Ready to go?

Well, i can't fault Jemena.  Once Origin actually passed on the paperwork, the electricity was gone within a week.  So we're all ready to demolish. Andre (the demolisher) is all ready to go.  Now we're just waiting on the bank who are being a bit slow with the paperwork, and have asked for us to wait for them.  We're asking for less than they pre-approved, and they've had the contract for three weeks now, so it really shouldn't take much longer.  I'd really like to have the house gone, and Simonds' resurvey done by the end of October.

Surprise...

Well, it's been an interesting week.  Thursday was supposed to be time up on the electrical abolishment, but of course, it hadn't been done.  So I called up Origin only to discover that they hadn't forwarded the paperwork to Jemena, and it will now be another 2-4 weeks before it can be done.  Seriously, how long does it take to forward an email?  It only took him 2 minutes while I was on the phone.  Grrr.
So I was all prepared to sit around for the next couple of weeks with no progress, and we went around to the house Sunday morning to continue pulling down some of the external timber structure we want to keep.  We were rather surprised to find that the front door broken open and bits stripped off the house.  Looks like they've already sent the asbestos removalists around, without telling us, and without waiting for the electricity to be abolished. On further inspection, they also seem to be ladder removalists, as ours is now missing!  We had left it locked in the house, as we were expecting to do more work there this weekend.
So I'm sitting here today a little bit perplexed, as I'm not sure if I should be feeling happy about progress happening, or irritated that they have started without informing us, and stolen our ladder.

Anyway, here's some pics of the work done so far.

External asbestos stripped from the studio...

... and from under the eaves.

This was the back door.

Contract

Just a quick update.blogsters.  Last Sunday we signed our contract with Simonds, which means all our plans, inclusions and colour selections are complete. 
Our demolition team is also ready to go, with Demolition Permit approved, and we have paid the council's asset protection bond (fingers crossed we get it all back at the end of the demo). I've confirmed that we don't need planning permits, so there's absolutely nothing we can do right now. 
We're all waiting on the electricity company to abolish the connection to the old house so things can go forward - we requested this on the 31st August, so we're nearly at the end of their 20 business day time frame.  It's very hard to be patient...

Colours and Electrical

Last Friday we had our colours and electrical appointments with Simonds. It was a long and tiring day with far too many decisions, but we got it done, and the house is just that little bit closer now.

We chose a Sambucca roof tile and a Redgum brick - didn't get any samples of those, and forgot to take photos, but the Sambucca is a dark blue-black colour, and the Redgum is a red brick with blueish highlight patches.  We had a free upgrade on the roof tiles, so we've got Monier Traditional tiles (basically a flat profile instead of the standard wavy profile).  To match these colours we chose Monument colorbond gutters, Classic Cream colorbond fascia and garage door, and White Birch aluminium window frames. 

Monument, Classic Cream and White Birch

To finish off the externals, we went with a Caramel stain on the front door (upgrade from painted door - $197) and added translucent glazing to the front door glass from our promo pack.  Downpipes will be painted to match the Monument. Facade cladding, posts and back doors will match the Classic Cream.  The front gable will be Classic Cream with Monument trimming.

So far so good, now for internals.  For paint on walls and internal doors we chose Pale Mushroom, with white ceilings.

Pale mushroom

We have a hardwood handrail and first 2 stairs from our promo pack, and chose a Caramel stain for these.  Not sure about this one, as we are still yet to decide what timber flooring to go with.

I was a bit disappointed that they don't do a DiamondGloss laminex for the kitchen benches, so I had to choose something similar in a matt instead.  So we chose Imperial Topaz for the kitchen bench, Pearl Mist (fine stipple) for the cabinets, and Luxor for the kickplate. 

Imperial Topaz, Pearl Mist and Luxor

We accepted the standard 900mm Technika cooktop, but we're upgrading the rangehood from our promo pack to a slideout with cupboards, and the oven we will provide ourselves - we're getting a Neff 600mm wall oven.  We also accepted the standard taps, but upgraded the sink ($465) as the standard was quite shallow.

In the bathrooms and laundry, we chose a Stonehaven benchtop, and Pearl Silver cabinets.  The standard basins were either square or round above counter. I generally prefer semi recessed basins, but not enough to want to pay extra, so we went with the standard square basins.

Stonehaven and Pearl Silver

There were plenty of other decisions - door handles, taps architrave and skirting etc.  Generally we just accepted the standard where possible.

The electricals was a little different, as I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted.  Of course this was also the big $$$s.  We ended up spending about $4k even after the items included in the promo pack.
The big stumbling block though, is that they don't do patch panels.  I find this rather surprising, considering they will be doing all the data cabling, but what can I do?  Anyway, because of this, we didn't finalise on the day, as I wanted to run everything past some of my more knowledgable network friends.  After some of their feedback, I'm knocking a few items off (and hopefully about $1k).

Tiles

Today we had the first of three selection appointments in two days - tiling.  Finally we get to do some of the fun stuff, instead of sitting on hold to various utilities companies.  Arranging abolishment of the gas and electricity has been about as painful as I had feared it would be.  But the end is in sight - gas abolishment form has been sent in, and I'm nearly done with the electricity form.  We've met with the demolition guy (funnily enough, he's based about a block away from where I used to live), and received a final quote.

But back to the tiles.  It turned out to be fairly simple, as I've spent plenty of time scouring the internet for ideas and examples, and had a good idea of what I wanted.

For the floors in the bathroom, ensuite, powder room and laundry, we're having a 400 x 400 Portofino Basalt Matt tile with light grey grout.

Floor tile  sample - Basalt Matt 400 x 400

For the ensuite shower walls we'll have the same tile in a gloss, with a white pebble feature tile in the back of the shower niche.

Ensuite tile samples

In the central bathroom we'll have the same floor tile, with a row of the white pebble tiles on the floor along the bath.  The basalt gloss will be used on the bath hob/top/splashback, but I wanted a lighter tile in the shower, as it is walled in on three sides, so for the shower we're having a 400 x 400 Portifino Graphite Gloss on the walls, with a grey pebble feature tile in the back of the niche.

Central bathroom tile samples

The only other tile choice was the laundry splashback.  We went with a standard 300 x 100 cafe grind matt.

So that's it.  The Basalt Matt, Basalt Gloss and Graphite Gloss were all upgrade tiles at $5 per sqm, which cost us about $250.  The pebble feature tiles in the two niches and the row against the bath cost another $200.  So far so good budgetwise - let's hope tomorrow's colour and electrical appointments are as easy.

3D model

I've been working with Google Sketchup to model the new house - it's a bit addictive, but really helpful in visualising sizes of rooms and positioning windows.  In the pictures you can see the Google Maps background that shows the existing land with the old house.

Ground floor

Upstairs

Position on block

Front elevation

Settled!

Well, it's been a while since I updated.  A lot of things have stalled or been going very slowly over the last month.  I'm hoping that is just because we were yet to settle.
Anyway, we settled last week, and spent last weekend cutting off branches so we could actually see what the backyard was like.  It obviously hasn't had much attention for several years, with trees growing fairly thick branches through metal trellis that looks like it had just been left leaning against the tree.

Our land

Apart from that, we have received a couple of quotes for demolition, and we have reviewed the first draft of the tender from Simonds.  For some reason I don't really understand, we had to review it at the office, and couldn't take it with us.  Strange.  Anyway, it seems mostly correct, just a few windows not exactly where we expected.  Costs were less than we allowed for, which is always good.  I suspect we'll make up for that at the gallery.
On that side of things, I'm starting to get a clearer idea of what colours I want in the kitchen and externals.  Still unsure for the laundry and bathroom, but every decision made lifts a weight off my shoulders, and lets me move onto the next problem.
So what's next?
I'm not really sure.  I think my most critical tasks are sorting out the demolition.  Part of that is figuring out who I have to talk to to get gas and electricity abolished.  The bank is apparently working on our pre approval, although they're being a bit slow about it.