Friday 10 May 2013

Supersize Me

Here is the list of upgrades we included in our tender - there isn't a huge list because Wisdom provide most of the good stuff as standard (which is why we decided to stick with them)!

Note that some of these upgrades are due to house type
  • Hinged doors to bedroom 3 & 4 WIRs and underside of staircase (more storage)
  • Sliding doors to Master bedroom en suite & theatre room
  • Sliding doors to Master bedroom BIR
  • Bradford soundscreen insulation to theatre room
  • 1800mm deep podium to theatre room
  • Melamine shelving to downstairs cloak and storage rooms
  • Full height 'nib' wall to separate kitchen and leisure rooms
  • Reverse cycle ducted air con
  • Gas fireplace in leisure room
  • Double polyurethane doors to pantry
  • Polyurethane shelf for microwave insert
  • Flyscreen to back stacker door
  • Spa bath to en suite
  • Brickwork to replace cladding above garage

That's all we needed to supersize (I hope!)


Cx

Lesson #1

It's been a week now since we were told by our broker that we had formal approval. We have been waiting to get a copy of the formal letter of approval to send to our solicitor before he sends off the signed contract for the land to the vendor - do you think our broker has done that for us?

It took us calling the bank and asking for a copy, and then telling our broker exactly where she needed to call and what to ask for to finally get it - can you believe that?

Lesson #1 for us is to never go with a broker again! 

It has been the biggest PAIN having a 'middle person' whom barely answers their phone, tells you that they will contact you and doesn't, and then when I call the bank we can't get access to our account because we've gone through a broker. She did well in making us feel insignificant and as if our business was nothing compare to her other clients.

I think the most frustrating part is trying to get information, and answers to our questions, and having to run around after her to find answers or resorting to google isn't how I pictured having a broker would be like - I guess they were supposed to make it a little easier and a lot more transparent, but all I got was confusion and wasted time.

Never again - we've had the worst experience and we will go directly to the bank if we ever do this again!

Anyway, 5PM last night our broker finally emails us a copy of the formal approval letter, we've sent it to the solicitor, and all our signed papers have been sent to the vendor! Hooray! 

We've now officially exchanged contracts :)

Cx

Friday 3 May 2013

Formalities

CELEBRATE!

A lot has happened this week, and it looks like we are finally moving ahead with everything!

This morning we finally got our formal approval from the bank, and so we are exchanging contracts beginning of next week - exciting stuff!

We also received our revised tender from Wisdom, and have accepted the tender and we are now moving onto the next phase of the building process - they have now ordered our Working Drawings from their architect, and we should receive preliminary house plans by the end of the month.

Also in the mail last night, was our Wise-Pac! (Thought it was a nice touch)
It's a flash drive with almost 4gigs of all the colours we need to start thinking about - EEK!

Exciting times!

Cx

p.s. Will update the blog with all our upgrades soon.