Two steps forward....One step back.

Our builder advised us last week that we had received BASIX approval - which is great! One approval down, a few more to go.

On Wednesday (16th June) our CSO advised that she had submitted our plans to The Ponds Review Panel for approval (YAY!!!!) - however, then advised us on Friday that the preliminary feedback (from The Ponds) was that our wonderful brick upgrade of BLUE STEEL FLASH was not permitted at The Ponds - Denied!!! This is because it is made of about 3 different shades (of greys and blue). It seems they want all bricks to be one uniform colour. Ho hum.

Alas, we were prepared for circumstances such as this (during this experience) so took it in our stride and made a trip back out to PGH bricks at Schofields today (Sunday 20th June). We have now come up with a few other brick choices and look forward to finalising our final choice this week. All in all, it was great that our builder was so prompt in letting us know this information :-)

After that, we went on to visit our land and it was wonderful!!! So much has happened since we were last there...the street lights have gone up, Telstra pits in are the ground, electricity pillars erected and tree bays in place. It was such a glorious day and we were in awe of this new place that we will call home - it was so nice to be in a place where we felt so energised (especially after the stress over the past 6 months or so) - Splendid!!

Building has even started in our area (however in the land releases prior to ours) - We're hopeful that our land will register soon.

This week, we have another appointment with our builder - this time to finalise our staircase design, electrical requirements and also ALL of our internal flooring (carpet/tiling/wet area selection). It's going to be a LONG, yet very exciting day :-)

For homework, we are going to look over our house plans and look at where powerpoints, light switches will be required...as well as what lighting options we plan to use.

We hope you enjoy the photos we took today :-) (Oh and it's 5 months today until our wedding!!)

Rain, rain - go away!!

Well, it's been raining here in Sydney for the past 2 weeks and is forecast to be raining all of next week too. Hmmmmm....

Before the rain started, it looked like they were about to lay the elecricity cables...put in street lights, Telstra pits etc (in our land release area) - however, upon our last visit to the land (last weekend) this still hasn't been done. Understandably. So there's not a lot to report regarding our land.

We went to our colours apointment at the Home Options Gallery on the 31/05/10. That went really well!! Almost too well. We even had time to go out for a yummy lunch. Then it came time for our kitchen appointment and we were confronted with a few issues. To cut a long story short, the kitchen we thought we were getting (as per The Ponds display home) was slightly different to the "standard" one on our plans. Eeek! After a slightly stressful kitchen appointment, we finished up our long day and came home and emailed EB about our concerns. They have sinced replied and cleared up a few of our concerns, so that's a good start. Hopefully we can get everything else resolved a.s.a.p.

So now we have officially chosen the colours for the following: bricks, mortar, roof tiles, gutters, fascias, down pipes, window frames, moroka, driveway, kitchen, bathroom vanities, internal paint, skirting, cornice, front door, front balcony rail, internal stair rail. We have also added a few upgrades along the way - especially in the brick and plumbing (toilets/showerheads/basins) departments.

Our next appointment is in a few weeks, where we will finalise our: electrical requirements, internal flooring (including bathrooms) and an appointment about the staircase options too - party times!! We won't have the time to visit The Ponds prior to then, so hopfeully some more land progress has been made upon our return.

In other news, we emailed our landscape plan to The Ponds Review Panel the other day and they replied saying that their preliminary overview indicates that everything looks good. So that's a positive outcome. I'm sure they will look at it in more detail once it's officially submitted. EB has advised that our BASIX certificate has been issued, so that's good also.

We hope to resolve our queries with EB promptly and then, from what I understand, our application for approval will go forward to The Ponds Review Panel. Then from there, it will go on the Council for approval. Hopefully in that time, our land will register (which in now due to be in July/August) and we can settle on the land and it will be all ours!! ...and all ready to start building on :-)