Buy or build? That was the first major decision we had to make. Aris doesn't want to leave Mount Colah so he convinced Daddy Rod to sell Yirra to us. Next, we had to set our budget, choose a builder and select a floor plan/design. We went to
Home World in Kellyville to look at display houses and collect brochures from the 2 builders in our shortlist. We almost went for Beechwood who went insolvent the week they sent us their tender. Thank God, we've been spared from that catastrophe.
In December 2008, we decided to go with
Allworth Homes to build our house. Our design requirements were: at least 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a 2-car garage. We considered having a rumpus room but there's really no need for the extra space to put extra furniture on which will only be used occasionally. Plus that's another space to clean! That idea was immediately deleted from the list. hehehe. Both of us didn't want a two-storey house either. I never liked having stairs due to safety issues
(in short, nakakatamad umakyat-baba ng hagdan hihihi). But my fearless Enzo doesn't seem to care because he enjoys going up and down the stairs in our apartment. High blood tuloy lagi Mommy nya.
The house design we chose was Fiesta Vue under Spacemaster. Here's a photo of the floor plan:
We plan to add a paved patio in the open space on the left side later on. This is the front elevation of the house:
Here's the timeline of what we had to go through to get to the building stage:
06/12/2008 - First meeting with an Allworth Homes Sales Consultant at their display centre in Kellyville.
15/12/2008 - We paid $500 to cover the site survey and tender document. Most builders do this step for free but since we know already that we are building with Allworth, we didn't mind paying this fee upfront because it will be deducted from the deposit anyway.
16/01/2009 - We went back to their Kellyville office to get our Tender document. All builders have a 3-4 weeks shutdown period during Christmas season, that's why we couldn't get the tender earlier.
26/01/2009 - Paid the $2K deposit. We made some minor variations and additions to the original plan which will be included in the draft plans they will provide us in 4-5 weeks time.
Towards the end of February, I was constantly following up with the sales consultant if we will get the draft plans with the included variations before end of the month. Just making sure that we are on schedule.
21/02/2009 - Went back to check the draft plans but it was incorrect because it didn't include the variations we specified earlier. It took us two more trips to their office after that and still the draftsman didn't get it right. That was the excuse we were given by the sales consultant. Not a good sign. Aris already confronted him on their errors because it is causing us delays already. I'll talk more about the deadline issue later. I called their head office to complain, spoke to the Customer Service Manager who tried to fix our problem straight away. whew! I asked for an extension of the tender period and the Manager gave us 4 weeks extension until 26/05/2009 because of the delays caused by their drafting area. Apparently, the sales consultant was not communicating properly to the draftsman that's why they couldn't get it right. At least, that's what they said. It was almost end of March when we finally got the correct plans and everything was finalised to go to Hornsby Council.
30/03/2009 - The plans have been submitted to Hornsby Council for approval. Any major development that you will do with your land needs to be approved by Council. Each council will have a different set of development controls depending on your location.
02/04/2009 - We submitted the application for demolition of the existing house to Council. I completed the application form but the supporting documents were prepared by the demolition company.
17/04/2009 - The Application for Demolition was approved by Hornsby Council.
25/04/2009 - We met with the Colour Consultant of Allworth to choose the internal colours and fixtures for the house. We had to choose the roof, gutter, bricks and window colours prior to the application with Council as that was part of their requirement. That entailed a separate trip to the brick and roof supplier - Boral and CSR. From the brick samples, Boral gave us addresses of the actual house built with the type of brick that we chose so we could see the final product. That was really good coz my imagination couldn't make up the look of the house from the 3 brick samples they gave us to take home.
20/05/2009 - Finally, we got approval from Hornsby Council on the DA for the new house. Yehey! They have an online tracking system. For the last 4 weeks, almost everyday, Aris and I would be checking the progress of the application. They even notify your neighbors (7 of them) about the plan and give them 14 days to file an objection if they don't agree with the proposed development!
25/05/2009 - Demolition was supposed to start today. But, the demo man said he will start the following week due to delays caused by rains on his current job.
12/06/2009 - Three weeks later, he still didn't start the demolition. He even told Aris that if he doesn't start on 11/06, he will pay us the $3K increase that Allworth Homes will add to our contract price because of the delay. Did he pay us? NO! Today, he managed to put the portaloo and the fence on the site. Another challenging time ahead. This was not good! I have been stressed for the last 3 weeks because of this. I even considered changing the demolition company but he assured us that he will start on 09/06 which he didn't! grrrrr! Too late now!
19/06/2009 - We officially became the proud owners of a pile of dirt. Those were the exact words of the Lending Manager (who processed our loan) in an email he sent me after the settlement of the land was completed.
30/06/2009 - The deadline to sign the building contract. We were scheduled to go to Allworth's head office to sign but they postponed it the day before. What now? Their site supervisor went to the land and had some issues. He said that we had to put a drain on the land before we could sign the contract because at the moment, water is being retained on the land due to the soil condition. Ok, another gastos!
4/07/2009 - At last, the demolition is completed! Not 100% happy with the work. He didn't level the land as stated in his quote. Allworth Homes will do this later but at the moment the concave areas where the old slab was taken from is creating a puddle. Allworth said that they could not start building the house if the land is still wet. Rain dance!
13/07/2009 - Aris' high school friend who's a professional landscape artist created the drain that Allworth required. All good and completed in 1 day.
17/07/2009 - Signed the building contract. Copy was given to the Lender to process the building loan.
We are now waiting on the valuation of the new house and the loan documents. After all documents are signed, the Bank will have to give Allworth Homes a Letter of Authority to Commence the Building Work. Only then will Allworth start building. That should be within 2 to 3 weeks time. We had a fine weather the whole week. Hope it doesn't rain by the time they start to build. More rain dance please!
Time to move out to make way for a new one...
This is 
We finally got our new percolator today after waiting for more than a week! yipee! It's a Vev Vigano Itaca Inox stove-top coffee maker Aris bought through his favorite shopping site, eBay. We seriously considered buying one while shopping in Myers, Macquarie Center a few weeks ago because it's on 30% sale. Good thing we decided to scout for similar items in other stores just to compare prices. (Every cent counts and sometimes being OC OC has its advantages. hehehe) Best buy was on eBay. We got it for less than 79% of the original store price.
This picture was taken during my visit in Sydney last July. We had a friday night out with Aris' siblings, cousins and sis-in-law in the city. This modern Australian style restaurant which opens 24/7 is a must-visit place in the city.
