The Range Estate - Croydon.....Anyone else Building there?

kostasw · Jun 20, 2011 2:32 pm

natmai

Hi Kostasw, we are working with Steve Pensak from PLC Landscpaes - http://www.plclandscapes.com.au - Mobile : 0408 763 994 - Office: 9723 6674. We have 6 quotes and So far he gave us the best quote. I saw their work and it seems very good. He is going to build our retaining wall on the side of the house. But first we do need to present drawings to Australand again to see if they approved the new landscape/retaining wall.

Happy building.

Nat

Oh thanks natmai, that's very nice of you. Can I just ask, who are you actually presenting to from Australand, do you have a contact there... And are they reasonable/approachable?...

natmai · Jun 20, 2011 5:11 pm

kostasw

natmai

Hi Kostasw, we are working with Steve Pensak from PLC Landscpaes - http://www.plclandscapes.com.au - Mobile : 0408 763 994 - Office: 9723 6674. We have 6 quotes and So far he gave us the best quote. I saw their work and it seems very good. He is going to build our retaining wall on the side of the house. But first we do need to present drawings to Australand again to see if they approved the new landscape/retaining wall.

Happy building.

Nat

Oh thanks natmai, that's very nice of you. Can I just ask, who are you actually presenting to from Australand, do you have a contact there... And are they reasonable/approachable?...

Hi Kostasw,

Here is the thing if you build a up to a 1mt retaining wall you don't need council approval, but still needs Australand approval on design and material. Read the design and sitting guidelines and in page 5 clause 2.2.. All retaining walls need australand approval. I have no idea if they are approachable we are finishing what we want and then a friend will draw the proposal and will send it in. I will let you know.

cheers, Nat

catlover · Jun 21, 2011 1:45 am

Hey Nezza,

Christine told us, at Oliver Hume office in The Range. And she mentioned that she has been instructed to tell people this. So it's not just coming from her. Signed agreement I'm told. Good to hear! Relief anyway.

Housemouse, sorry if someone has already said this and you are sick of hearing it. But noticed a couple of broken windows on a drive through yesterday on your second story. Such a shame!!! Hope it gets fixed ASAP and never happens again! Hope everything is going well on the inside of your house

Eskay your house is coming along, and looking really nice I must admit! I hope it goes much smoother from here on in! And yes, fibre right from the start would have been logical. Who knows, maybe they'll get around to doing the entire estate? Will cross my fingers for you.

Congrats Lot 306 on the slab! Looks very nice. Any progress is good progress

Danni, roof and gutters looking great! Hope it all continues at this speed and looking so fine. You have quite a bit of space out the back of your house, do you know what you are going to do with that yet? We haven't worked out our landscaping at all yet.

Nat your house is looking awesome too. I hope everything is going well, got to see it in the sunshine on Sunday. Hopefully more dry days during the week hey!

Have a great week everyone

housemouse · Jun 21, 2011 2:26 pm

Thanks catlover, yes I noticed the broken windows on Friday night.... I was NOT impressed. Stupid kids most likely. I will admit it did get to me a bit, it's just such senseless distruction and even though it's covered by building insurance I still get upset cause that's my special house and how dare they try and wreck it!

xdc351 · Jun 21, 2011 2:32 pm

Hi All,

Stage 8'ers - so jealous you guys have got optic fibre, really hoping they may come back through and redo the earlier stages.

Housemouse - your house is looking great! September will come around so quickly. I think we might have some mutual friends too from what I could gather a couple of weeks agoo when we saw them at a wedding. Small world if its true

Nat - I think we are using the same bricks as you

As for us, we drove past on the weekend and discovered Simonds have started. Fencing up, Portaloo in, Meterbox installed, Plumbing completed except for Gas and Water which we are hoping happened either yesteday or today. We have had zero communication from our Builder over the last 2 - 3 weeks which has been frustrating so we are unsure as to what programme they are working to or who our Site Manager is apart from the sign dispayed on the Portaloo. Dandav/Nat - I think we have the same Site Manager which is great as your houses seem to be flying.

We will be heading back to Council soon to apply for a Planning Permit for our retaining wall (didn't know the 1m ruling) as we think ours will be approx 1.3m (will be able to confirm when slab completed). Thinking that if we have to go back to Council for this we need to start thinking about our landscaping - so we also need to start thinking about our outdoor area and pool (if we install one) so we are only going back to Council once.

Hope everyones builds are going smoothly

dandav · Jun 22, 2011 1:03 pm

hey all, drove past the estate last night, wanted to make there wasn't any huge trees down after all that wind/rain we had. All good!
I was so happy to see our solarpanels on the roof, and looks like nearly all the roof tiles up. Looks like our brickies are back

I couldn't see anymore pallets of bricks on the ground so im hoping this means they are all nearl up! It's all coming together :z:

Claire & Greg - did a drive by of your block, looks like they had delivered things for the slab, hope its full steam ahead for you guys. Good luck wiht the council approvals.
Catlover - yeah we do have bit of space out the back, not 100% sure what we'll do witth the space but I can't wait to get into our garden and start landscaping it

Fun times a head!
lot 306- great news about the slab!!! How's everyone else's progress goign wiht this rain?

housemouse · Jun 23, 2011 4:31 pm

Really xdc351? Who were they?? I'm very curious to know!

P.s - YOU HAVE A SLAB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I went to the house today and they were smoothing it off when I was there. EXCITING :z:

xdc351 · Jun 23, 2011 6:02 pm

WooHoo! Can't believe we finally have slab! Still at work but will be driving past in the dark tonight

I'll PM you their names

natmai · Jun 23, 2011 6:06 pm

xdc351

WooHoo! Can't believe we finally have slab! Still at work but will be driving past in the dark tonight

I'll PM you their names

Great news!!!! Full steam ahead!!!
Happy building and see you around guys. Will be there on sat.

natmai · Jun 24, 2011 4:41 pm

dandav

hey all, drove past the estate last night, wanted to make there wasn't any huge trees down after all that wind/rain we had. All good!
I was so happy to see our solarpanels on the roof, and looks like nearly all the roof tiles up. Looks like our brickies are back

I couldn't see anymore pallets of bricks on the ground so im hoping this means they are all nearl up! It's all coming together :z:

Claire & Greg - did a drive by of your block, looks like they had delivered things for the slab, hope its full steam ahead for you guys. Good luck wiht the council approvals.
Catlover - yeah we do have bit of space out the back, not 100% sure what we'll do witth the space but I can't wait to get into our garden and start landscaping it

Fun times a head!
lot 306- great news about the slab!!! How's everyone else's progress goign wiht this rain?

Hi Danni, I went to The Range today and I saw electrician working in your house... Check it on sat.. maybe they have start on the electrical stuff!!!

. Our brick work is done.. now they need to put the weatherboard and roof tiles to the dinning and alfresco and we are almost ready for lock up!!!

See you around. Cheers,
Nat

catlover · Jun 26, 2011 1:15 pm

Hi Danni, house is looking good in the sunshine today :-)

Gotta ask you, what type/colour brick have you used on your house? It looks nice, and we've just been told our brick is discontinued, so we have to pick again :-(

Thanks, Susy

dandav · Jun 26, 2011 6:58 pm

catlover

Hi Danni, house is looking good in the sunshine today :-)

Gotta ask you, what type/colour brick have you used on your house? It looks nice, and we've just been told our brick is discontinued, so we have to pick again :-(

Thanks, Susy

Hey Susy,
sorry to hear your bricks have discontinued

Our house bricks are Austral Homestead Tan with off white mortar, we chose the off white mortar to break up the tan colour

Looking forward to the scaffolding coming down and the bricks to be washed. Good luck with your new selection.
Nat thanks for letting us know the electrician has been around, fingers crossed lock up isn't too far away!!

Cheers Danni

catlover · Jun 26, 2011 11:39 pm

Ooh, curbing is looking great in Stage 8! We have a corner!!! (It's sad how something like that is exciting isn't it?) Not long to go now

And no rain scheduled (at this stage) for this week so hopefully lots of progress on roads for Stage 8'ers and heaps of building progress for everyone else in the earlier stages!

P.S. If anyone knows the people who bought block 812 (next to us) could they please let them know about this forum! Want to talk to them about our trees and joining driveway

dandav · Jun 27, 2011 10:06 am

Hey Nat, missed you guys over the weekend, hopefully will catch ya's round soon. Your place is looking great, by the looks of things not far off lock up. By the way you guys have a front door!! Yay that's so exciting

bring on sunny fine weather this week

Susy, sorry we don't know your neighbours.. when do you have to reselect your bricks?

DGM- congrats on the move in (finally), your place looks awesome!! Any pics of the final product to be uploaded on your blog?
It sure is a long process, we can't wait to be in the estate and start planning our garden and fences.

catlover · Jun 29, 2011 2:19 am

Hey Danni,

We have to reselect new bricks ASAP! Everything else is done except prelim developer approval.
Which our builder has not been able to do for us :-(

very frustrating!

Austral Homestead Tan is the only one we are thinking about.
We can't chose a Boral brick, only Austral, which is annoying cause we found two of those we like!

Still, no rain all week still which is good!

Susy

xdc351 · Jun 30, 2011 11:16 am

Hi Guys,

I was at the estate this morning and plenty of action going on at everyones houses - such a beautiful day. We are told our frame will be going up today WOOHOO!

We met our Site Manager yesterday and he seems really good, but gave us the bad news that we have to get our retaining wall up ASAP as they can't brick our house till this is done. So we are busily getting engineering done, costs obtained and Building Permits issued so it is consuming the majority of my days at work at the moment. Unfortunately our costs have blown our significantly right now as we were anticipating to build the retaining wall once we were moved in

I have no doubt I will be spending this weekend at the estate meeting contractors and obtaining quotes for this retaining wall so hopefully I can meet some of you if you are checking out your houses.

Cheers, Claire

housemouse · Jun 30, 2011 12:05 pm

Claire, I met with Neil from Bayside Stone this morning as he is quoting us on a retaining wall also, and he told me about your predicament! That's tough that you can't start the bricks until the retaining wall is up, it's a shame no-one told you about it earlier so you could have been more prepared. Have you met your neighbours yet? Their house looks lovely.

On the plus side he gave us a rough estimate for our retaining wall and it was considerable cheaper than what i had thought we would be up for so I'm stoked!

Natmai and dandav your houses are looking really great! I always do a quick drive by both of them to see the progress.

Happy building.

xdc351 · Jun 30, 2011 8:22 pm

He mentioned he was meeting someone else about their retaining wall but didn't tell me which house - I would have hung around if I had known. I am now rushing to get engineering done for it which is going to take 10 days and based on the quote he has provided we just don't have the money to pay for it as we are renting and building at the moment and every cent for the next 9 mths or so has been accounted for (as we always planned to do this in about 6 mths time). We have pushed back on our Builder and told them that they have to find an alternative way to get these bricks up - we have no other choice unfortunately so we will see what happens. I haven't heard back from them yet in response to our email so could be interesting.

Thats great that your retaining wall has come in cheaper than you thought (ours has doubled - mainly due to the height which we didn't realise was the case when we first bought the block). I am getting another couple of quote tomorrow afternoon and Sunday so I will let you know how they compare to Bayside Stone.

Do you know when they are going to fix you windows? can't believe that happened!

housemouse · Jun 30, 2011 10:03 pm

Yeah, given your predicament it is very understandable that you don't have a spare cent to spend. It is fair enough that you have put the problem back onto the builder, after all if they had evaluated the engineering properly in the first place they should have been able to foresee this problem. Please do let me know how Bayside Stone compare, I am too lazy to go searching for anything cheaper tbh!

I spoke to our builder today and he said the windows are covered by builders insurance so that's good. He also said that our timber flooring has gone it, which I was very surprised about because I thought that would be the last thing they would do. The kitchen and painting will be done next week, and the staircase the week after. He estimates we should be in by end of August, start of September. HAPPY DANCE :lol:

What brick colour have you chosen just out of interest?

natmai · Jun 30, 2011 11:08 pm

xdc351

He mentioned he was meeting someone else about their retaining wall but didn't tell me which house - I would have hung around if I had known. I am now rushing to get engineering done for it which is going to take 10 days and based on the quote he has provided we just don't have the money to pay for it as we are renting and building at the moment and every cent for the next 9 mths or so has been accounted for (as we always planned to do this in about 6 mths time). We have pushed back on our Builder and told them that they have to find an alternative way to get these bricks up - we have no other choice unfortunately so we will see what happens. I haven't heard back from them yet in response to our email so could be interesting.

Thats great that your retaining wall has come in cheaper than you thought (ours has doubled - mainly due to the height which we didn't realise was the case when we first bought the block). I am getting another couple of quote tomorrow afternoon and Sunday so I will let you know how they compare to Bayside Stone.

Do you know when they are going to fix you windows? can't believe that happened!

Hi guys... We're also quoting for retaining walls so far we have quote from 5K to 15K. Did you have any answer from the builder? they should have seen this problem before hand.. Let us know your quotes results.

Housemouse your house looks amazing!!! going super fast... our is coming along but not as fast as we want it to. This week plenty of sunshine but only today we have people in our home doing something. We're pretty close to lock up but at the same time so far away. I think I getting to anxious!!!!

See you around.. and happy building.!!!

cheers, Nat