Monday, October 25, 2010

Soakage pits versus stormwater drain.

If anyone out there reading this has comments on soakage pits, whether they be good or bad, I'd be interested in hearing them.

We're in a position where soakage pits are the primary source of drainange because to put a stormawater drain through our rear neighbour's block means creating an easement over their property. Very inconvenient.

My concern about the soakage pits is whether they're effective - or not - in a big downpour like we get in storm season.

Stuck in a rut...

Another complicated day on the subdivision front.
Its a big juggle getting the infrastructure started to enable building on the rear block.
The town planner neglected to tell the council that we wanted to stay in our house at the top of the property while we build a house on the back lot. Now were stuck with a $600 fee to change the requirement that says all structures have to be demolished prior to construction. We also found that the sewer line has been drawn in on the wrong side of the plan - another $600 change - and other little things like amending the power requirement from underground (15K establishment fee for green box) to drawing power across the road via overhead cable. It makes me wonder what sort of thought goes into the plans sometimes....why didn't anyone bother to check was what available in the area??

Anyway, I contracted the engineering company to project manage things today, and told them to communicate with the townplanner, and vice versa. Nothing seems to get done unless money is being pushed across a table. Although I must admit, I've had some valuable advice from a few people lately who have let me pick their brains, and that's given me a better understanding of how things work.

Organising this is like fitting a big jigsaw together. Let's hope it gets easier as pieces fall into place.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Way back when...




We tried to sell our property way back in Feb 2010 but got no bites and the agent just wanted to give it away so he could get his commission. We got sick of him telling us that the land was worth nothing (1618 sqm) and that all people would want to pay for was the 3brm 1bthrm brick house on the front of it.

So we got rid of him and took the big step into subdivision and building in an effort to move up in the world...and start putting something aside for our retirement. So this is the beginning of a 10 year plan.

With hindsight, one brave step onto a very big learning curve, considering we're trying to do this through Redland City council, not known for being the easiest council to deal with. I'm beginning to see why.....
Also the cost. Why it costs so much to subdivide is beyond me. But anyway, that's for later in the blog.
So we started the process in March 2010. It's now mid October 2010 and we just got council approval for the subdivision, as long as we comply with a long list of things and pay heaps in contributions.
We have a long narrow block, 20 x 80 which we divided into 2, each roughly 20 x 40. The bottom block is for a house for us to live in, and the top block which contains the easement is for a duplex.  
We plan to rent these out.
Sounds so simple, doesn't it?
Join me as I describe fitting the jigsaw pieces together to try and make this all possible.
The two pics show the back and front of the property, so much demolition to do yet.
You can see we have our work cut out for us!!

Builder wanted.

While the subdivision was in progress, we were hunting around for builders.

After a couple of false starts with builders that turned out to be more than we could afford, we re-evaluated our idea of a dream home and went with a project builder instead.
It all comes down to budget doesn't it?
As it turns out, one of Coral Homes designs, Barbados 344A was almost what we wanted, so with a few changes, we managed to achieve an acceptable layout with the rooms designed the way we prefer.
For example, I prefer wide open spaces so I got rid of any poky hallways by moving the lounge dining room walls in and turning that side of the house into an extended study area, an extra bathroom and a large laundry utility room. That gave us a lot more space in the kitchen (important for my chef husband who shall henceforth be referred to in this blog as OGB (old grumblebum)), and we also added a butler's pantry onto the side of the kitchen.

Now we're getting close to what we originally had in mind when we approached our first builder.
Mind you, it has taken 6+ months of looking, deciding, changing my mind, and starting all over again.

Fingers crossed that it all falls into place.

Now if we could only find a duplex builder.....
Lets hope tomorrow's meeting with antech proves fruitful.