Well all excitement here this morning. I was walking out the gate to walk my kids to school and noticed there was something in the letterbox. Turned out the draftsman had dropped off the Preliminary Plans :D I've had a look over them and I am very happy- they are pretty much exactly what I asked for. I only need to talk to him about two small things (he's listed the French doors as aluminium framed and I'd like timber and he appears to have left the window in our current bathroom which I'd like removed as it will become an internal room). I have pictures but you'll have to excuse them as they aren't the best.
So here's a pic of the current house layout (the porch is at the front of the house, it's a bit confusing the perspective he's drawn from):
Then this is the proposed extension (again from the backwards perspective):
And this is the view from the front with the new roof:
The draftsman has said that once we give him approval of the plans he will go ahead and do up the proper ones for council submission. Those he said he should be able to have to us early next week. Eeeeeeekkkk it's getting closer!!!
We had the draftsman come visit us a couple of weeks ago. He ran through a lot of the process with us which was great and gave us a rough estimate (which was several thousand cheaper than the other two places we'd talked to so YAY). I gave him an idea of what we wanted but have since changed it a bit (of course) because I realised I had estimated the size wrong and that it was too big for the block. Here regulations state any undercover areas can only make up 50% of the total land size including verandahs, sheds etc. So now the plan is to extend a bit out the back and then have 3 bedrooms upstairs. We will add the Lounge, WIR and Bed 1 on the ground floor. The upstairs will be above the new extension so that we don't have to worry about doing any extra structural work to the existing house to make it strong enough. The three eldest children will go upstairs and Bed 3 (which is currently our room) will likely become a Playroom. That weird spring in the corner is just how I draw spiral stairs :P
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| Ground Floor |
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| First Floor |
Also I received the cot and we have already set it up. it's in our room at the moment and there's not a lot of room. I am totally in love with the cot though still. Glad it was just as nice in real life:
It's been a little while (okay a long while) since my last post. So much has happened in that time though. The biggest news would be the discovery that we are adding another child to the family. Baby number 4 is on his or her way! It's still early days at the moment so fingers crossed all is well. I have my dating scan on Monday. Sadly my husband couldn't take time off work and as it's near school pick up time i am going to have to take all 3 of the kids with me. Wish me luck with that!!!
In light of this news we have decided not to build from scratch. We had actually decided to sell our house and buy a block and had gone so far as to put in an offer on a block but we pulled out at the last second when we discovered our baby news. Neither of us can bear the thought of building, having a newborn and living with my parents all at once. Instead we are going to extend our current house and change the roof (it has a skillion roof which I do not like!). The extension will just be out back and will extend our kitchen/dining area and add 3 bedrooms and an ensuite.
I am pretty happy with this decision now although it was hard letting go of my dream house at first. I am pretty sure we can make this house my dream home though and retain a small mortgage which will be good given I will be taking leave after the birth.
