Colour selections

We had our 'colour selection' appointment today with Provincial and it went very well. Of course, being well prepared in advance was a great help :)
Will post some photo's as soon as we have the colour board selections and tiles. We decided to 'upgrade' the kitchen to polyurethane vanities and pencil edge which will negate the need for door handles and therefore give a very clean look.

Still waiting on council for the DA assesment so we can move forward, at the moment it's a race against the clock to get the slab down before end June so we can get the first homeowners grant. Fingers crossed...

Concept landscape plan

DA submitted - wooo!

Finally, we have gone to council :) About 4 weeks from the original plan but some of that is our fault - took much longer to get the concept landscape plan done, and also the arborist report done for the tree removal had to be done AFTER the landscape due to the driveway locations etc etc.

We had a good 'win' on the arborist report tho' - original quotes were around $1000 for 5 trees but I managed to find someone who is a retired consultant horticulturalist (sp?) who did it for us for $400 ish.

Now the clock starts to tick. We have absolutely no idea how long council will take and are completely at their mercy...

Land closure and DA prep

Met with SA again today to finalise plans prior to DA. All good but we want/need to bi-fold the whole of the back of the house. Need to check if they can span 6.5m+ or we will have to incorporate a column. Otherwise, we are 95% there on the final plans.

Land wise - we have movement! Heard from solicitor today that completion will be this monday. 'Bring us a cheque tomorrow or meet us in Sydney at 9am.' Tomorrow it is. Very scary to be writing a cheque for $615k.

I need wine, just thinking about it....

Plans!!

Yay! We have some draft plans. They came through as promised yesterday so now we have the weekend to go through and check for any changes prior to Council submission. Some minor changes likely, but we are 90% there. The biggest one though is (re) deciding to completely open up the back of the house with bi-fold doors. It's gonna cost tho'...

Also heard from the solicitor - seems that bank papers will be through and we will complete on the land next Friday. Fingers crossed.

Sign here please!

Yay - we met up with Provincial on Saturday and signed off the commencement fee. Now over to them to draw up the first set of plans for review. Hopefully submit DA to council mid Feb.

We also went through the tender inclusions very carefully and we agreed on a number of items. The best win for us was the swap of sink to the outside and cooker to the island which was a design we always wanted.

This week we are getting some quotes for the concept landscape design and also trying to work out if we can retain some of the gum trees on the block. Thanks to the homeone forum we now have lots of contact points :)

Very early concept sketch for pool area:

Splish splash

Met up with Narellan pools today at the site to get a quote for their 7m Symphony pool install. Link here:

I was very impressed with their efforts. Lots of ideas and very accommodating. They gave a quote of $29,000 with is exactly what I was hoping for, and this includes everything (install, pump, filter, chlorinator, water feature etc etc).

We will get a few more quotes in just to compare, but I'd say we are 80% there :)

Also heard from the broker today - we have bank approval so looking good for close and completion on the land by end Jan, which is a good result.