Wedding Anniversary

No signs of the Preliminary Plans yet, though I wasn't actually expecting to see them when I was told I would ;) However in other news it's my husband and my Wedding/Handfasting Anniversary today- together for 12 years and married for 5 :)

Also for good measure, my favourite photo of us :D

My Most Recent (and Final Hopefully) Plans

Okay I have finally uploaded a picture of the newest plans- the ones I recently gave to the draftsman so that he can use it to draw up our plans properly:

So as you can see it's very similar to the last ones I drew except without the upstairs and the second living is now a bedroom and mudroom. The circles with an X in them that you can see are where I want lights and I have my bath back in the bedroom. I had thought maybe I shouldn't have it in there and had second guessed myself. However I was rewatching one of my favourite renovation shows the other day and the host said "Makes sense [to have the bath in the bedroom]. After all the main purpose of having a bath is to relax and how can you do that if people may be coming in to relieve themselves." Very true albeit a little gross haha.

The builder also talked to us about making the gable a steep pitch. I didn't think we'd be able to because of building regulations so I had abandoned a steep gable but the draftsman was the one who suggested it so it must be fine. Knowing that it's possible we are now going back to our gothic revival style house idea. We are replacing all the windows anyway now (with double glazed ones) to make sure we meet energy requirements and to counteract our lack of wall insulation, so why not! It won't be heavily gothic though, just have a bit of that Gingerbread House look about it.

We have also made the decision to definitely stick with the weatherboards. It's going to be more expensive but in the end my husband and I just plain prefer real weatherboards. We love historical type homes and weatherboards just look nicer on older style homes, even though vinyl has come along way. I'm also tossing up cladding the bottom concrete part of our house in the stone cladding you can buy. I think it would look nice with the weatherboards. That's something we'd do down the track though- heaps more pressing and expensive things to get out of the way first! Here's a picture of what I mean- even with the same colour exterior and door I want (oh I think I forgot to tell you I'd changed my mind on that too lol):

Plans Finally in Motion

Well the draftsman ended up cancelling that Thursday. I have to say I was getting a bit worried and thought we may have to start looking for a new one. However he came around the next Thursday and took the measurements XD He has told us that he should have some preliminary drawings for us in a week or two so I cannot wait to see them. Basically they will just be to make sure he is drawing what we want and then we can either make some changes or give him the go ahead to draw them up properly for council submission. He's taken my new drawings though and seemed to have a pretty good grasp of what I wanted so hopefully his drawings will be pretty spot on.

Draftsman Update

Just a quick update to say we finally got hold of the Draftsman. He's coming round Thursday evening to take measurements. So exciting to finally be on the way. It's taken so many mind changes and so much time to get to this stage. I'm hoping the rest is smooth sailing but that's unlikely Haha. Now I just have to try and clean the house a bit so that the Draftman can actually get to the walls to take the measurements!!

It's A......

We had our scan the other day and the baby appears very healthy and active. I'm getting lots of kicks now which is lovely (and lots of heartburn which is not!). We also got to find out the baby's gender and....

So that evens things up ;) As you can see I went straight out and started shopping lol. As I've said (I think) we got rid of pretty much all our baby stuff after our daughter was born thinking we were done so we are pretty much starting again. 


Not much to report yet on the House front except that we have simplified our plans so that we don't need a second storey. It does mean the two girls will have to share when the baby stops sleeping in our room. My daughter wants to share a room with someone though so that shouldn't be an issue. She's pretty happy about it at this stage :) The draftsman was supposed to be round by now to take measurements so we have to give him a call tonight. Hopefully this isn't a sign of how things are going to be!! My parents used this guy and recommended him to me though so fingers crossed it all works out.

Draftsman

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

Ground Floor

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:

The Cot is Picked!

I have picked out a cot that I love and we are going to buy it tomorrow when the bank will be open (waiting for my transfer to go through onto my husband's debit card because I don't have a debit or credit card). It's so gorgeous. It's metal which I know I said I loved but had ruled out for being too hard on little heads. However I do love metal cribs and it meets Australian standards so it can't be too bad right?!

Usually I don't buy any baby stuff until after the 20 week scan. I had a miscarriage before my eldest so I am paranoid. I am 12 weeks tomorrow though which is considered pretty safe and I have had a scan to see my baby developing right so I am just going to have to hope nothing goes wrong. I could buy the cot later but it is currently 50% off which means I save $400. Pretty big saving otherwise I'd hold off.

Anyway the cot is the Harry by Incy Interiors:

I love it!