Our block has been levelled!

I could hardly believe my eyes when I did my usual drive by our block this morning.  Our whole site has been not only scraped but completely levelled!  I wasn't expecting this stage for at least another week or 2.  What a great surprise!

A couple of months ago, "B" spent a lot of time working out how much spoil would need to be removed from the backyard so as to work out whether it would be beneficial to try and pay the excavator to clear the remainder of the block now while equipment was already there or to do it all after handover.  However he worked out we'd need to use a good portion of the backyard spoil in the very front part of the property so decided to do it later on. 

Well, thanks to Eden Brae we don't have to worry about it now as it's all been done exactly as we wanted (not that they knew that!)  The step down is for our garage...

Well I'll be pegged!

Drove by our block this morning as I usually do after dropping the boys off to daycare and notice that we've been pegged!

Look, here she is!!  I know, a tad underwhelming but pretend you're excited anyway!  It means something is about to actually start happening!

And why not throw in a crop circle for good measure??

And the land is ours...

     As of 3pm yesterday, we are the proud owners of a block of land.


And now we're (well "B" is) investigating what's involved with retaining walls!  To look at it our block is relatively flat, or so it seems until you start to work out what's involved in having a nice, flat back yard. 

At the very back, we need to cut into it and have a 1.2m retaining wall and scary figures were being thrown around yesterday anywhere from $30,000 to $5,000 depending on materials and if we do it ourselves or get someone else to do it.

Of course, we don't just happen to have a spare $30,000 lying around so it will be a DIY job but there's a lot involved including applying for a DA with Council due to it's height, speaking to our 1 neighbour we have already met to see if they too plan to excavate their yard (no point in both of us having a retaining wall on shared side if both planning to excavate) and the logisitics and engineering involved to ensure it's a strong and stable wall!!

Poor "B" is quite stressed about it all where as I in my naive state relating to anything structural feel quite laid back about it all and have full faith in "B's" abilities.

Our land has registered!!!

Who knew you could get so excited about 'almost' being the proud owner of a bare patch of earth?!  Well I certainly am, after renting for the past 4 years I can't wait to be in our own home again!!!!!!!!

We received notification today that our land has now registered and we are due to settle on 7th December - just in time to watch nothing happen for a couple of months while the builders all go on holidays over Christmas.

Just waiting on Council now.  By all accounts our Council has a pretty speedy turnaround so hopefully we'll know something in the next week.

Something's starting to happen!!!

After what feels like forever, things are starting to happen!  It's been a week of high's and I'm hoping there's not a low waiting around the corner to bite us on the bum!

Our highlights

• Land is looking finished, with street signs now up
• Developer confirmed that land should be registered by end of the month and settlement to occur early December
• Eden Brae have been granted access to the land and conducted soil and survey tests yesterday (don't believe anything out of the ordinary was discovered)
• Street name confirmed!!!
• Hubby met our neighbour and said they were really lovely!
• Received official sub-division documents and our land is slightly larger than originally thought!!!
• Developer has gone and put in a concrete drive-way up to the building envelope (we're in a battle-axe) - this was quite unexpected but very much appreciated!
• Discovered my colleagues husband is a brickie with Eden Brae and was given the name of a Site Supervisor that they highly recommended - asked our Customer Service Representative if we could have him as a Site Supervisor and it was confirmed as a-ok!
• In the process of organising our loan, we were told of the few banks that do an upfront valuation.  As I wanted to avoid any nasty surprises where possible, we went down this track and the valuation came in spot on for what we're paying (which is what you'd expect but doesn't always roll that way!).  Turns out the valuer has also built the same house!!  What are the chances?!

So as you can see, it's been a great week!!!

Official surveys etc will go off to council next week and our finance application was submitted yesterday - so fingers crossed things continue to go well.

Have to say - every step of the way (so far) with Eden Brae has just been second to none!