Before and After...

It is interesting to capture how our home was earlier on and how it looked when things started being taken away and unltimately it being demolished. Here are some of the photos to signify this:

Here are the after image photos:

And rest of the photos are already inluded in the Demolition post.

Council Approval for Prunning At Last!!!

So there comes a letter today in the post confirming that the Council has approved for prunning and not for the removal of the tree in our neighbour's property. It does not make sense why they took so long as to gie this kind of a decision. If this was their decision they would given this on the very first instance and not wasted our two months. It would have been sane to provide us the approval for the tree as it does not belong there on the fence. It would be a nuisance in years to come for both the properties.

Anyway, it gives us some peace of mind as now we can move on with our CDC approval.

Demolition

We have organised our Demolition and which is in progress as I am wrting all this. Provided there is no drama, this will finish soon as well and the site will be prepared by State Demolitions for the building to start. There was this strange feeling when the whole house was being dismantled. There was a tinge of excitement but there was an element of sadness as well about the house. Somehow I had liked my house although it was old. That is such a strange feeling having a connection between an inanimate object and the human heart. Soon it will disappear from the place...

Here are some of the demolition photos:

Moving to a Rental Place

In the mean time we have found a rental place that we need to move to on 19th Jan 2013. So packing is in the process. It took most of our Christmas holidays and I was surprised that this time it took so long for ourselves to get organised because we had accumulated so much rubbish in the garage. The garage is done and inside the house, loundry and kitchen, linen cupboards, bedrooms are all done. De-cluttering was a major desired outcome of this whole exercise and we are so glad to  have got ridden of so much cloths, books, magazines, toys and other things that we never have been using. We are sure that it would be good for the Charities Boxes as well as we had a few trips to put in our stuff there. We had two Council Wastes Pickup organised. It will be a good feeling when we move into the new rental place with less things. We are so surprised that we were carrying so much of baggage till now.

We are planning to keep outdoor furniture, all garden tools at one of my friend's place. He has got a huge space in his house that he has offered us to use. That is so wonderful of him. I think we should be able to use the study, dining table at the new apartment that we are moving to, but I need to de-assemble them all and pack them first and that is kind of an exercise.

In a Limbo...

We have got one of the big hurdles. Our proposed new home needs pruning of the neighbour's tree which hangs into our property unfortunately. The neighbours actually have agreed to remove it and they have applied to the council. But because of the  X-mas holidays, the approver officer has not come back and that is why the whole thing is on hold. And when he comes back there will be a pile of applications to look after so I wonder how long this will take. Next week I need to phone back to the Council and request for prioritisation on our application if possible. The application was
submitted on 21st Dec 2012, just before the X-mas holidays started.

That is why it is said that the 'Man proposes and God disposes!'.

A Few Good News...

The Demolition certification has been approved and delivered to us. All the variation that we needed inside and outside the house have been completed. I had talked to my Metricon contact and I was told that the CDC approval for the house is just waiting on the Tree removal/Pruning approval. Rest of the tasks are completed. We had a
hiccup at one stage about the storm water management and I was able to negotiate for having two 3000L rain tanks instead of the underground 10000L tank. This negotiation took its toll on time by almost 3 weeks. But at the end it worked out ok in our favour. In the process we lost another 5k for additional tank and additional underground power run to meter box situated on the side elevation of the garage.

Internal Selections

We had our colour appointment on 24th October. This is when could decide about all the internal stuff. This was full day affair actually.

Electricals

First half we went through the electricals in which we could decide various electricals to be included related with lights, switches, power points, TV points, Gas points, network, Foxtel and broadband cabling. Also the various outside jukeboxes to be created for external lighting on the walls and in the gardening and the future gate and fence. The good thing was that all these changes were carried out through a software so there was less chance of leaving anything behind. We were quite happy with the whole process. The lady was very experienced from the electricals division and it was pretty smooth sailing for us as she advised us on most of the decisions. We exceeded our budget though, but somehow were not disappointed at this.

It cost us almost 10k for the electricals.

External Selections


Here is the list of the external selections that we went for:
External Selections:
Gutter:                    COLOURBOND MONUMENT
Facia/Balustrade:          COLOURBOND SHALE GREY
Garage:                    TIMBERLOOK CAOBA
Hebel - Main Eaves/Lining: DULUX WHITE ON WHITE
Hebel Portico:             DULUX TIMELESS GREY
Roof Tiles:                CLASSICAL COAL
Entry Door:                INTERGRAIN MERBAU
ALU Windows:               TREASURED SILVER

Internal Selections

Here are some of the major things that we decided to include:
1.  Flycsreen in all the windows and outside doors
2.  1200mm Pivot door in the entrance with the sidelights
3.  All the sliding doors with glass in RUMPUS (2No) 2340X820mm,
    STUDY (2No) 2340X720mm, FOYER (1No) 2340X920mm
4.  OCEAN FOAM caeserstone in all the ensuites, pantry and loundry
5.  Cupboard in the space near the fridge area
6.  Two Pot Drawers in the kitchen
7.  Dulux Enigma BY colour in FAMILY and  Violet POSY in BED3 for
    our daughter (she wanted it somehow!)
8.  Provide Satinlite obscure glazing in all the ensuites
9.  We agreed for the $450 upgrade on the garage door Wood alike
    Jarrah colour
10. Sydney Blu Gum timber Flooring in FAMILY, DINING, KITCHEN,
    PANTRY
    Tiling in ENTRY AND FOYER
    Carpeting in RUMPUS, STDUY and GUEST ROOM and on the first floor
11. JETMASTER GLOW & HEAT 550TRSI with stanless steel border from 4
    sides
12. Cupboards in ENSUITES to be BURNISHWOOD. In KITCHEN we are
    having it on top and in the microwave tower
    but in Island bench and lower cupboards we went for LAMINATE
    GLOSSY WHITE COLOUR
13. Horizontal handles for the horizontal cupboards and vertical
    ones for the vertical cupboards
14. Privacy locks in all the doors
15. Hebel installation instead of the cladding in the back of the
    house
16. 4800mm wide (nom) Timberlook (woodgrain finish) Colorbond
    “CAOBA" sectional overhead Garage door in lieu of
    4800mm sectional door.