Soil Test....Done!

Went to the site today to show the kids and to my surprise the soil test had been done. Not sure how long till we get the results but at least there is some sort of progress.




We also found all but one of the title pegs. The front left is missing as there is a fence there now but i'm pretty sure that with the rest of them being there we should be able to avoid a re-establishemnt survey.

Sold!

Not much going on so I thought I would take a trip down to the block to have a look. Well they have finally put the sold sign up! (The red lines show the borders of our block...roughly)

Took them long enough. While I was on site I noticed that they had repegged the boundary on the lefthand side. It's a bit different to what I expected as their (cascades) proposal showed a block of the same size next to ours. Instead we will have three blocks backing onto our left hand side. I like it better that way as we are further away from the houses and it's our dead side anyway. Please see my awesome diagram below for a better idea :)

We have also started thinking about some things that we need to put in before we sign the contract. What we want are all of the benches (kitchen, ensuite, laundry, bathroom) to be about 50mm higher. This will cost us about $500.

Then we want recess's in each shower to hold the saop etc. This will be about $400.

Lastly we have had several people tell us that we should get 450mm eaves instead of the "no eaves" option that most houses come with these days. If we go ahead with that it will cost an extra $4,000.

Lots to think about but probably better to do it all now rather than later, especially the eaves...

Deposits Galore

On Saturday we paid the $1000 deposit to Dennis Family Homes so we have set the building process in motion now. Starting to get a bit excited as we got the colour selection booklet and our salesman Adrian gave us a site map showing what the house will look like on the block. All we do now is wait for them to contact us for a colour selection meeting and the contract signing.

Paid the remainder of the land deposit today so settlement should go ahead as planned on the 4th of November. Might have to hire a mower man to mow the lawn for me. Also need to get out there and have a good look for the title pegs.

Decision made!

After a long time we have finally made the decision to go with Dennis Family Homes and build the Flinders 331. It's a nice 34 square home with 4 bedrooms, lounge, games/theatre, alresco (inside outside bit) and a few other nice features. We have decided to spend a bit more on the upgrades such as a bigger alfesco area and 8'6" ceilings instead of the standard 8'. We bought an upgrade pack that includes a half share in the fences, a driveway and path, a letterbox and window furnishings so that should save a bit of hassle!

Tomorrow we will go and pay the initial $1000 deposit to Dennis so they can get started with the soil tests etc. and from there I have no real idea what happens!

Settlement for our land has been put back till the 4th of December because the bank was taking it's time but it's all approved now and as far as I know there will be no penalties from the vendor.

Making a Decision

We are at the stage now where we have a block of land (almost) and have pre-approval for construction of a house. The block of land is Lot 511, No. 33 McCallum Drive in Clyde. It's a really nice 750m2 block, 18.75 metres wide and 40 metres long. It's flat but has a bit of fill on top so we will be up for a few $1000 of site costs as we will need a H class slab (whatever that means).

We have been given approval for land finance subject to a valuation of the block which should happen this week. We are supposed to settle on the 20th of this month so that might be pushed back a bit but hopefully the vendor won't apply any penalties to us :)

So we have narrowed the search down to two builders and two homes. The house we are leaning toward is the Flinders 331 by Dennis Family Homes. The other house is the Whistler 264 by Fairhaven Homes. After all the upgrades have been added they both come out at around the same price.

So hopefully by the end of this week we will have made a descision and then we can really get on with things!

Quick Update, we now have formal approval for the land! YAY!

Our first blog!

Welcome to our first blog. If you are reading this you must be really bored! We thought we would do this so that we can keep track of what the hell we are doing!. What are we doing? Well we've sold our home of 7 years and moved in with the inlaws so that we can build a new home. Sounds daunting and it is daunting, especially with two kids!
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I don't even know how we came to this decision actually. One minute we were thinking about moving house, the next minute we are building a house! Anyway, we can only go forward now so we have put a deposit on a block of land in Clyde.