In the beginning... (Part 1)

Work has finally begun, after many months of frustration…

However, before we start with a regular account of the construction process, we need to go back a few months, and describe the first steps of the adventure.

Following the sale of our extensively renovated house in March 2007, we were looking for a block that could be subdivided, with an existing house rightly positioned on the block. This proved to be a very difficult task, as we were not the only ones with this idea in mind!

Eventually, we purchased a small block (510m² ) East of Melbourne, in July 2007. The original block had been subdivided in 2004. The front block has a small house on it. The rear block, the one we bought, has a “battle-axe” configuration. There is a small section of common property, about 6m of driveway.

It was our understanding that the block was “ready” for building. We were wrong, but more of that later.

After many attempts to come up with an efficient design that would fit into the small envelope the Council has imposed to us, we engaged the services of a drafting company to draw up the plans for the permit.

Even though we gave them very detailed & efficient concept drawings in Autocad, it took longer than expected to get the drawings ready. Many silly mistakes were made.

We were not impressed with their services.

Our original design was for a steel frame and Hebel power panels for the external cladding. This “unorthodox” building method didn’t help in getting the drawings in time!

In the meantime, we began the hunt for a builder who would be prepared to use different materials than timber and bricks. For a while we though we might do it as “Owner builders” and engage the services of a project manager. But we found that the financial advantage was not that great, and it would have meant a lot more time spent on site and not actually working to pay the bills!

We settled for a “small” builder who was highly recommended to us.

The steel frame option was dropped due to the extra $5000 premium compared to building with treated timber (H2 or Blueframe).