We're number 9

Yesterday I had a burning desire to find out what our street number will be.  One of our neighbors on H1 Forum suggested calling the developer (they gave up at Stage 8), but the Council were incredibly helpful - in fact the first person I spoke to was able to look it up - right there and then.  

As the image suggests, we will be number 9 (don't like the letterbox though!).

I'm home sick (still) and getting pretty bored, so I did some research into the number, and it's all a bit freaky really.

Numerology;

When you add up Loz's birth date numbers 7 + mine 2 it equals 9.

Then I found all kind of sites telling me that we didn't choose the block, it chose us...

If you have no racial or social prejudices, or have a burning desire to help the world, this is the house for you. The 9 vibration allows you to see the possibilities, to see beyond limitations and oppression. This is a home for the broadminded thinkers. You will find rewards for past efforts in this house.

Residents in this house are intellectual and music plays an important part in this home. Many start ambitious new projects in a number 9 house. This house number brings good fortune. (I like the sound of that)

And then I even found something on how to decorate a 9 house;

 9, being a wordly number would do well with a an ethnic look; Asian, African, Polynesian etc.. Lots of natural materials, fibers and textures - or very ascetic. 

But the scariest thing;

You'll find yourself collecting lots of books and travel is indicated, in fact the first thing to unpack is your books!  (One of our rooms is for this purpose as Loz has more books that a mobile library)

So in a nutshell, we'll have music flowing from our doors that are open to ethnic minorities who like Asian style decor, love a good book and are handy with a hammer to help us finish our ambitious project list. 

I can rest easy tonight knowing that.  Perhaps it's time to go back to work??? 

How orange feels

Going into this build I was mad for green, and with our cancelled PD build our scheme was based around it.  But when it came time to do our Carlisle selections, I actually listened to the man (and discovered he has quite the eye for colour) and followed both of our gut reactions to colour.  So now that all of our selections are finalised, I couldn't resist a bit of analysis on the memories that these orange images brought out.

I've always loved autumn.  The weather.  The colours.  The leaves.  One of my earliest memories (probably because there's an old photo somewhere) is of Pa and I raking them up into piles, scooping them into the barrow with squares of masonite, and then he'd put me on top and race me around the yard on route to dump them in his roadside fire.

Oranges used to smell and taste sweeter when I was a kid.  I remember half time oranges at netball games in the freezing cold.  The juice would run down your arms and your hands were sticky making you much more effective in the second half.  Do they still do that at half time these days?

lilies just make me smile.  Two very special women in my life both have an obsession for them - my big sis & my little girl.
This move is bringing me geographically closer to both of them, which brings the promise of indescribable happiness.
My big sis (my lovely man's sister actually, but I've claimed her as my own) is the warmest, kindest, loveliest person I've ever met, and many a homewares shop will be the beneficiary of our joint shopping exploits after the move.
My little girl isn't that little anymore.  Almost six feet tall, 21 and about as independent as you could be.  It's not very often she lets me play, but when she does, it's like winning a premiership for me.

This ball to your left has been life changing for me.  I've worked with it, slaved to it, encouraged it and protected it for 22 years.  In return, it's brought some amazing people into my life, put food on the table, challenged me, disgusted me, delighted me. 

My big grown up by came to live with me when his Dad and I split up.  It could have been because there was always coke in the fridge, a bowl of M&M's on the table, and an impromptu "gathering" of friends a regular occurrence.  One of the motivations in building a big house was to give each of them somewhere to call home.  He assures me he'll never need a bed, but I'll keep it made just in case.


When my kids were really little and I was studying and interest rates were pushing 20%, money was pretty tight.  All I could afford to buy Mum for Christmas was a mug that I filled with her favorite chocolates.  This became a bit of a tradition, and as the years flew by and finances were the least of my worries, I still found myself buying her a mug. When you open her cupboards, there are literally 19 coffee mugs in there.  I think that's enough now.

Sunset over Cradle Mountain in Tasmania.  The first holiday Loz and I had together.  1 beautiful undisturbed week of tranquility, bush walking, eating, discovering, getting lost but mostly getting found.  We'd just bought the new Eagles CD and played it on repeat for the week.  Anytime I hear one of those songs I'm reminded of that great trip.  They're touring soon (The Eagles) and we have amazing seats.  Can't wait.

Courtesy call from Carlisle

Our lovely colour consultant gave us a quick call today to make sure there's nothing else we want changed or want to discuss prior to our contract meeting on Thursday.

Totally unexpected and totally appreciated.  It gave us the chance to discuss the roof / window / garage door dillema of yesterday and now we feel fully settled on what was basically our original choice anyway.

So now having locked all of that away, it was time to give the blog a good spring clean and freshen up today!  Gotta find something to do to fill in all of this waiting...waiting...waiting!!

Cold feet with our colours

Please please please help us pick the finished look of our facade?
We know the colours we like, but there's so many different combinations;
(images from StudioM so it's not our exact facade but you get the idea!)

Mocha Choc roof
Jasper windows
Jasper garage door

 Mocha Choc roof
White windows
Jasper garage door

Mocha Choc roof
Jasper windows
Surfmist garage door

Mocha Choc roof
White windows
Surfmist garage door

Barramundi roof
Jasper windows
Jasper garage door

Barramundi roof
White windows
Jasper garage door

Barramundi roof
Jasper windows
Surfmist garage door

Barramundi roof
White windows
Surfmist garage door



So there you have it.  2 roof tiles, 2 windows and 2 garage doors gives 8 possibilities.  Please let us know what you think.

Baked beans are good for your heart..

..the more you eat the more you... have money to pay for LAND SETTLEMENT!


Our conveyancer phoned today to check that we had our finance in order... because... wait for it... our land will title in 4 weeks from now.  We then have settlement 2 weeks later, which should be early November.  And if all goes to plan, Carlisle will be ready to start another 10 days later.  So we really might have a slab for christmas!


LMAO: There's actually a baked bean recipe page

Paper bag anyone??

Well... a few things just had to go.

Say goodbye to the pivot door, all $4,000 of her.  The pre-wire for solar electricty - sorry environment - you're gone too.  Render to the alfresco = gone.  The fan/light/heater in the bathroom = gone.  The beautiful tiled feature wall in the bathroom shower is now just a feature strip.  All of the painted feature walls = gone.  The beautiful timber double doors to the home theatre had to go, and my soft close drawers...Loz will just have to remember to close them all on his own :)

In the end, we split the difference between our hyperventilation amount and the tender price today, and shaved $13K off the wish list.

Thanks for your advice and input Janine and Jay.  We've got a great, no, incredible home at a price we can live with (and pay for!!)

Next step - Contracts in 2 weeks, hoping to have at least a slab down by Christmas.

I'm going to plant a money tree...

...and hope like anything that it blooms overnight as tomorrow is TENDER DAY.
Loz and I have set a "hyperventilation" amount.  Anything under this will make for a happy day.  Anything over will have me reaching for a paper bag!


Sure, we've upgraded a fair bit.  And based on our PD experience, we (read, I) have expensive tastes, evidenced by us putting an extra 100K onto the base price of our former selection.

Tomorrow may come with a lot of compromises... do I REALLY NEED ducted vacuuming, a sonos sound system, double undermount sinks, a massive pivot door, the grand alfresco with stacker doors, enough downlights to keep Origin solvent, a fully rendered facade with a stacked stone feature, opulent wall tiles, home theatre pre-wire, mirrored sliders to the minor wardrobes, the very sexy upgraded kitchen, funky two way gas heater AND a partridge in a pear tree?

A path for me foots

Exciting times @ The Avenue my friends because we (almost) have a footpath.

I can't believe how fast things are progressing now.  It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that we had a muddy bare paddock.

Carlisle have booked us in for an October site start, which OMG, I just realised is next month!  Our colours are done. Tender is at the end of the month but will hopefully be brought foward (if we can decide on our site costs in teh next day or so) and contracts two weeks after that.

I've watched so many people's builds on H1 and they seem to fly by.  So it won't be long now until we're in our beautiful new home!!

The colour scheme

After a really quick attempt on photoshop I've come up with this...

Monier traditional "Barramundi" roof tiles, Jasper render over garage with a Surfmist garage door.  Dulux "Orange Wood" render on the portico.  Jasper front door and windows.  Surfmist gutetrs and fascia + main render.  "Delhi Bronze" stacked stone to the front projection.

We've chosen the surfmist render to make the stacked stone feature POP rather than blend.  This is all $$ dependant of course.  If the stacked stone is too exxey, we may render the projection in orange wood, replace the surfmist render with jasper, the front door to surfmist and the windows to white.

Here's our kitchen colours...

Cupboards on island bench = Wenge.
Benchtops including waterfall edge to island = Osprey.
All overhead cupboards & far wall cupboards = white, including perspex feature overhead.
Splashback= Orange Wood
Walls = Lexicon 1/2
Floor = brushbox laminate boards



And bathrooms in varying themes of...

Powder room with bench in Espresso with the feature tile framing the mirror.
Bathroom with a Wenge cabinet, white tiles to all walls including the bath hob with one shower wall in the feature tile.
Ensuite with the benchtop in Espresso, cabinet in white, shower walls white, a feature strip behind the taps on the shower and continued as the splashback through to the spa.
The floor tiles for all wet areas is a dark chocolate (the image of it is yuk!) which wil be taken up the bath hob, so that room should look really lush.  Hopefully the dark colours won't dominate.  It does have a huge north facing window and the walls will be Dulux Lexicon 1/2 which is almost pure white.

We'll bring the orange through to this rooms with towels and accessories too.  Subtely though!!