Second soil test received

Slight progress... better than none I guess!

Yesterday I received the second soil test from Porter Davis. It took the Engineering company almost 3 weeks to complete this. 

Anyway, here is a snip of the results. Compared to the initial soil test it seems that they didn't hit any rock. Any feedback on the report is welcomed. 

Patience is a virtue. Well at least when you're building!

Yet another month has passed and we are yet to start out build. It seems January is probably one of the laziest and slowest months of the year. Here is a quick update on the progress we have had recently:

• Bank has given unconditional approval
• Second soil test was ordered on the 06/01/2015 and we are still waiting for the results!
• Building permit is being held up by the soil test
• Final construction drawings also waiting on the soil test

We are due to go to site on the 30/01/2015 but this is becoming less feasible with every day that goes past.

Fortunately, our current Building Coordinator is absolutely wonderful and responds to my emails/calls within the same day. At worst it will be early the next day! Very impressed and grateful for her top notch service. 

Porter Davis is chasing up the engineering company to provide a report for the soil test. The engineering company says they have already done the test and have a back log of reports to completed.

The strange thing is I have been out to the block and could not see any holes or disturbed soil whatsoever! Who to believe...?

You definitely need to be patient when building a home...

Thanks for reading!

Pay us $900 or no buiding permit... Surprise!

Hi All,

Our building coordinator emailed us yesterday to inform us that the council is holding of issuing our Building Permit because we have not yet paid the $900  'Community Infrastructure Levy'. Say what?!

After frantically calling around to get an answer, mind you this was 4pm on a Friday afternoon. We finally got an answer from the council that the developer of Merrifield has decided to pass this cost onto the purchasing party. Here is the paragraph derived from the Hume City Council website (http://www.hume.vic.gov.au/Building_Planning/Planning/Planning_Fees):

'Community Infrastructure Levy

The Community Infrastructure Levy is a fee paid to Council by developers to assist in the provision of local facilities and services for each estate.The levy is generally paid for upfront by the developers upon settlement of a parcel of land. However, for some estates the developers will pass this requirement on to individual land owners.It is recommended that you contact the land developer for further information on your specific estate. Alternatively you can contact Council’s Strategic Planning department on (03) 9205 2200.'

At no point throughout the sales process did the developer disclose that there will be a levy passed down to us after settlement.

In the interested of not further delaying our build we will be paying the Levy first thing Monday morning. Having said that, I have sent an email to the Vendor requesting if this cost has truly been passed onto us the land owners and why it wasn't disclosed to us.

Thank your for reading.

Check your pegs!

As we are coming closer and closer to site start we are making sure everything is ready to go. Having taken the advice given here: http://www.anewhouse.com.au/2012/01/block-boundary-pegs/ we thought we would go out to the block and check that our pegs are still in place.

First visit yesterday we managed to find only the two front pegs. This concerned us a little so we went back out the our block today with a small shovel and hey presto! We found the third peg.

Designated Bushfire Prone Areas - No longer covers our block

Hi All,

Found out today that our block is no longer in a designated Bushfire prone area. Great news as we will be saving about 7k!

Make sure you check this with your builder before you sign the final construction drawings.

You can find out this information for your block here: http://services.land.vic.gov.au/maps/interactive.jsp

Cheers