Day 22: Surprise Surprise... We have a SLAB....

We all know that the weather in Sydney has been absolutely wet for the past few weeks.  We were lucky that out piering went through last week even of the weather.  

Anyway, this week I wasn't expecting our slab will go through because I was regularly checking the weather online and all I can see was rain, rain, rain and even thunderstorm... so I wasn't really expecting our slab.  Also, I never got a phone call from my site supervisor the last few days.

So today, I dropped my SS a message to get some updates on when our slab will be poured. His reply was "It was rebooked for today".  What?  So, we were not informed about the schedule of our slab which they will normally do.  Anyway, I didn't even argue about not being informed of the schedule but was kinda excited because there is a slight chance of getting our slab poured today.  

So I waited.. waited.. and waited... then at around 4PM today, my site supervisor called and happily informed me that our slab went through.. what a SUPRISE for us...  so I rushed to our land after office to check out our freshly laid slab..  and WOW.. WE HAVE A SLAB!!! 

I guess this is the first major milestone in our build.. This also means that we will see an invoice for our first progress payment in the mail in a few days. 

The only thing that we need to do is to remove the excess soil around the house ($$$$ kaching!! kaching!!!) before they put up the frames which is approximately in 2 weeks time.  

Now we can tell, that our build is slowly getting there.

Day 16: Drainage Plumbing Done; Waffle Pods & Steel Mesh Delivered!

It's been kinda stressful week for us. MDJ discontinued our flooring of choice which means we'd have to go back again for reselection. Hmmm could it be that the profit margin with our brand of choice is not high enough for MDJ? They didn't elaborate on the reason, just said it's for our own interest. Not really buying that lols! Ooopsss i might get in touble here so I'll leave it at that:). We saw this opportunity to explore our options again and  much to our delight MDJ is open to cancellation of flooring without charges. We then set off last weekend to visit suppliers for laminates, floating timber, bamboo flooring, etc. and we found some really sweet deals. There is no doubt we would have saved around 4K or more if we source the flooring elsewhere, but after much thought and discussion we jumped the gun and just went ahead with MDJ. We didn't really liked any other laminates, so without batting an eyelid we went with the new craze that is bamboo flooring. It's said to have a very high janka rating for hardness (way harder than timber) and will definitely be hard on our pockets too (what with another 3.4k variation)! Right at the bottom is the picture of our new flooring - coffee color! It's the most popular bamboo color, we would have gone for something a little bit non-conventional but the other color we liked (brushed antique) might be too rustic for the theme that we have in mind (which is quite frankly as clear as muddy water right now hehe).

And since we are in the vicinity of our property, we decided to drop by and have a look at the drainage plumbing etc that was supposed to be done yesterday. And surprise surprise, waffle pods and the steel mesh have also been delivered! This is taking faster than expected. We should be getting the slab done next week depending on the weather. Woooooooot!!!

Day 14: Piering And Slab Framing

After 6 days and 3 cancellations between, piering was finally carried out today yeyyy!!! It's been raining almost everyday, what a crazy summer. We couldn't take time off work and so we had to rely on our Site Supervisor (SS) to look after our interest on piering measurement. And unfortunately, the inevitable has happened - we exceeded our allowance by 24.4 lineal meter which will cost us another 2K :(

Day 9: Fence and Portaloo Installed!

Day 1: Site Cutting

Just when we are pressed for time to meet the start of construction deadline, our mobile lender had to arrange for revision of our document due to a mistake they made on the mortgage fees. We were so close in getting that approval before 2011 ends but it's just wasn't meant to be. The heavens said we are too eager and we need to slow down lols! On 3rd Jan 2012, our mobile lender advised us that our loan have been approved-in-principle. At this point we thought we are ready to rumble, but apparently we still need to obtain the "Authority to Commence" letter from the bank before construction can commence. Ha! Too many steps, it's insane hehe!

And finally on my birthday 9th Jan, this much awaited letter was finally obtained and on the very same day our file was released for construction. Yey!!! This called for a double celebration so I and hubby went out for a seafood platter which was soooo good - lobster, oyster, scallops, prawn, squid. Double yum!!!

Sixteen days later, we received an SMS from MDJ saying that today, 25 Jan 2012 marks the start of work on the site! We couldn't wait for our respective day jobs to come to an end so we could drop by our land. We braved the rain yesterday and below is the pic of what we were welcomed with. I can't wait to see the whole process unfold in the coming days and months! I'll leave you with these before and after photos. Happy Australia Day!!!

A Piece of Land Down Under

Pegged 21 Jan 2012

Day 1, Site Cutting - 25 Jan 2012

Electrical Selections (check check check!)

Due to the Christmas holidays, our Electrical Selections can only be scheduled on Jan 2012, deym! Luckily someone pulled out on 12th December, and we got the slot! This is a blessing because it will allow us to include the variation to the bank for the construction loan approval.

As usual, we went to the meeting prepared and aware of exactly what we wanted. Thanks to my hubby whose second name is forum, and his persistence to discuss with me almost everyday (tee hee!!). We are very much conscious of spending unnecessarily for top of the line and innovative technology of today (a ducted vacuum would have been a nice gadget to have!) And as much as we want to live the dream, we have to be realistic and strictly limit ourselves with what is essential plus a just a little bit more for good measure ;)

With Christine's help (she is such a darling, very patient and we had an easy session), These are what we have come up with:
1) 20x wiring for future downlights in hallway / family room / kitchen
2) 37x double power points all over incl outdoors(it maybe overkill but what the heck!)
3) alarm panel system
4) 4x 2-way switches
5) 2x 3-in-1 fan-heater-light for bathrooms
5) 2x TV, pay TV, antenna, phone points, reinforced walls
6) some other minor miscellaneous stuff

Regardless of how much we were careful, we still ended up with a total of $8.5K for electricals. This brings us up to $80k on top of the base price. This reminds me of the earlier conversation with the sales people - they have given us a realistic figure back then. Mind you, this additional 80k includes the minor variations that were later on required by the council before they could approve the plans. So far, our experience with McDonald Jones has been pleasant to this day. Hope this will always be the case all throughout the building process.

Building Contract Signed!

About a month after the color selection, we received the building contract (with plans and consolidated tender) for signing. We reviewed it for a week and found a few significant mistakes that could affect our bank loan, the most significant being
(1) our names are shortened - I have three first names and Bjorn got two!, and
(2) the flooring was not included in the quotation.

It took about 3 weeks for both parties to sign the contract as well as the variations. We are running out of time to finalize the building contract, and so we can then submit our construction loan application to the bank. We are concerned that we won't be able to get our bank loan approval within the timeframe we are bound with to start construction. The construction companies are so clever, we have to start construction within 150 from the date of deposit (april 30 2011 in our case) beyond which we would have to pay additional 1K for each month od delay. It makes sense considering that material prices will most likely increase by then. Our 150th day is on nov 30, I don't think our construction loan will be approved by then, we'll probably be ready to start by mid-december. But again, it's Christmas holidays and chances are construction companies will be closed for 2 weeks (xmas and new year holidays). My gut feel tells me we will only be able to start construction in January and we'll have no choice but to part with another 1k or 2 as penalty. Hopefully McDonald Jones will give us some grace period.

The moment we received back the signed contracts, we immediately contacted our ANZ mobile banker (who I highly recommend for being not a "hard sell" and a really good customer service), to get the ball rolling for our construction loan. He's been to our House fives times, without qualms of going back again if we needed to see him over some minor things! Quite a nice and sincere chap, and we are quite comfortable with him. The bank interest is going downhill so we couldn't be any happier to conclude these financial matters at this time of the year. The downside is, in a matter of months, our hard-earned savings will all be wiped out for sure. But I guess we'll just have to bite the bullet and let tomorrow take care of itself ;)