Here we go .....

Welcome! At the beginning of this year, we put a deposit on a lovely 560 square metres of blank canvas upon which to build our new home.

So far, it has been a wonderful, yet stressful experience. I have learned so much and still have so much to learn. I hope that I will be able to use this blog to share some of that with you.

The design we have chosen is based on the Rendezvous, by Ventura Homes. We walked through so many display homes, looked at every online house plan offered by every affordable builder in our state and it was the Rendezvous that "Wowed" us. The house seems normal until you walk into the living area and the whole rear of the house opens up in front of you. I am really looking forward to hosting dinner parties in this huge area.

We have made a few changes; the most substantial was the extension to the alfresco area and remodelling of the bathroom, ensuite and powder room. Its amazing how one little change can cause so many knock-on-effects. For example, if you change from semi recessed basins to counter top, you may need to increase the depth of your vanity, move the taps to wall and add a splash back (as opposed to extending the mirror to the counter top - I love this look). It is all simple stuff, just a lot to think about.

We had pre-start last week. Wow, is all I can say. It took nearly six hours to go through all of the "little" changes we wanted to make. If anyone reading this is about to go to pre-start, I have some advice:

• Write down every change you want to make/enquire about prior to your meeting and tick them off as you go. It is amazing how easy it is to start to forget things, or think that they don't matter when you have been sitting there for 4+ hours;
• Make sure you get a good night's sleep, and if it helps, take pictures with you, especially if you are doing something a bit "out of the norm";
• If you are supplying your own basins, tap ware, appliances etc, where possible bring a technical drawing to your meeting, as it is likely that they will ask for it. For more obscure items, you might want to provide an installation guide as well; and,
• Make sure you ask for copies of everything! I can almost guarantee that you will wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if you remembered to add all of the power points.