Friday, December 12, 2008

The Beginning

This is my first post so here is some background of what has happened over the last 12 months.

The block was purchased in October 2007 and settled in March 2008, once the new subdivision was registered.

After a false start with Beechwood (due to them going into receivership), finally settled on a slightly modified Allworth Monterey Sands Countryside house with the front facing the long side of the block instead of the short side. This was done to get around the problem of having to have the house set back too far from the street to avoid the council's 1:5 driveway gradient requirements.

Here's the Allworth timeline for those that are interested to know how long the process has taken:
05/07/08 - First visit to Allworth display homes at Maryland
13/07/08 - Paid $500 for Tender which includes a site contour survey
26/07/08 - Received Tender
09/08/08 - Happy with the tender so paid $2000 deposit to draw up plans
18/08/08 - Received a final Tender with requested alterations and additional options included
20/09/08 - Received first draw of plans
21/09/08 - Returned plans with ammendments highlighted in red
05/10/08 - Did colour selections (this was earlier than normal due to colours lady leaving)
10/10/08 - Received ammended plans with all corrections made
10/10/08 - Submitted plans to Coffey Geotechnics for their approval (this is only if you have a T3 condition on your land in Lake Macquarie)
13/10/08 - Picked up plans from Coffey's and delivered to Allworth for all the other approvals (Mines, Water Board, etc)
16/10/08 - Plans lodged with Lake Macquarie Council
10/11/08 - Plans approved by council with no alterations required
28/11/08 - Had the block cleared due to neighbour starting construction
08/12/08 - Contracts signed with Allworth. Construction due to commence in the New Year

These photos show the transformation that took place from the beginning to how it looks now.