Final Contract Signed

YAY! The fixed price contract was issued today, and it's $2k cheaper than the original. After waiting what seems like forever the final contract variations have been signed off on and the documents are on the way to the Lender to issue the commencement letter. Once the commencement letter is issued the materials are ordered and they have 15 weeks to complete. So whatever colours have been picked are it, there is no going back now.

Also over the weekend I went through the garage as the new letterbox insert went missing. Bunnings had it on a clearance back so many months ago and it was the exact right colour combination of a brown face with brushed chrome collars for the newspaper hole and the mail slot. But in amongst the accumulation of this and that it went a-missing. So after unpacking half of the garage, there it was, apparently slipped from its position at the top the pile and down behind a few other boxes.
On another note I've had a read on google and the aperture of the letterbox (being the slot as far as I can figure) in a single mailbox arrangement should sit between 0.9m and 1.2m above the ground. Driving around Spring Farm I noticed that our new letterbox is a bit larger than most because it includes the newspaper hole. As the traditional post and box is not permitted in Spring Farm according to the Council guidelines, most homes have gone with a bricked in version. But typically they are a single slot with the column 2 bricks wide, or thereabouts. So thinking about the Bunnings bargain (can't recall what model it is without going out in the cold to check) I am a little concerned that it's going to look like a hobbit in the front yard. But too late to worry now as it is going to be installed no matter what.

Overall though this is turning out to be a good news week.

Yay - Construction Certificate 20-05-10

I received the long awaited call this morning to say the construction certificate has been received by the costing department. The tender is up by $440 from the last one in March due to Council requiring some other report since they gave conditional DA and this report meets that condition.
On Monday afternoon we have an appointment to sign off on the fixed price contract and then we are underway people! This puts the completion date at approximately 6 September 2010.

Mid-May and where are we at?

Well we are approaching the final hurdles before building commences. Right now I feel like Homer Simpson climbing Mt Springfield, I reach a peak and cheer, but then I look down and look up and realise how much further there is to go - D'oh!
So what are the final hurdles. Today I spoke to our Customer Service chick, who isn't much chop I realise as last week she said she would find out why the engineer's report hadn't been received and let me know when it was expected and when it was anticipated to go to Council and then the Construction Certificate be prepared. Well, she didn't. So I rang her this morning, and yes the CC is being prepared and we will be called in once it is available to come into Allworth Parramatta office to sign off on the fixed price contract. And no, weekend appointments are not available, appointments are Monday to Friday at 9.30am, 11am or 2.30pm.
I think if I haven't heard from her by Thursday morning I'll call her up because as I realised last week, the ER should have been due mid-week and the CC one week later, so by my calculations, on Wednesday the CC should be in their hot little hands.

My Uncle and Aunt were also over on the weekend and we were talking about all of this and in particular if we could turn back time would we go with Allworth again, and really, maybe yes. For our price range, being in total $215k for the house (4 bed + study), landscaping and some internal dressing, there were very few options. Allworth is in fact including a pretty good extras package, have one of the quickest build times both according to their promise and what we have heard, and I found the website user friendly - I really loathe having to download a plan to view it. Huxley homes might have got a look in if the website had have been easier because their staff we really great to talk to at Kellyville, but Allworth's main appeal was the promise of speed.
That's why this really has been a let-down. So what I think is important is about having a good sense of how much time things will take and having confidence that the builder has built in the area and has a good understanding of the Council's requirements.

Really, Camden Council had a fantastic turnover time, which you can monitor by typing your suburb in and looking at similar applications in your area, so for example I knew that Spring Farm single stories were taking no more than three weeks. But had Allworth complied with Council guidelines we probably would have had DA back in January. But instead we were arguing whether to put in an application for non-compliance or to change the design and start from scratch, so we went through the original process twice in fact. If we hadn't, yeah I think I might be sitting in my new family room right now as Allworth has built a similar design in Spring Farm over in the Cornish side and those people have moved in about three weeks ago now (yes it pays to ask to get addresses to see your design being built - they won't give you an address after the people have moved in though).

So fingers crossed for a dry Winter now, as I still have my sights set on signing off early next week at which time 20 days starts to count down. Should be a June start then. But I guess the good news is I will be establishing a garden come Spring.