All coming together

After speaking with the bank, they are looking to offer the land loan separately to the construction loan so we are able to secure our block before going through council. Once she gets back to me with the all clear we will be able to enter into our land contract! I'm so excited that I just make silly faces whenever I think about it.

We have decided to use just the one solicitor for the proceedings (cuts cost and I'm fairly confident in their professionalism, plus if there is a conflict they will drop out and we would both have to find new solicitors so whatever happens impartiality will be held). This also means communication will be easier and we won't have to wait for the paper trail to move from place to place. We may use a different solicitor to help us with the land contract.

As for the builder we have decided to go with Marty Lawler from Goodwood projects. He's not a project builder and his organic way of doing things is more appealing then the cut and dried approach of most of the big firms. If there are little jobs we can do he's happy to let us and if there are things we want to buy we just do that, nothing in the way of standard choices or upgrades, just what we want. This suits us because I have spent the last six months making those choices anyway. He also has some great ideas about sustainability and is more willing then me to be sensitive to our budget which will bring me back to earth when I need it.

We've made some ore changes and shuffles and I will update on those in the next few posts. Marty thinks we could probably do the drawings ourselves for council but I'm not convinced so we will go with a draftsman who will also package it for us for council. The one we are leaning towards at the moment is Brian Watts.

The time frame give for building our house is not more then 5 months and with the council only taking 10 days and land settlement surely not too far away, we are going to be out of this rental sooner rather then later. Which, after killing the 8th white tailed spider of our house, this time in the bedroom, is quite a relief.