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Chronology of our Home Buying Experience
Written by: Rommel Talavera Pascual
Last Updated - 2 September 1996, Wentworthville - NSW,Australia 2145
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Early 1995, we were mildly contemplating on making the big move into buying a house. We hit the books and began planning on how we could hurdle the big "D" - deposit. We began by paying off and cutting into half most of our Credit Cards.
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We also scrambled to pay off the car then, had it re-financed to consolidate all other outstanding debt and made it into just one small monthly repayment. This left us with little money, just enough to get into a "save while you build" scheme with the bank.
The start of our house hunting was incidental rather than planned. It began when we saw a for sale sign on a house in Drysdale Crescent, Plumpton - a few blocks away from the house of our friend - Luisa and Victor Atienza. The agent, Century 21 showed us a very elegant 15 month old 3-bedroom home with bay windows at the family room. Our hearts, however, were set to have a spacious 4-bedroom home for the price that they were asking.
The agent later on called back to tell us that Westminster Homes has a "house and land" package for a 3-bedroom home within our price range. The design could easily allow a 4th bedroom to be added. This idea stayed at the back of my mind until one day we were invited to the opening of the display homes in Parklea. It was here where we saw the "Botany" design of Westminster Homes. The design was so sound, it became our basis in comparing other designs.
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Here's a brief history :
30 Jul 1995 - Placed a $100 deposit on a house and land package with
Westminster Homes. The house is still about to be built
in Armitage Drive, Glendenning. It was a 3-bedroom
villa home, with a 4th bedroom option.
03 Aug 1995 - Opened an account with St. George Bank.
14 Aug 1995 - Transferred our $100 deposit to Lot 9 Ahmet Court in
Oakhurst. Westminster Homes discouraged us to buy into
the Villa Homes and suggested properties within the
Glendenning - Oakhurst area.
15 Aug 1995 - Pioneer Homes submitted a tender to build the "Monarch",
a 4-bedroom home for Lot 9 Ahmet Court. Jeanne fell
in-love with the kitchen design. We made the mistake of
placing a deposit for it.
16 Aug 1995 - Westminster Home submitted a tender to build a "Botany"
design on Lot 9.
19 Aug 1995 - Transferred the deposit to Lot 11. For the same price,
Lot 11 is situated on higher ground and about 100 square
meters wider than Lot 9.
20 Aug 1995 - We spent the morning with A.V.Jennings looking through
all the designs of their Break-Away Series. We gave it a
hard look but none of their designs caught our fancy.
22 Aug 1995 - Closed our account in St. George Bank because of a very
arrogant loan agent. We also sent a curt letter to the
bank, protesting about the arrogance of their
representative. They only refunded part of our loan
application. We will never subscribe to that bank again.
23 Aug 1995 - Applied for a Home Loan with Advance Bank through
Standard Mortgage.
01 Sep 1995 - Exchanged contract with Yalkin Shevket for the purchase
of Lot 11 Ahmet Court, Oakhurst. Conveyancing was
handled by Atty. Ted Gonzales - a Baguio born solicitor
here in Sydney.
04 Sep 1995 - Advance Bank approved our home loan.
14 Sep 1995 - The Pascual Family took a vacation to Melbourne. The
house hunting is taking a toll on us, often times
resulting to heated arguments. Manang Helen and friends,
were not much help. We have settled to build a basic home,
they however, urged us to include a Rumpus Room. When we
came back to Sydney, we stopped looking at the cut price
homes and decided to evaluate proposals with better
inclusions and quality.
28 Sep 1995 - Rosewood Homes submitted a proposal to build the
"Lavender" design, a very classy Victorian design at a
project home price.
Rosewood Homes is a family owned building firm, well
known for their workmanship.
29 Sep 1995 - Allworth Homes submitted a tender to build a 4-bedroom
"Fiesta Series I". The designs of this builder can be
characterised by generous living areas.
29 Sep 1995 - Beechwood Homes submitted a proposal to build a
5-bedroom home. The design is a derivative from their
"Sussex" series and called it "Glenbrook".
We have always avoided the display homes of Beechwood
in the past because they are just too darn beautiful and
expensive looking. Each design is characterised by
attractive bay-windows and sensible fittings.
The value per square meter of living space was reasonable
and besides, Jeanne was already fixated in having double
bay windows. One set is in the rumpus room and the other
in the formal dining area.
15 Oct 1995 - Paid the Stamp Duty for the purchase of the land.
25 Jan 1996 - Sale of Lot 11 Ahmet Court was concluded. It was
officially in our name but the title remains in the
custody of Advance Bank.
16 Feb 1996 - Tender of Beechwood Homes re-dated to 8 Dec. 1995. This
means more money to pay. :-(
17 Feb 1996 - Contract with Lockwood Carpets signed.
06 Mar 1996 - Building Agreement was signed with Beechwood Homes to
build the 5-bedroom Glenbrook design in our property. We
spent a whole day at the Beechwood main office in
Liverpool, to finalize the colour selections.
26 Mar 1996 - Rommel Pascual became an Australian citizen. At the same
time, the first excavation was done on our property.
Soil fill were put in place in preparation for the
concrete slab. This marked the beginning of the
construction.
30 Mar 1996 - Contract with Westside Ceramics was finalised for the
supply of tiles, for the bathrooms, laundry, kitchen and
passage threshold.
14 Apr 1996 - Exactly 44 holes of piers, spanning 51.4 linear meters
were drilled in the ground.
15 Apr 1996 - Concrete was poured on the piers.
26 Apr 1996 - Formwork for the concrete slab was put in place.
19 May 1996 - Concrete was poured on the formwork building the slab.
The weather is overcast and there was rain in the evening.
This condition is perfect for a slow drying of concrete.
20 May 1996 - Integral Energy installed a three-phase line from the
power source to the service entry. Although our main line
is single phase, the three phase is a provision should
we decide to install central air-conditioning.
23 May 1996 - Contracted Sentinel Alarm Systems.
24 May 1996 - Stormwater drainage and sewer connection was placed,
opening a 1 metre wide by 1 metre deep trench around
the slab work.
28 May 1996 - Telstra installed a pipe connecting the telephone
switchbox through the open trench to the service entry of
the house.
07 Jun 1996 - The trench was closed and the frame of the house went-up.
09 Jun 1996 - The remaining pile of dirt from the excavation was hauled
out of our property. It cost us an extra $300 to dispose
18 tons of soil.
10 Jun 1996 - Public Holiday (Queen's Birthday) but work was done on the
house - anyway. The roof trusses went-up.
11 Jun 1996 - Weather is overcast. The roof trusses were completed and
all windows were installed. With the exception of the
window in the garage (which will wait for the brickwork)
and the sliding doors at the family room.
13 Jun 1996 - It's been raining in Sydney, we visited the construction
yesterday but there were no improvements. Today, the
gutters and the fascia were installed. The colour of the
gutter is heritage red and the fascia is smooth creme.
14 Jun 1996 - The plumbing and the gas pipes were installed.
18 Jun 1996 - The bricks were delivered. Previous days had been rainy
and the construction site has been very muddy. The
delivery truck had to leave our bricks in the less
muddy part of Lot 15. We also tried cleaning up some mud
inside the house but it was too hard, specially that
we're doing the cleaning in the dark.
22 Jun 1996 - After 3 days of fine weather, the land was dry enough. The
bricks were transferred to our front yard.
23 Jun 1996 - The bricks were blended and distributed around the house.
24 Jun 1996 - The first two levels of bricks was placed.
26 Jun 1996 - The Termi-Mesh is set in place. This is a stainless steel
mesh which is sandwich between the second and third layer
of bricks. This is a new technology to prevent termites from
creating havoc to the framework of the house. It was developed
by CSIRO.
The garage wall is now up and the window was set in place. The
sliding door on family room was also installed.
27 Jun 1996 - The front walls are beginning to shape-up. The brick layers
told me that the Rockface bricks were more difficult to set.
These bricks are naturally hard and are therefore more
difficult break for those off-cut corners.
5 Jul 1996 - The roof tiles were delivered. There were 10 piles and the 11th
are the corners and ridges. The brickwork is almost done, bricks
are still to be laid on the back of the fourth bedroom and
underneath the windows.
The telephone was also pre-wired. There were 12 extensions
around the house, each having upto 4 numbers. We would, however,
use only 2, thus there would be as much as 24 outlets.
9 Jul 1996 - The roof was started yesterday and finished by mid-day today.
I pre-wired the 8 TV antenna points and the alarms were also
pre-wired by Sentinel Alarms.
10 Jul 1996 - The plasterboards and the cornices were delivered. I also had
to make a quick re-selection of the threshold tiles as our
previous selection was discontinued.
11 Jul 1996 - A fleet of builders stormed the house. The electricians pre-
wired the house, the brick layers are doing the final touches,
the carpenters started doing the eaves and the bathrooms are
now being waterproofed.
12 Jul 1996 - The eaves were fitted with weather boards and the wall
insulation were installed.
13 Jul 1996 - The brickwork were cleaned using acid and a high pressure
water hose.
23 Jul 1996 - Work resumed today after the council inspected the frame of the
house. About 50% of the plasterboards are installed today.
The roof ridges were also sealed today with cement.
25 Jul 1996 - Lock-up stage. The entry doors were installed and locked. From
this day onwards - only authorised people can enter the house
legally :-)
30 Jul 1996 - Carpentry started. This will cover all woodworks around doors
and windows, skirtings and shelvings, except the kitchen
which is manufactured by another company.
There was only one carpenter. He has 40 years of experience
and does everything manually. No power saws or pneumatic
nail guns, just an old fashioned hammer and rip saw.
31 Jul 1996 - The vanity cupboards and laundry sink was installed. All
Colourbond gutters were also installed.
1 Aug 1996 - The kitchen was installed but it was 50 mm longer than
expected. They will have to make adjustments.
3 Aug 1996 - The cornices is also installed by another contractor, who
is 20 years in the business.
6 Aug 1996 - The Statesman Panel Lift garage doors is installed and all
electrical fixtures completed.
7 Aug 1996 - Bathroom,Kitchen and Laundry tiles were started.
14 Aug 1996 - Painting of the house started. It will take approximately
10 days to finish.
16 Aug 1996 - The shower screens have been set.
19 Aug 1996 - The pebble crete finish at the veranda is set.
28 Aug 1996 - Final Inspection.
2 Sep 1996 - Exactly One Year and a day after we bought the land, we got
the keys to the house. Today marks our settlement day.
Last Updated : 2 September 1996, Wentworthville - NSW,Australia