Update

Well still waiting on the tweaked plans to come back, engineers cost came back $$$ so Brett is going to ask te builder in Mackay who he's been working for who he uses. We seem to be paying above normal rates for all this planning stage and it's not being value for money, anyway...

Have another meeting with builder Chris next Saturday when Brett gets home, he has some suggestions to the plans,so we'll see I guess. We got his prelimanary cost back last week and without spending any extra $$ on PC's (yeah like that is gunna happen, toilets for $300) we are already $100k over budget, I nearly died. Brett is in "don't panic" mode so I'm trying to believe he knows what he's doing. Price was for full contract though and we are contracting out plumbing, block work, electrical & kitchen and obviously Brett will do the concrete, which we get all ex plant so I'm hoping to save $60kish on all that and knock him down on his work about $40k which if he wants to build the house just has to happen.

On a more positive note, am finally starting to make final decisions on colous & selections. I want to have averything done prior to starting the build so I can just give Chris the whole list and then not stress over selections during the build.

This is what I have picked so far;

KITCHEN
Island Bench - Monaco Brown Marble for top & Drawers in Timber Veneer in Havana with 25% gloss
Back & Side Benches - Benchtops Stainless Steel & Drawers in 2 Pac Chamois. I'm only having a couple of cupboards above the bench and they will probably be in the same timber veneer as the island bench. Slashback for back bench is the Monaco Brown Marble & for side bench where oven is it's a fixed window panel.

Floors for Upstairs - Blackbutt with Espresso stain, looks very nice

Floors for Downstairs - Still yet to decide, keep coming back to Travertine but since downstairs is esentially the kids domain it's just not realistic, so still on the hunt

Laundry
Not finalised but leaning towards the following;

Floor Tiles - Keraster Discface tiles in Athena
Cabinets - Laminex in Chamois flint finish
Slashback - Thinking some charcol matt tiles about 6cmx6cm
Sink - Butler Sink from Belfast sinks

Hmm will have to go through my book to get the rest of my selections that I have done.....

Few minor changes....

Well after thinking on it lol, and showing the plans to a few people there are a few minor changes to happen downstairs main bathroom & laundry are being swapped, still playing with even moving the bathroom between 2 of the bedrooms. Also tossing up if I should make guest room a theatre room and make the guest bedroom in the pool house, hmm decisions decisions, but I need to decide as we are set to get our price guide back from builder early this week!!! Not sure if I want to know.....

Anyway so must get back onto draftsman and advise her of the changes and get engineering under way

We have finished plans

Well the floor plan & elevations are done, now just waiting for engineering. Anyway here they are, FINALLY!!!

YAY, WE HAVE FINISHED PLANS!!!!!!!

We have achieved more in the last month with our draftsman than we had in the previous 13 months. I am now very pleased to say that we have a completed floor plan with elevations & roof plans, YAY!!!! Now we just have to get engineering done and she is suggesting we employ a professional landscaper at this point to help with placement of pool & pool house & garage & stairs.

So very exciting, we will actually be able to get the floor plans to our builder before we go away on holidays next week, yay!!!

Getting there...

Well after putting a bomb under our drafty, we have had 3 appointments in 3 weeks and we are nearly there on the floor plan, just a few minor adjustments to be done and then we need to tackle the roof line & elevations (which you would think would be pretty easy) but nothing is easy it seems. So even though I am going to be glad to be rid of her (draftsman) Brett has reminded me of that fact that despite it taking so long, it has contributed to the plans that we now have, which I have to admit that I'm very happy with, so I have to give a little it seems lol.

Anyways, hopefully all this will mean that by the time we get back from Sydney after chrissy we might have some concrete prices from our builder, yay!!!

Also

Oh and also the pool builder who dumped fill on our block with the agreement that he would level it out STILL hasn't done it!!!

STILL WAITING.......

Well after 7 odd weeks waiting for our plans, turned up in the mail yesterday and STILL not what we discussed!!!! She can't get her head around the underground garage WTF how hard can it be!!!

Also she has added another lounge as a kids playroom so that would mean we would have 4 family/communial area's??????? Another study, (though the 2nd is a nook) so 2 or those?????? What else oh she has put another lot of linen cubboards into the front hall which share space with the entry specifically what I said I didn't want!!! Made our bedroom smaller, only about 3m deep, yeah like THAT is gunna happen, made our deck smaller, only 4m deep. Really there are STACKS of things that are just wrong!!! We wanted to hopefully start in Januray but there is just no way it's gunna happen with the amount of time it takes with her to get stuff done and then it's not what I want anyway!!! ARGGGHHH why won't she listen, I even did a copy up WITH measurements for her to copy off and it's still wrong