The final construction plans have been sent across to us, with just a few minor questions regarding some of our decisions and triple checking everything for accuracy. After all, as soon as Metricon hits the go button, we can’t make any additional changes.

Since we received our Council Approval last Thursday, and our Commencement to Start construction from our lender on Monday, Metricon has been in control of the speed in which the project progresses. Up until then, Megan and I have been used to having three or four different companies involved in the approval process. Admittedly, since Metricon took the reigns, things have sped up. It took them less than a week to review and add any Council mandated changes into the plan.

Continue reading “Final Construction Plans – Complete!” »

Hi all, it’s Megan. Here is the latest update.

Today was our original deadline with Metricon, and the day we hoped to get council to approve the bi-fold doors. As you can see from previous posts, after exhausting all avenues Stefan and I had a bushfire report done and submitted it to council in order to have our bi-fold doors approved without screens. Council in turn, submitted this to the RFS and we subsequently received verbal approval at 3:30pm today – it all was looking good to move ahead.

Since council shuts at 4:30, I decided to head out to Blacktown in the hope that the written approval would come by the time I got there. Upon arrival at council, I was told that although the RFS had provided written approval which said we didn’t require screens on the bi-fold doors, the doors needed to comply to the table outlined in the RFS document published on their website (that we had discovered about 2 weeks ago and were told that was outdated).

Continue reading “Yes! Oh sorry, I meant no…” »

After a week of frustrating setbacks and heated conversations, we’ve started this week out on the right foot. Our representative at council has suddenly been extremely proactive in getting the approval expedited, and Metricon has approved our contract extension for a further 13 days (the 150 days in which we are to have council approval and building permits approved by).

Don’t remember reading anything about why we’d need an extension? It’s not you – I held off writing about it because I wanted to give Metricon a chance to come good on a decision we felt was in poor judgment. Let’s take a step back, and I’ll fill you in on what transpired during the previous week…

Continue reading “Finally, progress with Blacktown Council” »

Merry Christmas to us! We received our developer approval on the 24th of December! We pretty much figured this would be the most difficult step of the whole approval process.

Here’s hoping it was.

The entire developer approval took less time than it did to prepare for – 3 days! They had a few questions about our DIY landscape plan, but to be honest they were all pretty superficial questions – show a dotted line for the fence, where will the clothesline go, use the correct terminology. It was all seemingly insignificant questions and in no time flat we got the approval back and now, once Metricon gets back into the office after holidays, it’s off to Blacktown City Council for the last portion of the approval process.

We’re getting closer…