My Porter Davis Build Blog

My main criteria for the internal wall paint is that I don't want it to be too creamy / yellowish because my previous house was a creamy white and all my indoor photos needed to be white balanced properly with post processing. There are so many whites to choose from though and after a while most of the different shades of off white start to look the same. Lucky for me, Dulux has a most popular awards brochure The most popular colour is Antique White USA ... "It’s a perfect “ivory” – not pure white or cream, but somewhere in-between!" Sounds perfect enough for me! After googling a bit about this special Antique White USA, it is indeed pretty popular. Apparently the 'architect tip' is to do normal Antique White USA for the walls, double or triple strength gloss for the doors and trimmings, and 1/4 strength for the ceilings. This is what I'll be following, except I will probably do normal Ceiling White so I don't have to go mixing it and hoping Bunnings ...

These are the façade choices.. so difficult when you need to visualise how it would look with your brick and colour combo... Retro: This one comes 'free'. Love the full wrap around windows to the upstairs rumpus. Manhattan: $2400. The rumpus is extended further out over the front porch so there's more internal living space. Wish I could change for the full length of windows like the retro but I've been told windows can't be changed in the façades ... Chatsworth: $9400. Even though I know I won't use a balcony I do think it makes the house look more 'grand' and improves resale value. Having those big columns adds more shape to the house too. Stirling: $9900. This is the best looking pic by far. However, I don't think it lends itself well with brick and I am not a big fan of render. Also, the difference between this and the Chatsworth is that the columns / porch area don't look like they are centered. I like the chatsworth porch mo...

Hoffman 39 - Manhattan Love the inbuilt shelving under the bench and large stone waterfall on the side Ashgrove 29 - Boston  Love the essa stone around the corner so toddlers don't bump their heads on the bench corner sticking out. Raised floor also a good idea. Randwick 24 - Milan Love the feature opening pattern on the wall. Open overhead cabinets also good. Hoffman 29 - Postsea Beach House I hope Hopetoun can build custom cabinets under the bench. I am thinking wine cabinets... Randwick 24 - French Industrial This is my preferred colour scheme. Grey splashback. White cabinets.White essa stone. Open over head cabinets. Greyish Floorboards. Need to ask Hopetoun for exact colours.  Sandringham 45 - New York Nice antique looking floorboards. Slide out cabinets for the sauces: http://www.aspicyperspective.com/2013/04/kitchen-makeover-day-2-my-cabinetry.html (Houzz) From a Metricon brochure: Different way to do an...

This is a good site to visualise where the sun will shine into the house. Just pick a date and move the slider to see where the sun will be during different times of the day! http://suncalc.net/#/-37.8141,144.9633,16/2013.11.15/19:56 Some general guidelines... It's good to have living areas to face north as this side has the most sunlight throughout the year Bedrooms should be on the south side as this is coolest and the morning light won't wake you up The west sun can be blinding when it is setting. Make sure you have least windows, big eaves, or blockers. 

We started looking at home designs a couple of years ago, on and off. Given our budget, we were pretty much constrained to the volume builders to get the most bang for buck in terms of price per sqm. The house we like the most was the Monarch 58. Base price was around $500k. A bit pricey so we probably would have settled for the 52sq version. We liked the grand feel, the open space, and the Asian friendly / Feng Shui conscious stair orientation. (ie. not directly facing the front entrance. I have no idea why so many volume builders do not design with Feng Shui in mind. the facade the floorplan The thing with Metricon, though was all the negative reviews they have on the internet. I am told that all volume builders are the same as they just outsource their trade work and it is just pot luck with which tradies you get and how good your site supervisor is. Ultimately, the one thing that I could not bring myself to committing with Metricon was the face that they do not ...