Building Bristol 28 (Front Games room option) Fairview Façad

This is a blog about building our new home with Eden Brae Homes. The design we chose is the Bristol 28 (Front Games room option) Fairview Façade with some modifications to fit our corner stand. This is our first home and after searching everywhere “literally “ we couldn’t find what we wanted in one house... hence the decision to build our dream home. As this is our first time building we want to share our journey and maybe it will be helpful to others looking to build their home from scratch.

Presite timeline

1. Initial Deposit 7/04/2018 😃 Fixed price tender - $750 initial deposit
2. Land Settlement 17/04/2018 This is the date that we sent evidence of land settlement to Eden Brae Homes
3. Soil Report 23/04/2018
4. Contour Survey 18/04/2018
5. Tender Appointment 14/05/2018
6. Tender Signed 21/05/2018 😃 Non-refundable $2,500 deposit to prepare working drawing
7. Building Contract Appointment 31/07/2018
8. Building Contract Signed 31/07/2018 Building agreement finalised: No further structural changes to be made after contract signing.5% deposit of the contract price (within 21 days of tender acceptance) – we negotiated – as we wanted to obtain pre-approval from the bank
9. Water Board Approval 6/08/2018
10. BASIX Approval 13/08/2018 Approximately 3 weeks
11. Kitchen Upgrades 21/08/2018
12. Colour Selection 21/08/2018
13. Electrical Selection 4/09/2018
14. Engineering Drawings Signed 30/08/2018
15. Permit Ordered 4/09/2018 Eden Brae Homes to lodge plans with council Due to our plans and lot size Development Approval (DA) approval was required
16. Permit Received 5/12/2018 😃The DA approval took exactly 2 months, 22 days we counted every single day 😌
17. Construction Certificate 17/01/2019
18. Finance Approval 8/01/2019 😃Letter to commence construction sent to Eden Brae Homes by the Bank
19. Final Construction Drawings Signed 23/01/2019 No further changes can be made
20. Administration Complete 6/02/2019

It took 306 days or 10 months from the day we paid the initial deposit to the finalization of the Administration processes (for the file to move to the onsite construction stage)

So you’re 306 days in and after all that time, no building work has actually commenced on your land.

Our last house took almost 16 months to build, and just seemed never ending.

Hopefully your build will move along very quickly now. Good luck with it all. 😀

Its a lesson in patience to be honest- we had an extended delay due to DA approval for the plans but construction has commenced, slab was poured last Thursday. I should however add that the time-frames are what the builder had anticipated

Well that’s good news for you, I’m sure it will be worth the wait.

Our own builder has advised 10-12 months but at the rate they are proceeding, we expect it to be at least 12 months if not more. 😞

Looking forward to seeing your house progress over coming months. Post plenty of photos!

Will do, am following your progress too, some stages will proceed quicker than others and other stages will just drag on for ever! Good luck to all who are building

Yeah good luck, we just had our slab down a few weeks ago after spending 12months in the admin/design phase....and our place is a fairly simple house.

I’m ok with our builder taking their time now to some degree, as long as the quality is there.

How often are you planning on getting to the site during the build? We live only 4-5 kms away so will be there at least a few times per week.

Yes I agree, but the admin process is the same - 12 month is about the average based on what I read from others and our own experience.
We moved closer to the site so that we can visit regularly, we used to visit weekly when it was only vacant land with nothing but grass and rubbish dumped by not so good future neighbours! We ended up putting up a fence- some of the lots in the area had furniture, concrete, rubbish +++ dumped on site! Since they started on the site we have been visiting twice a day sometime - on the way to work and after work- I know it kind of crazy but its quite therapeutic. Eden Brae will put cameras once the roof has been installed so hopefully that will make it easier to monitor progress in real time

Here is a picture when we were visiting the site at least twice weekly

Hello R9917099,
Whereabouts are you building? We are also building the Bristol 33 (in Schofields, NSW) and are in production estimation.
Did your SS give you any indication of when the house would be completed? (in time for Christmas this year or earlier?)

Hi Niel07
We are building in Gledswood Hills, Sydney NSW. Hopefully Production estimation won’t take too long, your file will move to site soon. Just make sure your site is ready, tall grass is cut and all rubbish is removed. The SS keeps in touch every fortnight, they said weather permitting it will take 36 weeks so we are hoping for September this year. Will be following your build so keep us posted. We have also started a blog here https://edenbraehomesbristol28.blogspot.com/?m=1

Thank you for that. Will be following your build closely as well. Would you mind sharing your floor plans when you have time?
Hope your build pans out well.

Thank you, will post the the floor plans when I get home. We modified the original ground floor by removing the iHub and converting the Lounge to a guest bedroom https://edenbraehomes.com.au/home-desig ... oor-plans/

Understood. We did the same and have the same thought in mind. Although haven't converted into the 5th bedroom yet, perhaps after handover. Turned out to be

Hi Niel07 see our floor plans, I have used these since they highlight all the changes that we made to the original Bristol 28 Plan -our house ended up being 30.8 squares

Nice one, thankful EB have been accommodating to changes as requested.
Good idea moving the linen beside the WIP, it does give you a larger bath/ toilet.

Yes Eden Brae Homes has been excellent so far- we will go with them if we decide to build again. We went through a number of modifications with them and the team was very supportive and gave us some excellent ideas.

What stage are you upto now?

Hi Niel, they are finishing off brickwork you can follow our building journey here https://edenbraehomesbristol28.blogspot.com/

Hello, Will you be able to provide me access for the blog ? Building a bristol 28 and love to see the journey(rohit.radhakris@gmail)