Catch up

A bit to catch up on since my last post. The advertising sign has now come down and has been returned to the Council. Still will need to wait a few weeks before we hear what the outcome is. The architect will be giving them a call tomorrow to see what's happening. We're really hoping that we can have our application 'fast tracked'. Watch this space.

In the meantime, we've moved on with the detailed design component. We've now talked through the master and guest bedrooms, walk in robe, ensuite and yesterday we tackled kitchen, walk in pantry and laundry.

Lots and lots of decisions to make. Need to decide whether to go with a linear or triangluar workspace in the kitchen. We're much more familiar with triangular where the sink, fridge and stove make up a triangluar shape. Linear (where they're all in a row) might be all the rage in Europe right now but we suspect they'd choose triangular if they had the room.

I've also started the spreadsheet (it had to happen!) for tracking the appliances and prices that we're looking at. Definitely going with Ilve for oven and cooktop and Asko for the dishwasher. I've also started to look at taps and other bathroom fittings. There are just millions to choose from. In the interests of saving wherever we can we plan to buy many of these items ourself which means we won't have the builder's margin tacked on top.

Here's an image I found of a kitchen we really like. The sink is in the island bench with oven and cooktop on the back wall. I really like the additional splash of grey colour under the bench. Also, below is an image of a kitchen that shows what our glass splashback is going to be like. The splashback will stretch all the way along the open plan area in our house and have plants and a coloured fence to look out on. It should really keep the place light and bright.

Image courtesy: Collaroy Kitchens




Image courtesy: BG Architecture

How much?

Got an email through today from the architect summarising the costs that we received from the 2 builders. The good news was that both quotes were within 20K of each other, which gives some confidence that both estimates are reasonably reliable. The bad news was that they are quite a bit over our budget. Surprise!

We will need to shave quite a bit off to get them back into the realm of sensibility. In order to start that process we really need to get down into the detail of the design. This is a process we've been anxious to start for awhile now so it will be great to finally start to the see the interior take shape.

One things for certain, the pool is looking like it could hit the cutting room floor. We haven't fully made that decision yet but we will need to soon.

Below are some pictures we took the other day of the interior of the house. Our friends are living there at the moment so it's been interesting to see it with furniture rather than empty.