Back on August 11th we received Developer approval. Between then and now we have been working with Boutique to finalise our plans and confirm that everything is 100% correct and accurate before our file passes to the construction phase. We have also been waiting for our building permit to come back from the council.
During this process we actually changed consultants with Tegan moving on from the company and our new consultant Leah taking over. We were concerned that new eyes on our project would mean that they wouldn't understand our direction however Leah has been great and worked with us in amazing detail.
On the 29th we received an email informing us that we had received our Building permit which contained information on our soil tests etc. From here Leah sent all our information and documentation to their Quality Assurance team. They would check every single design drawing, variation, addenda and plan. They identified 5 main points of conern which required clarification.
1. Different style of deadlock on each door of the garage. Square set on main house entry and round set on back door entry.
2. They had to update our Addenda to show Square Edge cabinets as per our contracts
3. The oven model had changed and they had to update the model number
4. Cooktop model was listed as obsolete so again they had to update the model number
5. Had to reconfirm tile choice in Laundry Wet Area as one of our variations state a different tile choice to "all wet areas"
On the 2nd September Leah advised that our Final Construction Plans and Colour Addenda, inclusions and Post Contract Variations had been checked over by Boutique. We were required to again check over everything and resign each and every page to confirm that our final plans were accurate. Natalie and I identified 1 issue which needed adjusting (wrong facade mentioned at top of Addenda) and once this was confirmed and fixed with Leah she advised that we just had to wait for construction.
Now that everything was signed it was a matter of waiting. Boutique transfer each file to construction on a Wednesday and between now and then they would complete their purchase orders. During this wait Leah identified a couple of small issues that needed fixing. A variation needed signing and they realised our range hood was listed incorrectly as freestanding as opposed to slide out. This attention to detail from Leah was fantastic and it was great peace of mind knowing she was looking at our file so carefully. Just goes to show however that you need to double, triple and quadruple check each and every piece of documentation you have to make sure it is accurate!
On the 7th of September our file was passed to construction!
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| YAY! |
With our file passing over to construction this now meant we would say good bye to Leah. Chantelle was to be our Client Liaison and she gave us a call to introduce herself and advise that our site would be cut and ready for fencing next Tuesday the 13th! Chantelle is very nice and sounds very experienced. She advised that she would touch base with us weekly and our site manager would be updating us every fortnight. I advised Leah we would be engaging the services of a independent inspector at all stages of the build (I'll add a post on the independent inspection process over the next couple of weeks).
Now the exciting part starts. Watching our vacant, slightly grassy and muddly block transform into a dream home!
See below for some photos of the our stage and street which is really starting to take shape!
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Looking South towards the city from our driveway.
Should have an clear view of the city from the middle of the street even when all the houses are built. |
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| Our block and next door. |
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Next door. Their garage is built right on the fence line.
They have also left bricks, sand and equipment on our block which Chantelle has advised them must be clear before Tuesday. |
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| Boutique and Home Buyers Center homes going up across the street |
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| Looking North towards other stages in the development |
