Dream House - Weeks 27-29

We have hit the exciting stage of the house build now - everything is really coming together. It such a relief once you start to see things that you have chosen and designed start to take shape

In the last few weeks the house has been fully rendered  - has made such a difference.  This is the first step, colour is still to go on.

We still need to finalise our colour - we have a pick of three. Going to wait until the posts and windows have been painted and then make a decision.  Windows will be in Dulux Vivid White, Posts and weatherboards detailing in Dulux Shale Grey ( same as roof) and doors ( front and studio ) in Dulux Black Cavier. The render colours appear to be quite dark but when painted on the house they are so much lighter.

I used the services of Angie from Stylish Livable Spaces.  She was fabulous to work with and I am loving how it is all coming together now

Dulux Cashmere

Dulux Mangaweka

Dulux Manaweka

Dulux Black Cavier

The kitchen, bathroom and laundry joinery was also installed this week.  I have been so excited to see it all go in.  I have worked with a fabulous kitchen designer - he has been amazing to work with and the end result is stunning. All joinery features shaker style doors and beautiful handles from Mother Pearl & Sons in Richmond Melbourne.  Looking forward to seeing it all finished but here are some images while they were being installed this week

My stunning dream kitchen - totally in love with it and so glad I followed my heart and went for the darker island bench - it will be seriously heartstopping. Stone benchtops, stunning Carrara Goia marble splashback, my gorgeous lights plus plaster cornice etc still to be installed. You almost shed a few happy tears seeing something that you have designed and agonised over for over 18 months come together -  hubby and I are so proud of our vision for this house - its going to be beautiful and such a lovely home to live in

Next week our floor to ceiling fireplace with wood heater gets tiled in a French Pattern travertine plus bathrooms start to get tiled.  Carpenters are still busy braving the cold Melbourne weather building the back al fresco and finishing skirting boards, doors, plaster cornice, flooring etc

Boys bathroom - our ensuite is the same but double the size. Haven't been able to get a photo of the ensuite as it has no natural light until the leadlight window gets installed next month

Butlers Pantry - over 4 metres long and the other side features a sink and more cabinetry. Will be tiled next week with white subway tiles. Our flooring is Tasmanian Oak

Gorgeous handles from Mother Pearl & Sons

Laundry cabinetry

Landscaping

When we bought this block due to it's large size of over 2000 square metres ( or half an acre) we knew landscaping it would be a huge and most likely expensive job.  

We decided to hire a local landscaper just to plan a design that we could refer back on so we could then complete all sections at our own pace.  Really happy with how the plan turned out - the front of the house will be quite formal with retaining walls, ornamental pear trees, grasses, box hedges, camellias, gardenias etc while the back will be a little more free flowing with large grassed areas, hedging, vegie patch etc We are going to concentrate on completing the front first and then do our back garden in stages over the next few years

Some of my inspiration came from these images and this house has similar colours like ours 

Very similar colour scheme although our house will have black doors not the blue

Have plans to spray paint all of our fences in a dark colour - I love the contrast it bring with the greenery in front - will be a big job!

We will use a similar stacking retaining wall stone that runs across the front of the cut out

Had thoughts on a gate similar to above with a stone pillar on one side - this gate goes into our second driveway.  We may start with standard farm gates first ( will spray paint black for a quick facelift) until we can afford something more substantial 

Our landscape plan