Drains Laid

Well went on my usual Saturday drive and found the pipes had been laid and the ground was prepped ready for the next stage for the slab to be poured.





Front view of the lot with the house shaped out and pips laid out. The master ensuite to the right centre, and kitchen and bathroom to the rear.

View looking back towards the street.

Power mains box waiting for a brick wall to rest up against.

Night Vision Pipe Works

A quick drive to the lot after work last night showed a pile of pipes and a pile of red aggregate. So the draining laying is commencing.

Further down the back a deep hole had been dug where the easement is, to connect what I assume to be the sewerage downpipe. Lucky I didnt fall in the hole in all my nice work clothes!

So hope to see a lot of progress since this last visit when I go this weekend and better quality pictures with daylight! Heres to no more rain in Melbourne as Im sure the rain today wouldnt have helped the construction cause.

Let the games begin!!!

Well made a drive straight from work 40 minutes drive from Point Cook and it was well worth the drive. Id been anticipating some progress since reading the commencement date had been set for today. Upon arrival I was greeted by the temporary fencing, and on closer inspection a porta loo and rubbish cage! This can only mean the site scrape, piering, piping and slab will come shortly. I cant wait for some real construction to begin after such an anxious wait... its been over 2 months since contract signing and things are finally coming to fruition.



The temporary fencing with porta loo and rubbish cage to the right of it.

Cross over protection. Finally my cross over is going to be protected after the neighbouring builder used it to get access to drop off the bricks and roof tiles to the side of the house.

The street lamp on the opposite side of the street. The tradies were still working inside at 6.30pm too.

Progress!

So I logged into PD 24/7 tonight and to my surprise the progress thermometer has moved passed Administration and is now half way between Commencement and Slab Complete! What a momumentus occassion. Im going to have to do a site visit tomorrow now. =)

Closer Inspection

A closer view of the water tap and meter to be used during the construction phase.

Left rear boundary marking. My area as indicated by the white paint.

View looking along the back fence line, from right rear boundary marker (this is from the perspective of looking at the block from the street) to the left rear boundary marker. Got to love all the rubbish and dirt already there! Plus the neighbour's fencing in the middle of being removed.

View from the right rear boundary marker to the front right boundary marker. Cant really see it through the fencing but its there. Will be a tight fit though as the neighbour has their garage wall and guttering as close to the fence line as possible. The garage guttering pretty much has to sit right on the fence line otherwise its got to be a 1 metre gap. Thats why you will see two neighbours with their garages so close to each other the roof guttering is almost touching. Feel sorry for the brickies doing the second garage, since there is very little space to get in to do a proper job.

Ive also been bouncing around ideas about where Im supposed to be putting my water tank. Im going to put it on the North East corner outside the 3rd bedroom, though wondering if its going to be too much of an eyesore and may reduce the 2.8 metre gap on that side of the house too much to negate the corner for what ever reason. Though I guess this leaves further scope to do something with the back yard as there will be a decently sized area to the rear. Could put future garden, or even a pool if I wanted to be that ostentatious, well Im not quite there just yet. It such a long way before I can think about putting in my water tank so plenty of time to ponder about that.

Water Tap and Meter

Well the latest news with the block is, I have a water tap and meter! This is a good sign, plus the neighbouring builder has removed the pile of bricks on my lot, as well as the fencing on my lot. Should have a property site start in the next week or so.

Meanwhile I received the latest building variation from my Customer Service Officer yesterday and my working drawings! So Ive signed off on the working drawings, though the variation, which is an extra power point was for -$41 which was a mistake, so the CSO is going to send out a new variation which should be +$41, though Ive sent the original back signed off anyway so it should all be in order.

Had the new electrical plans emailed to me and its looking good aside from my request for the outside of the laundry floodlight to be moved to the otherside of the door for greater coverage of the back yard. Will have let them know, as they said theyd changed this in the previous variation but hadnt actually changed it on the electrical plan?

Concrete Blob: DDay 2

In light of the increasingly difficult efforts of my concrete removal towards the end of the previous day I decided larger machinery would be required.
So I went down to the local Europcar and hired a ute for $55 (pretty cheap in my books) and then the tool hire next door and picked up a generator and jack hammer for $140, and the hire guy threw in a 30 metre power cable, bless his soul.



The Hitachi 19kg Jackhammer with point makes light work of the concrete, though most energy is used in holding it up and pulling it out of the broken concrete.

The ute 80% loaded with the concrete. Generator can be seen on the back.

Almost finished clearing the concrete blob.

All in all it was only an extra 3 hours work for me to break the remain concrete up and shovel it into the back of the ute. Once fully loaded the tires on the ute were looking they were about to explode. So it would have to be easy travelling some 14 kms or so to the Werribee dump.

I knew I had to make the dumps 4pm closing deadline as not making it to the dump that day wasnt an option. So I was quite rushed to get the tarpaulin over the top, and luckliy had enough rope to die it down. The last thing I wanted was any of the concrete debris to come flying off the back into another car on the road.

So the weekend was quite productive and Im pretty sure I wouldve saved a lot of money doing it myself than having to rely on the builder doing it and charging me thousands of dollars, though in saying that I was running round the whole weekend coordinating this cleaning effort! Well goes to show if you want to do things on the cheap then youve got to be prepared to spent a bit of your own time sourcing the right tools to do the right job.

Concrete Blob - DDay 1

So I went down to Bunnings Warehouse in Hoppers Crossing on Saturday arvo and bought a few tools, including a garden shovel for less than $15 (absolute bargain!) was on special and did such a great job, and a 3.5kg sledgehammer, handle made from hickory for $35 and some high impact demolition gloves as well as ear muff, safety glasses (dont want to be blinded by any rogue chips).

I took to the concrete and after an hour or so made some decent headway, would have demolished close to half of it before I retired due to the dying light. I got to the thicker part, which consisted of 2 layers since a 2nd concreter added to the first blob. Thus I determined I would not waste anymore of my energy and would have to reply upon some heavier machinery to finish off the job.

Concrete Blob

The wonderful concrete blob my neighbours concrete truck left on the rear of my lot. It was added to by a second neighbouring concrete truck. This occurs because cement trucks have to go back to their yeard clean and empty from any concrete as it will harden inside the truck (its a chemical reaction of course) so they just dump the concrete anywhere they want. Spoke to my solicitor at the conveyancers office and you cant do anything about rubbish which exists on your land prior to settling on it as it is bought and settled "as is". Once you own the land the cost of enforcing the law is usually greater than the removal of the rubbish itself. Thus I am left in a position where I will have to remove this myself. Porter Davis arent going to start on my site unless its clean, so rather than risk delay the construction commencement I decided I would undertake the removal of this myself. Its great exercise too!

The lot as of last week. My neighbour is currently building on the right.

Post Contract Variations

Well havent written in here for a wee while, not too much to report aside from receiving my Post Contract Variations from Porter Davis a couple of Fridays ago and went over it, signed and sent it back last week. Everything was included, except for the power point to the wardrobe for my security panel which I will install once the house is done. I emailed my CSO at PD about this and she will include this in a separate variation, which wont delay the build, and its a heck of a lot easier for me to do this now than add one in at a later date.

Caught up with my friend Claire for Coffee, whos also building at the end of my street. We met up at the Coffee Club in the Point Cook town centre and it was packed full of people! Definitely a good omen for the area. Stage 2 of the shops is due to open later this year with another 40+ specialty stores.

Florey Avenue is where its at

Waiting ...

Well all is quiet on the western front.  Sent an email to my CSO at PD regarding the site start date which my broker requires for lodging the FHOG application.  Have yet to hear back:

Outstanding issues which I need to keep in mind:

1. Approximate Site Start Date to be confirmed by PD CSO
2. Site re-establishment survey might be required as indicated on the engineers report.  I need to determine whether the builder can identify the lot boundaries
3. Electrical:  Confirmation of the total cost of the electrical fit out as theyd left out my aerial and home theatre pre-wiring in the contract signing phase
   
4. Variation:  Require cost of extra window to 4th bedroom
5. Variation:  Once I have the cost of the 4th bedroom I will then determine whether I will go ahead with the water tank connections
   
6. Variation to add:  I need to add a power point for an alarm system.  Need to determine a suitable location for this.
   
7. Variation to confirm:  Alarm system is not included
8. Variation to confirm:  Insulation R4.0 Ceiling, R2.0 Walls
9. Evaporative cooling is left in the contract as is

Unconditional Approval!!!

Just got off the phone from my broker and he has informed me the bank has approved my construction loan, unconditional!!! YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Valuation Pending

Well met with my broker on Wednesday to hand over the certified copy of my contract to build (yay to the government and the FHOG!)

He has still yet to hear back from the bank as its in the hands of the 3rd party valuers, so hopefully I get a good word by tomorrow 

The longer the wait the greater potential for delay in a site start which is not ideal - yeh the sooner the better I reckon.  Never the less the builder isnt going to start anything until Ive got unconditional approval for the construction loan.

It is still nail biting suspense on this front, though my sleeping patterns have change pre-land settlement from waking up at 3am with worry to not going to bed til after 1am with anxiety.  Well as they say what doesnt kill you makes you grow stronger so maybe Ill be rock hard at the end of this long experience!

Also emailed my CSO at PD and asked about the cost of the variation for the extra window in my 4th bedroom  and have yet to hear back.  As soon as I get that quote back Im going to decide whether I should add in the extra connections for the water tank ... based on the price differential they were going to charge an extra $1700 to include a standard 2100 litre water tank as opposed to not having one.  Well a quick google says I can buy one for around the $700 mark so why not save a buck or a thousand.  Think in the long run it will be good to get them to do the install of the pipes from the down pipes and back up to mains and connection to the 2 toilets and the concretet pad and pump as it will save me a lot of time and hassle in the long run and wont cost that much extra as opposed to me project managing the entire process myself.

Warming up

Well a few things have finally eventuated in the past week, my CSO at PD finally got back to me regarding the insulation to walls and ceiling, Im going to have to fork out another one and a half k for R2.0 to the walls and R4.0 to the ceiling ... managed to get hold of the building code of Australia which states for building class 1a in climate zone 6 that a minimum of R1.7 for the walls and R3.2 for the ceiling ... think if I overspec the minimum insulation then its going to lead to a more comfortable living experience and less money spent on cooling in the summer and heating in the winter ...40% energy is lost through the ceiling so guess its better to be safe than sorry especially in Melbourne based winters ....

Also just today my CSO got back to me about the pre-fit out of pipes for a water tank which is going to cost in excess of 2k so Im thinking I might leave that til later when Melbourne really runs out of water!  things are going to add up, plus I reckon I could get a subbie to do it cheaper further down the track ...

Got a letter from the CBA yesterday on 11th May (which was dated 5th of May!!) telling me my mortgage payments would begin on the 11th May, I was wondering why my bank balance was short some $500!!!  Well very lucky I was paid last Friday and the direct debit came out of my existing ANZ account - imagine that being in arrears on my loan before the construction loan was approved!   

Then the next piece of the saga is getting the unconditional approval from the bank for my construction loan, based on my building plans - this is something which is super critical as any delay in the happening will undoubtedbly delay a site start for June ... my broker reckons it should be later this week that I should hear something and that Im not the only person with an application ... though cant help benchmark the process against my friend Claire who had her valuation done and construction loan approved today .... timing is everything in this game

Well at least Ive got my certified copies of contract to build and passport for my FHOG application - and yay for other potential home builders/buyers that its been extended for another 3 months at the same level 

Potential risk factors requiring mitigation:

• Valuation of building contract being less than what is specified
• Site re-establishment survey as indicated on my soil report that this would be required
• Cost overruns with variations - need to exercise self control

Welcome to the mortgage life and living in destitution once again!  The things we do for long term wealth creation, as the shampoo add says "it wont happen overnight but it will happen"

The Cold Shoulder

So no reply thus far from the PD CSO regarding my insulation and made a call to her direct line, and no answer, and even called the receptionist and left a message for the CSO to call me back.  Still no reply, has this person fallen into the abyss of housing development and become piering in someones lot?

The plot thickens ...

Well good new at least I received mail from my conveyancer today letting me know the settlement went through the appropriate applications have been made to the local city council. 

Insulation, sisilation I feel a cold vibration

Right sent an email to my CSO at PD about insulation for the walls.  At contract signing a couple weeks back (which went for 5 hours I must add) I discovered that insulation to the walls wasnt included, only sisilation wrap, which is that silver lined green/blue sheet you get stuck on round the outside of the frame.  Im no builder but how is that meant to stop heat loss?  Heaven knows how the 5 star energy rating still stands?  Seriously the sisliation wrap has an R rating of R1.5 which I highly doubt is going to stop the heat from leaving my precious 4 walls .... and the glucose chips that are included for insulating the ceiling are only R1.5?  Ive got a better bet digging a hole in the ground and wrapping polystyrene round myself

To be continued ....

New Beginnings ... Almost

Hi hi hi to the interweb and all that is great

Well thought Id kick off a blog to share my experiences with my individual foray into building a house.

So far Ive achieved (not in chronological order but from how my scattered memory works):

• Settled on a block of land in Point Cook, Melbourne - 20 minutes west of the CBD
• Signed a contract to build with Porter Davis, building the Regent 23 and everything else which is the precursor to this event, being colour and electrical selection at Hopetoun interiors
• Had unconditional approval for my land loan through the CBA
• Applied for refinancing for construction loan
• Grown a few extra grey hairs and increased the darkness under my eyes

Will keep the rest of interconnected humanity posted ....

Disclaimer:

Please note all views and opinions expressed on my blog are meant to be my sole individual humble opinion of my own experiences and I am not using this in anyway to defame or say really rude things about other people and if I do then its because it really did happen and not because Im holding a grudge and trying to get back at whoever ;-P