Slab!

I forgot to upload a pic of our slab which was done on the 18th December!  Very exciting!

We are ready for our slab!

We have pipes!!!!

Shane dropped past on the way home from work and was surprised to see thw piping done! We are so close to getting our slab, we are very impressed on how fast this is all happening so close to Christmas!

It has been a busy week for the tradies!

We have piers!!! And now a fence to stop me stalking... never!

Day 1 of construction, very exciting day for us!

A surprise message on Facebook from a friend saying they saw a truck on the block, so we obviously had to go and check out what had been done! We also got a call from our SS Wayne, he advised he is hoping for the slab to be done by xmas! Fingers crossed!!

Released to construction!!!!

Received a very very exciting email on Friday!  Eden Brae, im loving you right now! Cant wait for that phone call!

Punked!!

Casually drove past the land today to see if something had arrived to be surprised by another peg! Got so excited,  got out to take a photo.. and saw my brother had dropped by earlier. Yes, I got Punked.  A good one too! Your time will come tommy!!!

PEGS!!

Not much, but this is definitely better than nothing!!! :)

WE HAVE PEGS!

Hooooray we have just received an email advising we have pegs! Will go and take photos tonight!!!

Site start appointment - 22/11/2013

We have our site start appointment tomorrow at Eden Brae, and we have just received an email advising us of our Peg out date to be next Wednesday 26th  November. It's all getting very real now.. Ive never been so excited to see some pegs!!! Will keep you updated on the process!

Floor Tiles

I have just found a picture of what we are hoping our floor tiles will look like. Can't wait to see them!!

Still waiting!!

Since my last blog in regards to waiting on prices for upgraded tiles for bathroom and floors, we received our quotes back and have decided to go ahead with tiling both barrooms from floor to ceiling and to also upgrade to the porcelain rectangle charcoal floor tiles. 

Council has taken their time getting our approval, and we have just received it back after a long 4 weeks longer than expected. 

Eden brae gave us a start date of October 31st 2013, but because council took longer than expected they are now saying the start date cannot be given as it may be another 4-5 weeks before the peg out appointment!

Will keep you all updated :)

New WIR and Ensuite Plan

Drawn by me, not perfect but will give you an idea. Look at that wonderful walk in robe!!

Driveway

We have deleted our driveway from Eden Brae and was given back around $5000, which we are getting my wonderful brother in law to do. Im thinking a nice colour concrete, not that fussed on the pavers.

Floor Tiles & Carpet

We found the included floor tiles were nice, we have requested a quote for charcoal rectangular porcelain tiles and if that comes back out of budget we will stick to the tiles below, but in the charcoal colour at the top.

The included carpet selections weren't the greatest at Di Lorenzo, so we received a quote for something a little nicer with a better feel and colour. We also were quoted for 10 mil underlay which was amazing. We were quoted about $3000 for the nicer carpet and underlay.  Unfortunately I do not have a picture of the carpet.

Bathroom Tiles

We went to visit Di Lorenzo multiple times so we knew exactly what we wanted. We have always wanted to upgrade our ensuite tiles and wanting to have floor to ceiling tiled. We have been quoted for the ensuite and main bathroom tiled floor to ceiling but picking the included tiles for our main bathroom, just waiting for the price to come back to see if the main bathroom will be tiled to the ceiling also. The included tiles for Eden Brae at Di Lorenzo were nice, a big variety, but of course I like the big square tiles which is an extra cost which is why have decided to upgrade the ensuite.  If you see the pictures below, the light grey tiles are for the ensuite, and the darker tile with feature tile is for the main bathroom. You are entitled to $25 per square metre for tiles, and the ensuite tiles are only $35 per sqm.  Not too bad if you ask me!! :)

We have also changed the layout of the ensuite a little. We have deleted the bath, moved the toilet to the other side of the ensuite and have extended our shower so it is the whole length of the wall. We have deleted the shower screen and have added two glass panels going from floor to ceiling,  and also double rain forest shower heads. See below a pic to get an idea of how it will look.

Electrical Appointment - some useful tips!

We had our last appointment at the home options gallery last friday. Eden Brae give you one light per room, not a downlight either. Down lights are $130 if you wish to add them, each. We are lucky enough that my brother is an electrician and can do all of our extras after handover to save a bit of money. So we have moved our light points to certain areas of the house so once we move in my brother is adding the extra down lights we want, as well as extra power points, TV points etc. We dealt with Michelle for the electrical appointment and she was very helpful adivising where would be best to move things to make it easier with my brother adding extras. The alarm system included has two sensors only, so we are going to get my brother to do the whole alarm system as well after handover so we can have a fancy keypad, slim line light box and more sensors. Thanks Tommy, we love you!

Exterior Colour Picking!

We have opted for Sambucca Traditional roof tiles, Smoke brick (at an extra cost), black window frames, monument gutters, sandbank downpipe and rainwater tank, western cedar front door and western cedar garage door. We are doing the driveway ourselves, as we have been given just over $5000 as a credit for getting it done ourselves after handover. The brick colour didn't come out in the first pic,  so I have posted a pic of the bricks themselves at PGH, which we visited a number of times. 

Kitchen & Bathroom colour picking!

We have decided to upgrade our kitchen benchtops and vanities to Caesar stone. The colour we have picked it called 'New Crystal Salt'. It is beautiful! We are using the new crystal salt in the kitchen and both bathrooms. Our kitchen and vanity cupboards we have also upgraded to polyurethane. Kitchen colour being 'New Graphite' and bathrooms being 'Polar White'. The included benchtops and cupboards were nice, but Shane and I didn't like the Laminex. I will put at the bottom of the post the 'included' laminex options that we would have gone with, if the Caesar stone came back too expensive. After receiving the quote we were blown away with Kitchen culture, so we have had to adjust a few things to suit our budget. Everything we liked was an 'extra cost' of course. The above kitchen cupboards we are doing ourselves after hand over. We are also doing our own glass splash back after handover as that was expensive as well. We are also doing the soft closing doors after handover as well as what they had quoted us was well over our budget,  and when we contacted the company who supply them and we were quoted much cheaper. So there is a bit of food for thought!

Interior Paint Colours

We have chosen a light grey for all of the walls (stonebridge) and white (white spirit) for the ceilings, architraves and 3 step cornices.

Facade Options & Prices

These awere the choices we had for our facade. We opted for the Newcrest,  but deleting the cladding and having just Brick. Will upload photos of brick colours soon.

Picked the floor plans!

Hawthorne 31, few changes to make our walk in robe bigger and ensuite slightly smaller. Will upload new floor plans once drawn up!

Welcome to our first blog!

Hey Everyone!

My husband and I are building Eden Brae Homes Hawthorne 31. After many hours, days, weeks and months trying to decide which builder would be best for us we have finally signed with Eden Brae and fingers crossed our journey will be as smooth as possible! 

We are about to have our final appointment to choose colours but leading up to our final appointments my husband and I found other blogs extremely helpful which is why I have decided to create one to hopefully help others out there :)

I will back track and post from the begining.

Hope you enjoy!

Amanda and Shane.