Wow, where has the time gone? following up to our post 18 months ago, a lot has changed since then... What's New? We relocated our entire factory to 34 Haydock Street Forresdale (30km south of Perth) Installed new Auto load/unload CNC to help with supply Installed new edge bander custom built from Austria We have orders being shipped interstate every 2 - 3 days We have orders sent to N.Z & Christmas Island Launched new showroom for Perth Customers 426 Scarborough Beach Road Osborne Park Prices online have either remained the same or even decreased Online Design software soon to be available online, stay tuned. Products & Service Over 110 cabinets to customize Over 200 different door colours and finishes from only the best brands Flat Packed or Pre-Assembled Custom made laminated benchtops Order Online or In-store Delivery all over Australia We are cabinets makers who have a passion software and website development, our first online ordering platform was launched back in 2006. Our business model is 'community focused' meaning the more people who use our system helps with our buying power and our costs come down, these savings are updated online for everyone to benefit. eKitchens (08) 9456 3108 sales@ekitchens.com.au www.ekitchens.com.au Check out our video

It was great to see a show that highlighted that good design is so important, and that good design doesn't necessarily mean bigger. I was also interested to see the egalitarian way design was shared with the 'masses' through project homes and DIY plans. A peculiarity of Australia. It seems such a shame that good design is now considered out of reach of most people. Having engaged an architect to design our renovation, I can understand why people shy away from the fees, however we're now about to embark on a renovation that keeps the best of the old, creates a space that is more contemporary and suited to our lifestyle, and flows so much better! The footprint of the house stays almost the same, so we will have a lovely big backyard. I'm tipping this may be a selling point in the future. Wouldn't it be great to see volume builders adopt these principles and start to offer better designed multi-functional spaces. Smaller houses are less expensive to run. So excited to see Pettit and Sevitt. I'd love to see Merchant Builders back in Melbourne, they were big on the entire concept, working with a hero of mine, Landscape Designer Ellis Stones. Oh to dream.....

Thank you all so much for your time! Great ideas - I am in Melbourne Julie Herbert, so your photos are perfect. Yes Lyn Huppatz - I’ll start going to the nursery soonish to get some solid inspiration! JE C - I am thinking I would like an out door seating area, but as for anything else - I’m really not sure yet!! I guess I’ll just keep on looking at photos and piecing it together!

Going DA has its disadvantages. - Timing is way against you, unless you have time to kill, its quite a waiting process. - Want to speed it up, I recommend getting a town planner on board, yes they do make a difference, but it will never be as fast as CDC. - DA means opening your plan to neighbours objections. Have anyone ever have the nightmare of a neighbour calling you at 9pm to object to your plan? Just because he overheard someone says that we are going to cut some trees? I got objections to a submission about a family of bird that is going to be homeless when we trim some branches off. Or an acreage neighbour object to your 600sqm lot second storey addition because of privacy issue. They have backyard of 3000sqm with over 20m distance and have privacy issue? Give me a break, the backyard is enough to fit the whole street . Any objections from neighbour means a timestop from council, until they can investigate. - Some applications takes weeks until its 'allocated' to an officer. Meaning, its just sitting there gathering dust. Then its another 2 weeks of notifications. - Council front officers are the 'yes man' they say yes all the time, and all might be possible, with 'just submit it and we'll see' attitude. Once submitted, its 'not possible, and request for change or have it withdrawn'. Got clients slammed me because I refuse to do floorplan 20% over the allowed, they went to see front desk in council and told 'Just submit it and we'll see what we can do'. At the end its still rejected anyway, with cost of $$$ of DA application fee. And the advantages: - Council is the only one who can approve if there is no other way (heritage issue, flood / bushfire) - Council is negotiable to a degree, you just have to prove the merit, and talk in their language. - Council can fight for you against your neighbours objections. Took time, but yes they can be on your side. - Building a duplex with site a bit under the allowed? Three floors when its only allowed 2? Yes it can be done. Just play the game right. - Going with DA code sometimes means a bigger floor space allowed, higher roof, higher ceiling than the code for CDC, sometimes the fight and wait is well worthed. And finally there is the L&E Court. If things goes South, and everyone thinks they are correct, there is the L&E court to settle it. My point is : DA : go fully prepared, you are there to fight for it. CDC : get a good team, and the certifier is just there to certify. It will get done quicker. I am not anti councillors, I actually pity them, they are overworked, understaffed, and get abused in daily. If I can advice my clients to avoid DA and still come up with great result, I would go that path.