104 Evans St

Final viewing

2008-05-01T00:40:00.003+10:00

The gas is on, the finishing touches are done and the house is now occupied!

So was it all worth it? I think so - ask us again once we've had a chance to live in it.

The front

The front garden

From the courtyard

Downstairs bathroom

Courtyard

The kitchen / living area

The kitchen and light court

The light court

Stairs

Upstairs bedroom with view over Loyola Avenue

Upstairs bathroom

Upstairs double shower

Walk-in wardrobe in master bedroom

Upstairs master bedroom

The back

Garden's complete

2008-04-14T05:25:00.005+10:00

Now let's hope it's still alive by the time we're back... we've got a Japanese maple, several different herbs, small lime and lemon trees and a variety of ground cover.

Start of the garden - thank you!

2008-04-06T01:06:00.002+11:00

Thanks to the kindness and extremely hard work of our family, we now have a beautiful garden!

More paving and tiling

2008-03-11T07:36:00.000+11:00

We're almost there! The bathrooms are tiled, the kitchen benchtops and tiling are done and the paving is down.

Front

Courtyard

Kitchen

Downstairs bathroom

Upstairs bathroom

Final viewing

2008-02-21T07:32:00.000+11:00

Before we head off again, we snuck in to take one more look. There's not much to go - bathroom tiling, paving, kitchen benchtop and tiling, water tank... and a couple of miscellaneous items like door handles, letterboxes and doorbells.

The front

The upstairs bathroom

The walk in wardrobe

The master bedroom (or back of the walk in wardrobe)

The kitchen is in (mostly)

2008-02-18T07:28:00.000+11:00

The great thing about this stage in the building process is that there are visible changes every day. The builders must have been sick of us - we visited the house almost daily (sometimes more than once) and spent a lot of time driving around to pick lights, door handles, kitchen tiles and blinds.

The living room

The kitchen

Seeing is believing

2008-02-15T07:19:00.001+11:00

Due to unrelated circumstances, I finally got to see the house in progress... and it made me believe it was all worth it. Photos just don't give you the same feel and sense of space and colour.

The living room (through a hole in the garage)

The light court

Looking into the front 'garden'

Beautiful speckles in the concrete

More progress

2008-02-09T06:01:00.010+11:00

Progress is continuing, with W keeping an eye on things.

Garage door

Looking out into the light court

Stairs and trapdoor to garage

Corridor with polished concrete

View from corridor

Progress on the bath

Choosing colours

2008-02-05T08:27:00.000+11:00

As he is on site, the colour choices are now in the hands of W... beware all!

Bathroom tiles

Bathroom colours

The colour the timber will NOT be

Visit to the house

2008-01-31T22:32:00.000+11:00

W had a chance to visit the house... and to make more decisions on colours, the kitchen and doors.

View from the main bedroom

Scattered wardrobes upstairs

Upstairs bathroom cabinet

Shower upstairs

Second upstairs bedroom

Testing out the stairs

Bath in downstairs bathroom

Back of house (with side door)

Stairs are in

2008-01-26T11:30:00.000+11:00

We now have stairs, and with it, photos of the upper floor.

Hallway upstairs

Beginning of the stairwell

Living room

Garage

Inside

2008-01-16T01:41:00.000+11:00

Some pictures of the interior...

The garage

The living area

The light court

Lockup

2007-12-22T01:25:00.000+11:00

We're now at lockup, although some of the windows are not in so that plaster boards, etc. can be brought in.

One clad wall up

2007-12-16T08:37:00.000+11:00

We now have a clad wall on the back of the front room. And it's time to decide more colours...

Different angles

2007-12-13T08:01:00.000+11:00

A friend's photos of the house in progress...

Finishing touches to roofing

2007-12-06T22:56:00.000+11:00

The roofing seems to be up, with just the finishing touches remaining. The door frames are starting to go in and the plumber has put in the internal piping.

Roofing almost done

2007-11-29T22:37:00.000+11:00

The roofing will probably all be up by the weekend, with the edge finishing to be done next week.

Frame is complete

2007-11-22T22:29:00.000+11:00

The front room downstairs now has roof beams and the frame is finished. Roofing and windows will probably be delivered at the end of the week.

This week's photos

2007-11-15T22:19:00.000+11:00

More photos of the second storey frame

Second storey frame up

2007-11-08T04:53:00.000+11:00

Most of the frame for the 2nd storey is now up

There's a second storey floor!

2007-11-03T21:26:00.000+11:00

The ceiling

Makeshift bathroom

First showing

2007-10-31T22:35:00.000+11:00

Our parents ventured through the building site and said the place looks bigger than expected. Hopefully that's not just because the roof is missing!

More pictures of progress

2007-10-27T02:14:00.000+10:00

A friend who lives in the area was testing out his new camera. And fortunately for us, this means more photos...

Front

Front left

Back

Further work on the walls

2007-10-25T02:12:00.000+10:00

Ground floor foundations

2007-10-16T02:10:00.000+10:00

Work on the side walls

2007-10-11T01:57:00.000+10:00

The walls on the side are being put up first to minimise disruptions to the neighbours.

Slab's down

2007-09-27T01:49:00.000+10:00

We are extremely fortunate to have a photographer taking progress pictures for us - Stage 1 complete, the slab's down!

It's starting...

2007-08-18T09:05:00.000+10:00

Building has (unofficially) started! This week the plumber laid pipes underground and next week the ground will be evened out.

The bath may be back in (but we're not getting our hopes up too much), we've got some gorgeous silk and silk organza material for curtains (thanks to Charlie & Saskia) and we've started to think about kitchen colours - matt antique white for the cupboards, with a similar-coloured white stone for the benchtops.

Building permit issues

2007-08-10T09:20:00.000+10:00

Seems like there are a few minor hold-ups with the building permit.

I need to take some photos of the neighbour's trees, so the engineer can assess if they'll affect the foundations and we need to inform the neighbours that we're building (as we're building on the boundaries).

Doesn't seem too difficult, so hopefully our building permit will be approved soon.

Contract signed

2007-07-03T09:16:00.000+10:00

We met with Andy in the lovely settings of KFC to sign the contract. So now, we're off to get finance.

The house is no more

2007-06-16T09:18:00.000+10:00

The demolitioners came in today and carted off the delapidated heap of a house.

The A4 posters informing everyone about the demolition survived the rain and it all went smoothly.

Building is on...

2007-06-08T09:15:00.000+10:00

We met with Andy today and received a verbal, provisional quote for building - and it is within our budget!!!

Now we're waiting for the official quote and can start applying for a building permit.

New loan settled

2007-05-31T09:09:00.000+10:00

Today our new loan finally settled and we are rid of our terrible bank! Lower interest rate, consultants who understand English when I call and managers who respond to emails - what more could I ask for?

A new builder...?

2007-04-16T09:12:00.000+10:00

Our hopes have been renewed again. We met up with Andy Tweedale from AT Interiors, who has recently built a similar-sized house for a friend of a friend. He's positive about the job, said it's fairly simple and is going to prepare a quote for us!

Still hope

2007-01-22T13:01:00.000+11:00

We've been doing lots of research recently... on the selling side, our pre- and post-building estimates seem to be about right (although real estate agent's predictions vary wildly - we're leaning to the conservative side). On the building side, we're had some encouraging conversations with builders on how to reduce the cost (without another trip to planning). Hopefully, we will have enough info to make a decision in the next month.

Bad start to a new year

2007-01-02T12:58:00.000+11:00

Karen broke the bad news to us today - turns out that all the quotes received are higher than the original quote! Right now we're gathering info and assessing our options... and we're even considering selling. We've realised that our original planned building cost was on the low side, but we're not prepared to pay double our budget!

Tendering again

2006-11-08T09:24:00.000+11:00

Sent out tender documents to 4 more builders - hopefully the results will be better this time! We've given them 4 weeks, but should know earlier.

Rethinking the plan

2006-10-28T15:30:00.000+10:00

Had a meeting with Karen, who is also pretty unimpressed with Peter. But we have a game plan. Karen's meeting with the engineer to simplify the plans, she's got new building contacts who we'll get to unofficially tender and we're rethinking some of the interior - like do we need the Japanese bath? (Unlikely) And do we really need 2 bathrooms upstairs? (Hmmm...) Also, the WIR joinery quote was $8k, so maybe something can be done about that too.

Oh no - back to the drawing board?!!

2006-10-24T18:28:00.000+10:00

Karen just had a meeting with Peter and the quote is double the budget!!! He'd told us it'd be around $1500/m2, but the quote is well above $2000/m2!

We can't work out why... is he too expensive? does he not want the work? or are we being totally unrealistic with our expectations?

Waiting for a quote...

2006-10-13T13:26:00.000+10:00

Still waiting to hear back from Peter on a quote... he's promised us one on Monday.

Soon it'll be crunch time...

2006-10-05T16:37:00.000+10:00

Karen contacted Peter, the builder, and we should have a quote by next Wednesday - fingers crossed!

The plans in detail

2006-09-08T21:34:00.000+10:00

We've got over the plans in more detail and sent Karen a long list of questions / comments... including little diagrams of the bathroom & kitchen layouts (thanks to IKEA's kitchen planner). I'm slowly coming around to her brainwave of not having a vanity below the basins in the bathrooms, but having a basin with a bench section and wall-height shallow cupboards instead... but I'm such a storage freak, so it's hard...

The 'real' plans

2006-08-15T22:24:00.000+10:00

There have been no posts for a while because there has been no activity from us in a while. Karen, on the other hand, has been busy talking to the (potential) builder, engineer and other contractors to put together a set of building plans.

They look fantastic! We discussed some of the more minor points last night and made some snap decisions before Karen sends the plans to the builder for a quote tomorrow.

And then, the hard decisions - cost has once again popped up as the main concern, but we're aiming to get quotes on some alternative materials. But even worse than that, it's time to talk to the banks again...

WE HAVE A PERMIT!!!

2006-05-19T11:47:00.000+10:00

Well, not officially, but close enough!

Our brilliant planner has compromised on some conditions with the council and won the others at VCAT today, so apart from the administration side, VCAT has issued a permit!

So now the conditions are:
a) Setback dwelling 3.2mt from Evans Street frontage
b)Two car spaces in garage
c)Deletion or modification of external stairs, landing etc… aligning boundary on east to be in line with shed on adjacent lot
d)Extend the lightcourt along western boundary north by 1.5 meters to a total length of 6.0 meters (rather than 7.5 meters)
f)Removal of the balcony on first floor (studio/apartment), but glass line as per application

The conditions that no longer apply are:
e) Ceiling raked in hall/winter garden to reduce height to 2.4 meters
g)The north elevation on the first floor setback an additional 3 meters from the Evans Street frontage.

Land Australia 2

2006-05-16T11:41:00.000+10:00

Good news! I talked to a very helpful person from Land Australia who required a letter with the applicant's 'full name' on it (no, Ben Walsham won't do). But now that that's faxed off and I haven't heard to the contrary, I can only assume we have a new title!

Land Australia

2006-05-05T17:03:00.000+10:00

I never want to visit this place again. In order to lodge my application, I got directed to 6 different people on 2 different floors and none of them seemed to know what was happening. Hopefully we have provided enough information for the folio to be amended (to show Loyola Avenue)... a few days will tell.

Good news!

2006-05-01T15:08:00.000+10:00

Finally, some good news! The neighbours have withdrawn their objection and we have a VCAT date (as we are still appealing the council's decision). So off to VCAT on 19 May!

Cannot believe it!

2006-03-02T12:12:00.000+11:00

The neighbours have appealed the council's decision! So we're off to VCAT, no further decision required...

Everyone is stunned, but I guess now, we just have to present the strongest case possible.

And why not appeal some of the conditions while we're there!

So is going to VCAT worth it?

2006-02-24T12:04:00.000+11:00

This is the dilemma - appealing to VCAT shouldn't result in a worse result, but it will take 3 months and 3k longer...

The fee proposal from Site Matters (planners) was received today and it sounds like the conditions on the NOD are a result of the planning officer trying to bring the proposal in line with the RESCODE standards. Some of the standards are quantitive (ie. length of walls on boundaries etc.), but others are qualitative. It's the qualitative standards that are more difficult to predict, as they depend on a person's opinion on what is fair and reasonable.

So basically, at VCAT we have a 50/50 chance of reversing the conditions and it will depend solely on who the chairperson is and whether they choose to uphold the council's justification or ours.

Another possibility is mediation (between the council, us and objectors), but it's up to VCAT to decide whether mediation or a full hearing occurs.

Our planner's confident about arguing our case, but as the council has a strong case as well, is it all worth it?

NOD

2006-02-13T12:02:00.000+11:00

We have a NOD, with conditions... Karen still thinks it's possible to make slight adjustments to the plans to meet the conditions, without significantly changing the original ideas.

The biggest issues are the light court extension and the reduction of the bedroom by 2m (goodbye WIR!)

Still, investigating the possibility of appealing to VCAT.

Conditions

2006-02-01T11:47:00.000+11:00

It turns out that the council has taken so long to return a verdict, because the panel originally wanted to reject our application! Now it appears as though we will get a Notice of Decision (NOD), but with conditions. Possible conditions are:

The dwelling setback a minimum of 3.2 metres from the Evans Street frontage.

Two car spaces within the garage.

Deletion or modification of the external stairs, landing and the associated fencing to align with the footprint of the existing shed abutting the boundary on the adjoining lot.

Extend the light court along the west boundary northwards by 3 metres to a total length of 7.5 metres.

The ceiling of the hall/winter garden raked to reduce the height of the west boundary wall to 2.4 metres.

The south elevation on the first floor setback 1 metre from the south boundary. This change must involve only a reduction in floor area and must not alter other side and rear setbacks unless otherwise specified.

The north elevation on the first floor setback an additional 1 metre from the Evans Street frontage (i.e. a total of 14.71 metres). This change must involve only a reduction in floor area and must not alter other side and rear setbacks unless otherwise specified.

A schedule of all proposed exterior decorations, materials, finishes and colours, including colour samples (3 copies in a form that can be endorsed and filed).

But these are not yet finalised, so fingers crossed...

Another objection!

2005-11-09T22:42:00.000+11:00

Unfortunately, another one has come through. One of our neighbours is concerned about:

Overshadowing
Impingment on privacy
Out of character with street
Detrimental to value of their property

Unfortunately, all we can do now is wait for another few weeks for the council to deliver their verdict...

Oh no, an objection!

2005-10-31T15:24:00.000+11:00

Fortunately it's not a huge one. A neighbour on Loyola Avenue is concerned about the loss of on-street parking in front of their house. But still, it means waiting even longer for a permit...

No objections yet

2005-10-07T10:24:00.000+10:00

Just heard from Karen that there haven't been any objections yet... but that could be because the objections will take a while to process.

Also, it will take 6 - 8 weeks before we get a decision. Which means we won't find out until mid - end November. Fingers still crossed until then.

Stat dec is signed

2005-10-02T13:44:00.000+10:00

The advertising period is officially over. Now W has to get his butt over there and pull down the signs!

Here come the objections

2005-09-18T13:43:00.000+10:00

It says something about the state of the house when all you need to put up 2 laminated signs are a hammer, some nails and a few coathangers. There were enough bits of wire, wood and other debris to attach the advertisement 'at eye level' to the front and back of the house. Now with a little luck, the neighbours will love the plan and there will be no objections!!!

Application acknowledged

2005-09-14T13:43:00.000+10:00

It only took a month but the planning application has finally been acknowledged! And the best thing is, the council don't need any more information so advertising can begin!

Application for planning permit lodged!

2005-08-18T13:42:00.000+10:00

So this took a little longer than expected... but while we were away in Tropical North Queensland, Karen added her docs to Natasha's docs and posted the planning application to Moreland Council.

And perhaps a little too late, there were a couple of things we were thinking of changing:

ensure garage door to Loyola Avenue is sufficiently wide for 2 cars
increase western brick boundary wall to front of proposed 'sunroom', instead of lightweight cladding as shown.
set north facing windows back (or increase eave overhang) to provide shading from north sun in summer.

In the mean time, it turns out that the title does not recognise Loyola Ave at the back, therefore it cannot be used for car access (and more importantly, a garage). So the long and complicated process of applying for a new folio for the title begins, firstly with getting a duplicate copy of the title from the bank...

The final planning permit plans

2005-08-10T13:42:00.000+10:00

A late night meeting with Karen before flying out early the next morning to Cairns. She showed us the final plans which will be submitted to the council - a few minor changes, but nothing significant.

Wood, brick and glass

2005-06-28T13:41:00.000+10:00

We met with Karen in Richmond to go over the proposed materials for the house. The overall idea is to keep things as natural as possible, eg. polished concrete floors, unpainted western red cedar cladding, recycled bricks... W is not convinced about the louvred windows, but there is still time to convince him...

Meeting with Site Matters

2005-06-23T13:40:00.000+10:00

Karen met with Site Matters today and everything is positive! Natasha has helped much more controversial designs through the planning process, so the 2 little things we are not complying with (front setback and lengths of walls on boundaries) can hopefully justified. I love good news!

Council meeting II

2005-06-07T13:40:00.000+10:00

I don't understand councils.

Firstly, after going to the trouble to prove that a drain exists under the easement and can never be built on, this now means that there definitely can't be stairs at the back for overshadowing reasons.
Secondly, as there are currently no car spaces on the property, any number of car spots will be an improvement, so there is no need for 2 full-sized car spaces at all.

I'm just hoping there are no more backflips...

Council meeting I

2005-05-25T13:39:00.000+10:00

Karen's first meeting with council appeared to go relatively well. Not surprisingly, there were a few issues. The stairs along the boundary were not a vote winner, but it seems that if we can prove that the easement will never be built on, we can have stairs on the boundary at the back. The garage needs to be large enough for 2 full-sized cars (as opposed to small cars) and the front setback is not complying with Rescode. Still, the council seemed fairly open-minded - it could have been worse...

Refining the idea

2005-04-21T13:38:00.000+10:00

Karen came up with 3 plans:
Plan A:
Plan B:
Plan C:

Without trying to 'redesign' it, we came up with what we liked / didn't like about each one:

The grand plan

2005-03-15T15:36:00.000+11:00

This is the fun part. Think of all the things you'd love in a house and write them down. Now the not so fun part. Think of how much money you have to spend and cut out the things you can't afford...

Still we came up with a brief, which Karen seemed to think was ok...

It's bigger than we thought

2005-03-02T15:35:00.000+11:00

It turns out that the land the property is on is actually bigger than we thought! So in theory, we can put in an application to claim the extra 50cm as part of 104 Evans St. But after a little more investigation into the cost and difficulty in proving this (involving contacting the vendor for several documents), we decided to let it go...

Surveying

2005-02-24T15:34:00.000+11:00

Karen has found a very reasonably priced surveyer (John Muldowney) who will do the following:

Title re-establishment
Footprint of house on subject site and part-footprints of adjacent properties within a 9 meter horizontal radius of subject site (102 and 106 Evans Street)
Location of windows facing boundaries adjacent to subject site.
Levels to AHD including existing natural ground levels and floor levels on subject site and adjacent properties, levels of eaves and ridge lines of house on subject site and adjacent houses
Location of site features such as signifcant trees and fencing
Any relevant easements

We've sent him the title... so surveying can begin!

The architect debate

2005-02-13T11:48:00.000+11:00

From my point of view, analysis / design is one of the most important parts of a project. Hence I was prepared to spend a little more on this phase, especially if it saved money later on. Still, we considered all our options:

Architect
Building designer
DIY, with the help of a draftsperson

By the time Feb came along, W was thoroughly sick of visiting architects and building designers. Surprisingly, some building designers were significantly more expensive than architects. We finally agreed that given the need for a planning permit, the complexities of Rescode and the small site we had to work with, we wanted a professional's help.

We first met with Karen, a friend of a friend, in late November 2004. She was very friendly, down to earth and highly recommended - basically we liked her the best! So with the first big decision out of the way, the long process could begin...

Settlement

2005-01-28T11:40:00.000+11:00

Oh, this was a stressful time! To cut a long story short, there were issues with loans, the deposit required was larger than planned for and settlement was delayed. At times, it seemed like a better idea to give up. Still, it all worked out and he finally settled, albeit a little late.

The house

2004-11-21T21:39:00.000+11:00

The front

The back

The backyard

The Auction

2004-11-21T11:31:00.000+11:00

For better or worse, the day of the auction was a rainy one. W went to an earlier auction also on Evans St, but it was only drizzling then. By the time his came around, it was raining... and it only got heavier.

It was relatively quick and painless, since everyone wanted to get back under cover. I was quite happy to have W do the bidding. And being the patient one with nerves of steel, he did a wonderful job. I, on the other hand, whispered to him just after he put in the last bid, "Are you sure you really want it?"

But of course, by then it was too late. Extremely stunned, he went inside (where it was surprisingly dry), signed the papers and the delapidated old thing was his...

How it all started...

2004-11-02T11:20:00.000+11:00

W's idea was to find an old house that needed work, move in and slowly do it up. Well, he did find an old house... in fact, the moment he saw it, he thought it was perfect. He quickly did the calculations and figured he could manage it. But perhaps he underestimated just how much work it needed...