I received a call from Rania, our CSA, today to schedule our site start appointment. I was hoping for one before Christmas to finalise everything but the earliest time they had was Friday January 18. EBH, from my understanding, then have 21 days to start building or at least the contract period starts then. All the final plans & documents have now been ordered and will be checked over for us to sign on that date. We are still waiting on our loan documents to come through from our mortgage broker and be signed before the Authority to Commence Construction letter can be given by the bank.
Looking forward to demolition & the start of the build in 2013!
About Me
- Kerith
- EDIT - Now a 'work at the local school' mum a few days a week while juggling the job of parenting 3 teenagers! I am a SAHM who does work from home occasionally, dedicated to raising 3 Godly, independent, healthy children. Loving the home building process though it is not without challenges. I have fairly free reign over the creative aspect of the project...just not the financial side!
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Boring update
Nothing really exciting happening just yet but thought I would post whilst watching Grey's Anatomy.
Silly me mentioned to a few people this morning that I didn't have much to do today. Work is finished for the year, children at preschool or school, Christmas shopping under control, gym workout done. Well....from the time I got home just before 11am until school pickup time, I was on the phone bar a 10min break to eat salad.
Started off with the most frustrating call to Energy Australia to try to organise gas disconnection. Being the owner of the property I have no right to any information as to who supplies gas to the property (I am not the account holder, the tenants are!) I asked questions like how I was supposed to organise disconnection if I can't know who supplies it. The answer was 'I can't comment on that'. After nearly 2 hours on the phone, I have set up an account and I am moving into the property on December 24 AND I want the gas disconnected as soon as possible after that. OMGoodness, I cannot believe it is so hard. Tears were nearly flowing at one point.
Next call was to the temporary fencing company who I have emailed 3 times but never heard back from. Under normal circumstances, I would forget them but as this company is the one EBH use, I was getting a discount as there is no need for them to come & disassemble & reinstall between demolition and start of building. All sorted though there was a hiccup as they close down for Christmas on December 21 but the tenants don't move until December 23. Hopefully they can get the fencing installed before the demolition company start in January 7.
Miscellaneous calls to the mortgage broker to follow up on the loan documents, from my mum and a friend followed.
I have been having issue for the last 6 months with Telstra and internet drop outs. Countless hours & a fair bit of money has been spent to try & rectify the issue. Yesterday's call of hour duration left me very hopeful that the issue was finally fixed only to have more dropouts today. I needed to call AGAIN. This time, I asked for the same technician I had yesterday to try to shorten the call. He worked out that the modem I bought from Telstra 2 months ago in an effort to fix the problem is faulty. Please repackage & return it with a receipt to the place you bought it from. Hmmmm....this is where I wish I was more of a hoarder!! No box kept, no receipt kept. Oops!
Anyway, even though the day turned out to be much busier than I thought, it was productive with a few important tasks dealt with.
Silly me mentioned to a few people this morning that I didn't have much to do today. Work is finished for the year, children at preschool or school, Christmas shopping under control, gym workout done. Well....from the time I got home just before 11am until school pickup time, I was on the phone bar a 10min break to eat salad.
Started off with the most frustrating call to Energy Australia to try to organise gas disconnection. Being the owner of the property I have no right to any information as to who supplies gas to the property (I am not the account holder, the tenants are!) I asked questions like how I was supposed to organise disconnection if I can't know who supplies it. The answer was 'I can't comment on that'. After nearly 2 hours on the phone, I have set up an account and I am moving into the property on December 24 AND I want the gas disconnected as soon as possible after that. OMGoodness, I cannot believe it is so hard. Tears were nearly flowing at one point.
Next call was to the temporary fencing company who I have emailed 3 times but never heard back from. Under normal circumstances, I would forget them but as this company is the one EBH use, I was getting a discount as there is no need for them to come & disassemble & reinstall between demolition and start of building. All sorted though there was a hiccup as they close down for Christmas on December 21 but the tenants don't move until December 23. Hopefully they can get the fencing installed before the demolition company start in January 7.
Miscellaneous calls to the mortgage broker to follow up on the loan documents, from my mum and a friend followed.
I have been having issue for the last 6 months with Telstra and internet drop outs. Countless hours & a fair bit of money has been spent to try & rectify the issue. Yesterday's call of hour duration left me very hopeful that the issue was finally fixed only to have more dropouts today. I needed to call AGAIN. This time, I asked for the same technician I had yesterday to try to shorten the call. He worked out that the modem I bought from Telstra 2 months ago in an effort to fix the problem is faulty. Please repackage & return it with a receipt to the place you bought it from. Hmmmm....this is where I wish I was more of a hoarder!! No box kept, no receipt kept. Oops!
Anyway, even though the day turned out to be much busier than I thought, it was productive with a few important tasks dealt with.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Unconditional approval
Music to my ears! The new house has been valued, our current house has been valued, we have attended to a special condition placed on the loan and it has been rubber stamped today. Still waiting on the paperwork to complete (loan offer) and to send to EBH but good as done.
From what I understand, we are waiting on a construction certificate and then our final construction drawings, colour documents and final variations. A site start appointment will herald the end of the admin stage and the start of the construction stage.
In the meantime, I am desperately trying to find out who our gas provider is??? I am on hold to every company I try. I am also attempting to get quotes from fencing companies to get temporary fencing for the very short phase of demolition.
Soon photoless posts will be a thing of the past....
From what I understand, we are waiting on a construction certificate and then our final construction drawings, colour documents and final variations. A site start appointment will herald the end of the admin stage and the start of the construction stage.
In the meantime, I am desperately trying to find out who our gas provider is??? I am on hold to every company I try. I am also attempting to get quotes from fencing companies to get temporary fencing for the very short phase of demolition.
Soon photoless posts will be a thing of the past....
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Inconsistent prices
This blog post is more for EBH to read (!) and for me to have made a note for when/if they ask for feedback at the end of the process.
There has been discussion on the forum I participate in lately about inconsistent pricing. I don't know why but this makes me an angry Kerith! So clients were saying that they received a price for an item at tender which differed to the price they were given at their HOG selection appointment eg. overhead cupboards, pot drawers etc. Sometimes the tender price was more, sometimes less. Surely, an overhead cupboard is the same price with the same company whether you request it in tender stage or just after. Comments were made that it seems like the tender presenter just guesstimates. This does not inspire confidence in the EBH process at all.
Further to my post yesterday about the cool website from one of Eden Brae's competitors....I sent a link to my lovely Manager Bev. She forwarded it on to the Home Option Gallery Manager who was quite interested. They can see the benefit for EBH & their clients. A company has done something similar for a few builders and it has only recently gone live. Maybe next time I build an Eden Brae house....;-) (Brad doesn't read this blog, does he?!)
There has been discussion on the forum I participate in lately about inconsistent pricing. I don't know why but this makes me an angry Kerith! So clients were saying that they received a price for an item at tender which differed to the price they were given at their HOG selection appointment eg. overhead cupboards, pot drawers etc. Sometimes the tender price was more, sometimes less. Surely, an overhead cupboard is the same price with the same company whether you request it in tender stage or just after. Comments were made that it seems like the tender presenter just guesstimates. This does not inspire confidence in the EBH process at all.
Further to my post yesterday about the cool website from one of Eden Brae's competitors....I sent a link to my lovely Manager Bev. She forwarded it on to the Home Option Gallery Manager who was quite interested. They can see the benefit for EBH & their clients. A company has done something similar for a few builders and it has only recently gone live. Maybe next time I build an Eden Brae house....;-) (Brad doesn't read this blog, does he?!)
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Cool website
I stumbled across this website today as I navigated through some other HomeOne threads
http://www.studiom.com.au/envisage
I have maintained all along that this is something that Eden Brae should do for their clients to assist with complete satisfaction. It is so difficult to select colours from tiny swatches and know how they are going to fit together in your house. How good would it be to sit at Home Options Gallery & to finalise your colours based on a program like this? Interior & exterior. I am a highly visual person and need to see my colours working together. Hopefully in the future, it will all be computer aided - too late for us though.
http://www.studiom.com.au/envisage
I have maintained all along that this is something that Eden Brae should do for their clients to assist with complete satisfaction. It is so difficult to select colours from tiny swatches and know how they are going to fit together in your house. How good would it be to sit at Home Options Gallery & to finalise your colours based on a program like this? Interior & exterior. I am a highly visual person and need to see my colours working together. Hopefully in the future, it will all be computer aided - too late for us though.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Loan approved conditionally
Our construction loan has now been approved with conditions - the standard bank valuation on the land we are building on and that the redraw balance on one of our other loans is reduced. I don't understand the concept at all but Brad does. I was hoping it meant that I could go & spend $50K on something other than a new house ;-) Brad seems really happy with the way that Mortgage Choice have structured our loan - important that he is happy when it comes to money!
Miscellaneous stuff
* Fencing - The demolition company have sent me details of the fencing company they use and costings today. I asked Eden Brae whether we could use the company they use for temporary fencing and extend the length of time forward to include the demolition period. NO was the answer.
Is it only me or does it seem crazy that we use one company for temp fencing for 2-3 weeks, they have to return to disassemble & then another company comes to erect their fencing for the build?
* The tenants called me yesterday to check whether the letter they received from the property manager was fair dinkum. Do you really want us to clean the house from top to bottom upon leaving? LOL I confirmed that they didn't need to. I could hear the sigh of relief from my end of the phone.
* I received the approved plans today via the Council's website. Any tree (apart from the neighbours trees in question) can be removed. We do need to plant 4 indigenous trees to maintain canopy cover.
* The valuer is going to visit the property soon for bank loan purposes.
Things are moving along nicely.....
Is it only me or does it seem crazy that we use one company for temp fencing for 2-3 weeks, they have to return to disassemble & then another company comes to erect their fencing for the build?
* The tenants called me yesterday to check whether the letter they received from the property manager was fair dinkum. Do you really want us to clean the house from top to bottom upon leaving? LOL I confirmed that they didn't need to. I could hear the sigh of relief from my end of the phone.
* I received the approved plans today via the Council's website. Any tree (apart from the neighbours trees in question) can be removed. We do need to plant 4 indigenous trees to maintain canopy cover.
* The valuer is going to visit the property soon for bank loan purposes.
Things are moving along nicely.....
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