Windows and gutters

Windows have been installed and gutters placed.

Water and gas pipes are in

Decided to drive past today to see if any work had been done over last few days since the weather was pretty terrible. They've put in the water and gas lines throughout the frame and what we think is our meter box.

Frame has begun

Went past today and saw that the frames were up. Just need a few more boards and the windows and the frame will be complete.

Plumbing!

Visited today and got to see some excavation occurring for our plumbing. View is from the back of our lot.

Slab poured

Our slab was poured last Tuesday and we went out to the site today to have a look. Quite exciting to see it there. We were also contacted by our Site Supervisor on Friday to let us know plumbing would be done on Tuesday and our Frame is set to start on Wednesday. Progressing nicely!

Slab pouring being prepared

The waffle pods were set last week, and the slab was poured during the week. More pics to come!

We have gates!

After quite a few months getting through paperwork and approvals we have finally entered the construction phase of building our home.

We visited our lot last weekend and were glad to find that it had been fenced up and excavated!

We should be receiving a call from our soon to be assigned site supervisor any day now which will hopefully mean we can expect the slab to be poured before the end of the month.

Playing the waiting game

It's been awhile since the last post, but things are chugging along nicely. Some important dates in the process so far that have occurred since then:

• 29th March - Settlement on land
• 17th April - Building contract signed with Wisdom Homes

I have to say, it has definitely been a learning experience so far. We went into this process with the knowledge that there will be hiccups along the way but never expected that it would come at what is seemingly the most straightforward part of the process: settlement on the land purchase with Investa/Boral.

Settlement was delayed by almost 3 weeks because the solicitors for the sellers had lost the transfer documents, which they did not realise until 9am the morning of the original settlement date! 

Truthfully, each party we have had to engage with in the process so far have been fantastic & very helpful, save for the vendors' lawyers. The real standout for me here was definitely our lender from ANZ. His professionalism and prompt replies to all our concerns & queries impressed even my picky customer service side.

So with the contracts signing now out of the way, our next focus will be on all the plethora of upcoming appointments. We're talking external & internal colours selections, landscaping plan design, talking to the kitchen guys to discuss things like benchtop surfaces, meeting with the electrical peoples to map out our electricals plan, and finally picking our tiles/carpets.

Exciting times, onwards & upwards...

Decision from buying an existing home to building in 1 weekend.

I have to say I'm still pretty amazed at how our dream of a home together is turning out...

We both always knew at some point in 2011 that we would start looking to buy our own place. I had been "ogling" houses on domain.com.au for sometime before the announcement by the NSW government about withdrawing stamp duty concessions for existing homes. A slight sense of panic definitely set in when that was announced.

Like many other first-home buyers, we started looking at a budget and setting out criteria for our new home. After several weekends of hunting, we finally found a townhouse we both loved in Toongabbie and decided to make an offer. It was definitely disappointing when that fell through. With the benefit of hindsight, Lady Luck was certainly smiling on us!

We started thinking about buying new homes and scoured for new developments within the 35km radius of Sydney CBD we knew we wanted. The Georges Fair development in Moorebank ticked all the boxes for us. From there on, to cut a long story short, we went, we saw, we "conquered".

More of my random thoughts to come...

Contract exchange official

Finally received signed contract from vendor's solicitors. Settlement is on the 16th of March!

Bricks bricks bricks

Here are two of our favourite brick options.

Land contract signed!

Signed our land contract today. Doesn't look like much now, but over the next several months it should transform into our new home :D

Settlement period will be 35 days and begins on Friday!