The kitchen. What we'll get, and what he'll do to it.

Stephen has drawn up a kitchen for us.
The original plan (what Eden Brae will be giving us [I can't believe I just typed 'giving'] minus the appliances), it has cupboards, cutlery drawers and a void for the dishwasher. We will not have a pantry door, and they'll leave a tall panel over near the fridge (!?). 20mm waterfall ends:

and this is what Stephen has put together. Overhead electric Blum aventos cupboards, soft-close pot drawers, strip lighting under the overhead cupboards. On the island bench we'll have cutlery drawers to the left, bin built into the section under the sink (looks like drawers for consistency). He'll have to put in a bi-fold pantry door as well.

Wardrobe designs, niches and more plants!

Since we don't have much going on at this end, how about I cover a few odds and ends.

Shower Niches. EBH do them at 27cm high, but that's 27cm between the frames, then add gyprock, waterproofing stuff, tiles etc, and you've lost a few centimetres. If you are still around pcv stage, ask to get them increased to 30cm or so or you might have to get down to Howards Storage World and pick up a pump pack. Boo to that. If you can ensure your jumbo shampoo can fit in the wall, DO IT! 

New estates. If they have town meetings, go check them out! We aren't registered yet but we went to one last Tuesday night. Very informative! It's nice to know the good and bad about the development, and I thought it was nice just to see what kind of people make up the community.

Gardens. Today we bought our front yard trees. These little guys are sitting pretty (cold and wet) in the backyard. We'll get a couple of bigger pots and encourage them to grow. Flower Power have another sale on this weekend, 10-50% off, ends tomorrow. I've been googling nurseries and tubestock suppliers this morning and found a few places up near Dural. Downes Nursery has some really amazing prices if you want more established plants (by that I mean a 20mm pot). They are in Theresa Park. Looks like they have a massive supply and range. If we get our plants from there I will no doubt mention it. The difference in price is almost half the price you'd pay somewhere like flower power. It adds up if you need to buy 30 of the same plant!!

Stephen has drawn up some wardrobes for us. They should serve us well. Things could change, but I'm happy!

My wardrobe - where the Drysdale study is usually found. The drawer on the left will be for shoes. Inside that drawer will be a moveable shelf, so effectively I will have two shelves of shoes and two rows on each. I doubt I have that many shoes.We measured my longest clothes and there's plenty of room for those. On the right hand side there's a wonky angle so furthest away will be a triangular shelving unit. Perfumes, knick knacks, my hairdryer/straightener will live in here. We're also having a powerpoint installed so the heater won't get in the way. I am a wuss when it comes to the cold, and I never put things away haha, so we have tried to create the wardrobe based on my weaknesses!

To the right of the triangular shelves is a tall, narrow 'void'. This is where we'll put a belt rack, which can be pulled out to view the belts. On the right hand side are a few deeper drawers for jumpers, and the crucial undie, bra and sock drawers. I'd like to do the drawers in a colour (shadow wood by Amerind), but the shelving will be white.

Stephens wardrobe is next.This is the one that you get to from the ensuite. On the left will be a mirrored cupboard with shoes behind it. Next are a few deeper drawers (socks and undies!) and additional hanging space. The chunky drawers at the bottom will house his jumpers and on the right is a tall cupboard for more hanging. At the top of the wardrobe we needed to add a highlight mirror due to being on a corner block and needing to 'prettify' our secondary facade. I think we pretty much decided what we want to do with the kitchen now too...but I have no images for that :)

Gardens (aka "How to get your landscaping rebate") 101

As I mentioned in the previous post, we have had our landscape plans approved. Because we are spending enough money already, we're looking at buying a lot of these plants from nurseries. Buy them young, grow them up a bit while we wait for things to happen, and fingers-crossed-we-dont-kill-them-over-winter, they'll be ready to go when we are ready to move in.

For anyone who cares, here's what we've got in the backyard :)

L-R:
Lomandra Tanika  - already purchased!

Forest Flame Lilly Pilly (3)

Tristaniopsis Laurina Luscious (2)

To be honest, rather than the Tristaniopsis below, I would much rather a couple of (large) Grevillea. We'll see how we go. These grow to 7-12m tall.

In the front yard it feels like there will be more plants than grass!

These are our plants:

L-R
Lomandra Tanika (x 25)

Forest Flame Lilly Pilly (x 5)

Liriope Muscari Joy Mist (x 33)

L-R
Murraya (31 - 36)

NZ Flax (5)
LOWER L-R:
Weeping Lilly Pilly (2) (these will be the two trees on the corner. 8-10m each. We'll prune them at the bottom so they look more like the trees you drew as a child)

NZ Rock Lily (12)

Plus the streetscape trees and shrubs AND whatever we choose to put along the side of the secondary facade. The head is spinning! Plus side: it'll look good and we might get some spare change out of the rebate...to put towards the fence we need to get.

Oran Park Approval!

Three weeks ago our plans were forwarded to the UrbanGrowth (read "Oran Park / Landcom") team to approve our landscape and house design. On Friday around lunchtime, we received an email from EB to tell us Landcom have given us the 'ok'! (Next step I think is, once land is registered the plans go to Council?). They have requested we add a few more plants (see plans below) and recommended (not a requirement) we wrap the cladding feature around the side to the highlight window. I'm ok with the planting, but there won't be any additional cladding if it will cost us any further money.

Stephen has also been busy drawing up pantry plans as we're just getting the walls and tiles, no shelves or anything. Right now the plan is:

• Stone benchtop.
• Soft close (blum) drawers at the bottom (x 8).
• Adjustable shelving up top.
• Microwave to sit on bench to the right, just inside pantry door. Originally I wasn't fussed on the idea of a microwave being in the pantry, but since we have so much space it makes sense and will keep the kitchen area tidier. We had considered putting the microwave in the island bench, but I think about things like if we have kids and they feel like microwaving a fork or a wet pet.

The next photo will show you how basic the kitchen will be before handover. There will be no appliances, splashback or overhead cupboards. As you can see with the drawing above, the other half will design and install the kitchen, we're looking at including the following:

• Remove cupboards, doors, and replace with pot drawers.
• Install overhead cupboards and bulkheads
• Install appliances and splashback
• Install LED strip lighting for effect under overhead cupboards and breakfast bar.
• Install overhead cupboards as Aventos servo-drive. I don't care, as long as it looks pretty.
• I can't remember if he is making the pantry door, or if it's an EBH one? I think that might be an EBH thing, though our wardrobe doors and shelving will be built and installed by him.
• Pull-out bin installed under island bench.