Friday, October 2, 2009

The ongoing saga of trying to just start building a house!

So how has this week ended up?

1) Did our electrical appointment on Tuesday which went well, just trying to get the final version seen to, signed off, and finally submitted back to Lifestyle National. The problem is that the revisions I sent back were seen to by one person who fixed 5 things and screwed up one, and fixing the 1 screwup held up things by a couple of days. Anyway, seems to be all fixed now; we hope!

2) While we were at the electrical appointment, stopped by our colour consultant to remind her that we're still waiting on things for 3 weeks ago. Finally managed to get a reviewed colour schedule and revised pricing estaimate back yesterday, which we've signed and sent back. But, got a call at 5pm today (Friday) that one thing that was meant to be in the signed off versions didn't make it through to our CSC< and now I have to email out CSC to check the change went through. Sigh....

We did end up making a few changes to colour. We were quoted $3200 for vinyl wrap to lower cupboards, but the price ended up being $4000 flat rate for the whole kitchen, so we've changed the upper cupboards to vinyl wrap too. Also got rid of the 50mm Hawthorn feature brick to the facade, as it turns out they're not as prominent as I thought they would be. That means another $4620 for furniture, after all! Also changed a couple of handles and got a beautiful glass/stainless steel canopy for $0 extra - yay!

3) Just received in the mail today a bunch of literature from Heritage Building Society. Interestingly enough though, we haven't actually received the formal offer documents that we're meant to sign. Will get in touch with them mid next week if it hasn't arrived by then.

4) CSC emailed me this morning to say that (at this point in time) we don't need any changes to the proposed slab design, as I sent M a whole bunch of surveys from council and Yarra Valley Water regarding easement approvals. Touch wood this doesn't change when it comes to the building permit process!

5) Advertised a few jobs on servicecentral to do some fencing work, and quote on moving the evaporative cooling unit from the old house to my parents house. Got phone calls from contractors within hours of posting the ad! Had one guy come to assess the job yesterday, and will hopefully give me a quote soon. Reminder to self: Organise free roof insulation for my parent's house, as their roof is filled with shredded paper as insulation....

We're also moving out of the house this weekend, as disconnections of gas & electricity are due this month prior to demolition in November. Frankly, I can't wait for building to commence, as that will mean the constant dealing with paperwork and revising/approving colours, electricals, structural etc will be over!

One thing I've found is that constant communication to/from the builder is a bit sketchy. Our CSC is brilliant (she apologised for taking 2 hours to return an email, can you believe!), but the electrical people are a bit hard to contact, and our colour consultant has been beset with computer problems, apparently. But to be fair, I believe all the builders are snowed under with work, as no doubt many first home buyers are taking advantage of the bonus.

Anyway, after a manic week fitting in work, builders appointments and reviewing contracts, it's time for an early night!

T&T

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