Contracts Signed

We made an appointment with Mr K for 9.00am just this Saturday past (Yes Election Day) to sign all the documents.  Mr K took us through each section and explained everything in detail.  We signed off on everything (Which I'm very pleased about), and now we will be waiting for the builders to sign off and then send us our copy back, and of course one other copy out to our Finance Broker.

This should be done this week so here's hoping we get the documents by Friday (or Monday) at the latest.  After this, our last step is getting all final approval from the Bank.  This is the big dreaded wait.  I don't envision any problems but you know, anything can happen with the banks... Can't wait to get the approval through and then finally have our first home begin to build.

Contract Arrived!

I received an email from Mr K yesterday informing us that we should be receiving the Contracts that day! The wife and I were both very excited, to say the least.

Unfortunately for us, we didn't get home until 12:30am this morning however there was the Contract just as promised!  This thing is pretty big. 120+ pages to it. I had a brief glance at it first thing but was just too tired to go over it at that hour of the morning.

I now have the task of taking out my fine comb and studying the contract in full, which I hope to do today.  On the quick run through of what I had time to do today, things are looking good.  But of course, me being me, I'm going to have to peel through every page before I finalise anything. Then we will be having our conveyancer (Specialist Lawyer) go through it to double check.

Next step after this will be to arrange a time to sit down with Mr K and sign all 3 copies (Builders, Banks and of course our copy).  Apparently this will take a bit of time as most if not every page needs to be signed or initialled and at the same time, what we are signing will hopefully be explained to us so we understand it all better.

Will be updating again soon.

The Herald Sun Home Show

We got some tickets to the Melbourne Herald Sun Home Show so we decided to go on Saturday.

It was bigger then I expected... a LOT bigger.  Took us over 6 hours to go through it all... and that was just once!  Not to mention we bypassed sections of it (Bathrooms, kitchens and the like) due to already have chosen those for our home.  We could have gone through a second time too it was that interesting.

I was very interested in a number of things including Outdoor Designs, Hybrid Solar Systems, beds, curtains/blinds, Lounges, to name a few.  There were just so many things covered at this show.

We've now got a fair few great ideas of what we want once we are finally living in the house.  Plenty of things to aim for over the years ahead... At least there'll be plenty of things for me to keep posting on, well on into the years after the house has been completed.

In the end, I say that show was absolutely fantastic.  If any of you are building, or even already live in your own home, go to this show next year.  It is so worth your time and Money (Entry Ticket) to see so many things in once place.  I can guarantee you the wife and I will be there next year.

Tile Appointment Done!

We had our appointment at Beaumont Tiles today. We had already visited them a little over a month ago and had checked out the standard range that JG King had on offer.  This, of course, was all prior to our colour appointment with JG King so when we visited Beaumont Tiles this time round, the tiles we selected in the first place were no longer really suited to what we wanted.

As we are getting floating floors throughout the main part of the house, we only needed to select tiles for the Bathrooms and the Laundry.  Because of this our tile selection was a little different. We ended up choosing 450mm x 450mm Tiles for the flooring, and a pretty standard white wall tile which had slight indents in it for its feature.  The Consultant was very helpful and she ended up comparing a whole lot of the tiles until we made up our minds. She pointed out a little feature of the floor tiles being used around the bath tub so once she showed us a display of what that looked like, we decided to go with that too.

We then selected a darker grout colouring for the floor tiles as upon looking at some of the displays, it made the tiles more of a feature.

Once done the consultant took us through all of our choices and we agreed to the extra costing... a whopping $16.00, which we were happy with, and we signed the paperwork. They will now forward this back to JG King and hopefully all will start moving forward from here!

Colour Apointment DONE!

All I have to say is Oh My Gosh!! I was thinking the colour appointment was going to be quick and simple, about 45 minutes, Tops.  We had an idea of what we wanted but in the end, I don't think we realised just how many things there are to pick and the amount of colour selection for them.While we've been waiting for the Preliminary Drawings, J.G King have booked us in to choose our colours.

Below are the colours we chose for the Exterior of the house.

Next came the Kitchen Bench and cupboards for Both the En-suit and Bathroom. We chose the Darker Colour for the Kitchen and the lighter for the Bathrooms:

 We were going to have tiles throughout the house but ended up going with floating floors.  We just prefered the design and colour:

I wanted to make sure we had a nice Front entrance so we upgraded the door and I chose Jarrah Stain for the colour:

Finally was the carpet and wall paint:

We also had the glass splash-back in the kitchen but I forgot to take a photo of it. We then made an appointment to go see Beaumont Tiles but that is next month.  Hoping we get the preliminary drawings through before then.

Anyway, 2 and a half hours later, we were done.  I think I'm happy with the selection so here's hoping it looks as good in real life as it does in my head.

Site Test Results are in!

That was quicker then expected.  I got a call a couple of days ago from J.G King's Office and have been sent our site report.

This was where my heart stopped.

It's a P Class site.

I had to do sooooo much research into finding out what this would mean as we have an M class included in the quote.

Anyway. The Site Report test recommends an M Class Slab with re-enforced edge beams. I'm not really entirely sure what that entails but I've been reading up about nightmare stories where some sites have cost $50,000 extra!!!??? OUCH!

Friends of our recently moved into their newly build home in Jacksons View in Druin (Near Warragul).

They told me their report came back and they needed cut and fill, and a H2 class slab.  They got a whole heap of piers and some of them needed to go 9 Meters deep!!!  Their site costs and Slab added an extra $38,000 to their home!

Other Friends of ours built a double Story on a P class site and theirs came to $18,000.

I'm feeling a little easier as our soil test was terminated after 2000mm so no 9 meter deep Piers.  I also can't find where it says we need any piers for a concrete slab so I have my fingers crossed but am trying to not get my hopes up until AFTER we get the first draft of the contract. Also very little cut and fill if any will be needed so hope that keeps the costs down.

In the meantime, I sent J.G. King a copy of the controlled fill/compacting report for my block.  Let's hope it all comes back without exuberant costs added for the slab.

Deposit Down, Pre-lim Quotes Signed

We've met with Mr K and signed the quotes and basic documents.  Put down the a deposit and now have to wait for the Soil Test, then move onto the design of the slab, and then the first official draft of The Contracts for The Memphis.

We've been told about 4 - 5 weeks or so.  I know there's all sorts of delays but we'll see.  Now it's the waiting game. Things are getting exciting... but at the same time I'm really starting to stress.  I know of all the issues that go hand in hand with building so I am dreading, and expecting the worse.

Fingers Crossed!