Slope Surprise!

As I mentioned in a previous post, our block to the (untrained) eye appeared to be under 1m in elevation. We knew there was a gradual rise from front to rear but the middle and main section of the block 'appeared' to be reasonably flat. After we had purchased the land and following our preliminary inquiries into finding a home, we had a builder view the engineering report and to our shock and dismay they informed us that the elevation from front to back was in fact 1.8m! We visited the block multiple times to try and see that rise but to the eye it didn't look even close to that. My husband is around 1.8m tall and from the footpath the rise only looked like it reached his knees, how wrong we were! This is all part of the fun in the build process. The unexpected! It made us slightly nervous as we didn't want to live in a hole in the ground with potential flooding risk (we had been there and done that - the potential flooding) or have a back yard on a 45 degree angle. But one of the biggest concerns was the dreaded site costs. We have learnt that it is the great unknown in building. Varying anywhere between $8000 and $80,000 (if you watch Grand Designs). I'm sure there are many many people who have had their heart set on a build only to have their dreams demolished by site costs. Once we had chosen Carlisle Homes to build, the great unknown began. 

We put our deposit down and the following day, yes crazy, but the following day the soil tests were conducted. We knew that there would already be an upgrade to a 'M' slab as another home had been built in the same area and required this. We also knew our costs would be above average as most blocks are close to level. So we estimated what they would be. One negative of the build process is that you go through all your colour selections and modifications BEFORE you know your site costs. It makes it really hard to budget. You could go on a mad shopping spree internally and not even be able to cover the site costs. The good thing is that you can make changes (free of charge) at tender if things are not as you expected. The site costs are given at your tender appointment. The amazing Steph (our CLE at Carlisle) was a star and actually emailed the tender document through to us prior to our appointment which was so helpful in making the final changes. When we got the email we flew straight to the site costs............................ To our delight the costs were almost spot on to what we had predicted. Initially we had been advised of a rough estimate of site costs. However, the final figure was significantly higher than this. We had done a little research and seen other peoples experiences and therefore knew due to our elevation it was likely to be higher. In the end we were happy. We got what we expected (pity we didn't get a pleasant surprise!), we didn't need to change our selections and our cut was better than we could have imagined. We thought most of the site would be cut, however the cut at its deepest at the back is 90cm with 30cm fill towards the front.Which will ultimately give us less of a gradient in the backyard (60cm from back door to back fence)

Site Plan, showing cut (back) and fill (front)

Cut and fill profile shown on siting plans (side of house)