Our first visit to the construction site

Monday 23 June 2014

Well we reached another milestone today! We met the McDonald Jones Homes' Site Supervisor on site this morning to visit and inspect the site. We were very pleased. It was a brilliant decision to raise the height of the ceilings to the maximum permitted height of 2.70 metres (about 8 feet 10 inches) and to raise the height of the doors to 2340mm (about 7 feet 8 inches). When combined with the uniform light-coloured wall paint that we've selected throughout the home (Taubmans' Tombstone - which, thankfully, is much nicer than its name suggests), the overall dimensions of the home should look deceiving and much bigger. The Douglas 10M is a compact but perfectly-sized home for just the 2 of us and it will adequately suit our needs. The Master Suite has 2 x Walk-In-Robes and Bedroom 2 and Bedroom 3 each have built-in wardrobes. In addition, there is a spacious-sized Pantry in the Kitchen next to the refrigerator alcove.

All being well, the Site Supervisor anticipates the brick-laying should be finished by the end of next week (circa Friday 4 July 2014). We're concerned about the severe winter weather that is forecast to now be heading our way tomorrow. Strong, gusty, damaging, north-westerly winds of up to 80km per hour (up to 50 miles per hour) with occasional gusts of up to 100+km per hour (62+ miles per hour) are forecast for the Sydney region. In Melbourne today, a builder was killed on the job when a brick wall fell and crushed him during similar winds in Victoria. Strong winds and a big dumping of snow are currently hitting the high country in the Snowy Mountains region of southern New South Wales and north-eastern Victoria. Winter is reminding us that it's here after all. It was a bleak, brisk, 17⁰C (62.6⁰F) here for most of today after the earlier morning sunshine disappeared.

A summary of the overall home dimensions

Dimensions quoted in metres (m).

Home width:	8.45m
Home length:	21.21m
Width of block of land:	12m
Depth of block of land:	49.5m
Size of block of land in square metres:	594m²
Internal Ceiling Height (raised to):	2.70m
Height of doors (raised to):	2.34m

Room Dimensions

Open-plan Family & Dining rooms:	4.4m x 6.6m
Master Suite:	4.1m x 3.6m
Bedroom 2:	2.9m x 2.9m
Bedroom 3:	2.9m x 2.9m
Home Theatre room:	4.1m x 3.5m
Single Car Garage:	3.0m x 5.5m
Alfresco Cabana:	3.0m x 3.9m

Here’s a copy of the floor plan for the Douglas 10M with Chase façade.

(Click on floor plan to view enlarged image)

Here's some photos that Pete and I took during our first visit to the site this morning.

The photos below show the Alfresco Cabana area and Master Suite at the rear (northern aspect) of the house.

On the floor plan, the adjoining wall onto the Master Suite is a brick wall. At our request, McDonald Jones Homes agreed to install double-glazed glass sliding doors on that wall in addition to the double-glazed glass sliding doors that open from the open plan Family/Lounge area. We also liked the bi-fold, glass, Café-like doors. Although they look great, they're just not durable and practical for us, so we agreed to have the sliding glass doors instead.

(Click on photos to view enlarged images)

The photo below was taken from the Alfresco Cabana area at the rear of the house looking into the home.

The photo below shows the open plan Dining/Meals area with double-glazed sliding windows

The photos below show the open plan Kitchen area

The photo below shows the view from the Kitchen looking diagonally across the open plan Family/Lounge area (with 2 x double-glazed awning windows) and the Alfresco Cabana area

The photo below shows the Master Suite at the rear (northern aspect) of the house with 2 x double-glazed awning windows

The photo below shows the view from the Master Suite looking back towards the front of the house

The photo below shows the Home Theatre Room with small double-glazed sliding glass windows

The photo below shows the internal entry point from the Garage (we're going to need about 3 steps there plus a landing).

The photos below show Bedroom 2 at the front of the house with its distinctive awning windows. The window panels at the top and bottom are fixtures and do not open. The 2 middle windows in each bank of windows open out like awning windows.