Wednesday, October 31, 2012

New Home Contract Signed!

Yesterday we had the sign off on our Official New Home Contract and it felt good!!


We received the contract on Friday just like they advised and had the weekend to go over everything.  On the working drawings there where just a few notes that hadn't been removed from past changes and the tile height in the bathrooms hadn't been adjusted to suit our upgrades at Beaumont's.  In the actual contract there where just a few clarifications that we needed to go through, for example out ground storm water is included in the final pricing but on the site plan it notes that these are for us to do after handover. 

The biggest thing we had to discuss was the site works as council has asked that we put in extra soil, originally the plan was to do a 50/50 cut and fill then have a sump pump in the backyard for extra drainage.  But our neighbour has done a lot of extra fill so we are looking at matching him to make the blocks even, this way we wont need to worry about retaining walls and sump pumps etc.  Metircon are going to send someone out to the block this week to investigate the best course of action, and the most cost effective for us.

We should have all the variations discussed yesterday sent out to us early next week and we've arranged an appointment with the bank now that we have our bank pack so we can get the ball rolling on the finance end.  Hopefully ... fingers crossed and all going well ... they are hoping to be on site in Dec and have the slab down before they break on the 16th Dec!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Selections Signed Off!

Well last week was a whirlwind!  We received our quote for the selections and surprisingly once we added it all up we where only a very small amount over budget and after talking to the bank we realised that it wouldn't make any difference to our repayments over the course of the loan so after we made a few changes we signed off! 

The only change we actually made was to the doors to the master bedroom, we originally had chosen these doors with the Charcoal Stain and frosted glass, these original doors are around $900 each and we've kept these for the linen cupboard and also the cavity slider into the study ...


But after some discussion and our main concern being the soundproofing and privacy we decided to change to these ones in the same Charcoal stain, these doors with a painted finish where $260 for two (as we have a double door to the master bedroom) but with the change to wood and stain finish where $700 for two ...

 
The doors where one of the most expensive things in our selections pricing the other things that added to the price where the stone end panel for the kitchen island bench which was $1,180. The frameless shower screens with the door where also a bit more than expected coming in at $2,051 each.
 
All our other upgrades where small amounts here and there so overall we where very happy with how everything totalled to. 
 
We've made an appointment for the 30th Oct to do our final sign offs and we recieved word last week that the draftsmen had a break in their schedule so where starting work on our plans for the final contract sooner than expected.
 
Also our neighbours rubbish has been removed, but I think that was more due to them wanting to make space for the timber framing rather than my email!