At least another 7 weeks

I just spoke to a lady at council.
When the report finally comes back from the CFS it will be two weeks before the coucil guy signs off on it. Then it will be sent back to the builder, who has to get a private company to certify it and apply for licenses etc then they send that back to council then council approves it.
She said the quickest all that paper work has ever been done has been 4 weeks. Thats the quickest!!

So at least another week before the CFS has to get there report in, and from talking to the CFS ladies they are going to take there sweet time and not post it till the the day before it is due, then 2 week with council, then another 4 weeks. So 7 more weeks before the builders even get approval.

Then the builders have a 6 week 'good to go', so 13 more weeks before we get our slab. So if we are _lucky_ and I use that word loosely - we will have a slab by the 9th of October. Then if we are really lucky it will only take 6 months to build, but you have to add a month for all the dingdonging around Christmas so maybe May next year we might have the house. MAY, MAY!!
I don't even want to think about it or I might just go postal on someone.

I feel like going postal on the CFS ladies. This one woman is so fricking rude on the phone. So nasty, I ask her how the report is progressing, what it is up to and she is like "We have until the 30th to complete it" that is all she says. She reminds me of our extrememly frustrating and totally incompetent Sales Consultant. I seriously feel like going up to the CFS in Mt Barker and just sitting there with three screaming kids for days on end and asking her how she likes it. I'm sure there offices are bigger then this bloody small rental we are in.

I am restraining myself from going postal over the phone, as I am sure if I do our fire rating will go from Low to HIGH. But how fricking ridiculous is it that we have to have a fire rating at all. There isn't a tree for miles, we are in the middle of a fucking building development. arrghhhh arrggghhhh I just feel like screaming all day long. I think I need to go buy some Rescue Remedy and try to calm down.

Waiting on CFS fire rating

Well we are at a standstill while we wait for the CFS fire rating to be done. I rang the CFS last week and apparantly the one guy who does it is on leave. So two weeks at least before he starts doing them again . Then another 6 weeks or so to go through council. *arrghhhh* if it isn't one hold up it's another.

The council bloke states that we have to have the fire rating done because the small area that we are building in is rated a high fire risk due to the fact that it used to be a reserve/farmland. This rich family in Adelaide about 100 years ago bought up vast tracks of land, and then let them somewhat return to there natural state, they are now slowly selling this land piece by piece and making a killing. So the CFS rated these areas as fire risks, now that we are building they still have that rating and need to be assessed even though every tree within the area has been raised.

We still havn't gotten the second engineers report back, I rang Statesman yesterday, apparantly the external engineer had some big project come in, so they dropped everything to work on that.
Thats what they get for paying them pittance, so now it will be at least two weeks before that comes back.

Now that we are paying interest on the $180k for the land getting things to hurry along is all the more urgent.

The Gold range bricks

We changed our brick selection from Oyster, that we thought was just a bit to dark to Sorbetto, this upgrade cost us $2500. So I hope they look good. If they don't I think I will never hear the end of it from hubby, who wanted to go for the bronze or standard range bricks from Austral called Almond. I just found them too yellow.

Spoke to the Neighbours

Well since we now actually own the land and arn't backing out I thought I would see if I could get in contact with the neighbours and make sure they didn't use the same brick as us. IF I'm paying $2500 extra for a brick them I am not having the two houses next to us using the same brick, thats for sure!!

So the person to the left has bought the block to build a rental property on. He still hasn't decided on a builder but was/is leaning towards the same builder that we are using.

The couple to the right is Scottish, I could barely understand a word they said! They have a girl who is a year younger then my daughter, and a son the same age as mine. She is a nurse and he used to be a police officer. I talked to her about choosing laminates and tiles and where to go. They currently live in the same area that we are building, so hopefully they may keep a bit of an eye on the build for us.

I did however stress to both of them NOT to use the same brick we are ;) But now I am thinking that might backfire and when they go to selections the only name in there brains may be that of my brick :(

Hopefully though since the people to the right are using the same builder as us the builder might be able to come up with something for the retaining wall.

Land Ownership - It's settled

Well I missed the phone call to tell me that our land had settled! But they finished with all the paperwork and what not at about 12:10pm yesterday. So we now own a big old chunk of Australia, with the biggest weed you have ever seen smack bang in the middle of it.

I told my husband that we should go up there and open a bottle of wine and have a drink on our land. But he didn't get home till 6.30pm and it was dark and late, we where going to go up this afternoon, but it is pouring down with rain. So maybe later in the week, and we can then just fudge the date on the photo.

We all have colds at the moment, so the thrill of it all is seriously tempered by feeling so ratched.

In the mail yesterday we also got notice from Statesman of our total project cost so far. We sat down and tried to work out the sums in our cold addled heads. If we have it worked out right, we should have $10,000 left over at the end of the build. That's if the footings costs come down by the $9000 that Statesman expects them to. So I think we can get carpet put in the bedrooms and home theatre room before we move in. But no tiles in the main areas, it will be an adventure, I was thinking I could get some cheap carpet runners and run them down the hallways, we already have a big red mat that can go in front of the teli in the living area, and then I can get some rubber types mats to go down in the kitchen. We can call it an 'adventure' a bit like having milk crate furniture when you first move out of home.

On an altogether different note, I had a phone call from a girl who asked if I could witness some documents for her. So I have preformed my very fist duties as a Justice of the Peace. Poor girl was here for an hour while I read through the booklet to see what I had to do.

Hubby is due home with lunch soon, we might drive out to the block and at least take a photo through the car window, we should mark the even in some way.

Building Insurance and Council Letter

We got a letter in the mail today, from the builder. It contained a Policy Certificate number for the builders insurance. Oddly enough it doesn't say how long the insurance is for. The amount that it is insured for is also less then the total cost of our project. But I guess they took out the insurance before we did colour selections.

The second bit of paper states that our new home has now been submitted to council. I wonder what plan they submitted, as the engineers report hasn't come back on our alterations. Or do councils not worry about things like footings and retaining walls? Do they just want to know what the house plan is?

The letter points out the 3 stages of council approval, then states "In total the approximate time frame for approval is 10 -12 weeks.

We might just see about that, apparantly a few calls to the council can not hurt. So I might ring them tommorow and see if they have actually recieved it. Then I might call Statesman again to see if the Engineers report is done. I really want to know what the new footings will be. Once we have that amount then we will have a final figure, and I can have a heart attack or a Pims and a lie down.

Final Colour Selection Variations

I saw a picture in some-ones blog where they had the washing machine space near the door, then the washing tub and then some open benchspace with open space underneath. So I sent the picture to my colour selections girl and asked her if I could have my laundry like that, or if it would cost me to change it.

She sent me back an email that the laundry door would hit the washing machine and it probally wouldn't be a good idea. As I was busily measuring the washing machine she actually rang!!

We talked about it for a bit and she suggested a brilliant alternative. Move the washing machine space to right over next to the laundry cupboard, then reduce the size of the cupboard that the laundry trough is sitting in and then have the open bench space. So I said "yeppers" so in the laundry it will be (from the outside door) 2 cm bench, laundry trough, 110cm bench, washing machine space (700mm), laundry cupboard.

The laundry trough will be in a 700mm cupboard, which is what our rental laundry trouch is in, and I can fit all my chemicals in there fine.

I am excited about the 110cm of benchspace. Down the track we are hoping to put in some overhead shelving, with a rail, then I can do my ironing and hang the clothes up on the rail. All my dry clothes should fit on this bench space! (as it is the same size as the couch I now currently put dry clothes on) It just means I will have to fold the washing when I take it off the line, as compared to throwing it in the basket and dumping it on the couch as I do now. Hmm but I won't be able to watch telli when ironing, just look at a blank wall....

The best bit about it all, is because I am reducing from a 1200 cupboard to a 700 cupboard they are going to give me back $155 for all these changes :) *stoked*

Hopefully I will recieve in the mail tommorow or Thursday the final pricing for all the colour selections and an interm pricing for the whole project. Not looking forward to seeing that amount I can tell you.