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:

Because PGH didn't have pricing for our house plans, I asked to see if we could get it from our CSA.

I hate bothering our CSA for minor things, but it had to be done. We eventually narrowed our brick choice to Gravel (Range B). It was a nice colour to work with, and the colour goes throughout the whole brick.

My husband and I were taking guesses as to how much it was going to cost. My husband guessed around the $5k mark, and I guessed around the $1500 mark. I guess it's always better to aim higher in case the price is actually that high!

To my amazement, our CSA replied back and advised that the upgrade cost was $788. SOLD! We couldn't believe it! Our CSA also advised that if PGH ask us where we got that price from, that they could verify it with our CSA. Awesome! Best news ever. So gravel bricks it is!

It was going to be an awesome day today! We were so excited that tender signing day was here!

We received a confirmation email from our tender presenter about a couple of days after our tender presentation to advise of our appointment and that it would take about 1.5 hours. During the appointment we will go through the tender, new plans, and any other questions that we had.

It was pretty straight forward. We still did make some changes at the appointment (based on our new house plans), and our tender presenter also picked up a couple of errors that we didn't pick up which was awesome!

Once all was ok and we had finished going through the tender, we had to sign our life away and also initial every single page. That is correct, every.single.page! It wasn't that bad as I ended up making a game out of it with my husband to see who could sign all the pages first. He won...! haha

Once that was done, we gave our 5% deposit. It was awesome that you could pay by credit card (really helped with my points), and you didn't get charged a surcharge either!

We also got introduced to our CSA in person which was a nice touch. Was good to meet the person/voice behind the emails/calls.

And that was it! We were given a Home Options Gallery pack which basically had brochures to try and upsell you some stuff. If I can, I'll try and post up some of the brochures for you.

Our tender presenter recommended to head to PGH bricks to have a look at the brick selection before our appointment which was a good idea. So that will be our first stop!

At this point in time, the journey has just begun, but everything happens so fast!

After a couple of days of being at the sales centre, I received a voicemail about the introduction our Customer Service Administrator (CSA). The CSA will basically be there through your whole building journey (that is if they don't leave the company!) to help answer any of your questions, and to advise of you of when you need to do things and have things ready in preparation for your build.

At this stage is when you also have to arrange a date and time for your tender presentation. This usually happens around 14 days from your initial deposit at the sales centre. Unfortunately, this is where you start taking half days and days off work as they are all completed during business hours.

Once you book your tender appointment, your CSA then emails you regarding the appointment confirmation.

Our CSA so far has been great. She has been very helpful and replies to emails in a timely manner. Yep, I have already emailed her asking questions. Some of the questions are really stupid (yes first home owner questions), but it's better to ask, or else you'll never know!