Landscaping - Part 2

So as I mentioned in Landscaping - Part 1, we used Example 1 provided by Eco Design and told them the changes we wanted.
Mainly we wanted some shrubbery against the back wall so the backyard didn't look so plain, and a path from the driveway all the way to the backyard to make it easier to move things like bins from the back to front of the house easily.
We initially were thinking stepping stones and pebbles for the side paths of the house, but we'd need to deal with weeds and it would be difficult to move things from back to front.

Landscape Plan 1

We are pretty happy with the plant choices they made for us, however there were some changes with positioning that needed to be made.
I didn't want the tree at the front so close to the driveway after bad experiences in the past where the roots damaged the driveway and cost a fair bit to fix up, so we moved it to the right side of the frontyard.
We ended up removing some of the shrubs from the very front of the yard, make it a little more open instead of being so closed off, and extended the shrubs at the back all the way from one side of the fence to the other, as well as putting a few of the smaller ones infront of the tree.
As we removed the watertank (forgot to provide the amended floorplans to Eco Design), we instead made the pathway go around the corner and finish near the AC unit so we could store the bins there instead of along the side (we removed the side door from the garage to give us more room for storage along the wall)

Amended Landscaping Plan

We are a lot happier with the changes made, we hope to spend around $12,000 for our landscaping needs, as we knew doing the concrete paths along the side of the house would be around $5,000 - $6,000.

Outback Landscaping & Paving are doing our driveway already through Eden Brae, so we decided to go with them to do the paths. After looking at other peoples driveways, we ended up deciding on doing a stencil border around our driveway, costing us $525 (exc GST).
They showed us what stencils they have available, and selected "Edge Brick Header 225 x 105mm"

The path on the left hand side of the house (with the bins section) is $2,700 (exc GST), while the side on the right hand side of the house (next to the alfresco) is $2,160 (exc GST). The total for all this lovely concrete and stenciling is $5,923.50 (with GST).

Landscaping - Part 1

We were contacted a few weeks ago by Gavin from Eco Designs in regards to our landscaping design.
The first phase is to discuss what we want and have it drawn up for counsel approval, then we move onto pricing and any smaller details we missed.

It costs $800 to do basic plans through Eco Design - its rather pricy but landscaping is not something we know anything about, so far our experience with Gavin has been positive and helpful learning experience.
They offer sit down appointments and other packages to discuss and draw your landscaping plan, this might be useful for some people:

Landscaping Design options through Eco Designs & Eden Brae

Gavin told us on average the price of landscaping can be anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on the design and features you want included. We are after something rather basic and easy to maintain, so we are hoping to be on the lower end of the spectrum.
The part we think that will cost us the most will be adding concrete paths to either side of the house. We'll be contacting Outback Landscaping & Paving to see if we can have this match our driveway and the predicted costs involved before making a decision.

We were providing with 3 example plans with plant details after our initial phone-call discussing what they can do for us and the process involved. These are the 3 examples:

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

We used Example 1 as our base for our plan as it was the most simplest, currently still working on it so I will post the different variations in another post once we receive approval for our plan :)

Floor Plans

This is our final floor plan we had decided on and drawn up ourselves to take with us when talking to Eden Brae.

Original plans (left) and our drawn final house floor plans (right)

Changes made:

• Storage Space: we wanted to make sure we had ample storage space, so we added storage in the garage, hallway and will be added to the laundry (not added in tender, has to be added during our kitchen/bathroom appointments).
• Dining/Living Area: one of the biggest problems we had with viewing homes was the dining and living area were always separate from each other - no one wants to watch TV while having dinner on a weird angle. So we flipped the kitchen, Landry and dining area.
• Kitchen: I've always wanted a big kitchen and WIP, so we removed the study area (converting bedroom 3 to our computer room), extended the kitchen and moved the WIP to where the study was.
• Main Bedroom: personally I don't like having the bedroom right next to the front door, and we don't really need a home theatre room, so we flipped these 2 rooms around so the home theatre space can become a formal lounge area or just an entrance room.
• Power Room: added a sink to the toilet room to make it more practical - if someone is having a shower, you don't have to walk to the kitchen to wash your hands.
• Doors: we removed the doors from the laundry and garage, we would rather have that space for storage purposes instead, same with the main bedroom, didn't need 2 doors to take up space. Also added a sliding door to the WIR.

Signing the Tender

 

 Livingstone 22 with Monterey Facade

Initially spoke to Mark at the Gregory Hills display homes before the price rise after Australia Day, giving us a rough idea of how much it will cost with our internal changes we wanted to make (moving rooms around, kitchen and dining etc). Put down $1000 for tender and booked appointment for 17th February. Finalized tender on the 24th February and paid $2500 for tender acceptance.

Additional Tender Costs

• H-class slab (saline affected soil area)
• Additional construction costs due to sewer line
• Acoustic report
• Engineers report
• NBN connection
• Landscape plan
• Moroka textured paint finish to brickwork (as pictured)
• BEST EVER Sale packages (internal packages, alfresco, roof upgrade and $12k bonus)
• Montery facade (windows for front room changed to 3 long windows equal size)
• Driveway crossover

Floorplan Changes

• Mirror reverse dwelling - garage on left side
• Widow sizes changed in all bedrooms
• Added additional closet with 2 doors, 4 melamine shelves
• Removed second door for main bedroom
• Sliding door for WIR in main bedroom
• Aluminum framed mirrored sliding doors for all other bedrooms
• Smaller window in laundry, removed door
• Window change for kitchen to alfresco
• Window splashback for kitchen
• 2700mm high ceiling throughout house
• 2340mm high doors throughout house
• 2400mm alfresco stacking door
• Window head height to 2400mm
• Ducted Air throughout house