Waiting period

This is a short waiting period for Masterton to draw our final plan and tender for us to go over and sign.

I need to visit our tiles supplier, Dons Tiles to select our floor and bathroom tiles, to square those selections away and ready for colour selection day.

Kitchen and bathroom colour selection, as well as taps and shower heads are just about selected too.

Few more weeks and we should see things rolling.

Plans signed off

On Thursday (17/5/12), we signed off the plans. Only few minor changes were suggested and were made. These were adding 2 sliding doors between the Family room & Entry Hallway and Kitchen & Formal Dining. This will enclose the areas visually, as well as air-con control. Plus few moving of objects. Done! Masterton Homes was quite happy that they got the plans correct from first go, well, we did not change anything from the original plan! lol.

All exterior colours were selected. We got told there is additional $500 charge for selecting 2 different colours for bricks, even though they are from the same range. We like to have the front façade pillars and portico to have darker shades of the brick range. I guess brick companies know how to make extra money any which way they can!

We may have no choice on the size of the frontage/front yard, as this is a set rule by CDC. Oh well.

Within the next week or so, we should have our final tender to view and sign off. Pay the required 5% instalment. This will follow by the submission of our plans to CDC/Council.

During this time, we need to organise and get demolition permission from the council, so that as soon as plans are approved, we get the go ahead to move out and flatten the land.

Roof Tiles, Fascia and Guttering Selection

We have selected the following roof tiles from Monier:

Monier Horizon Espresso

We have selected the following colours for our guttering:

Colorbond Loft

The following colour for fascia and guttering:

Colorbond Paperbark

Very Useful Checklist

Building Inclusion Checklist

Site works and administration:

• Keep diary of all dates once construction starts and all notes of conversations, emails, costs etc with builder in case something needs to be discussed and clarified
• Don’t get builder to do everything just what can’t be completed post build. Save 30% mark-up on items like carpets, floor tiles, wardrobe shelving, paving, painting, fireplaces etc
• Ask for excess sand to be removed from site if not required
• Shop around and compare inclusions between builders, if you want something that isn’t offered by one you may be able to get it included or at least find out the price difference
• Visit builders selection rooms before signing contract to find out what is included and how much it costs
• Ask council/builder for refund of kerb/path damage bond if it has been paid
• Apply for stamp duty refund if built within guidelines and timeframe
• Check you haven’t paid land tax on improved land
• Ask bank how much they value your property once completed
• Find out land value from the Valuer General
• Check builder doesn’t bury any rubbish on site
• Obtain all warranties, instruction manuals, serial numbers for all products installed in the house from the builder
• Ensure copies of your plans and personal details are not dumped into skip
• Make sure contract reflects that the start date is the date that work commences onsite and not the later date after provision of evidence of funding.
• Check that contract only allows for rainy days being claimed before roofing is installed and only if there has been more than 5mm of rain.
• Make sure you know the fall/slope of your land, the flatter your lot the less site costs you’ll incur, most site costs go to cut and fill as well as building retaining walls. Most volume builders won’t build on sites with a fall greater than 3 metres.
• Check the orientation of your block, if the front is north facing then ideally your living areas should be in the front of the house with the bedrooms on the cooler east side, if the rear is north facing, best location for living area is at the back.

Issue with frontage size

Here is the Google maps top down view of the current house.

Note the frontage of the house on the right hand side, 13 meters from council boundary or 15 meters from kerb!

Our current house is on 6.7 meters from council boundary (Warringah council reg min is 6.5 meters from boundary) will have move back to 8.1 meters due to the position house on the right!

We will try to move the house on the plan at least 1 meter forward to 7.1 meters, but not sure it will be possible.

Note, all the trees on the left hand side of our block are now gone. Bottom right hand corner gum tree will stay.

Exterior Selections Day 1

We visited Austral Bricks today to view and select our bricks.
We selected the following:

Everyday Life Brick Range - Escape

For our house bricks

Everyday Life  Brick Range - Freedom

For our facade pillars and portico

They are both nice earth colour range and will have a nice colour matching and contrast with our selected roof tiles, guttering and downpipes, as well as window frames.

Initial Plans Received

Finally, after over 7 weeks of wait, we received our initial plans.

A quick look at the plans and it all looks good! Only very few minor changes, mostly outside taps location, manhole location etc. Will go in detail over the weekend.

One major issue is the front setback, it is 10m! I was expecting 7m, like where the current house is and like our next door neighbour. I will need to chase it up. As the way it is drawn now, I have more front yard then back yard! lol.

Next step is to choose the bricks, roof tiles, guttering, downpipes colour etc. and organise a meeting with the drafts-person to make the changes on the original plan and sign off.

I hope we can resolve the front setback size issue with no hassle.

The Window Schedule as per plan.