Our new home

Spoke to someone who is more then likely going to build down the road from us and they have suggested that titles for our land won't be available till April or May now! Seriously annoying because I am ready for my new house right now! Been looking at building for four years had been a long while and I'm so ready now! Not much we can do anyway and we still have to sell our house!

What have others land titles been like delay wise?? Titles originally meant to be ready for September 2014, money was an issue until it started and was then due for December/January, then the rain came (our summer has been rather wet/cold this year) and put it back two weeks I was told and so it was then pushed back till February. Frustrating to say the least!

On a more positive note, we took a long drive to Geelong in particular Mt. Duneed to see the odyssey 2 on display for the very first time! And we loved it, it was better then expected in areas I had concern - mainly sizing of things. I loved seeing my wir, ensuite and shower size, kitchen and wip, how the media room looked from the kitchen. Oh it's so exciting! Also the other display there (I didn't like the layout or door heights at all but) they had the soaker bath I'm getting and I climbed in an hid from my husband it's that deep! we spent around two hours there just looking at things and taking photos of things so we could visualise them once at home.

Hey Sarah,

If you want to see what Pale Mushroom looks like here is a link to my house that i am currently building with JG King.

All i can recommend with JG King is to watch them like a hawk. We were told we would be in at the start of December however we are still a month away! Get a building inspector at each stage as well. It will cost money but believe me it is worth it and they will do a better job. They tried to stooge me on the underlay that i paid to upgrade. So i made them rip up the carpet this week and replace it.

Also take a close look at the painting. Ours had LOADS of defects that they need to repair. Other than that, Workman ship is pretty good. Just terrible on communication....

Hi sauso,

That looks good, is that the basic pale mushroom or with extra tint? I have planned on looking into a building inspector but haven't gotten around to it yet, I believe it would be a good investment atleast. I'm glad most things have been going well for you. Communication has been fairly good so far but generally have done the contacting first and have been really only speaking with the sales people. It still seems so far away for us!

Have you got a build blog or anything I'd be interested in looking at it of you do.

Hey Sarah, I did start a blog but mever really updated it. I'm kind of lazy like that lol. That is just the standard pale mushroom. We got the swab from the colour room. It's hard to imagine from those little swabs. I reccomend getting a big off cut if plaster and getting a sample tin. That will give you a better indication.

If you need any advice let me know. Where abouts are you building?

Hello Sauso,

As Princesssarrah06 asked, is that normal strength tint or half, etc?
We've also selected Pale Mushroom as the closest equivalent to a Dulux colour we wanted.

I didn't know there were strengths. We just picked that swatch how it was. I will get a photo of the tin tomorrow when I'm there.

So that's just the basic colour number 1, the one I'm looking at is slightly darker/greyer then that one . We are building in gippsland. Haha I'm kind of lazy in that respect to its a wonder I've kept this going so long! I plan to thou because I want to be able to look back on my ideas and all that because I won't right a diary of when things happen etc..

Hi doc freeman, I tried finding antique white usa in the Haymes paint range but nothing really similar so this is the next colour that we have chosen... All the others in the White catalogue we got were pink or yellow or green or peachy..this wone was nice not too grey

So we have had street lights put in at our block.. Exciting! Still no road thou, so still can't do soil tests or anything so can't get an exact price for our new house still.. We have had a couple of people through our house and one has made another and we hope there may be another offer tomorrow. Just have to wait and see I guess.. Things are just rolling along very slowly and I'm ready for things to start moving a little faster already! Anyway here is. Bad photo of our land and where it's at.

Not a lot of news, have had our soil tests done. JG King have told us it will take around 10 days to get results back and will let us know of a set price after that hopefully- we have changed a few things like added a sliding door to the media and had some other bits and pieces changed, added or removed- one being the location of the laundry door. Anyway it will be GREAT to have an actual price we have our budget in mind and so far so good but wait for these darn soil tests to find out whether it's over or under, the last original quote we had had over estimated the bamboo floor costs so that's reduced it by a decent sum. Land it's looking good although much hasn't changed since the last photo albeit full of water again. Roads are yet to be tarred but the bedrock and another layer have gone down, so really can't be far off unless the rain has affected it.

Twiddling thumbs here.. Going so slowly I tell you.. Still have to sell our house too- hopefully may have some news on that front this week thou!

Oh my god! This is sooooo frustrating I tell you!! The land is still not ready!! The roads are still yet to be done, it is looking closer thou- they were having issues with drainage and are now waiting for vic roads to file some reports so they can drill under the hwy so they can drain to the underground basin in the other side of the road... That's why the chicken was crossing the road- he wanted to get to the basin :/ ANYWAY.

We had a buyer for our house we had signed etc they had building inspection and bank finance etc and now they have pulled out ;( what a waste of a month that was, anyway so it's now back on the market and also going up with another agent on Friday.

Soil tests have finally been done and we have asked about the results- M class, they did mention a 20-40mm movement and there's moisture on the ground (what ever that means), unfortunately we don't know the site costs yet apart from they should be similar to what they estimated. Interesting enough our friends had theirs done they are about three blocks from us and they were told P class.

Interesting fact- it's been over a year since we put our deposit on the land! what's taking sooo long

Hi, has any progress been? hope you have you land

Don't have any decent photo, the sun was in the way for the last few weeks. But the roads are up, there is now footpaths around the blocks and they have started to work on the lake area, going to put in footpaths around thee soon by the look of it. They still haven't been able to do the drainage yet but looks like they may have started setting up so hopefully that wont be far away. So ready to start building!

Nothing much happening with the new house anyway, we have done the part prelim drawings, and now have sent off the final drawings to go to final drawings? And then we have one last look/change before they are final final. I have asked about a few things to be priced before that happens- in particular a skylight/skylight tube vent thingy for the ensuite. The vent ones seem good for letting out extra steam that the exhaust fan might not take out, which should control extra moisture in the wir problem. Apart from that I think if I keep looking at it the more I'll change.

Once that is done then it's time to go in for colour selection . That will be good, and not to confusing because I've picked most of everything out. It may then feel like a ball is rolling...

That's great to see movement with your land. At what point can they do soil test so you can get a final price for your build?
I'm assuming you are not signing the contract until then? Have they give you any pressure about not signing? We are in the same boat and I don't want to sign the contract until I have full costings, i don't want anything to be provisional on the final contract.

I know what you mean by you need to stop looking at it. We got a price for skylights in the toilets I think they were about $500 each.

Edit :sorry reread and seen soil test were done.... my bad must be time for bed

Yeah they let us do soil testing already, and have priceing for all that but they still haven't given us a full fee yet, which won't happen until we approve the drawings, changes and colours I don't think- which is a bit of a pain not knowing how much I can change in the colour upgrades etc. we did put aside some money in the coatings for upgrades and they already have the carpet price upgraded for us, so now it will be if I decide to have shiny cupboards or different tiles. Hubby just said we get the price first, then do colours then get a final final price..at least that we we know how much we can spend or not, we have signed a contract, as so far price wise we are happy, I think if we pull out we just loose a deposit- we kinda wanted to lock in the summer package inclusions so that's why we signed, not that it matters because it probably won't be until this summer before anything happens!

lol yes we have paid the deposit to and lock in our deal, so have you signed the full building contract pre colours or just the initial one pager with the deposit?

if you don't mind me asking what carpet did you upgrade too and what was the cost, if you don't want to put it here could you pm me, just trying to see what we are in for. Where are you having carpet?

you'll be able to enjoy the summer pack for years to come!
i think we are stalking each other on all the JG build threads

We have signed the one page deposit one, and then signed some drawings to get the pre lim drawings, and I think we signed the one with all the inclusions with all the prices, but that was awhile ago so I no we haven't signed the building one yet?? Hmm we upgraded to catogory 3 and upgraded the underlay too. I can't give you a price off the top of my head thou. I'd have to go and hunt for it and I can't be bothered now all bedrooms, study, media and retreat is carpet, bamboo flooring in entry kitchen and family dining, and
tiles in the remaining wet areas.

Yeah the summer pack had the evaporative cooling, we haven't put fans in so hopefully it will be cool enough (in summer that is {obviously} bcos it's so cold now haha), I think I use the fans in summer now with the Evap cooling I think it should be ok cos He house is heaps bigger then where we are now.

When I first started on here there was hardly any posts on jg kings.. Now there's quite a few it's good, except everyone else seems to be building and I'm just sitting here twiddling my thumbs! I was going to mention on your page that we were going to go and view the odyssey 2 in Bendigo soon, but I think the one near Geelong is newer- that place was awesome!my kids loved it we spent about an hour to two in the house there and they just played.

We've signed similar too

It great that the kids enjoyed it. We loved the bedrooms with the kids retreat. It is a great house.

We got an evap discount too and figure we can add fans later if needed we fitted remote ones to our current house it was a cheap upgrade.

We are twiddly our thumbs too but hopefully for not as long as you have been and hopefully your development keeps progressing so you.can start building soon.

It great reading everyones builds but i like seeing jg king ones the most.

Land is still not ready... We went for a walk on the neighbouring property to get a photo of our block. Appears we have a street light out the front. I can't wait to be able to actually get back out to the land.. It's all fenced off atm. I was just saying to hubby it's nearly been a year since the land was supposed to be settled and 18 months since we put a deposit down! Nothing new to post about apart from the photo of our land.

Ah bum have they given you any update on timing or still just waiting for the drainage?

At least it looks like your road is finished so at least there is progress.