About Me

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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!

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Site ready to handover to Eden Brae - yay!


Today saw the concrete being sprayed into the pool - 3 trucks worth, I think. The phone call was made to Eden Brae that the site was all theirs! According to the schedule, the peg out should be now ordered (up to 5 days)



Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Delayed schedule

The horrific storm of Monday pushed everything back so the site is not yet ready to hand over to EBH.  Peter, our foreman, checked our pool out early Tuesday morning hoping to still spray the concrete that afternoon. On top of the muddy water in the pool, which he pumped out, he found weepers. These are spouts of water moving out the side of the pool due to the rock around the pool. Peter said he would try to get the spray done on Wednesday but if not possible, it would be Thursday. I am hoping that I get to call EBH tomorrow with good news.

The fencing company has finally removed their temporary fencing - 3 weeks late!

Friday, January 25, 2013

Pre plumbing & lighting



It was a good news day today. I drove past the block and noticed the foreman there working in the hole. I stopped to chat to him about progress and he informed me that it should all be finished by Tuesday now (not next Friday) as the concrete spray is booked in for then. In preparation for this, he was doing the preplumbing and the lighting. Peter let me know that he changed the lighting from the plan from the right hand side to the left hand side (usual position). From the house, yard & alfresco, you want the ambient glow of the lighting in the water not looking direct at the lights. Fine by me!

I asked him about the mountain of fill to the side of the hole as we have already paid for fill removal (including the rocks). Peter told me that this is fill for EBH that we asked for. I had assumed that all the fill had rock so all of it was to be removed. Hopefully that will save us about $5K in additional fill that EBH will require!


Thursday, January 24, 2013

Steel reinforcement completed (I think)



As a family, we went away overnight so stopped by the block on our way home. Excited to see the steel reinforcements in place. From what I can remember, we have a certification check scheduled for tomorrow before they can continue after Australia Day.
The gardeners were meant to finish off clearing the block today but were not able to. When I spoke to Geoff today, he agreed to backfill the holes left by the stumpgrinders and try to remove part of a stump that is still remaining. He is meant to be there on Tuesday now.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Excavation complete


Excavation complete - please cough up 25% of contract price plus extras for rock! On the up-side, I have been able to meet one of my neighbours who is just lovely. Seemingly non-plussed about the build and even went as far as sending an email to the demolition company congratulating them on the good job. If only she knew it from our point-of view LOL!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Rock on!

Pool excavation started this morning and by 8am we had received a call to tell us that they had hit rock :-( Peter, the site supervisor, needed me to contact EBH to see if they would use fill with sandstone in it. It took a while for the answer from EBH which of course, was NO!
Peter has measured the rock to be 18.3 m3 with the monetary value of $3.4K for the excavation alone. Depending on how many loads of fill there are, we will now have some cartage/tipping fees too ($1.2K per load)
Peter estimates the excavation will now be finished by Wednesday and with the Australia Day holiday thrown in, it will be more like next Wednesday when they finish as they have a few EBH contracts that they need to start at the same time.



Saturday, January 19, 2013

Site start appointment

Yesterday in the sweltering heat, we all travelled over to Bella Vista to have our site start appointment. It was great to be able to put a face to the voice of our CSA, Rania. It was an efficient meeting with all my points dealt with - I am glad I took the advice of my fellow HomeOners and emailed Rania prior to the appointment.
Expected timeline from here.......
* Pool excavated on Monday 21//01
* Pool shell constructed, boarded up & fenced
* We notify EBH when that is completed who will order the peg out
* Once the survey from the peg out is received, our contract period begins.
* The slab should be poured within about 3 weeks.
A big relief to get to this point after 15 months of planning.

We did receive a confusing email from our Mortgage Angel yesterday regarding the pool. The email seemed to contradict itself. We are funding the pool ourselves though because it is part of the valuation for the house, it seems that CBA want the money upfront for that and to release funds themselves?? Brad questioned this with our Mortgage Angel who herself, didn't seem to understand what was required. Sitting tight on that one before we send over $50 K to CBA!