"Life, in progress."

After a long wait, with little information from both Metricon and Council, we received the phone call we’d been waiting to get for quite awhile. Council has signed off on the remaining items, and our permanent occupancy certificate is in the mail!

For weeks, we’ve been wondering what big issue we’d be facing next. No info was being communicated from the builder (please work on this in the future, Metricon!) and frankly, we were starting to freak out. After a number of unreturned phone calls to Metricon, we were contacted out of the blue by Blacktown City Council. It wasn’t Metricon that was causing the hold up – it was Council!

Continue reading “Permanent Occupancy Certificate (Part III)” »

The community was buzzing yesterday – construction equipment was flying up and down the road, the paving machines were out, and landscapers seemed to be furiously hacking back the plants growing in the median on our street. What was going on? We’ve grown accustomed to the construction traffic out front, but today it seemed like it had all been kicked up a notch.

The fence came down.

We no longer live at the end of the road. The fence, which separated Stages 3 & 4 from the rest of Stonecutters Ridge, officially came down as of 4pm yesterday. Our road, which was once a poorly constructed round-a-bout, is now the lifeline to the soon-to-open Stonecutters Ridge clubhouse, and countless new homesites that will quickly become cherished family homes.

It’s fun to see the community grow. Walking around the newest area of the neighbourhood last night, you could already sense the changes that are on the horizon. The vibe, the community, the neighbourhood – it’s all changing. For the better. For those of you that will soon see your new home rise from the ground, congratulations – it’s all starting to happen!

The saga continues…

Council’s requirements to get our permanent occupancy certificate were, all in all, pretty reasonable. Fire protection measures needed to be in place, BASIX provisions needed to be in order, and downlights needed to be installed in an acceptable manner. What didnt’ make sense, was the dog door needed to be screened. Yep, the dog door was a fire hazard – despite having a metal cover that closed it off when we weren’t home. Apparently metal isn’t bushfire compliant. Who knew.

A few certificates were required from our builder stating that all bushfire prevention measures had been completed, and all necessary building inspections had been completed. It seemed pretty straightforward from here. Would you believe it wasn’t?

Continue reading “Permanent Occupancy Certificate (Part II)” »

We decided that, after almost 18 months living in our ‘new’ home, we were ready to approach Blacktown Council around getting our Permanent Occupancy Certificate. They were quick to respond, and a day later we had the very same inspector that we ‘dealt’ with for our bushfire concerns out inspecting the house. You could have cut the tension with a knife.

So how did it go? To be honest, I’m not sure. He wrote a bunch of stuff down as he meandered through the house – making the occasional comment to Megan and I. Then, he asked about our bushfire protection measures.

Continue reading “Permanent Occupancy Certificate” »