[COMPLETED] - Building Windsor 40 with Eden Brae (Caddens)

Hi All
I am happy to share our build experience with Eden Brae building Windsor 40 in Western Sydney. This is a long waiting thread as I was waiting for the build to start and it just started after the Christmas (2018)/New Year holidays (2019).

The whole process start on 18 Feb 2018, as my wife was forcing me to visit this LOT (604 sqm - to be registered on March 2018) and we straight away paid the $2000 to lock the deal. This is my first experience in buying a property in Australia and doesn't know much about it. The LOT was irregular shaped but I booked it assuming that we can build anything in it. After all the cool-off period and we paid the 10% deposit.

Since the proposed registration was on March 2018, we started looking at builders. Then, came the blow. Most of the project builders' Home Plans doesn't fit into the LOT because of the irregular shape. The rear of the LOT is smaller than the front (17.5m frontage) like a Triangle, so longer Home Plan doesn't fit. After multiple visits with different builders, we end up with EBH and selected Windsor 40 as we liked the plan.

Let me fast forward these boring story.

18 Feb 2018 - Booked the LOT
01 Mar 2018 - Paid 10% Deposit
28 Mar 2018 - Paid Tender Fee $750 to EBH
17 Apr 2018 - Tender Presentation (EBH)
28 Apr 2018 - Accepted Tender (EBH) and paid $2500 as Tender acceptance fee
14 May 2018 - Signed Contract and Paid 5% of the Tender amount excluding the Tender Fee + Tender Acceptance fee
08 Jun 2018 - Home Option Gallery - Appointment DAY 1 (Electrical, Aircon, Colors)
12 Jun 2018 - Home Option Gallery - Appointment DAY 2 (Windows, Tiles & Carpet)
06 July 2018 - Land Registered
20 July 2018 - Land Settled
16 Aug 2018 - DA Lodged (Penrith Council)
04 Oct 2018 - DA Determined
12 Oct 2018 - SA told me to pay the Infrastructure Restoration Bond in the Council. Paid on the same day.
31 Oct 2018 - Paid the remaining 5% of actual contract price after all PCVs (we got 24 PCVs)
11 Nov 2018 - Peg Out
30 Nov 2018 - Got the loan approved and provided ACC to the builder
10 Dec 2018 - SA emailed me to clean my LOT as the other tradies dumped the rubbish. I found a nice lawn mowner nearby who helped me cleaning the LOT next day.
17 Dec 2018 - File released to contruction
30 Jan 2019 - Slab Poured
13 Feb 2019 - External drainage & Power undergrounds done
15 Feb 2019 - Got BuildWatch installed!!
18 Feb 2019 - Frame started
05 Mar 2019 - Frame completed
12 Mar 2019 - Bricklayer started
12 Apr 2019 - Bricklayer completed (as per the my SA)
15 Apr 2019 - Started on Roofing
31-May-2019 - Roof completed (Lockup stage completed)
10-Jun-2019 - Lining started
28-Jun-2019 - Lining completed
02-Jul-2019 - Stairs completed
10-Jul-2019 - Waterproofing completed
15-Jul-2019 - Wet Area Tiling started
17-Jul-2019 - Kitchen completed
16-Aug-2019 - Painting completed
20-Sep-2019 - PCI completed
04-Oct-2019 - Handover (Got the keys)

The following are some issues which we faced with the builder in the above mentioned timeline. We have huge setback before lodging to DA due to EBH wants us to choose few options for BASIX requirement. After 8 weeks of arguments, pressure and stress, we didn't budge and we got the BASIX certificate without any problem.

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In the whole timeline, we visited land every weekend and happy to see people around us building in their LOTs. And today (12 Jan 2019), we were jumping to see our LOT is leveled and half fence. I will let the pictures talk.

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LOT Mowed and Cleaned
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I will keep posting our progress here going forward. There are many details I have missed. Will post them one by one soon. Happy to hear your feedback/experience.