The Beginning

We've wanted to write a blog about the house build so we can store the fun (and share the pain).... this is our first attempt at a blog, and we are a few months late, but here we are....

Ok we will start from the start, this could be a long post to get us to where we are now (Tile selection Appointment)

Deciding to build:
What can I say, we got suckered in by the fancy display home?! We looked at the Davenport 29 in Cranbourne North and as the story goes, we were sold. We started to get our ducks in a row and started to look to sell our humble dwelling...

Choosing the land:
There are lots of estates in Melbourne to choose from, most in the South East, West and North. Cause we were settled and like the area, we decided to stay around Cranbourne so we looked at all the estates around here.... This was the verdict on each.

Sandarra - Too expensive, no titled land, could not build till early next year, body corporate fees
Marriott Water - Too expensive, only blocks available had lovely view of massive powerlines
Cascade on Clyde - Risk estate, only blocks available had more lovely massive powerline views
Eve - Just didnt like it
The avenue - No titled land, would have to wait too long to start building
The hunt club - Live there now, need a change, more powerlines!!! and people keep doing bad things to the H.....
Sierra - Perfect, titled blocks ready to build, small 250 lot estate (at least for awhile) with nice views of dandenongs (and no powerlines). Just within our price range.

So Sierra it was!!
We paid our $500 holding deposit on a block of land and off we went (it was one of the last block in the release available)....

House:
Back to the damn display home that started all this, and we were ready to sign our lives away.. The sales guy was really fantasitc (I wont publish names) and went through the whole house and what was included and what wasnt. In the end we were worried about over capitalising on the build so decided to go with the smaller Davenport design, the 26 instead of the 29. It was $10k cheaper and the space lost wont impact on our quality of living... So we signed up, put out refundable holding deposit down.

Mortgage:
Now we had our land sorted and found the house we wanted, it was time to worry about the mortgage. We used a broker who has been really good and found out that borrowing the money for this little adventure was going to fly! Wont go into details, enough said...

So why Porter Davis and why that house?!:
Before finalising everything we searched through lots of other display homes to compare floorplans, finishes and the cost of houses. We couldnt find any that compared with the PD house we had chosen. The inclusion list for the Porters home was much longer and the cost was comparable. The floorplan was also perfect, had the indoor/outdoor open plan living, 4 bedrooms and a theartre room and study which I have always wanted. The house wasnt rediculously large, but is more than adequate for 4 (and maybe 5! people in the future).

22nd March, 2009 - Land Contract:
After organising the mortgage and getting the application off to the bank, we were ready to sign the Land contract. On the day, we went in to sign for our block and another one had come up, someone elses finance had fallen through...
The first block was fine but looking at the Cranbourne North Development plan we discovered that the road it was on was a Collector road. I would have lived with it but the new block was much better..


6 weeks later... and a lot of stress....
Mortgage is FINALLY approved for the land! The valuation came in spot on at $187500, which was a worry so now we were waiting for settlement which is due on the 25th May...

It would be much sweeter but we know we will need to go through it all over again for the full construction loan..

Friday, 15th May 2009
Porter Davis Tender Appointment:
The tender appointment is where the builder produces the inital fixed price contract, including site costs and all the additons requested. Unforuntely everything had been going so well that the laws of nature came into play and we were informed our site costs had hit $17000!!!
Our Special little block was P class (Problem!) and we needed 45 Screw piles @ 3 metres deep to support the foundation. GREAT! oh well, what do you do... we signed the contract, taking the razor to our our inclusion list...

Unfortunately I am the wrong type of Engineer to properly explain all this but here goes.

When constructing these estates, the developer needs to push dirt around to subdivide, build roads, get the grades correct etc.etc. During this process, they have to cut some lots, and fill others and here lies the problem. The soil class for a block relates to the moisture absorption of the soil and therefore how much the soil will expand and shrink. The classes are A, S, M, H, E and P. The greater the movement, the greater the foundation required. For blocks with lots of fill, the foundations are generally built to be supported by the natural soil level, which can be a fair way down. There are also things to do with conrolled fill, but I am yet to learn about that. Anyway, tilly doesnt want me to crap on to much more...... I will slip some more in latter on this...

OK we are upto date..

Tomorrow is our Tile Selection appointment where we pick the tiles we want through the house. We have been to National Tiles already to see what they have and we know the standard range of tiles are pretty ordinary so it will be more money tomorrow...