I forgot to mention that our BAL rating has been confirmed as a BAL19. so we get a little cost saving on that,, although not as big as i thought. EBH had only added approx 9k for BAL29 and 7k for the BAL19 and 5k if it was to be a 12.5. So we only get approx 2k back - better than nothing that might be all we need to pay for our tile upgrade.
The bushfire consultant "michael" that i have been dealing with has been fantastic. Answered all my questions with no hassles and a pleasure to deal with. Would highly reccomend him if anyone is looking for a BPAD. He is located in Emu Plains his business is "Bushfire Management Consultants"
"The Ridge"
Tuesday 25 June 2013
Tender Presentation turned into tender week
What a crazy week the past 7 days have been. We had our tender presented to us last wednesday and this week has seen me sitting in front of the computer every night working out our budgets and trying to find information on all the hidden costs that we could be faced with. What standard colour options are in the range and what is an upgrade. I think i emailed the tender presenter 100 questions (no joke either) im sure she will be glad to see the back of me.
We were given a copy of the draft contract, that was fun to read - NOT! a lot of it was hard to take in and understand hopefully its all pretty straight forward with no hidden nasties that can see us get caught out at any stage.
I know what i want, and what i would like as an upgrade. We have looked at options to do our own tiling, driveway and carpet. So many more phone calls were made this week to tradies to try and get an indication of what things cost. I think we will defiantley do our carpet as its only the bedrooms and home theatre. The driveway seems like a bit of a hard one to tackle and the tiles - well i just dont know if a cost saving of $!500-$2000 is worth all the extra hassle. Atleast if they are done with EBH and there is any issues we can take it up with them.
Tomorrow we head to head office again to accept our tender and pay the $2500 so we can move to the next stage. The contract will be prepared and the plans drawn up. If we choose to proceed with everything we pay the deposit and get "locked in" not to sure what other admin there will be after that.
Im really excited to get past this stage. The count down is on until we can pick our colours for the house - something that im pumped to do although something that hubby would rather not have to go through. 2 full days of choosing colours a dream come true for me and a nightmare for him.
We were given a copy of the draft contract, that was fun to read - NOT! a lot of it was hard to take in and understand hopefully its all pretty straight forward with no hidden nasties that can see us get caught out at any stage.
I know what i want, and what i would like as an upgrade. We have looked at options to do our own tiling, driveway and carpet. So many more phone calls were made this week to tradies to try and get an indication of what things cost. I think we will defiantley do our carpet as its only the bedrooms and home theatre. The driveway seems like a bit of a hard one to tackle and the tiles - well i just dont know if a cost saving of $!500-$2000 is worth all the extra hassle. Atleast if they are done with EBH and there is any issues we can take it up with them.
Tomorrow we head to head office again to accept our tender and pay the $2500 so we can move to the next stage. The contract will be prepared and the plans drawn up. If we choose to proceed with everything we pay the deposit and get "locked in" not to sure what other admin there will be after that.
Im really excited to get past this stage. The count down is on until we can pick our colours for the house - something that im pumped to do although something that hubby would rather not have to go through. 2 full days of choosing colours a dream come true for me and a nightmare for him.
Monday 17 June 2013
Phone calls phone calls emails emails and more phone calls
I wonder what will be the largest number of phone calls and emails i make in a day. Today i spoke to optus and NBNco to find out what needs to be done with the telco wiring. Spoke to stocklands to discuss the brick options and the BAL ratings and the driveway width as we would like to widen it. Spoke to the RFS and of course the council again in relation to the BAL rating.
All these phone calls mixed with emails to EBH and stocklands and a Bushfire management assessor we are thinking of using to get our rating.
There is just so much information to find out and research and not enough hours in the day to get it all done. I have spoken to some lovely people and everyone has been so helpful in answering my queries.
Still a bit of a grey area with the BAL rating but will discuss more with EBH at our tender presentation.
On a side note our land is registered and i was emailed the copy of the 149 certificate. Not that i really know what that is, but its nice to be handed an official looking document and know its one less thing on my never ending "to do" list that i don't have to chase up anymore.
Here is our new piece of Oz.cant wait until its offically ours.
.JPG)
All these phone calls mixed with emails to EBH and stocklands and a Bushfire management assessor we are thinking of using to get our rating.
There is just so much information to find out and research and not enough hours in the day to get it all done. I have spoken to some lovely people and everyone has been so helpful in answering my queries.
Still a bit of a grey area with the BAL rating but will discuss more with EBH at our tender presentation.
On a side note our land is registered and i was emailed the copy of the 149 certificate. Not that i really know what that is, but its nice to be handed an official looking document and know its one less thing on my never ending "to do" list that i don't have to chase up anymore.
Here is our new piece of Oz.cant wait until its offically ours.
.JPG)
Friday 14 June 2013
BAL29 or BAL19 bushfire rating
This afternoon i spent a couple of hours ringing numerous people to discuss the BAL rating our block has been given. I learnt a lot about what the rating means and how they determine what the rating should be. We are wondering if we should be a 3rd party assessor to rate our block for us. If they are able to drop it at least we will know what revised costs we are up for. I have been told that the BAL29 rating means a lot of extra expensive upgrades too windows and exterior wood used to name a few, it would be nice to get a credit of approx 8-10k if the rating was dropped.
Spoke to someone at RFS who was really helpful, she looked at the maps and aerial shots she had on file and believes we defiantly should be trying to find out what the true rating should be.
Spoke to The penrith council and was told that i shouldn't worry about the assessment, as they will double check the BAL29 rating when the DA is lodged. Also made comment that it should be the builders responsibility to get the certified rating. so will discuss this with EBH on Monday
With our tender on Wednesday i would like to have a good understanding of this process and our CSA told us we can get a summary of the BAL19 and 29 costs so we know potentially what the difference should be.
I just need to make sure that if we are in a fixed priced tender that we will get a credit back on the difference if the rating is changed.
Here is the view opposite our block, and this reserve is the reason we have the BAL29 rating at the moment.
Spoke to someone at RFS who was really helpful, she looked at the maps and aerial shots she had on file and believes we defiantly should be trying to find out what the true rating should be.
Spoke to The penrith council and was told that i shouldn't worry about the assessment, as they will double check the BAL29 rating when the DA is lodged. Also made comment that it should be the builders responsibility to get the certified rating. so will discuss this with EBH on Monday
With our tender on Wednesday i would like to have a good understanding of this process and our CSA told us we can get a summary of the BAL19 and 29 costs so we know potentially what the difference should be.
I just need to make sure that if we are in a fixed priced tender that we will get a credit back on the difference if the rating is changed.
Here is the view opposite our block, and this reserve is the reason we have the BAL29 rating at the moment.
Sunday 9 June 2013
What are we doing! Are we crazy................
We had been looking at established homes for a couple of months and didn't really find anything that we liked. I was quickly starting to realise that i was going to be really fussy in choosing a home that I found suitable for my family. Every weekend we would look at open homes and i would come back wondering if any home would be suitable for me. There was just nothing around.
Mothers day we made our way to a display village and had a look through some homes. Naturally i was falling in love with the modern floor plans and the beautiful layouts and quickly started to think maybe we should seriously be looking into the building option.
To cut a long story short, the following weekends we went to more display villages and tried to choose a size that would be suitable and meet all the "must have's" for floor plan and space requirements. We were looking at 31sq but after speaking to a few companies we realised that we wouldn't be able to afford that. I figured we shouldn't really go any smaller so decided to just keep waiting and hope a already built home would come on the market that i liked.
Hubby then suggested we go and look at a 27sq home in kellyville, i wasn't to fussed i didn't think it would be big enough and didn't want to get my hopes up. We arrived first thing on the sunday morning and as soon as we walked into the Drysdale 27 at Kellyville i instantly fell in love with the floor plan. it ticked all the boxes with the rooms that we needed, and yeah, well it was big enough. Its big without being too big and i would hope that it will be big enough for our family to live in (4 of us) for a long time coming.
So this was it, this was the feeling that people told me i need to wait for, that "OMG yes i love it i must have it" feeling that i just wasn't getting with any other home established or display. I loved everything about the home, and straight away i could imagine my family living in it.
We sat down with one of the sales guys and went through the costs, there was a block at Glenmore Ridge which is the area we had been looking to buy in. The block wasn't as big as we would of hoped but looking at the site plan it was "big enough" and would be something we would need to discuss with each other. Its a sacrifice. Build new home wont have a big backyard Vs Buying established and having the older home with more yard. What were our priorities!
We left the display centre feeling very excited. It felt so right. Like it had been waiting for us all along. We slept on it, and the next day i still had no hesitations in wanting to build this house.
It was all moving so fast, 48 hours prior we hadn't even thought building would be a possibility and now here we were about to put a holding deposit on the house & Land package they were offering.
Were we crazy! Were we out of our minds diving into the unknown with no knowledge of what this journey was going to be like! we knew nothing! This is going to be one heck of a ride! People research building for months, years and here we were total novices 3 days after viewing it putting our deposit on it!
It was done! Taken off the market! 22nd May 2013
Where to next.....................
Mothers day we made our way to a display village and had a look through some homes. Naturally i was falling in love with the modern floor plans and the beautiful layouts and quickly started to think maybe we should seriously be looking into the building option.
To cut a long story short, the following weekends we went to more display villages and tried to choose a size that would be suitable and meet all the "must have's" for floor plan and space requirements. We were looking at 31sq but after speaking to a few companies we realised that we wouldn't be able to afford that. I figured we shouldn't really go any smaller so decided to just keep waiting and hope a already built home would come on the market that i liked.
Hubby then suggested we go and look at a 27sq home in kellyville, i wasn't to fussed i didn't think it would be big enough and didn't want to get my hopes up. We arrived first thing on the sunday morning and as soon as we walked into the Drysdale 27 at Kellyville i instantly fell in love with the floor plan. it ticked all the boxes with the rooms that we needed, and yeah, well it was big enough. Its big without being too big and i would hope that it will be big enough for our family to live in (4 of us) for a long time coming.
So this was it, this was the feeling that people told me i need to wait for, that "OMG yes i love it i must have it" feeling that i just wasn't getting with any other home established or display. I loved everything about the home, and straight away i could imagine my family living in it.
We sat down with one of the sales guys and went through the costs, there was a block at Glenmore Ridge which is the area we had been looking to buy in. The block wasn't as big as we would of hoped but looking at the site plan it was "big enough" and would be something we would need to discuss with each other. Its a sacrifice. Build new home wont have a big backyard Vs Buying established and having the older home with more yard. What were our priorities!
We left the display centre feeling very excited. It felt so right. Like it had been waiting for us all along. We slept on it, and the next day i still had no hesitations in wanting to build this house.
It was all moving so fast, 48 hours prior we hadn't even thought building would be a possibility and now here we were about to put a holding deposit on the house & Land package they were offering.
Were we crazy! Were we out of our minds diving into the unknown with no knowledge of what this journey was going to be like! we knew nothing! This is going to be one heck of a ride! People research building for months, years and here we were total novices 3 days after viewing it putting our deposit on it!
It was done! Taken off the market! 22nd May 2013
Where to next.....................
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