We have had a win, Yippeeee...

Finally, we have had a win. The plans have been changed again, I think this is about our 9th or so time we have altered something. Nathan, from Rawdon Hill, has been fantastic and extremely patient with my demands. I think he thinks I might have a bit of OCD because we have made that many little changes, which means every time I think of something the plans go back to the draftsman/drawing board. I can't thank them enough at this stage.

Rawdon Hill Constructions have been brilliant, we have been going since Feb 07, changed drawing/plans at least 9 or so times I remember, we are now on our second estate and so far our expense has been for the soil testing at the first estate block of land. We decided not to go with that choice of estate because the block sale was a bit dodgy. So a great big thanks for Nathan and the company so putting up with us, so far, still a long way to go but we feel it is getting closer.....
I will try an get an image of the lay out to put up soon.....
Now all I have to do is get them up to the developer for approval, who I can thank enough at this stage. Thanks.

Slight change of plans.....

Well, good news, we think.
We have worked out where we can get an aditional 300mm from.
The only problem/way is to mirror the master bedroom, walk in robes and ensuite with the lounge and study. See below..

So as you can see, our bedroom would back on to the garage and ensuite to the kitchen and our lounge would back onto the laundry.

As is currently the lounge has a 900mm window (minimum) and the ensuite only has a 600mm window (we can get away with it being smaller) because it is not classified as living area it has a smaller window. So I think it is a win win, I think.

We will change the loungeroom small window into possbly french doors and add a little courtyard or something outside it, just a thought.

Incentives for the few....

Well as I posted earlier, I was wondering what the, if any, discounts were going to be offered with the later releases. I got home from work last night and checked the mail and there was a notice from the estate listing the 5 new waterfront lots and stage five.

Apparently, if your a a Villawood platinum member you get an additional $3000 off your block, as well as the $2500 landscaping rebate, for using there preferred suppliers.

Well, well, well, regarding the platinum card membership, I am still awaiting my $500, for nominating my friends who also bought a block. I think I will be waiting a long time though and I am not really expecting it to come through as there is a fine print attached....

You see, when I first noticed the information regarding the estate, I joined there platinum membership, which is free, to get earlier updates as specified on their website. I also suggested to my friend, as they were interested in building and buying new land also, they just weren't sure where yet. So I suggested to look on the Villawood website and if they like it they should also join the platinum membership and get the early released information. So they did.

Well the fine print in the membership details, you know that crap that hardly anyone reads, well you should, it states that if the other party you have nominated is a platinum member the, "finders fee" is null and void. You are not entitled to the $500. That sucks.

So for future reference everyone, any offers like that, you need to keep your mouths shut and don't let anyone know about membership things like that if you are already one. Or if you do, check the fine print and then tell them not to join it.

On a brighter note, it appears as though the roads are having the bitumen laid currently... Yaaaayyy Not long now hopefully for titles......

Hot Cakes anyone????

Well, I just called in to the estate sales office to check out how things are going, and bugger me the land is selling like there is no tomorrow. Stage 5 is now selling, 3 & 4 are all gone except for one block in stage 4. Stage 1 & 2 don't bother with, unless you have a lot of spare cash for it.

Stage 5 by the way is already half sold and the release dates for titles is not until next September, damn, I thought we were waiting forever.

No more sleep overs as yet, I don't think they can release land quick enough. It makes me wonder about the additional discounts the purchasers are getting, as we are only getting $2500 pay back for landscaping if we use there preferred suppliers, because of the price differences between the stages. I will have to find out, before the curiosity kills me...

They still aren't sure as yet when our titles will be available, they still need to bitumen the roads yet and straighten up the light poles. But they are optimistic in the next couple of weeks, pigs ass.

Take nothing for granted!!!!!

Well in an earlier post I sated how impressed I was with the estate managers and that we could even get the crossover where we wanted it on the block and widen it up to 4 meters at no cost.
Well the estate is coming along and work is ongoing, but the crossover has been stuffed up, surprise! There was a change in personal at the sales office and it seams information hasn't been passed on to new personal, the crossover was supposed to be 4 meters wide and 3.5 - 4 meters off the north facing boundary markers. Bump Bow.... Well they made it 4 meters wide but it is on the boundary markers, so it would appear that I have two options. 1st. when we get hand over and the council have been out to check over, we will remove crossover and put in the correct one at our cost or 2nd, we will now have a crossover of approximately 12 meters in width. Again at our expense.
I suppose this is my fault for not continually checking up as often as I wanted to, but life and work should take priority ad they do at present. Just something to learn from I guess...
Just very disappointing..... :-(

Daniel is MIA......

Our main man from Villawood/Marriott Waters land sales office is no longer in the building. Not sure what happened but from what I understand (was told by a little birdie -Not Daniel) he was removed removed from the office by Winslow -the construction mob. Politics, don't you just love it.
This is a real shame, because he was the only person up there with all the information and knowledge at his finger tips, he was a pleasure to talk to and always had time for you. He was thorough, courteous and would go out of his way to assist you. He will be a loss in the land office.

So I have removed his contact details for the time being, as I wouldn't give you the contacts up there now. Lets just say, no where near as nice or helpful......

Good luck for what ever your future holds Daniel.....

Plans so far......

These are the plans so far, we haven't decided as yet how we will place the house. Still tooing and frowing ideas and perspectives.....

300 Bloody mm... Not Happy J aaaa n !!!!!!!!

I went up to the estate last Sunday after they rang me and said our house will need to be changed because we missed out by 300mm in keeping to 6mtr from road frontage.
Not happy about that at all I mean 300 bloody mm, it is a ruler length for god sake, but anyway I went up to discuss.

I had had my conversations with Daniel in the past and he has been great and even discussed this 300mm issue. He said that it should be OK and would be beneficial of us to get the neighbors approval that they don't mind us being forward of the boundary. Did this not a problem. We put it forward based on our conversations with Daniel for approval.

New person up there now, and it was denied. Flat out denied, no assistance or thoughts just denied. I cracked it big time, probably not the response they expected or wanted but I was pissed. The only help or idea I was given was that we are more than welcome to put it too council to see if they will change this for us, as the estate has been finalised with council based on the original boundaries. 8 Week process and $400 application, no guarantee of approval. (Anyone have thoughts on this) My initial though was/is, Bugger that.

I decided to go back to Nathan at Rawdon Hill and see what we could do with regards to shortening or narrowing the garage slightly to see if that makes a difference, still checking that out. Another option is to shift the house on an angle, but I think it will look crappy (technical term) offset to being straight.

Mardi Gars Results Are In... and the winner is....

Well the winner is definitely Marriot Waters, there was about 15 couples up there by Friday night camping out in there cars, ready for the release on Saturday morning. Ten of those couples, or at least one partner, had been there since minimum of Tuesday before.
Unbelievable, considering there were only 5 water front blocks on sale.

I am glad the sales are going well though that just means our land value is going up and up and up, even before we have the title.

Which is another thing, I hope we will have titles by Mid November. Stress the word hope at this stage though.

More camping going on than the Sydney Mardi Gras

Well I called in to the Marriot Waters land office a couple of nights back, just to catch up with what is happening down there and see if there are any updates for title release as yet.
I found out that they are setting this weekend aside for Stages 3 & 4 signing will be happening Saturday 6th Oct. Well I thought we were nuts back in May for camping out overnight, there are people down there already camping out since Sat 29th September.

Holy cow, that means they are in their cars for a week..... CRAZY...

But I guess that means all is going well, especially for value in the estate also. Again good for us.
I also asked Daniel if it was OK for us to put his contact details on our blog, so approval was granted, and he said he would keep an eye on it... I am going to get some photos of how the estate is coming along to post soon.

We also had Nathan from Rawdon Hills come over to our place last night on his way home, we needed to sign some paperwork regarding the estate covenants and the house planing and layout on the block.. I think he also wanted to make sure I wasn't changing the plans and design of the house again too....
I mean we are only at our 5th change... :-) Probably about our 8th if you include when we were looking at Brookland Greens....

Again I asked permission to put his details on the site too...

Our Grand Plan For Our New Home

Hi all just to give you a brief run down of how we have got to the stage we are at currently. This process has been in the making now for about a year, time we will never get back, looking for land, checking out estates and venturing in and out of display villages.

We currently are living in the Sth Eastern suburbs and are going to be building with RAWDON HILL Construction at a new land estate development with Villawood called, "Marriot Waters".

Villawood and the gang at the estate land office have been fantastic so far, can't speak highly enough of them. The main team there is Daniel and Nicky, nothing is too hard for the pair of them, although Nicky still needs to email me some photos (but that is another story), all of our questions have been answered promptly and have gone out of there way to assist us with our new purchase. We were even asked where we would like the crossover for the driveway placed, not sure if this is common practice, but I was impressed that they would even worry about where "we" would like it placed.

We actually had to camp out to reserve our block back in May, they supplied dinner (pizza's) and actually asked everyone what sort of pizza they would like (individual service is always great), a marque with blow heater because it was damn cold, tea coffee facilities and a portaloo.

Camping Out

Well this weekend we camped out for some land in our new estate, Marriot Waters in Lyndhurst. For anyone not familiar with the suburbs of Melbourne we will be located in the South Eastern Suburbs approximately 40 odd klms from Melbourne.

Villawood/Oliver Hume staff were great, they had a marquee set up for us with a blower heater (middle of winter is damn cold outside in Melb) and tea and coffe making facilities, even order us and supplied pizzas for the crazy ones staying overnight.

The first estate meeting Signing of our lives

Our soon to be new next door neighbors

We Own Land

Titles are expected for release by the end of October and we may be able to start building late November early December... Whoooo hooooo.....