When he got there, he just let someone know why he was there and in a few minutes, the Town Planner showed up! No problem at all.

And it got better (in our view at least)…

She (Town Planner) didn’t raise too many concerns over the plan. Here’s a breakdown of her comments:

• there are deep soil and landscaping requirements (which we believe we will easily meet).
• there is a requirement of minimum 100sqm “private space” at the back, with a minimum 6m rear setback. We see no problem with that either. (In fact we had expected that the rear setback must be 30% of the lot length, which would be 10 metres for us). In our plan we might actually have crossed over the 6m rear setback, but with the space on the rear-right, we should easily meet the 100sqm requirement. She asked about one part of the floor plan which seemed to have the furthest setback, and on being told it was a deck, was fine with that. If we could justify the <6m rear setback (the only rule we seem to be "breaking"), then we should be OK, considering this is a single storey dwelling, hence minimising over-shadowing of adjacent properties and maintaining privacy for the neighbours.
• She believed that the sewer was Sydney Water’s, and not theirs (they don’t allow any building over the sewer), and suggested that we contact Sydney Water to confirm that the plan is OK for them, and ask whether we need to encase the pipe at all.

We felt a lot better knowing that we were not doing anything too wrong and happily advised the builder.

Then we continued to work on finer details of the floor plan expecting that it will be time to do the DA submission very soon. And of course we knew we had to check with Sydney Water re: the sewer pipe.

I’m finding this plan editing to be a very interesting process as we are really getting down to working out what we want, how we’ll live, etc. It’s amazing what we discover! And yes, hubby and I have had many heated discussions about what we want

We’ve realised for example, that we can live without a second bath-tub! Just one in the guest room is enough. The builder is still quoting in the region of $240K to $245K and that’s great since it’s within our budget.

In the midst of all this plan revising, the builder advised that before proceeding any further, we should visit our council office and speak to the duty town planner to get their feedback on the front and rear setbacks. As it’s the sort of thing that is best discussed face to face, and the builder is located an hour up the coast, they asked if we could visit council. So we went ahead with that…

They got back to us later to let us know that they had information showing the sewer main. However could we please send through our 149 certificate, which we would have received when we purchased the property. (The certificate is apparently also available from the local council for a small fee).

Hubby sent through the 149 certificate and all the associated paperwork. The builder asked if we might want to get an updated 149 certificate. Hubby pointed out that the one we had was only 2 years old (based on when we bought the property) so there was no need to get a new one.

When hubby next spoke to the builder, they were quite complimentary of his floor plan, particularly the positioning of the master bedroom! They did mention that the reading room at the front might not be worth the impact to the roof line.

The builder also advised that they had rung our council and found out that there was someone there who could look at the concept design and provide us with some preliminary feedback. We were particularly concerned regarding any setback contraints and sewer line proximity issues.

Next hubby came up with yet another floor plan, adjusting the reading room at the front so that the roof would not be impacted. He sent this off to the builder too:

Our council required a rear setback of 30% of the length of the site, which in our case would be 10 metres! In this latest concept design, the rear setback was 6 metres (unlike the first concept design where it was 4 metres). LGDH believed that due to the shape of our lot, the 10 metre requirement was impractical and we would have a strong case to have a smaller setback.

Going from 4 metres to 6 metres in the rear setback meant the room layout had to be changed quite a bit in order to fit in all the rooms.

Hubby and I took a few days to examine the revised concept design and have a think about it. But I think we pretty much knew from the first time we saw it – we preferred the first concept design!

In the new concept design, we didn’t like the way the master bedroom didn’t lead out to the deck, instead the guest room did. We don’t expect the guest room to get much use, we just want it for a just-in-case. We also didn’t like the way the walk-in-robe (WIR) in the master bedroom had been changed. We preferred a setup where you could go from the bedroom into the WIR and from there into the ensuite. This worked well for us because at present, most days I would awake first and get ready for work while hubby continued to snooze in bed. We wanted a layout that would get me out of the way so it was nice and quiet for him (he’s a light sleeper).

We realised that if space was an issue (what with setback requirements and the shape of our lot), we were more than happy to get rid of the reading/living room in the front. In fact we even began talking about a double storey house, if that would help get everything on the required building envelope.

My talented hubby put together our own preferred version of the latest concept design:

We sent this back to LGDH and also mentioned our concerns about the sewer line behind our house – might that present any problems?

Hubby rang for confirmation, then went by to pick up the survey plans, and of course pay.

The surveyor had run out of CDs, but had emailed the soft-copies (DWG and PDF) to us.
We promptly forwarded them onto the builder, then sent a subsequent email to the builder for confirmation  – emails with attachments often go missing, so it’s a good idea to send a follow-up email to confirm the one with attachments arrived. 

We spent some of the evening looking at one of the A2 sized hard-copies, for our own curiousity.

The next day, the builder acknowledged receiving the email/files, and that they didn’t need the hard-copies. 

We now wait for the next stage - where we receive an updated concept plan, which will fit our block (and budget!).

The survey took approximately 2 hours.
On leaving they indicated that the plans would be ready next Wednesday (the quote had indicated 10 working days).

We’ll see..

They advised that it usually cost $800 to $1000 (AUD).  (Being closer to the city we expected it might cost us more than that.)

After a bit of Googling we found several companies, and filled in their respective online forms.  We got back 4 quotes: $1400, $1500, $1200 and $800 (all excluding GST).

In summary, the more expensive quotes typically included site photos, and location of the sewer line.  The $800 quote did not have those inclusions – when asked, this surveyor quoted an extra $400 for locating the sewer line.

After carefully comparing quotes (feature for feature), we decided on the $800 quote, for a number of reasons:

• We knew the photos were something we could do (if needed)
• while chatting to the least costly (and local) surveyor, he indicated that the sewer layout was not needed: 
  - we (Australia) have a free “Ring before you dig” hotline, and he recommended this, 
  - on checking Sydney Water’s web site, we found information on how to get an online sewer diagram for less than $20 (if needed)
  - plus we knew of a sewer vent and access panel on opposite sides of our property.  The surveyor was happy
• to add these to the plan, at no extra cost, providing the builder with the estimated location of the actual pipe.
• we’re human, and prefer to pay less where possible, allowing us to spend money elsewhere
• and not least, our builder confirmed that the least costly quote provided sufficient information for them

So we got back to the Surveyor with the $800 quote and told them that we would go with them.  Interestingly enough, they are based in the same suburb as our lot! So that ticked the “green” box in terms of travel time/distance between a service provider and the site. They are scheduled to come do the survey next week. Let’s see how that goes…

• good use of the longest side of our lot
• many of the rooms are north-facing, hence lots of natural light
• rooms face north indirectly hence there is some shade
• (extra) reading room in the front of the house
• great views from main bedroom (there being a green reserve behind our house)
• main bedroom tucked away in the back, hence better for privacy
• living areas and main bedroom share a north-facing deck
• “extra” deck (near house front) with “shady” north side
• “breezeway” between the garage and the house
• bed 4 (hubby’s office), located near the street where he likes it
• bed 2 (my office), with views of the reserve, and getting lots of sun, as I like it
• bed 3 (guest room), right next to the guest bathroom
• sliding glass openings on north and south side of living area – good for air flow-through

In their email, the builder mentioned the following about their design:

• aims to ensure that the house performs well
• allows Northerly aspect to the master bedroom & main living areas
• internal deck near bed 4 means that the reading/lounge room also gets some of the Northerly aspect
• the garage has been moved to the South Western corner
• windows to the West have also been reduced to avoid too much heat gain from the afternoon sun in summer
• allows natural light into every room plus it also does it in a way that will reduce the heat gain in summer from the afternoon sun

We did have some questions for the builder:

• will bed 2 get too much heat? Does it have proper air flow-through?
• does the house design allow for our adding solar panels at some stage?
• where would rain water tanks go?
• would it be more cost-effective to keep the existing garage in the south-east?
• what if we wanted a bath in both bathrooms?
• any issues with the underground sewer line running east-west in our backyard?
• what about Council regulations which we believed require greater rear setback that what was in their design?

The builder advised that they would confirm Council requirements. In the meantime they said, we should get a detailed site survey done and send it to them. Once they had that, and keeping in mind our questions, they would then work on and provide us with the next plan.

So, our next stop was – organise a detailed site survey…

After telling Living Green Designer Homes (LGDH) that we wanted to go with them, they sent us a Design Fee proposal. It set out the building design stages, including details of what was involved, plus the fee structure involved.

Also on offer was a 50% discount on the design fees, should we choose to proceed. Having seen many proposals I figured this was probably a standard offering. It could seem like you were getting a special discount (when in fact everyone gets offered a discount).

I know, I’m such a cynic/sceptic!

This is what is involved in the Concept Design stage:

1. Confirmation of design brief.
2. Site visit and analysis.
3. Research of council guidelines and relevant standards and codes.
4. Organisation and interpretation of surveys and other relevant reports.
5. Preparation of design concept to suit brief and budget.
6. Basic estimate based on concept.
7. Concept refinements to ensure the budget is met.
8. Presentation of concept and basic estimate.

In early February 2011 we paid for the Concept Design stage to get going.

Next we sent LGDH the floor plan we had come up with, based on our understanding of the information provided in the technical manual put together by the Australian government and the design and construction industries.

This is the floor plan we sent LGDH:

We also sent them our wish list of items.

This is the concept design they came back with.

So what do you think our reaction was?

What the??!! It’s totally different to ours!

But believe it or not, we very quickly found ourselves loving the new plan…