Draft Plans - yippee!!!

What an exhausting day!!!

I love the plan, very different to what I thought though. I was under the impression they would create from scratch, but they ended up modifying/using the basis of the house we liked which is the design we liked in the first place!!!!

They have suggested a full split, not a half split between levels, meaning the downstairs is a full flight of stairs. We had thought we would have a trilevel - 2 story at the front and the back level in between if that makes sense. This HH think is the most cost effective way for our block, rather than the half split. Fair enough I say. I just wasn't prepared for that!!!

When we were there, we added the study/workshop/MPR/walk in linen/reconfigured the kids bedrooms. I didn't get softcopys of the plans, "E" drew the revisions in front of us.

So here they are!!! Really quite hard to see - I've added some text so you can make sense of them!! Can't wait for you all too see them. Let me know what you think - and any suggested changes.

I love the kitchen - hated the last one! I love the raked ceiling in the meals/living - hopefully will be that 'wow' factor.

It's exciting again.

Edit - Can't work out the photos - if you click on them they will open up so you can see them.
Edit again - trying to fix photos

Too many phone calls in one day.......

Yesterday was the phone call day from hell. Besides the huge amount of personal calls (!!! it is school holidays...) I had two phone calls that floored me, for different reasons.

The first was from Westminster Homes Michael Thurecht, General Mgr of the new home builds. Well that caught me out, my MIL and SIL and her troops had just arrived, my kids were screaming with excitement, and my mobile rings. It was a very interesting call, the cynic in me just says he is fishing around the "not yet signed a contract with Westminster, but has approved plans" people to see what business, if any, they will retain. I actually enjoyed talking to him, was very frank, and stayed calm (this is a biggie if you don't know me personally!). I told him we were shopping around, because at the end of the day, I just want a home built for my family. We talked about the administrators meeting, and some of the calls he has had, and I explained that you knew to expect that (don't cry poor me to me!). So I give him credit actually calling people, but he did want to gauge whether we were jumping ship.

The other call was late afternoon, I had just pulled into a girlfriends driveway - she needed to have wine with someone, while she fed her 3 kids, so thought we might as well do it together! My kids just jumped out of the car, while I was speaking with the sales rep "J" from Huxl3y homes. He wanted to advise that the first set of plans were ready, and E the architect/designer wanted to present them to us on Saturday if possible. Yes please. "J" said the plans look really great (well he isn't going to say you know - they look shit) but I did get very excited! So somehow on Saturday we need to get DS to 2 games of soccer locally, and get everyone to Homeworld at Kellyville by 12noon. Hmmm. Mum is still o/s with my sister, so Dad offered to help out with the kids but I'll see if a friend can take DS for the arvo. Then he will just have the twins, hopefully he can take them for a milkshake and a play in the park and we should be cool. Worst case he can just chuck them in the car and drive them around for an hour!!

Will keep you all posted!

Bel

Progress Update - Yes we have progress!!!!

Well I received an email this arvo from the Sales rep from Huxl3y homes saying that the draft plans are nearly ready and they'll be in contact very soon!! I'm pretty excited to see what they have come up with.

Oh, better tell you what has happened in the last few days to get to this point.......

Over the Easter break we decided that we would go ahead with the initial deposit and see what they came up with in terms of plans. We will receive floorplans, elevations, facade options etc. They also use CAD so I'm assuming that we will see a computer generated walk through. Better check. We had negotiated a lower deposit price that was a more suitable amount, so we thought we might as well bite the bullet and get something started again.

Will let you know how we go!!!

Options Options Options

Yes we have options!

Over the past few weeks we have been in discussions with several other volume builders. Some have been helpful, others not so.

We went to a meeting with the salesman and designer from Huxl3y homes yesterday. They have quite a few floorplans that are split level that suit our needs and budget. However, the designer on looking at the block, council restrictions and our needs, thinks doing a custom design should be the way to go. I've always been wary of this option. However after the last few weeks, I am a lot more open to it.

It see it this way now - we get a house designed for our block, for our needs, on a volume builders budget. Sounds better already! They showed us the price per sq meter charge sheet, so we can build a home similar in size to the previous one, but will have rooms that we dictate (ie goodbye formal dining - don't need it).

The designer also talked about block orientation, something that wasn't even looked at prior (to be fair to W, they were just trying to get a house on the block!).


Looks like we might have a home that is quite different to the 'standard' volume builders home. By that I mean split levels, some living areas substanially forward of the garage etc. The blue shows roughly the old footprint of the house on the land, and the red is what was discussed yesterday. Using the block better :).

Lets hope it works out! I'm getting a little bit excited again!