We have pegs!

Hubby decided to get some firm quotes for a Geo Tech survey before we made a firm decision in relation to the salinity issue. Two quotes finally come in late this week, one $1,550 and the other $2,100. To upgrade the slab costs $3,000. We've decided due to the cost of the survey we'll just upgrade the slab and piering.

During the week I felt I had lost any excitment about our build due to the delays with council and now this salinity issue involving more costs. I was starting to wonder if we would ever get started.

A bit of a surprise today when I drove past the block and found 2 red pegs at the front and 2 pegs towards the back. I am guessing they are for the temporary fencing? A little bit of hope now that things will progress next week once we give the go ahead to upgrade the slab.

Salinity issue

Received notice that the council approved DA has indicated the block could have salinity issues. This would mean we need to upgrade the slab, have extra piering and upgrade the bricks to exposure grade.

We can get an independed report done to check this. Not sure how much this would cost but I would imagine a fair amount. The report could then come back and confirm salinity and we would need to upgrade the slab etc anyway. Or do we just do the upgrade without the report? Either way, it means more money spent. Haven't started the build yet and already extra costs.

Not happy to hear we needed to change the bricks to exposure grade, as we spent such a long time looking and deciding, then deciding on external colours. Wasn't too keen to go through the whole proccess again. So did a little surfing around the internet and found the product data sheet for the Austral Symmetry Asphalt bricks. Guess what? They are classed as "exposure grade". Thank goodness for that.

We were hoping the build would start mid June. If we decide to get the report first, I am sure that will delay the start of our build. Or do we just go ahead with the upgrade? CSO was not in on Friday, so hopefully we'll know some more details on Monday.

Plans approved!!!

After a 10 week wait, received an email today that our plans have been approved!! Hopefully will now move to the construction stage without waiting too long, should be ready to go by mid June.

Still waiting....

Still waiting to hear from Council. 8 1/2 weeks now, supposed to take between 6-8 weeks). Well we did actually hear from them this week, someone from council rang DH advising there were some deficiencies in our DA and wanted to speak to our builder about it. So I ask DH "what deficiencies are there?"......well, he didn't ask.  Hmmm....so now don't know what is going on. Trying to be patient.

No news regarding to pool either. Looks like some phone calls will be made on Monday.

Lots of activity in our land estate, two new Wisdom site started. Hoping we'll be starting soon too.

Still waiting for council........

We are still waiting for council approval for the house DA, it was expected to take between 6 to 8 weeks (we are at week 7). The latest update from last week (and the week before that) was the council assessor had looked at our plans and apparently it all looks OK but she just needs to check one thing......so fingers crossed approval will be soon and then we can move onto the next stage, construction.

At least the pool plans have been approved, so hopefully we will hear from the construction team soon to advise on a date for the digout! Here is a photo of the proposed pool.

While plans have been in council we have in the meantime been busy selecting everything. We finally decided on our kitchen colours after seeing a display home kitchen in the colours we liked (white and a very light moss grey). Much easier to decide once you see it in a kitchen, colour looks different in the kitchen compared to a small sample. We like these colours much better than the first one's we chose, so glad we changed our minds, even though the process was initially causing much angst and confusion.

We also completed electricals and carpet and tiles........all the decisions are now made (thankfully!). As one does during the selection process we have completed quite a few "upgrades" and consequently over budget for each one,  however I am sure it will be worth it in the end.

Pool approval

Received notification our pool plans have been approved. SS should confirm construction date in a couple of weeks. So just need it to stop raining!

Kitchen colour confusion

Well the last few weeks while our plans have been in council (still waiting) we have completed most of our appointments: Kitchen fitout, staircase and electricals. One left to go, tiles and carpet, which is next week.

In the meantime we have had a rethink about our kitchen colours. After looking at many many different combinations of polyurethane (6 colours to chose from) and caesarstone, we narrowed down the selection to 2 colour combinations:

Selection 1:
Polyurethane cupboard - Paperbark
Caesarstone - Osprey
Glass splashback - Antique white

Selection 2:
Polyurethane cupboard - Moss Grey Satin
Caesarstone - Organic white or Osprey
Glass splashback - Antique white or Brilliant white

Still not sure about it, otherwise we may have to revert to the standard white kitchen. We wanted something a bit different, but limited with the colour selections available. DH does not want all white, so if we do white cupboards, we then need to look for a coloured caesarstone, one that is not too dark. Decisions, decisions.......and we need to decide soon.

Colours Paperbark (left) and Moss Grey (right), Caesarstone Organic White (Top) and Osprey (Bottom).