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.....