It Begins!

So our land has titled.  I hold the "Confirmation of Change in Ownership" letter in my hand.

Our site started 3 days ago.  And already they've started leveling the land.  Unfortunately, due to the slope, they're going to have to put in 30 piers, and thanks to the 6-month late completion by the land developer, we've been charge a 'delay penalty'.  Not quite what you hope for, but at least things are moving.  Well, kind of moving... they're on hold until next year.  But it is great to see the fencing up around the land and to see the earth excavated where the garage and alfresco areas will be.

We signed off so many documents in the last week it's crazy.  But glad to see some people at Urban Edge are very, very thorough.  I'll be taking snapshots from the same spot for the next few months, so watch this space.

2 Weeks to go

So here we are, less than 2 weeks to signover of the land.

Urban Edge has done their soil sampling already, our conveyancer and bank are sorting out all the documents with us in a mad dash - how ironic that we've waiting 1.5 years for the land to be ready, and now it's a suddent rush to get everything sorted for December 4.

There was a hiccough of course... Nobody sent the bank updated copies of any of the contracts, and having told the bank back in July that the lot numbers had changed, and having so many delays in the land titling, our case was not updated and the staff forgot about the change...so our valuation was done on the NEW lot 11010...whereas ours is now 11035.  So there was another rush to get the valuers out there again to get it right, and to get all the contracts, etc. updated to the correct lot number.

Having never bought land+house in Australia before, we weren't really aware of the entire process that takes place, so didn't get a conveyancer early - why would you when the titling date has been pushed out month-by-month for 6 months?  Even the staff at our bank changed in that time.

Going to have a bit of a crazy few days getting all the documents sorted out.

Looking forward to actually getting the construction underway.

Getting closer

So with the estimated title date fast approaching (ETA end of September, but more likely sometime in October), I went out to see how things are looking.

Here's a video from the main road of Stage 11 (St Arnaud).

 

And here are two photos of where our house will be, and looking down the road towards the direction of the future school.

And time almost stops...

So 3 months to the day since we took those last photos, we went our again... hoping that much had developed.

Sadly, not much appears to have been done other than removal of rock piles.  I'm sure there's a number of changes underground that aren't visible, but it is disappointing to see our stage so far from completion.  The latest estimate sent our by Eynesbury is early September - 4 months late.  After seeing the state of affairs, I'm a bit concerned that they might not even make that date.  Below is a picture taken from the edge of Stage 9, looking up towards Stage 11A1.

 

Time moves on...

So we've been out to Eynesbury again to see what's happening.  Stage 10 is basically ready for the builders to get going so I'm sure the people in there are going to be looking forward to their houses going up.  Last estimate I saw on Eynesbury's site was that there were around 350 houses up already.  Stage 9 has the roads in and they're going well.

If you look back at the start of the blog, I posted a video clip of the area of Stage 11, well, here's a photo and video of how things look now.  Things are going slow due to the rocks it seems.

Eynesbury Construction Update

We got an email today with the following bits of information in it.  We are hoping that we are the Stage 11A1.  It means that we just MIGHT get our house before Christmas!

Greenhill Water Tanks and Transfer Mains Construction is underway at the top of Green Hill installing two large water-tanks to ensure that the township will have an adequate, independent water supply into the future. Each tank will hold over one million litres of water and will be used for Class A recycled water and potable drinking water. The project is expected to be completed late February 2012.

Stage Construction Stage 3 – Landscape works are almost completed with waterway areas very advanced Stage 9 – Civil works are tracking well. Titles expected April/May 2012 Stage 10 – Work is ahead of the program. Titles expected April/May 2012 Stage 4A1 – Construction will start this month. Titles expected June/July 2012 Stage 11A1 – Stage 11A1will commence this month. Titles expected June/July 2012 Stage 7C – Civil works will also begin this month. Titles expected May 2012

Floor Plans

So I'm sure some of you would like to see our design.  So I scanned it in (removed private info) and here it is.

Lot 11010 Scanned plans

Those interested in ideas for kitchen/WIR/bathroom ideas may get some inspiration.  We put quite a bit of thought into each.

For example:

The oven was moved to the tower to put it at a better height to see inside (saves bending down).  Also the Microwave will sit at pretty much our eye level so we can see it easily, and keep it safe from kids.  We've added double pull out bins to where the microwave used to be.
We've also taken to adding twin "spice rack" vertical drawers either side of the cooktop.

The en suite has a double shower with 600mm niche.  Instead of just a large mirror, we've added mirrored cabinets.  The WIR had the height of the rails raised to allow for the middle twin rail area.  We also put in drawers with adjustable shelves - shelves in all other bedrooms.

Post any questions and I'll answer them as best I can.