Demolition

CG arranged 3 quotes for us and we independently arranged another 2.  We ended up choosing one of the CG arranged quotes as they were able to also remove a very large tree.  The communication from this company was very average and we were frustrated that we were not able to determine when our demolition was going to occur.  We had all our services abolished within a 2 week time frame but were left waiting for a demolition date.  We had to reschedule our pool dig twice because of this.  After many months of planning we were keen to get to site! In the end we lost a couple of weeks which adds to extra rental costs.  The actual demolition work was excellent however and took approximately 1 week.  We did sell the kitchen oven and dishwasher otherwise left the house intact.  We had extra asbestos located during the demolition which meant increased costs.  Interestingly nothing (timber etc) seemed to get stripped or separated out on site. 

Plans

We decided to customise a Metropol floor plan to suit our needs.  Essentially we liked the Metropol base but we were keen to have storage under the stairs, the laundry off the hallway and a kitchen island bench with access around both sides. Whilst we liked the floating stairs on the standard floor plan, it meant that our rooms upstairs were very narrow down one side.  As it is now, we have plenty of under stair storage which will be very handy.  We were not keen at all on accessing the laundry via the pantry. We have kept an area in front of the laundry sliding cupboards where the ironing board or clotheshorse can be set up and added a heating vent to assist drying.  The biggest change was the kitchen layout where we set back the external wall to allow access straight through to the pantry and to keep a good length island bench.  Also wanted to keep the island free of a sink.  Fridge location was important as we didn't want kids to have go into the pantry to access the fridge.  We are however putting a bar fridge in the pantry.  We made a continuous wall of base cupboards extending into the pantry for a clean look.  We added big windows for the kitchen, pantry, laundry and family room for plenty of natural light.

Upstairs we changed everything! We were set on having the master at the rear for a view over the backyard and pool so that dictated everything else. We also preferred to have 2 big bedrooms for kids with WIR's and built in desks rather than 3 small ones.  We are planning to put a sofa bed in the study for those occasional guest stays. Let's just say that we didn't want to look at the views on our south side boundary so put the bathrooms down that side.  Again lots of big windows added.

The house is sited as per Bayside regulations meaning we have a 3 metre offset down each side boundary.  In hindsight we wished we had known that we could have applied for dispensation and moved the house closer to our south boundary.  We did get dispensations for front setback and garage wall height.  We are having 9 ft ceilings downstairs and 8' 6" upstairs.