Monday, 26 March 2012

26 March 2012

Yay, our salesman Mr Y has advised that they fast tracked our building permit and are hoping to start the build by the end of this month - which is not very far.  Now to just get the shed up and running so we can move in.

Tuesday, 13 March 2012

14 March 2012

Well we have finally signed the contracts, although there were still some errors with regards to the design and inclusions.  Hopefully they will have them sorted out soon but JG King have advised that they have booked us in for an April start.  YIPPEE.  Now with that hopefully all sorted, we can get on with building the shed and working on the garden.

We have ordered in our new Chook coop so should be able to pick it up in a couple of weeks and then sort out the chook pen and yard.  Another 3 truckfulls of mulch have been delivered so that should just about finish the boarder.  Busy times ahead.

Monday, 5 March 2012

5 March 2012

OK, so after waiting 3 days for a response to my email sent to Mr Y requesting an update on the progress of our build, I received an email saying that after speaking to John King snr directly, Mr Y was told that our plans and contract will be good to go by today.  Well, it is now Monday evening and we have heard nothing about the plans.  Fingers crossed we will hear something by mid week.

On another note, we had 80 cubic metres of mulch delivered to our block a few weeks back as we will put it around the boarder for planting our native trees later in Autumn.  I'm not sure if you have seen what 80 cubic metres of mulch looks like, but we now have 6 huge mounds on our block about 4 foot high and 8 to 10 feet wide.  We then thought that we could easily distribute the mulch to the boarder ourselves, which consisted on me, my husband, 2 wheel barrows, 2 kids and a dog.  It probably didn't help that the day we decided to tackle the mountains it was already 30 degrees by early morning and we had a rotten northerly wind blowing.  So after 2 hours of back breaking work where for every shovel we put in to the barrow, the wind blew about half of it off.  We were tired, hot and bothered (well me and the kids anyway, Hubby and the dog were in their zone) I eventually convinced hubby that maybe we should hire a bobcat which could probably do what would take us many, many weeks to do in a few hours.  Thankfully the heat, wind and dirt in our eyes, convinced him that it was the way to go.   We have found someone who will hopefully spread the mulch this week so all we need to do is rake it evenly around the boarder.  Fingers crossed we have nicer weather to work in this weekend.

Friday, 2 March 2012

Highs and Lows

Well the biggest high would be the design as it is just what we were looking for.  We did look at the Dennis Family Homes and although the sales team were by far better than JG King, the floor plans were just not quite right for us.  The other high was that we got and extra $7,000 to spend on upgrades as a bonus for signing with the relocated sales man.  Also it was great to be able to see a display home so we could get a feel of the space and flow of the house.

Now for the lows, the agonisingly long time to get the paperwork through.  All the extra hidden costs they don't tell you until months in.  As far as I am concerned, if it is mandatory to have safety rails for the house build, why are these not already included in the house cost?  They will do anything to make the base price look good but they have just added $12,000 to it for costs.  Mr Y talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.  Even after supplying detailed photo's (we took these of the display home) and changes (mind you very slight) to the plan, it still came back wrong.  Maybe if Mr Y, actually listened to us rather than just nod his head and say yes, it would be correct from the beginning.  Thankfully I got to speak to the drafts person and explained what I wanted and it was done.  I think they should just get rid of the sales men and women and just let us deal directly with the finance, drafting and colour people directly as it would save allot of time.

We are just hoping that if it takes over 4 months to get the paperwork through, how long will it take to build.  Mr Y said 20 weeks, well I would like to see that happen.  I was hoping that when we signed last year, that our home would be finished by September this year as I am hoping to celebrate my 40th in the new place.  Only time will tell.  Hopefully I will have more news next week.

Thursday, 1 March 2012

The First Part

Hi All, I thought I would just write a blog on the progress of our house build for anyone who may be interested in building a new home.

I guess I will start back to October last year where I found our dream home design through JG King homes.  The salesman had just been posted to Geelong and was giving a great promo which also made the house look that bit better.  We had a look at the display home in Bendigo and just fell in love with it.  By the end of October we had signed the initial contract and paid our $1,000 deposit.  As our own home was up for sale and we had just received an offer with a settlement for mid Feb we said that we would like to get the ball rolling as we had just over 3 months before we needed to be out of our home.  The salesman, who I will call Mr Y, said that he would fast track it and get things moving.  Now I know they are not going to build the home in that short time but we made it clear that we at least needed the building plan to be in council so we could then erect our shed wher we would live temorarily while the house is being built.  All seemed good and Mr Y said it should be fine.

Well, it is now the start of March, our house has sold and we are renting as we have not even had the final plans come through.  I can't believe that after 4 months and Mr Y saying he would fast track it we are still not close to putting the permit through.  I know, I know, salesmen will say anything to get the sale but that just makes me not trust him.  Plus there are a multitude of things that have just driven me mad but more on that later.  Lets just hope the email I sent him on Moday to give me an update will be answered soon.