Well things are moving along now the land is ours

Well things are moving along now the land is ours, not quite where we were hoping to be by now but these things happen, we really wanted to be in council waiting approval or better still got approval, lol, one can dream cant they, but unfortunately that’s not the case.
In the last post you would have seen the concern we had over the land slope, well the retaining walls ended up getting done which made us very happy, but yeah that didn’t last too long, turns out the retaining walls in place at that height doesn’t let us cut as deep into the block as the original cut was going to be, so that left us in a little bit of a bad spot.
So our options would have been, leave the retaining wall alone and do it after the build, so this would have been another expense – probably around $15-20k to do all the sides, etc. but with them there we only had 2 choices, and they were the following:

1.      Centre the house on the block, this would then remove our nice 2.4m side and 1m on the other to around 1.7m either side and we felt this was wasting the lot and would change all our plans going forward, landscape & future rear yard plans, this option would have also included more retaining walls ($$$) and the garage still being stepped down 6 coarse at a cost of around 7k. Both Jen & I just didn’t like the thought of losing the little yard we did have (we want to get another dog) if this was our only option then yes we would have gone with it and altered our plans a little, but thankfully Beechwood has worked extremely well to try and work out the best option without costing the earth and losing our yard in the process, they have been extremely patient with us and our decision or should I say lack of decision making along the way.. Which brings me to option 2 below.

2.      Split level the house, I know $$$ but when you look at everything we have gone through it is still working out to be the cheapest “all up” option, and we kind of really like the look of the split, it is going to be 4 steps leading from the Entry Hallway up into the Family/Living/Kitchen area and the garage is going to stay at the standard 2 coarse step down, we are already looking at lighting options, etc. for the nice stairway look, lol, with this option we only need to move the house over so it’s 2.2m & 1.2m, which for us is still enough for our plans going forward, we are waiting for the new plans, etc. now, I spoke with Beechwood on Friday about the go ahead with the split option so now we wait…….

Once we get the plans I will go through again and give you more details about changes we have made, how the plan best suits us, we were told by a few different builders the plans shouldn’t need much changing but no matter what if you have something in mind don’t let them pressure you into not changing it, we had a not so nice experience along the way with a certain building company (who will stay nameless) basically telling us that the architects have designed these house’s and know what they are doing, yes they do indeed know what they are doing but they have no idea how we live, or how my wife can’t sleep real well and I like to watch movies at night so having the theatre right next to the main didn’t work well for us, etc. etc. etc. so follow your ideas, and my advice is always do your research before selecting everything, make sure it’s something you need/can afford now because if you have some slight dramas along the way and get right up to your budget things quickly start getting removed, and that is very upsetting, we did need to remove a few little things but these are things I can do myself after the build quite easily, so luckily the Façade didn’t need to get removed… (thank god)
I will talk with you all again soon once I see the new plans and how it’s all going to look, so for now, Thank you for looking and I hope your enjoying our experience so far.

Ok so time for some updates....

Hey guys and welcome, it has been quite a while since our last update, over 2 months to be exact, not a great deal has happened since our last post but a few things, and those things being really great.

So we will start from where we left the last update post, the land slope, I spoke with the Developer who was fantastic, I voiced my concerns and he listened, he then went to site with his business partner and they decided they would do the retaining walls down the sides , this levelling our block a lot more than before, so now I am still waiting to hear back from the builder to see if they have gone back out to site yet to redo the surveys & drawings, here's hoping....

So we have been sitting waiting still, waiting for the day we get the call or email telling us the land is registering, then it happens, out of sheer luck a friend tells me how to check the progress of your land registrations, using the LPI Website (Land & Property Information) www.six.nsw.gov.au here I was able to find where we were at, and it was showing "Under Requisition" not knowing what that meant I looked into it and found they were waiting for more documents from the developer.

So know knowing this website I kept checking the progress, over and over, I think my phone was connected to that website at least 3 or 4 times every hour just to see if there were any changes, and then it happened.... It changed to "Undergoing Folio Creations", I knew this was something good.... something great.... something was going to happen and soon

I waited for a day determined not to look again, I held out, and made it halfway through the next day, and curiosity got the better of me, as much as I wanted to wait and be excited to get the phone call or email I caved, gave in.. and logged onto the website... wrote the DP number accepted the conditions and entered the security code... page seemed to take forever to load, I was watching the screen just wanting to see it, wanting to see what we had been waiting to see, was it today? was it now? the page loaded... and there is was... it was showing us "Registered - Folios Created" holy crap, I felt amazing, knowing the land would soon be ours, I took a breath, closed the page and went back to work, my mind thinking about the land,

The day continued, I worked away thinking more about the land, then I got a call from our Conveyancer, she had called to tell me the land was Registered and settlement was due in 2 weeks, Tuesday 21st of June 2016, now this was no surprise as I knew this call was coming, but it still felt fantastic to hear it officially from our Conveyancer...

The story doesn't end there, we went through to get our finance all sorted, and I was working with our finance guy the whole way, we had a few slight hiccups along the way but due to being such a short time frame, this is kind of expected, we came to Thursday 16th and hit a snag, I worked hard to get this sorted quickly but like everything it didn't quite work out as planned, we were hoping to have it sorted by Monday 20th but this didn't happen, so here is my calling the Conveyancer asking for an extension of the settlement day, the developer was great, the pushed it till Thursday 23rd, now the pressure was on.

Wednesday morning I am driving around dropping off the paperwork as required, not expecting it to all go through by Thursday, but I got the call, the Settlement booking was for 3pm Thursday 23rd of June 2016, wow this is actually happening, the land is going to be ours,

So Thursday came, time went slow, no news, no updates, no issues thank god, well at the moment, I still thought something was going to stop the settlement, just doubts floating around there would be no more issues, and then 3:20pm still nothing, I couldn't wait any longer, so I called the bank, the were still yet to get confirmation and they would call me back once they knew, literally hung up the phone to the bank and no sooner had I put it back in my pocket it started ringing, it was our Conveyancer, she starts off by saying congratulations, that was it.. the land was ours... all this time.. all this waiting... done...

So of course first thing we did when I got home from work, even though it was pitch black and freezing cold was go to our land and walk it, talking about where all the rooms where going to be and how big/small the yard was going to be, it was such an amazing feeling knowing that our Dream Home we have worked so hard for over the last what feels like millions of years is finally getting closer, finally going to be ours.

So from here we still have more waiting ahead of us, but we will be seeing our house coming together, being built, for us...

Land at the moment...

 

Still waiting for Land Registration

Hey guys, just a quick update, the Land is still yet to be finished & registered, originally it was February then April, now its May or June, its looking a lot closer now though, streets are done, footpath looks completed (well on one side at this stage)
Few little issues, one being the surveyor has already been to site and the drawings have been done, now that's quick... buuuuut, slight hiccup... the land isn't ready yet, we are supposed to have retaining walls on either side and at the rear of the property, so the contours are done as the land is now not how it will be, which gave us a nice little variation cost for too much slope on the bloke,
I am sorting this out asap and when this is out of the way everything should be going smoothly, at least with the need to redraw our plans I can really go through them with a fine toothed comb to ensure everything is great, already changed a few things, just little things.... like door swing directions, adding a few extra Doors/Cavity Sliding Door, resizing a few things, all the fun stuff, lol

Here is our block as is now, just sitting here sounds amazing, the bell birds chirping away, love it...

Why we created this page.....

Hey guys, and welcome to our fantastic adventure that is building a Brand New Home, I plan on keeping a nice long journal of the whole build process, timelines, costs, ideas, future plans, drama's, etc.
This is to help others going through the same thing, and hopefully answer some of your questions, we are first time builders and first home owners, and are extremely excited, its also to show our progress while building our home.
After renting for over 16 years we can finally afford to build our dream home, I have spent many hours going through all types of floor plans to find the best one that suits us, that's right us..
Some builders told us along the way that changing the plans was foolish and the architects know why they have put rooms in certain locations, I get they understand this, and that this is their profession, but.... if I want a room to be a certain way, there is a reason, like why I moved the theatre away from the main bedroom and will be putting acoustics in the walls, its because its for us, its how we want our house, after all we are the ones paying to build it.
So we eventually settled on Beechwood's Verdelho Five Twist with Grand Terrazza and I went to work thinking of things to change, I am pretty sure we managed to make some change whether it be small or large to every room in the house, simple things like extending the size of the wardrobes in Bedroom 2 & 3 and changing the wardrobe doors to slide doors, or like removing the Laundry cupboard so we can use the space in the Family room for a Study Nook, We also made the fifth bedroom a teenage retreat/studio for our daughter.
I will create a full list of all the things we have changed, added, thought of or will be doing, shortly so you can see exactly what we have done and why.
Thanks for your interest in our page and our progress in building our Dream Home!!!
Original plans below, our plan is a combination of them both, with our changes, I will upload one of ours at a later date for you to see.