Must stay calm!

OK trying not to let things get to us, me a little bit more successfully than Tom.

So we had some good news today...we got a copy of the tender papers for the subdivision works from our engineer, which he has sent to 4 contractors, with a deadline of 8 September. So we need to do a few things, like organise finance!!

The reason Tom was so stressed and the reason I'm now feeling soooo drained, is that I emailed our planner (RM) at the council to follow things up. It had been 2 weeks since I submitted the driveway information they had requested and we still hadn't heard anything. Well, we got an email back saying he was glad I had contacted him and that he was very sorry, but he had got confused and left our papers sitting in his intray for 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!! But to cut to the chase, the DA will be advertised this week. This, however did not please MC (designer) as he had forgotten that we are zoned discretionary and that it even had to be advertised.

It doesn't seem like that big a deal, but the communication from council since we submitted the house DA and the drawings for the services has been shocking. I shouldn't have to be chasing them to remind them to do their jobs!!

So, anyway, the plan from here....

• we need to start to organise finance
• keep clearing the blocks so we can sell them
• speak to the conveyancer about selling the blocks
• And I'm too tired to think anymore..........

Baby steps

Well, it's been along time since I've updated the blog, but that's because nothing much has happened!! But I suppose each little thing is one step closer to our new house.


Soooo....


On the subdivision side of things, we have submitted the plans for the driveway and services to council...on May 9...but as fate would have it, the senior engineer is on long service leave and the remaining engineers are all flat out, as are the people in hydraulics apparently. We received an email from our engineer (RC) the other day, simply stating.."It may take forever"

Today we received another email from RC. Council now have new standards, which we have to meet, but they have only now informed RC of these requirements. He was not happy to say the least and let them know this, politely, but firmly!

Oh well, what can you do?

RC has suggested we start to look at tenders for the driveway and services now, before council have given their final approval, to help speed things up. Sounds good to me.


Council have everything they require from us now and so it is a matter of them doing their thing now. Part of their thing was to send us the bill for the 'Public open space' levy, which they did yesterday. Over $9000!!! But it was less than we had budgeted, so that's good.


Now we have to read through the 26 pages of the part 5 agreement, should make good bedtime reading.



On the house side of things, we hope council have everything they want. RM (the planner) said he would check for us, and as we haven't heard anything to the contrary, that's got to be good...hasn't it??


We submitted the house plans to council 23rd June, so they are just a little bit over their 6 week limit...NOT. They are using the excuse that it's because the title for our new block has not yet been issued, it complicates things. I suppose we should be grateful that they are letting us submit the DA for the house now and not making us wait until titles are issued, but their communication still leaves a lot to be desired!!


The detail drawings for the house are coming along, MC says a couple more weeks work there. And he's looking at builders to quote the house for us. He has also sent the drawings along to someone (AM) to do an energy audit. After a quick look at it, he said it scored 45 points on his assessment program. Apparently, 5 stars is 15 points??? So that sounds really good. We will know more in a week or so! And then we can meet with AM to discuss any additional heating requirements etc.


Well that's about all for now