Half time - change sizes!

Well this has been an interesting week!  Mind you if you had asked me on Monday night - "interesting" would not have been the word I would have chosen.  We went for our tender appointment on Monday afternoon to build our modest one storey "Dural" design house with Clarendon and didn't we get a shock..........

Truth be told - nothing to do with Clarendon and everything to do with a council issue that dictates that we live on a "flood plain".  That's right -  1 in every 100 years we MIGHT get a flood and because of that we have to build our house at a certain level so we are safe........and the council can't be sued.... to say that we are flabbergasted would be a load of you know what!

When we went for our tender this meant that our site costs blew out to $100,000 which was double what we had budgeted for.  This meant we could not build our house because our budget was blown!


Welcome to an alternative universe......


It turns out though that because of our very unique problem it is actually more financially viable to build a 2 storey house...... this is because it is shorter so the slope of the block etc has less effect.  (long story for another post when I have calmed down and we know we are OK to go!)

We have today gone and chosen a design that has a smaller "footprint" and have requested a re-tender of our build.  Even Clarendon were shocked when our tender came back - and they have been very helpful.  The new design that is being tendered is the Glenview.  We have requested a number of changes and we should get the tender back on Thursday at the latest I hope.  None of the changes are major and we are hoping that they are offset by the reduced site costs.

Here is the floorplan link.

http://www.clarendon.com.au/Homes/Detail.aspx?IdDataSource=155#

We are tendering for the Newport facade, but it will be in face brick - not rendered.

Thanks to Mum and Dad for their help in watching the kids for the last three days while I worked on a roadtrip and we imitated the Leyland Brothers today in trying to make a decision within 14 days (as part of the conditions of our original tender).

We just want an answer now.... so tired of thinking about money and plans and what to do.  This plan will work but i still miss the kitchen and bedroom sizes in my Dural - RIP.