[almost] Construction Commencement

Today we checked Masterton's 'Pathway' online application. The 'milestone' called 'Construction Commencement' is now active. The previous 'milestone' was called 'Construction Planning' (now greyed-out), is where Masterton finalise the construction plans, order all of the items required for the house, send out copies of all the plans to the suppliers and send a construction pack to the Site Manager (Mark).

So, it's getting very exciting now. Tarin drove past the block after work and found that nothing has happened up there yet. So Mark must be still figuring stuff out.

We are all very excited that we are one step closer to seeing our home start - Yippppeeeeee

Hugs to all...

Goodbye, Farewell (To Wendy Our Pre-Construction Co-ordinator)

Yesterday we had an email and a call from Wendy who is/was our Pre-Construction Co-ordinator at Masterton Homes.

Wendy called to let us know that she had passed our file on to the Constructon Planning and Programming department. She said that it was a sad day for her as she had to pass our file on and that she had a tear in her eye. I must say we will really miss dealing with Wendy - she is the greatest and has a great sense of humour (well, she needs to when dealing with me)!

Wendy has been wonderful to us as she has been there for all of our ups and downs during the planning phase. Wendy never hessitated once when we called her with a problem or a question. She made this part of the building process such a breeze, which we thought was going to be very stressful. We have been through this part of the process a few times with other builders and it was not easy, with Masterton it was a snack!

So, now we are really moving, it's all so exciting and we just have to say again Masterton is doing a WONDERFUL job.

We are off to Sydney today to take the whole family up to see the display home in Kellyville. Everyone is so excited. They are all so excited about going to Sydney (but that is probably due to the fact that the place we are staying at (in Parklea) has a swimming pool ;-)

More updates later...

FINALLY - We Have Signed The Building Agreement

Yesterday we signed the long awaited contracts, they weren't even in our hot hands for 2 hours and they were back off to Masterton Homes in Sydney, signed, sealed and hopefully delivered today (Thursday, 6th November). We are waiting for Maddie (Contracts) to give us a yell to say they have arrived back to Masterton Homes.

John and I are so relieved that we are at this stage as it means in about a month our brand new 2 storey house should begin construction.

Last weekend we met Mark (who will be our project manager for the build). He's a really down to earth, cool bloke and we are really happy that he will be guiding us through it and building our dream home.

Yesterday we went and bought some sample pots of our paints that we will be using around the house. We were so pleased to find the colour choice for the kitchen doors is not purple (like we thought, but we knew we weren't that silly) :-D.

Here they are, see pic below:
Left is 'Chambray' (by Taubmans paints) - this will be painted on the render on the front of the house
Middle is 'Ocean Pebble' by (Taubmans Paints) - this will be for the walls (low sheen) and for the doors and door frames (high gloss)
Right is 'Echidna' (by Bristol paints) - this is the colour of our Kitchen Doors, and it will be in a high gloss.

We have also put together a document with all of the inclusions that will be included in our beautiful home so here it is click on this link to have a look at all the goodies:
http://www.scribd.com/share/upload/5017005/1ogeun5zdsydk49hi4m


YELLOW CREEK ESTATE UPDATE:
The estate is starting to fill up with new houses (mainly Masterton Homes, of course). We love going up there now and seeing the new additions to the places being built. We often see our Project Manager Mark up there and stop to say Hi. Mark is amazing, he even hooks in and gets into the building himself, last weekend he was putting up frames and trusses with the rest of the team (I have never known a PM to do this, the ones I have had before don't like to get their hands dirty).
It's all so exciting! I think by time we are ready to move in it will be a busy time for the street 'cause we will all be moving in around the same time. The kids are looking foward to it as well as they will be able to play outside, ride their bikes and have a heap of kids to play with. This is something they didn't really have at the old house back in Canberra.

Keep an eye out for updates...things are really moving now...

Picture (above) is a two-storey Kingston (with Prestige facade).

Picture (right) is our neighbour (on left side) - the design is Doncaster (Classic facade).