Oct 2006: Financial Approval completed, plans selected, pricing worked out. Looking good. Block of land at Melington Estate found and an offer put in. Awaiting results.
2 Nov 2006: Land settlement, woohoo, the bank and we now own a block of land. Well, we own the land, the bank owns a big mortgage, Building and Planning approvals now needed.
Early Nov 2006: Can't remember the exact date. Tiling, carpet, benchtops, cabinets and colour schemes selected. This was a fun afternoon.21 Dec 2006: Date of FIRST building permit
15 Jan 2007: Planning approval in place, thought the build would start now, but no, a hiccup with the finance co. and building co. Trying to sort out what is happening. Lots of avoidance and unanswered phone calls. One call leads to the belief that they will start the build "second week of Feb".
6 Feb 2007: Three weeks after approval, this is the day the clock starts ticking for the building co. Still no progress on the build, 210 days from now they start paying my rent if they haven't finished the build. Still no responses from the co. A tap has been installed at the block (section for the kiwi's reading this).
22 Feb 2007: Finally a response from the building co. They have had an internal restructure and are redoing their schedules. They are aware that the clock is ticking. If no call from them then follow up Wed 28th. We will see how they go.
24 Feb 2007: Looked at some display homes to keep up the interest and prepare for contingencies.
1 Mar 2007: Got through after yesterday getting: "he's not in yet" followed by "he's in a meeting" followed by "He is busy, not avoiding your calls". Planned start is "within the next two weeks, you will recieve a letter outlining start and completion dates"
26 Mar 2007: Wow, not much happened this month. Finally got onto a Director at Landmark. Supposedly my slab is one of 16 they have currently on order. He will contact me within "the next few days" to confirm the date of the pour of the slab. Completion date is quoted as 9/9/07
30 Apr 2007: Hmmm, a whole month without an update. So far this month they have scraped the block ready to do the pre-work for the slab, scheduled the plumber, sparkie and contractor to pour the slab. Sent us out a new plan because we had some missing information. We received the new plan and the house had been flipped so east was west and west was east. Contacted Landmark, met with them, had them admit it was their mistake, flipped the house back. We are now awaiting a new set of plans that was meant to be sent today. Once these are confirmed they have to go back to the developer for approval and then back to the council for a revised building permit. After that they can re-scrape the block in the right position etc. The good news is the end date is still 9/9/07, the bad news is that I dont see how the heck they are going to make that.
5 Jun 2007: Wow, what happened to May. Man it took them a long time to fix the plans and get them approved. Finally, some action, they have excavated again, hopefully in the right place this time. We have new, approved plans:
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16 Jun 2007: Now there are some pegs in the ground. Hopefully the plumber is going to turn up early next week to do the preliminary work. We have been told the slab is due to be poured next week as well. Watch this space to see if it happens or not.
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