Frame Game!

Just getting over the realisation that the slab is there and today the frame has started!! A rather large timber delivery occurred yesterday and this evening, after work, the slab looked like a giant game of Tetris! All the ground floor has been cut out to room size (with two pieces stacked high) and laid on the slab. The smell of fresh timber and wood is unbelievable!! As soon as I got out of the car I could smell it. Wish you could bottle it up- fresh, clean, cut timber. I only had a split second to look around and investigate but it was great to see the sizes of the rooms mapped out on the ground. People always say that rooms look really small once the frame goes up and you wonder how you fill fit a bed, desk or couch in there! Some appeared smaller, while others looked larger! Getting jitters thinking about the development of a 3D frame! 

Just a Small Pile of Timber Delivered Yesterday!

A Little Bit More!

Today's Materpiece (Maser Bedroom)

Middle of the House (Study on Right and Powderoom)

 Looking Down the Hall from the Entry

Tetris!

 Just a Little More Timber to Go!

From the Yard (Kitchen and Meals Back Left and Lounge on Right)

Ensuite Toilet,  Master WIR and Theatre Beyond

(The WIR looks almost as big as the theatre!) 

We'll definitely head to the block tomorrow evening with a measuring tape! Isn't that what everyone does when they don't know what they are doing, to look important and for people to perceive that they know what they are doing, when they don't! That will be us!!!!! 

Let's face it, honestly, everyone out there that has built has measured aimlessly!!

A Whole Lot of Waffle

I think tomorrow is going to be a BIG day in history! Yes, I think our slab will be laid tomorrow! I know, ground breaking news!!!! Lots of preparation work has been done today. When we visited the block tonight, it has given us the clearest indication so far of the footprint of the house, it really is outrageous. Really, really happy though. The height of the upcoming slab, in comparison to the cut is looking great as is the remainder of our land. We have a busy day tomorrow but will definitely be popping past as often as we can. My car is going to become the dreaded annoyance to the builders!!

Starting to See the Changes

Front View - With Dropped Down Portico 

Back View - Alfresco Area Dropped 

 At the Back

A Strange Trench at the front, next to the portico. Unsure if this whole area will be filled with concrete as part of the slab?  

More From the Back 

Fun! The girls could have climbed, slid and played all day. Building sites are so much fun when you're a kid!!

Breaking Ground!!

Monumental day today! Our house has started!! It is such a surreal feeling. I knew we would be excited but I'm like a kid in a lolly shop! I got an email from our CLE this morning to say that the site scrape had been booked for this morning. It had been booked for the previous Thursday but the weather has held things up. She said the slab date will remain and this is the reason they leave the dates so far apart (in case of inclement weather). It was pure excitement watching it unfold! The girls and I wondered around this morning watching the trucks, then had a picnic over the road at lunch (the truck driver must have wondered who the weirdos were!!) and then tonight it was done! 

Not sure what happens next. I actually expected there was some kind of screening as its obviously just the trucks work today. You can see the indents for the portico and the alfresco. Not sure how I feel about the cut in terms of the slope. Actually, to be honest it looks a little frightening. I think we are going to have some serious earth moving to do. I know there is more to be done before the building goes up but it's a decent gradient. Calling all earth movers!

The beginning

All done for the day 

Rubbish bin, been added. Expecting fencing to go up in the next few days.

Here she is!

Portico indent - I think! 

Alfresco area with the 'Great Wall' behind!

From the side 

Party in Our House!

Ready to go! So excited!!! 

Next Step - Fences Down

Photo Reel; photo number 2. Fences Down. This week we had to remove approx 8m of side fencing ready for the build. During our Tender appointment we were firstly informed that the construction of the garage would be built from the inside on the fence line of an existing neighbour. At Contract, we were then told that the fence would need to be removed for the length of our garage, plus an extra metre either side. We have met our neighbours on a few occasions and they are really lovely people. We popped over on the weekend to let them know of what we needed to do. They were really accommodating, but we could see that they were slightly nervous about it as well. I guess that's the thing when you have a house next to an empty block. You never know what will happen on it and it's ultimately out of your control. Their garage takes up most of this space so it was no big issue. It was nice to have another chance to chat to them and get to know them a little better. We had fantastic neighbours at our previous home and if they are anything to go by, we are looking forward to living next to them. 

The First Change

An interesting fact that we found out from chatting to the neighbours was that we had thought that our plans had been approved by them (we thought this was the process) due to our setback issues (that became non-issues!). We thought maybe they had agreed and that was one reason it bypassed council. In fact, they hadn't been contacted and had heard nothing. We had given them the heads up a month or so ago but they never heard from anyone officially. Who knows! Maybe our plans were approved because they were inline with our developer guidelines, regardless of the neighbours setback. We're happy anyway. They have been stamped with approval so there is no turning back!

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)

Combating Council

Our land is located in a new estate. However, our block is the first block that opens into the new area of land release. That means we currently have one established neighbour (The house has been there at least 5 years). One of the reasons we chose this block was because there was already that house there. We knew at least one neighbour and house. The land next to us and behind is owned but yet to be built on. Our estate guidelines (one of the many) stipulates that we must build with a setback no less that 4.5m and no greater than 6m. This is great for us as the closer to the front we can build the more backyard space we would have. We never really thought about the established property as they were part of a different land release to us and therefore had a different set of guidelines. Yes, amateurs again! We have a good friends in the building industry who have been amazing informing us on the 'know', they have also been excellent at answering silly questions!! One day we were standing on the block mapping out designs and how they would fit. It was a 'light bulb moment!' I wonder if we need to think about the neighbours set back when we do ours.......... We were quickly informed that YES we would. So we headed to the block and measured it, we knew it wasn't going to be pretty and it wasn't. Their set back was 9m..........................arhhhhhhhhhhh. We were shattered. Couldn't believe it. We didn't even think the house would fit on the block if we had to match this. It was tricky as our guidelines were 4.5-6m and this was over that. Our friends explained that we could apply to council for a fee to have our plans looked at, considered and (hopefully) approved.

Once our plans went to tender and we were able to see the drawings of our house on the block with all the measurements the 4.5m set back didn't look dramatic compared to 9m. Our block is on a slight angle at the front and the 4.5m is taken from the portico. Our garage, which sits next door to the 9m neighbours, is at 7m. So all in all we are hoping that we do get approved. From the street our house will be slightly more forward but not dramatically and it will fit in with the houses that have currently been built in the new release. We have met our new neighbours a few times and they are lovely. We had a chat to them about the possibility and they had no problems with it either. So now we wait. The plans as I speak will be sent through by Carlisle and we wait, wait, wait. We are really undecided what to do if we have to have the 9m setback. We might be better off waiting till the block on our other side builds and then we have a set back that's an average of the two - that could be years though and is that even a possibility? We really don't want to end up with no yard. So the waiting game begins, fingers crossed.

Site plan with setback measurements, including neighbours

Our Land

Originally we had plans to renovate areas of our old house to modernise the kitchen, bathrooms and outdoor area. We never considered the idea of moving house, though we enjoyed searching through the local real estate options every week. When the time came closer to locking in a draftsman or architect and getting quotes from builders to make the changes we had planned we started to question the decisions we were making. We loved the house; it was our forever home. We had lived there for 11 years and loved the area, neighborhood and never really saw ourselves living anywhere else. The more serious we got about it the more we started to think about what we really wanted. Were we over capitalizing on the changes we would make? Did we really want to live in the one house for all our life? If we are going to move, should we do it before the girls start school? If we could live anywhere, where would we want to live? Do we want to change houses or suburbs? So overwhelming! We finally decided that if we renovated we would probably never get the money back on the house if we ever sold and we would therefore stay there forever - we would have been 100% happy with that decision had we chosen that. However, life was meant to be lived. So, we stepped out of our comfort zone and talked ourselves into starting a new adventure!!! Through our weekly search of real estate, we had always looked at the same location. Never really thinking we could live there, it was more a glimmer of hope than anything serious. Some houses appealed to us but nothing was ever quite what we were after. If we were going to move from an amazing home, we had to be moving into something even better. Then one Saturday night at about 11pm we saw a block of land for sale. Why don't we build? We have NEVER even thought of this as an option!! So the next day we looked at the land, the following week secured it. The land was ours! We thought if we changed our mind in a few months time we could always sell it, but that was never going to happen. The rest is history!

Our block is 663m2, has an 18m frontage and is approx 37m in length. It has a North facing yard and has an elevation towards the back. We didn't think too much about this when we purchased it (amateurs!). To the eye it only appeared to be about half to one metre.