Day 224: The Final Countdown - and a brief review!

Met up with our SS and the construction manager for our area this morning...

.... and the news is, we're on track for a completion...

.... end of this month!


To actually hear this news is kind of surreal - I mean, really? We're going to have our house - soon?

We bought our development site back in May 2009, and the next 6 months from there was like sitting waiting for a kettle to boil, or toast to pop up... you know how it is!
Our problem was that we didn't really know much about redevelopment - all we knew was that we needed a block of land in a great location - so we bought the site at auction, then found out what easements were, and that led to a great big can of beans being opened. If you really want to know about that story, go see the first few months of the blog for all the pain involved with dealing with councils and water utilities! For a while there, I was worried that we'd have to scrap plans for our Nolan - but ultimately our plans were approved from council and water, and we were good to go!

Actual site start was December 22 2009 - we had a scrape done and temporary fence. Then not much for about 6 weeks with the Christmas period shutdown. Slab went down February 3rd 2010, and since then it's been pretty constant work. With any luck, from slab down to final keys it might be 7 months!

Probably shouldn't celebrate too soon, but our discussions this morning were regarding final fitoffs which should be done in the next 2 weeks. Then some QA people go through to check through everything. Hopefully we'll get a pretty good house at our completion inspection - which will be during a weekday, so we'll have to try and plan ahead to get time off work for that, plus getting our own inspector in as well. Should any defects be found, hopefully they'll be pretty minimal, and then we can arrange a final handover onsite for the remaining balance of the contract!

Anyway, we've decided not to publish any more pics of the house until after handover - mainly because there's not much more being done on the inside, plus everything's dark, locked up & we can't get onsite anymore. However, we'll be starting to plan things such as floor coverings, window coverings, driveways, landscaping etc and will be posting these things up for comment and feedback over the next few weeks.


T&T

Building Permit Approved - 4 days in council, is that a record??

So things are really starting to happen now!

We received our "final" construction drawings last week, but had to correct a few things:
- ensuite had shower rail and rainfall head together, instead of at opposite ends of the double shower
- powder room door swung wrong way
- Light switch placed behind door
- some electrical items at wrong height
- added note that benchtop runs all the way to window splashback

and after 7 goes at getting it right, we finally signed off on the correct drawings yesterday!

We also received word that our building permit was approved - it only took 4 days! It helps we already did the legwork to get the building over easement approvals months ago, and that alone took 3 weeks for a rubber stamp! Our CSC says they use a private company to submit the approvals, and providing the siting and design is done in line with Rescode (which our house complies with) there is usually less than a week to approve the build.

We also received our plans in the mail yesterday with the energy assessment, and apparently we've got a 5.5 star energy rated house, which is nice to know! Didn't really design the house with energy rating in mind (even added a couple of windows on the west side, which is meant to be a no-no).

We're still waiting on our tile appointment results, about $2000 worth of feature tile upgrades. We were lucky enough to be able to use the original Metricon/Beaumont tile selection range instead of the reduced range brought in around August. We upgraded to a nice mosaic tile around the powder room mirror, the same mosaic in the ensuite shower niche, and also an aluminium stripe around the fully tiled ensuite. Will have to upload photos, but Tina has the tiles at her parent's place.

On other things related to the redevelopment:
- power pit being installed today - they say! We paid for this September 23 and was meant to be done within a month, but some delays here for whatever reason.
- Temporary fence for the demolition is being installed Friday. The annoying thing is that virtually all fencing companies will quote for a 6 month minimum, and they all want about $350 - all we need the fence for is 2 weeks or so!
- Demolition booked for week after Cup day - I hope they can start earlier, as we've got the fence up early, but it's all up to their schedule. Need to have a completion date before we can get a re-establishment survey completed.

And hopefully we'll be in the clear with a week to spare before penalty delay payments kick in!

Maybe the next time we post, it'll be with demolition pictures!

Electrical appointment done! And more easement problems!

Spent a couple of hours at M headquarters yesterday going through our electrical plan - we had it pretty much all laid out beforehand though, which is highly recommended if you don't want to spend days buried in floorplans at the appointment!

Of course, some things change at the appointment; I wanted a facade light on the garage, but there's a downpipe right where the light would go, not a big deal. I wanted M to quote on conduit in the home theatre room to run my own cables, but they don't offer that. I pulled out of the projector provision ($313) and just got a junction box to the roof space (to power my projector and screen) linked to a switch on the wall ($56). I'm planning to change over to Saturn dimmer LED switches in the rumpus - oooo, that's a nice light switch!

Anyway, some other results of the electrical appointment;

• 4 star gas heating with one zone, $1200 upgrade
• Antenna $360
• 20 downlights
• 4 dimmers ($82ea)
  
• 3 steplights on stairs
• 3 external junction boxes for future floodlights ($56 ea)
  
• Upgraded all light switches, powerpoints, data, TV points to Clipsal Slimline - a very modern looking design! ($13 ea)
  
• 3 external double powerpoints ($102 ea)
  
• 2 fluoro lights to garage
• 26 more double power points
  
• 9 Cat6 data cable runs ($146ea!)
  
• 7 TV points with amplifier
• Provision for futre evaporative cooling

All up, about $10,000.... how easy is it to spend money building a house! We sent through a revised plan just maing a few minor changes, and hopefully will sign off on the changes this afternoon.

And just when things were going well - we received approval from both council and Yarra Valley Water to build eaves over the easement - M now want us to prove there's no pipes in the easement, or we're going to pay bigtime for a huge slab upgrade. Got plans of YVW and council (stormwater) pipes and emailed them to our CSC, so hopefully that gets us in the clear!

T&T

Paperwork getting sorted - and evaporative cooling for sale cheap!

Well, been an interesting week with some paperwork finally getting through the system!

Whitehorse council have sent back our "Building over Easement" application - approved! Took just under 3 weeks, which isn't too bad I reckon! We just now have to get Yarra Valley Water's written approval for the siting, which shouldn't be a problem (touch wood!) as the side easement has no pipes or anything in it. The only YVW asset is the sewer pipe along the rear easement, but we're not building anywhere near that.

Also received a receipt for our triple phase underground power pit from Jemena which should be installed "within 20 working days", $1600.

And finally, a short letter from Heritage saying our Line of Credit application has been pre-approved, and we should be getting the full loan documents soon - maybe next week?

The only holdup so far is waiting on Fiona from Studio M to get back to us on a few corrections to the quotation and colour decisions made at our colour appointment nearly 2 weeks ago. A little disappointing that we're still waiting on just a few points to be clarified and pricing, given that Mendo usually gets back to us within the day, if now within a few hours of emails, but we'll wait until early next week before we try to get in touch with Fiona again. Actually, next Tuesday is our electrical appointment, so since we'll be back at Studio M that day, we'll make a point of getting things sorted out that day.

We're also moving out of this old house by next weekend - and I'll need to get back in touch with the electricity and gas people to confirm the disconnections for the demolition which is booked in for second week of November!

*edit* Oh, and with the evaporative cooling that was for sale - I'm installing it in my parent's house as a christmas present to them now :)




T&T

Preliminary Contract meeting results

After the last post, I was feeling kind of tired trying to keep track of all the different things that needed attention. Anyway, today was a pretty good day for tying up loose ends!

We met with our CSC at M head office from 9:30-12 today. We went through the siting, modifications for rescode (setback and window obscuring, mostly) options list (where we deleted a few options and added/modified a couple) and the results of the site survey and soil test. Apparently we had an 800mm fall over the block, not that it looks like that much at all!




Here's an interesting tidbit: You can put the garage wall right on the boundary line, 150mm from the boundary, or 1m or more away. You can't put your garage wall anywhere between 15cm and 1m from the boundary! Keep that in mind if you're planning a rebuild... again, this led to our issue of fencing - still need to organise to remove the fence (temporarily) while the garage wall is being built. Will get stuck into that sometime this week.

Anyway, we left feeling that we're almost at the complete level (which is where we should be by now), just a couple of floorplan modifications to be approved and costed. The laundry modification and ensuite shower/toilet swap shold be drawn up and costed by Friday. The redesigned powder room, where the WC and sink are all enclosed, was only $220, including 2 narrow windows to replace the normal single window.

The thing is, there's a chance we might even start building this year! If all goes smoothly, we may accept the preliminary contract in a week or so, have the final one signed by early October, (organise the demolition end October) and start as soon as November! Didn't think we'd even be able to get ready by early next year - apparently M can get the building permit within a week of final contract; depending on whether everything is unconditional by then (eg finance approved, demo permit approved, easement permission given etc).

After lunch, we went to Whitehorse council, where we had another good meeting with a building regulations officer who helped us on a few issues:

• Building (near) the easement should be fine - our issues are a slight bit of excavation over the easement side, and the eaves overhanging. Submitting a $125 bit of paper should get us approval for our needs - yay!
• Demolition - well, I got one quote back via email today for $11k, which is about what we expected. Still waiting on a few more quotes. But on this note, we have to pay for an Asset Protection Permit - but if we get it in our name, will cover the demo, build, and the extended crossover.
• Crossover - we definitely want a wider driveway, as the 50yr old entry is barely wide enough for a small car. We;ll apply for the largest possible - about 3m across. More expense, naturally - $150 application fee, $500 bond, then the price of the actual crossover itself which I've been told is north of $2500.

We then had an hour or two free to drop by Beaumont Tiles in Oakleigh, where we got a bit of a shock! When we went before, everything with a silver sticker was a standard tile, and gold tiles were an upgrade. Now it's "blue dot" tiles are standard - and there's not very many!! Maybe 6-7 wall tiles, and 7-8 floor tiles. Not happy Jan! This new policy only started 3 days ago - we're hoping they just haven't finished putting all the blue dots out, because right now there's very little to choose from in the standard range! Anyone thinking of building with M, go check it out for yourselves!

Hoping to hear back from our CSC on Friday regarding updated floorplan and revised pricing. Right now it's madness making lists of things to do (which I'm mostly doing) and picking colours (which I'm leaving to T to sort out).

T&T

Preliminary Contract received by email yesterday - a LONG post!

Well, our preliminary contract meeting is for Tuesday Aug 18th - we received a copy of it by email yesterday.

It contained details on the floorplan, facade, overlooking, overshadowing etc, plus a more formal documentation of all the upgrades and promo items, and of course - site costs!

We were informed of approx $30k in site costs, and it's a few hundred bucks more than that in total. Includes such charges as;

• Cut & Fill 3k
• Slab upgrade from M to P $7k
• Redevelop costs $7k - additional survey, site cleans, temp fencing, traffic management, protection to adjoining houses etc
• Reconnection to sewer $750
• Cranes $3k
• Double handling $2500
• Termite protection $1500
• Underground power pit $5k - we might arrange this ourselves, apparently the true cost is about $2k if we organise it!
• Temp power pole $1k

However, there are a few things which we weren't particularly aware we had to do - perils of building for the first time I guess! Including;

1) "Owner to apply for "Report & Consent" from relevant authorities for building over easement. "Report & Consent" to be applied for prior to building permit application. Customer to be aware that this item does not constitute approval, therefore siting is conditional on approval. Owner to apply to local authority to obtain neighbours names and addresses prior to M homes making application".

We have a 1.83m easement along the back which isn't a problem, but also a 1.83m easement along the side, and currently our siting puts the house approx 2.055m from the boundary. So I have a few uncertainties here;

a) Do I have to get all the approvals from Yarra Valley Water and local council? If so, do I have to do this prior to signing the preliminary contract, or can I do it before signing final contracts?
b) Is there any risk that this will be denied (and then throwing off the whole building process?) We don't mind so much if there's a little extra cost in piers or whatever else is structurally required so much.

We did post this question on Homeone and here's a reply we received - what a source of knowledge that forum is!

"Hi sklnv,

Which suburb are you building in? How many pipes do you have in your side easement?

We have a plot of land in SE suburb within Monash City. Our land has a 3m wide drainage easement running along the side boundary. Easement has 2 pipes, one belonging to council and one to Yarra Valley Water. We had faced a similar situation (except that we weren't going to build over the easement but near to the easment) and had a previous knockback with council's engineering with a previous design which saw the house sited 50cm from the easement and the builder having to dig into the easement to take some land from there to fill other parts of the site. Engineering disallowed this cos' the council's pipe was rather shallow in the ground and old too. Luckily, we were only at the pre-contract stage (Tender) and could walk away unscathed. With this knowledge (council not approving siting near to the easement), we knew that we had to be at least 1m away from the easement for the next design we could find for our land.

Now, we have signed with another volume builder to build our house. We applied for consent to Yarra Valley Water to build close to the easement (our siting of the house is 1 m away from the easment and their pipe lies 90 cm from the side boundary). We did this before signing. We were given approval by Yarra Valley and this only took a few days (even though they said it could take up to 2 weeks for processing). You would need to supply Yarra Valley with a copy of your prelim site plans when making your application and a small fee is payable. Since Monash city owned the storm water pipe (the second pipe in our easement), we spoke with the council's engineering dept - brought in all documents (i.e site plan and engineering computations). The engineer gave me the all clear and said I didn't need to make any applications for consent.
You can always start making your enquiries now with Yarra Valley and your city council since it can take time for processing of the applications. With council, they would need to advertise your report and consent application to your neighbours - 14 days advertising period and than some days to make a decision (ours took 2.5 weeks only in total). Even if council indicated to you that there wouldn't be a problem for you to build over the easement, it only takes one neighbour to raise a valid objection for you not to get consent! You could appeal against a rejection of your consent application but this is with another division. (In our case, we were lucky that we got consent for a reduced front setback despite one neighbour objecting. The assistant building inspector said that my neighbour's objection wasn't valid to our application. Neighbour said she was concerned about loss of sunlight to her verandah. For us, the drainage easement and an angled frontage worked to our advantage in order for us to have a reduced front setback! phew)

The other thing you would need to find out is the depth of the pipe(s) in your easement. If they are not very deep, you may get an objection from either the Yarra Valley or the council. The best really is to contact Yarra Valley (for depth and location of their pipe in the easement) and your city council for advice. Yarra Valley in our experience has always given us a prompt reply. They emailed to us the location and invert depth of their water pipe to us. Yarra Valley would also probably tell you to submit an application for consent to them.I can't remember whether we had to pay for this info though. You would probably be able to get all your questions answered by your city council on the day that you pop into their office to speak with someone from Ton & Planning (and engineering if there is a city pipe in your easement too). The one thing that Town & Planning will say to you is that they can't commit to an answer. You just need to persist (gently) with your line of questioning....in order for you get as much information as possible.

Hope this helps."

What a useful bit of info! We're planning to go straight to the council and Yarra Valley Water after the prelim contract meeting to get this sorted out. This is one item I wish M had informed us of weeks ago!

Anyway, there are a couple of other items we have to organise

2) Ask neighbour's consent to knock down the bit of fence where our garage wall will be, as it's closer than 150mm to the fence/boundary. Will have to ask the neighbours (who are renting) the details of their landlord.

3) Organise demolition approval - which needs to be approved prior to M submitting the council building approval. Again, we could have been told of this a month ago?

so a bit of a downer to the start of the weekend with the realisation there's a lot of work we have to do fairly quickly. In order to avoid delay fees of about $1800 per month, we have to have the final contract unconditional by November 24 - which means we have to sign & pay the 5% deposit on final contract a month before that ie October 24.

Worst case scenario; should building over the easement not be approved, or the neighbour disallows the fence to be knocked down, or demolition approval not given - we might just have to walk away from the current contract with M and start again with another M house design, or simply restart again at a later date. Let's hope it doesn't come to that!

Anyway, to finish with I know we all like to see pictures, so here's a model I did of the house from the back view, with dark brown bricks (and watertank & side fence!). Thanks to Michelle for posting brick upgrade prices!!


Also as promised, Jo recommended we draw up any kitchen redesign plans. Here's one showing our preferred layout for pot drawers (heaps of them!) to the side kitchen bench, and an additional door to the island bench.


Anyway, if any reader has advice regarding demolition companies, applying for building over easements, and dealing with neighbours and fences, please leave a comment as everything helps!

T&T