Block registered today!

OK - before the drama with the CSA I've received this excellent news from our vendor's agent. Registration of our block has been completed this morning! After 6 months, and after our loan reaching expiration we will be settling soon!

And more changes (to the external colours)

After using the envisage website (metricon's tool to check colours - brands are different though and we could only pick similar colours and not the actual ones) we've finally decided to change our colours once more. Although we've (i, personally for bombarding her with emails, and for apparently stopping her from doing her work for our file) annoyed our CSA we still changed our roof tile colour. I do understand we're she's coming from, however, it is not an easy task to pick colours specially when you're not seeing actual colours. I think EB should offer a tool like Metricon's - with their actual brands on it to assist clients in preparing for colour selection.

From that online tool it seems sambuca is too dark for the rest of our selection so it's now officially "Traditional Mocha Choc". Our HOG representative is very patient on the other hand, she even recommended changing our driveway colours to compliment the other colours selected.

Because of these changes we will be re-submitting our BASIX application. =D

BASIX Approved and changes to our External Colours!

Hubby and I (together with our little girl) drives around the new estates every weekends to see the houses being built and we saw this beautiful Windsor 46 on a Moroka finish throughout! The house isn't completely built yet but it looks stunning!

My husband then decided to photoshop the Windsor 46 with the bricks that we initially selected. The outcome -it's alright but not quite! The colour of the house that we saw looks far better! We then drove to PGH to see the actual bricks that we picked - didn't quite like it so we've decided to change our external colours.

I rang the HOG representative and asked if we can still change our colours. Failing BASIX the first time actually was a blessing in disguise, our council application hasn't been lodged so it's still ok for us to change our external colours. We are going for a front house render with sides and rear in Moroka finish and we will be having the same colours as the house that we saw except for the roof, front door (timber), garage door (timber look), and driveway. I think it will look fabulous!

Our exact selection:

BASIX Issues

BASIX decision came back today with the following issues:

This house was quite difficult to get through BASIX, mainly due to the overgrazing (specifically to the front facade), coupled with limited ventilation (i.e. fixed window panels).

Please see items below required for BASIX compliance: (This will be enforced regardless of option selected)
1. Upper Rumpus front facade bank of windows to be 30% openable (i.e. 1 of the 3 panels to be openable)
2. Bed 4 front facade bank of windows to be 30% openable (i.e. 1 of the 3 panels to be openable)
3. Provide a fixed outdoor clothes line (receives a minimum of 2 hours sunshine in winter)
4. Provide a fixed indoor or sheltered clothes line

In addition to the above, we also need ONE of the following options:

OPTION A
5. Provide energy efficient lighting (LEDs, standard or compact fluoros) to all bathrooms, toilets and the laundry (You would need to ensure you let the Electrical consultant at the HOG know so they can include in your electrical quote if you go with this option)
6. Provide DEDICATED energy efficient lighting (LEDs, standard or compact fluoros) to all remaining rooms, all hallways ( You would also need to ensure this is communicated at your electrical consolation)
(BASIX definition - Dedicated, in relation to light fittings, means a light fitting that is only capable of accepting fluorescent or LED (Light Emitting Diode) lamps. It will not accept incandescent, halogen or any other non-fluorescent or non-LED lamps).

OPTION B
5. Provide energy efficient lighting (LEDs, standard or compact fluoros) to 3xbed/study, 5xliving, kitchen, all hallways ( Electrical consultant will need to be advised to include in quote- By Client)
6. Provide ZONED A/C (zoned day/night between bedroom and living)

OPTION C
5. Provide energy efficient lighting (LEDs, standard or compact fluoros) to 3xbed/study, 2xliving, all hallways ( Electrical consultant will need to be advised to include in quote- By Client)
6. Provide a solar (gas boosted) HWS ( Additional charges will apply as this is not a standard inclusion, EBH only provide a Instantaneous gas Hot water unit in the Basix package)

I really think OPTION B is the best option specially with the A/C zoned. My little girl loves the A/C and we can't afford to be running the system for the entire 46square-house to cool up 1 tiny person. :) Not very environment friendly as well, so for those reasons I've picked OPTION B. :) We just have to be patient with the flouros taking its time to light up though. :)

Floor Plan

Just like anyone building their dream home, we are very much excited to see ours. At this stage, we just have to wait patiently, and it is up to Norwest land to do their bit. The vendor's agent advised that it's not possible but we are still hopeful that the block settles within the month or at least by the first week of April.


For now, all we can do is look at the drawings over and over again - my husband will definitely object when he reads this and tell me to speak for myself.. lol Here's one of the drawings:

The external colours selected (and some of the house plans)!

I've requested Josie from HOG to send me these sheets for our reference (and for my blog of course)

Here's the Colour Selection sheet:

The colours we've selected:

And where these colours are for:

External colours selected!

Yay! This went pretty quickly. We went straight to HOG after contract signing as we wanted to maximize the day we've taken off work.



Ok - on my earlier post, I mentioned going for the same colours as the sample photo, however, we've decided to go the other way around. We picked a lighter colour bricks for the main colour and a dark one for the feature bricks (I think the main colour is mocha and the feature wall which I am sure of is called Nutmeg), we will be using a smooth faced bricks instead of having it rendered.

I know I should have taken a picture of it but we were in a hurry cause it was raining and we were thinking about our 1 year old daughter whom we left at home with her carer. Plus I thought we were already running overtime - but we actually weren't! Arrgh.. anyway, I'll see it for a long time so I think I can wait. :)

There is quite a long gap till the other colour selection appointment cause we can only be there on April 6 straight after our Melbourne holidays. EB said this is okay as site start won't be until June 30 2010.