The Next Chapter

I'm pretty excited about the state of progress at the moment. We got a call from our new Customer Service Officer yesterday and we've confirmed Colour and Landscaping appointments for this Thursday. This is required for Developer Approval before it goes to council.

We are hoping to book in our Carpet/Tiling, Kitchen and Electrical appointments as well.

We've been advised that the timeline from here is something like the following:

• Developer Requirements
1. Landscaping Appointment -> Sign off on plans -> 5 working days to complete
2. Colour Appointment -> External Colour Palette Sign off
3. Then lodged to Developer for approval -> up to 10 working days for approval
• Council Requirements
1. Colour & Landscaping Appointments -> Sign off
2. DA Pack ordered -> 10 working days to complete
3. DA Lodgement to Council -> 4-8 weeks for approval (if no amendments required)
4. Waterboard Approval requested
5. Engineering drawings requested
6. Kitchen, Electrical, Tile/Carpet Appointments completed (in parallel to council lodgement)
7. DA Approval received -> Construction Certificate Lodged -> 2 weeks to receive
8. Pre-Tender Requested -> 5 working days to complete
9. Construction Plans Drawn -> 5 working days to complete
10. Construction Certificate received, Bank Documents received
11. File signed off to construction

That's a lot of steps now that I type all that up! Our CSO said that she would be in contact with us at least once a week to update us on the progress of our file, in particular she said that when our application is with Council she will call to check up on it weekly and then let us know how it's going, whether by a call or email. It will be nice to know we won't have to do any chasing around because they will keep us in the loop and not make us wait around during periods of inactivity.

So looking at those steps, we are looking at a time line no less than 2 months. It would be great to see a slab in November, I think that's my target. I'm not actually sure if that's achievable, but I will try to remain optimistic. As long as we don't delay the appointments and we choose everything we need to and sign off as soon as we can, then it's out of our hands and we just have to wait!

I'll try to get back on here next week and tell you how the colours went and what we've chosen!

Can you wish us luck again?!

Cx

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Sorry I haven't updated for a while - but GOOD NEWS!

CELEBRATE!

We met with our solicitor on Friday and went through the contract, and met back with Wisdom to sign our building contract!

They have also already contacted us to make our colours and landscaping appointment which should be this Thursday - the sooner we get them done the sooner we can start applying for Developer and Council approvals! 

We're both obviously very exciting as this is a huge point in the process, it's taken us longer than expected to get here but Wisdom came through in the end and we're pretty happy with our house and tender right now.

And really, a huge huge thank you to our solicitor Helmuth Carrasco from Allison Clark Conveyancing - he has been fantastic through the land settlement and even going through our building contract and talking us through it all. He has been a blessing for us throughout the past months, so thank you!

Cx

Contract Building Plans Completed

We received our first set of building plans since all the mess with the balcony. We also had a list eleven amendments long that needed to be fixed as well since the first building plan meeting we had at Wisdom.

So...

We're happy! They've got everything done.

The only thing was the water tank, we asked for them to move it to the side of the leisure, but they moved it near the front next to the office instead. Looks like an easy enough fix though, so I'm a happy little vegemite (although I hate vegemite)
Edit: Just received revised plans and they've moved the water tank in the correct position now - that was quick.

Looking forward to getting my hands on the building contract on Friday! After the solicitor goes through it, we will have it signed off and deposit down by the end of next week.

Cx

Our Majestic 35 with Nova Terrace Facade

Tender Revised

We got an email from Wisdom this morning with our revised tender - the addition of one line item for the upgraded doors - 1.5 weeks

Also confirmed where we want our fireplace - I sent them this to make sure they put it in the right place and I wouldn't have to ask for another revision.

We have pencilled in an appointment to review the Building Contract and Building Plans for next Friday. Finally! That's something a bit more positive and I'm looking forward to taking the next step with this.

Cx

Lego House

This past weekend we spent looking at bricks again, this time having done a little more research, and with a fresher outlook on the colours.

Previously I really wanted an off white / cream coloured home, but after having a look at houses using those bricks we could see how dirty the bricks and the mortar get after a few years - so it was back to the drawing board.

After reading a few blogs on the Austral Whitsunday collection, which I really really liked and was in our inclusive range, it was disheartening to see others that had built with this brick had problems with easy chipping. The bricks in this selection are painted bricks, and so when they are chipped a horrible orange brick comes through underneath! Apparently the builders paint over the chips.

So we were looking for only bricks that were all through colour, and ideally we wanted a smooth brick - which is not in the inclusive ranges at all!

The difficult part about choosing the bricks, is that you try sticking to your inclusive ranges but at the end of the day there's really nothing you want! And at that point when you are looking at the bricks, you have no idea how much the cost is to upgrade - we have to request estimates for each brick we want. Even though we have selection sheets that state a number of bricks in each Category e.g. Cat A, B, C they still estimate it depending on the brick and not the category?

What makes it a little more difficult, is we can't make a decision unless we know the prices. Anyway that's my rant!

For now these are our upgrade choices - we are not liking any of the inclusive bricks, so I'm hoping they won't be too expensive to upgrade to one of the following:

Austral
[Symmetry] Portland

Boral
[Escura Velour] Pearl Grey, Brown
[Escura Smooth Face] Pearl Grey, Cinnamon, Brown

PGH
[Modern Living] Basswood Mottle

We're waiting for Wisdom to call us back today so we can ask for an estimate without pushing the timeline of our tender/building plan progression.

Fingers crossed!

Cx