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

natmai · Jun 15, 2011 10:14 am

dandav

Hi Everyone,
yay our roof tiles have been delivered and our gutters are up!!

This weeks weather is looking good, so i'm hoping the roof will be up by the end of the week!!
Nat we haven't spoken to our PM about a finish date, but hoping ours will be very similar to yours seeing our building stages are close. Your place is looking great

WOW, can not believe the landscaping quote was that much!!

Eskay - great news about your frame stage being completed!!
Housemouse, how's is you place going? I think we'll be the same.. do our landscaping ourselves as we need to get a retaining wall done, after we move in.

Stage 8 people, hopefully settlement will be close for you all.
I must say the estate is looking great, can't wait to move in!!

Danni.

Danni, your roof tiles are on and look amazing!!! closer to fixing time now!!! Our roof tiles are on too, I cannot believe it.. they are going super fast..I know when fixing come everything slow down.

.
Still getting quotes for our side retaining wall.. there are lot of prices out there so look around!!!.
Have a great week !!!

Nat

natmai · Jun 15, 2011 10:16 am

housemouse

Great news dandav! Fingers crossed for a roof this week, I shouldn't see why not if the weather stays fine.
Our house is going slowly (IMO), we should have the plaster starting at the end of this week. I want to see progress, but it feels like everything is moving at a snails pace. The house is supposed to be finished by September, but they will really have to haul arse to get it finished by then I would think. I want to see my kitchen, I want to see my tiles, I want to see the wall paint colour I chose (mainly cause I can't remember what that was now!), it doesn't help that I am a very impatient person. Can't they just domestic bliss my house and get it done in a weekend?

Housemouse, today i went to The Range and saw lot of people working on your property!!! Hopefully everything will be done smoothly and in time for you to move in!!!

Cheers,

dandav · Jun 15, 2011 12:50 pm

oh WOW Nat, that's awesome news!!

won't be getting there in daylight until the weekend, as when I drive past it's pitch black. I'm super excited, can't wait to move in... I know still a while off but knowing we have our roof up is great news!!

Great news to hear your roof is up too!! Will have to check it out on the weekend.

good luck with the retaining wall quotes, we have to start thinking about our retaining wall at some stage, we will be getting a few quotes for sure!!
enjoy the week, can't wait to get some new pics.

Danni

natmai · Jun 15, 2011 4:53 pm

Hi everyone,

For stage 8 and beyond here is a link that you may find interesting about new cabling in new communities http://www.telstra.com.au/smartcommunit ... opers.html

hope can help.

Happy building!!!

Cheers, Nat

catlover · Jun 16, 2011 5:05 pm

Great news Stage 8!!!

The Developer has signed an agreement for fibre optic to be installed in our stage and others after us!!! So we won't have to go wireless

YAY!!!

It will be in for us by the time we move in, so that's good news. Stages after us will have it in for title.

So make sure you ask your builder to get your own house setup for this.

What a relief!!!

Bring on the dry weather, curbs and roads!

natmai · Jun 16, 2011 5:28 pm

catlover

Great news Stage 8!!!

The Developer has signed an agreement for fibre optic to be installed in our stage and others after us!!! So we won't have to go wireless

YAY!!!

It will be in for us by the time we move in, so that's good news. Stages after us will have it in for title.

So make sure you ask your builder to get your own house setup for this.

What a relief!!!

Bring on the dry weather, curbs and roads!

Catlover, That's great news!!! bring on fibre!!!!

Cheers,

Eskay40 · Jun 16, 2011 8:19 pm

In the words of Monty Python... You Lucky, Lucky Ba$t...$!!

Fibre instead of copper in from the start is a great result for you all. Save so many headaches down the track. I really wish they had the foresight to do it for the entire estate.

SK

dgm · Jun 17, 2011 7:04 am

Awesome! Shame we had to miss out. For those of us Pre- Stage 8, running wireless ADSL2 has been fine. We even managed to get all connected before handover.

housemouse · Jun 17, 2011 9:18 am

howdy!

thanks natmai for the update, it's always good to hear that my house is a hive of activity. glad to hear you have a roof, exciting stuff!

dgm - congrats on moving in! sounds like it was a long hard road, and the last few weeks have been trying to say the least (is your dog ok?) but now you can breathe a sigh of relief as you begin the un-packing process. btw, what colour are your carpet and bathroom floor tiles if you don't mind me asking?
i think our experiences will be about the same in length, we purchased our land in oct 2009 and the house should be due for completion in sept 2011.... hmm if someone had told me in the beginning that it would take 23 months before we could move in i would have laughed in their face!

:

dgm · Jun 17, 2011 4:28 pm

You're not the only one surprised by the long build. This is our first home and honestly don't know if I have the sanity to do it again but guess it won't be with 2yo and newborn in tow! That reminds me, was it you I saw yesterday walking the bubs and taking snaps of house frontages?

Re our carpet and tiling. There are photos on our blog if you want to check them out. Always good to see the colours laid out. We found it so hard to choose colours from a tiny sample!

btw, your home is looking amazing. The views are to die for

Nezza · Jun 17, 2011 6:13 pm

catlover

Great news Stage 8!!!

The Developer has signed an agreement for fibre optic to be installed in our stage and others after us!!! So we won't have to go wireless :-)

YAY!!!

It will be in for us by the time we move in, so that's good news. Stages after us will have it in for title.

So make sure you ask your builder to get your own house setup for this.

What a relief!!!

Bring on the dry weather, curbs and roads!

Who did u hear this off? We are still waiting for details as to what and when fibre is going in

karmaz · Jun 17, 2011 9:16 pm

Fibre optic cable, I'm jealous!! I wonder whether the whole estate will get it or just the later stages. Would be nice if everyone did, but I guess thats a pipe dream.
DGM, congrats on moving in ~ Catch you around sometime soon! Agree Housemouse's house has awesome views!
Just blogged some more on our porch - my latest bug bear.

housemouse · Jun 17, 2011 11:25 pm

Hahahaha yes that was us! I was taking photos of houses in the estate with off white flush mortar and comparing it to our mortar, and then I sent these picks to our builder! I'm not happy that we paid an extra $1000 for the upgrade to off white mortar when to me the mortar we now have is no different to natural mortar. So I thought I would take some snaps of houses that had the colour mortar I thought we were supposed to be getting. Yeah I saw the photos on the blog and I love the colours, that's why I was wondering what the actual colour was if you knew? If not don't stress, it was just out of interest really cause they look similar to our colours!

dgm · Jun 18, 2011 3:32 pm

Ah Housemouse, knew I should have said hi but I was in the car with sleeping toddler who was going to be grizzly if woken.

Hope you sort out the mortar issue. I think it's a common problem. We've had some brick patch up work in the last months and they did use the wrong colour mortar which needed to be coloured. Sounds weird I know but the experts turned up a week after handover and with a handbrush, coloured the patches. Must say they did a great job. Seamless.

Tile colours... Eggshell for the floor, Luxe Cream for the steps up to baths and Luxe Mocha for the darker feature tiles. We're pretty happy with it.

Karmaz,
Popped by the other day and caught up with your husband and Zach. Our place is a mess with boxes at the moment but will have to invite you over soon! ...And fingers crossed your builder fixes that leaky porch. What a nuisance.... though has provided material for an entertaining read on your blog

dgm · Jun 18, 2011 6:30 pm

Boxes, boxes, who needs boxes????

dgm · Jun 18, 2011 7:12 pm

sorry, boxes all gone. Great to be able to pass them on

lot 306 · Jun 19, 2011 9:37 am

hi guys!!
how is everyone??
WE have a SLAB!!! lol not bad considering they did the site cut on 05/05
all moving forward now hopefully frame this week

Eskay40 · Jun 19, 2011 11:27 pm

That's great news lot306!! I hope you have a happy and speedy build.

SK

kostasw · Jun 20, 2011 8:12 am

Hey ya all!

Great to see so much progress is happening in the estate and the more people are moving in.
Dgm, your house looks really schmick ::smile::

and it looks like you've had a great result with M3tricon.
We're pretty happy with progress - already been slabbed and frame should start any day now.

One unforeseen cost is a retaining wall down one side of the house, facing the street (Drewett Circuit). Our package includes a side fence running along the boundary line. However after the site was cut and filled, the house is now sitting a lot higher off the street than what's shown in the plans. So, we have no choice but to consider a wall, which is going to vary in height from 80cm to 120cm.... Cost aside, we also have to observe council and site guidelines/restrictions. Does anyone here know of a good retaining wall guy that knows the Maroondah Council rules and has had Range experience?... I'm not asking too much, am I :oops:

natmai · Jun 20, 2011 9:47 am

kostasw

Hey ya all!

Great to see so much progress is happening in the estate and the more people are moving in.
Dgm, your house looks really schmick ::smile::

and it looks like you've had a great result with M3tricon.
We're pretty happy with progress - already been slabbed and frame should start any day now.

One unforeseen cost is a retaining wall down one side of the house, facing the street (Drewett Circuit). Our package includes a side fence running along the boundary line. However after the site was cut and filled, the house is now sitting a lot higher off the street than what's shown in the plans. So, we have no choice but to consider a wall, which is going to vary in height from 80cm to 120cm.... Cost aside, we also have to observe council and site guidelines/restrictions. Does anyone here know of a good retaining wall guy that knows the Maroondah Council rules and has had Range experience?... I'm not asking too much, am I :oops:

Hi Kostasw, we are working with Steve Pensak from PLC Landscpaes - 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