Our Little Slab

Well at last we have a slab. The pipes were put in, the trenches dug and suddenly we had:












Then we had he concrete delivered and it looked like this:







As I write this, the frame should be going up. Hopefully I'll have some pics of the frame to add at the weekend. Seems that the concrete trucks blocked the road a bit and caused one of our neighours to blow up. Apparently the guys were all revved up and ready to have a go at her but their supervisor kept them in check. Phew!

Earthworks done

Well the first week is up and we have our earthworks. We will be getting a bobcat in to make the slopes at the edges of the fill much smoother and more flowing.

It is intresting to see the land before the trees are removed in summer and after the trees are removed in early winter. Finally after the earthworks, in the middle of winter after some rain. It certainly looks bare now but that will change once we move in and are able to start planting.

Here are the pics:

It looks like the boys approve, plenty of space to kick a footy:).

Some drawings and plans of our new home

I thought we should put up some plans and drawings so people can get an idea about what we are planning to build. (Please excuse the slightly skew drawings, my original scan was not quite right and then I snipped it out of a pdf so a bit messy). The master bedroom and stdy got a bit bigger than planned thanks to councils requirements - anyway I guess it will be nice to have the extra space. We spent a lot of time modifying the BIR's between the master suite and the pc room - the master suite had a half hearted WIR and the pc room was much smaller without and robe of any sort.

We have really tried to minimise the number of trees that we have to remove. The hashed trees are now gone and it looks a bit bare. I will post a few more up to date photos soon.

Our Previous House

At the moment we are right on the verge of getting our start date, could be today, could be another week. In the mean time, I have decieded to post some pics of the previous house we built. Every home we build we try to make special in some way. This previous house was built in The Vines in Perth and was created from a very rough and harsh looking 1 acre bush block. Everything was carefully designed, planned and chosen by us to try to bring out the best features of the land.

There is 11 pictures here and I hope they give you some idea about what we set out to achieve.

Our Land

As mentioned before, our land is just under half an acre in the Dandenong Ranges. To us, this is one of the most beautiful areas of Australia and it is an absoloute pleasure to visit. The whole area is covered with a mature gum tree forest and lots of tree ferns.

We have great facilities too. There is a corner shop a comfortable walk away and a good primary school a few minutes further. A very short drive away is an indoor swimming pool and park with a stream and sports fields. These is also a shopping strip in Monbulk, just a little further on from the pool with a Safeway (Woolworths) supermarket, several banks. post office etc etc. The 8 minute drive to Belgrave shops also allows for a 55 minute train journey to the city.

Our road is a cul-de-sac thanks to a firegate at one end. It is a dirt road and doesn't see too many tourists (mostly those wo have got lost or were trying to find a shortcut). We are in a low frost, low fog area but still get enough cool weather to justify a cosy fire in winter. We have some great views across the valley to the other part of the mountain.

Welcome

This is our first blog and is a work in progress.

This blog is about our experiences building our new house.


We are going to be building our house in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne. The house we have chosen is by Formula Homes (http://www.formulahomes.com.au) and is called the Vista. Due to Council requirements, we have changed the front fascade to the Victorian Heritage style and have made a few other minor changes (Such as not having the garage).

Our land is a gently sloping ~1650sqm block that was split off from an established home. It is a basic regular rectangular shape with one corner cut off to allow for the neighbours existing driveway. It is heavily treed and quite a magical place to be. We aim to preserve as much of it's charm as possible.