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.

Contracts Signed

We got approval on our loan last week. We signed the loan contracts on Friday afternoon and the building contracts on Saturday. The bank requires an invoice from Coral before they release the funds for the deposit. We asked our sales consultant for this on Saturday. I'm a little disapointed that she made a note of this and sent it with the contracts snail mail. The bank is asking us for it but we have to wait until the contracts arrive to head office and someone gets the message to send the bank the invoice. Just wish she had of emailed them asking for the invoice. It could have been emailed to the bank on Monday and they would already have their deposit and we would be one step closer to being in council. Oh well at least contracts are signed.

Contracts Have Arrived

Very exciting to see a package from Coral on our door step yesterday afternoon. We are very happy with the detailed drawings and are getting very excited to see it come together. We are still a little in shock with all of the information sent. Just trying to sift through it all and figure out what needs to be done.

We are currently waiting for our lender to give us approval for our loan. Hopefully sometime this week so we can sign papers before Christmas.

Colours, Colours, Colours

We went to visit the colours consultant today. Wow there is a lot buzzing through our heads. Thankfully the tap fittings that come with the eclipse inclusions are great. We love them so no decisions there. Bricks, garage door and gutters etc weren't too hard to choose. We were a little put out when we decided we don't like the white ceasar stone benchtops we thought we wanted. This has now changed to black which throws us completely in a spiral on cupboard colours. We have no idea what we are going to do. We are thinking about upgrading the carpet. For an extra $800 we can get much better quality carpet that looks and feels a lot better. We are thinking it might be worth it. Ahhh decisions, decisions.

Tender Has Arrived

We had our tender meeting yesterday. Well bad news is they struck rock. So another $20k later and we have ordered the contract. Everything else looked good. Now we are just in the mad rush to hopefully get drawings in to council by Christmas. I know I am really going on a hope and a prayer with that but one can only dream right.We are just waiting on the contract to be drawn up and finance to be approved.

Getting Started

Well it feels like it has been a long road already. And we haven't even started. I am 24 and my husband (Jason) is 31. I am an accountant so very much on the searching for value for money side. My husband is part owner of a joinery and a retained firefighter. So he is all about quality and has very little time for pretty much anything.

We ummed and ahhed about wether to build or buy for a very long time. Then the new first home owners grant was announced that gave us $15,000 if we built and nothing if we bought. We had always wanted to build but wasn't sure how feasible it was cash wise but with this grant it really made the decision for us.

We had been keeping an eye on a couple of blocks we really liked. We were a bit short of choice as hubby needs to be within 5 mins of the station for work. We also really wanted a decent sized block and an estate that was on the quiet side. Thankfully we found exactly what we were looking for at Bolwarra Heights. We settled on September 20th on our perfect little block of land. The land is 1300m2 and is a corner block. Exactly what we wanted.

On October 1st we had finally decided on the house design we wanted. We went and saw Coral homes and asked for an estimate. The estimate came back two weeks later in our price range with Eclipse Inclusions. We then paid the initial deposit for a fixed price tender. At this stage we are still waiting for the tender to come back. Hopefully it will be in on Friday.

We have been to look at tiles and bricks. So far we have agreed with no arguments. Big sigh of relief. We are having white marble floor tiles, whitish/grey stone tiles on the bathroom and laundry floors, black gloss tiles on the bathroom walls and a mirror mosaic strip of feature tiles in both of the bathrooms. We were really happy with the choices that were available from Coral. The quality and colours are great. We were expecting to pay extra for gloss tiles but they are included. The only extra charge we have to pay so far is the feature tiles. If we can get out of building with just that extra cost we will be very happy.

Block pics....