We have a fence. It begins!

Even though are excitement over a temporary fence might seem silly, to us it is a massive achievement!

It's great to finally see them starting works on our home to be. All the paper work, meetings, countless emails and headaches have finally brought us to this point. We know it's still a long road ahead full of issues and surprises but we will take it all as it comes and hope that we have a positive outcome which will be our first home.

Thanks for everyone's support so far and look forward to sharing the building journey with you all.

Here are some photos of the block as it stands. Also added a photo of my brother and his fiance who are also building their first home. My brother being the family comedian he is, sent a re-enactment of our photo back to us. First photo is us :)

Appliance LPG compatibility confirmed!

A few posts back I shared the email I sent to Porter Davis regarding our appliances and their compatibility with LPG.

They have responded to the information I gave them and confirmed that all our appliances are in fact compatible to be used with LPG or Natural Gas. This is great news for us as it means we don't have to change our appliances nor wait for our natural gas supply to get our Certificate of Occupancy. 

Here is a screen shot of the Building Variation (BV) PD sent us for this change. Total cost is $233 and we still need to supply our own gas tanks before handover. 

  

I requested that they advise where the bottles will be located and was told that this is for the client to decide. So with that in mind, I did my research and sent the following back. 

I used the following link for information regarding the exclusion zones for any ignition source, door, window etc... This allowed me to select a suitable location. Hopefully Porter Davis concur with this.

http://www.elgas.com.au/blog/388-lpg-gas-bottle-cylinder-placement-guide 

Thanks for reading :) 

We have a tree! Construction is yet to start though...

Went out to have a look at the block today hoping that something has happened. Nothing. Not even a fence :(

Anyway, I was half expecting this to be the case.

I did notice that the council has planted a tree in our front nature strip. Can anyone help me identify it? Here are so photos:

Final Construction Drawings - Signed

On Wednesday we attended an appointment at Porter Davis with our Building Coordinator (BC) to sign off our construction drawings.

It was supposed to be a quick 30 mins meeting but it went for about 2.5 hrs. Even though there weren't many mistakes in the drawings we still had a few changes that we needed to discuss. Our BC was also kind enough to go through the drawings with us page by page, measurement by measurement, note by note to ensure they were all up to standards and error free. She managed to pick-up a few discrepancies on the drawings which were rectified on the day.

The changes that were made are as follows:

• Added a cold water tap to the fridge space
• Changed the spout to the bathroom bath tub
• Added some notes for rendering
• Fixed the figure for the void under the kitchen island
• Removed the note for glazing to the laundry glass doors
• Added measurement for garage door

It was a pretty easy and successful appointment compared to our Tender and contract. We left the Porter Davis office feeling confident about the drawings and the choices we had made.

Unfortunately, that was overshadowed by the issues we had with the Natural Gas supply to the area but we are working to rectify it and feel that we have found a good solution. We're looking forward to starting the build. 

Thanks for reading :) 

Building Permit issued

We got some good news today! 

Our building permit has been issued and our Building Coordinator sent us the permit and approved drawings on the same day. 

Hopefully this will be the start of more good news.  Looking forward to finally starting to see our home get build. 

Information regarding LPG/NG compatibility our appliances

So after receiving the lovely news of not having natural gas at our block till September 2015, I decided to do some more research regarding our appliances and their compatibility with LPG/NG.

Porter Davis told us that none of our appliances would be able to change over from LPG --> NG after hand over. Boy were they wrong. Here is section of the email I sent to PD today:

• Rinnai Infinity 26

Confirmed by the manufacturer that it is LPG --> Natural Gas convertible. Part number for the kit is: 92099311

• Blanco BFD9058FX

Confirmed on the manufactures website that it can be converted to natural gas even if order in LPG originally. Please see manual attached page 29. Also here is a screen shot. 

• Brivis Ducted heating HX30i

Available in LPG and confirmed by manufacturer that there is a conversion kit from NG --> LPG. Part no. B061776

Surprise, surprise. I have contacted Porter Davis and asked them to review this information and install LPG appliances to our home as well as the provision for some LPG bottles. The gas company has agreed to cover the cost of the conversion back to Natural Gas for all our appliances.

Thanks for reading. 

No Gas!! What do you mean no Gas?

Hi all,

Today we got some really bad and frustrating news. We have been told that there will be no natural gas supply until September 2015!

As you can imagine, this was really disappointing for us. Especially having been so excited for our site start this Friday.

The gas company APA Group has advised that we get our builder to install appliances that are compatible with LPG and they will change them over to natural gas when the time comes.

Unfortunately, Porter Davis is refusing to do this. They will either supply all LPG equipment or all natural gas equipment. Obviously we don't want a house that only runs on LPG tanks. So we are now stuck in a situation where we are due to move in at the latest June/July but cannot obtain a certificate of occupancy. Meaning we will be paying 95% mortgage and rent for 3-4 months whilst we wait.

What an absolute joke! Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.