Tender Complete

Sorry this is a little delayed - it's been a very busy week. Anyway - on with the tender update!

Our tender appointment was on the 20th. We left bright and early at 6.30 (actually is was still pretty dark!) We arrived at the head office just after 8.30 so we made good time. Our tender presenter was really good. He made the sitting in the office for three hours much easier. Plus he made some really good suggestions.

Our site costs came back quite good. We had to upgrade our slab to H-D which we thought we would anyway so that wasn't a huge surprise. We have a cut and fill, site drainage, a small retaining wall, agi drains, termite protection, mud on road prevention (!) and a couple of other boring things that are probably quite important!

Our upgrades are
*Soundscreen internal wall insulation between the toilet and dining (too much info) and also between the theatre and living.
*We have changed the windows at the front from one huge one to two smaller ones to match the ensuite.
*Flyscreens
*Upgrade theatre doors to a thicker door with a feature of four strips.
*Add double doors to the study.
*Upgrade study, internal laundry and dressing room doors to a stained wood with glass in the middle.
*Add a privacy lock to the main WC.
*Translucent glass to front door and sidelights.
*Obscure (Satinlite) glass to the ensuite W.C.
*A nice big long door handle for the front door.
*Painting the theatre room and dressing room different colours.
*Two pot drawers to the kitchen.
*Shiny gloss overhead cabinet doors in the kitchen.
*Square bath spout to match taps.
*Upgrade towel rail in the bathroom to a double instead of a single.
*Extend the laundry cupboard from two doors to three.
*Laminate timber flooring.
*Carpet.
*Add an extra tap to the backyard.
*Electricals - Downlights and some TV points and Powerpoints etc.

It sounds like a lot but it actually came in at a great price. We were very pleased :)

The only bugger is that he suggested that we won't be in by the end of the year, which we were really hoping would happen. Look on the bright side - more time to save and mum and dad get to put up with us for a bit longer :)

We have been soil tested!!!

Since I've been on holidays my daily routine has been, get up, meet a friend at the gym, run some errands, drive past the block on the way home. Today I got in the car and thought... Maybe I'll just go straight home, surely nothing has happened there.

Something has happened there!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I was driving up the road I saw some little mounds of dirt and started to get excited as I realised that they were on our block, not the one next door. Who would of thought it would be so exciting. At least this should mean we get a proper tender, very happy and excited. Imagine once we actually have real work starting down there!

A soil test - there were 5 altogether


Another soil test

This is the view looking out from our block

Looking at the block from the other side of the road, you can see the little mounds from the soil tests.

Soil tests are booked

I got an email from my admin on Friday night to say that our soil tests have been booked in so hopefully will see them happen sometime this week. We were down at the block yesterday having a look around and there was someone doing soil tests on about 7 different blocks. I wonder if they are all being built by the same builder... I really hope ours get done this week so that we can have a normal tender, not a provisional.

Our admin also said that the earliest she can get us an appointment for contract signing is May 11th so I have asked if we can just sign them and post them so that all paperwork can be completed by the end of April when we will hopefully get the titles and then we can get started ASAP!!!

Other good news is that we found the perfect curtains for our theatre room at Spotlight so now we will wait for them to have a sale! We also got a Wiltshire cutlery set from Target that was $50 off and has 10 of everything as well as salad servers and other bits and peices. A great find! I threw our old $20 cutlery set out when we moved out so have been keeping an eye out for a sale.

Other good news - I am on holidays!!

Colours completed and tender booked

Today we were off to Cosham again. I must admit I didn't sleep very well last night with everything running through my mind. Was a great morning though. It sure makes a world of difference when you have a consultant who listens and seems to care. She gave us a much better experience and we left feeling really happy and positive. Here are some pics of things we changed and others that we chose. Enjoy!

All of our flooring. Carpet is Ashton Twist - Nightingale. SOOOO soft - Love it. The tile on the right is the bathroom and ensuite and the left is laundry. Also our timber laminate in the middle there.

Our floor colours with our wall colours.

This is the best one that I have of the new laundry colours. The cabinets are the same as before in burnished wood. The bench tops are Jerusalem stone (this is different to the chip I had on the other photo), the wall tile is white gloss and the floor is a darker brown called Chalet Mocha. Very happy with the changes.

This colour will be in the dressing room instead of a dark - dark colour. It's a really nice light charcoal colour.

Beige Royal will be on the other walls and quarter will be on the doors and skirts.

Henna Red will be in the theatre room.

And just a nice one to finish off with. This was the sunset on mum and dad's farm the other night. It was beautiful, my camera didn't do it justice.

Tender is booked for the 20th of April, the day after my b'day! Now we just have to keep busy until then and hope that soil tests can be done before then.