Hallelujah ! !

Well, its finally happened. The land has settled and we now own a patch of dirt in Williams Landing.

Moving forward from this point, the builder has applied for our building permit. Once that comes through we provide a copy to the land developer to finalise our already approved application for developer's approval (to make sure we've complied with all 1,245 [or thereabouts] restrictive covenants).

The build start date of 7 August 2009 has been confirmed.

Jase, Obie, Hoondee and I went out to the block on the weekend to check it out. I'll post the snaps when I get my camera back. The block next to us already has temporary fencing up and the site marker pegs are in place. In fact, they are concreted in place. I've heard rumours that some 'disreputable' builders deliberately knock out the site marker pegs so that you need to pay another $900 (of which the builder probably keeps a couple of hundred) to get the pegs re-established.

It would take a tractor to knock out our pegs. But we'll see.

Drew and Jase

99.9% there

I know how this kid feels....








Sorry for the lack of posts since early June, but its been a tough ride to get to where we are. Despite everyone's best efforts (you know who you are!) we have been surrounded by others who just can't seem to get their act together!



But no more. This week I personally started cracking the whip and put the fear of God into everyone from the lowliest of the low upwards. Nothing like sending an email from work with the signature 'Senior Associate, Commercial Litigation' to get things moving.



Suffice to say, things are now sorted, the last of the relevant documents has been signed, the stars are aligned in the sky so it must be nearly time to settle.



We are told that settlement may take place this afternoon (rubbish), more likely tomorrow (less rubbish) but I've logged onto BetFair and have put a few dollars on Monday or Tuesday. Both are fine.



Once that happens we can then use some of the proceeds of the sale to purchase a little car we've got our eye on (a '$3k special' to do us for the next few years while we build, pay off the mortgage and consolidate). Once the car is ours, we'll be able to start posting photos of the block and the build (due to start 7 August).



Anyway, odds are for settlement early next week and chances that it gets delayed further are slim - but if not, if anything goes wrong....

(http://fatherstephen.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/wrath-of-god.jpg)

Cheers

Drew and Jase

So close...

Some delays at the bank's end (not our fault!) has meant that settlement, which was due to be today, has been delayed for the moment.

(photo from one of my fav sites, www.icanhascheezburger.com)

Developments are:

1. bank has given written undertaking to pay penalty interest accruing from tomorrow due to their issues ($90 a day, or thereabouts);

2. the land estate is now open to the public and people can drive around it (if they had cars...)

3. our builder has ordered our '2nd' site and soil test, the results of which will hopefully drop our site costs down from $20k to a more reasonable $15k or something.

Once the land titles and its ours, the builder can finalise our building permit and they can technically start. Although we don't expect them to until around August.

Drew + Jase

It's only illegal if you get caught, right?

Hi everyone

This is the last of my 'set up' posts.

First, some good news. We got told today that all the finance has been unconditionally approved. This is good news. While we were sure that we weren't going to have a problem (well, another problem) - its getting that bit of news which finally locks everything away!

In relation to the land, a couple of months ago, our new development looked like this:

That's right, our block was somewhere to the left of the giant golf ball and tee. While that didn't inspire me with confidence, I've been assured that its actually a weather station.

Not to be deterred, we bought our block for a princely sum. Its 17m frontage by 34m deep (about 572m2). My only question was whether we had enough room for the puppies, no matter the price.

Anyway, fast forward 5 months and we were told last Thursday that the land had been titled. So we got VERY excited and went on a road trip!!

Things looked up when we saw a street sign to our new suburb (Williams Landing):

Regretably, we thought that 'title' meant 'access', but not so. The developer said something about OH&S and 'keep the riff raff out' has decided not to build the last 2m stretch of road from the entrance to the site to the main road. To give you some perspective, if the tallest guy in the world lay down, his feet would touch one road and his head the other.

You can even see the 'dozer in sitting in the back of this picture and the road barely metres from it!

Walking around the Federation Bike path, we came across a security fence. We thought our plans of standing on what soon would be our patch of dirt had been thwarted.

But we were so close! From the fenceline, we could see our soon-to-be street sign!

The temptation woke something in Jase that none of us knew existed... Jase told us, for the first time, that he possessed Magic Ninja Skills!

With a hop, skip and a jump, he bounded over the seemingly impenitrable fence and was standing on the other side

Dodging security patrols, bullets and heavy artillery, he quickly made his way to the street sign showing our street (Swanton Ave) for a quick photo opportunity.

After dispatching the guards, it was safe for us to join him so Drew 'Scarface' Fellowes, Jacquie 'Bonny' McCoy and Owen 'Godfather' Williams jumped the fence and we took some snaps of the driveway and our (very expensive) bit of dirt.

We left feeling satisfied. Was the month after months of delays worth it? We think so. Cedar Woods appeared to have done an amazing job. Now we just want to skip to the end where its all done!

Drew + Jase

Our house

Hi everyone

As promised, here are some basic photos of the house as we (hope) it will look! These are taken from the display home in Craigieburn. While we haven't got the exact same look, its close.

HOUSE DESIGN - COTTESLOE 29 (PORTER DAVIS)

The facade

The brickwork (its slightly darker in real life)

Grand Alfresco

The small alfresco (this is where the outdoor spa will go)

Looking down the side of the house with the two side alfresco areas

Now inside...

The kitchen, dining and the family room (although we're always calling it the lounge)

The theatre room (we have ordered the wooden step up but we are replacing the projector with a 60 inch plasma - Jason is fighting me to get a 65 inch plasma but we'll just have to see...)

The master bedroom

And finally, one of the three guest bedrooms (all visitors welcome!)

That's it for this post. I'll put up the photos from our adventure to the land shortly.

Drew + Jase

The first steps

Well, this isn't technically accurate. We're now at the point where our land has titled and is due to settle in about 14 days. Up to this point has had its moments but the purpose of this blog is to look to the future, not to the past.

Its not been an easy journey so far (countless weekends inspecting display homes, garden centres, tile showrooms, putting up with screaming kids, bad coffee at meetings in poorly ventilated rooms, sleepless nights stressing over finance, low valuations, bridging loans, paying desposits, meetings out at Deer Park with the builder -- all without having a car!).... but all in all, we've got to this point without killing each other.

Now, to the future.

Why are we doing all this? Well, two reasons:

Number 1:



(Photo from the net, not mine)

(To the family: I can hear you 'tut tut'ing from here. Don't worry, the puppies are the last thing on the 'to do' list)

And 2: Freedom from the rental market. Renting in Melbourne is excrusiating and stressful.

So moving forward... We are waiting for the bank to send us our unconditional letter of offer. We are hoping this will come through within the next few days. Following that we need to execute the loan docs and settle on the land (which is going to be around 11 June 2009).

Once we get our signed contracts to the builder then they are technically able to start building. With any luck, because the land is settling mid June rather than late August, PD can start building earlier. We cross fingers this happens because it means that we MIGHT be able to get into our new home by Christmas.

I'll try and get some pics of the display home posted in the next few days. We used the display home as a starting point for our build.