Windowgate

Firstly I will say that this post is a bit tongue in cheek and now is a bit of a joke in our house. So what is windowgate? It is how I describe my wife's reaction (after going through almost years worth of planning and signing the contracts) and realisation that she doesn't like the size of the master bedroom windows!

Windows

I think the problem was my wife is a visual person and I'm a logic person. The problem started because we visited a display home with a different facade than what we liked and I assumed that it was conceptually an easy transition. I walked away knowing exactly what the differences would be but this was not clear to the better half.

So after DA and contracts I get the "it doesn't look like that does it" and can we change it? My answer no! We will need to go back to planning etc. I'm not very popular with this response and we went back and forward on this.

The solution

Out of desperation I ask what will it take for this to be accepted as is and for the windows to be never mentioned again. We have now agreed that I will buy her the dream bed (that I do not like) and have resisted since we have been married (16 years). Additionally we have both agreed not to mention the windows or the bed. Problem solved.

The Journey So Far

Now that I have detailed the why, what and how! I thought it was time the document journey todate! In reading this you need to understand that this is my experience / opinion but this is only one party's view and this is being utilised to document our progress.

• We bought the land February 2014 and settled April 2014.
• Design and builder search commences February 2014.
• Get butt into gear to finish renovations to our current house (funny that we have listed every house we have lived within weeks of finishing them). Note to self let's enjoy this house once we finish!!!!
• Decide on the design Olivia by Alkira in early May 2014.
• House listed mid May and sold under a week (expected to sell quickly but not this quick). 
• Finalise design changes and request tender 25 May 2014.
• First draft of tender received 24 June 2014.
• Quite a bit of back and forward getting the tender right (5 revisions as at signing contracts) and ensuring we have everything included and priced within expectation. A couple of notes with this stage. Ensure you get everything on your wish list priced early and know make / model of what you are after. Be prepared to have alternates just in case.
• Pay Part A payment 1 July 2014 to have plans drawn up as per tender and arrange to do external selections.
• Plans received and after a number of revisions we are ready to move to the Planning stage 7 October 2014.
• During this stage we do the internal selections. If any stage that will drive you crazy it is now. So many decisions / changes etc.
• Selections are finalised in November 2014 for floor coverings, colour selections (internal) , kitchen, bathrooms and electrics.
• Bushfire BAL report issue experienced in mid December that holds up submission to council. Report received through builder is very different to the one utilised for the land subdivision. New report obtained and submitted with DA. 
• DA submitted 15 January 2015.
• DA Approved 30 March 2015.
• Contracts signed 14 April 2015.
• Site cleaned up with significant rubble and rubbish removal undertaken mid April 2015.
• Delays experienced in removing the trees. Long lead-in time as we couldn't do anything without DA. Sydney storms real havoc and therefore tree removal delayed. Then 1 1/2 week wait for stump grinding.
• Construction certificate received 15 May 2015.
• Stump grinding finally done 16 May 2015.
• Block handed over 18 May 2015.
• Now the wait begins for construction to commence.
• Main bedroom windows and downstairs tiling concerns raised this week but I will cover these in a separate post.

Internal Selections (floor coverings paint etc)

The following selections finalise our internal selections.

Taubmans Witch Hazel (walls)

Dulux Antique White USA (doors and skirts)

Blackbutt engineered timber Floor

Dark Cobble

Internal Selection Gallery (Bathrooms)

We have opted for very neutral bathrooms (white polyurethane vanities) but have splashed out on underfloor heating, heated towel rails and dual rain and handheld showers. We are also having a double rain shower in our ensuite. Our selections are below.

Floor tile

 Wall tile

Swivel bath spout

Ensuite and Main Bathroom sink

Downstairs bathroom sink

WC basin

Linen

Internal Selection Gallery ( Kitchen)

Below are the plans and selection for our kitchen. We have chosen natural white gloss doors with no handles except for the walk-in pantry. Splash backs are in white glass.

Shitake Caesarstone

External Selection Gallery

Hume BRF 8 Front door (Dune)

Hume XF 3 Laundry door (Dune)

Amplimesh Superscreen (Dune)

PGH Foundations Cement

Monier traditional flat Barramundi

Colorbond Dune windows, garage door, front door, fascia and downpipes

Colorbond Basalt gutters

Taubmans Abstract render for front columns

Internal Selections

Firstly I will say that the bulk of our variations (additional cost) is relating to internal changes / upgrades. When we tendered we signed up for Alkira's Indulgence package that provided a good list of initial upgrades however a number of key areas still required further upgrades to fulfil our wish list. The main areas were the kitchen, bathrooms, increasing the footprint and electrics (not a sexy topic but if you are going to make mistakes from experience this is a critical area).

Kitchen

• Waterfall benchtop for island bench.
• Polyurethane doors.
• Extra draws.
• Soft close doors and draws.
• Tap for fridge.
• Sharknose profile on doors (no handles).
• Changed square profile double sink because whilst they look great they are a nightmare to clean in the folded corners.

Bathrooms

• Upgraded doors to polyurethane.
• Underfloor heating to 3 bathrooms.
• Tiling to ceilings.
• Feature tiling.
• Conserv double showers to all bathrooms.
• Linsol alegro heated towel rails.

Electrics

• Home theatre pre wire for projector including conduit being installed, seperate surge protected circuit and provision for ceiling mount.
• Additional double power points (you can never have enough).
• LED down lights.
• External spotlight (LED) with sensors.
• Dimmer switches.
• TV, foxtel and 2 data point for all TV points.
• 2 external circuits for gates, intercom, garden lights and pool ( if the better half wears me down).
• Alarm system.
• Fully ducted air-conditioning.
• Alfresco fan and lighting.

I'm sure we will have missed some things but fingers crossed we have got it right for us.

Note: We intend to provide a selection gallery to capture our selections.

External Plans and Selection

Once we were happy with the design we had to undertake the external selections. Which you would think is pretty easy but after much deliberation we selected the following:

1. Roof Monier traditional flat Barramundi
2. Bricks PGH Foundations Cement flush off white mortar
3. Windows Wideline Colorbond Dune
4. Fascia Colorbond Dune
5. Gutters Colorbond Basalt
6. Garage slimline Colorbond Dune
7. Front door Hume BFR8 frosted glass Dune
8. Laundry door Hume XF3 Dune
9. Stacker doors Wideline Dune
10. Security doors Amplimesh Supa screen
11. Watertanks Colorbond Dune

The Plans

So now here are the changes we made to the original Olivia 34.4.

Downstairs:

• Cavity sliding doors to the media room.
• Relocated the laundry between the guest bedroom and rumpus room and changed the bathroom.
• Large walk-in pantry between the media room and kitchen.
• Double linen press in hall
• Increased the size of the kitchen dining room to make a kitchen dining family room.
• Altered the rumpus to allow the alfresco area to be increased in size.
• Additional stacker door in dining area and window in rumpus wall looking onto alfresco.

Upstairs

• Changed master his and hers wardrobes to one large walk-in .
• Double shower to ensuite.
• Relocated retreat (rumpus) to the back of the house and moved bedroom. Had to sacrifice the walk-in linen press.
• Triple wardrobe instead of small walk-in wardrobe in bedroom 2.
• Bedroom 3 large walk-in wardrobe.
• Bedroom 4 double wardrobe.

Design and Builder Search

Firstly alot has changed since our first build in 1998. A trip to home world walk through a dozen or so display homes from a handful of builders (note a few of these are no longer in business). Choose a design, go into the selection room (garage) to choose a colour for the walls, a limited tile selection, fixtures were as displayed. Fast forward to today with reality tv, internet, eco, bushfire regs, higher expectations, Blogs, home forums, multiple facades and so many different variations of the same product.

So our first point of call was trawl the websites of as many builders as we could to shortlist designs that we liked and fitted the wish list. Once this was done (not a short process especially with the number of mainstream and boutique builders with multiple designs we needed to go and see some display homes (obviously builders have more designs than display homes makes this difficult if you are a visual person like my better half).

After a couple of trips all over Sydney we haven't found a design that meets all our requirements but we find a couple that are close so builder flexibility is going to key. Additionally because our block is a designated bushfire zone this needed to be factored in because depending on the BAL rating some builders don't build over certain ratings. There is also the costs to consider as the rating goes up so does the cost.

So after a number of visits and discussions the decision is made and we have selected a modified version of the Olivia 34.4 by Alkira Homes.
http://www.alkirahomes.com.au/our-homes/single-storey/floor-plans?storey=2&homeid=4

The Wishlist

This being house number 4 we had a very comprehensive wishlist! So here it is:

• Two storey
• 5 bedrooms good size bedrooms with 4 upstairs and a guest downstairs. Like to keep it separate as my parents live 5hrs away and 1 parent can't use stairs.
• Separate kids and adults rumpus rooms (room for pool table)
• Theatre room with projector etc instead of formal lounge.
• 3 bathrooms with underfloor heating, heated towel rails, tiling to ceiling, double shower in ensuite and rain showers and handheld shower
• Large walk-in pantry.
• Island waterfall bench in a granite or engineered stone.
• Soft close draws and cabinet doors for the kitchen.
• Large kitchen dining and family room as this is where we spend most of our time.
• Gas cooking and water.
• High ceilings downstairs.
• Lots of storage.
• Double garage.
• Pool ( not 100% convinced but the better half is.

So as you can see we aren't too particular (ha ha) but hopefully this is the last build.

The search

Sometimes you find things when you are not looking. I'm a bit of a real estate nut and always look on the internet in our area. We had looked at a number of houses but there was always a compromise that we weren't prepared to make. Number of  or size of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, living rooms, shared driveway etc. Maybe its an age thing and we were previously prepared to compromise but not for the "Forever Home".

So in March 2014 we find a block at Mt Kuring-gai that will allow us to build the dream home.

Details
Battleaxe of 740sqm build area 575sqm.
Own driveway (not a right of way).
Flat land (rare in our area).