A plan at last

We finally have plans together & are ready to submit a development application to our local council to actually get this long awaited dream house underway.

source A view on design

We have been working hard on pricing the whole build. We will be sitting down with some kitchen guys in the near future for some quotes on, not just the kitchen, but laundry, bathroom vanities & a few other joinery items I have been dreaming about( some will stay a dream, I have NO doubt, LOL) but this is definitely an area I am most excited about.

 I have selected the white goods I would like, giving myself a plan A & plan B, depending on how the budget stacks up. I have prices for carpet, tiles, tilers, blinds, now its just a matter of shopping around on these items for the best deal.

Any recommendation's greatly appreciated.

source Tinkaliscious

We have set budgets for all areas of the house, so far some have come in under budget, but others a little over budget, hopefully this will balance itself out in the end.

source BHG

I will be calling on all of you stylish bloggers to help with some decisions & advice along the way. No doubt I will, at times, bomb bard you with questions??????

source Decorpad

You can be sure it will be a very long & drawn out process as we are doing this as owner/builders, whilst the dream guy maintains the all important income source, that we refer to as his day job.

I will be the full time wife, mum, cleaning lady & trades assistant. Apparently I'm not allowed to paint any tools pink & claim them as my own....some men are NO fun ;)

source The Lennox

My dream guy is rather clever with his hands,so we will be hiring very few trades to help along the way, although this saves money it will no doubt take A LOT longer to complete the build.

I am guessing that the whole journey will be the ULTIMATE test on our relationship, we are currently great mates,but we do have very different ideas of how this place should look.

 Originally the plan was that I had total control over the choices involving color scheme & how the inside looked. My dream guy was to have total control over landscaping & his man cave(shed).

 Since he has decided to take on the role of building this fine joint, he now seems to want a little input into things... scoff scoff..., "How dare he!!".

 So fingers crossed, we come out at the end of this with a dream house & a great marriage, he he he!!!

source Veranda

I do have some plans to show you, but, unfortunately I was unable to upload them. Once I sort out this small technical issue there will be a post for sure!!!

CHEERS

Trish xxx

Simplifying life for future dreams

contemporary bedroom design by 4.bp.blogspot.com

Well life has certainly been a little crazy & emotional here on the dream house front. If you missed the progress update a while back you can read the whole story HERE

Vt Interiors

We got a quote from a second builder for our dream house & it was actually more expensive than our quote from the first builder, with lesser quality fixtures & fittings.

WOW!

Doesn't the truth hurt or in our case disappoint :o(

Water leaf Interiors

We have had further discussions with builder No.1 & there are ways we can bring our price down a bit.

He also apologised for the actions of the kitchen & tile guys who both thought we would up our budget dramatically, so recommended more than was affordable for us.

These are some of the things we can change.

contemporary bathroom design by San Francisco interior designer Amoroso Design

In order to build our house to our liking we have opted to wait a bit & work towards ridding ourselves of  all debt.

We have several investment properties in The Blue Mountains we can sell, which will leave us owning our land, vehicles & be debt free, ready to build with a slightly bigger budget, not to mention ridding us of the stresses you sometimes face as a landlord.

I know it has taken me a while to update you all on this house building story, but we have really had to do a lot of thinking, planning & research before we could make any decisions.

This included going back on the project home search.

 As it turns out we just really love the home we designed & felt we would be better to make some sacrifices in other areas to achieve our goal. So, farewell investments & hope our dream home turns out to be a great retirement plan instead!

Wish me speedy house sales!!

CHEERS

Trish xxx

House Update & a big Thank you!

I love these chandeliers over the bedsides & think I have convinced my dream guy that its the perfect idea for our master bedroom, I haven't shown him any pics as yet, I just talk about how much I want them, veeerryyy regularly!!!

Just a quick post to say a

BIG THANK YOU

When I wrote about my concept plan & how I wanted my dream house to look, I asked for your ideas & suggestions on things I was unsure about  & I couldn't have gotten a better response.

You guys offered so much encouragement & helpful tips, I know I'm going to get all the advice & assistance I need just right here.

 For this I want to say Thank you & here is what I have learned:

image via Decor Pad

Two mirrors in the ensuite is the preferred choice,

wouldn't it be just Divine to be the lucky girl who owns this beautiful bathroom.

Image via Elements at home

Then there was the kitchen island & some fabulous tips...

I don't recall where I got this image from but this is another island I really adore, nice & simple but stylish,

Don't you think?

You suggested I make sure it is deep enough to ensure the kids don't put dirty foot prints on the back panel, you would think this would be a no brainer as the rental we are living in has gyprock(plaster) as the back panel at the breakfast bar & it is always filthy.

 So thanks for this reminder.

Another fabulous suggestion was to put a power point on the side of the island & that is definitely going on the electrical plan, certainly very practical & logical suggestions.

I really do appreciate your ideas, I have put so much thought into planning this house, but, there will always be things I will miss, no matter how much I stare at the plans & measure everything insight.

CHEERS

Trish xxx

A concept plan

Well here she is, the concept plan....

This is version 4 of my dream home, I had to scale down until it would fit our budget & be a practical size, it started out about 9 metres longer than this, with another bedroom & an activity room.It was way to big & I think we would have had a lot of unused space.

I don't have a copy of what downstairs will look like, there will be a double garage that you drive into at the left end of the house & underneath the kitchen & family room area will be a large room,that we will use as a kids activity room  gym & toilet. To start with it will just be a big open space that we will finish at our leisure or when budget permits....

Please excuse the poor quality, it was a plan that was scanned & emailed to me, which I then had to print out & re scan & save it to my photo files.  Finally I was able to access the image to post.The dark grey areas are veranda's with a pergola on the bottom floor of the back left hand corner.

The centre area if the plan has the entry situated between a formal lounge & dining room, hopefully creating a grand entrance. The large room in the middle is a family room & meals area that opens onto the alfresco. The kitchen is off to the left, with an island bench & walk in pantry, the staircase opens into the family room.

I am hoping to create a mixture of these two kitchens. I will be having overhead cupboards & if I can make the budget stretch to it, I would love to take them to the ceiling, I expect that would add a lot to the cost as we have 2.7m ceilings. I will be having pendant lights like the kitchen above, my dream guy is an electrician & will be doing all of the electrical installation himself.

I really love the simplicity of the island below.

Any advice or experiences on this my stylish friends?

Off to the right is 3 bedrooms for the kids & you walk thru a vanity area to go to the bathroom, separate toilet or laundry. I wanted my kids to be able to get ready in the morning without fighting over the bathroom, girls can do their hair, whilst the man child uses the shower & the toilet is still accessible for whom ever may need to use it( these are daily issues that I face, resolved). My laundry has plenty of storage & bench space for folding washing & ironing without having to pack it all away immediately. The bedrooms are large enough to accommodate queen size beds, side tables, dressers, a  built in robe & still leave room to move about.

The left end of the house has another child's bedroom  & the master bedroom. The master bedroom has a walk in robe & ensuite. The toilet in the ensuite has its own separate room.

Both the ensuite & main bathroom will have a bath tub under the window & a separate shower. The main vanity area & ensuite will each have a double vanity.When I read this I realize we don't sound like we are very good at sharing, he he he!!!

I would like something a little like this image below

I think I would like a mirror the same size as the vanity in the kids area, to add extra light & make the space appear larger, but in the ensuite possibly two smaller mirrors, one over each basin.

 What do you think ?

The formal lounge will have french doors to access the front veranda, a gas fireplace with a lovely traditional style mantel & be flanked by open shelving. I love the formal fireplaces with display shelves either side, but I also wanted to create extra light in the family room as it is a long room & allow for air flow from the front to the back of the house, following design principles for passive heating & cooling. We have hot summers & although we will install ducted reverse cycle air conditioning, it is expensive to run, so the more measures we take to create an energy efficient home the better.I hope to have it look a little something like the images below, although I will be painting them white.

My dream guy loves the two way gas fireplaces so it may end up with the fireplace & mantle in the family room as well yet. This would depend on the cost for the actual fire place fitting into our budget.

So this is the plan so far, tiles on the floor, hopefully 60cm x 30 cm porcelain in a sandy sort of colour, laid in a running bond pattern, carpet in the formal lounge, dining & bedrooms in a similar tone. The walls to be painted in a yellow based cream & all trims white. Kitchen to be white with the bench tops to be a square form laminate or ceasar stone either a shade darker or shade lighter than floor tiles.The bathrooms following on in the same colour scheme.

I will pick the flooring first & work my way up from there. A lot of the furnishing I currently own was purchased around a warm white colour scheme so I will need to keep with this look, I do love these colours anyway. The last 2 houses we renovated, we painted in Dulux Chalk USA although I think I am leaning towards Dulux Hogs Bristle in varying strengths this time, depending on the tile colour.

Any ideas or suggestions to save me some costly or disappointing mistakes guys????

CHEERS

Trish xx

Serious addiction update

Hi, My names Trish & I am still a blog addict.....BUT.... I have been working on beating toning down my addiction.

I did a post last week entailing a 5 step plan to help manage my days as a blogger, so I would have a more functional life.

 If you missed it you can read it here

Well I have made definite improvements.

I did make To Do lists & checked them off, some days I was unable to complete them due to a change of plans.

Dan Marty Designs

Time management is the key!!!

Another skill I must get back in touch with, LOL!!!

I have only exercised 3 times, so I wasn't to pleased about that. I am looking into a gym membership, so someone else can get me moving.

I have ensured all of the daily tasks are complete before turning on my laptop, although this

morning I have broken this rule. My husband had an early start to his work day(4.30am) & in true man style he was as quiet as a baby elephant, therefore, I had an early start. I was unable to get back to sleep. I was however lucky to capture a couple of snaps of the beautiful sky as the sun was rising.

I have taken these with my little pocket camera, I'm no fab photographer but I still think they capture the beauty.

The colours are amazing.

After several days of rain I think we are going to get a fabulous day, Thank You Mother Nature!!!

Oh that's right, time management, I better get back on track, back to that 5 step plan...

I have managed to produce MUCH nicer meals, this week, as well as bake a few yummy treats....Go me!!!

I did visit my parents & a girlfriend & we are off to a BBQ on Saturday.Yay...I am social in the real world again.

So in conclusion, I AM improving, BUT, still need  to do more work!!!

How about you, did you get your blogging addiction under control, or at least partially?

Did you come up with a plan that works for you, or where you able to follow mine??

Have a wonderful weekend everyone

Cheer's

Trish xxx