Prepare for arguments

Now we have committed to build a house, we now have all the palaver that this involves. I think I will keep a record of everything here, so anyone thinking of building will be able to tell if they want to do it themselves or not!

STAGE 1 - prepare the land

• we need to get the grass either grazed down by the neighbours cows, or contact someone in to clear it out. We're going to the neighbours first, and hoping he will be more amenable than he was when we asked if we could get access to his power pole.
• when the land is nice and clear of grass and weeds, we need to get power to the boundary of the property. This needs to be as close to the entrance as possible, but also take into account the fact that the entrance will be tar-sealed about 2m either side of the width of the current gate.
• Geotech survey to see what foundations we'll need
• Drainage and septic survey to see what sort of septic system we need, and how we can deal with stormwater
  

STAGE 2 - entrance and site preparation
Once the power is ready to go, there will be a few things that all sort of need to happen together

• Putting in the new entrance - a 'V' back from the road, through past the fence-line and down to a new gate about 11m in
• mark out the site for the house, turning area, and driveway
• scrape out for driveway, house and turning area and put gravel down
• power and phone to be run down the driveway (or down the side of the driveway) to the house site
• water tanks to be bought and sited
  

I think once these 2 stages are done, we can pretty much hand over to the Project Manager for Latitude Homes, and he goes from there. We have to get a septic tank and water tanks ready to be put in on his instruction, but apart from that, I think all we do after that is pick the colour of the walls and the kitchen!

We are seeing the lawyer on Monday to sign the paperwork and pay for the land; then we'll see Latitude Homes after that to make sure we know what we have to do before they can go to the council to apply for a building permit.

More updates after Monday!