Bugga!

Well it seems we will not be moving into our new house this year.

Following Planning Commission approval we've now met with NuSteel to try to get things moving on this project to build a house on a hill. The next step is Building Rules Consent. Quite some time has elapsed since we signed our contract so NuSteel wanted a meeting to consolidate where we stand in the process.

NuSteel has indicated some price rises in the time since we signed the contract (in excess of a year ago) and also changes in their suppliers whose selections they had us do very early in the process. We have negotiated with NuSteel on the variations they requested - indeed the price rises they indicated seemed very large by percentage of the original cost, even considering the period of time that has elapsed. Fortunately they have been open to negotiation with some of these variations.

The company being contracted to provide the joinery (cupboards, benches etc) has changed but fortunately have all  the same fittings we have chosen and this will therefore mean our original selections are fine (thank heavens for this - didn't relish designing a new kitchen again!)

The only other changes to be incorporated in our plans at this stage were generated by the CFS BAL rating report and involved maintaining a larger stock water volume for firefighting (we elected to get larger tanks) and providing a turn-around as part of our driveway to enable vehicles to exit the property facing forward.

NuSteel have elected to submit their request incorporating these minor changes to their contractors to prepare Civil Plans this coming Monday so this means a period of 2 weeks will elapse between obtaining Planning Commission Approval and commencing the process of creating Civil Plans for submission for Building Rules Consent. It's difficult not to be impatient after waiting so long already but it is certainly starting to seem like we are progressing towards a build.

NuSteel has said they will commence building at the beginning of July and that completion is likely to be in January 2013. We have elected to hire our own earthworks contractor (the especially helpful individual mentioned earlier in this blog) so we've asked him to schedule us in for June. NuSteel has indicated they will meet with him to ensure we're all on the same page.

Now is also the time that we have notified the company providing our waste management system (another one of those helpful individuals I mentioned earlier) that commencement is imminent in the hopes that we can coordinate the beginnings of this project without too many delays.

It's kind of exciting and kind of frustrating at the same time to have progress and an end date that is so far away - but an end date nevertheless! To allay our frustrations we've been searching for light fittings for our new house and have ordered our external light fittings, our FIRST actual purchase of fittings for Teringatu! Yay!!!

 

Wooo Hooo! Planning Commission Development Approval is in da house!

So we finally have both Council Planning Approval and Development Assessment Unit Planning Commission Approval after what has now been over a year since our initial submission to Council! It certainly feels like a milestone that has taken a lot of time and effort to reach.

It also means we are getting close to actually starting to build this house of ours. The next hurdle is to get Nusteel to submit civil drawings for Building Rules Consent. Nusteel were notified last Friday 11th May, so now we wait to see how long they will take to prepare and submit the plans. Council have indicated that after submission Building Rules Consent is processed in five days and after that we can start to build! It's starting to get kind of exciting but oh the waiting!!!!!