Insult and injury

Friday 2 weeks ago Blue Mountains City Council sent a big fat yellow envelope with a big pile of pages explaining that our DA had been approved. Nothing had to be changed finishes as specified. So no problem. My excitement was a little subdued. Knowing that the possibility of actually building the house was reducing daily. Last Friday a large envelope came from council. looked remarkably like the previous one. the contents were identical. I suspect they must have been exceedingly approving to send it twice. My excitement was noticeably more subdued the second time around. This Tuesday I had the rare honor of having myself sacked along with all my other staff.
No having a job and with Anita knocked up with number 3 and having been the director of a failed company, I get the overwhelming sense that I may not be as attractive to a bank lender as I once was.

Such is life.

Just to add insult to injury I didn't win the 80,000,000 power ball.

neighborly politics

Here is another pretty Murcutt picture to look at.

The neighbors had a slight concern re the DA. He was worried that the step on the deck would allow a view over the fence into there back yard and he had been advised by an architect friend to write a letter to the council. yeah good luck with that. And when we don't go ahead with the building I can tell him it was all his fault. yes?

Now What?

Well in a way this little adventure has come to a bit of a sad demise. The plans are in council; one of the neighbors said to Anita yesterday that they had received the letter from council informing them of a development application. The Architect has been paid; So we are pretty much done with him for now. The plans look brilliant; Anita and I are both very happy with the outcome and think that we will absolutely love the new house. So where is the sad demise part? well early estimates put the build cost at around $100,000 over our original budget. While this comes as no surprise its still sad. But even that is not an insurmountable problem. However there is a very strong possibility that within 6 weeks I wont have a job anymore. My company has finally succumbed to the pressure of the WWFC and is dying a timely death. While this is not a definite at this stage and we are still giving our best effort to trade out of the mess, some things in life are just enevitable. So with out a Job a new house could be a little hard to afford. Yes I know thta there are other jobs in the ocean, But having started a new job recently never looks good on a mortgage application. However being unemployed would give me the time to do some building myself.. Hmmmmmm.

P.S. I am going to see the Glenn Murcut exabition on at the museum at the moment. Murcut will be giving a presentation himself so should be interesting.

and we have a winner

Eureka he said. Eureka! I think I have it. It took a stay in a holiday house to finally sort it out but I tend to agree with him I think this is it. The blade walls are a bit of a different thing but they are starting to grow on me. all we need to do now is decide on what the brick walls are going to look like. Face brick? concrete block? bagged? rendered? Tilt slab? Hmmm tilt slab. that would have to be cheaper than brick surely. ( note the cost saving train of thought there) Now that we have a design I think cost saving is going to be the next focus.
So here is the final version of the floor plan and front elevation. note the considerably larger garage.

Here is another pretty Murcutt picture for you to partake of

I would so live in this house.
One important feature to take in on this house is the detail to the barges, as in there aren't any. This is one detail that we are working on incorporating into the plan. Of course something so simple will no doubt be very expensive

Could it all be as simple as just ply???

So we had a meeting with the artichoke last night and left with our heads spinning. In the 1:15 we were sitting in his office he had pretty much thrown out the work we were there to see and redrawn it. All because Anita said "I don't like the bricks" and after calling one of his other designs a "bit to American" he was much subdued and set about altering. walls have moved a bit this way and that, ( I cant show you cause they are in the bin remember) some rooms are a little larger now including the garage WOOHOO!!! we may need to turn a corner to walk into the hall but apart from that its still basically the same house. We did however seem to fall into the trap of letting function follow form which is a bit disappointing but I'm over it now.
We left him pondering and with our heads whizzing we set off for dinner.
This morning I was bombarded with email from the architect brochures and drawings and unfortunately a progress claim but here is a new front elevation to marvel at :p

and the votes are in...

After unprecedented response to a wide spread opinion gathering mission, the overwhelming response was, Snore......

However The exciting news today is that the artichoke has requested a meeting with us. That's right folks He rang me and asked to meet. I think this means he has something exciting to show us. It is also a land mark step in his ability to instigate some communication. I'm so excited. Its gets a bit dull when you are the one trying to initiate all the time and you get knock back after knock back.... Sorry where was I ?

Ok So I am having to come to terms with the idea That I may be the only one who thinks used gal and rusty steel make good exterior cladding.. c'mon theres gota be someone out there that thinks its nice.... So that means we are going to be restricted to colourbond colours I am guessing. But do we go for the two tone effect ie. different colour on the walls to the roof? or will that just not look right? and can i remind every one that this house is suposed to be looking murcuttesk in its styling.