We have a slab....the non-alcoholic one!

Haven't updated for a few days but a lot has happened since.

On Wednesday (24th September 2008) the builders had put down the pods and metal ready for the slab to go down. I was hoping the slab would be laid later this week and what happened - I came home today and saw that the slab has been laid. Very exciting! Lots of photos below :)

Pods down ready for slab (24 September 2008)

Extra slab for our 4,000 litre slimline water tank

Plumbing for the main bathroom

ipod.....well just pods

Arrived at the land before work yesterday and saw that the pods and wires for the slab have arrived. It rained overnight so no work was done today. Fingers cross slab gets laid this week :)

Just a note for the first home buyers. FHOG - you can get this once you have made your first progress payment ie. when slab is laid down if your loan provider is an approved agent (most banks and financial institutions). I just found this out and called my mortgage broker, but he has not put in my FHOG form yet, quite annoyed! Hopefully we can still get this once the slab is laid otherwise we will have to wait until the house is completed.

Pipes In

We visited the land on Friday (19 September 2008) and the builders had put in the plumbing pipes, they also flattened the surface - ready for the slab, which i think might be done next week.

A re-cap of what has happended in the last few months...

Been so busy but good news-we have started building...

Here is a list of what has happened since my last blog.

26 June 2008 - DA was approved by Council. Had to get an engineer to have to look at the ground storm water run-off before council was to give us a Construction Certificate (CC). Thought this was done by Allworth Homes, but no it is not part of the building price. BTW for those who are not aware you will also need to pay a storm water bond and S49A Levey Development Contributions to the council. To me these were hidden costs that the builder did not tell us about :(
NOTE: this is a couple of grand

4 August 2008 - Received the drawings from engineer regarding the storm water. Thankfully the natural storm water is fine and we do no need to install extra plumbing.

12 August 2008 - CC issued by council.

We were hit with an increase in price because we have passed the tender date of 120 days without signing contract. Allworth homes waived part of this increase as we were very close to signing.
A day before signing contracts Allworth homes contacted me and advised that there would be an increase of $3K for extra provisions. They said that the engineers got the estimates wrong at the start and it was better to tell us now than later when we signed. Got it wrong? Anyway

26 August 2008 - Contract signing day. The bricks we chose had to be changed as the manufacturers do not make them in exposure grade any more. We also changed a few of the colours for our house and added another TV point. There was more provisions in the contracts than i expected - this still kinda worries me as the price is not fixed. We were in and out in 2 hours. Just in time for the wife to make it to work. I however spent the afternoon photocopying as Allworth only gave me a copy of the contract when i specifically asked for three copies, one for me and two for my lenders. On the day they said it was a procedure thing that they cannot make any more copies for me. Not happy!

15 September 2008 - Action! I went to the land on Monday and in just one day they have finished the cut and fill. It was great to see that they have started.


17 September 2008 - Went to the land today to meet the guys drilling the piers, we measured each of the piers and some good news, it was under the allocated provision amount.