Passed Frame Inspection and the planter box fixed!

Heard on friday the 6th Nov that we passed the 2nd frame stage inspection - finally !
Went around there on the weekend and lots of brick work completed and the planter box dimensions were fixed ! yay !
Nearly lock up now..
On monday we paid the frame stage claim even without a reinvoice ! If only builders new customer service and communicating adequately !

Frame Completed and Gutters !

Visited the house after the long weekend, and yay they have completed the roof over the garage and put in the gutters !
Frame inspection done on the 28th Oct but 14 errors to be fixed !!!
Also they have put in the much loved planter box ..but... the dimensions are WRONG !!! Grr...
We specifically asked the width of the planter box to be 1.6m so that there would be ample corridor space on the sides !!!

Frame Stage Invoice - Still Incomplete

I have been very lazy at updating the blog.
We got a bill for the frame stage and we were excited - the house was moving faster than we anticipated. Sent the invoice to our bank progres payments to pay the builder.
We came home that weekend (we had been away for work)and went by to see the completed frame that weekend...
The frame was still not complete.
Also found a letter from the bank to say that we need to make this stage payment with our funds.
So this have us an opportunity to investigate.
Called the building surveyor in the council and surprise surprise - no inspection, not even booked.
Called the head office why they issued the invoice without completing the frame stage ???
Got a story about how they have gone beyond the frame stage (they have put up the brick wall on the garage side), and they will get the frame inspection at somepoint because they have to.
We read the contracts and they CLEARLY STATE that the frame stage is only complete when the frame stage inspection has been done and approved by the building surveyor.
The head office tried to threaten us that they wont proceed further until we pay. We argued that we were happy to pay once EACH STAGE WAS COMPLETE.

Brick work has started ...

Went by the site this weekend..
Bricking has started, although we kind of expected more to be completed.
Although they have put the gas mains in.

A Roof over our heads - not quiet and windows ! Bricks delievered

Went by the building site on friday this week...
Roof YAY !! and bricks...
I think the frame stage is NEARLY complete
Paid for the base stage last week .. and got our first home owners grant !!!

Pictures... Pictures... better than words..

We have a FRAME !!!

After the torential rain in melbourne (dont get me wrong we want rain, but we also want a slab!!), we thought that they may have started the slab OR may be still putting in plumbing.. Boy were we surpised to find that we have a frame !!! exciting !

Here are some photos...

Now waiting for the roof truss, plastering... so exciting !!!

Site cut started

Notified the builder that plot was ready.

They started the site cut this week -15th September

Cleaning our plot

After submitting the building permit/home warranty insurance to the bank we were contacted by the builder. They had inspected our plot and had requests.

1) the drainage inspection pit cover on the easement was broken and needed to be fixed

2) there was too much grass on the plot

3) there is rubble on the plot that need to be cleared

Now when we bought the plot we were aware that there were two piles of soil on either side of the plot at the far end...

On the 5th/6th Sep weekend we started to clean the plot.

We were amazed by what we found.

On saturday morning we got to our plot.

The grass had grown up to our knees.

There was no way were going to be able to lawn mow the plot because we werent sure what was beneath the grass.

Off we went to bunnings, and got ourselves a wiper snipper.

We wiper snippered and then discovered what was dumped on the plot. There was piles and piles of timber under the soil, there were broken bricks, roof tiles. There were plaster mixtures and metal rods and wires buried under the soil.

There was concrete that had hardened and was too big for us to move.

Some how we did some work our the weekend and the week and ended up taking one trip to the tip.

We piled the concrete and wood in two piles on the corner of the plot.

Finally Building Permit

Permits issued on the 13th August BUT....with
Errors in our names in the building permit & Home warranty insurance.
Errors also in some variations we wanted

All submitted now to the bank for construction loan approval.
Waiting....

Contracts to Colour selection

Finally recieved the contracts and signed them early July.
Then came the colour selection day on the 17th July.
Went to meet with their "colour co-ordinator" who was also the customer relations officer. Thought she was going to give us advice on mixing and matching.. but there was no such things..
We pretty much had to put things together ourselves. Lucku for us that hubbie had given it some thought and we had discussed it.
Anyway decided to go with dark colours for the roof, fascia, gutters and red/cream -brushwood from Boral bricks.
The other shocking news was that the wood work around the planter box which the sales person said was included apparently was OPTIONAL.
I mean we specifically asked the sales person when we did a walk through of the diaplay home regarding the wood work and she said it was included.
Now ofcourse we didnt get it in writting. So it was our word against theirs.
We called the sales person to sort out the issue and she lied through her teeth.
We were very disgusted at this incident.
Anyway ended up not getting it...and we thought of putting our own woodwork or tile work for the extra price.
It wasnt really that it was really expensive we were just really annoyed at the incident.

Our own research...

The next day... off we went to the local council's building department.
They were very helpful.
We found out that
1) It needs to sit 1m away from the boundary only if it was a carport i.e. it is not a solid wall.
2) that we dont need dispensation from the neighbours since we are building within normal building regulations.
3) There was a good chance that the council will give us permission.

We then did research as to what was contained within the easement, by phoning the relevant authorities and "dial before you dig".
Finally decided to tell the builder all this information and build a double garage to the boundary.
So we met two days later with the builder and the drafts person,
There was disagreement as to whether we need permission from the neighbours and the builder said we did, even though the council said no.
The builder again said well the council might not given permission as we need to make a site cut.
After lots of repeated statements and this and that we decided that this may cost us more than we want and to build a single garage.

Then came the issue of prices.. we felt that we needed to be reimbursed for the floor area we lost, but the builder felt that the area had gone in to the garage, never mind the fact that we were paying separately for the garage.
Again after lots of going back and forth the builder agreed to reimburse us -

We left the office informing him to draw the plans.

Meeting with the builder No.2

After asking "E" to redraw the plans to accomodate a double carport so that we will get back the area we lost, we were contacted by the head office for a meeting.
The meeting was some what a repeat of the first meeting.
We said well we should have been informed of the change at the time and asked if that was ok. the argument was that it was ONLY 30-40cm's but nevertheless they should have checked with us.
So at the meeting we were informed that
1) If we want the double carport, we will need permission from the council to build over the easement - and from the relevant authorities - (which we knew)
2) We would need to apply for dispensation from the neighbours (permission) - from all three of the neighbours because we were building over an easement (which we were surprised with & was going to cost us extra)
3) We had to build it 1m away from the boundary because we were building over and easement.
4) After all this trouble if the council said "no" we would have to go back and redraw the plans which was going to cost us..
So we went away from that meeting not deciding and telling them that we would get back to them.
I must clarify when we said double carport our impression was the same as a garage but with no wall at the rear of the structure.

Getting our plans and contracts - the first time

So about a week after the go ahead, we got a call from "E" to come and pick up our contracts,they were ready to be signed.
My husband went and picked it up but to our surprise there were a few issues
1) the total residence area was small - when asked as to how that came to be - they had to take 30-40cms out of the house to accomodate the single garage so that we wont be going into the easement. - were we told about this? NO
2) the names - now true we have long names but we specifically wrote them down so that they could get the spelling right
3) The porch was not according to original template
4) Other small spelling mistakes.

So we called up "E" and said look this is not right - there is some area taken out of the house and hence we want to go back to a double carport.
We were asked to repay for the contracts and drawing up the plans again -
This was no fair we were not told about loosing the area out of the residence and we should have been asked about it when the plans were drawn, hence after much debate - they agreed to redraw the plans

Meeting Builder

Went into the head office to get an explanation regarding site costs.
A site cut and fill was needed - $6000 roughly
Agi drains and slit pits were needed $3000
Waffle pods $ 5000 Retaining wall for carport on the easement - $1500
But then issues of building over easement:
- need permission from the council
- if council doesnt give permission then need to redraw plans - costly
-council may say yes but more retaining walls - expensive

So finally we decided to stick to a single garage and the thought was that we could build a carport at a later date at the 3meters left or pave it and put a gate.

So told them to go ahead with the plan with a single garage.

Soil Report -

After waiting for the soil reports, we finally got them. Trying to make sense of the fall and fill we eventually contacted the sales person "E". We were told to come in and they would have a quote for the site allowance.
We were excited.
Away we went - good news NO ROCK, but a FALL across the land and down (length wise).
But no site costs that day as "E" was not able to access their main hard drive wirelessly. We had two options 1) to wait for the site costs where "E" assured us would be emailed to us on monday or 2) to pay the initial deposit to get the contracts and plans started.
After discussion my husband and I decided that we liked the house and was keen to get it started and we would pay the deposit and get the site costs on monday.
We wanted to site costs to ensure that they werent going to cost us heaps making us go over budget.
So came monday - no email.
Contacted "E" - still no access hard drive. Said "E" would get a hard copy at the office and scan and email us on tuesday.
Came tuesday - no email.
Wednesday called "E" - apparently it was not their policy to give the site costs over the phone or via email and we needed to come into the office for it to be explained.
We were dissapointed with this - as "E" was first happy with emailing.
So wrote an email to the head of the company - got a phone call early next morning that we have to come in to the office to meet him so that he could explain the site costs.
We were happy with that we said we wanted to know the price as we want to make sure that it wont go over budget.

site costs $16 k - unexpected !

Deciding on a HOME

Before the settlement we went to various display homes and builders to find what we liked.
Our main aim was to get a house plan with 3 bedrooms with a study or 4 bedrooms and a decent sized family and living area.
So in total the house been at least 20-21 squares.
We werent keen on an alfresco at the moment -as we thought this would go over our budget.
We eventually narrowed it down to a couple of houses
1) Daffodil - Burbank a 22 square house 4,2,2 - very simple flowing plan, great inclusions and package at that time, base price of house slightly more expensive
2) Flagstone - Simonds 22 sqs,4,2,2 great inclusions but very NARROW entrance and hallway
3) Colorado -Ashford - minimal inclusions and the sales person was not very helpful
4) WentWorth -26 sqs - good inclusion, good sales person and LOVED the entrance - very spacious makes the house look big and nice architectural features like a planter box with feature columns included
Finally decided on to go with the Colex Wentworth, with out the Alfresco and with a double carport as we need didnt want to build a solid structure on the easement.

So we paid for a soil test which was needed to get site costs and site conditions finalised.

Our piece of dirt

We paid our deposit to the realestate, then it was time to deal with the bank.

We had done our research before and decided that we were going to go with ANZ for various reasons that seemed to allow us to have options.

Settlement happened on - 24 th April 2009 -

How it came to be...

Deciding to buy our own house:
With interest rates going down and after my husband having worked for 3 years and me for 1, we had nearly enough deposit saved to think about getting into the property market. Researching for weeks we eventually came to an agreement that as long as we borrowed minimal , then we would end up paying $500 more than rent which is not too hard to afford.
Reasons for buying 1) its our own, dont have to worry abt needing to move or not having a garden 2) not a bad investment if payments are affordable.

Location:
We were never going to afford in the city and we didnt want to live in the city anyway. We wanted it to be close to my parents, but at the same time close to work and close to the city, so looking at suburbs north and north east that are affordable and within 25kms of the city.

Inspecting:
Initially having a look at some newly built houses and up and coming suburbs. Boy were we left dissapointed. Small pieces of land <450m2 and small houses <20sqs and not really value for money. Too close to the neightbouring house.
Then looked at some new land releases, but gave up the idea as we thought it was too hard.

Inspecting Established homes:
We then did some inspections of established homes in a few suburbs which were the only ones affordable. We either didnt like what we saw or when we did like it, it was too expensive.
Mind you my husband and I were particular, it had to have a decent piece of land, it had to be minimum 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms so on so forth.. and the big thing it had to be within our small budget.
We then came across a 4,2,2 which we liked, a bank auction - and I fell in love with the house straight away.
We attended the auction with a check in hand to bid competitively- To our dissapointment, the bidding went over our budget.
After that I wanted to give up.

House and Land packages:
Then we came across house and land packages in the same up coming area that we looked at previously.
Liked the location, decent size of land abt 500m2. Great inclusions and affordable.
The catch - the land had a slope-
The builder S that had advertised wouldnt build on plots with slopes >1m and this plot had a slope of 3m !- so why advertise? - only god knows !
I think the sales person was just trying to get customers. The lowest point was when we enquired we were told to even make a deposit !!

Finiding our piece of land:
Then we found a 628m2 piece of land, relatively flat, 15m frontage - in a well establish area - and AFFORDABLE !
Here is the catch - a 3m easement running length wise across the plot.
however we decided - we like it, we bought it.
So thats how we ended up with our little piece of dirt.