A Siting for Sore Eyes

I wish I could upload a copy of our siting - this is basically what we've been waiting for, for 4 weeks - the tender and site costs are based around the siting and reports.

We knew that our site costs would be quite expensive, but they came in at basically what was estimated so we were prepared.

So, our sites costs will cover the following:

• Class M slab (standard inclusion)
• Water tank at back of house - will be moved to side and smaller water tank provided to comply with estate guidelines (no extra cost)
• Step up onto porch (extra cost)
• Step down into garage 340mm (extra cost)
• Step down to study and home theatre (extra cost)
• Higher ceilings to front of house - we basically have a split in the front of our home because the front is so steep
• Cut to front of home to comply with driveway angle standards/guidelines (will be used to fill at back, however extra costs to export excess dirt)
• Steps to laundry (extra cost)
• Because of the curved kerb and steepness of the front, they will need two concrete pourers (extra cost)
• Drop edge beams around the home (extra cost)

They hit rock within the standard/included range so piering should not be a problem, other than if the rock becomes more shallow when they begin construction and they need to excavate - this means additional costs too.

Other than the steepness at the front of the house, the land is pretty good!

Revising the tender over the weekend, we've decided to increase our electrical budget also - I still think that we've grossly underestimated the cost of electricals though, so I can't wait to get stuck into our electrical appointment! Oh, and timber look garage sectional door was a must - we forgot to add this but that's been included now :)

Hopefully signing off land and revised tender this week, or early next week. I will include a list of all our upgrades once we've signed off on the revised tender.

See you again soon!

Cx

Hello World

Wow, my first post. I'm suffering from writers block already.

Firstly, I'm new to blogging. I never thought I would be the type of person to blog, I'm more a take-a-picture-and-post kind of person (which I will probably be doing for the most part anyway). However, since my partner and I have decided we would be building our first home, I have done a little bit of thinking about keeping records and documenting our progress over the next year, and so here I am.

Over the past few months (let's say 4 months of torturing ourselves looking for apartments, houses and land around Sydney) we have gone through a long journey to get to the point where we are at today - starting the process of building our dream home!

I have researched extensively, and have found the most useful bits of information I have been able to gather about the building process have been from alike blogs, from other Sydney-siders building their dream homes. Whether it be the same area, same builders, or just other home builders, I have seen many of the ups and downs of others building their dream homes, not to mention a lot of valuable information about the process and things to remember, or ask about. Thus, here I am, not only because I believe this is a fantastic way to document the whole process (I guess that's the engineer inside of me) but also as it may help someone else like us, one day.

So, here I am. I am making a year long commitment of blogging - wish me luck!

Cx