The land before time...

Today we went out to Eynesbury to see what's been happening in the last few weeks.  Stage 3 is starting to take off with a number of lots fenced off and some with their plumbing in already.

Stage 9 has all the lots marked out.  We went up the dirt road to where I could, at best, estimate where our lot/house will be.  With no mobile reception, I couldn't get a perfect aerial spot.  But as I've seen the stage's topographical map, I knew we were on a bit of a slope.  So here's a photo of the general direction where the house should be - right next to the fence - and yes, those are cows at a watering hole in the background!

And here is a short video from that spot.  Enjoy!

Design updated

So I learnt a bit more about FloorPlanner and redid the design using proper "room" objects.  I also found out that the fence lines, don't show in 3D...so I put down lots of short fence objects head-to-toe to make a nice 2m wall at the back, and a nice 1m white picket fence at the front.

Added various little things to the garage and have the boss's general approval of my design.  At least now I can direct people to look at a 3D model of what the house will kind of look like.  We'll also have to wait to find out what plants are allowed in our garden - and if we can even have fruit trees or not.

If you haven't seen the website, I highly recommend visiting HomeOne and their forums.  There's a wealth of knowledge, and other blogs, on that site.

Sold!

Well, 3 of the 4 lots around us are down as sold!  Looking good.  Some nice west facing lots still appear to be available.  We'll be quite close to the planned school and an easy walk to the future town center.

Stage 11a

The Floorplan...

So I've played a little with Floorplanner and I've found it fun to work with, but also frustrating in getting things to work sometimes.  Some parts I can't get to work - I can't get our nice picket fence to show.  And there's no option to do external brickwork.  And I can't find any bathroom cabinets.

So this is my first attempt, and it will change in time I am quite sure.  If you want to look at it in 3D, you can go here.

Disclaimer!  Furniture and colours done by me.  The "boss" has not given her approval yet. :)

Weeks 1-2

Hi all, and welcome to our blog.  We're new to blogging and we're new to building a home in Australia.  My name is Garrick, and my wife is Michelle.  We currently have a cute little toddler, Amy.

A few weeks ago we received a brochure in the mail about Eynesbury, and my wife told me we should go take a look - I hadn't actually even seen the brochure at this stage.  I drove out towards Eynesbury from Point Cook, and the TomTom GPS took us along a dirt road, past farm houses and livestock.  I was thinking, where on earth is this place.  Driving onto the land, we encountered the Grey Box forest, and I really started to wonder where we were.  And then we started to look around.  We looked at the houses, and a certain gentleman with quite extensive knowledge managed to catch my wife's ear and attention while I browse floor plans on the wall.  I listened with half an ear as Luke, from Urban Edge, explained various things to my wife.  I was more interested in their floorplans and what they could do.  We walked around the display homes some more, but as Amy needed a nap, we never actually drove around the first stage to explore it a bit more.  Instead, we headed home and decided to go visit Salwater Estate on the outskirts of Point Cook to see the Lavin 03 and Rouge 04 that they had on show there.  

Well, we fell in love with the Rouge 04 almost immediately.  We then started ponderring if Urban Edge would make any alterations.  Because honestly, we had seen a Porter Davis design and a Metricon design that had the Rumpus room "amongst" the bedrooms, and we liked that.  But we loved the size of the Rouge's kitchen, and the front half of the house was perfect as it was.  We visited Luke again the next Saturday - following the tarmac road this time - and he enthusiastically helped us with a slight redesign.  And then it was up to us.  Get our Style+ package, and the alterations done at the 2010-2011 prices or wait and maybe not get a great piece of land.

So the next week was spent crunching numbers, speaking to financial people, and consulting with my parents - who have built a number of houses and know the house game well.  All systems were a go... now... the land... our redesign meant that we needed an East facing plot, with a driveway on the NE corner... where...where... noooo!  There weren't any in Stage 11A that worked... so we spoke to Luke, who put us in touch with Matt, and the lot we liked could have the driveway moved.  So, lot 11010 was ours for the taking.  647sq.m of east facing land.

So after not even 2 weeks, there we were... cheques in hand... putting our deposit on our land and booking Urban Edge to do our build.  Phew... what an experience.  We are now looking forward to our new home so much.  The land titles around May 2012 and we estimate building to commence in June 2012, with a rough finish date of anywhere from December to Feb.  That gives us a fair amount of time to pick whom we want as our mortgage lender.

For now we plan the alterations, and in a few weeks we'll do our "Colour Room" visit.  I'll add picture of the floorplan when we have them finalised.

Here is the facade that we've chosen, but not in those colours.  Nice brickwork to the front, with a small patio and eaves.