made us realise that the owner of a major NSW home building company still cared about the quality of his homes and actually took the time out to inspect them himself!! We were very impressed.

Next up was the saga of the whereabouts of our ACC certificate… we had received approval from the council and started chasing our bank up for the certificate.  After a few days of hounding them, we finally received the ACC on the 26th August and were informed by our CLO that we were released to Construction!  In the meantime, we found 4 little red pegs on our land… so we knew the ball was rolling!

Since the 26^th we have been visiting our land to see if there have been any movements and much to our surprise, upon tonight’s visit, we found that the soil had been cut and we are officially UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!! YIPPEEE! We are literally shocked at how quickly the process has gone so far. Our CLO has been great, providing us with updates every step of the way. Love your work MJH!!

We will hopefully post some pics tomorrow!

CDC Approval In Record Timing!

We are super excited to say that our CDC approval has come through in record time! We lodged as a complying development on Friday 5^th August and first thing this morning we got a very pleasant call from our CLO letting us know the good news!

The builder has advised that our materials are currently being ordered and we are waiting on the ACC from the lender to come through.  Upon receipt MJH has told us that they will be on site within 20 days!!!! We can’t wait to see some action on our land!

Also this Thursday we are due into MDJ for our electrical appointment.  We have been lucky enough to get Craig as our consultant! Yippee

Hopefully our next update will be the ‘renowned portaloo and peg out’ post! J

Another approval down... one more to go!

We are quite excited about this update… The Ponds Design Review Panel approved our plans today… first go! As mentioned previously we did our own landscape plan, so we are pretty happy that it was approved first time round, it helps that we read the guidelines about 100 times!!

As a result of the ponds approval, we have now lodged our plans to a private certifier, so that should be approved within the next 2 weeks… J then we look at commencing construction!!!  We are sooo excited, it’s all starting to come together now, so we are counting down!!

That’s all we have to update you on at the moment, but hopefully there will be another exciting update very soon!

Update… one hurdle but already half way over

So it’s been a little while since we have blogged, things are definitely ticking along, but obviously there are some things which are out of anyone’s control…

Ok so in terms of lodgments and approvals… we have approved and signed the building contracts with MJH which was a very smooth process.  Then we lodged to the water board for approval which is where our first hurdle was located… our building may potentially impact Sydney Water’s underground asset… so what does that mean for us you ask?  We basically require the application to be assessed by an Accredited Water Service Coordinator which will require a current service protection report (peg out).  This will cost us an additional amount, but nothing we can do so we authorized straight away to get the ball rolling.  We really don’t want any delays which we can control.

Our builder has also informed us that we have lodged to the Ponds Design Review Panel. Fingers crossed that comes through ok!!

Otherwise, I am slowly starting to put together an inspiration board for the furniture in the house… going with a style that’s eclectic, functional and a little industrial!! J Very inspired by Josh and Jenna from the block… we are obsessed!!! Go team Josh and Jenna!!!

Until we blog again!

Colour Selections – DONE & DUSTED!

We had our final colours selections meeting last week and to be honest.... choosing colours for your future home is a very daunting prospect, especially when you are an indecisive person (like I am)… I took my sister and husband with me, to have another opinion, plus she owns a kitchen / wardrobe / bathroom company so was very well aware of the products for the household.  She was a blessing for us because she understood just about everything our colour consultant had to say and of course with both of them being in the industry – they got along like a house on fire J 

As per my previous post, MDJ provide their clients with the opportunity to have a meeting with a colour consultant to go through the inclusions and what is classified an upgrade.  Now I know that a lot of builders don’t provide this for their clients, and in my opinion it’s to their detriment.  We went into this meeting completely prepared, we knew exactly what we wanted and we were very well informed.  Personally, it made the day a whole lot easier and ran a lot smoother.  It’s hard enough having to choose colours over a period of 2-3 weeks so i cant really imagine having to do so in a couple of hours!  MDJ provide you with that opportunity, and I must say it was extremely useful.  We spent a lot of our weekends visiting their display homes to get ideas of colours and décor… and had the chance to research our themes prior, as opposed to just deciding on the spot.

Upon arrival at the studio, we were greeted by our colour consultant; Craig.  Ok first things first – HE IS BRILLIANT!!! He has an amazing flair when choosing colours. I can’t fault him in the least; in all honesty he is an asset when selecting colours for your home – I highly recommend him.  We got along so well and he made the day an enjoyable experience… even filled with coffee and some much needed sweets to keep us going. J  He completely understood where we wanted to go with our colour selections and made appropriate suggestions.  I didn’t even question his choices; in fact I welcomed them as I trusted his judgment from the moment he started putting colours together.

Now onto the exciting part!! COLOURS…………….

We have decided to go with a charcoal / white / grey theme throughout the house… we haven’t gone too out there with colours as we want to jazz the house up with our décor.. So we wanted a clean palette to work with when we move in.

Here are our final selections:

Bricks: PGH ‘cement’ from the Foundations range (Ironed and off white mortar)

Cladding & Render to front 2 piers:  Taubmans Miss Molly

Roof: Colorbond Monument

Gutters: Monument

Fascia and downpipes: Shale Grey

Eaves: Surfmist

Garage Door: Contemporary design in Monument

Windows: Bradnams Ultra Silver Gloss

Front Door: Custom Door in Taubmans Miss Molly 1020W x 2340H (we have 9 foot ceilings throughout the home) with large trilock front door lock J SUPER HAPPY WITH THIS CHOICE!

Bathrooms: We kept just about everything standard in here:  we chose a charcoal tile with white large tiles.  Our vanities are in Licorice Linnea Natural finish. We didn’t get a feature tile, as we put shower niches in both bathroom and ensuite. We did however get stainless steel showers as opposed to the white

Kitchen cupboards: Laminex Polar White - Silk Finish

Kitchen Benchtop: Caeserstone White Shimmer

Kitchen Barback only: Laminex Licorice Linnea Silk Finish

Kitchen Splashback: Dark Charcoal 60x30 Glass tile

Kickboard: Formica – Brushed Steel finish

Sink: Razor double bowl under bench sink with Teknobilli ‘Billy’ pull out sink tap mixer

Internal Walls: Taubmans White Pearl

Internal Flooring throughout whole house: Quickstep Laminate Floating Timber floorboards in Light Grey Varnished Oak Planks Finish

Here are a few pics of our choices:



These are the colours for the kitchen (n.b. the floor board shown is incorrect)

These are the colours for the Bathroom & Ensuite (n.b. the feature tile has been removed & please excuse the quality of the photo as it gives off the impression that it is a browny chocolate feel, which it is not)

On a completely different note… we have finalized our first draft landscape plan.  We did the plan ourselves, as we wanted to save a little extra $$. We followed the Ponds guidelines pretty closely… we also sent it off to the design panel for a brief review, and they didn’t suggest many changes… we just have to wait until our builder submits it for us to get official feedback. 

Here is the draft: