We have a frame!!!

Well what a difference a week makes!  We started with a slab and 3 days later we had a house.....a very exciting week.

    Day 1- first storey

    Day 2 - 2nd storey!

    Day 3 - a roof and windows

   The front door!!!

It looks amazing - we couldn't be happier. This is a new design by Wisdom, and there is no display home to look at, so this was the first time we could actually walk around the house and see how all the rooms work together. It's stunning and everything we wanted. 

I was particularly worried that the living/dining room was going to be too small but it looks huge...big relief!

We were just getting over all the action this week when we went for a look this morning and the bricks had been delivered. This was followed by a call from SS to say the Brickies will start Monday or Tuesday. I can't believe how quickly it is all going now. Hopefully we will be at lock up before Christmas and, fingers crossed, all finished for Easter. Exciting times ahead

We have a Slab!

Well the week we have been waiting for for so long finally arrived - our slab was poured!!! 

 

    Here are a few pics...

 

    This is the gap from the Alfresco to the pool - about 3 metres.

    Its so big I couldn't get it all in 1 picture.  This is the garage side

The view from the back of the block.  Those are the Blue Mountains in the distance - we are hoping that a single storey is built across the road so we will have a good view from our balcony (fingers crossed).

 

 

The slab was poured last Saturday (12/10) and since then the external drainage has been completed (in the rain would you believe) and the frames have been delivered all ready for the carpenters to start on Monday.  It is crazy how fast it is moving now. 

 

Even more crazy is the communication from Wisdom - our SS calls every week with an update and lets us know the plan for the next week. If only we had this service from the beginning.  We did laugh though when we received the request for the slab payment the day after it was poured. They have never been so quick with the paperwork before - they must want some money lol. 

 

We are officially loving the construction phase and are slowly beginning to forget about the painful Admin process...

 

 

We finally enter the construction phase..

Big news this week....... the all important Port-a-loo has arrived!  

For anyone building you will know what an event this is. We are very excited.  We also had our fence installed so we are all ready to start. I can't believe after all these months we are finally have some action! Our last email from Wisdom said construction would start in 3-4 weeks so it is all systems go.

 

The pool has been completed also and now has a cover over it and a temporary fence around. Following is a photo before the cover was installed (sorry terrible photo).  The colour is a bit darker than what I was expecting but we are hoping it will look ok when it is clean and up and running.

 

 

There is also lots of action in our street with another house starting this week.  I love driving up to see every ones progress - it is almost as exciting as watching our own build. We have now met 1 of our new neighbours that are almost at lock up.  They have had a bit of theft from there block (all their windows were stolen one night after they were delivered) so have taken to sleeping in their car out the front of their block on the weekends. Now that is dedication!  It is crazy the amount of theft and vandalism that occurs in new housing estates. The sooner we are all finished and moved in, the better.

Pool progress

Finally some action on our block....our new pool. Very excited!!!

Not sure about having the pool sitting on site for a few days without a fence. With all the vandals around the area sounds like we are just inviting trouble. I will feel a lot better when it finds its way into its new home.

We also received our final building documents today. It is all happening.....finally!

We have been approved by council...

We were told unofficially by Wisdom last week, but today it is official - we have council approval!!!! It took 7 weeks in total which isn't too bad although it felt like a lifetime.  Now to complete the boring paperwork stuff before the excitement can really begin.

Our block is about 5 minutes from where we live now so I try and drive past everyday to see the progress of all the builds in the development - not to mention the new sporting fields.  There has been heaps of progress in our street.  This week our neighbours on 1 side (single storey) have had their roof tiles laid while on the other side (double storey) the frames have all gone up. The block behind (double storey) also had their slab laid this week so it is all happening.  I can't wait until our house slots right in the middle.

Plans lodged to council

Great news today.....our plans have been sent to council. Looking from my post from last week I feel bad for wingeing - it took 3 days not 3 weeks! Who would have thought???  We are very excited but now the long wait for council approval starts. 1 step closer.....



The 2nd exciting email received today is from Knebel kitchens with the 3D picture of our kitchen.

We chose our house design off a plan and there is no display home, so it was very exciting to finally see what it my kitchen will look like. I'm over-the-moon!!!!!   Great day

101 shades of grey!

It has been a very long and stressful few weeks which is why I haven't posted for a while.  This long drawn out Admin process really does take all the excitement out of building a new house!

We have now received all of our quotes back and ALL of them came in more than what we expected. We have added over $30,000 from our building price which has come as a bit of a shock at this late stage. Especially as we felt during the kitchen and electrical appointment that we didn't make as many changes/upgrades that we wanted to - to try and save money.  We keep saying to each other that in the end it will be worth it but man the price better not go up anymore!

We heard back from Wisdom on Friday that our plans have been approved by Mulgoa Rise. Great news but then we were told that it takes 10-15 working days to get the file ready for council. 3 weeks???  It seems so crazy to me that the file is not already ready to go to council but now we have to wait again.  Crazy!!!

Once the file finally reaches council it can take 2 months (even longer!) so I am getting very concerned that we will not meet our Building Contract deadline of 30 August....and that will mean more money that we do not have!  I think a few stressful weeks lie ahead

On a different note we have been trying to choose the paint colour for the walls (only 1 colour for the whole house as any additional colour is $600).  We are going for a light grey colour which will contrast well with the dark floors and white skirting boards and architraves. Finding the right shade of grey as proven to be a problem - who would have thought there were so many different shades of grey! lol   I bought a couple of canvases and sample pots and have been painting up a storm but still not 100% happy. I think another trip to Bunnings is on the cards....