Ready for be SLABBED!!!

This week has been great!  All the prep work is done and we are just awaiting the very much anticiated SLABBING!!!

Hopefully that will happen tomorrow or Tuesday!

Week One Progress

Off to a good start with the excavation, cut and fill and the base for the prep of the slab.  After meeting with the Site Manager yesterday he's said that they are planning to have the slab down by Friday next week or the Tuesday after the public holiday.  So fingers crossed for Friday!!!

It's great to see things happening and also good to know that our Site Manager appears to be very switched on which is always a good sign!

We Have Lift Off!!!

Finally we have a date to commence building and it's TOMORROW!!!!

We are planning on meeting our site supervisor on Friday to go over everything and get a break down of how everything is going to run.

Movement on the Block!

Things are still getting pushed forward to go to site asap, even after being told it likely wouldn't be til next year, they are desperately trying to get us there ... which is exciting!

On Friday we had the site cleared so that once the final approvals are all done with the bank we can get going straight away.  I must admit the original quotes I had from the big companies scared the begeezes out of me, but I found a local company who went to the site before quoting me and said it would be $600 for their time and for dumping that they would go there 2 weeks prior to spray everything and even offered to bring in extra dirt to level us with our neighbour ... all free of charge!  In the end Metricon wanted us to get it cleared asap so they didn't have the time to spray everything but they did a good job with clearing it all and got there within 24hours of my call back. So all up I was very happy!  If your in need of anyone for something similar contact Paul on 0412 454 791.

Now all we have to do is wait for finance to go through this week and we are on track to be on site (and fingers crossed ... slabbed) before Christmas break!!

Latest Update

Well despite our best efforts it looks as though things will be kicking off fresh in the New Year. We where originally told that if we had all paperwork signed off on by the end of November then we could have the slab down before they break at Christmas, well yesterday it went from the end of November to Wednesday! Which just wasn't going to happen!

So yesterday I spent the day finalising a few quotes of things we want to include in our home loan and chasing up a few last minute things that Metricon had informed us we needed to do.  One of the things was getting the site re-pegged as someone (namely the person down the street that decided to do donuts on our block and the next door neighbours builder) had removed our two front pegs, this will be an extra $700+.  We also have to arrange to have the site cleared, which we had always just assumed that it was included in the site works as it had never been mentioned as something we'd need to do, so we're getting quotes this weekend, one quote was close to $3,000, due to the dumping fee.

The other thing we need to sort out was that Metricon have said that our upgrades from Beaumonts aren't included in our selections quote, which is not true, as I've highlighted, scanned and emailed it to our Customer Support Coordinator showing her exactly where it's included.  But it seems that email was ignored, so they are getting in touch with Beaumonts to arrange a variation.  I'm just hoping that this doesn't completely confuse everyone and they try to charge us more for upgrades that are already included.

I must admit that this has been my most frustrating time we've had so far and it's simply because we will go close to two weeks without hearing anything then suddenly we get 15+ emails in the matter of a day and a half.  I was just lucky that I had yesterday off to go through everything, as I'm not in a position at work where I can reply and chase up personal emails.  Also as lovely as our Customer Support Coordinator is we hadn't actually met her and built a rapport with her until the day of a final contract signing, all the times we were told that we'd meet her, like at the Studio M selections and air con selections, she never came by.  But we'll get there in the end!

The last few quotes that I've been chasing up where for the concreting for the drive way and front perimeter and also for the decking of the outdoor room and portico.  We've already got our solar panels sorted with the deposit paid, we arranged that at the same time we arranged our Mother-in-Laws so got it at a slightly cheaper rate.

And that it our latest update!  So looks like mid-Jan it will all be going ahead ... lucky it will be here before we know it!

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!

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!