Contracts Signed

Hey,

Been a relatively busy last month, but all the Home and Land contracts have been signed. Just awaiting final approval from the brokers. Once this is complete, it's the waiting game still for the land-release.

My cousin is also about to move out to Pakenham, his house is expected to be built before Christmas some time. I also have a good mate in 'jamesb' who is now a "Follower" of this blog moving out to Pakenham, expected to have his house complete in early 2010, probably at a very similar time to mine.

Anyways, on to the more important, funiture in the house. As you may have seen in my previous blog entry, I'm putting in a pool table in my 'Living' area. Surprisingly, not a damn thing about pool table purchasing is simple, quite the complete opposite.

The various styles, sizes, finishings - just doesn't end. At my current house, the old man has a great table from a company called 'Astra Billiards'. It's an 8 x 4 sized table, and looks almost identical to the 'Monark' style, which can be seen below:

I like this style quite a bit; however, I'd prefer to go the larger size in the 9 by 4.5. The problem here is that it could be tight fit based on a 58" cue, effectively requiring 1520mm distance around the table. The table will be going into a room that is 4090 (W) x 6660 (L). The next problem is that each Billiard table maker is stating different minimum and recommended room sizes for the table.

Astra Billiards:
Eight Foot Table: 3963mm x 5182mm
Nine Foot Table: 4100mm x 5500mm

Pool Table World (Melbourne):
Eight-foot table: 4' x 8':
(Playing area: 44" x 88")
48" Cue: 3658mm x 4725mm
52" Cue: 3810mm x 4877mm
58" Cue: 4115mm x 5182mm

Nine-foot table: 4.5' x 9':
(Playing area: 50" x 100")
48" Cue: 3810mm x 5030mm
52" Cue: 3963mm x 5182mm
58" Cue: 4268mm x 5487mm

Billiards.com
Eight-Foot Table: 4242mm x 5284mm
Nine-Foot Table: 4420mm x 5588mm

There's no issue with the length of the table whatsoever, there's plenty of room; however, the width is where the issue lies. With the width of the room being marked as '4090mm', I can safely play an eight-foot table without question. 4.5' converted is 1.3716 metres. Adding the 1.52m (5 foot) at both sides of the table, equates to 3.04 metres. So adding 3.04 for the playing room, plus 1.3716 equates to 4.4116m required.


So the width of the room needs to be 4411.6 millimeters, and it's currently 4090mm. 321.6mm additional is required on the width of the room to have a 9 foot table with the specified 5 foot playing space surrounding the table.

Here's where it gets more complex; the Living area of the house is probably greater than 4090mm because it's marked at 4090mm due to a small wall of the Kitchen pantry that sticks out; however, if you were to completely ignore that, there's around about 420mm extra from the kitchen bench. Giving me the required 321.6mm plus an extra 10cm or so for the 9 foot table to work. However, it just may mean that on the pool table corner there, I may have to use a smaller cue stick. Below is there culprit area in which I'm talking about.

Very rarely do you have a straight shot from the side, more often than not it will be slightly angled, and the angle will affect the required playing field around the table to a small distance. I would be able to play shots using a 52" cue if necessary, or even a smaller cue such as a 48".

I still haven't decided on which size, still got about a year up my sleave before I have to decide!

Any comments on this are welcome.

Cheers,

Big Red.

Facade Chosen!

Chieftons,

I have finally decided on which 'facade' to choose for the home. It's difficult to know how it will look, as there is no display home of the 'Victory 1800', due to it being new. However, Burbank have included an artist impression of the style. Which you can see below:

As there is not a great deal happening in terms of building (awaiting land release), I've decided to modify my floor plan as to how I plan to deck it out. You can see this floor plan below:

Building with Burbank

Hi,

Over the last month or so, I've been contemplating on whether or not now is the right time to purchase my first home. After crunching numbers, calculating expenses, arguing with banks and viewing display homes, I've decided to go ahead and purchase my first home.

After several meetings with builder Burbank Homes in Lyndhurst, Melbourne, I've decided to purchase one of their new plan's titled "Victory 1800" with a few modifications - alfresco, family, double garage and ensuite in leiu of lounge.

I've also found a block of land out in Pakenham, Melbourne. It's 17m frontage, 609m^2. A relatively large block of land, for a relatively small-sized house. Luckily, it's only myself who's living there ;-)

As the land has yet to be released (although scheduled for early July), it's still a long way off before pictures are up on this blog. However, I have included a floor plan which is just below.

That's all for the time being, will keep you all updated as it progresses!

Signing off,

Big Red.