Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to construction we go!

You lil' beauty!!  The loan is sorted and today we met with Suzzanne from McDonald Jones to make sure they have everything required to move our file into the construction zone!!  We are so excited :-)  Suzzanne has been fantastic and very helpful with everything we've needed throughout the admin period.  As long as the rain stays away, construction should commence within the next few weeks!!

The welcoming news of a rate cut today also caused for celebration……so we popped a bottle of champagne to mark the occasion.  Visits to our land will now become more frequent to admire the build of our dream home. 

The waiting game sucks!

Well we've been waiting for nearly 4 weeks now for our broker & lender to get everything sorted and get our loan approved.  We got the call 2 weeks ago to say we have conditional approval (based on valuation) and we're still waiting……Wait for it…….the person responsible for the valuation started work on our file and then went on leave…..WTF!!!  Who does that??  Especially to us……so close to construction yet so far away.  Our builder has been waiting patiently for their letter to commence construction and SO ARE WE!  So much for having slab and frames done by end of October.

On another note…we are amazed at how quickly our suburb is coming together.  The homes are popping up all over the estate now and look great.  The house next door to us is almost at completion and a 'for sale' sign is already on display.  I'm sure we'll receive the bill for fencing very soon - but will it be timber or colourbond - we don't really have a preference.

Did anyone else notice that the address on the November Council Rates notice indicates 'Mulgoa' as the property's suburb?!?!  What happened to Glenmore Park :-)

Anyway, not much else to write about…..just one word…..waiting!

Es & Tim

A few weeks to go before the action starts!

Hi all,  It's been a while since my last update.


We received approval from Stockland and approval for complying development from NSW building code about 2 weeks ago. I was so happy to receive the approvals in under 2 weeks from date of submission. Now it's up to our lender to get things moving quickly so our builder can start construction!


Electrical appointment is booked for monday so we'll spend the weekend planning the layout of lights/powerpoints etc.


We drove past last weekend and can't believe how many homes have sprouted since we saw it last.  Our community is really coming together and looks great.  Will hopefully meet everyone again at the event scheduled at Jacaranda Park this Sunday.

Building contracts signed & we have neighbours YAY!

So we signed our building contracts and returned them to our builder today.  How exciting that we're about to enter the construction phase YAY!!!! We can't wait to see action on our block of land.  The house to the left of us looks amazing and a few doors down there's plenty of action happening with Fowler homes.
Oh we had a lovely surprise waiting for us on the HomeOne forum….a post from our new neighbours - Annette & Pete! We look forward to meeting them both & their boys….they sound really nice.


We finalised our plant selection for landscaping - grevilleas, gardenias, cliveas, birds of paradise, murraya hedges & cycads.  We did an amateur sketch of our design ready for stockland.  I hope it's approved - we just need to win lotto so a professional landscaper can do all the hard work lol...Tim & I will definitely need to find a set of green thumbs!


Q - how do we get driveway quotes?  Tim contacted a few contractors and they wouldn't help us one bit cause the house isn't done yet.  How on earth do we get a quote so this can be covered under the funding?  Anyone know how much coloured concrete costs?

Building contract received!!

Hi fellow bloggers, we received our building contract today!  We are eager to sign everything and send it back to get the building started…..but without any building experience how on earth are we supposed to understand all the fine print.
We have to send it back in 5 days, so it's exciting yet scary.  I've been told construction should commence in the next 7wks if all goes to plan.  We also need to finalise our landscaping design so the developer can provide approval.  At this stage, we have the layout done but haven't decided on the plants.  The only one I'm 100% certain on is gardenias.  Still not sure what natives to choose though?? Any suggestions??
We also need to arrange a few quotes for the driveway, tiling and carpet in order to proceed with funding arrangements.

Prelim plans signed, building contract next!

We met with our designated customer service liaison today at head office and signed off on the prelim plans.  We should have the building contract back by end of next week and were advised that construction should commence in approx 6-8 weeks.  We also walked through the newly opened Havana at Kellyville Ridge.  It was so good seeing our chosen home design with tiles instead of floor boards.  The colour scheme was similar to our selections which provided a good visual.

OMG Tiles - I can't decide whether to have the wood grain look or choose the much cheaper alternative of gloss porcelain.  I spoke with a tiler today who indicated that the wood grain tiles are very expensive to lay so I think I'm going to have to settle for 2nd best to save a lot of money.  I like the 600x600 size.


Did our weekly drive by of our block and admired our new neighbours house which looks great….the house across the road is almost finished.  Great to see so much action happening at our future address: 62 Glenmore Ridge Drive!!

Preliminary plans are in our hands!!

We received our much awaited preliminary plans today :-)  There are so many lines, dots and measurements.  This'll be fun trying to read and sign off.


Question for soon to be residents of Glenmore Ridge - What size rainwater tank do we need to install?  Our prelim plans indicate 4500L.  Is 3000L sufficient for our area?


Landscaping is the next thing keeping me awake at night!  I'm not sure what type of native tree to plant out front and back in order to meet Stockland guidelines.  Any ideas??