Woohoo...! After finally getting all our documents sorted, we have finally been released into construction! Awesome news.

Our CSA at Eden Brae has been great, and she has been on top of the whole situation, advising us with what's been happening, and what we need to do etc.

We also received an email from our Construction Supervisor, which was great too. At least we know who we're going to dealing with.

So sometime this week, we will be starting our site excavation. Was hoping to go past our block of land and take some before pics before it started, but we were too busy on the weekend. Oh well, doesn't matter, I'm sure the progress pictures will be better.

So, watch this space. Our build starts... NOW!

A couple of days ago I received an email from our CSA advising that they have lodged our CDC. Awesome! She advised that it will take 2-3 weeks for approval  This was great news!

It also said that our 'site start date' was still for 31/05/2016 which is soon. I thought the date was going to be rescheduled but I guess not!

We were given an approval checklist to make sure that all items below are completed. I think we've done most of them? But it's good to know to make sure that we're prepared:

Great news!

I got an email from our CSA at Eden Brae advising that our land has been registered! Awesome news!

She sent us details of our next steps as to what we need to prep for - Copy of email attached. I don't know if this is for house and land packages only, but hopefully this will be of assistance to some people!

1. Once your land is registered, a 149(2) certificate will need to be obtained from council. I can then order the CDC pre-assessment with this certificate which takes approximately 5 working days, from there your file is prepared for CDC lodgement.
2. CDC approval is received.
3. Require the sign off for the DA check letter- we understand that you have not seen the final plans but this is to ensure you have raised all the variations you want to so far. We ask for you to look at your current plans and variations to see if you may see something else you want. If not, you confirm with this letter that no more changes will be made.
4. DA check to be completed by the estimating team- The DA check is where the estimator will look over your consent and raise anything in the consent that is your responsibility as well as any additional items that have been requested. The DA check will also go through your entire file and check to see if any items have been missed or doubled up throughout the administration process. This takes roughly 1 week to complete.
5. DA Check completed - After the DA check is completed I will send you the final PCV in which I will need it signed and returned in order for me to be able to order your final plans and the amended 5% invoice from accounts which your bank may request. Final plans take 3-4 working days to be completed.

6. Site Start Appointment - Once your final plans have been ordered I will be able to book in a site start appointment to take place in 1-2 weeks time at our office. The site start appointment is where you will come in and sign off on your final documents. I will send these documents over to you a few days before the appointment so you don’t feel overwhelmed on the day. Approval of these can also be done via email if you wish which is usually much quicker.
7. Surveyor Peg Out- once we have your final plans we are able to order the surveyor peg out. The surveyor will go out to site and peg the position of your slab ready for excavator to begin
8. Bank Authority to Commence Construction (ACC)- during the above process we ask you to engage with your bank to finalise all loans and ensure the funds are ready to draw down on. Proof of this needs to be given to EBH in the form of an ACC letter. THIS MUST BE GIVEN PRIOR TO EDEN BRAE COMMENCING WORKS.
9. Production- once you have signed off all the final documents and provided EBH with all required bank documents, your file will go into production where all the orders are raised ready for the supervisor. Once this is complete you will be released into construction. This process takes 20 working days as per your contract.
10. Once released you will liaise with your supervisor on when the slab will get laid, it usually happens about 2 weeks after being released.

I am so lucky we checked our mailbox because j only check about once a month!

We received a letter from our solicitors saying that our land will be registered in 14 days. Awesome! The letter was dated about a couple of days beforehand so really we have about 9 days or so.

So glad we checked our mail!

Time to get our finances checked! Thank goodness we have a good broker.

Watch this space. Construction will start soon!

So I got an email from Eden Brae saying that our land registration has been delayed =/ which means our start date has been delayed to the 31st May 2016.

As much as we wanted it to start on time (so that we were able to get in by Christmas), it isn't the case. Oh well, what can you do!

Let's hope that it doesn't get delayed again! Last time we saw our land (which was probably about 2 weeks ago), it was looking great! The street signs were up, the footpaths were concreted and the lights were up! So let's hope there's not a lot more that needs to be done.

Hopefully my next post will be about our land being registered!

They were seriously 2 full on days! If you're keen, you can do them one after the other but I wasn't. We had a week break in between to talk and fight about our upgrades haha.

None the less, all our upgrades are complete and all PCVs have gone through to Eden Brae which we have also now approved.

It was a fun experience. Would I go through it again, yeah probably.. just the doing the selections and nothing else! haha

Now it's just the waiting game of getting our land registered, oh and we really should see our broker now to get things started!

Slowly but surely we're getting there!

** very late post **

We completed our tiling and carpet appointment with DiLorenzo a couple of weeks before Christmas. Our budget for carpet and tiling as $7k (I know.....)!

We were introduced to Annabee who was going to be our consultant for the day. We started off with tiling first for the bathroom. There are a few options to choose from the standard bathroom range (remember the building standard rate for Eden Brae is marked with a yellow sticker).

Because we had been to DiLorenzo a couple of times, we were pretty much set with what we wanted in terms of tiling, but things soon changed when I realised that some tiles that weren't in the builders range, we just had to pay for the labour on top.. score!

We initially wanted our bathroom wall time from the builders range, but Annabee recommended a matt finish white wall tile 300x600mm (which we will lay horizontally). For our floors, I didn't really like the builders range of bathroom floor tiles (and because they were only 200x200mm big,) so we ended up upgrading to a 300x300mm matte grey tile (where you just have to pay extra for the labour as well). You get a free vertical strip of decorative tile for each bathroom. We decided not to go for this and change the tiling in our niche instead. I chose a hexagon tile that we had to pay extra for (unfortunately) as it was italian stone tile. I knew I wanted it from the beginning so there was no changing that!

Left: Our niche tile, Right: Our bathroom floor tile

Next was our floor tiles for the rest of the areas (kitchen, dining etc). Again, I chose another tile that was out of the builders range. It was a glazed porcelain 450x450mm tile (as from what I read, it was recommended to get porcelain instead of ceramic). Yes, I went for another grey tile (I love grey)!

Our floor tile is #5 (Smoke Matt)

Next on our list of things to choose was our carpet. I initially asked Annabee if it was viable to get the standard range in carpet and upgrade our underlay, but she suggested that if you do that, that you either upgrade both or upgrade none (I don't know how much truth there is to that)! Anyway, we ended up not upgrading anything and left it with the standard builders range for the carpet and the underlay (which is only 3mm). We ended up going with the California Gully II - 98 Jaguar Minster carpet. It was pretty good carpet for carpet in the builders range which was also a shade of grey! haha

All up, our total upgrades for tiles and carpet came to (surprisingly) $3153.00. Happy we came under budget, and I was going to push to and ask for floor to ceiling tiling in the bathrooms but I thought I should just stay in my happy place and not ask for anything more!

Here are some prices (per m2) to help you with costs for labour etc:

• Labour to Lay 300x600mm Wall Tile - extra: $18.50 
• Labour to lay alternative tiles to Niche (1000mm x 1999mm wide): $150.00 (one off price not per m2)
• If you were supplying your own shaving cabinets (like we are) and want tiling from the bathroom countertop to the bottom of the shaving cabinets (we did a space of 540mm upwards):
• Supply Wall tile to 1800mm High (Above vanity only): $27.50
• Labour to lay Wall tiles: $48.00
• Labour to Lay 300x600mm Wall Tile - extra: $18.50
• Silicone to Vanity Height: $50.00

Day 2, and we were ready for our electrical appointment! The night before, we plotted out on our house plans where we wanted power points (and extra power points), downlights and tv outlets. Us planning the night before made it so much easier the next day.

We were introduced to Malinda who would be our electrical consultant for the day. What I loved about the appointment was that pricing was shown in real time, so we were able to see it slowly adding up! For this appointment, we budgeted $7k, and I think we were close to it. We got some extra things just because we thought that it was easier to do it there and then, and Malinda agreed. For example, all downlights downstairs we added in and Eden Brae will install them, we just need to provide the downlights (which saved us a lot)! We also included our alfresco fan through Eden Brae as it was cheaper to buy it with them and install it.

Ok, so we went over budget, but not by that much. We got everything that we wanted so we were very happy with the outcome!

The electrical breakdown is quite in depth. We mostly splurged on downlights and powerpoints. Instead of writing down our variations, I'll just outline how much each unit costs to give you an idea. Note: that most of these were included and prices are as of December 2015:

• Batten Holders (for downlights): $75.00ea

• Double Fluro light (for garage): $181.00ea

• Outdoor lights: $119ea

• Double floodlight (for backyard): $197ea

• Junction Box: $79.00

• Switches: FREE 

• Powerpoint (1 socket): $76.00ea

• Powerpoint (2 socket): $79.00ea

• Powerpoint (Outdoor 1 Socket): $114.00ea

• Powerpoint (Outdoor 2 Socket): $137.00ea

• Phone Socket: $110.00ea

• TV Point - Digital: $110.00

• Data Cat6: $146.00ea

• Digital TV antenna: $635

• Provision for wall mounted TV: $165.00ea

• Exhaust Fan: $156.00ea

• 3 in 1 lamp (for bathroom): $272.00ea

• Smoke detector: $152.00

• Motion detectors: $159.00

• Additional alarm keypad: $238.00ea  

• Upgrade to Navigator keypad and slimline siren/strobe (alarm): $284.00

• Keyfobs and transceiver (alarm): $225.00ea

• Install downlights: $48.00 per light

• Supply, wire and install ceiling fan in alfresco: $285.00

I'm too indulged in our appointments that I completely forgot to show our land progress. It's so far so good. We go and check out it about once or twice a month. Let's hope registration is on time (Feb/Mar 2016)!

15 October 2015

Once you electronically approve your variations, Kitchen Culture send you your kitchen drawings. It looks pretty cool! Surprisingly there were no changes to these drawings! haha

Final drawings attached:

After having some lunch, it was time for our final appointment for the day. Earlier in the morning, we were pumped and excited but by the end of the day, we were exhausted!

We were introduced to Mary Ann, who was new (she started about a month ago). She was very quiet so I felt awkward because we were so loud!

Anyway, my initial budget for the kitchen was $7000. But after our appointments in the morning, I dropped our budget down to $5000 so I was hoping we were able to stick to it!

There were a few things that I wanted which were waterfall edges to both sides of the kitchen island (20mm was fine with me!), and handless cupboards. Everything else that would come up would be an extra 'want'!

Mary Ann advised that for the initial consultation, that you put everything that you want, and then slowly remove your upgrades. We ended up going through 5 variations haha! I don't know if that's a lot, but it felt like a lot to me! The good thing about Kitchen Culture is that you can get most pricing for things on the day so that helped with removing items later on that night!

We ended up with the following:
Tender Items:

• 800mm wide kitchen benchtop with 200mm overhand or 900mm wide kitchen benchtop including 300mm overhang (house specific) - (I don't know how they determined this, but we only had the 800mm x 200mm benchtop. I asked why this was and Mary Ann couldn't answer)!: Included
• Portrait style overhead cupboards either side of rangehood in lieu of standard kitchen windows (where applicable): Included
• Eden Brae's Best Ever kitchen, ensuite and bathroom: Included

Our next appointment was with Ashley at Abbey Blinds and Shutters.

It was a pretty quick appointment, we knew what we wanted (and we couldn't afford the plantation shutters)!

Ashley advised that we had the option of either adding the blinds through Eden Brae, or we could deal with them directly. If you dealt with them directly, you were still able to get your blinds installed before hand over.

We always assumed that we were going to get them installed after hand over but we thought we should get a quote anyway!

For normal roller blinds, we were quoted around $3,500. That was basically for all window coverings except for the bathrooms. I'm not sure if that's a good price or not? I did ask if they priced matched and Ashley did say yes, I just haven't got round to getting quotes!

Overall, we might not go with them. They didn't have as many options for roller blinds (colours etc) that some other places. I think we're happy to stick to installing them after hand over

Next on the list was our Cooks Plumbing appointment. We were matched up with Peta who was very helpful!

Can I just say that everything that we spoke about was an upgrade so whatever I write below will be on our upgrades page! haha

So this was all plumbing stuff and appliances. We were initially shown in a book what the standard range was, and pretty much everything at HOG is an upgrade!

Peta was very helpful with chopping and changing some things around, for example, we didn't want the soap dishes in both the ensuite and main bathroom so she replaced it with a double towel rail instead of a single towel rail in the ensuite etc.

I think we upgraded everything except for the tapware and bathroom bowls =( Surprisingly, it wasn't that expensive as I thought it would be so I was very happy with that!

Details below:
We upgraded the toilets from the best ever sale (I wanted toilets that were flush with the wall as they are easier to clean). The next toilets up were around $80 to upgrade each. The next upgrade after that was $200 each, which was a massive jump! We were happy with the $80 upgrade!

With the upgrade of the toilets we had to pay additional costs for installation =/

The $80 upgrade for our toilets

Ok, so I really wanted the Pete Evans sink that is currently in Kitchen Culture. I guessed it would have been about $600. Peta let me down gently and told me that it would have been about $1000. So I scrapped it! She did recommend the black Blanco sink. I never looked at it in the HOG (there's a sample there) but after thinking about it, I loved it, also because it was only $350 to upgrade!

The Pete Evans sink at Kitchen Culture

The Blanco sink that we're getting :)

I love it!

We also got a matching sink mixer (which was expensive but my husband loved it since he said that HE does all the washing)! Including the sink and sink mixer it ends up being the same price (nearly) as the Pete Evans sink. Never mind. I love it. It's different so why not!

Our sink mixer. It comes off and becomes a hose!

We upgraded to the SMEG package through Eden Brae which upgraded us to a 90cm freestanding oven, a rangehood and dishwasher. What we didn't know was once you upgraded, it deleted the included microwave!

We also wanted a rain shower head and detachable shower handle. The one that we wanted was about $500 so we scrapped it. Peta recommended another shower head that was more in a our price range. It wasn't a rain shower one but it was a bit bigger, so we were happy to get that!

Our shower head that is at the HOG

Overall, our experience with cooks plumbing was great! Peta was helpful and we left without that many upgrades!

Our final upgrades were the following:

• Gallery Salvador deluxe wall-faced soft close suite white x 3: Per unit: $79.55 Total: $262.51
• Additional installation costs for toilet suites x3: Per unit: $34.32 Total: $113.25
• Caroma classic 1700 white (from 1500): $78.22
• Novelli Mondo 6 rail shower (for the ensuite): $206.05
• 2x soap dishes have been replaced with 1x double towel rail and a robe hook: No charge
• Blanco silgranit 1+1/2 bowl sink + drainer LHB only: $385.88
• Blanco Alta-S Compact swivel sink mixer pullout: $590.52

Our next appointment was for air conditioning which was with Glen. He was cool and very helpful!

He showed us what air conditioning was included, then showed us a recommended upgrade (yes.. upgrades everywhere)!

So he recommended that we upgrade to ESP plus, which saves about 60% energy compared to the standard air conditioner we get. He also advised that in the classic version we only got three zones, though if we upgraded to ESP plus the fourth zone is for free.

To see the difference between the 2 you can get all info through the Actron Air website:
Classic: http://www.actronair.com.au/residential/ducted/classic
ESP Plus: http://www.actronair.com.au/residential/ducted/esp-plus

You could upgrade again from that, which is ESP platinum, which saves you about 75% in energy savings. http://www.actronair.com.au/residential/ducted/esp-platinum

The price difference isn't massive, but we rarely use our air conditioning now! Good to know though!

Another fun upgrade: Actron connect. It's an app on your phone where you can wirelessly connect to your aircon and do whatever you want with it. Honesly, we were thinking about it haha, but we have decided not to get it. Good to have though! I did email Glen the next day and asked him if this was something that could be added on later and he said yes! So if we have some pocketmoney later maybe we can add it in! Further info about Actron connect: http://www.actronair.com.au/residential/actronconnect

Glen also advised us that with our house plans we need to make edits to one of our walls in either Bed 3 or 4 for a duct to be in the dining room. He said it would be around 450mm x 450mm. Had no choice really. I'd rather have that in the room so that we can get proper air conditioning downstairs.

Pricing for the upgrades was as follows:

• ESP Plus: $2580 incl. GST
• ESP Platnium: $2843 incl. GST
• Extra zones: $193 incl. GST
• More than 4 zones, 8 zone module will be required in classic and ESP+ models: $254

Ok, I think we did pretty well with our upgrades... I think!?

Amy was very helpful with providing ideas for some of the changes that we were after.

Our initial PCV (which still requires items to be deleted) was:

• Provide off-white mortar in lieu of standard: $236
• Provide aluminium flyscreens with aluminium mesh to all sliding/awning aluminium windows: $735
• Provide 1No.Additional Cold water point to fridge space: $147
• Provide stain finish to front entry door and frame in lieu of standard paint finish: $119
• Ensuite Options:
• ENSUITE SHOWER OPTION 1: Provide 2NO. panels 10mm fixed glass to Ensuite shower, leaving corner open $1,535
• ENSUITE SHOWER OPTION 2: Provide 2NO. panels 10mm fixed glass to Ensuite shower, leaving corner open. Provide tiled nib wall approx. 1000mm high on shorter side of showerscreen, and glass panel above. Nib wall to be tiled both sides: $1,320
• ENSUITE SHOWER OPTION 3: Provide Stegbar Grange semi-frameless (no overlap) showerscreen to Ensuite in lieu of standard semi-frameless overlap showerscreen: $680
• Delete Item 21-9 of Contract Tender: (Provide 2No. Gainsborough 100 series privacy adaptor to - Main Bathroom and Powder Room ): -$102
• Provide 3No. Gainsborough 100 series privacy adaptor to Powder Room, Main Bathroom and WC: $99
• Delete mirrors from Bathroom and Ensuite only: -$350
• Handle Options:
• HANDLE OPTION 1: Provide Gainsborough Omni pull handle to entry door in lieu of standard. Stainless Steel finish: $318
• HANDLE OPTION 2: Provide the following items to front entry door, in lieu of standard: 2NO. Gainsborough Oblong Pull handle (back to back) in matt black finish 9266PH600MB, 1NO. Gainsborough Square Deadbolt Single Cylinder in matt black finish 1846SMMB and 1NO. Gainsborough roller bolt mortice in satin chrome finish 775SC60: $570
• HANDLE OPTION 3: Provide matt black finish to Gainsborough Trilock in lieu of standard finish. Part no. 8901ANGMB: $263
• Provide moroka textured paint finish brick letterbox to including letter slot: $680

Day 1 started at 9am. With peak hour traffic, we got there just in time!

After knowing what Day 1 was like, we felt like we were ready for day 2!

Day 2 involved the following:

• Electrical appointment at the Home Option Gallery;
• Staircase appointment at the Home Option Gallery; and
• Tiling and carpet appointment at DiLorenzo

We were waiting for this day for a while now. I thought I was prepared, but with all the questions they were asking, I definitely wasn't!

They gave us a brochure to read to prepare for the day. I read it a few times before we went, but all that completely disappeared!

They strongly recommend that you do go to PGH bricks and have a consultation before you go, and I definitely agree with them, or else you would be deciding on a colour scheme for half the day I reckon! So, go to PGH as many times as you need!

I tell you what, even though it wasn't a full day, it was a very exhausting process. We were so tired by the time it came to our kitchen appointment that I just wasn't bothered. I know, not the right attitude, but my brain was fried!

I'll probably need to break the day up into separate posts, so bare with me :)

The outline of the day was as follows:

1. Intro with Home Option Gallery
2. Cooks Plumbing
3. Abbey Shutters & Blinds
4. Kitchen Culture

Overall, it was a fun process, and there's definitely a lot to think about and cull after the first day!

I finally received an email a couple of weeks ago from HOG advising to contact them to book our colour and other appointments. Hooray!

I thought that they had forgotten about us until they advised that they were just waiting for our land registration date before they made contact.

Our booked our appointments a week apart, just so that we don't get too overwhelmed with everything that we had to choose.

Our appointments were confirmed via email and attached to the email as a very helpful brochure as to how the whole option process worked, and what you had to prep for before your appointments. It also showed you which appointments you had on which days (kitchen, plumbing, tiles etc).

Not long to go now. We should make time to do some last minute visits to HOG and DiLorenzo (again!) just to make sure we are satisfied with our options that we have chosen so far.

The countdown begins...

Can I just say that I love this!

Eden Brae Connect is an online resource where you can basically see everything relating to your build. The reason why I love it?

1. It's online.. no print outs to worry about
2. You can approve your PCVs at the click of a button
3. There is a build timeline (although it doesn't look up to date) but that doesn't matter!
4. It's easy to access (through the Eden Brae website)
5. It's awesome!

Eden Brae Connect - Home page