Lights, Camera, Action!

The economic downturn was very evident yesterday. Whilst we had a public holiday that would normally see shops still open, many were closed across Brisbane. Ikea - Mecca for all things minimalist, was closed as were the majority of furniture stores. However luckily for us, Beacon Lighting was open. The staff were awesome and truly helped us with our lighting plan and selection. 

Lighting is listed as a separate component of our contract. This should show you how much emphasis should be placed on the design and selection process. It's just as important, if not more so, than the colour selection. Bad light will make all of your pretty colours look bad. Good lighting won't get noticed. 

Being married to an electrical engineer has it's moments.  There are generally geeky moments, and there are a few dull moments when they all get together and start talking shop. Shop talk however is always dull for a partner. Just like me talking about the complexities of a spreadsheet would be duller than mud for Tom at times. However when it comes to lighting plans it does help to have your very own electrical engineer on hand; especially a patient one. 

I don't pretend to know much about lighting plans. I unfortunately do know what I like and what aesthetic I'm trying achieve in the house. This can be a tad troublesome as I merge wants with price tags.  Here's my want list:

Habitat - Beacon Lighting

• I would like mood lighting so we can watch TV. 
• A pretty pendent light over the dining table (when we get a new one that seats 8 and not 4). 
• A set of lights for over the kitchen bench (either two, three or one light point that combines a three or more lights).
• Downlights under the kitchen benches for task lighting (ok, so that really is Tom's, but it is important and would be cool). 
• Fan lights in ALL bedrooms (air-con will have to wait for more pennies, so fans it is).
• Over mirror lights for the ensuite vanity.
• A good light for the WIR. 
• Lights outside, so that I do not trip over in the dark (and also see any potential intruders and "possibly" whack them!).

So here's the next series of questions: How many lights does it take to light a house? (There's a joke in there somewhere.) To light a room? How big is the room; what aspect does it have? What kind of lights? As with all new builds we are subject to the 80/20 rule. 80% of our house must be lit with energy saving lights, the other 20% can be cheap and nasty halogen lamps (usually the really attractive looking fixtures come with halogen bulbs). 

And then there's the cost. Ours is not a small house. We have 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, combined kitchen, dining and lounge, double garage, hallway, alfresco, porch and backyard. Each of one of these spaces requires lighting of some description. And being energy efficient is not initially cheap. It is a long term commitment. The price you pay today, won't pay off for at least 5 years (or 10 bulbs, which ever comes first). 

Compact Fluro
  Downlight

LED Downlight

So do we go the dearer, pivotable (also known as a gimbal) and prettier LED downlights or do we go the cheaper and okay looking compact fluro? At $200 (inc install) a pop for the LED or $130 (inc install) for the compact, we're a little torn. We need 10. LED globes are $25, but should last about 50,000 hours. CF globes are $10, but will only last 8,000 to 10,000 hours. 

Strangely, as I'm writing this, I've reached some clarity. I've made the decision to go the with the LEDs - they are dearer but will last longer and they also pivot. The LEDs come in square surrounds too. Any one who knows me knows how much I love squares - symmetry is very important to me. Look for this theme in further blogs - or my engagement and wedding rings!

Repeat the above and replace "light" with "fan"! Another headache here and even more so than the lights. What style of fan to install? Do we install fans with lights, with remotes or with switches? Where do we put them to maximise the effect?

We aren't doing air-conditioning for a while, due to current expenses, but we have allowed for it in the plan. We're hoping to get by with the fans, our lovely large windows and stacker door and the amazing Northern aspect and location of our land. We're at the top of the hill and get both coastal and inland breezes. 

We're are pretty much there with our lighting plan. Thankfully we have a few more months before we have to buy the light fixtures, so I can change my mind a few times by then. 

Choosing "STUFF"

Tom and I have decided that will we will build the Longbeach Q2 from Plantation Homes. 

It has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a double lockup garage. The kitchen, dining and lounge open up to an alfresco area that faces north. Our master, has double sinks, large shower that Tom can actually fit under, separate ventilated toilet, and a VERY large walk in robe. The Longbeach is about 2 times the size of our flat. And has storage that we could only dream about. 

I will have not only a walk in pantry with a window, but two linen cupboards!

After 14 house plans, 3 locations and 2 builders, we have a lot more "stuff" still left to choose. 

Door Handles

Building a house is stressful, time consuming, a little daunting, but largely whole lot of fun. You get to pick stuff. And by that we mean everything. From all those door handles you never think about to the kitchen bench tops and facades you'll see everyday. 

When you build you choose the lot. This is your time to pour your heart and soul into the design to make it something great, worthwhile, and to completely avoid comments like "OMG WTF where they thinking?!". 

This is where years of dedication to the Lifestyle Channel, Sarah's House (All Fours Seasons), Design Inc, Backyard Blitz, Better Homes & Gardens and a good four or so magazine subscriptions to interior design mags, will pay off (or so Tom hopes). 

Upon "finalising" our plan and facade selection, we were given a guided tour of the Cosham Interior design studio, to help prepare us for our 3 hour design selection meeting. Our tour was to take approximately 1 hour. We began at 10am. We left the Plantation Homes/ Cosham Interiors design studio at 1:30pm dying for food and drink. We then headed over to Beaumont Tiles for another marathon effort... 3 hours of tile selection. We had selected just about everything. And then we needed to Vote! No, not just on stuff, but the local Mayor. 

Mood Board: Colour Selection Round 1....   (Fight!)

Here's some of our selections:
Walls: Dulux Dieskau

Architraves/skirtings: Gloss White

Carpet Selection

Ceiling: White

Window trim: Pearl White

Internal Doors: Gloss White

Benchtop: Quantum Quartz Polar

Lower cabinets: Licorice Linea

Upper cabinets: Platinum Micro

Splash-back: Land Rover White Gold

Wall Tile: Sector Satin White (200 x 400) Matt finish 

Floor Tile: Lifestyle Charcoal (400 x 400) Matt finish

Timber look flooring: Chocolate Charcoal - didn't actually give me a name, so this will do. 

Carpet: Sandypoint, Gecko (Nylon goodness. Tom assures me I can replace it in 5 years time when the warranty runs out! Then it will be "Bah Bah Black sheep, have you any wool". )

And these are all just finishes - which sink, which tap, which handle, which kick plate, which front door, which garage, which coloured render, which Colorbond roof..... and the "whiches" continue for another two pages.  

Naturally there is a plan to all of this. And a mountain of research as well. Here's a few of our considerations.

Inspiration

We both have dark hair; we have two cats; we hate cleaning. Darker floors it is.

We wanted colours that started dark at the bottom and graduated to  lighter tones on top. It seemed more natural to us.  Much like the sky is darker the closer to the horizon.

We wanted a colour palette that was both traditional and contemporary. After watching many episodes of Sara's House, we both fell in love with a her use of White, Cream, Grey, and Walnut tones. The picture to the left epitomises what we were trying for. I think we came pretty close. 

The pictures above aren't quite crisp enough (iphone in low light) to capture the true colours. I promise we will take better ones when we have our final selections sorted out. 

This weekend we are finalising our lighting design and attempting to put together our landscaping design. Thankfully I married an electrical engineer who did landscaping to get through uni.

Lighting is daunting for me. How do you space everything properly? What size fan do you need to do a kitchen, dining, and lounge room? Will one be enough? Where do you put it so that it doesn't throw your pendant light out of whack? Do you want down lights? Do you want a wall switch or a remote or both? Thankfully Tom is being very patient (yes, even more than usual). Let's see what the Labour Day Public Holiday brings... hopefully consensus. 

"I see LAND Captain!"

Buying land is easy. No, I'm serious. It's really easy. 

You find a block in an area you like, with the right amenities (connections to trains, big shops, local shops, schools, parks, puppy parks etc) and then you find a block and you buy it. You sign up to an REIQ (standard land or pre-existing house&land) contract. Pay some money, get a loan, pay some more money, get a title, settle, pay some more money (that you borrowed) and you're done. That's it. 

If you are like us and found a house plan before you found a block (Chicken??  Egg??), then you may have to go through a few blocks to find one that will fit your house design. We did three. Just like Goldie Locks, we had a try a few before we found one that was "just right". 

We're building in one of the new estates in Brisbane's Far Northern Suburbs, on a block that's about 650 sqm. We are next door to a park, with a beautiful old tree (see our profile pic), jungle gym, and outdoor BBQ area. Here's a picture of our red dirt, white guttering, black road, and retaining wall in the distance. And yes, they are sewer outlets. We have 4 on our block! How lucky are we! Don't worry I found out you can cover them. 

This week that we went unconditional on our land contract. To those of you who haven't bought, that's when the bank tells you they will give you the money you asked for and then you tell the Seller you can REALLY buy their land. Oh and you pay a little bit more money. There's always the little bit more money to pay. 

Now that the land is finalised, we can continue with our second job of looking at house "STUFF". 

The last 6 months...

The last 6 months have been stressful. There's no other way to put it. Entering the housing market has been a very steep learning curve for Tom and me.

We began the journey, as with most things we do, by researching. Realestate.com.au and Domain.com.au became an obsession. Every night, every lunch hour, most waking moments on weekends was spent pouring over websites. We did on average 4 to 8 house inspections each weekend in the hope of securing our dream home.

There's an excellent ad out there for Domain.com.au. It features a bright young couple wanting to put in offer in on a house, only two have two "Wing Bats" in "Matching Boat Shoes" appear out of nowhere and try to swoop in on their house offer.

This was our first experience with the property market. It did not end well. We had found the perfect house. Enough room for everything, a shed, water tank, area for chooks, cute dogs next door, in a really nice neighbourhood, with a lovely kitchen and polished wood floors. We were out gunned.

After a bit of distress on my part, we moved on. The next house was beautiful too. Located in Geebung, near the train line, polished wood floors, great kitchen, but no pantry (??), and car accommodation that would need to be expanded to fit the bus, sorry Magna. There were a few issues, and thus we offer $10k under the asking price. Our offer was rejected. Rejection is not a nice taste to swallow. More distress for both of us this time. Thankfully though no one else made an better offer either and the house was taken off the market.

We moved on.

Next was a "townhome" complex. This was a disaster! Whilst we didn't lose money, and we learnt a great deal, it was not a fun period in our lives. I have one piece of advice for anyone out of our experience here... if it doesn't feel good today, it won't feel good tomorrow. The contract, with it's utter lack of plans and list of inclusions, relied too heavily on the builder being a nice bloke. Too many caveats for our liking and so we bid farewell again.

By now you may be thinking we're being too picky. Surely there's something wrong with them, if they can't find a house in downward market. And you would be right. We are too picky. Sure we could find houses that we liked and we did put in offers. However, a house of us right now it's a 3 year plan. It isn't a 5 year plan. We're looking to stay in this house for the next 10 to 15 years. We've lived in a lot of houses, in a variety of cities. We know exactly what we like. We just couldn't find one that satisfied us both, or when we did we missed out anyway.

And this is where the story really begins. We decided to build. To make our first real home together something that was truly ours, that we truly felt passionate for. It has become our labour of love over last few weeks. We have tried on 14 different plans,  2 building companies and 3 blocks of land. And now we have our perfect fit. It meets my criteria of being close to family, not too far from shops and not too far from either of our jobs. It meets Tom's criteria for enough space to have a vege patch and a garage he can tinker in.

We're building a Long Beach Q2 Plantation Home in Brisbane's Far Northern Suburbs.