INVITATION TO OPTICOMM INFORMATION SESSION

Received this email today for anyone interested on sorting out their FTTH connection. I for one can't wait to have this, and will defiantly be attending on one of the nights.

FIBRE TO THE PREMISES – JORDAN SPRINGS

This is an important message about the delivery of telephone, internet and television services for residents of Jordan Springs.

We are happy to advise you that Lend Lease has entered into an agreement with a telecommunications provider and Jordan Springs will be a Fibre Connected Community.  Telephone, internet and TV services will be delivered via modern fibre optic technology.  Traditional copper phone lines will not be available. 

The telecommunications provider is OptiComm Pty Ltd, a company experienced in delivering optic fibre in locations such as Oran Park Town, Middleton Grange, Springfield Lakes (Qld) and Blakes Crossing (South Australia).  The benefit of this technology is that the resident will be able to choose from a range of service providers for your telephone, internet and television.

The delivery program is commencing now and we anticipate that homes will be connected to the fibre within 6 months.  We are aware that you will have many questions about this new technology and the services that you will be receiving.   There are a number of options for this:

1.       OptiComm will be hosting a regular series of Information Sessions for purchasers. Sessions are currently planned for 6.00pm for 6.30pm start on

§  Wednesday 18 January at Penrith City Library Theatrette;

§  Wednesday 1 February at Penrith City Council Theatrette; and

§  Wednesday 15 February (location to be confirmed). 

Please contact jennifer.woodruff@lendlease.com to register.

Registration is essential as refreshments will be provided.

2.       Refer to the OptiComm website at http://www.opticomm.net.au

The Helpful Info – For the Resident - Quick Start Guide provides an easy explanation for clients and sales consultants.

You will be interested in the choice of service providers that are available.  To see who they currently are click on ‘Communities’, then ‘Check my address’, then ‘NSW’ and select an address such as Middleton Grange. This will show a list of Retail Service Providers that have a current agreement with OptiComm.  They will be available to residents after the fibre network is installed.

The section Helpful Info – For the Builder contains essential information relating to cabling compliance requirements for the builder, the electrician and the cabling contractor.

It is essential that your builder ensures that the appropriate equipment and cabling are provided.  We are contacting and referring all the builders to the website. In addition, OptiComm will be conducting regular information sessions for builders, their staff, their electrical contractors and cablers.  Please contact your builder to clarify that the correct provision is being planned for your home.

We are sure that you will soon be enjoying the benefits that this new technology offers.

Judith Field

Development Manager

Lake due in 6 Months - Photo's

Went for a walk around Jordan Springs today with the little one and the dog. The dog is sadly more behaved then the little one at times. :0)

The new sales and information centre is now open and you can even drive into it. Getting to my place is going to be much easier soon as they're already working on the road heading up to borrowdale and my cross street.

The sales office was packed with heaps of people in the offices and there were so many people keen to buy a block. To me the demand itself says a lot about where we're moving, people want to live here and it's obvious why.

With the sales centre now open you could get a feel for how the lake is going to turn out and I'm someone who can imagine what we're getting and I'm pretty excited now that I live in the first release. After talking to the ladies, they told me the work on the lake is expected to start in the next week or so with initial works and it's due to be completed within 6 months. About the same time we move into our new home. Lucky me.

I took some photo's for those who can't get out there.

We even have one of those water things coming out the ground.

This is the pontoon thing, lots of digging planned real soon.

Looking up from the lake.

My new home in the mornings.

Rock climbing and soccer was on today across from the office.

Looking into the new car park from the cafe.

All the offices were full.

Looking up from the lake, they have big steps for people to sit on.

Looks lovely.

We have a Loo

Not only a Loo, but a pretty fence to go with it. With the news our slab was starting next week I thought I'd head out and take a look. (I only live around the corner).

To my surprise the fence had gone up and the loo was on site.

On a side note - there's a special early bird sale for land this weekend, the first release for 2012. The new Jordan Springs Sales and Information centre will be open from 10am for those keen to pick up a bargain in a stunning area.

Slab Starts Next Week

Just a small update, not much happened last week but it seems while the builders might not all be back out on site this week they are in the office planning.

Just got word that the concreter is back on deck this week and my slab is booked in for next week. I 've been told to expect a call with what day so we can be on site.

We're also expecting a letter confirming our start date of construction along with some other bits and pieces.

Getting excited now. :)

Parked the Ferrari Out Front

Well obviously no news this week except to say a big Merry Christmas to everyone. Builders are now on holidays and we're anxiously waiting for the holidays to be over so we can see some action on our lot, funny isn't it, first time I've worked over Christmas and I'm dying for the holidays to be over. My assumption is it will be pretty quiet over at Jordan Springs for another week with the place getting busy again on the 9th of January. We may see some activity next week but I doubt it, I've seen the odd painter and carpenter there though so anything is possible.

On a side note if you follow my blog you'll also know I live around the corner from Jordan Springs and I'm over at Jordan Springs almost daily. You can often find me, my wife Peta and my little boy Jordan walking around nearly every weekend looking at all the new homes and playing in the park. Keep an eye out for the Ferrari though.

Thanks to my dad, Jordan received a cool little toy for Christmas which is perfect for the bush tracks and wide footpaths over at Jordan Springs. This electric car can be controlled by Jordan or daddy can take ownership with a remote control. We've taken it over their twice since he got it to let him drive it around. Not bad huh. It also has a stereo in it in which you can even plug your ipod into it.

We parked it next to my car and in the driveway so you know to keep a look out for it. Thanks Pop and Nana Lisette.

Have a great new year everyone. Hopefully we'll have more to share soon.

Here's a few more shots f my little one in his new car.

Pulling into our new driveway.

Woolworths Jordan Springs

Received a letter the other day about the DA application for the development of the new shopping centre at Jordan springs. Pleased to know it's going to be a Woolworths and not a Coles which is really going to help the competition in the area. I'm more a Woolworths fan as well so I'm pretty stoked about this.

You can view all the documents on the Penrith DA tracker site but here's some pictures etc from the various documents to give you a taste of what's to come. (DA11/1348)

Hepburn's wish of a Sold Sign

Well the last few weeks have been tough. We've been making sure everything is alright with our final plans, signing off on all variations and dealing with some personal issues that have been pushing us beyond our limits at times. The good news is there's light at the end of the tunnel now and we just received a nice email from Kurmond Homes.

I truly believe in trying to stay positive in all situations and showing respect at all times to people. At the end of the day we have to deal with other people and I think if you treat people right then you will be treated with the same respect. If I have one piece of advice I can give to anyone building it's to take that approach even as a customer. I've built a relationship with Kurmond homes and I don't go off my tree at them, I know they can make mistakes, they're only human and they don't mean to do wrong by anyone. I accept certain things take time and nothing is for free. This makes negotiating much easier, getting things done quicker, and if I need to push a bit on time they actually really do try to help out.

So this morning's email was simply titled.....

"Fw: Hepburn's wish of a Sold Sign"


I told Kerry at Kurmond Home's about all the issues we've gone through over the past weeks but never really pushed them to hurry up. About 3 weeks ago though I did mention that we had to have a slab soon to meet the Stamp Duty requirements. I then went on to mention how after all the drama's we've had we were really just waiting to get a sign on our land so we could get a photo, we didn't want anything except to be able to stand on our land with a sign that said Kurmond Homes so we could believe this was all real. Delfin did this for the first release and got everyone pictured with their lot putting SOLD stickers on their signs. But for the second release (mine) they didn't do this at all, instead we had to drive around to our street and look on the white pegs for our lot number. We were so dissapointed we couldn't celebrate this. I told Kurmond Homes (Kerry) this 3 weeks ago and said how I couldn't wait to even just get the fences up. I got the above titled email this morning with two pictures attached. You wouldn't believe how happy we were to see it.

As I said being a great customer also means a lot. I still really appreciate the service by Kurmond Homes.

Another Day Another Levy (Long Service)

Well it seems as someone who is building I should be responisble for making sure my contractors are rewarded with long service entitlements. You would think the $350,000 + would simply be enough.

From their website....
"The levy is paid into a fund administered by the Long Service Corporation, and from this fund, the Corporation makes long service payments to building and construction workers."


Seriously - why isn't their employer looking after it? I'm going to see what I can do about it.

A friend was stung with this the other day so I thought I'd better let everyone else know about it to be prepared. Heck that's why I'm blogging all this info, to help others while I learn from the mistakes for next time perhaps.

You can ask your builder to include it in your tender so you don't have to pay for it, perhaps some can still negotiate. Perhaps your builder just pays it and doesn't worry about it, I don't know. What frustrates me is why aren't the builders telling us all of this so we know what to expect. The levy is a long service levy payable to your council for any building works over $25,000. The amount is 0.35% of the construction price. So for my base $220,000 building cost, I will be up for $770. Your certifier will hand you the bill when they give you the construction certificate.

More details can be found here.

http://www.longservice.nsw.gov.au

$500 Infrastructure Restoration Bond

I got asked about this today and had forgot all about it. For anyone building in Jordan Springs (or any Penrith Suburb to that fact). Penrith Council have only recently introduced a new council bond payable to them which must be paid before you're allowed to get your construction certificate.

The bond is $500 and you will need to fill out the form yourself and even go out to your site and take photo's of any cracks in footpath.

The form and details can be found on Penrith Councils website. Here's a link if you wish to have a look. Make sure you have your camera ready. Once you get the receipt back send it straight into your builder.


http://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Website/Planning_&_Development/Forms/InfrastructionRestorationBond.pdf

Tiles and Stairs

Tiles
So tiles are a funny thing, be prepared for the shock of your life when you get the variation price. To be honest with your bathrooms I'd just go with the standard range and look to upgrade you main floor, bathrooms are much easier to come back to later. Gotta say Kurmond Home standard are pretty good, we were looking at an upgrade to Porcealin but the tilers are just way to expensive.I went into Manago and didn't tell them I was building with the builder (as if I wouldn't do this)

The Maths on our Main Floor Tile
Std Tile = $25/sqm (My allowance)
Upgrade Tile = $32/sqm
Upgrade cost on Labour $20/sqm
Kurmonds Margin = 30%

I have 100sqm so this should be easy right?

$7 difference for tile = $700
$20 labor extra = $2000

So Variation should be $2700+$810 (30%) = $3,510

My Variation Price = $5,190 WTF!@! (Yes I'll ask about them a bit later. I plan to challenge that and see what they'll do)


When I told him I was actually building with Kurmond the story changed big time, oh, ooh, ahh....umm...yeh well Kurmond have to get carpenters back etc so they charge for that. Yeah whatever, Kurmond have to do that even if your laying a standard tile you dicks. Like I said didn't really like there tile company, everyone else has been fair and reasonable, these guys seem like they just want to rip me off and tell me stories how if I was building with Metricon I'd be paying triple that. If you sell tiles to the public, you shouldn't be bumping your tile price up for home builders because you think you can milk them.

With the bathrooms we decided to roll back on the variation. Our total variation for tiles was $14,500 so you can see why, now we just have the $5,190 to look at and I've given up tiling to the ceiling, I plan to ask them for the lot (dye) numbers so I can do it myself after I move in. I got sick of arguing so we decided to pick from the standard. As you can see they look pretty good anyway.

Std range of tiles for Kurmond Homes, actually not to bad.

Stairs
So I admittedly stuffed up. In the sales process, all my ears heard was "Timber Stairs", yeh thinking to myself, nice wooden polished stairs will look so nice and are standard. I was an idiot. Timber can mean MDF, then carpeted. (As in at least not concrete). So off to the stair people we went, now having to look at making a small change to the stairs. These guys were great.

We're lucky in the sense we have stairs in between two walls so it makes upgrading a little easier and cheaper. What we decided to do was keep the rises painted and put a timber on the actual step only. Having timber rises in our house would have looked to strong seeing we've gone for warm colours and modern coffee colours and tiles. All wood stairs would have defiantly looked odd. The stairs get installed and it's up to the owner to organise to stain them, keep this in mind if you have stairs.

As for the hand rail I went with a rectangle type of rail which will also be put on the wall going up to the second floor, held by some chrome. Again keeping the modern sharp edge feel going through the home. Rails are the standard silver rails, timber balustrade with a chrome ring, these will be painted the same as the walls. I haven't got final quote back yet, but guess by the guy was about $3200, which is good (Hopefully it stays at that). A couple were in there at the time and they had MDF carpeted stairs and wanted to replace them, I was over hearing them and it was about $45k. Ouch!!! Do it upfront I think.

This is the type of look, painted rises and sides, but timber treads, more so because our stairs are between walls, our paint isn't white though.

Our posts. Kept it simple.

Rectangle hand rail, up the top of the stairs and also put on the wall coming down the stairs.

Steel posts, we won't have those circle looking things on ours.