Soiled Removed 21/12, Bring on January for the Frames !

We've had our Soil removed and made our first installment / payment for the slab today.

Site Supervisor says we will be first cab off the rank in January for our Frames which will be exciting.

This is good news and to be honest we were more than happy about having the slab down before Christmas after a long year.

Ps Somebody has been dumping rubbish in our site rubbish pile. Very annoying, I think these people should have some respect and get rid of their own rubbish a little more thoughtfully !

More photo's in the new year as the Frame's go up.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !

Waffle Slab Yesterday, Concrete today 9/12.

Block Scraped Monday 6/12, Piers Dug & Concreted 7/12

All the trades hooked in yesterday and today (I wasn't on-site yesterday). It was a much welcome relief when I received the phone call this morning from the site supervisor to advise that work had commenced. When I arrived on-site all the trades were completely friendly introducing themselves. The concrete company advised me that the slab will be poured, weather permitting on Thursday 9/12. I stayed for a little while during my lunch break and came back after work to check out the piering. It was covered in plastic sheeting anyway. Advised that 46 linear metres of piering was used. All piers at 900 mm to 1m in depth & anywhere from 300 to 400 mm wide. I have a full spec sheet of all the piers and their varying depths and widths. This sheet goes back to Allworth however this cost was fixed for us anyway. Note a pile of dirt to remove, a few neighbours have expressed an interest in taking some for fill on their land. Additional Note - piles of dirt are deceptive, they are bigger then they look !

Mowed the Lawn again........

Drove past the block today and it definitely needed a mow. Mowed it about 3 weeks ago and in this weather, rain, sun, rain, sun it grows like wild fire. Went home got the trailer and did it. This should be the last time I mow before the slab goes down. Fingers crossed. There has been a little bit of rain but not a heap. Will be keeping an eye on excavation starting one day this week. Stay away rain.

We have the Green Light

We were told that Excavation would start late this week early next week weather permitting.

The wife is going to drive past the block tomorrow to see how things are progressing however it's been wet this week so not 100% confident. That being said we haven't seen the block since last Friday.

Houston we have a Toilet........

Signed Contracts - Final Variations List , Construction Plans, Kitchen Layout

Signed contract at Head Office on 12/11/10.
Provided building contract and papework to Bank on 15/11/10 (Monday).

Bank issued Commencement letter 16/11/10, however this went via snail mail to Wickham office and didn't make it to Parramatta till 22/11/10. I wonder when our 20 days till construction starts from ?

Anyway I'm reliably told that sometime next week we will receive final variations letter for signature , plans for construction & the Kitchen Layout. I must say other than the standard floor plan we haven't seen anything with respect to the Kitchen ? We must then sign and return paperwork to Allworth, then we will be allowed to call the construction line and find out our construction start date.

This process started for us back in April 2010..... here we are November, potentially something will start in December. Everything looks clearer in retrospect. Not sure if we would put ourselves through this waiting game again....an established home certainly would have been a far quicker option. Guess we need to get through the building first before I make any final comments.

Basic Variations we made to Standard Harmony

I will add to this list as I think of the things we have changed (some ideas for those reading).

• Widened Fridge space to 1m. Overhead Cupboards at 1800 mm.
• Cold Water Plumbing at Fridge Space.
• Sound checking plasterboard to common walls in Media Room.
• Cavity Sliders - Lounge to Dining, Family to Bedrooms.
• Carpet upgrade to Godfrey Hirst Colorado 185 Antler - $1150 Inc GST - all Bedrooms, Lounge, Media.
• Delete Carpet & change to tiles in main hallway from Family to Bedrooms/Bathroom ($135).
• Tile Upgrade to Kitchen including chrome floor waste grills to Laundry, Bathroom & Ensuite - Tiles Direct ($800).
• Electrical Upgrade - $1305 - Plenty of Power & Lighting including outdoor power point to Alfresco. Sufficient external lighting too. Garage covered off including two small down lights external/above pane lift doors.
• Security Deadlock, front door & internal Garage door.
• Add timber door to rear of Garage.
• Ceramic Cooktop.
• Cupboard Drawers to Ensuite.
• Stainless steel tub to Laundry.

Our Harmony Floor Plan

A few slight variations to this plan since first going into council. Most notably the HWS Solar panels have been relocated to the Northern side roof. Otherwise it remains almost identical to the below:

We reversed the standard floor plan so that our entertaining area's would be on the Northern side. Better light and will keep the bedrooms cooler in Summer on the Southern Side.

Mowed the Lawn (523 sqs) in readiness for Commencement of Construction

I

Tender Signed

Signed tender on Friday November 12th. Allworth should commence work 20 working days from receiving commencement letter from the bank.  Builders go on leave from Dec 23rd for Christmas break returning Jan 10th. We are anxious to see how much work get's done, if at all before the New Year. Would be nice to see a slab curing over the break. Mowed the lawn today in anticipation of work starting sometime soon.

Building a Complete Home Package

Welcome to our Blog. My wife and I just had our first child in July. Earlier in March 2010 we decided that we should look at building. Our existing home is just too small to raise a family. The established home Market was just so over priced at the time for what was on offer. We liked what Allworth were offering with the new Harmony design. Simple , good builder reputation and affordable. Land prices local to where we currently live were simply too expensive. And in fact we preferred the Lake Macquarie Area to be closer to family. Cooranbong is about 20 mins North of our current home. The block we eventually bought (settled in July 2010) is at the foot of the Watagan mountains. It's a very quiet street. We plan to be very happy there. We shortly sign our tender. The process has been very slow. As we are soon to sign our tender I thought it would be a good opportunity to start this blog & include some photos as construction get's started.