DA Approved

A nice little Christmas present - we received notification today that the DA has been approved by Council without modification and the job has been passed onto the Certifier for the Construction Certificate.  We should be starting construction by early February.

There may be one hiccup though - I asked for the approved plans so I could send them to the bank.  When I checked them I noticed that they had not been updated with our overhead cupboards in the kitchen, which also means a large window was still shown in the kitchen rather than a slim bench height one.  I specifically pushed for that variation to go through so it would be ready for DA submission.  I am now waiting to hear back from Fowler Homes.  Hopefully no big deal, fingers crossed. Update - all good, doesn't, need to go back to Council. February start here we come!

DA Submitted!

A big step - our DA was submitted to Council yesterday. Service from Fowler Homes seems to have been a bit more reassuring and responsive since we started working with the Head Office. However, it has taken more than twice the time quoted to submit the DA.

I have had a look at Council's recent approvals and they appear to be turning them around pretty quickly, some as quick as 2 weeks. I hope that they don't come back with any significant ($$) revisions.

We have been thinking that we might be better off if building does not commence until after Christmas - we'd prefer to not have to pay any progress claims, and hence the bigger mortgage, before they stop for the Christmas break.

It has now been over 5 months since we signed on for a Tender. It is likely that it will be 8 months before commencing construction and probably 15-16 months til handover. This seems like a long time in a period of record low building activity. The actual work gone into all of this so far is probably 1-2 weeks worth, which means that our job sits in queues a lot of the time. There must be a better way.

I found this cool picture of an endless stair case which is akin to where we are right now.

The picture also reminded me of the first verse of Helter Skelter (The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, U2...):

When I get to the bottom
I go back to the top of the slide
Where I stop and turn
and I go for a ride
Till I get to the bottom and I see you again
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Can you tell I'm getting a little bit bored? All of this kind of sums up the experience so far - exciting and monotonous, tantalising and tedious. The builder's paradox.

DA Preparation Delay

If you were to take a shot every time you read the word 'delay' in this blog you'd be drunk by now.

We were told three weeks from contract signing to DA submission.  It has now been 5 weeks.

We are told that it is held up awaiting 'estate' approval. Is this a convenient way of saying 'this is out of our hands so don't blame us'?

In the meantime we waste another two weeks rent, two weeks of interest, two weeks of rates...

Hopefully this will be resolved soon so I can post about the DA delays!

Kitchen Prices in, Electrical Booked

It turns out that upgrading from the Caesarstone base range is very expensive.  Going to a 'no-handle' option is also relatively expensive which I find surprising.

We managed to book the electrical appointment for next week, so we are going to hold off on deciding what options were are going to commit to until we've got the electrical prices on the table.  We received the standard electrical plan today and it seems reasonable.  The biggest thing lacking (which we already knew from the inclusions list) is that there is only 1 TV and telephone point. It looks like Vaccaro use Clipsal (C2000 range), they have a pretty good website to view their stuff.

It feels like we are making decent progress now.  The Fowler Homes head office consultant we are working with seems to be pretty proficient which is great.  We were advised in a letter attached to the contract that the DA should be lodged 3 weeks after signing.  That is today and no DA yet. I will be interested to see how much longer it takes...