building license + builder feedback

after submitting to council for our building license last week, we got some very quick feedback from our planning officer (i'm actually very impressed with the attention paid and the speed applied to the project by the planning dept). it was really just in the form of questions about how the building license drawings differed from our planning approval set (my own drafting errors) but it was good to see they were getting into it.

there was one question about setbacks and overlooking and our ingenious solution to avoid the full height screens the whole way around our roof deck. we have decided to push the balustrade on the north side of the house back to a 7.5m setback, thereby avoiding any kind of screening. it really doesn't mean we can see less of the neighbours' yard, but that's what the codes allow for, so that's how we will play it.

meantime, the builder told e yesterday that despite handing over documents for costing 2 weeks ago, he hasn't had a look at them yet! he's been on holiday in bali! well, i'm having dinner with his boss soon so i plan to lean real hard, talking up the pros and ease of the project and how it can slip easily into their busy schedule.

will let you know as soon as we have any info at all.

d

tender?

my uncle has told us from the very beginning that he will build our house through his company and by calling in favours. he's coming in this morning to pick up a 'tender set' of drawings. i was at the office until 11pm last night trying to tweak them enough that i wouldn't be embarrassed handing them over...didn't get as far as i wanted, and realised that there are still several unfinalised parts of the interior design, and several selections unselected.

i am hoping he can price it for the most part and hand it back with a list of items remaining to be costed...i don't know the process...this is the first tender i've done!

we are trying to build for $2000/m2 which comes to $186,000 budget. it has no give in it at all. i'm actually just slightly terrified that it's going to blow out a large amount and we will either need to re-specifiy the whole thing, build it ourselves, or redesign it. crap!

will post as soon as we have any information back.

building license submission

it's in.

all the boxes ticked, all conditions met. this is my first building license so i'm hoping that that is all they need from us. that and a whole heap of hard-earned.

at the last minute, after receiving our aluminium quote, we changed all the windows and doors to timber. we are hoping this might save us a bit of money as we can be a bit more clever in the design. aluminium came in at 35k plus, so i'm going to lean on our joinery carpenters to come in a bit better. zac has always wanted timber doors so we might just push ahead with them now anyway. when i figure out how to load plans and drawings well i will post some new elevations.

final engineering!!!

our final, signed copies of our engineering drawings came through yesterday! i have no more excuses - it's time for building license submission and it's time to talk to the builder. crap! it's all gonna become a reality with banks and concrete and early morning site visits very, very soon...i'm hoping they're gonna let me scrawl all the building details on the floor with crayon, cos i'm very much over drafting.

i'll attempt to complete my specification and supply schedule for the builder tonight so i can sit down with him and not look like a complete tool. i'm very scared that i'll forget to add something like a dishwasher and get caught out in 6months time when it's not in the documents and the bank won't give us any more money...which would suck...

as soon as the BL submission is in (this afternoon? if zac can get out in his lunch break to sign the application form) and as soon as the specification is complete, i'll post a list of some of the features and maybe some new interior elevations. fingers crossed.

engineering, take 2

i have sent off the latest drawings today to our engineer, in preparation for our building license submission. they will come back to us with a final design to make our house stand up...which is handy.

so that means building license is looming. i spent the weekend playing silly buggers with internal elevations and lighting design, which doesn't help get us through building license but is fun...i'm going to go draw a section now...

elevations

i've been getting back into all the fun of building license drawings this week in an attempt to keep my mind of my impending APE3 exam (the final registration exam in australia to become a full-on architect). i've resolved some issues in section and detailed up a couple of tricky little elements of the house, but i've also been distracting myself further by playing with some unnecessary drawings.

the drawings below show the northern facade as a diagram of how much the side of the house opens up (used to convince zac that he would have a very open house after i denied him his bi-fold doors), and a concept drawing of the facade with jo pickup's designs over-layed.

(does anyone know how to get rid of the poor colour on my images?)

i am not sure if we are going to be able to do the pickup facade, but last week i met with jo to start the design process for our internal doors. she has told me we will have a few things to look at in about 3 weeks time, so as soon as she gives us something i will post.

have also been looking for fans for our whole environmentally-friendly/passive cooling jaunt. i've had it in my head for a while that we will mount 2 fans in the 2 rear corners of the house - bedroom and living - to force air to circulate around and back out the louvres on the front of the house. chad's post at 100khouse inspired me to actually get a move on so i've been speaking to heat australia this morning and they have suggested the fan below.

obviously not all of them at once, though that would make for one sweet in-house sou-wester.

so that's where we are today. zac is out trying to pin down the creeper that will form the majority of our deck screening and i am going back to my books.

PLANNING APPROVAL!

it's in, it's done, it's through! as of 10am today we have conditional planning approval for the apartment house!

apart from the standard bits about cross-overs and what-not, the only condition we have had placed upon our project is a matter of screening the roof deck. this isn't so bad. we can tweak the design a bit to accommodate everyone's concerns and still maintain the spirit and usability of the deck.

i am, however, going to approach our neighbours and discuss it with them also, because i think we can come to a better arrangement than what has been described in the approval. let's hope they get into the spirit of mutually-beneficial design!

so it's through and now i can start blogging again. we have just started getting some prices from windows and doors and screens and what-not, so we are working up an idea of the direction we need to proceed in. as soon as possible i will submit building license drawings and then sit down with our builder to figure out what he needs from me. that'll be exciting. i think we may still be on track for a house by Christmas. fingers crossed...