Where have we been?

Time, so the saying goes, flies when you're having fun.
From experience, it can also fly when you are having something less than fun.
And so it has. Flown, that is.
We have been (metaphorically, at least) 'away'.
And now we are back.
However, in the sense that this blog was originally about building a house in Tasmania, that part of the journey is at an end. The support, advice and well-wishing has been wonderful. Unfortunately, the universe has had other ideas.
Whatever new direction we take, how we get there, and where we go, are as yet uncharted waters.... but we are making the necessary preparations for whatever lies ahead...

Where we have been in the meantime is a story for another day.
When our maps are charted for the next leg of our journey, we will let you know how we ended up where we are now.
Until then, we remain
V&A

New builder... new month.... new outlook

After the latest quote from the first builder came in still more than $250,000 over our budget, we had very long faces and were looking like nothing would ever happen.
There was certainly no space to negotiate that amount of a reduction in the price with that particular builder.
But all is not lost!
We have a second builder on the case, and he is busy churning the numbers and gathering quotes from his subcontractors. He has around four weeks (from 22 May) to get the quote together, so we are back in a holding position waiting on an outcome.
This has, of course, come about at the same time as dealing with some health issues as well as some troubling scenes at The Android's workplace, which has made for a couple of very stressed people. But we remind ourselves that there are far many more people in much worse situations.

First World Problems

Many thanks to all those lovely folks who have sent in suggestions & offered support.

That, and the fact that Viktoria won her family Eurovision-Tipping Competition, has been an enormous help.

V&A

Maybe we just cannot ever afford this....

The final piece needed to green-light our project has come in - the builder's quote.
Except that it's over our budget.
About $250,000 over budget, to be precise.
We've come to the point where this is no longer upsetting... it's just pissing us off.
Sure, you hear that the building industry is replete with people who want to rip folk off by hyper-inflating prices. We entered into this with our eyes open, and expected there to be a slightly higher cost as we are building in Tasmania, and not on mainland Australia.
But this is just insulting.
In this Internet age, it's fairly easy to locate companies that will supply & install in the most remote of locations. So in the intervening time between receiving this and the previous quote, we've been making a few phone calls. This exercise was also partly a sanity check - we had begun to think that we must have such unrealistic expectations that it had completely clouded our perception of what the build would cost.
So, let's look at a couple of examples...

1. We've had a couple of quotes for a custom-made glasshouse manufactured to our specifications, and shipped to Tasmania. Approximate cost from our research was $12,000. Cost on quotation $26,934.51. That's about $14,000 difference.
2. We've had three quotes to supply and install (on the actual site address) a 7.5kW stand alone solar power system, with AGM batteries, a German inverter and back up generator. The average quote we received was approximately $34,000. Cost on quotation $66,340. That's a whopping $32,000 difference!

On those two items alone, the difference is about $50,000. And we don't have any trade discount or connections.
This makes us wonder, do the builders:
a) think we are really, really wealthy?
b) think we are really, really stupid?
c) not actually want to build the house after all? or
d) all of the above?
We really wanted to use them, because we admired the quality of the work that they had done on other builds. But we are very much feeling like we are being taken for a ride.
As the quote only came in on Friday afternoon, we are yet to discuss the detail with the architects. However, from our calculations, even if we replace all the subcontracted items with suppliers we source ourselves, there isn't going to be anything like $250,000 worth of savings.
And for what is a very small house (one bedroom, one bathroom, combined kitchen-diner) only a madman would consider the amount quoted is reasonable or viable.
We progressed with the build because the initial estimate we received (on this very design) last July was in the vicinity of $480,000. Which sits happily within our budget.
We are completely unable to fathom how it can now be priced at around $700,000 + fixtures / fittings + driveway for the same building. Either the builder's estimating tool is so erroneous as to be useless, or something else is going on.
Maybe, we just have to give the dream away.
V&A

Ground Hog Day on the house design...

From our last update on the build, things were looking pretty grim.
Because of having to have a turning circle built for a fire truck, we had to push the house site further down the hill. This resulted in a long driveway, a suspended concrete slab, and Uber-Footings to hold the house up. All that pushed the build cost from "yes, we can manage that" to "OMG!". This was accompanied by much soul-searching about how a one-bedroom, one-bathroom house could cost only slightly less than a Harrier jet.
We were left with a long list of "If"s which needed to be fulfilled - if we were ever going to be able to build.
The good news is, that there has been some positive progress. Of course, this really just puts us back to where we were in about July 2013... but progress is progress, and at least while we may still be in the forest, we can at least see some light through the canopy.
The first and main issue to resolve was to see if we could have the house moved back up the hill to its original planned site, and therefore not need to have the turning circle for the fire truck which the bushfire consultant stated was a requirement.

Through some mystical super power possessed by Building Certifiers, we have been able to have that decision over-ruled under the Building Code. This means that we no longer require the turning circle, and can therefore move the house back to the higher (and flatter) part of the block. Being on a flatter site, we were hoping to have a slab-on-ground, which would negate having to have the Uber-Footings required further down the hill, where it would mean a floating concrete slab.So far so good.
We have had verbal confirmation from the engineer that by moving the house back up the hill, we would indeed be able to have a slab-on-ground.
A small, but tentative "hurrah" could be heard Chez Viktoria-Android.
We have also had verbal confirmation from the Council Planning Officer that we would not be required to submit a new Development Application, but could get away with submitting an amendment to the original application.
It should be noted, that when we say "we" in the above context, we actually mean "Neal-and-Catherine-the-Architects". They have done the running around, phoning around, and listening to our angst. We (Viktoria & the Android) have just been responsible for creating angst...
But now, the only teeny tiny thing remaining is... how much is it all going to cost?
For some reason, the builder needed to have a holiday (we are sure that it can't just have been us driving him crazy). But he had previously advised he would be able to re-do the estimate for us this week.
Will it come in on budget?
Will we ever get to start building?
Will we end up living in a tent, surrounded by cats??
We are keeping all our fingers and toes crossed.
V&A

Happy Birthday Captain Greatpants

A belated happy birthday to our beautiful boy, Captain Greatpants, who recently turned 14.

Not bad considering the little guy was given about 2 months to live almost 3 years ago...
V&A

Cost blowout... and again another...

It's been a while since we have updated where the house build is up to.
Since last time, there was an initial period of waiting... and waiting... for the building quote to come in.
Then there was a period of extreme horror when the quote did arrive - and we saw it was nearly $250,000 over our budget.
After that there was a small glimmer of hope that, if we changed some of the materials from concrete to more lightweight products, we may be able to bring the budget back on track.
That glimmer was rapidly snuffed when the second quote came in, still about $150,000 over our budget (and not including the cost of the Epic Driveway, nor the fixtures and fittings we have chosen).
What caused this?
Essentially, the requirement to allow for the turning circle of a fire truck on the building site meant that the house was moved about 8 - 9 metres further down the hill. This positioned the house on a much steeper part of the block. As a result, we no longer could have the slab on ground, rather we would have to build a suspended concrete slab, and the Super Duper Footings that go along with that.
Unfortunately, even lighter building materials didn't fix the budget blowout - and these materials would fundamentally alter the aesthetic of the house.
This left us having a teleconference with Neal-the-architect over the sad situation we found ourselves in.
Basically, there were two options we could consider:

Option 1: Keep the building on the steeper part of the block, use lighter materials, but reduce the scope by removing the mezzanine, greenhouse, carport and breezeway and relocating Andy’s studio underneath the living room (not much house left after that)

Option 2: Investigate moving the building back to its original position and hopefully having the block work and slab on ground; and hopefully have this back in budget as estimated back in June 2013

After mulling over these options, there were some immediate issues springing to mind:

Option 1:

• At it’s current size and with the lighter building materials, this didn't appear to be a financially viable option. Were something to happen in the near future which forced us to have to sell, we would never obtain a selling price which would cover the cost of the build. And reducing the size of the building to lower build costs, wouldn’t resolve this, but potentially make it worse
• Of additional concern, while we plan to personally fund part of the build, we will require finance for the remainder – banks are notoriously cautious creatures and we may encounter difficulties in obtaining finance if the bank cannot see the value in the build.
• Comparable insulation amounts may be able to be achieved with lightweight materials, but we lose the thermal mass by removing the concrete

Option 2:

• The bushfire consultant previously advised that using the neighbour's driveway as a turning point for the fire truck would be too far from the site
• We don’t have the neighbour's permission (nor actually know who that neighbour is) to use their driveway
• We are presuming that the neighbour’s driveway would need to be upgraded to allow the fire truck to use it to turn – and this may be a cost that we would have to bear
• What other fees would be involved in relocating back to the original site? (engineering? Council? architect? surveyor?) What is the financial impact to us of these additional fees?
• Is there even any likelihood that, having done all of the above, the build would come in on budget?

And that is pretty much where we were up to as of last week.
After 2 years of planning, and considerable financial outlay, we have 2 house designs, neither of which we can afford to build.
Neal-the-architect is making enquiries in relation to Option 2.
But the Android and Viktoria are in agreement... if we cannot proceed with Option 2, then we have no other choice but to notch the whole thing up to experience and count our losses.
Sincerely hoping that this week brings better news.
V&A

"Curiouser and curiouser", said Alice...

You put the mezzanine in
You put the mezzanine out
You put the mezzanine in
And you shake it all about...

And if you call it a 'storage platform' and don't have a spiral staircase, but use a mobile ladder to get up there...it's ok!
In the curious world of building rules and regulations, it is somehow safer to have a ladder, not attached to anything, than a fixed spiral staircase to provide access to the platform in the living room. Ours is not to reason 'why', apparently.
So the mezzanine storage platform is back in, but without the staircase.
Still in the world of strangeness, Council advised that the proposed zinc cladding (which would be on the exterior of the bay windows outside the bathroom, bedroom and Viktoria's studio) would be too reflective in the silver zinc colour. Given that where the house is located, the only thing it would be reflecting into would be the eyes of a passing pademelon, we were touched at Council's concern.
So we have had to change the material from zinc to Colorbond. We are using one of their new Metallics range, called Citi.
Here is a picture of some of the Colorbond Metallics. Citi is the one that takes up most of the photo. Good thing it's not silver.

In other news, the various specialists (engineers, hydronics, wastewater, fire management etc) have all provided their reports and/or drawings. These are now with Michael Lane from Cordwell Lane (our builder) for final costing. We have a couple of cheaper options up our proverbial sleeves if the costings come back at heart attack inducing levels - this may happen because since we last had an estimate from Michael, we have had to move the house further down the hill so that our driveway can accommodate the turning circle of an 8m long fire truck. Thank you new bush fire regs.
This will impact the cost increase in two ways:

1. the driveway is going to cost a lot more because there is more of it, and it requires more fill, more engineering and a gabion rock wall to hold it all in place, and
2. moving the house has meant that it is now on a steeper part of the land, which means that our 'slab on ground' is now partially suspended, which means more expensive footings and more brickwork

We are hoping to have the costings next week.
Until then, yours in anticipation
V&A