Trying to decide on a brick

It was time to choose a brick so headed on out to PGH to take a look at our brick options. I felt sorry for the kids, they hate being dragged around doing "unfun stuff"!

We want a brown coloured brick. Something warm, chocolatey (mmmm). Needless to say, that before we choose a brick, I am sure we will change our minds a dozen times.

There are so many beautiful bricks colours but we soon realise that they (all of the bricks we really like) are not in the standard range.

Standard brick choices are:-

The Summervilla Collection

• Vanilla
• Pearl Grey
• Mocha

The Alfresco Collection

• Chocolatto 
• Vino
• Expresso
• Sorbetto

I think there are some more but as they didn't appeal to us, we didn't pay attention to them (sorry).

Pearl Grey

Mocha

Vanilla

To assist us in making a decision, we obtained a list containing addresses from PGH for a number of brick colours we were tossing around.  Over the next few weekends we drove around The Ponds, Castle Hill & Bunya to view houses already built.

We were finding it extremely difficult to agree on a brick. We went from wanting a brown brick to a light brick, back to a brown brick, a darker brick, our procrastination was endless.

At first we thought we would select a brick in the standard range. We were originally going to go with Chocolatto until my friend, whom works for PGH, advised us against it due to it being a slurry (or painted) brick.  Therefore, we were swaying towards Mocha or perhaps Gravel (we agreed we would pay a little extra to upgrade).

House built using Gravel Bricks

Smoke

Nutmeg

House built using Smoke & Nutmeg

Loam 

House built using Loam

We tossed around the prospect of a smooth faced brick like Smoke (light) or Nutmeg (dark) but changed our minds because of the idea that many new schools and electricity substations use these two bricks, and in time, the brick seems to crack. I liked Loam but J didn't so that was out.  I liked Mild Steel, although a little lighter than we wanted, I really liked the texture of the brick, but J wasn't sold on this one either. J liked Blue Steel Flash but I wasn't fussed on the blue/grey tones, but then we discovered Nickel Flash. It had reddish brown tones and a really nice texture. We obtained the address of a house and took a drive out to see it. Believe it or not, we both agreed that this could be the one!

Nickel Flash was a category D (I think) upgrade. We decided that it was worth paying extra for as it would be the first thing you would see every time you drove into your driveway.

Nickel Flash

Our minds were made up....

Until they weren't :(

A bit of bad news...followed by some good news

In July Eden Brae held a information evening at the Home Option Gallery for people interested in building. We thought we would attend to enable us to gather some insight into what to expect when building. It was an interesting evening, but we realised it was not really that relevant to us as we had already started the journey. It was only after the presentation when we were speaking to a couple of the EBH sales reps that we found out the land was now expected to register around July 2013, and not March as previously advised. Now, this was a bit of a blow for us.  We were still living with my husband's mother and we were fairly certain we were starting to outstay our welcome.

The 3rd August came around fairly quickly and it was time for our tender presentation with Charles DeMarco.  Everything went well and Charles made things a little better by telling us that registration was likely to be in May with construction likely to commence in July 2013.  This was good news for us.

We went home feeling a little more positive than we had been when we arrived.

Good times ahead....or so we thought.

Eden Grange

It was only a month later that J stumbled across house and land packages by Eden Brae Homes on Realestate.com.au.  Prices for land seemed very reasonable so we took a drive out to the sales office on site to take a look at the master plan for "Eden Grange".  It was a quiet area, somewhat rural and old but with a lot of potential and definitely a place we could imagine raising our children in, so we headed down to Homeworld at Kellyville to take a look at the display homes and find out a little more information on the proposed development.

We spoke with Gaven, whom told us that the land was expecting to register in January 2013, with construction to commence approximately 2 months later (March 2013). He advised that we could choose any style of house, you weren't locked into the advertised house on each particular block. So we took a look through the homes that they have on display. We entered the Drysdale and instantly fell in love with it. We loved the floor plan and I particularly liked the gallery kitchen. I am a firm believer that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and the Drysdale's kitchen is right in the centre of the house. It was perfect. 

To cut a long story short, Gaven provided us with a fixed price package, taking advantage of $1 promotions at the time.  On the 3rd July 2012 we put down our deposit on the house and land package with EBH. This time we knew we had made the right decision.