Now comes the slow part of this whole process. Waiting for our land to register!
Now that we have finished all the fun stuff and signed all the contracts with Plantation, we wait for our little piece of dirt to register so we can finally build on it. Land registration is in February so we still have around 2 months to go...as long as it all goes to plan and registers on time.
Last week we were given the news that our covenant application was approved by the developer Stockland. This means they are happy with what we are planning to do with Plantation and our Landscaping plans were also approved. So we are ticking all the boxes for our covenant.
Today we submitted our final quotes to our finance company so we can get the valuation done. We were told this can take around 3-4 days to get the valuation back. We have heard back already to say that the valuer can't actually gain access to our land until mid-January given the land doesn't actually register until February. This means that we need an extension on our finance.
When we signed our contract with Stockland we had a 90-day clause in it given the land wasn't registering for some time. I have just emailed off our Solicitor to ask them to gain an extension on this. I've been told this happens all the time and is easy to do. Here's hoping!
On an exciting note, the development we are moving to opened up the main road that runs through the development on the weekend. We went for a drive and can see where our block will be. It's all taped off and under construction at the moment but we can see our piece of dirt and that is pretty exciting. It was cool looking at the sites that were opened at the weekend and all the families standing on their land for the fist time. That will be us soon.
Monday, December 19, 2016
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Tender, Colour and Electrical
We have been super busy over the past 2 weeks.
We drove to Brisbane on Wednesday for our contract / tender appointment. Here we finally got to see our home on our site plan with our plans around the correct way. All the plans we have seen to date have been flipped the other way so it's nice to be able to see exactly what we are doing.
The appointment went for 2 hours, we were told to allow for 3 but given we didn't really have any changes, I guess there wasn't as much to do as first thought.
We changed a few things like closing in the study, adding a broom cupboard inside the laundry linen, changed to gas hot water, moved the garage door into the house from the hallway to the laundry and moved the outdoor tap location. All in all the only thing that cost extra was to close in the study.
We left that appointment very excited, we finally have plans!
Friday came and we drove back to Brisbane to Cosham studios for our colour selection. Again we were told to allow 3 hours but were in and out in 2 hours. I guess it helped that we went in there really knowing what our options were and what we wanted. We had a few little ad on's here but nothing too serious. We added a wood look garage door instead of the colourbond, we upgraded our wooden front door to verticle glass as we don't like the idea of people out on the street being able to see into our home. The verticle covers more space. We also upgraded our paint to a wear and tear paint. We added in a shelf in both showers, We added Jasper coloured Aluminium frames to the windows to match the colouring of the house. We did originally have in a Bin Drawer to the kitchen cupboard too, however this came back to us at a price of $500 so we decided to take that off and will do an Ikea job ourselves after handover.
The following week we had our electrical appointment, we did not have to travel to Brisbane for this as Your Home Electrical has an office at Moffat Beach...phew!
Once again we were told to allow 3 hours but we only took just over an hour. Again I think it helped that we had already been through our plans and really thought about where we wanted powerpoints and lights etc. Plantation already offers a very generous amount of power points and light fittings. The only extras we put in were fan lights, downlights and an extra light out the front as a feature light. We had a 2k electrical allowance in our tender and we came in under that...until we added in the 7 fan lights. We could have had these done after hand over for much cheaper but we figured we will have so much to do after hand over this is one thing we didn't want to think about.
Kitchen Colours From top to bottom
- Overhead cupboards
- Splashback
- Benchtops
- Cabinetry
- Flooring (Walnut Wide plank)
Outside Colours
- Colourbond Roof (Dune)
- Jasper Gutters and Facia
- PGH Frost Bricks
- Wood door and garage door
- Jasper aluminum window and door frames
Ensuite and Bathroom Colours
We drove to Brisbane on Wednesday for our contract / tender appointment. Here we finally got to see our home on our site plan with our plans around the correct way. All the plans we have seen to date have been flipped the other way so it's nice to be able to see exactly what we are doing.
The appointment went for 2 hours, we were told to allow for 3 but given we didn't really have any changes, I guess there wasn't as much to do as first thought.
We changed a few things like closing in the study, adding a broom cupboard inside the laundry linen, changed to gas hot water, moved the garage door into the house from the hallway to the laundry and moved the outdoor tap location. All in all the only thing that cost extra was to close in the study.
We left that appointment very excited, we finally have plans!
Friday came and we drove back to Brisbane to Cosham studios for our colour selection. Again we were told to allow 3 hours but were in and out in 2 hours. I guess it helped that we went in there really knowing what our options were and what we wanted. We had a few little ad on's here but nothing too serious. We added a wood look garage door instead of the colourbond, we upgraded our wooden front door to verticle glass as we don't like the idea of people out on the street being able to see into our home. The verticle covers more space. We also upgraded our paint to a wear and tear paint. We added in a shelf in both showers, We added Jasper coloured Aluminium frames to the windows to match the colouring of the house. We did originally have in a Bin Drawer to the kitchen cupboard too, however this came back to us at a price of $500 so we decided to take that off and will do an Ikea job ourselves after handover.
The following week we had our electrical appointment, we did not have to travel to Brisbane for this as Your Home Electrical has an office at Moffat Beach...phew!
Once again we were told to allow 3 hours but we only took just over an hour. Again I think it helped that we had already been through our plans and really thought about where we wanted powerpoints and lights etc. Plantation already offers a very generous amount of power points and light fittings. The only extras we put in were fan lights, downlights and an extra light out the front as a feature light. We had a 2k electrical allowance in our tender and we came in under that...until we added in the 7 fan lights. We could have had these done after hand over for much cheaper but we figured we will have so much to do after hand over this is one thing we didn't want to think about.
Kitchen Colours From top to bottom
- Overhead cupboards
- Splashback
- Benchtops
- Cabinetry
- Flooring (Walnut Wide plank)
Outside Colours
- Colourbond Roof (Dune)
- Jasper Gutters and Facia
- PGH Frost Bricks
- Wood door and garage door
- Jasper aluminum window and door frames
Ensuite and Bathroom Colours
Ensuite Vanity
Bathroom Vanity
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Plantations Information Session
Today we travelled to Cosham Studios, Plantations colour selection studio in Brisbane for our Information session.
We arrived at 10am and were pleased to learn that there were only another 2 couples that were booked in too, which meant there were fewer people than we had thought to look through all the selections in the studio.
We were given an info booklet and on one of the pages, it had a list of the selections we need to choose items for. We were walked around the studio and shown what are the standard options for selection and what are upgrade options. By the end of the tour we were told to go around and start thinking about what we want, make note of what colours and items we would like to include in our new home.
I did not realise at the time but as we were being shown around, Dan was already taking notes of what he liked and didn't. Straight up this made me nervous as I thought for sure we would have different ideas on what we liked and didn't.
As we started to walk around I would ask what he had written down for a specific item and to my surprise its exactly what I wanted too. There were only a few minor things that we wanted something different to each other and in these cases we either found something else that we both thought was okay or we were able to come to an agreement that we were both happy with. Overall we left that session feeling very well prepared for our upcoming contract and colour selection appointments.
We arrived at 10am and were pleased to learn that there were only another 2 couples that were booked in too, which meant there were fewer people than we had thought to look through all the selections in the studio.
We were given an info booklet and on one of the pages, it had a list of the selections we need to choose items for. We were walked around the studio and shown what are the standard options for selection and what are upgrade options. By the end of the tour we were told to go around and start thinking about what we want, make note of what colours and items we would like to include in our new home.
I did not realise at the time but as we were being shown around, Dan was already taking notes of what he liked and didn't. Straight up this made me nervous as I thought for sure we would have different ideas on what we liked and didn't.
As we started to walk around I would ask what he had written down for a specific item and to my surprise its exactly what I wanted too. There were only a few minor things that we wanted something different to each other and in these cases we either found something else that we both thought was okay or we were able to come to an agreement that we were both happy with. Overall we left that session feeling very well prepared for our upcoming contract and colour selection appointments.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Contracts
We arrived home from our holiday today to find a few emails in the inbox from our legal team and Plantation. It seems they were all busy while we were sipping cocktails cruising the South Pacific.
Our legal team have sent us a copy of our land contract and a heap of items to read over! But essentially it's all good to go come February when our land registers. YAY!!!
We also have an email from Plantation introducing us to our Customer Service Administrator. She has booked us in for our Introductory Information Session at Cosham studios, Our contract signing and our colour selection appointment.
We have also received an email from Your Home Consulting letting us know they will be in contact in a few weeks once we have our colour selections etc completed so they can book us in for our electrical appointment.
We have been to a few of the plantation display homes to get an idea of what we like and don't like. We have decided to go with Neutral colours, browns and very earthy tones we want to create a Balinese style theme through the house as much as we can on our very tight budget. Plus our current home where we rent, everything is White! White tiles, white carpet white walls, white kitchen, absolutely terrible with kids, so dark is favourable for us.
We have visited our local PGH Brick centre to get an idea of what brick we like. we discovered very quickly that everything we LOVED was not in our budget and the ones we did like were not permitted as per our land covenant :( At the end of the day, out of around 12 brick selections that are in our budget we can only select from 3 that are in line with our covenant. We are not fussed on any of them but it is what it is. I liked the Savannah with off white Mortar but Dan liked the Desert Sand with off-white mortar. I think so far we will go with Dan's choice as it does tend to blend in with the roof and gutter colours we like and given the interior will be dark it would be good to use a light brick for the exterior.
The roof colour we like is Dune with a Jasper gutter and Surfmist fascia. We have cladding on the front of the house over one window so will do that in either Dune or Jasper to tie it all in.
We are super excited to get our colour selections underway next week and take us one step closer to actual home ownership!
Our legal team have sent us a copy of our land contract and a heap of items to read over! But essentially it's all good to go come February when our land registers. YAY!!!
We also have an email from Plantation introducing us to our Customer Service Administrator. She has booked us in for our Introductory Information Session at Cosham studios, Our contract signing and our colour selection appointment.
We have also received an email from Your Home Consulting letting us know they will be in contact in a few weeks once we have our colour selections etc completed so they can book us in for our electrical appointment.
We have been to a few of the plantation display homes to get an idea of what we like and don't like. We have decided to go with Neutral colours, browns and very earthy tones we want to create a Balinese style theme through the house as much as we can on our very tight budget. Plus our current home where we rent, everything is White! White tiles, white carpet white walls, white kitchen, absolutely terrible with kids, so dark is favourable for us.
We have visited our local PGH Brick centre to get an idea of what brick we like. we discovered very quickly that everything we LOVED was not in our budget and the ones we did like were not permitted as per our land covenant :( At the end of the day, out of around 12 brick selections that are in our budget we can only select from 3 that are in line with our covenant. We are not fussed on any of them but it is what it is. I liked the Savannah with off white Mortar but Dan liked the Desert Sand with off-white mortar. I think so far we will go with Dan's choice as it does tend to blend in with the roof and gutter colours we like and given the interior will be dark it would be good to use a light brick for the exterior.
The roof colour we like is Dune with a Jasper gutter and Surfmist fascia. We have cladding on the front of the house over one window so will do that in either Dune or Jasper to tie it all in.
We are super excited to get our colour selections underway next week and take us one step closer to actual home ownership!
 |
| Our brick selection so far of Desert Sand with samples of Dune roof, Jasper gutter and Surfmist Fascia |
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
The Beginning
In June 2016 we decided to take advantage of the Government grant for first home owners in QLD. They are offering 20K to first home owners as long as you build a new home.
This is fantastic for anyone, who like us, struggles to save a deposit with 2 kids and rent payments plus the day to day living expenses.
We originally looked at a builder called Integra homes who are offering a no deposit build...that's not one cent you need and you can be in your own home. We applied and within 24hours we had pre-approval.
2 weeks later after visiting their display villages across south-east QLD we chose out home, chose our land on the Sunshine Coast and had all of our inclusions picked. Next step was to submit our final costings to the finance broker they use and get it all signed off.
This is where we hit our first snag with finance. I am Self employed and have been for the past 8 years. Unfortunately, my accountant did a fantastic job last financial year and bought my tax down. This, however, looks bad for the banks when it comes time to borrow money. Becuase of my low income (on paper) our borrowing capacity went very low and would mean needing to move around 30min away which is not an option for our kid's schools etc.
It was at this point that I thought to think outside the square. We were able to borrow a small deposit from a family member and add to what we had in the bank (about 5k). that with the 20K government grant gave us a healthy deposit. I then called RAMS and by chance, they had a different lending criteria for self-employed and we were able to borrow a healthy amount again that would see us in an area we liked and only 10min drive from school.
We looked around for around 2 months, getting quotes from different builders, doing a cost analysis to see where we get the best deals with their inclusions and extras. After much going back and forward, Wayne from plantation homes Bells Reach came to the party and had an offer on the table that was outshone by all the other builders.
We had decided to build with Plantation homes, we knew what home we wanted which was the Retreat Nouveau Q2. We would have loved the Nouveau Q1, however, the budget did not allow for this so now we just had to find land to fit.
After speaking for months with Bronwyn at Stockland, Bells Reach she let us know that there was one final block within our budget that would fit our home. We were able to put this on hold once we had pre-approval from RAMS which was now in process. Within a week we had a signed contract and paid our 5K deposit to Stockland. We now officially have a block of land.
We organise to go in and see Wayne at Plantation homes to finalise that process and paid our first $1500 deposit. We were told that it takes around 5 weeks for Plantation to get us in the system so we can organise a tender appointment. Once we have this we can take it to RAMS and apply for our "real" finance approval.
This is really happening.
This is fantastic for anyone, who like us, struggles to save a deposit with 2 kids and rent payments plus the day to day living expenses.
We originally looked at a builder called Integra homes who are offering a no deposit build...that's not one cent you need and you can be in your own home. We applied and within 24hours we had pre-approval.
2 weeks later after visiting their display villages across south-east QLD we chose out home, chose our land on the Sunshine Coast and had all of our inclusions picked. Next step was to submit our final costings to the finance broker they use and get it all signed off.
This is where we hit our first snag with finance. I am Self employed and have been for the past 8 years. Unfortunately, my accountant did a fantastic job last financial year and bought my tax down. This, however, looks bad for the banks when it comes time to borrow money. Becuase of my low income (on paper) our borrowing capacity went very low and would mean needing to move around 30min away which is not an option for our kid's schools etc.
It was at this point that I thought to think outside the square. We were able to borrow a small deposit from a family member and add to what we had in the bank (about 5k). that with the 20K government grant gave us a healthy deposit. I then called RAMS and by chance, they had a different lending criteria for self-employed and we were able to borrow a healthy amount again that would see us in an area we liked and only 10min drive from school.
We looked around for around 2 months, getting quotes from different builders, doing a cost analysis to see where we get the best deals with their inclusions and extras. After much going back and forward, Wayne from plantation homes Bells Reach came to the party and had an offer on the table that was outshone by all the other builders.
We had decided to build with Plantation homes, we knew what home we wanted which was the Retreat Nouveau Q2. We would have loved the Nouveau Q1, however, the budget did not allow for this so now we just had to find land to fit.
After speaking for months with Bronwyn at Stockland, Bells Reach she let us know that there was one final block within our budget that would fit our home. We were able to put this on hold once we had pre-approval from RAMS which was now in process. Within a week we had a signed contract and paid our 5K deposit to Stockland. We now officially have a block of land.
We organise to go in and see Wayne at Plantation homes to finalise that process and paid our first $1500 deposit. We were told that it takes around 5 weeks for Plantation to get us in the system so we can organise a tender appointment. Once we have this we can take it to RAMS and apply for our "real" finance approval.
This is really happening.
 |
| Land Purchase 1st October 2016 |
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