Lousy Organiser for a Builder ... Great Start

Yes, I 've been told Simonds stuff up and they have arleady - at STEP 1. the colour appointment blunder, lets call it.

We've rec'd a call in early Jan booking us for the 29th of Jan - and on the 25th of Jan, another call has been made to cancel, reason being, OH, the customer service lady shouldnt have rang you anway, the paperwork is not in yet - do you know who she was? I had momentarily forgotten but when the caller gave her name, it was her!! I was quite upset due to the fact that it was not easy trying to get Daniel baby sat for a longer period of time during the day and Dave and I have to work around our work schedules. No remorse and even after calling them to push it through, I had to call on Wed, 3.30pm to find out for myself ( no calls from them)to see if its on but its not. it was just a No, and thats it- Are u going to compensate for my childcare, No we dont do that- I wonder, What DO YOU DO if you cant even get simple paperwork right???

And now what, no follow up date to refix the appointment - DISAPPOINTMENT guys, something so easy, but yet too hard for a large organisation like Simonds. Yes, not on my recommeded list of builders!

Still Dirt!

Back of the land

Frontage

Here is where our new home will stand in time to come - at the moment, its all dirt and they are trying to build a road. Nothing much happening but interesting to see how it comes together soon - they said Land will be titled in March so things will start happening then I hope.

Wall paper

We've been to the wallpaper and paint shop in the city over the weekend - I like this but dave doesnt..

Another wall, another dilemma... this is sweet but obviously I'm getting a lot of NOs lately.

We settled on this print - Dave wants this but I am wanting to go for colour, so...

We thought this is the best option. ( by far) I wanted to paint the other corners of the room this colour to match but Dave is hesitant - ( you got the pictre of the NO NO NO - man, I feel like a toddler already, hearing so many NOs. kinda fustrating.

The hunt goes on....

Chocolate Bricked Amberlea

I've managed to get a kind soul to do this for free from work for me, although it takes ages to do up a proper parapet and a baulstrade, I'm sure this visual works well to see the colours of the house. Now am comtemplating on window awning colour....... the list goes on!

Brick Selection Dilemma.. again

This is a really basic replication of how the bricks would look like - if we picked a Parchment brick ( as above) & a choc brick selection ( below)

Note that the render in the dark brick - is not green! Somehow excel changed colours for me.
Any feedback would be great.

Simonds Gallery Tour

There we were on Sat, greeted by choices, choices & more choices. a headache is brewing already! Colours colours everywhere!

I absoloutely love this door and am hoping to get it ( subject to $$) and hope that I can get the baulstrate to compiment the grilling on the door. This is the classic style ( not the standard - so have to pay more) *fingers crossed!

Another BIG BIG dilemma, we originally wanted to go for Parchment bricks but seen some houses ( not too sure if they are 100% parchment) that have extremely yellow bricks - we want a lighter feel not a yellow feel! so we are examining our options to go for a darker house - and use chcolate bricks. The problems is both of us feel 50% towards both and being female, my preference changes all the time.

Here is our combo if we choose the Parchment bricks - a dark ironstone colour render ( see right of pic) and a dark blue steel colourbond garage door.

And if we pick choclate bricks, we will go for a lighter - beigy render and either a light or a reddish garage door. ( some sites have advised not to emphasise on garge doors and go more bland).

At the end of the day, we brought back home with us too many samples!! Where to start! We ended up going to the display home with them the next day and ending up with maybe going with waht the display home had at the start. We'll see I guess.

Tour Booked in!

We are all booked in for the Simonds Gallery Tour this Sat, 9th jan just to have feel for colours and other selections. Our actual appointment with them falls on 29th Jan so we want to be ready.

Sounds like fun & looking forward to that!

Trying to salvage some furniture

Got this ex-kafe table from Villa & Hut - am wanting an Asian feel with dark furniture in the rumpus.

Existing dressing table ( have taken off the mirror - to have it painted white for the lounge area)


We have this cabinet that looks really horrendous Trying to save on $$, and after having to look around ( I know, its really too early)we decided to see if we can keep it and stain it to the coffee table colour. ( 7 coats of walnut stain later, its getting close) If it succeds, this will go into the rumpus as a buffet table.

Panel - Feature

The buzz word is feature for now.... being so caught up with creating the "feature wall", my hubby sighed as I hunt for the perfect feature that we both can agree on.

I found this and intend to put this panel up as a feature; but was comteplating how clashing it will seem with a wall paper.... hmm.. wall paper or panel...... tossing around with the idea.. and oh well. this panel might go adjacent to the feature wall.
Have put this on layby ( cross fingers) I get the right one, they cant remember if its this style either, I saw it one day and went back the next day to show hubby, it was gone, but this is the one I wanted! I guess I'll find out late Jan.

Wall paper - front feature

Love this colour/ theme. Want to do a feature wall out at the lounge area, and set up a large white framed mirror ( which we will try to repaint from our old dressing table) So many choices, but hard to find a consensus with hubby.

Brick Selection

We are given this FREE choice of starting EVERYTHING from scratch and having that is a big headache in itself but its also FUN, not so fun when your partner have to agree on different tastes and the lot. Buying an established home is easy- you like it or you dont. Everything comes with it. We did that and that was easy - the tough part is now selling that nest that we have been dwelling in for the past 7 years. From the tiles and carpet/ wall colours to the type of window coverings, be it venetian blinds, plantation blinds ( my fav!) or curtains or roller shutters, etc, I can see it all coming like a big ball of EVERYTHING. And thats just the windows!
We managed to settle on the type of house and now looking at the type of bricks and then the roof ( which we have agreed) We are going to go with Parchment Bricks ( from Austral) but we have yet to see houses ( confirmed) with that brick - its funny how we drive past every light coloured brick house and try to justify that is parchment. Great start already.

Interior Colour Scheme

Colour selection.... a very senstive issue to agree on, especially when there are 2 different genders involved.

We've deicided to go with similar tones of the display home ( naturals, creams, browns, biege, maybe pastel green) as opposed to pastal blue in the home which hubby liked but I thought green would blend in well with orange as a stark contrast.

Display Home Attraction

Some of the rooms in the Display Home featured here. There is a courtyard that we will be deleting off the plans. we reckon more space is more practical.

There is so much to do... land will be settled at the end of March 2010, 3 more months to go! Tick Tock. Building has been planned for commencement in June 2010, and is due for completion in April 2011. ( 9 months)

Our Amberlea Dream

This is an exciting time of our life.. we never thought we were going to built.. quick history, we bought an established home 7 years ago. With the intention to further extend our family, we decided that the house is now too small and threw some ideas out to shift to a larger home. After an afternoon of visiting display homes, ( which became an addiction even for my 2 year old toddler), we bought a 701 sq m land.

I was happy with a single storey home ( having lived overseas in a double storey most of my life, and understand how hard it will be to clean!) but we entertained the thought of my parents visiting us and a double storey home would give everyone more space. We decided to build with Simonds on the Amberlea floor plans but on a fusion plan with the extra media room and alfresco.

Pictured: Fusion Home for The Amberlea ( Simonds)