firsttimehomebuilder

Sparky

2010-11-30T18:41:00.000-08:00

Our sparky's name is Chris Dow from Dow Electrics. I chose him purely on price as he was at least 3k cheaper than the other quotes. Here is a link to his profile: http://www.tradeexperts.co.nz/cms/index.php?page=directory-view-listing&lid=8006

Well I think I got lucky because Chris Dow is a young and eager Electrician with a lot of really good, modern ideas. For example, we have an area for a proposed chimney, and Chris suggested putting a powerbox behind the wall so that we can have a hidden multi-plug and cables area for a Mac-Daddy stereo system etc.

Chris also suggested wall lights in the lounge areas and main bedrooms for a modern look. He has also 'reduced' the amount of lights that Lighting Plus suggested in our lighting plan - as he said we didnt need that many - especially along the soffits outside of the house. Chris's new lighting plan has saved us about $1k :-)

Chris has also added wall plugs for our wall-hung TV's, sensors around the house, and really modern bathroom ventilation system in all the bathrooms. Chris said he the heater/fan/lights that you buy in lighting shops are 'out of date', and I agree.

All our electrics include an alarm system, speakers in the ceilings, phone/internet outlets AND advice - all for a total of $24277.35. Pretty good? Compared to my other quotes it is!

P.S. Chris started working on our house a couple of weeks ago and was told off by our builder as he had to drill through a couple of the weatherboards - and the builder said "You wouldnt need to do that if you were here last week before we put the weatherboards up!"

The WP 2000 Treatment Station

2010-11-24T16:44:00.000-08:00

Hello again :-)
My husband just got off the phone to the suppliers of our Treatment Station. The owner went to check our site to see if his system was allowed to be used in our area - because according to the Council we are only allowed to use the Devon System - or something similar.
The Devon system is 7k more than the treatment system our Drainlayer recommends - so we were hoping to get away with using a cheaper model.
I'm not sure if I told you, but in the Tuscany area we have to provide our own sewerage system. An extra cost that we always intended to pay for, but I dont really mind because I'm a greenie, and I like the fact that our waste will be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.
Anyway, the supplier of the cheaper Treatment station is sure that we will be able to use his system, so he is going to ask the Council to sign his system off. Fingers crossed! (Again)

Continued...

2010-11-24T14:57:00.000-08:00

We paid for our internal linings and were told before we paid for them that there would be a 10 working day delay until they were delivered because thats how Carter Holts works. (Carter Holts told us they only need 2 working days but I wasnt going to bother questioning that statement further). Then I received an email saying that they were going to send someone out to measure the house to find out how much gib we need, and they'd be sending him out next Monday (which was Nov 22nd), a whole week after we'd paid. Then the internal linings would be delivered 10 days after that. I sent the following email below (which was a tame version of how I felt):

No, that’s not going to work. Our bank is still not happy about paying for items before they are delivered. Your builder needs to make this a priority. Considering the amount of times we have had to wait it is not surprising that BNZ are hesitant to allow us to draw-down on our pre-approved mortgage.

This is what BNZ have noted:
1/ In Dec 09 Plans were paid for – we did not receive our working plans till late March 2010 - 4 month long wait
2/ Frames (Stage 1) was paid for in April – Work did not start until August – 4 month long wait
3/ Stop placed on Account by MBC because Foundations had not been signed off -1 month long wait. Scaffold hireage still had to be paid for that month.

Our Bank Manager is visiting the site on the 29th Nov and will expect to see a delivery of our internal linings.

And this is the reply that I received:

Steve will be calling shortly to discuss this.
This is not accurate !
You have a kitset contract Monika, we are not doing a full build. You pay for materials, then it is ordered once we have cleared funds in our accoutn and then you receive it. There are time frames required from confirmed order to our supplier, to delivery to your site. Stage payments ar all set out in your contract.

You paid a plan deposit on December 9th It takes at least 3 weeks for scheme plans to be drawn up for you to approve, then the full working drawings are done, engineering for the raft floor is done, engineering for the truss design is done by Carters, this all takes time. Full working drawings plus all the engineering can take up to 6 weeks.
Then you have Christmas and New Year when no one is working right in the middle of all this! So you got your full working drawings with all the engineering towards the end of March. So from Mid January when engineers and draughting people come back to work there is 5- 6 weeks which on a house your size is normal. Not 4 months.
Frames paid for in April and work delayed because of the wettest Winter in history for the last 80 years!!! Monika we do not control the weather. We had to pay for those frames too to order them so the money came in and went straight out again. There was no benefit to us or “advantage” we achieved from this.
I will let Steve answer you about the compaction on the site. Because of the soil conditions we had to re engineer. The Geotech was a subdivision report and was insufficient to give us any specific information that this may occur. If we had requested a geotech report specific to your site the cost would be another approx $1800 plus gst.
Internal linings was paid yesterday Fund DC-ed so we requested a gib take off from your builder today. He said he will do it Monday. Then We can order the gib, time frames is approx 7 – 10 days delivery.
OR I can just give him the gib we do as standard and it will be more work for him then you will get the gib sooner.
Let me know ?

Please give me your bank managers phone details and I am more than happy to explain your contract to him and how a kitset works. He should be very familiar with this.
We cannot send out tens of thousands of dollars worth of material that is not even paid for! Surely you understand this.

Your bank manager will probably not see the gib on site if we only get the take off from Dennis on Monday. More than likely it will be delivered about Dec 1st.

Monika as I have explained any variations or upgrades to the contract price need to be paid in advance, They do not form part of the contract, and we could send out a granite top or upgrades etc, only to find that you do not hav the fiancea above what your mortgage all was for to pay for this.! Again surely you understand this. A kitset is not like a full build where we are in control of teh job and can sotp work or take back unpaid for materials

I would REALLY appreciate comments about my experiences by any of my readers please. Sometimes it's good to get a point of view from someone 'outside' of the situation.

The REAL reason why I have not been updating my blog lately

2010-11-24T14:18:00.000-08:00

Well a lot has happened but unfortunately a lot of what has happened is not around the physical 'progress' of our house.

May I just mention that our Builders Nick Nenville and Terry are FANTASTIC - and I cannot recommend them highly enough.

However, I am having issues with our Building Company.

But I dont want to face a defamation case by spilling all the details, but I will tell you the facts.

So here's a summary of what has happened so far:

1/ It took Latitude Homes a longer amount of time than I expected (4 months) to produce our working drawings. We didnt complain, just waited paitently with our fingers crossed.

2/ The 4 months that we had to wait for a Resource Consent were due to an Engineering Issue that Latitude Homes had not sorted out correctly. Unfortunately I was mis-informed by Latitude Homes who kept blaming the Council, but then I rung the Council myself to find out what the hold up was, and I was told that Latitude Homes had not provided the relevant information. So back and forth I went, until my husband got annoyed and demanded some action. Then he received a text from Latitude Homes saying "you worry too much". My husband replied "you'd worry too if you'd paid out over 100k 4 months ago and nothing was happening!"

3/ Latitude Homes insist that everything is 'PREPAID' before the job is done, and BEFORE the goods are delivered. Our bank Manager had a HUGE problem with this as they wanted to pay for the frames etc ON DELIVERY - not weeks and sometimes months before - because the Building company may go under, and then the bank will lose their asset!
My husband also questioned Latitude Homes about this, because he's in the Construction Industry, and he has set up accounts with suppliers that allow him to order goods and pay on the 20th of the following months. By then the client has received their goods, and paid him - so he can pay the suppliers. Makes sense right?

4/ Our builder visited Latitude Homes to prompt some action (because the job delay was affecting him as well) and Latitude Homes bad-mouthed us to him - for no reason! Our builder told us that he wont repeat everything they said to him, but he did tell us that they said we were unreasonable (amongst other things). I find this VERY unprofessional and without merit.

5/ I wanted to change our kitchen, and drew up a Kitchen Gallery plan as opposed to a U-shaped plan. My new kitchen plan has almost HALF the amount of cupboards yet is going to cost 8k more. When I inquired about this and asked for a breakdown I received an ANGRY email with capital letters and no explanation. So I have left it and will accept paying 21k for a kitchen that the Kitchen Studio told me that they could supply and install for 13k.

6/ We had a one month long stop placed on our house by the Manukau Building Consultants because Latitude Homes Contractor for our Foundations had failed to provide a producer statement regarding the slab. This set us back $1k because the scaffolding went up on the day the stop was placed on our house (and we still had to pay for it), and it mucked up our builders schedule as he had to stop work until the problem was fixed.

7/ We were told to pay for our kitchen on the 2nd of Nov, but it wont be ready until next year due to the Christmas Closedown. This is not Latitude Homes fault, but I still dont want to pay months before. Other kitchen companies usually take a deposit, and final payment upon installation. So typical that in our case there terms are different, and in my opinion - work against the customer.

8/ We are STILL waiting for our retaining wall that we paid for in April - but unfortunately Latitude Homes Contractor is always too busy, or in hospital with a sick relative.
The Contractor really needs to make our house a priority, as he also needs to properly batter our section - as the neighbours surveyor found that he has encroached onto their section, and they have nicely mentioned this to us twice :-(

BUSY BUSY!

2010-09-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

OMG I cant believe I have neglected my blog when SO much has happened.

To update you over what has happened over the last couple of weeks, we were held up AGAIN and we had to wait for another 2-3 weeks (no fault of our own) for the Council to give us their approval. Unfortunately the Council were not satisfied with the excavators report - so we begged and begged Latitude Homes to provide the Council with the information that they require so that we could continue work, and they finally pulled through for us.

Then the slab went down (even though the weather was 6 degrees and REALLY windy - so a big ups to the Tradesmen)

But then for some reason the frames took a while to arrive. So after a few angry phonecalls (to our Building Company) and a visit from our Builder to Latitude Homes, the frames for our house were delivered and our builder was able to get to work. Would you believe that he had the first floor up on the same day! It was amazing! I went to work, and decided to do a drive-by on my way home and WOW! There was a house taking shape right on my section that had been sitting bare for months!

Our builder has 2 guys working with him - another builder and a labourer. He said 3 sets of hands are better than 2 because then people are continuously working even though one has to stop for a break or to answer phone-calls etc.

I am VERY happy at the moment.

FINALLY STARTING!!

2010-08-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

This is a happy post because we have FINALLY started. 2 days after being issued our resource consent the foundation guys have been out and laid our floor. And it looks AWESOME!

So the moral of this Resource Consent story is: Get an Architect.
Because we bought plans designed for a flat section and tried to make them work on a sloped section that we were flattening, the Council wanted to make sure that the new flat section we had created was stable enough to support a house forever.
This delay has been quite expensive and it would have been more cheaper and less stressful to hire an Architect to design a house suitable for our section.

P.S. The resource consent has cost us an extra 1.5k because we had to pay $750 to get a geo-tech report done, etc etc. Not to mention the 4 month long wait for the Resource Consent, and the fact that we were waiting for the Engineer to provide the Council with the information they needed to give us the go-ahead.

HELP!

2010-06-19T18:56:00.000-07:00

I made a plea on the 11th June for advice on how to hurry our Resource Consent along as the Council will not release it until the Engineer from Latitude Homes gives them the information they require, and these are the responses I received:

Good Morning, I am building a house through Manukau City Council (MCC) and my house has been stuck at the Resource Consent Stage for 6 weeks!
Our Building Consent has already been issued - and that was a separate 4 week wait - so I wasnt expecting a further 6 weeks (and counting) wait for another type of Council Consent.

We require a Resouce Consent because we are levelling out our section and moving quite a bit of earth to do so.

We are going through Latitude Homes to build our house and they are arranging the consent for us.

Latitude Homes (the building company) says they have sent the information that the MCC needs (a Geo-Tech Report & Engineering Report) and the Council just needs to sign it off.

I have been ringing the MCC every second day but always get the same answer - that they have not received all the information that they require and are still waiting.

Then when I ring Latitude Homes I get the same answer - they have been providing the Council with the required information but then the Council asks for something else.

The main issue sounds like an Engineering Issue which I assumed would have been made acceptable before Latitude Homes submitted our House Plans (that they designed).

What would you do to speed up the process? Any tips will be much appreciated.

#

Ask the council for a list of what they want, then check with Latitude as to whether they've all been supplied.
Then physically take the proof to the council and don't leave until you've got some satisfactory answers(this might take a day or two, but if you're there in person councils tend to move a bit faster).
Good luck!

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stevee6 (144 ) 10:01 am, Fri 11 Jun #2
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Unfortunately, councils can and do take their own sweet time over everything. We recently built in Horowhenua DC area and it was just a nightmare. They seem to actively employ only people who repeatedly fail any form of commonsense test. It took 9 months to build a standard home. I thought HDC was the worst in the country, but sound like they're all the same. All you can really do is wait...

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bmwnz (113 ) 10:04 am, Fri 11 Jun #3
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By law councils have to process the consent within a set period, three weeks I think. However they can request additional information, and the set period starts again from receipt of that info. So whenever they cannot meet the statutory deadline, they request petty additional information as a stalling tactic. Truth is it will take them as long as it takes them

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lalbagh (44 ) 10:24 am, Fri 11 Jun #4
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I would've thought that when you first contact the council involved, they would have a list if everything that is required to build.
Is this not the case?

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net_oz (102 ) 10:44 am, Fri 11 Jun #5
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Thank you so much for the helpful advice. MCC is meant to be the fastest council in Auckland at the moment, and I was wondering if the one particular person who is handling my case is being unreasonable?

Just getting worried because this delay is proving very expensive.

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monika32 (30 ) 12:11 pm, Fri 11 Jun #6
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We built our own house recently ( rural, and that adds a whole lot of extras to it ) and our consents with Manukau City Council took 23 days from start to fininsh. Sounds like your building company is slack.

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rod525 (367 ) 12:39 pm, Fri 11 Jun #7
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rod525 wrote:

We built our own house recently ( rural, and that adds a whole lot of extras to it ) and our consents with Manukau City Council took 23 days from start to fininsh. Sounds like your building company is slack.

Yes, our Building Consent came through very quickly, but it is the Resource Consent that is taking forever. But thanks for your feedback.

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monika32 (30 ) 12:50 pm, Fri 11 Jun #8
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stevee6 wrote:

Ask the council for a list of what they want, then check with Latitude as to whether they've all been supplied.
Then physically take the proof to the council and don't leave until you've got some satisfactory answers(this might take a day or two, but if you're there in person councils tend to move a bit faster).
Good luck!

Good advice. Call the Council and ask them what information they still need to process your RC. When you get it, arrange a meeting and have them sign off that they've received everything. Chances are though they might charge you for their time to attend a meeting. Just as a matter of interest, why is your building company not getting this arranged if you are paying them to do so? Suggest you speak to them again and tell them that you will deal with MCC and any costs that are incurred will be for their account. Put this in writing too.

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haventrader (113 ) 1:00 pm, Fri 11 Jun #9
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monika32 wrote:

Thank you so much for the helpful advice. MCC is meant to be the fastest council in Auckland at the moment, and I was wondering if the one particular person who is handling my case is being unreasonable?

Just getting worried because this delay is proving very expensive.

wait until super city red tape starts

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bopbargains (450 ) 1:40 pm, Fri 11 Jun #10
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What I found helpful, is.. don't make an appointment with a planner at the council.. go there, and ask to see the duty planner, who is not necessarily the one handling your file - you'll usually be able to see someone quite quickly, and they'll arrive with your file, so you can say, this is what's happening, I need a list of what you're needing, and I'll get back to you once I have that information.. You could phone in advance for a list.

Once you have the info from the building company, go see the duty planner again.. ask if anything else is needed, and when you might hear from them..

Here, when I went through the Resource Consent process, I handled everything myself, including applying for the consent, once I had the technical information needed - by being there in person it made it that the process was simplified, without relying on others to communicate when they get around to it. I went with an approachable 'this is the information I have, is it all you need, when might I hear back about the Consent, I'm looking forward to that.. thanks for your help, I really appreciate it'

Using simplicity - the most straight-forward way to get something done, also takes a lot of the stress out of the whole process.

Good luck.. and enjoy having your new home built..

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juliewn (1985 ) 3:30 pm, Fri 11 Jun #11
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ps.. because you're doing the work yourself, there's less likely to be any charge from the Council for writing or the building company to write.. etc..etc.. and you'll speed up the process..

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juliewn (1985 ) 3:32 pm, Fri 11 Jun #12
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monika32 wrote:

Yes, our Building Consent came through very quickly, but it is the Resource Consent that is taking forever. But thanks for your feedback.

Yes, I read what you wrote. And yes, our building AND resource consents came through in 23 days as I said - consents. And as said above, do it all yourself at the council as we did - smooth sailing.

Edited by rod525 at 4:04 pm, Fri 11 Jun

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rod525 (367 ) 4:03 pm, Fri 11 Jun #13
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Welcome to the building industry, that's typical. I work at an Architectural draughting firm and we are going to contact the MP's about it as its gone beyond a joke. I suggest you write to your local MP or Rodney Hyde, the more voices speak up = higher chance of action (you'd think anyway)

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sooby (726 ) 11:32 pm, Fri 11 Jun #14
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From the end of August, Councils will be charged (via reduction in costs) for not processing resource consents within the 20 day statutory time frame. However, it sounds like your building company isn't providing the information that is required. Tell them to sort their stuff out.

By the way, you will be being charged for every time you call (as per you would with an Architect, Lawyer etc). So I would try and reduce this.

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hamtostie (422 ) 11:53 pm, Fri 11 Jun #15
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So glad to know we are not "special" in the eyes of the council. We have a fairly sloping section and need to have retaining done so we end up with a flat building platform. All the necessary engineering has been done and the retaining plan submitted to the council on 31 MARCH. We finally received notification yesterday that it has been approved. There were a few issues with ours for which no one wanted to take responsibility. We have stormwater drains running east to west along the southern boundary of the section. Retaining on the western boundary had been designed to bridge the pipes and the new depth of soil above the pipes would not be more than the allowed amount (downward pressure on the pipes). As luck would have it - the day I took the matter into my own hands (email to Mayor and Councillors) the approval came through. They wasted $4000 of our money in rent. Nero fiddles while Rome burns....

Edited by hilt_dwane at 8:46 am, Sat 12 Jun

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hilt_dwane (232 ) 8:45 am, Sat 12 Jun #16
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Well the problem is this. Because hardly anybody is building anything at the moment - there is not a lot of work ( for all those people that usually work at the councils - that deal with building permits and things like that.) Now if they where employed in the REAL WORLD - or lets say by a Private company - half of them would be out of a Job / laid off, or made redundant ... because there is just not enougth work to go around . So in reality ......... if you put in for a building permit on a Monday - you should have the consent on a Wednesday at the moment !. So at the moment everything is taking a long long time - basically its all ( GOOOOOOO SLOWWWWWW ) so it gives them an excuse to keep there jobs . Thats all . Hey its human nature to save there own arse ( when its on the line ) Its called job creation !.... lets face it - the council still employs just as many paper pushers as they did in the hey days of the building boom in reality they should be able to give you a building permit within a week ! or your rates bill should be going down like a rocket - because they only need to employ 1/2 as many paper pushers at the moment . Maybe you should write a letter to the Mayor and ask him about this

Resource Consent

2010-05-11T21:40:00.000-07:00

Our Excavator is awesome. My husband has been hassling him about getting our section as flat as possible, and he has listened carefully to our requests and is doing his best to give us what we want.

He has also figured out a way that he can save us money AND optimise our views - by getting rid of the proposed retaining wall that we are meant to have at the back of our section. Ben has decided to pack the dirt in such a way that would mean we will not require a retaining wall to hold it together - which is fantastic! (esp since retaining walls are expensive and it would have been a shame to block our view of the countryside in this area.)

But before we get to the retaining wall stage we have another slight delay. The Council will not issue our resource consent until I give them my chosen colour scheme of the interior AND exterior of our proposed house. This is part of the covenants, as they dont want us to clash with the neighbours, haha.

Anyway, if I get the colour scheme to them today, the resource consent should be issued within 7 days.

I have a non-offensive eye for design so decided to just google "exterior colour scheme", and came across this idea: http://www.resene.co.nz/homeown/decorating_inspirations/house_paint.htm

The main colour (Resene Don Juan) is a bit darker than what I'm used to, but I think it'll work.

I have also decided to go with the suggested complementary colour Resene Gallery for the interior of our house, which is a light, neutral colour.

And just because I have submitted my colour scheme to the council, I am now having doubts.

Our Builder and Drainlayer

2010-05-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

We went through all the Builders and Drainlayers that responsed to our job postings on TradeExperts.co.nz and we think we have chosen the best Tradesmen with the most knowledge and experience.

The Builder we have chosen is is Nick Neville from Howick. Nick is a very experienced Kiwi Builder who has come in to meet us a couple of times to talk about what needs to be done.

He was a bit more expensive than a couple of the other builders who offered us a quote, but I think we'll get along better with Nick - and its important to have a good working relationship with your crew. Also, I feel that his superior workmanship is worth the extra dollars.

Nick also does that extra bit, such as driving up to meet the Excavator and Steve from Latitude Homes so that they can keep him in the loop.

He also told the Excavator that he would like to be there as the platform goes down so that he can make sure it is done to suit our plans. This is excellent service, considering that Nick does not need to be on site until the frames arrive (which is in about 4 weeks).

The Drainlayer we have chosen is also excellent. His name is Alan Standing, and he's an old school type person with a lot of experience. Coincidentally, he's the Drainlayer that Latitude Homes uses, which says a lot about his knowledge and workmanship.

The Picture above is of our Drainlayer

The Diggers are Here!

2010-05-05T15:15:00.000-07:00

Well the diggers arrived on site only one day later than expected, and work started a day after that.

My husband kind of pushed things along by hassling Latitude Homes who took the Excavator off a job he was completing on Waiheke Island, and brought him over to start ours.

The Excavators name is Ben, a good Kiwi Bloke who had to hire some diggers for our job (as his diggers are being used on Waiheke Island). My husband said that's okay, because it is sometimes hard for Tradesmen to schedule in jobs perfectly.

Latitude Homes are really trying to get the ball rolling for us, and despite the delays have always been friendly and approachable.

New Delay

2010-04-25T16:53:00.000-07:00

First of all, thank you to the 3 people who sent me comments about the ludicracy of paying an invoice before the materials are delivered and before the work is done.

Unfortunately, I have to pay for the frames before they are delivered - as Latitude Homes orders them from Carter Holts so they have to pay them to make them.

My husband told Latitude Homes that their business should have the funds to pay Carter Holts for the material and then we should pay Latitude Homes upon delivery. Steves response was "but you may go under". My husbands response was "We've been pre-approved by BNZ so we're covered - What if Latitude Homes goes under?"

At least charge us a deposit - not the full amount in advance!

However, call me stupid but to avoid any further delays last Thursday I paid the full amount for the Excavation work to Latitude Homes. I am not happy about this as I know how Tradesmen work, and paying a Tradesman beforehand means that he can start work at his leisure and may not do the work to our satisfaction.

And as I suspected, they did not turn up last Friday as planned, and have moved their new starting date to this Tuesday 27th April.

This time They'd better be there!!

Lighting Plan

2010-04-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

Although Chris from Lighting Plus was so helpful I decided to get a new quote from Lighting Direct as well. Also, because the quote I received from Lighting Plus came to a whopping $7000.

I can cut costs by getting rid of the really fancy entrance light that Chris suggested - valued at $1500, and replacing the downlights in all the kids bedrooms with a 100 watt bulb in the middle...but that would still make our lighting quote about $5000.

Oh well, lets see what Lighting Direct comes back with.

But on another issue - Latitude Homes have presented us with our first invoice which we will be paying for using our draw down mortgage plan that Pete from BNZ set up for us.

The invoice is a total of $100,692.50 which includes Excavations, Retaining and Foundations - $41884.44 (plus GST) AND $47,619.92 for the Frames, Trusses and Timber (plus GST)

We decided to use Latitude Homes for our Excavation work as they know exactly what we require.

I am not happy paying for an invoice before the work has been done or the goods have been received - but Steve said they need the funds before work can start.

My husband is talking to him about this, as he says "Since when do Tradesmen get paid BEFORE they do the job? That means they can start whenever they want, and do a half-pye job - because they already have the $$$!"

I do not want any more delays - and just want the work to start - so my husband is talking to Steve from Latitude Homes as we speak. P.S. Steve does appear to be a trustworthy guy, and Latitude Homes is a legitimate business but you can never be too sure.

Interviewing Tradesmen

2010-04-05T20:52:00.001-07:00

Okay, so far 7 Certified Builders have replied to my job posting, and 4 have presented me with pretty good quotes. I know it is very important to have a good relationship with your builder, and at the moment I really like David Irwin, and BG Builders.

I have also met Ivan from Get it Tiled who I really like - so I might not bother getting quotes from other Tilers. Ivan is very professional and showed me his portfolio and samples which was great. His quote has come to about 15k which includes under-tile heating which I probably will not get - which will make Ivan's quote even cheaper.

I am getting each of our Bathrooms tiled from the floor to the ceiling, and our WC's tiled to window height - as this will give those areas the WOW factor.

I am yet to receive quotes from Electricians who have asked for my Lighting Plan before they can quote. Yes, gone are the days where people just used to have the one big lightbulb plonked in the middle of each room.

How cool is it that Lighting Plus provide free lighting plans? The catch is that you have to buy their lights, and choose the lights you want in each room on the spot.

I met with Chris at Lighting Plus in Manukau who was SO helpful. She helped me choose some chrome double downlights to go in most of the rooms, as they can be spaced further apart than individual downlights, meaning less lights and less cost. I have also ordered a nice fluro light for my breakfast bar, and 3 funky wall lights for my lounge area.

I dont think I will be going for a chandelier in the foyer as we have a pretty spectacular roof-light, and a chandelier may be over the top. Plus, I have only budgeted 3k for my lights :-P

SOOO Exciting!

We Have LIFT-OFF!!

2010-03-22T15:38:00.000-07:00

Yes! Latitude Homes have come through for us and presented us with our Working Drawings! (Apparently the 3 month delay was due to the engineering, blah blah).

Anyway, Latitude are going to apply for our building consent on our behalf as they know all the short-cuts.

So in the meantime we are looking for suppliers for our tiles, carpet and kitchen cabinets, and have managed to get a few quotes.

We went to the Tile Depot and a really nice man worked out how many square metres of tiles we would need for each area. However, we may go with the Bath & Tile store on Cavendish Drive in Manukau because they sell porcelain tiles (which are very strong) and they have the best deal going at the moment - $45 for 600x600 premium tiles per square metre.

We also went to the Kitchen House in Mt Wellington to give them the specs of our kitchen, and they drew up a nice kitchen plan with a quote of $16323.38. This includes a granite benchtop, but not the applicances.

I rung TradeExperts.co.nz to ask them about Kitchen Designers, and they told me that they would get 3 Kitchen Designers to contact me for further quotes. So far Elite Kitchens in Mt Wellington and Todays Kitchens in Manukau have already phoned me and asked me to email through my specs and plan so that they can give me a price.

Hopefully they send through their quotes this week. SO Exciting!

DELAYS!!

2010-02-28T12:23:00.000-08:00

Okay this sux. Latitude Homes has apologised for taking so long to draw up our working plans. They said they have a back log from Christmas but today it's March! And I dont understand what the hold-up is when we are using House-plans from an existing template that belongs to them.
And in the meantime we are paying a mortgage on a section that is doing nothing.

Oh well, I suppose the delay is giving me more time to save up :-(

Building Guide

2010-02-04T18:47:00.001-08:00

I am on such a High! I can't wait to interview Tradesmen for the following jobs:
Excavations
Concrete Laying
Building
Electrics
Home Automation
Plumbing
and Drainlaying.

I have posted jobs onto Trade Experts for quotes for each job, and so far at least 3 Tradesmen have responded for each of my job postings.
What an awesome website.

Oh and I forgot to tell you, a really nice guy named Mark offered to send me a copy of the Building Guide. I picked one up from the MCC and I have to say that it is extremely handy!

So if you're building your house, check it out because the information is valuable.
Thank You Mark - awesome Customer Service!

PIM

2010-02-04T18:44:00.001-08:00

We received our PIM last week which is the first step in the Building Consent Process. Stephen from Latitude Homes applied for it just before Christmas - just to get it out of the way, and because we were able to apply for it before our Settlement Date.

It clearly spells out that we need to pay a $6700 Development Contribution Fee. Yipee! Not!

Just waiting for our working drawings now. Tick tock, tick tock.

SETTLEMENT DATE!!

2010-01-25T16:00:00.000-08:00

Today we have FINALLY settled our mortgage and our section is officially ours!

BUDGET

2009-12-08T20:20:00.000-08:00

This is the most IMPORTANT posting and I should have added it in first - but here it is now.

It has only changed slightly from our original budget, but so far I think we're doing okay.

Kitset Price = 216550.00

Plumbing = $10k
Septic System = $13500
Drainlaying = $15k
Builder = $35000
Roofer = $5k
Plasterer (Qualified Family Member) = $1500
Electrician = 9k
Tiles = $5382
Tiler = 11k
Painter = 10k
Carpet = 4k
Carpet Layer = 2.5k
Light Switches = $200
Lights = 6k
Internal Vacume Setup = $500
Building Consent = $15000
Garage Doors = 3k
Driveway = 6k

Total Expenses = $370,132.000

PLUS Section = $390,000
Total Investment = $760132.00

Valuation = 950k
Equity = 190k

Total Mortgage = $640k

We have not included in our luxury items yet, such as the Heat Pump or Alarm as we intend to add this in at a more affordable stage.

Structuring our Home Loan

2009-12-07T16:26:00.000-08:00

Finance - what a harsh and abrupt word. But if we manage it well, we can turn it into something positive and exciting.

BNZ have spoken to us about the first part of our Finance - structuring our Home Loan.
To put it simply, the money BNZ is lending us will be drawn down in three to five stages - at the same time that Latitude Homes asks for their progress payments. This means that Latitude Homes will be charging us at each major milestone in the building project - (for example, when the foundation pad has been completed, when the roof goes on, and when the building has been completed) - and BNZ will lend us the money to pay for each stage.

We hope to set up a Flexible Home Loan facility while the house is being built - with a small portion on the Flexibile facility just in case, and the rest on a fixed rate.

To tell you the truth, I am getting a bit worried, because we havent even started building yet and we are already 20k over budget thanks to the Council Fees.

Valuing our House Plans

2009-12-03T15:08:00.000-08:00

In order for BNZ to give us a 'building' mortgage we need to get our house plans valued. I didnt know that people could do things like that, but obviously they can.
To get the amount we want from BNZ we need our valuation to come back at $750k. I think thats a realistic figure - but you never know.

Anyway, we rung Lloyd Singh (our very helpful real estate agent from Barfoot) to ask him if he knew of any decent valuers.
He gave us Rex Jensen's contact details as he is a Reg. Valuer & Fellow Of NZIV.

Rex rung us to ask us if we were including our 'proposed' tennis court, and we told him yes, but probably not for a year. So Rex suggested we leave the tennis court out of the quote or BNZ may come back and ask why it wasnt completed since it was included in the valuation quote.

Didnt matter anyway, because BNZ emailed us to tell us that the valuation came back at a great result of $950k, and they would be happy to give us more than we have asked them for. Yeeah!

Latitude Homes

2009-11-29T15:02:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of Stephen from Latitude Homes. He's our planner and we met up with him during the weekend to finalise our plans.

Stephen's knowledge and customer service is superior. He's very easy to deal with and really listens to his customers needs.

Check out our plans for the outside of our house! Stephen has added in our proposed tennis court, and is going to excavate and mark it out so that all we need to do is lay the concrete. That won't be for about a year, but at least we can 'visualise' it, :-)

Oh, and the only things we added to our house plans were frameless showers (because they add value), a rooflight that shines from the top storey through the staircase and onto the entrance (a neat feature that will make our entrance warm and sunny), and a glass balustrade for the staircase (because glass looks cool).

Stephen reckons our house will be worth well over 1 million, and that Latitude Homes will be seeing the project right through - even though its just a kit-set. Now thats what I call great service!

$39000 Deposit

2009-11-29T14:53:00.001-08:00

I am SO excited. We have finally paid our 39k deposit for our section - and we are pretty sure we are aware of all the charges that we may face regarding Council fees etc.

Our settlement day has been moved to January the 16th (to allow us time to apply for our PIM and Building Consent before we have to start paying for our mortgage)

What we are trying to avoid is paying for a mortgage and rent at the same time - otherwise thats just dead money that we can better use elsewhere.

So the plan is to have everything approved by the Council so we can start building on the same day that we have to make our first mortgage payment.

We will also be moving out of our rental property, and into my mothers house to save $$. But I want to leave that part for as late as possible. No offence mum.

Development Contribution Fee

2009-11-26T16:37:00.001-08:00

My lawyer emailed me a copy of a letter he received from the Developers lawyer that states that "all development and financial contributions required by Council have been paid on the land" and that "They do not agree to any variation".

He has asked me to go back to the Council to ask specifically if there are any development contribution fees payable by us.

He also explained that the reserve contribution is always paid by the developer, and sometimes the development contribution fee is paid by the developer.

Well I have just returned from the Manukau City Council who informed me that the Development Contribution Fee is payable when you apply for your Building or Resource Consent - whichever you apply for first. This extra fee is $5956 plus GST. This means that the council has arranged the fee so it belongs to us. Thank You Manukau City Council, we can always count on you to blow the budget.

Plus there is a sewerage fee of $4090 plus GST.

After a few minutes of thinking I have decided that I have budgeted for 20k worth of Council Fees so I am still going to go for it and ring my lawyer to pay the deposit.

LAWYERS ADVICE

2009-11-26T13:51:00.000-08:00

Our Lawyer is Awesome. We were meant to pay for our deposit for our section but he has requested that another clause be put into our contract so that we do not have to pay for the 6k development contribution fee from the Council.

There is a grey area regarding the development fee, as the person who is selling the section can argue that they should not have to pay for this as he they are not building on the section. But the buyer says they should not have to pay for this fee as this fee should have been paid for prior to purchase.

We are waiting to here back from the developer to see if they will accept this clause which will save us 6k.

UNFORESEEN COUNCIL FEES

2009-11-22T20:00:00.000-08:00

OMG! Today we went into the Manukau City Council to find out if there were any hidden fees that we may come across, and we found out that there is a 6k development clause fee, plus a 6k water connection bill that we have not budgeted for.

This is not including the usual building and resource consent fees that the Council imposes on home-builders. Time to crunch numbers again to find out what we can do to slot these fees into our budget.

Good to know however that you can pop into the Council and ask for the assistance of a Project Manager for free.

Gosh I hope this is going to be the only unforeseen charge, but at least we know!

EXTENSION!

2009-11-19T16:28:00.000-08:00

Today is the day that we are meant to pay our 39k deposit for our section.

But our lawyer has asked the seller for an extension as he wants us to check with the council to see if there are any developmental fees that may be imposed on us when we start building. This is because the developer may NOT have paid all his council fees etc - and if we buy the section when there are still council fees to pay then we won't get our code of compliance unless we pay the fees ourselves. And that could cost up to 30k.

Therefore, if you are purchasing a section then you should ALWAYS have a Developmental Clause in your contract.

So now we have to wait another week for our due diligence clause to run it's course - but if it saves us money then I'm not complaining.

Besides, our Lawyers the man. Go Mr Maharaj!

DRAWING UP THE PLANS

2009-11-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

Last week we met with the Directors of Latitude Homes to talk through our ideas. We were very happy with our Sales Rep as we felt he understood the kind of house that we would like.

The actual Template/Suggestion was almost perfect, and all we needed to do was squeeze in another bedroom at no extra cost. I can imagine that this process can take hours - because everything from the sizes of the wardropes to the position of the laundry needs to be discussed, but we managed to agree on a plan within half an hour.

Posting a job really helped me save time, because I was contacted by so many Kitset Home Providers that I was able to find the perfect House Plan.

Today we have just paid our deposit for the drawing up of our House Plans to Latitude Homes - so now there is no holding us back.

Latitude Homes is allowing us to use www.tradeexperts.co.nz to find a Cabinet Maker for our Kitchen, a Kitchen Installer, a Plumber, etc etc - as we may be able to get better quotes than what they are offering.

But first I need to post a job for an Excavator. Or maybe I will do that when I receive the plans so that the Tradesmen can provide me with more of an accurate quote.

The picture above is a photo of what the outside of our house will look like.

DUE DILIGENCE

2009-11-12T17:46:00.000-08:00

After a bit of negotiating we finally settled on a price of $390k for a section in Tuscany Heights, Manukau. Fantastic! I think the agent Wayne Shallard really fought the price down for us because he found out we have an autistic son, and he was able to relate to our desire to bring him up on a large section as he has an autistic granddaughter.

I feel in my gut that we have made the right choice.

Wayne advised us to add a "Due Diligence" clause which basically protects the buyer against everything, including changing their mind.

Our due diligence clause allows us to check that the section we are buying is actually 'buildable' and suitable for our purposes.

MY WISH LIST

2009-11-09T16:51:00.000-08:00

I couldnt resist acting prematurely and creating a wish list of everything I wanted in my future home. My list was pretty basic(as I now know we are not as 'well-off' as I thought we were), and easy to put together (as I have a scrapbook full of very cool designs that I like).

At the moment I really like this plan from Latitude Homes because it has a great layout that will suit our family of 5. Plus they allow their customers to choose from a Kitset option, Shell-only option, or a Full Build Service.

To save money we are going to choose the KITSET option. We can do this as my husband is in the construction industry and we have a couple of chippies in our team. I wonder if they'll build my house for a quater-pack from KFC?, haha.

My FIRST Job Posting onto TradeExperts.co.nz - 2nd November 09

2009-11-09T16:48:00.000-08:00

Waiting for the bank gave us time to hunt for a suitable section. We really want a lifestyle block close to town, and Tuscany Heights had a few in Manukau. We found our 'almost perfect' section pretty quickly. I think we both agreed on this particular section because it was the cheapest and flattest that we could find in the area. The asking price was $425. We are hoping they will give it to us for $350k.

Confident that the section I wanted was as good as mine, I posted a job onto www.tradeexperts.co.nz for a Kitset Home Plan to suit. The response was fantastic and saved me hours of phone-calling and googling. The Tradesmen who responded were companies that offered executive-type kitset homes over 250 square metres, and I was quickly presented with a list of options.

Gosh I love the internet!

APPROVED!!

2009-11-09T16:47:00.000-08:00

Another long week of feeling like a homeless person dragged by as we waited for a written/confirmed response from BNZ. Then my husband asked me out to lunch to tell me that it was a YES! I felt so relieved!
Now I can start dreaming about colour schemes and furniture placement. Yeeah!

BNZ COMES TO THE RESCUE!! 11th October 09

2009-11-09T16:46:00.000-08:00

It only took BNZ one day to send some very friendly and helpful staff members over to talk to us about our situation. Fantastic service considering our current Business bank (Westpac) had failed to reply to any of our phone-calls or emails. This was the plan.
Step 1/ Move our existing Business Accounts over to BNZ
Step 2/ Allow BNZ to assess our mortgage possibilities using the financial position of our Business as leverage
Step 3/ Get Approved!
One week after meeting with BNZ our relationship manager was able to give us a glimmer of hope. He had looked through our financial reports and concluded that our core business was very healthy and that they were likely to offer us a mortgage. All we needed now was a written approval.

MAJOR SETBACK!! 28th Sep 09

2009-11-09T16:39:00.001-08:00

Our mortgage broker just told us that our bank ‘Sovereign’ was not going to discharge 64k of our profit - because they were going to put it towards our rental property that we also have with them – and there was nothing we could do about it. That would leave us with a pitiful $60k deposit for our next ‘dream home’. Not even enough to buy the house we just sold back!

I felt completely stupid and ripped off. This is the third house we have owned and sold. How could we not know that banks could do things like that?

We now have no choice but to either purchase a cheaper house, or rent and save up again. Actually - we do have a choice. We can choose to BUILD our own home!

AUCTION DAY!! - 15th Sep 09

2009-11-09T16:35:00.000-08:00

After a whole month of open homes we managed to sell our 240 square metre executive house with Barfoot & Thompson under the hammer for 574k – 15k under the GV of $590k! Disappointed? Kind of. Relived? Absolutely!
We had spent a recommended 5k towards marketing our home for this auction, and I did not want my 5k to go straight down the toilet - even if it meant losing out on 15k.

But realistically, I feel that I was lucky enough to even find a buyer because I we were trying to sell our home during the recession, and because the media had managed to scare away most of the buyers with their bad press about South Auckland.

By the way, our plan was to sell our house while the market was low, and to purchase a nicer home in a better area while the market was low.

Selling our house before putting an offer on a new home meant that we would have the buying power to purchase a house without conditions...except a financial clause.

Living in SOUTH AUCKLAND - August 14th 09

2009-11-09T16:15:00.000-08:00

According to the "Where to Live in Auckland" book, South Auckland is the no-go zone for the rest of Auckland who wouldn't dream of buying in our area.

I disagree. To me, South Auckland is a vibrant and exciting community that embraces all cultures and 'walks of life'.

But since the market disagreed and my executive home in Manukau Heights was rapidly dropping in value, I decided it was time to sell. Especially since the market was low, and the recession was ending.

Who did I call? Lloyd Singh of Barfoot & Thompson. An energetic sales agent who had been tempting us to let him sell our home for the past couple of months. He is the only agent we will EVER use because he is an honest and truthful person that works for the seller. This is a picture of him below.

Just an Average Kiwi Family - August 13th 09

2009-11-09T16:12:00.000-08:00

Hello! I am a happily married wife and mother of 3 full-on children.
My husband & I are both in our early 30's, and together we juggle 2 pretty good jobs, and a semi-crazy family. We have always bought and sold in South Auckland because this is where I grew up, and my youngest son is severely autistic and attends a 'special needs' school in Papakura.

I was persuaded/forced to start this blog by my Management team as we are in the Construction business, and I can tell a pretty good story, haha.

I would also like to find out first-hand if the 3-2-1 myth about building a house is true - meaning, does building a house really take 3 times as long, cost twice as much, and is so stressful you'll only ever do it once?

To read my next post, please scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the words "Newer Post". You can click on these words to go to the next page every time.