Building in Brooks Reach - Community Thread

Thanks ladies! It's so exciting yep Wiz, we signed contract at solicitors today! Great way to start the weekend )

Thanks for the tip about the "Things you Forget" forum, sounds like a handy one. Can't wait til we're at the same stage as you ladies with appointments etc...still a long way off but something to look forward to! Lots of positive vibes coming your way for a smooth build )

Quick update - Beechwood have submitted our plans to Council Yayyyyy! Not sure if they will accept them though, as technically BW are still waiting on one final individual report for the Bushfire regulations on our house. But the plan is to email it to council once they receive it. So fingers crossed!

And we got our pool plans back, so once I get the DA for the house I will submit the pool plans onto the same application, saves money, not sure about time though!

And we got formal approval from the bank, which is awesome. I kept reading forum threads about people getting their valuation back from the bank 1000's of dollars less than what they applied for. I was reasonably confident we would be ok, but until I got that approval I was sweating a little!!

So happy vegemite today

Wiz

Hi everyone,
DH & I visited out lot yesterday to do some mowing so Clarendon can do their peg out survey. To our nice surprise Stockland has been maintaining the lots and majority of it was pretty good. There were a few weeds that had deep roots that we managed to pull out. Our neighbours have already got their slab down as do the people across the road from us; both building with Macdonald Jones.

We also noticed that Stockland have planted ‘nice’ trees around the perimeter of some of the lots. Unfortunately for us the tree is planted right where our driveway is going to go!! We contacted Stockland this morning and were advised “all trees have been planted as per plans approved by Council, should your home design not fit with the tree location you will need to get approval from Council to relocate (or remove) the tree. Your builder should be able to assist you with this process with Council and also to relocate or remove the tree for”. We think it’s best that we ask Clarendon about this after construction has commenced, especially as CH is not doing our driveway, we’re having it done after handover.

Something else I discovered in my research today that was helpful (I am sure everyone else knows this but us haha) is this link from ACTEW AGL in regards to applying for natural gas on the property.
https://www.actewagl.com.au/Product-and ... -form.aspx We received an application form when we signed our contract back in January 2012 and have been asking CH every since when do we fill in that silly form! I now know it’s best done at lock up stage and currently costs $295. Woo, cross another thing off out list!

So we have our tile appointment on Thursday and we are still waiting to receive the ACC from our bank. Hopefully CH will get out there and do the peg out survey asap so we can sign off on the final construction plans!

We have also asked Clarendon if we can move the internal gas point outside for the BBQ as won’t ever use it inside as we will have 3-phase air con! Let’s hope they are kind and allow us to move it.

Hey Ruby,

I know where you are!! (lol no not stalking you!) I recognised the lot in the picture because we were really close to buying the lot with the green box on it! Decided not to and went down further. Plus I work with the guy who is building next to you....small world isn't it! (There are four of us in the same department who have bought lots in varying stages at Brooks Reach)

Great news for you with everything starting to move forward, getting exciting now! You guys will kick off before us, but we won't be too far behind and can check your progress!

Hope you can resolve the tree in your driveway issue, I think the tree they planted in front of our block is going to be very close to our driveway, we may not need to move it. I understand they have to plant trees, but it seems a bit strange doing it so early.

Cheers
Wiz

YAY!!! Wiz, that is wonderful news!!! The little wins here and there really feel great, don't they?!! Bring on more good news!!

LOL rubyam I swear we drove past you and your hubby on the weekend, I only know it was you now cos hubby n I drove past a couple mowing their grass and we said "oh how nice, they're mowing their lawn" LOL!!! And as Wiz said I think you guys are building next door to hubby's work colleague (yep, my hubby works with Wiz! And the 5000 other people who have purchased in BR!).

That's great news from the both of you, keep the good news coming

Haha Nat, that's great! You would have seen Hubby sweating it out dong all the work and me trying ot pull out a few weeds with no gloves (:s not fun!) I wish you'd stop by to say hi! One passer by stopped to talk about builders etc but that was it, there was lots of traffic though in the 2hours we were there!

Is anyone going along to the Neighbour day at Brooks Reach?? "Stockland are holding a Good Neighbour Day Event Sunday 24th March from 12-2pm in the Brooks Reach Park. Bring along friends or family and enjoy a sausage sizzle while the kids take part in an Easter egg hunt and play in the park while you meet and mingle with future neighbours!" DH & I will be there with my little sisters

-Rubyam

Hey Ruby,

Not sure at this stage, it is my daughter's birthday. We might pop down around 12 but may not stay the whole time, even if it means we can catch up and say g'day!! Will let you know if we come down.

Wiz

LOL rubyam if I had known it was you I would have said hello! I didn't know til I just read your post saying you guys were mowing the lawn then the penny dropped that would have been cool doing a bit of block maintenance, can't wait til we can get onto our block and do that sort of stuff

Didn't know about the neighbour BBQ but we may turn up depending on what we're doing!

Hello everyone!
What a crazy two weeks we've had! But I can now finally say that our file with Clarendon has been moved to production! Hopefully next week we'll be given a start date for the builders to be onsite. The only worry i have now is the actual ordering of supplies for our build; apart from our tiles & electrical selections, we chose all our colours and materials over a year ago!!

Tile choices:
Threshold/laundry exit

Laundry (Minus mosaic; Though it is pretty!)

Bathroom tile & mosaic

The laundry tile is a darker shade to that of the floor tile. We hadn't visited Dons Tiles previously but as we're having a local company do our flooring throughout the house we didn't take too long to chose the wet floor tiles. We spent just under $2000 in upgrades. In bathroom, ensuite, W.C & laundry we are having the tiles brought up to 1.2m height. In the laundry the tile will also wrap around the left and ride walls (not very big area) on the side the washer & sink will be. We are also have the mosaic tile above the ensuite vanity and one strip along the face of the bath. A standard strip of mosaic tile is included in the showers. So overall we think we did pretty good. We were really happy with the selection Dons had and Holly, the rep we had our appointment with, was lovely! If only they had finished the construction of the carpet side of the business - we would have looked at getting a quote from them to do all our internal flooring too.

Woohoo! So here's hoping for more good news re: construction date next week.

Congrats Ruby! So hoping they start your construction next week, awesome news!

(Oops, edit here, just re-read your post and you said construction date to be given to you!! lol Exciting news anyway!!)

I really like your tile choices, they look lovely! And the mosaic is beautiful....

So excited for you, can't wait to see your house progress!

Cheers
Wiz

Aww thanks Wiz it's nice to be able to celebrate with you guys

Hi everyone,
Just a quick update to let you know the new Brooks Reach community website is now live and can be found here http://www.stockland.com.au/residential ... unity.aspx

Hope you all have a great friday afternoon and a lovely weekend. If anyone makes it out to the BBQ on Sunday, come say hi

-Rubyam

UPDATE! Hubby got a call from our Site Supervisor this morning to say that the piering was being done today and they hope to have the slab completed by Tuesday next week (2nd Apr!!!) OH MY GOODNESS.
We knew that something was happening as we visited out lot yesterday as we were out at Brooks Reach celebrating Good Neighbour day. To our happy surprise out lot had been cut/filled & smoothed out ready for what we now know is today's piering!

I am going to try and pop out there on my lunch break today to meet him and snap a few shots. I will post a photo later as well as a shot of the block we took on the weekend.

The neighbour day event was nice and the Stocklands team are always friendly. We didn't meet anyone new (sadly ) but we did get to show my sisters around the park, have a free sausage sizzle and some chocolates! It was another scorcher at 30degrees+ in the sun!

Hopefully this sun sticks around until our roof gets put up! Happy days!

Yay Ruby!!
What exciting news! It's all happening for you now, going to have to check our your progress this afternoon when I walk the dog...

(We're still waiting on council...soooooo slow!)

Had my daughter's birthday celebrations yesterday, so couldn't make it down, would have like to have met you guys! Soon though I'm sure we will meet up!

Cheers
Wiz

Wiz,
Happy birthday for your little darling for yesterday! There really wasn't a big turn out at all so i can't say you missed much; But yes, one of these days we will meet up!!

When council get their act together it'll be nice that we can look out for one another's lot (though my dective skills still have to figure out where you are haha!!)
The lot next to ours looks like their frame will be going up this week; McDonald jones don't seem to mess around! The lot across from ours has their frame up too and some of their windows too!

-Rubyam

We're lot 325 - Morson Ave....

I am quite amazed at how quick things happen once the slab is done. Hopefully this will be the same for us when the time comes!



Wiz

Wow Rubyam how exciting!! I'll have to go for a drive past during my lunch break one day this week! I saw the people next to you had their frames delivered at the end of last week, lucky ducks! It's amazing how quickly some places have been progressing the last couple of weeks, every time I drive by so much has happened. Rubyam, can you tell me if the cut and fill was expensive? You don't have to give me a price but just curious how they charge as we will definitely need one on our lot, and I'm sure it'll be quite a bit more as we have about a 1.7m cross fall, but just so I've got an idea of how they charge. Your block looks so flat I can't believe they had to do a cut and fill!

Oh, and sorry I didn't make it down yesterday, spent the day with family and friends at the beach it was a hot one!

Hi Ruby,

Congrats, very exciting to see your block of land cut and filled.

I contacted Stocklands regarding seeking a potential contact for grass cutting for our block of land, and Rachel responded by stating that she is unable to recommend a contact. I think I will have to call Jim' Mowing.

Hi Nat and Wiz,

Jumping into this forum for the first time. Ruby and I have been posting on each other's blogs for a while. So, here's my introduction: Venkat (and Viji, my wife) are building a two storey house. Our block is in Stage 2 and we are hoping to have a site start in mid-May. You can check out our building adventures on our blog: ourmetriconphoenix.blogspot.com.au

Nat,

Our Builder is charging approximately $3000 to excavate 1000 mm and fill approximately 600 mm. Note that this is on the top of standard site costs.

Cheers,
Venkat.