The Rain Water Tank Saga ....

Our first major introduction into Council red tape with this build has been to do with the provision of a Rain Water Tank.  Up until earlier this year, there was a Council requirement that RWT must be installed when building a new home on the Sunshine Coast.  This was also a requirement set in the development approval document for the Peregian Springs area.

Now Council do not have this requirement and the Developer who has bought this section of the subdivision off the original developer have told us that they will not be imposing this rule.

Decision made .... we will save ourselves nearly $8,000 and not install a RWT at this stage.

Not so simple .... because the original development approval document still says it is required, Council have to enforce the rule.  So we are now trying to get the new Developer to make this change official in the approval document.  Not sure how successful we are going to be, but for $8,000 its worth putting up a fight!

Watch this space!

Tile selection

Today we visited Beaumont Tiles to start gathering some ideas on what we want for our tiling. As most of the house will be tiled, apart from the bedrooms and media, its a decision we need to get absolutely right. 

We had gathered a few ideas from websites and magazines and thankfully our tastes are pretty similar, so it wasnt a too difficult task.

The hardest part was trying to find suitable wall tiles as within the size included in our contract, they only had limited stock of. We managed to find some more options on their website and hopefully the next time visit Cosham Studios for our colour selection appointment, we will have even more options to choose from.

We pretty much have our main floor tile chosen and have a good idea of our kitchen cabinets and stone bench top colours, so we are getting there slowly!

Watch this space ......

Preliminary House Plans by Plantation Homes

It was exciting to get our first set of preliminary drawings this week (click to enlarge).

New Home Proposal Appointment

Our first official appointment for our new home proposal was down in Brisbane, so it was a bright and early start for us all as we needed to drop Taylor to preschool early and Caitlyn to a friend's house.

The appointment went well and it was a good chance to go through everything again and make some minor changes.

Our costs (as expected) had increased quite a bit from the initial quote - contributed by our soil test coming back as H1 Highly reactive as opposed to M Class Moderately Reactive, the overall floor areas being extended (by us), plus they had thrown a few other requirements in there like a water tank (which we have since found out is not a regulatory requirement), higher pitched roof (which we should be able to have changed) and a few other Council related  fees.   Hopefully as we work through these, some if not all will be able to be taken out.

Following out appointment we had a chance to explore Cosham Studios which shows all their tiles/carpet/door/fittings/roof/kitchen/bathroom/ colour options that we are to choose from.  It was good to have an initial look before our further appointment in 3 weeks time when we have to make all those decisions.  

At the same appointment in 3 weeks time we sign our final contract off so that working drawings can be ordered and everything sent off to Council for approval.

It seems a very long process just to get to this point - but they are very thorough in ensuring everything is covered, so I guess that is a good thing.