Progress!

It has been quite an eventful past couple of days for us! Everyone has got their variation estimates back to us for signing already, even when they estimated it would take a week. Love it, love it, love it!

Wisdom Internal/External Colours
Draft Colour Selection Sheet has been updated to include the variations we signed off last Friday

Carpet/Tiles/Flooring
Quote has come back for us to sign off on - we are going to visit one more time this weekend because I'm having second thoughts about the external tiles we have chosen (much to Pauly's dismay poor thing!)

Kitchen
This has come back already, our appointment was only last Friday!
We have now signed off on kitchen, and decided to leave the cupboards on one side of the oven, and to upgrade to flat stone drainage for the sink.
Now that we've signed off, they will start the kitchen drawings.

Electrical and Air Conditioning
Already signed off last week

Home Theatre
We contacted the Home Theatre rep that does Wisdom's installs, he was really nice and we've sent him a big email with our requirements and what we want estimated.
He said he would do a quote on supply & install, but also a quote on just install, which is great!


Today I had a call from our Wisdom rep who let me know that our plans have come back, and they should receive our BASIX assessment today and tomorrow she will be submitting to our Developer for approval!

EXCITED! What a huge moment!

Cx

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

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