Designs, Structural Modifications and Marie's request list...

So were well on our way with the structural modifications with a proposed Study upstairs which will be 3.2 x 2 more long than wide but that fine with me and I don't see there will be much of an issue with council because the room keeps in-line with the current line of bedroom 3.


I wanted the study because it can be marketed as Study/Guest bedroom as its big enough to place a pull out couch/pull out bed at one end  and a desk as you walk in it adds value to the rent-ability /sell-ability of the place.. that and it comes in handy for washing that hasn't been folded yet or that exercise bike that never gets used.. :P

But in all seriousness when a person is going up the stairs instead of small space funneling off to each bedroom there will be a lovely open room bringing light and a feel of more open space upstairs section of the house and when its being used a sliding cavity door will give that privacy for what ever purpose it is being used for either that be study/work or a guest who needs privacy.

Also another structural change were looking at is the small included veranda behind the family room, which is a waste since out fence is about 2m away so instead and extension (which has yet to be priced) will bring out the family room making a huge room where windows will now be - excellent for a TV and entertainment cabinets to go.

This will allow the bi-fold doors to be placed where our open/free space is :-)
Were waiting to see the cost for this modification but we don't think it will be too much as the supporting pillars are still be used in the same way - it will be interesting if it effects the roof line at all.

Another not so major modification is the bulk head as you are walking past the powder room into the kitchen/family room(see arrow).
This is being looked into also but it depends what structural support is in that doorway space. This is where is comes in handy to read the building blogs have done prior to my build.. one thing I took away from one of them was a door way is not just a door way and cannot be removed without seeing structural advice before contracts and done and dusted.

Land Surveyor and Sample feature Tile ready for Pick up

So today is the Land Surveyor is going out to survey the land which he should be doing right now since there isn't any issues with the weather. The land/soil surveyor should be giving me a call - hasn't happened as yet to the the surprise of the Land Surveyor- to go on premises and do his bit for the pre-build requirements.

On another note the feature tile for the bathroom sample came in from Oakleigh Beaumont tiles - Marie's hopefully gone to pick this up as I'm at work and wont be able to pick it up.

Idea for Flooring Materials and which Rooms.

This is the idea I had for flooring for the new house:

Playing with Envisage Room Deisgn

There is a few things I would change as the stair case is going to be metal and glass railings with stained wood stairs but I was not able to change this in envisage.
Room is very similar in size to and dimensions as ours with the same staircase.

Parkswide Tree removal and payment for it's value

Well I had a call from Parkswide - Council today and our guy Greg the aborist has got back to me very quickly which is fantastic!

He had already gone out and evaluated the tree and in a nut shell said it isn't going to be a problem to for us to remove it and he's okay'ed it which means full-steam ahead on our plans which is awesome!!

Then we discussed the cost I would have to pay so he calculated the cost and that would be 5k.. yikes expensive but it it full grown tree + 600 removal by them (which a bit $$$ since we recently had some trees removed) but it will have to be done! :-)
I'm pretty happy with the fact because I know they doing what we need so very happy in the end.

First Studio M Tour

Well we had a field day with so much to look at and materiel's to choose!
We looked as much materials and with there swatches as we could starting with the Kitchen setting the tone for most of the house as we knew out base colours and staying far away from the brown spectrum.

Here is some of the swatches and material we choose
Caesar Stone bench tops:
I knew that what was required was white for our project as Marie had requested majority white.
Which will be a running theme for this project.

So we end up seeing a great bench top colour 'Osprey' which had some really nice very small flecks of stone of greens, yellow, blue and saw a much white fine grain colour 'Snow' as the stone on the bench tops of the bathroom.





We thought that we would have the 'Osprey' in the Kitchen bench which will need to be a 40mm with waterfall effect (which means sides on the Ceasar stone bench)

We select two Laminex Finishes but this one one out due to being more subtle and in real life it has a little more blue toning in the grey flecks.
I think this will date better than some of the other swatch I picked up.


I this will be the island bench backing.
It may also be the facings in the bathroom bench to lift the white.

Our bench will look like this but with the kick board - blackended linewood.

The cabinetry will be white enamel - 2 ply high gloss treatment technology - instead of laminate (Marie was sold on it) as seen above image.


I found we might have too much white so was ponderning over using the Laminex on some of the cabinarty but Marie like the white as seen above - thats when I remebred I had seen industrial dome pendants on the 'the block' kitchens in 2011 or 12 which to me might be a way taking away to much white starkness and adding a bit of class to the kitchen.
Tying it in again with the white inside the white Marie loves.

Beacon light: Lucci Décor

Lucci Décor

Inside 1 Light 1/2 Dome Pendant in Black/White

$103.20

WAS $129.00

SAVE $25.80

PRICE $103.20      WAS $129.00  SAVE $25.80

Inside 1 Light 1/2 Dome Pendant in Black/White

Inside 1 Light 1/2 Dome Pendant in Black/White

Inside 1 Light 1/2 Dome Pendant in Black/White

I think it looks pretty stylish ;D

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 The bathroom stone selection is 'Snow'















Marie and I where looking at tiles that we can source from Beaumont Tiles

This is one I saw it really caught my eye but the website didn't mention the name of the tile which was odd since it had for the other room ideas - this found on the en-suite ideas section.
http://www.beaumont-tiles.com.au/RoomIdeas.aspx?room=Ensuites

This will probably be our feature tile just like this setting.
I rang Beaumont tiles Oakleigh  which is the store we need to go to pick the tiles to get the details of this tile which happens to be a new range the guy there is ordering a sample tile for me- very helpful again which he will ring when it comes in wed-thursday.

White Marble Interlock Mosaic Tile
300x300 mm

model no: 189539

We will need to pick another tile for the rest of the wall and bigger stronger tiles for the bathroom/laundry tiles.


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Colour Bond Steal Colour Choice
Ironstone which looks more Blue than online colour swatch

Cross overs (Road Reserves) aka~ Driveway entrances, Naturstrip trees and all the other shenanigans...

So I have had a busy few last days speaking to council about tree removal / replacement.
The questions asked by the council departments are always hard to answer at this stage because drawings aren't finalized but we know in order to finalize them we need to get tree removal approval and drive way moving and relocation approval - which ours will need to be a double to service the existing property and service the new property also.

As it happens I need to deal with two departments that don't necessarily work hand in hand.
For the Whitehorse Council two departments are your main concern for these two things:

1. Parkswide -

This is the department for tree evaluation by Arborist (aka tree guy) to come out and evaluate the street tree and then decide it its okay to remove *(certain trees are add to the area look so cant be removed)

The guy I have been dealing with is pretty nice guy Arborist from the council - I have spoken to him the past.  He left me a voice message saying he would get back to me on Monday with an answer as he's been working in a different department but will be back in office on Monday


I was recomended to an external Arborist opinion on the tree which was also a nice guy who recommended with the tree size we have it may not need him to evaluate it due to the tree not being very wide or very high about 2.5-3 m and less than 30cm in circumference  and that it might be prudent to just see what the council Arborist says because they have to evaluate it anyway to gauge the value I have to pay to remove it.
But he did give me the price to evaluate and the report $275inc gst and that he can remove it - which is nice to have if needed.