Nothing is happening ~ Nada ~ Zilch ~ Not a god damned thing...

We are still here, still waiting... and...waiting...and...waiting...

This building game is really a test of your will.  We obtained 'verbal' building approval over 10 days ago, but verbal means nothing until its in writing and ~ you guessed it, we are waiting for the paperwork.

It's killing me.  I'm probably killing my husband with my incessant nagging about chasing up the documents, but what can I do, I don't do the whole waiting thing very well.

There is a McDJ house being built a stone throw away from me, I've been stalking their build, watching and wishing it was mine and trying to tell myself that I just have to hang in there, that eventually it will be mine.  EVENTUALLY {did I mention I don't do waiting very well...}

I have nothing to share I'm afraid.  Not regarding the build anyway, this is the down period, but I was checking out the blog and I noticed that I've had over 2500 visitors, I thought I should write something, even if its just to say ~ Thanks for popping your head in and checking things out!

I really really want to give you updates but its pointless taking photo's of a block of land.

If anyone has any questions on what the process has been so far or would like to stick their head out of internet land and just say hi... post a comment or a question below, I'd love to answer something {keep me occupied before I go up to council and write the approval myself}.

Betsy xo

WARNING: Whinge fest ahead...

Yes, I'm pissed off ~ and that is putting it mildy.

No I'm not pissed off with McDonald Jones they are safe from my rantings.

I'm pisssed off with the whole process.... it is so bloody time consuming.  We are still waiting for building approval from the council, so I won't be sharing any nice photo's of tradies putting up frames or starting bricks for a long time yet.  I'm currently residing in a shitty rental property - no offence to the owner but its shit and he knows it, but it was cheap and I figured I'd only be in it for 6 months, but seeing as we are heading towards nearly 2 months and we haven't even handed over to McDJ yet, I'm guessing my 6 month deadline is out of the window.  I have cabin fever - living in the shitty rental with 3 kids and a dog and its too wet to kick them outside... OMG.

I'm blaming the weather, it has rained consistently for forever {well it feels that way} everything is damp and its impossible to dry anything and my block of land looks like a mud wrestling venue ~ the only thing missing is hot ladies in skimpy bikinis, mmmm now there's a money making idea :-)

Council gave us a modification so its back to the builder, then back to council and again they will probably take their sweet time about finishing the process.  Its just frustrating me no end.

To take my mind off of the delay I went window shopping (read internet shopping) for things we need for the new house, well that was a trip to depression lane if ever there was one... I need to find myself a millionaire, win lotto, or both.  The End Of Financial Year sales are also depressing me.  I keep seeing all of these amazing things and I think "Ooooh I should buy that its a bargain" but I can't because I told myself I wasn't purchasing anything until the house was up so I could get a feel for the place.

Anyone else living in frustration?

Have a whinge here?  I'll listen to you!

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down...

I started a blog about how nothing was happening and that I was starting to get very restless when I received an email from my hubby with this...



It was coming down...





Until we were left with this...

Its kind of weird.  I felt a little bit out of sorts when I first saw this picture (I was at work and getting updates by email) but after I slept on it I realised a home is really just bricks and mortar or in my case, weatherboard, wood and windows.  The memories and the family is what makes it a home.  Yes my house has gone but the memories are still with me.

As I move onto this new chapter of our life, I'm very excited to actually see some bricks and mortar.  Now my only hurdle is council approval... fingers crossed it happens sometime soon.

I love you.... but I hate you.

Today we are moving out of our home.  It has been my home for 12 years.

I didn't think I would feel anything but as the demolition day approaches I have an urge to protect my home ~ my heart is screaming 'cancel the demo', my brain is reminding me of all the reasons why I'm doing this.

I love you because you are our first home.
I hate you because you are beyond repair.
I love you because I brought my babies home to you.
I hate you because we have outgrown you.
I love you because my memories are engraved in every part of you.
I hate you because at times you are the reason for my desperation.
I love you because you are home.
I hate you because you allow mold to live within your walls {and even though I've tried everything to eradicate it, you keep allowing it to come back}.
I love you in Summer.
I hate you in Winter.

So, even though I have a love/hate relationship with you, my heart will still crack a little and no doubt a tear will fall when the walls come down, you have held our family, stored our memories, and tried to keep us safe, you're just too old to keep us healthy, we can't keep fixing you.  You served us well, and you will forever live on within the walls of our new home. 

Farewell wee cottage!

Let there be light....

And fans and power points and data points and tv points and the list goes on and on and on....

We had our electrical appointment the other day and as usual anything to do with spending the day at McDonald Jones Colour Studio and spending money makes me a little bit giddy with excitement, they really should have a public health warning for that place.

 

All jokes aside, we had a good day and I'm very happy with our choices ~ although we are still tweaking a few media options. 

There really isn't anything exciting that I can tell you about an electrical appointment, I mean how exciting are power points and light switches?

We didn't buy anything luxurious, it was a NO to the intercom options, NO to the ducted vacuum, NO to the under floor heating (although I have to say, it was priced quite reasonably, just not required for us.) 

I did get myself some ceiling speakers, but that really was my only luxury – the rest we considered a necessity. 

I upgraded a couple of items, most of my switches/power points I made slimline.  I put fancy ancy ones in the kitchen to blend in with the decor.  I upgraded the control panel for the alarm to a touchpad one, the other one had a pull down cover and with 3 kids it would only be a matter of time before the cover was snapped off.

I have to say I found the electrical appointment a little bit tougher than the colour selection and the fact that we are still pondering over it {late at night} confirms that.  However all that being said and done, I'm excited to see the end of the preparation work....

Now – LETS BUILD THIS BUGGER!!!

Dreams are coming true...

First things first - We did it... We signed our contract!!!  ***applause***

We also signed off on our Landscaping Plan and I'm really pleased with it, we will more than likely tweek it here and there when the time comes but mostly we will stick to the plan and this will give us a good foundation to build on in years to come... 

..AND

We found a rental property ~ I think this little project is starting to come together quite nicely ~ Okay remind me I said that when I'm in the middle of moving out of my existing home, I'm not sure I'll be quite so 'chirpy' about the whole situation.

In other news...

Just incase this whole interiors thing isn't quite your thing or you don't spend all your time reading interiors and lifestyle blogs "POTTERY BARN, WEST ELM & WILLIAMS SONOMO OPENED IN AUSTRALIA TODAY" seriously, how could you not know that!!!.  If I happen to have any American readers then I forgive you for not understanding how monumental a moment this is for me.... no more browsing the net and wishing I could get this or that... okay so I'll still be wishing because I won't actually have any money to buy anything, but at least now I can touch it - right!!! {if your an interiors person you know what I'm talking about...}.



Swoon - how could you not... kudos to organised housewife for the pic updates

Unfortunatley I'm a bit pissed that I'm sitting my butt at work right now instead of plodding off to Bondi Junction to have a squizz ~ common sense prevails and I will continue to live in wonder for a few weeks until all the hype has died down and I can go for a browse without having to fight an army of people to get throught the doors {Yes that will be the day I surrender my credit card to my other half, possibly NOT}

Target & Woolies..

Whilst I was out browsing yesterday I noticed that Target and Woolworths (yep the supermarket) are putting on some lovely bowls and plates and fast becoming contenders in the 'cheap and still lovely' category.. as much as I love the owls, they aren't taking up residence with me anytime soon but they are still nice to look at - but I'm having a little bit of a love affair with the black and red.

I had my troops with me {aka children ALL THREE OF THEM} and my patience was shot by the time I was in Woolworths so no pic was taken from there - but trust me they are worth a looksy!

What's your favourite homewares shop?

Miss Betsy xo

Finally...

Contract has arrived!

I'm in my sick bed!

Now to go through it with a fine tooth comb - mistakes where are you?

I got a bin...

Sorry I've been AWOL, life is fairly hectic around here.

We finally did our colour selections - I was dreading the day soooo much - BUT - I loved it.

Our Colour Consultant/Interior Designer was F A B U L O U S... I had 100% confidence in her and took great advantage of her experience and expertise.

Word of advice to anyone heading into their colour selections, if there is a slight possibility that you will be doing your own flooring - take a sample of your tile/floor boards/carpet ~ whatever, with you.  We had chosen a tile that we liked if we didn't end up liking what MCDJ had, and we took that with us 'just incase'.

Thank god we did because we decided to go with that tile and the rest of our selections was built up from that.  We actually took two tiles and sat them side by side, as the rest of our colours started to come together we could see exactly which one of the two tiles we had to go with (and surprise surprise it wasn't the one I thought we would go for).  I found myself in this situation a couple of times, some items that I had my heart set on, once I teamed it with something else, it brought out different tones and colours and I had to change them.  With that in mind, I would say as a word of advice ~ don't get stubborn when it comes to your choices, be open to change, listen to the designers and really consider the options, some you may genuinely hate but I found a lot of her suggestions made sense and really brought  the whole design together.

So what did we do?

Well you can see our colours under the colour selection tab here but in addition to colours we had a few upgrades ~ here is what we upgraded.


General

• Door handles, we upgraded all the internal door handles;
• Deadlocks - they are a necessary evil;
• Front Door - bigger & wider;
• Laundry Door - I put a venetian door in the laundry;
• We upgraded the internal garage door to an external grade door;
• Porcelain tiles to all wet areas;
• Fly screens and doors to whole house (I'm considering deleting this and doing it after handover);
• Airconditioner - upgraded to Actron 4 zone.

Kitchen

• 2 x drawer banks on either side of cooker;
• Range hood vented externally;
• Soft close drawers and doors;
• Overhead cupboard finishes (silk finish)
• Pantry doors - Lin 1 doors;
• Pantry door handles;
• Stone bench top to 40mm;
• Upgraded the glass splashback to a higher grade glass splashback;
• Underbench fitted bin - yeahhhhhh I GOT A BIN (you have no idea how amazing this is, after years of plastic bag bins hanging off cupboard door)

Media Room

• Lin 1 cavity doors to entrance;

Laundry Room

• I fully fitted out the laundry room in a design of my own.

Family Room

• Fire - Rinnai Symmetry 

Bedrooms

• Added an extra shelf in all the kids wardrobes (we have 2.7m ceilings so there was plenty of space above the shelving for an additional shelf).

Ensuite/Bathroom

• We changed the sinks in all the bathrooms and we changed the tapware;
• Added pop up plugs to all the sinks;
• Upgraded the shower surround to silver;
• Upgraded the actual shower head thingy (yes that is the technical term);
• Added a bank of drawers to the vanity in the ensuite;
• Added a second sink to the bathroom (for the kids)
• Put in shower recesses to both showers

In addition to the selections on the day we also increased the heights of all of our internal doors and stacker doors to the higher doors as we have the 2.7m ceiling and we deleted the drop ceiling to the kitchen area...

... and I think that was it.

Bring on the electrical appointment!

Did anyone else love the colour appointment as much as I did?

You had me at....

isn't it gorgeeeeoooouuuuussss.  I love it and it comes in various colours {turquoise and yellow} and alas a hefty price tag - $180, lets just say its on the wish list {yep the one that won't be getting visited in 2013} but if anyone else would like to splash their cash you can purchase this beautiful piece of work here, in the meantime I'll continue to be a good girl and see if I can get on Santa's good list.

So where are we with regard to the build...?  We are in no mans land.  We have done everything we can to this point and we are now on hold until the Bank decide to join the party.  Don't you just love waiting on the Bank.

In the meantime....

I've been keeping myself busy shopping browsing online which is a dangerous pastime.  Having access to shops worldwide can really damage your hip pocket.

I've been having a little cushion party to myself today... wanna see

all pics courtesy of Etsy

 So many colours, so many patterns ~ but I behaved myself and didn't hit 'add to cart'.  I can't start purchasing homewares until I have a home - come on Bank!!!

Anyone else have to suffer with a slow bank?

The most important room...

If you are a man and reading this then I apologise, I am NOT referring to the Media Room {sorry but my husband will likely post on that topic in the near future}.

They say the kitchen is the most important room in the home - all I know is that so far it's been the biggest headache of the home so far.

Colour is my biggest issue.  I've always wanted a white kitchen, but after analysing other colour choices, namely the floor, I'm not sure a white kitchen will work.

Here is what I'm contemplating...

Can you see where my thought process is heading with this?  Mixing up a little of the dark browns with the white benchtops and possibly throwing in a couple of white cupboards {not sure about that yet}. 

Another headache is the lovely build in bin idea - YES! I have lived with plastic bag bins for years so you have no idea how exciting this prospect is ~ however nothing ever seems to be easy when it comes to my choices.  The only area on my island I can put it, is where the microwave is currently positoned to be built in.  This means I need to move my microwave.  The only place I can think to move it to is inside the pantry - anyone have any thoughts on that?  Not sure I like that idea.

All input welcome - post me your thoughts below :-)

Pre - decor decisions... ahhhh

It's been a crazy few weeks and to be honest I've kind of put the house on the back burner.  Don't get me wrong its still buzzing away there at the back of my mind, mostly to do with the kitchen and my indecisiveness over what colour I want and how many drawer banks etc, etc..  {Just incase your wondering I'm still undecided}.

Obtaining quotes for tiling & carpets and 'thinking' about obtaining quotes for driveways and landscaping, sometimes its just easier to live on pinterest and houzz and keep dreaming - making the dream a reality can really be a right pain in the a**e.. I'm beginning to see the value in Interior Designers.

However the only interior designers I have access to come in the form of magazines, and the internet so I will continue with the dream until I have some progress to report with the build.

We picked one.....

Finally after looking at 29,745 show homes {trust me it feels that way} we have finally picked one.  We have thought about it, walked through it (many times), fell in love with it, harassed the sales guy with a million questions at all times of the day and night and now we are just about to sign on the dotted line....

McDonald Jones Homes - Milano Two (16)

Kitchen

Dining Area

Alfresco

Kid's area

Media Room

Now we have to sit back, relax (hahahahahaha) and wait for the colour selections appointment to come around!  Not likely, I see many nights of research, browsing of shops and obtaining quotes ahead of us.