Still in the permit stage..*sigh*

Do you know the one thing that's more boring than applying for a building permit? Writing about it!! Which is why we haven't update this blog in so long.  It's really frustrating to have this stage move along so slowly.  In a nutshell, this is what has happened:

-We submitted our plans to council, setting the house back 6 meters from the front of the block to the porch.  The council guideline is a 7.5 meter setback, but we wanted to have a smaller front yard and a bigger back yard..makes sense yes?  Nooooo.....

-The permit went to the advertising stage, and unfortunately for us we received an objection from a resident in the street.

-We then submitted a compromise of 7.5 meters back from the front of the block to the lounge room (front of the house) instead of to the front of the porch

-Council delegate committee ruled against this compromise, and decided it needed to be 7.5 meters back from the porch.  We could have then taken it further to VCAT, but decided it wasn't worth the risk of delaying the build even further.

And just when we thought we had all our paperwork ready and plans printed, a typo in the council requirements meant we had another small issue to deal with - meaning the drawings had to be redone (again!)  Basically we are waiting for a letter from a building surveyor to say that the materials being used will comply with the ridiculously high BAL rating.  Hopefully they will come through this week and we can submit them to the council again!  Once the council have them it should take them two weeks to approve, then we just the builder to lock in a start date.  THEN hopefully we'll be writing much  more exciting and frequent posts like "Look, the slab has been laid" or "Whoo hoo, the frame is up!"

Luckily for us, we are loving where we are living, the boys are all really happy and doing well in their schools and footy teams, the fish and squid are biting, and even when the weather is bad, the scenery is gorgeous!  Keep checking back, it has to all start soon right?  Right...?????!

Application for Town Planning

Today we submitted all of the information required for Town Planning to the Mornington Peninsula Shire.

They wanted to see all of the plans (including the house location on the block, shadowing, overlooking and landscaping proposal) and well as a copy of title, POS (Plan of Subdivision) covenants and Section 173 agreements (conditions/restrictions on use of land).

The block of land we purchased is subject to 3 overlays (Bushfire Management, Vegetation Protection and Design & Development Overlay)*  This of course only adds to the complexity of getting approval.  The builder says that it's something we get from the council, and the council say it's something we get independently..don't you hate that?!

Apparently the whole application process can take up to 3 months....   We are hoping we can get it though sooner - let's just hope we've dotted all our i's and crossed all our t's..

Nothing much else to add, hand over the document, pay $500 application fee, leave it with them and hope for the best!

Hopefully our next post will be that we have the green light to build!!!

*(Adam filled out the whole bushfire management document. This not only saved us a heap of money I'm guessing, but also a week or two in time too. I have no idea how he did it - I'm lucky to have such a clever husband - all I did was proof read it and I was confused!)

Contract Appointment

Today we ventured back to Porter Davis Offices to attend our Contracts Appointment.  We ran through everything with Sarah who will be our building co-coordinator.

All of the choices we had made at the colour, electrical and tile appoints were costed and presented.  We also made some minor tweaks to the house including frosting to a window or two, and a change of cabinet colour in the bathrooms/powder rooms

Once all was agreed a formal contract was signed and balance of the deposit paid -YAY!

The ball is now in our court to get council approval.

Here are generic ground and 1st floor plans with the galley/pantry option and the first floor powder room option.  There are also other minor changes (window sizes/positions) but this gives you the general idea of the layout.

Ground Level

First Floor

Tile Appointment

Today we were back to Hopetoun Interiors for our tile appointment. We were dreading it a bit, because we didn't feel confident in the range that we were offered (through National Tiles) However, with help from our consultant Priscilla, we picked out tiles for the floor, bathroom, powder rooms, ensuite, balconies, feature tiles and the kitchen splashback.  There was a lot to think about, like the size and shape of the tiles, the orientation that they will be layed and of course the all important grout colour.. (You know how much I love good looking grout!)  When we left the showroom we felt great - really happy with all our choices - pretty much everything is done now, we are ready to sign the final contract and submit the plans to council!

Here are a few of our choices, it's actually really hard to take good photos of tiles, the colours never come out quite as nice as they are in real life..but you get the general idea

Rear and Front balcony tiles,
and possibly the front outside entrance
Portifino Basalt External 400x400

Main floor tile
Belgium Stone Diamond Natural 600x600

Our bathroom/powder rooms/ensuite/laundry combinations

                                                     

Feature tile Silk Olive 300x600
This tile will be in a few different places in the wet areas

Benchtops in all the bathrooms/powder rooms.
Essastone Crystal Chalk

Kitchen Splashback - Revival Kate#4 Ebony
This is a glass tile from Southern Cross Ceramics

This gives an indication of what the splashback will look like
(not what our kitchen will look like)

                               

Colour and Electrical Appointment

We visited Hopetoun Interiors today for our colours and electrical appointments. First was the colours, where we selected all of our finishes including: bricks, mortar, roof tiles, garage door, gutters, downpipes & fascia, windows, doors, door hardware, wall colour, cornice, skirting, bench tops, cabinetry, handles, sinks, basins, baths, taps, rails, stairs, carpet and of course the toilets - all which have soft closing lids - no more slamming - nice!  It was a great day, and our consultant Stephanie was really nice and easy to work with. We didn't take photos of our exact selections for everything, but we will add photos/style names in as we go if we can.

Door Handles

Showers, taps, towel rails and toilet roll holders

Exterior

Our brick colour is Homestead Mushroom, the render is Rattlesnake, other colours we are using are Gully and Woodland Grey (gutters, downpipes, garage door and other stuff) The roof tiles are Barramundi. Don't you just love the names of the colours?!

Kitchen

We are having a white on white kitchen (again)  As you know, we recently renovated our old kitchen - and loved it - so this one won't be much different. It won't be exactly the same, but there will be a lot of similarities - why change something we already loved?  The cabinetry will be polar white vinyl wrap (semi gloss) and the bench tops will be bone white (essastone) The kickboards will be a silvery grey colour.  We haven't decided on the splashback yet - it will be tiles, so we will choose that at our tiling appointment.

Electrical

Once colours were done, we saw an electrical consultant, Nathan. He was great to work with, knew his stuff, and was fast and friendly.  We managed to spend our budget upgrading lighting, power points, TV points, etc.  In a few areas they will supply the electrical rough-in and we can install what we like post hand-over - for example fans - we didn't really like the ones they offered, so we will choose our own.

We are considering the 7" Colour Video Doorphone with Recording and Perpetual Function..so we will see all our visitors, and we can see if the kids try and sneak out, and when they are older if they get home on time...mwahahahaha...

Soil Tests

Porter Davis conduct soil tests to confirm site costs.

Not much to see but at least something has happened!

The Adventure Begins!

Here it is, our fantastic block of land!

Exciting times

It's all ours!

After deciding that we loved Mt Martha, and looking at lots of houses that weren't quite right, and blocks of land, most of which were too steep, we found this little gem! It's a corner block, with beautiful ocean views. Let the fun of building begin!