Colour Selection

While we were waiting for Council approval we went along to pick our bricks, roof tiles and pavers etc. Eventually we decided on:-
Bricks PGH Summervilla - Vanilla
Roof tiles Monier Traditional profile - Barramundi
Pavers PGH Lassiters Gold
Facia & gutters Colourbond Ironstone
Garage door & downpipes Colourbond Surfmist

Council D.A. Lodgement (again)

Today we were informed that Eden Brae have lodged our house/excavation/retaining wall plans with council. The retaining walls are 1.8m at the highest point so still above the recommended 1m so we supplied a covering letter and photos of our neighbours 2m wall......so now we wait.

Finally we have D.A. Approval!

Double celebration today, not only is it our wedding anniversay but we finally got D.A. approval from Council! We can't believe how long its taken, neither can all our family, friends or work colleagues who eventually stopped asking us when we thought we'd be building. A huge weight has been lifted and we can't wait for it to get started.

Contract Meeting

After lots of amendments and redrawing of plans we finally settled on a plan that we liked and that we hope will get through Council. We added upgrades to several areas:-
opted for eaves
increased the bathroom/ensuite tile height,
back to wall toilets (we have boys!)
awning instead of sliding windows
added extra window to rumpus and garage
opted for Bifold instead of stacker doors on family room
put stacker doors instead of rumpus window
extended the garage to the back and side
had part of the huge master bedroom partitioned off to make a separate computer room
changed the kitchen layout to be wall oven instead of six burner stove
added ducted air conditioning

Today was the contact meeting with Eden Brae where they talked us through the plans and the wording of the contract then we got down to the bottom line price......gulp.....well we did make quite a lot of changes. Some of the things we requested weren't in the contract but we were assured they could be added as a Post Contract Variation, and once that is sorted and Eden Brae get confirmation of our funds, then it can be lodged in Council.

Yet more disappointment

More disappointment for us. The Council decided that although their planning personnel had told us to submit earthworks and retaining wall plans prior to applying for house plan approval, that they wanted the whole package after all i.e. retaining walls, cut and fill levels and house plans all to be submitted as one (thereby wasting 5 months of our time). We weren't happy.

Knowing the trouble we had getting any builders to look at the site once they saw the amount of contour lines on our site plan (more lines than a zebra), we weren't hopeful of finding a builder. We visited Kauley homes and went as far as having them design a custom build to our budget, however we weren't overly satisfied with the finish of their homes and we would have had to upgrade practically all the standard inclusions for them to be acceptable to us.

Knowing our hearts weren't in the Kauley house we then went back to Eden Brae. The saleman at the showhome was so helpful and did lots of changes to the project home plan to make it fit our block, then he worked miracles and managed to persuade his bosses to consider doing those little (ok, huge) modifications to the single level home to make it a split level (and therefore more "site responsive") to meet the Council's requirements. We're just holding our breath for the costings of it all now.

Plans amended

We had disappointing news from the Council that they would not pass our plans unless amended to comply with their regulations on height of retaining walls and amounts of fill. This despite the fact that our neighbour to the rear of the block has a 2.2 metre retaining wall........So back to the engineer to redraw the plans ( for a fee of course) and we resubmitted today.

Our Dreamhouse

This is the showhome at Kellyville that we'd like to build. We've visited so many times they think we've moved in there. Meanwhile still waiting for word from Council.

This is the link to the Eden Brae homes website

http://www.edenbraehomes.com.au/OurHomes/Prestige/Memphis.aspx