Flooring colours finalised

Today we visited Carpet Call to finalise our colour selection for our carpets and timber laminate floors. Although we had a feint idea when we first started the process some 4 months ago, it was nice to be able to tick another thing off the "to do" list before construction even begins.

The final colours we landed on were:

• Carpets (to 4 bedrooms) - Cashew

• Timber Flooring (everywhere else, except bathrooms & laundry) - Walnut Wideplank

These colours should complement and contrast nicely against each other, and also provide a neutral starting point for kids bedrooms down the track.

And on another note.....I got an unexpected phone call from Plantation on Monday afternoon advising that our plumbing & sewage plans had been approved by Council and we were now just waiting approval for the slab design and "Build Near Sewer" application. This is expected to take around the 4 week mark, which (surprisingly) keeps us on track for a late August site start.

Final Drawings

So at long last we have our final drawings. And not that they really look any different to our first drawings, but it's another step in the process that is now complete. We have also paid the balance of our deposit to Plantation and signed off on our final Post Contract Variation for the slab and earthworks.

Whilst on the topic of slab and earthworks, Plantation were able to (eventually) "justify" their costs. Although they still seem extravagant, there are additional works to do on site due to the type of substrate soil along with some recompaction, which wasn't allowed for initially as it was not evident from the disclosure plan. At the end of the day though, if we want to build our home, we need to pay the costs. So the dotted line was signed (albeit, with a degree of reluctance!).

I am also in the process of talking to neighbours regarding fencing. So far, it appears to have gone ok, with one side already obtaining quotes for the same style fence that we want. The other "neighbours" are actually developers who won't start building until someone buys one of their house & land packages so that will be a wait & see, but I am also discussing retaining walls with them (given Plantation has advised us of that requirement on one boundary). I am hopeful that, because of the slope of their block, they will need to cut in on our boundary line, which means we won't have to retain......fingers crossed on that one!

The only thing we are now waiting on is council approval and that is expected to take approximately another 6-8 weeks. After that, it takes Plantation approximately 2 weeks to get to allocate labour & supplies and start on-site. That puts us still at around late August, although if they actually start by this time, overjoyed would be an understatement!

In the meantime we are just waiting for the fence to be taken down by the civil contractors so that we can drive up to our block - hopefully that will be in the next week (though it was meant to be done this week....). In the meantime, here are a few photos of our block, complete with footpath and grass - which will no doubt get ruined once construction starts - but in the meantime it looks good :)

And the costs keep coming......

Today we finally received our Post Contract Variation which outlined adjustments as a result of the Soil Report and Site Survey completed back in mid-June.

We have decided to go with the M Class Slab as this was actually $500 cheaper than the S Class Piering option, however, our site costs have increased 500% from a quoted $729 to an incredible $3,827, which has well and truly eroded any credit we hoped to get back given we were quoted an H1 slab initially. I am now in the process of seeking a detailed breakdown of the site costs from the Estimator because I feel we have now been taken for a ride due to the fact we were due to receive a credit.

Our final drawings also now show a retaining wall required down the LHS of our property, running approximately half the length from front towards the rear. Although only 400-600mm in height, it is again another cost that we were not expecting given the first lot of drawings we received.

To top it all off, Plantation have also input an allowance into our latest Post Contract Variation of $10,000 for "potential rock excavation during cut/fill". Our cut is 550mm and according to the soil test, there is "weak rock" (ie. shale) from 500mm. So without a doubt now, I will be spending a day or two at the site when they cut/fill to ensure they either do/don't hit rock because for some odd reason, I'm not going to trust what Plantation tell me without seeing it for myself.

On some positive notes though:

• The construction fencing from the civil contractors is due to come down next week sometime which means we will finally be able to drive up to our block
• We have also been assigned a street number - no longer are we a generic "lot 344", but we are officially #15 :)
• And our kitchen appliances have been paid for in full and we will be picking them up and putting them in storage sometime in the next couple of weeks. The only change we made was the dishwasher - initially we were going to bring our dishwasher from the unit over, but we have decided to leave that there and purchase a shiny new Stainless Steel ASKO dishwasher :)

I haven't put any photos up as it looks essentially unchanged at this stage - all the fun will begin in about 6-8 weeks when the construction vehicles roll up :)