Official contours

23/09/2014 - received our final contours... 

Local area

We ventured around our new local area today. Plenty of schools, shops and a cute little heritage pub - awesome beer garden for those Summer Sunday afternoons! Across the road is the community hall, complete with 'home of Jennifer Hawkins, miss universe' sign! 

More plans...

 

Our modifications

Placement on the block

Pictures

Land has been pegged out... 

Jay is standing in our back right hand corner... 

Little bit excited... 

The McDonald Jones Chelsea Two (without modifications). Stairs will be at the common split between the hallway and the kitchen. 

Our journey so far...

Well, our build to date includes the following:

28/08/2014 - Payment made for electronic site contours
22/08/2014 - Initial tender received from McDonald Jones
11/08/2014 - Visited McDonald Jones, Fern Bay and requested tender
01/08/2014 - Received tender from Montgomery Homes (Ouch!)
29/07/2014 - Contracts exchanged for land and deposit paid
26/06/2014 - Holding deposit placed on land
24/06/2014 - Initial land enquiry

We are currently awaiting the outcome from our site inspection to determine final pricing from Mcdonald Jones. The design we are looking at is a 'Gen One' design, with an impressions package upgrade. The design is the Chelsea Two Split, which will provide us the split we need due to the slope in our land. We have done our own modifications to the design including the land requirements (estate covenants), changing the laundry entrance (I can't stand entering a laundry through the kitchen), and adding an extra 2m of storage at the back of the garage. I will upload a modified design shortly.

The Land - Lot 218
The block we have purchased is 771sqm in a new estate, Appletree Grove. It's in West Wallsend which is approx 25-30 mins from Newcastle city centre. The block has a slope across its 45m depth of approx 5m. The frontage of 18m allows up to utilise the space to include a trailer access gate and still have plenty of space.

The Estate
Appletree Grove has a number of design requirements including, but not limited to:
- 2m verandah covering 50% of the house frontage! not including the garage
- 2700mm ceilings
- 600mm eaves
- 2m & 1m side access space (making our house width limit 15m)
- Front picket fence
The requirements are due to the estate being located in a heritage area and the need for the houses to fit in with the period style houses that currently exist.

More to follow...