We Have Movement

Our start date has come and gone and our block is now looking very different. We had a slight issue while we were on holidays before the start date. Our portaloo was burnt down. But Coral have now got a new one on site. We have finished our retaining wall and are on track for a slab pour on the 5th of April. Just have to hope for no rain. Finally we have pics of movement on the block.

Site Supervisor

We have been very impressed with our site supervisor so far. We have had a phone call from him introducing himself and letting us know his plan for the first monthish. His current plan is...
21.03.2013 - Cut the block
22-24.03.2013 - We build the other half of the retaining wall
25.03.2013 - Slab pour
11.04.2013 - Frame goes up

It is really nice to know that things have been planned and he is all ready to go. Give us that nice secure feeling.

Hubby had also mentioned to him that he would out on the block during last week putting the retaining wall up so the SS dropped by to meet Jas and have a look at the block. Needless to say we are long the service so far. Very happy to be in the consrtuction zone now.

We are also very excited to now have half a retaining wall built. Jas completed the wall last week and it is really good to finally see something on the block. We are about to go on holidays for a week so will post pics when we are back.

We Have A Start Date!

We are very excited that we got a call on Friday to say that our start date is the 21st of March, weather permitting. We have spent the day sourcing materials for the retaining wall so we can have that done in time for the start date.

Thought this would also be a good time to post a pic of our house plan.

Sorry for the dodgy pic. Best I could do.

All Clear to Start the Retaining Wall

The very annoying retaining wall has now been given the all clear to start. While we are still waiting on the start date (bank sent authority to commence construction on Tuesday), we have met with a Coral member on our block and found out that we can start contructing our retaining wall. The wall needs to be constructed in two goes. Half before the site cut and half after. We are hoping to plot out the retaining wall on the weekend and start building it next week. I can't wait to have something on the block at last. Getting closer. :)

Council Approved

Yay we finally have council approval. Council rang Coral on Wednesday to say the house had been approved and the information was being sent to Coral's certifiers. Coral has said it will still be another 2-3 weeks until the plans are certified. Then we received a call from council yesterday to say the retaining wall had approval and the certification which Coral wanted would be in the mail this week.

We have also received our final finishings variations now. It was about $1k more than we were expecting. Apparently the Coral colours lady isn't quite up on the costs of things. The biggy was the carpet. We were told about $800. The price came back at $1900. Fairly big difference there but it is also a non negotiable for us. So we are sucking it up and paying it. Hubby's comment was "I'm not paying all this money to have a really nice house with crappy carpet." That seemed like a fair point to me. Plus the carpet was my choice so no complaints here. Hoping for a start date in March.

I just want a start date

Unfortunately this stupid retaining wall is still a thorn in our side. It is ridiculous that the hardest part of the build so far is in reagrds to something that is going to be the easiest to actually build. Council have let us know that they can't do a construction certificate as part of a complying development application because it isn't a complying development. The only way they can do a construction certificate is to lodge a DA for the retaining wall. However, in a rather long letter I received from council they have stated the DA for the building that has already been submitted also includes the retaining wall which makes it absolutely pointless to submit a DA for the retaining wall. Especially as council do not require it and have no interest in this stupid wall anyway. So now we are back talking to Coral to try and find out what exactly they require and why. We have all but given up talking to head office. The lady changes her storey every time and really seems like she has no idea what she is talking about. We now have council calling her directly today to try and sort this out. Me and hubby are 100% fed up. We just really want to be at the point where we can speak to a site supervisor and tradies who actually know what they are talking about. Literally this wall at its highest is not even at my waist height and I'm a shorty. If it fell it wouldn't even brush the house.

We had our final finishings appointment 2 weeks ago and are still waiting for Coral to get back to us with a price. The tilers and electrical people had a price for us the day we had the appointment. Coral apparently takes over 2 weeks to find prices on very minor changes. All of which were given to us as options at the finishings appointment. The only changes we have made are:
1. Change the mortar colour to off white instead of grey
2. Upgarde to gold class carpet
3. Upgrade to the kitchen and vanity cupboards that feel like real wood
4. Mirrored cupboard doors in the bedrooms
5. Upgrade to better colour for outdoor cupboards

So the list isn't very extensive. And really nothing that should take more than 30 minutes to price up and write up. I would hate to see how long it takes for a long list.

As I'm sure you can see I am getting rather frustrated with the time required by head office to get things done. I just want to get to building where we have people we can talk to face to face and actually get stuff done. Ahhh the joys of building.

And so the fun begins...

I knew things were going way to smoothly and it couldn't last forever. At the beginning of the week we were told that we needed a construction certificate for our retaining wall. Council has advised us that they don't require it because of how small the wall is however Coral have said they won't build without it. They gave us the contact details of the private certifier they are using for the house so we could get it all done at the same place. The certifier quoted us $610 for the construction certificate. Needless to say I wasn't very happy that I was being asked to pay that much for a piece of paper council aren't even interested in. Oh and the 610 didn't include having the drawings drawn up. Thankfully dad is a draftsman so he can do the drawings for us. He also knows a few helpful people who are private certifiers. They have quoted us $345. That sounds a lot better to us. We then let the first company know that based on the quote we had received from them we were choosing to go elsewhere. Well they weren't happy. They told us that Coral don't like you using a different company and that we were obviously being conned by someone who isn't qualified to do the work. Funny thing is the person who is doing it used to work for them. We then called Coral to let them know we were going elsewhere and would send them the certification directly. Again we were told we should be using the same company and that council probably wouldn't accept it. We then mentioned that fact that the people we are actually using council certifiers and that stopped them in their tracks. One of those moments I am very glad we knew the right people. I wasn't impressed that we were only told we needed this certificate at the last minute which meant if we didn't know the right people we wouldn't have had time to look elsewhere for a quote and would have been forced to use their certifiers or hold up the build.

On the positive side we had final tile selection yesterday and are very happy with our choices. It ended up costing us $280 but that doesn't sound so bad compared to others we have heard. The extra charges were for feature tiles in the bathroom and ensuite and because Coral look like they give a standard allowance for tiles and if your area is greater than their allowance you pay the difference. Please note if anyone is trying to figure out extra costs our build is off the plan so expect to pay a little extra even if you don't change your plan. That being said I think the extra cost for that part was about $100. So not too bad. Probably just the difference between their estimate and what comes in the box.

We have final finishings appointment this afternoon. Very excited, very nervous. I was 100% sure of our tile selections not so sure on everything else. I'm sure I will be happy once we finish this afternoon and can have a relaxing weekend knowing me and Jas have made it through finishings without killing eachother.