More Inspo!

Another favourite resin artwork. 

Love this resin artwork. I have purchased two frames and will create a large resin artwork using this palette on the weekend.

Inbuilt BBQ inspiration. 

Cute girls room. Taubman stonebridge

Inspiration for office. Taubman : Stonebridge

P.S: Beechwood said NO regarding the change in benchtop. Haha Ok so we are stuck with it. Looking at photos of other peoples I am happy it will look ok.  No action at the block. second week waiting for the slab to dry. No frame on site yet. We have paid the slab invoice and hopefully our bank made the progress payment yesterday as they said they would.

Slab needs to dry out

Nothing new at the block as we wait or the slab to cure. So I have been keeping busy doing more resin artworks and thinking about the yard. We have booked an appointment with the pool people to discuss a price. We should've done this before we built. Originally we were going to get a pool in a few years but it seems silly to complete the landscaping then rip it up again to put a pool in. It will make a huge mess. So we are thinking get it in before. We haven't got council approval or the estates approval so I am not sure how hard it will be.
My avocado is going well, just waiting for the top to sprout and then I can plant it. We have lost about 6 plants outside, not sure why. As I said I am no green thumb. I have just been watering them everyday.
I have always been abit worried about our choice of benchtop. Its ocean foam. I am worried it will throw a yellow colour. I wanted snow but it was going to cost an extra $1600. I contacted beechwood to change it but now because the plan has gone into the construction stage they want an extra $1000 for the trouble. That's too much just for the change of shade. I might email one more time to see if they can change this. Cant hurt to ask I guess they can only say no.

Top left is snow and top right is ocean foam. Worried it will throw a yellow creamy tone. 

Looking into pools and fencing options

Resin Artwork!

Avocado seed with roots. Ready to plant soon.

Avocados anyone!

I am growing an Avocado plant. I will update on its progress. P.S I dont have a green thumb.

We have some roots 

Slab Complete!

I got an invoice for the slab emailed to me, so I drove out to the block to see the slab complete. Very happy to see it done. Now we have to wait a few weeks for it to set. So close to Christmas break I dont know if they will just wait now until February to put up the frame. Even though its a long time to wait with no progress I think I would prefer them to wait with the frame. It will save it being out in the elements for 5 weeks. I know it will be ok in the rain but would prefer less time exposed. However, this is out of my control. So I am happy to go with the flow and leave it up to them.

Fresh concrete poured today. Our neighbours slab was poured over a week ago. You can see the difference in colour.

Cake time!!!

Outdoor plans

Now the block is formed up we can physically see how much space we have. We have been discussing our outdoor area over breakfast this morning. This is one thing I love about building.

I will post some drawn up pictures soon. These images are inspiration. We want a small pool, BBQ area with louvres and a play equipment with some grass in our 9m by 17m yard. Can it be done in such a small space???

Pendant Lighting options

Raika pendant light Beacon Lighting

Completion date 2nd June 2017

OK I am putting it out there. The completion date is expected to be the 2nd June 2017. I have built with Beechwood before and wow it took such a long time to build. We built when the new owners just took over in 2010 so I am hoping this build time will be more achievable. Our contract is for 30 weeks. An average build time is 26 weeks but I think they have included the Christmas break and added on another 4 weeks. So 30 weeks from the start date is early June. We will just have to wait and see. Earlier the better as we are paying such high rent and the mortgage.

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Formwork complete TICK

So much work has been completed in only 2 days. No one was at the site Mon, Tue or Wed but they smashed it out on Thur and Friday. Very happy with the progress on our latest inspection. Looks like the formwork is complete and they will be ready to pour the concrete next week. Cant wait to walk on the slab and get an idea of the size of the place.

All ready for concrete!!

No backyard!!

Our backyard

This pictures is looking from the back of our lot. We have beautiful reserve behind our land. The neighbours are building pretty much right to the fence line. No backyard seems to be the trend in our street. We have little kids so its important to us to have some grass for them to play. So we will have about 9m from the back of the house to the boundary fence. So still a small backyard but they can play on the reserve if they want to when they get older.

Lots of progress on the estate. We are alittle behind our neighbours. On the up side they have since put the fence back up and we finally had some workers on the block this morning.They were clearing the dirt and levelling it out, getting ready for the slab. Hopefully we will have it poured by the end of next week.

Fence is down!

We went out on Friday night and found something wrong with the block AGAIN. We've had no luck with our neighbouring builder. After complaining about the amount of soil and portaloo on our land they quickly fix the problem removing the soil and tidying up the boundary. However they put the fence so close to the boundary because of their brick palettes. With some strong winds and rain the fence has fallen down. It has landed hard on our plumbing and form work. Hopefully no damage but no one has been on our site since then so I dont know. I drove past yesterday and brickies were happy working away and the fence was still down - so rude. This made me angry so I messaged the site supervisor again with no response. I am hoping it has been fixed today.

Meanwhile we had a delivery from our horticulturist friend who has been working hard to strike some more plants for us. We are pretty much done now with the plants. Maybe only a few odd ones to get but we will wait to get them. Most are going well and healthy. Fingers crossed we can keep them alive until we plant them.

Back yard. What a mess

Of course the fence would have fallen down with those bricks in the way.

Our lovely plants. Coastal rosemary, blue fescue, Lilirope, blue chalk stalks, agaves, lomandra

Pirate Party

My Son just had his 6th birthday. He wanted a pirate party and had his heart set on a pirate ship cake. Overwhelmed with this I tried to get out of it suggesting an island or figures on top, but he wouldn't have it. So here it is. It worked out ok and most importantly he loved it and had a great time. His birthday is another reminder how long its taken us to build. We moved into our first property within months of his birth. We were thinking we would create a stable home and wouldn't move haha were we wrong. So now he has lived in 4 different houses. Terrible parents I know but you cant predict what is going to happen in life. The kids have adapted better than I would have ever expected. They dont really have any attachment to the house and get excited to move. They are only young so maybe that's why. They have always attended the same daycare and school even when we lived 45 mins away. Our daily life is the same no matter where we live. One more move and we can be settled.  I think they will enjoy not 'looking at grass' anymore lol. 

Plumbing and piers done

Well they have been busy at the block. Looks like footings and plumbing is either complete or close to it. It looks like a big mess atm but its always nice to see some progress. We had four people working on Thursday. Hopefully they will finish the frame by next Friday and pour the slab the week after that.

A bit of a mess but some progress. 

We have a fence!!

Xyla

Nothing new to report so I can introduce you to my cat. Her name is Xyla. Yes my son named her after a character on Dr McStuffins. We were going to wait until we moved into the new place but its a year off so we thought we would get her now. It will be crazy when we move in, so it might be nice that we can focus on her while she is a kitten and she will be more adjusted in a years time. She is a beautiful blue Burmese. We decided we wanted a blue but they are so rare. It took months of patiently waiting to get her. We only got her by chance because the other buyer pulled out. She fits into our family so well. Probably the most friendly social cat I have ever owned. We love her already.

Home is where the heart is

Well I have this view to admire until we move in - so I am not complaining. I told you I live in a beautiful place. It does however have a bad reputation. I dont mind because it stops people from moving here. But I think the word is out because house prices in the area have sky rocketed. People from Sydney are cashed up and moving in - pushing the house prices so high. I cant blame them, its a great place to live but you didnt hear it from me.

Home sweet home for now.

We have started!!!

We had a call from BW and they confirmed our file had moved into the construction phase. We drove past the block to find this. A few pegs and cut in. Woohoo! So nice to finally have some action on the block. Hoping to have the slab down before christmas close down. Optimistic??? We will soon see.

Our tree is stilll alive!! Getting ready for our slab.

The neighbours builder has built up their block so much. So much soil is on our land with large rock boulders. The fence is on our block too and their portaloo. We will be starting soon. I will have to contact their SS asap.

This is what all the fuss is about!

Our build is located in such a beautiful place. Only 5 mins to this!!! I love walking on the beach. The sea air makes me feel so refreshed and energised. Even a short walk on the sand helps me reset and melt away any worries or stresses I might have. I love this place so much and it will be better once we move into our new place. I feel very lucky to live in such a beautiful place.