Time to start a thread, as we signed our contracts on Friday

We have 2.5 acres on the Midnorth Coast of NSW, in a small semi rural estate. We purchased the land over 12 months ago and have slowly been getting ready to build. DH insisted that we build a shed for his toys before the house was built, so we have cleared the land and put in a shed.

Originally we planned to sell our current house before we built, but after talking to the bank we have decided to keep it as an investment or sell once we get into the new place. This has saved us the headache of finding a rental, something we were not looking forward to!

We decided on a builder after talking to a few of the bigger companies, choosing to go with Cavalier Homes. They are a smaller franchise, family owned and run. Our SS is also the director of the business, and did our contract signing with us. We feel a bit more confident knowing we are dealing directly with the builder. They do custom plans, and their inclusions are excellent.

We were shocked to be told at contract signing that they plan to do our site cut on Friday Plans are with the certifier, should be through council in a few weeks, all going well. Apparently they don't need approval to do earthworks so are getting a headstart. Go Cavalier!

We have modified one of their floorplans to suit our needs. Things we changed:
-Added study
-Extended garage
-Added WIP
-Added bath to ensuite
-Added fireplace (wood heater built into stud wall in main living room)
-Raised ceiling in main living area
A few other changes we have made are not shown on this plan, I will update when we get our final plans.
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The family room at the front will be our home theatre room, and the rumpus a designated toy room for all the mess!

I will update soon with some pics of the land and our progress so far, as soon as I find all the photos...

Jess

Exciting stuff Jess!

Plan looks great & a fireplace very jealous...I really wanted one but just couldn't find a good spot in our layout for it. Can't wait to see those pics

Thanks Broom! The fireplace was a must for us, I grew up always having a wood fire, we have been without one in this place for over 6 years now. Nothing beats the warmth and comfort of a wood fire

This is the one we are getting
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I wrote a long post last night about building in a bushfire area, my connection dropped out when I was submitting and I lost it

So, we are building in a subdivision that is mostly cleared now, but falls into the bushfire prone land on the shire maps. We had to get a bushfire consultant to do a report and determine our BAL (bushfire attack level). We were well aware of this when we bought the land last year, and have been researching it since.

The block on our North side is very scrubby and overgrown. It has a 5 metre water easement running right through the middle of it and is quite low ******, so all the water from our street basically flows through it when it's wet. We really don't see anyone building on it, so we decided to put our house right up near the Southern boundary. This means we get heaps more winter sun on the yard and the house, and gives us a good distance from the bush if ever there is a fire. There is just over 50 metres between the bush and our house location.

The block on our South side has now been totally cleared and they are in the process of building a shed on it, which they plan to live in while their house is being built. So there are no trees between our house and their far boundary- a good 80-100 metres. Taking this into consideration, we were hoping for a BAL<12.5, a BAL 19 at worst.

Needless to say we were very shocked when we got a call from the builder saying our Southern wall falls into a BAL<40
Apparently they have assessed the cleared block as still being woodland, as they don't have a bushfire management plan on the property, even though it is cleared and being built on! WTF??

DH spoke to the assessor personally, who said our estate has been a huge headache for him. He has had to assess proposed developments as BAL 40, even though before they get to construction the blocks around them are being cleared and managed. So there are houses in our street that have been built to BAL 40 that are now BAL low, as both neighbouring blocks have been cleared. His suggestion was to move the house down the hill CLOSER to the block which is not cleared, and which is more of a fire risk

After lots of back and forth with our builder, we have decided to bite the bullet and leave the house where we originally planned, which means an added cost for us. We are happy to build to a higher bushfire rating- better to be over prepared than under! We also managed to get down to a BAL 29 instead of 40, as I pointed out to our builder that the measurements the assessor had given him were from our neighbours boundary on the other side of a battleaxe driveway, not from our actual boundary, so that gained us another 5 metres.

So what does a BAL<29 mean for us?
Toughened glass to all windows and doors, metal screens to windows, fully sarked roof and walls in fire resistant materials, ember seals on weepholes and garage doors, weather seals on all external doors etc etc. All this is adding around $4000 to the build, which is much less than I expected after reading some of the stories on here! As our builder pointed out, the toughened glass also has slight thermal benefits, as well as withstanding a bit more punishment. So overall, we are reasonably happy with the outcome, even though we don't agree with the assessment!
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Most of the house actually falls in BAL 19, but we are building to BAL 29 so we can lodge as a complying development, saving us time in council and $$

Woo hoo ... here you go Sounds like you've had the usual start up dramas ... wishing you good luck with the rest of the build. Love the plan - very jealous of your fireplace - sounds like it will be nice and cosy. Can't wait to see it all take shape!

Thanks Mclaren, must there always be a drama? I must say though, our builder has been fantastic and very keen to sort out any issues we have. Hopefully that keeps up now that they have us by the you-know-whats....

Your place is gorgeous, can't wait to see some moved in pics with all the new furniture and appliances. Early christmas for you!

I will post some more pics of our land later today, DH is emailing me some through. Then hopefully tomorrow arv I will have some pics of our site cut

I just went out to the block to get something out of my shed and guess what? There was an excavator there doing our site cut!! They weren't even meant to start until tomorrow, and it is all but finished! HOLY WOW, EXCITED MUCH?!!

Didn't get any photos as they were still there working and I didn't want to look like a stalker, but I will get some over the weekend.

Very impressed with how quickly things are moving. I'm going to pick my tiles Saturday morning, hopefully finalize selections next week... YAY!

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congrats!!!
when I saw our site cut (ie ripped up 1/2 acre of top dirt and put into a massive pile) I knew there was no turning back and that was one of the most exciting days of my build

we were ON OUR WAY!! as are you

whoaooaao!

That IS a quick start! Love the plan BTW!

Thanks kiwi, I can't stop smiling! No pile of dirt left, they have pushed it all as a yard for us. We are on a sloping 2.5 acres so we needed some flat yard off our alfresco side. Definitely no going back now!

Deemaree, we're shocked how quick off the mark they are! I love our plan too, at least on paper. I put so much time into trying to get it right, I hope it lives up to my expectations. We are trying for solar passive, hope it pays off.

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I thought I better post some before pics of our block before I put up any of the progress. They might not be in order...

This is what the block looked like when we bought it- "the blob" is me, I'm photophobic
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During clearing, looking down from our driveway.
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The dozer levelling a pad for the shed. This is looking toward our North boundary, the block next door is a beautiful outlook from our living areas! We are thinking of buying it once we sell our current house, just so nobody can build on it!
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Looking up toward the road from shed site, and our fire piles. We kept all the logs for firewood and fencing and just burnt the heads and stumps. Was still 2 huge fires!!
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DS loves it out at the block! DH spent the Easter long weekend out there babysitting the fires.
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Looking from the shed site to our Southern boundary. That block has since been cleared.
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Our (FIL's) loader, and DS doing what boys do best
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Once we cleared, we spend a month of weekends picking up sticks and rocks! DH chained a bit of railway line to the 4wd and towed it around in circles over the entire cleared area to flatten the ground and bring all the sticks and rocks to the surface. All paid off in the end, but it was hard, dirty work! We put grass seed down just so our topsoil didn't all end up in the gully next door. This is our rye grass after 2 weeks.
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Our driveway to the shed being topped with roadbase. $3000 worth of gravel, not to mention paying the backhoe to spread and compact it
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Shed profiles up and crusher dust laid, getting ready for the slab. Some of our pier holes on the fill side were over 2 metres deep! The bush behind the shed is staying uncleared, we will just tidy up with the ride on. We wanted to leave some bush on our block for wildlife, and for the kids to play in. There is probably close to an acre uncleared.
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Slab going down
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Frame up...
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And shed completed. DH and our builder mate got all this done in 10 days, slab prep to completion. Not a bad effort!
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Shed is 16m x 11m, about the size of our current house! DH has already started filling it, and we are packing up stuff we aren't using and putting it in there for storage. We worked out we can fit 10 cars in there!! DH restores old cars in his spare time so he wanted to make sure he had plenty of room. He has outgrown our 11 x 7.5 shed, a huge part of why we are getting a new house
He says he doesn't care what I do with the house, now that he has his shed up He spends more time in the shed than he does in the house!! He works away from home and is only home with us every second weekend at the moment. When he is away, DS goes up to our current shed and knocks on the door and calls out "Dad, Daaaad!" I"m sure he thinks that's where he is all the time when he is away working...

Shed is Evening Haze, with Loft trim and roller doors.

Your land looks wonderful your little boy is going to love having all that space to run around & get dirty! gorgeous views too!

My DH is the same with his shed, always out there pottering around, he's building a cubby house with the leftover timber etc. Great to send the kids out there too

It's a great spot, we love it! So quiet and peaceful out there. We have a decent sized yard where we are now, but it doesn't compare to the bush. DH and I both grew up out of town, so we want the same for our kids. We are only 7 mins to town, but feels a world away!

Our little one loves to go up to the shed with Dad, he potters around up there "helping" him sort out his tools, inspecting his handy work and generally exploring. It's great for the kids to spend some time with their Dads, and give us mum's a bit of a break

We had a little accident in the shed the last weekend when DH was home. DS managed to get his hands on the hot soldering iron and now has a nasty burn on his thumb and first finger. The burn on his finger is quite deep and is taking a long time to heal. It's so hard to keep the hands of an 18 month old clean and dry! Poor little darlin was in so much pain, not even cuddles from mum could fix this one I'm sure they both learnt a few lessons that day...

The cubby house sounds great!! We might have to do some dumpster diving when they start our build and do the same! We've saved some of the left over colorbond from the shed for a roof. You will have to put some pics up once he has finished it!

looks gorgeous and yay, you are keeping some bush on your block.
fantastic!!!!!

well done

Block looks great.

Great pictures ... the beginning of a great journey - all the best with your build!

We are very much the same, only minutes from town but we are still in a "rural" area & it is so peaceful. We have neighbours but not too close & the old couple to one side are lovely & the man is always over here lending a hand outside. Sure beats where we used to live, our neighbour was always screaming at her kids & we could hear every word of it! And then there was her stupid yappy dog barking at all hrs right outside my sons bedroom waking him from naps etc

Ohhh your poor little man what a awful spot to burn too, I would imagine he still tries to use his fingers to pick up food etc making it hard to keep clean. He's only a bit younger than my little boy, they just don't stop do they!? & they always do things you don't expect.

My DH is able to build the entire frame of the cubby house with leftover timber, we asked the carpenters if we could keep the leftovers & they left them all in the garage for us. There were heaps of long lengths that were used as support beams before the bricks went up. We've got enough colorbond to do the roof too

Thanks everyone for the comments!

Broom, your neighbours sound great, so nice to have friendly neighbours. As for your old ones, sound like the ones over the back from us here! She is always screaming and swearing at the kids and the dogs, taught me a few new words I reckon! They have little happy dogs too, one of which comes through the fence just to s#!t in my yard! And the teenage kids light fires in the back yard right down near the fence- at 2 in the morning once! They also ride a motorbike around their yard, which always seems to be at DS' sleep time... Every time they carry on we say how much we will miss them when we move...

Toddlers are definitely a handful, but worth every cent, full on entertainment! It's so amazing the rate they pick up new things. I am loving that he learns a new word almost every day. He is using his sore finger constantly, so he keeps opening the wound up. Luckily he thinks bandaids are "pretty"!

Do you have any left over bricks for the cubby too? That would have to be the most gorgeous cubby ever with the metallix bricks!

I should have some pics of site cut over the next few days. We haven't been out there as we've had 2 days of rain.

Jess
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I meant yappy dogs, not happy! They won't be happy if I catch them in my yard lol.

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Just started reading your journey and looking forward to following your posts... all looking fantastc!