Build Your Own House

water easements are basically of no benefit to me but not really a hindrance either. They just mean that there's a small gully running about 1/3 of the length of the property on both sides for road runoff in heavy rain.

We can't build over them but since they're right at the boundary we can't anyway and the benefit is that we will get all that extra water on our land which these days is definitely a plus

Great news, the soil type came in as M...our sewage plan is complete and we send the contract for our kit home purchase off tomorrow.

Things are indeed moving. Just need to hope the landlord will let us stay here until the end of March or we're in trouble.

If it's not one thing it's another

Toni

hey toni great news about the soil a cheap caravan may be an answer to your rental problems hope all goes well cheers shelley

Great news here, our landlord has agreed to a period lease agreement so looks as though we don't need to panic for now.

We've also received our building permit, the description wasn't right and I was starting to think I'd filled the application in incorrectly but hip hip hooray I received a call today saying it was a typo so they're sending me a letter to attach to the certificate for council.

We've also signed contracts on our new mecano kit home and paid our deposit so they're working on the documentation for council now, should be between 7-10 days and I will be able to submit everything to council.

In case you're interested here's the kit home we're buying as phase one of our build, the second phase will need to be engineered as we have plans for a very glamorous vestibule!!!!
http://www.mecano.com.au/kit_home/jumbuck.php

Happy building everyone
Toni

hey toni just checked it out pretty cool congrats hun as we are doing a kit home next time i will be watching with interest your progress they seemed very cheap on their huge houses the most expensive being just over 30 grand so cant wait to see how they turn out .

Hi Toni
I am glad things are working out for you. The thing that I realised while we were building and paying rent... is the longer it took, the harder it was to hand over the money to the landlord... At the end, we built a shed and lived in it and saved at least $300/week rent. I hope everything will go smoothly and on time for you.

Regards, Ari

Well our first hiccup and we're not even to council yet!!!

The kit home company said our Engineering documents would be ready for council 7-10 days after paying our deposit.

Well 10 days after I ring up to check on their progress thinking I'd be able to get all my forms in to council this week. Furious to hear that they haven't even left the draughtsman yet so haven't even met the Engineer so another 7-10 days before they're ready.

We really had hoped to have a slab in by Christmas and if that wasn't possible at least all permissions granted so that we could use the Christmas break for earthworks. Now we're not even sure if we'll be able to do that.

Grrrrrrrr

Phew at long last everything is with council now just gotta wait for the questions etc etc etc and of course the go ahead fingers crossed

Well I guess all my questions to council prior to submitting our applications paid off. YAYYYYY our approvals came through yesterday so all steam ahead.

Well approvals for the buildings anyway, still waiting for the sewerage plan approval but don't think that will be a problem.

Still waiting on more quotes for work but I've already got a concreter at a reasonable price that comes well recommended, I'll still check out another couple but at least I've got one in waiting.

Now to look into bobcat hire!!, insurance and putting our sign up

Well Done!

Look into getting someone to do the bobcat work as well. I have previously found that if you hire one for a weekend versus getting someone else to do it during the week, there is bugger all difference in price and you loose the weekend potentially making a mess when you could be doing other things which has a bigger cost save (also if it takes a weekend off your build time saves your mortagage repayements/rent etc.)

Bobcat hire here is around $270 a weekend. To get someone to do it for you would cost up to $100 an hour. I guess it will all depend on what you want to do around the place as well.

I rather pay the hire, as my husband is getting a practice with it as well. We have heaps to do around the place with a bobcat and the more he uses it, the better he gets... so we see it as an investment....

Regards, Ari

Well we were going to do the bobcat work on site but it seems people will only hire one to you if you have your ticket!! I've got a couple of companies to choose from and both guarantee a site level enough for the concreter so that's a bonus.

So far I haven't been able to find an insurance broker that will give me insurance for 6 month rather than 12 months.

I'm desperately hoping that at least a couple of the plumbers I've contacted for quotes get back to me quickly. I don't want the bobcat work done too far ahead of the slab because of the storms we've been having lately but I'd like to have bobcat, shipping container, concreter and plumber booked in for the new year before Christmas.

hey toni we hired a mini bobcat no licence required however next time we will get a guy in when the guy came to dig the holes he put the bucket on to clear excess dirt took him a few minutes. you can look around getting someone to do it for around $80.00 hr. we had loads of fun on the bobcat but with the trips to the tip with the dirt the towing of the bobcat which pulled the car really bad and the time it took it seriously is worth getting someone else to do it but make sure they are getting rid of the dirt too as some will just dump it on your land and its amazing just how much dirt you end up with gl hun

YAY work onsite has at last commenced.


Our earthworks were completed on Tuesday, unfortuntely they came across a shelf of sandstone so rather than pay huge amounts extra for the rock breaker we decided to go with a cut and fill slab instead.

Of course that means that the slab is going to cost a couple more thousand than we budgeted but those are the joys of owner building.

Thanksfully I already had slab, footing plans for that option too and our local council were just brilliant, approving the changes on the spot.

Soooooo the concreter starts work on Monday and the Plumber on Tuesday. We're still struggling to find an electrician but fingers crossed all will come right in the end.

DH has taken some pictures of the site with the earthworks complete and I'll post them soon.

Cheers all
Toni

Congrats on getting started, try yo enjoy the process, sometimes it's hard but the rewards are great on many levels.

I look forward to the pics

Steve