Our New House Build - Top of the Range Toowoomba

Ok here it is - the new thread and blog. May it have much more positive progress than the last!

We have decided to build with a local builder this time. When we initially went looking for a builder our second preference was Top of the Range builders also in Toowoomba. We know a couple of people who have built with them who couldn't speak highly enough of them so naturally after we withdrew from the other company we went and revisited them. By the time we had dealt with all the rubbish from the other builder I really was not feeling great about the whole process and didn't think I really wanted to go and start the whole process again! However we were really happy after walking out of our first meeting with Top of the Range, we felt they were people we could trust, people who were honest and upfront and really liked that the person we talked to was the person who did the work on our plans and added our upgrades. They are very open and transparent about costs, were more than happy to help us create the house we wanted within our budget and also very good at explaining the more technical aspects of the slab etc to me! Our manager has been great at modifying one of their existing plans into what we want, the flexibility in the plan has been great and has allowed us to get more of what we wanted in our house rather than being constrained by the 'standard' plan. At all times she has been very open about where costs will be incurred and how we can cut costs by doing minor things, it has been very refreshing to deal with someone who knows what she's talking about!

We redid our soil test as the engineering firm that they deal with wasn't happy to accept the report from the company recommended by Metricon. After discussing this we were happy to repeat the soil test. The first company came back to us with an M. The second soil test came back with a borderline H2 (almost an E!)......something doesn't smell right here! Thank god that we had it redone because had we gone through with the first builder we would have built an M class slab on an H2 soil and that would not have been good! We also used the first test as a condition of sale on the block, had we known that it needs a clay replacement costing $11-16000 to build our slab we may not have bought the block. However by doing the clay replacement we will now be building on an S or at worst an M type, M is included with Top of the Range so we would just be paying for the clay replacement. I am following up the first test and why it was so different at the moment. Thank god we did not go through with it first time around!

I have started a new blog - http://werelivingthedream2.tumblr.com and will continue to update here as we go.

We received our siting discretion yesterday from council which is great. This means we now go ahead with getting our engineering report which could take up to a month, then we get our final costs, contract and head off to the bank to get formal approval. Then we pay our deposit and go and do selections again. Top of the Range provide a colour consultant to work with you while doing selections which is great, makes me feel a whole lot less nervous than just picking what I like without professional input!