The final approved plans!

Some of you may be wondering what this house is going to look like, so finally, now that we have approved plans, I can share with you "Roehampton" in all her glory. 

Site Plan

Ground Floor Plan - we have redesigned the Master WIR to be a suite of cupboards.

First Floor Plan

East Elevation

North Elevation

Fences - Sigh!

Hi Everyone,

You can tell we are on holidays as I finally have the time to update the blog on all that has been happening with the build.

One of the difficulties we have encountered is the replacement of the boundary fences.  Unfortunately, our block of land had post and wire fences to two and half sides.  As you can imagine, they don't provide you with much privacy or security.  Considering we need to contain three children and hopefully soon, our new golden retriever puppy, fences are a priority.

Our neighbours to all three sides have lived in the area for decades and were happy to build new fences, but not happy to pay for half of them...sigh!  One neighbour was happy to have a fence, so long as it was lower than 1.4 meters high to allow him to continue to look in to our front yard from his kitchen window....yes, seriously!!

Fortunately, the Victorian Fencing Act was updated in 2014 to require that boundary fences must be sufficient to meet reasonable privacy and security concerns of all neighbours.  That means if you are living next to retirees like we are, they cannot say that because their grey, nomadic lifestyle means that they don't have pets or children, they don't need a fence better than a post and wire fence!    Furthermore, it is now mandatory that neighbours contribute equally to the construction of a sufficient boundary fence.  A sufficient boundary fence is generally a timber paling fence, 1.8 meters in height.  If you want a standard of fence that exceeds a basic timber paling fence, of course you have to pay the total of the difference if your neighbour doesn't agree.

When you start discussing fences, you certainly get a good picture of who the people are that you are living next to...which has been quite confronting and disappointing.  Let's just say that it is unlikely that we will have the neighbours over for drinks when we move in!!  Unfortunately, we have had to issue fencing notices to our neighbours in order to comply with the law and force them to take responsibility for their fencing obligations.

There is also this scary little law which allows your neighbours to take your land if the boundary fence has been incorrectly placed and the neighbours have used this land as if it was their own for at least 15 years and 1 day.  This law is called Adverse Possession and it is a doozy!  Of course, as luck would have it, our neighbours to both sides have been living there for decades so this has been an interesting one to negotiate.  When we bought the block, we did measure the block and the measurements were correct - that was because we have lost some of our land to the West side and taken some land to the East side boundary which isn't ours.  This 'clandestine' land taking has been happening unbeknown to any of us.  You would think it would be a simple process of having the land surveyed and re-establishing the boundary - think again!!  When one neighbour has the opportunity to get land for free in Lower Plenty, then it is on for young and old, literally speaking.

Fortunately, the fact that we had lost land and gained land through the poor fencing,  helped us when negotiating with the neighbours.  Our neighbour to our east side (who from now on shall be known as scary, grumpy old man) wanted his land back.  We were of course happy to oblige so long as we got our land back to the west boundary from "sometimes nice, sometimes horrible grumpy old man".  Basically that meant that the situation became "the battle of the boundaries" between two grumpy old men. 

In our case, the lost land was the least of our worries.  The impact the lost land had on our house design was far worse.  You see our house has been designed in accordance with minimum set back requirements from boundaries, in our case, 1 meter on the west side. Because the fence wasn't on the boundary, if the neighbour to our west side was to claim adverse possession of that 30cm of our land it would mean that our set back would not meet regulations and we would have to redesign or shrink up our entire house in order for it to be compliant.  You read right!! That would mean a third trip around the council merry go round!!  Not only can your neighbour claim (steal) your land, they don't have to pay you a cent for it either.  A very outdated law that needs to be changed - that's my next pet project!!

If you want to know more about the rules that apply to boundary fencing in Victoria, check out this link below and remember, I am no expert, so always get your own advice.

http://www.justice.vic.gov.au/home/justice+system/laws+and+regulation/civil+law/fencing+law+in+victoria

Thanks for stopping by.
Jo

The pool

After much research, reading many blogs and discussing our options with friends who have been through the process, we decided to install a fibre glass pool.  The pool is 9.6 meters long and 4.5 meters wide, it is called the Brooklyn and it includes a spa and shallow play platform (which can also be used by us parents juggling a cheeky bubbly while the kids are in the pool!). 

Our pool contractor has been exceptional.  We went with Reef Pools, located in Warrandyte and run by Matt Borrak.  Matt has been great to deal with, he was able to refer us to a number of his past customers who were happy for us to come and look at their finished pools.  It was great to be able to see shell colours and sizes of pools in the landscape.  This helped us a great deal when deciding on the size of the pool and the colour of the shell.  The most important part of this process was talking to Matt's past clients and hearing their experiences.

Matt has been very honest and great to work with.  We encountered a couple of variations due to exisiting site works, however Matt kept us informed with cost estimates and was happy to produce invoices from his subcontractors to support variations, this has built trust between us and our pool contractor which is so important.

Barrier Reef Pools was one of the only fibre glass pool suppliers that produces a shell which includes a spa.  Most fibre glass pool companies only offer separate spas from the shell.

The colour we have gone with is Royal Blue Shimmer which has a glittery effect in the sunlight, the colour is darker than I first imagined I would go with, but not as dark as it looks in the photos of the pool being installed.

You really need to see the pools installed to get a good idea of the colour of the shell - the first client of Matt's that we went to had the colour I thought I wanted - Matt said that once we saw it, we would change our mind and he was right.  When we went to Matt's second client's home and we saw this colour, Royal Blue Shimmer, glittering in the sunlight, I was hooked.  Also, this client has the same north/south orientation of the pool that we have so it gave us a really good idea of what our pool would look like in situ.

One of the other things that this research helped with was deciding on the plumbing fixture colours.  We thought that white stood out too much so we opted for grey fittings which was a special order.  We had grey fittings in our spa at our previous house and we liked they way that they faded in to the background, sort of like painting your fence a dark colour.

Here are a couple of photos of the finished product, and some action shots of the pool going in.

photos courtesy of www.barrierreefpools.com.au

The finished Brooklyn

Looking forward to next summer!

Thanks for stopping by.

Jo

Easter Update

Happy Easter Everyone!

My family and I are taking a much needed break over the Easter holidays in one of our favourite holiday locations, Noosa. 

The last few months have been challenging to say the least.  When I left you last, we were embarking on yet another planning permission process.  While the council did everything they could to expedite the process, there is only so much that they can do.  Our advertising period ended on December 22nd, however, just after Christmas, the council notified us that they had received an objection from a neighbour.  The neighbour basically objected to everything except us breathing, fortunately, none of the matters he objected to required us to change our plans.  When an objection has been received however,  a planning permit cannot be issued until three weeks after the council have considered the objection and issued their decision.  While the council did issue their decision in our favour we then had to wait for the VCAT period to expire.  The VCAT period is the time allowed for the objector to appeal council's decison to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.  With all the public holidays in December and January, we finally received our planning permit on February 2nd.

The site cut started that week and we held our breath to see if we would encounter the costly unknown...rock.  The building Gods must have decided that we had encountered enough bad luck and I am delighted to say that the site cut and the excavation for the pool revealed not only no rock but the best soil conditions to build in....Clay!

When we left for Queensland, the plumbing was in, the site cut was finished, the pool was in and the meter box was done.  The electrical pit works were completed during the planning permit phase....much to our grumpy neighbour's discontent.  Hopefully when we return, the piers and stumps will be in, the retaining walls will be done and we will be out of the ground....fingers crossed!

The lower section is the garage foot print, the upper section is where the pool will be

Plumbing is in

All that dirt at the back of the block will be used to level out the "south lawn"

 Footings for the retaining walls are in, these will surround the pool.

After reading Belinda's advice from one her posts on Gallerie B, we made sure that the meter box and switch board were positioned correctly.  The meter box will be on the back of the stone clad pillars either side of the driveway and front gate.  This is its temporary home, on a pole, until the driveway pillars are built.  The switch board will be located in the garage, out of view and easy to access without going outside - the last thing you want to do in a blackout!!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Easter!

Jo

Building lesson #5 - Getting through the evil that is council planning permission: the sequel

All good horror movies have a sequel, why should council planning be any different?

You may recall my post last year which detailed blow by painful blow, the struggle we had to obtain council planning permission, the ridiculous amount of bureaucratic red tape and the decision in the end that after all that time and effort, we didn't need a planning permit as we had complied with the requirements of all of our overlays.

You can imagine our reaction when during the Building Permit phase, our building surveyor told us that he couldn't issue a building permit because we didn't have "planning permission".  I thought he must have missed the letter we receive from council indicating that we didn't need permission - think again!  Our building surveyor told us that one of the overlays had changed in February of this year and now our build which was 100% compliant three months before is now subject to needing a planning permit.

So what happened in February I hear you ask?  The Victorian Government changed all significant landscape overlays to include protections for the Yarra River.  That means that any development close to the Yarra River which may have an affect on the banks, watercourse, or public viewing, must now meet these new requirements.  These new requirements adjust wall heights from being compliant at 8 meters to now needing permission for anything over 6 meters.  As our block is slopping and we are building a double story house, in one section we are at 8 meters.  The provisions of the overlay I fully support, you only need look at the development along the Yarra River in Richmond to see that protection was needed, however our block is about 1km away from the river up and over a hill.  We would need to be building the Eureka Tower to cast any shadows over the Yarra.

Surely there are transitional arrangements for those who went through council prior to the changes?  Absolutely!  If you have a planning or building permit in place prior to February this year, then you don't have to comply with the new provisions.  Our problem, council informs us, is that because we were compliant, that is, we obeyed every rule and designed the house to meet every overlay condition, we didn't need a planning permit so therefore, we don't have a planning permit and the transitional rules don't apply to us.  That means we now have to go back to council planning, advertise the development and get permission....again....for the second time in 12 months....sigh, yell, scream, curse!!!!

Our council have acknowledged how unfair this is for us, but has basically told us that we are unlucky and to get on with it.  Supposedly no one owed us a duty of care to inform us of the changes which occurred in February, even though we had a letter granting permission that was no longer valid.

The positive to come out of this situation though is that I have taken the issue to the Victorian State Government and have spoken directly to the planner who drafted the amendment.  This planner told me that he and his team spent a day work-shopping who might be affected by the new rules to ensure everyone was being dealt with fairly - it never occurred to them that there would be anyone is our situation.  This planner was a shining example of a public servant, he apologised for the situation we now found ourselves in and we worked together to draft a third transitional arrangement which will now be used when planning overlays change.  That way, hopefully none of you will find yourselves in this planning predicament.

Our council have also provided assistance expediting the planning process and waiving the fee!  I guess I should be thankful that they are at least trying to help us out of a most unjust and unfair situation.

We will be delayed (all going to plan, pardon the pun!) by about 2 months.....fingers crossed!

Thanks for stopping by

Jo

Building lesson #4 - Keep having fun along the way

Building is a long, often tough and stressful journey - that's why it is so important to have some fun, dream and be creative along the way.  Nothing shakes off the building blues like meetings with your cabinet maker - just try not to think about the budget while you are being creative!!  One of my favourite interior designers, Belinda, from Gallerie B, recently shared on her blog her great ideas for storage - it is definitely worth a read.  We have recently finished our cabinetry design with our cabinet maker and I wanted to share with you all some of the great little ideas we have come up with for each space, in this post, I will walk you through the kitchen.

Kitchen

Well there she is, the bones of what will eventually be my dream kitchen

The most important part about designing this kitchen was to think carefully about how we use our kitchen, how we needed traffic to flow through the kitchen and what space I would need for storage. My current kitchen is a U-shape which is fine for one or two people, however you add three little poppets to that kitchen and it is a recipe for disaster.  It is so important to have two points of entry and exit to allow all family members using the kitchen to move freely in the space.  

Our island bench design was next on the agenda.  Many friends have questioned my decision to include the sink in the island bench, however, for our family and the way we live, this was a conscious decision.  I can be at the sink, working at the bench, cooking, making lunches and still be a part of whatever is going on with the family as my view is to the family room, not a fence or the side of the house.  We designed the seating at the bench to be situated all at one end creating an informal table space where the 5 of us could have a quick bite to eat while still seeing each other.  Most island bench designs have the seating all to the rear, lined up next to each other in a row - we wanted to create a space where we could gather around and talk to each other.  Creating this space also prevents the kids homework from getting wet as they are not sitting behind the sink.  Our island bench is 3.5 meters long and 1.3 meters wide, as such, there is plenty of room for gatherings at one end, food prep and food presentation, even with the sink in the island.  The bench has storage on both sides.....oh the storage.....

This is the "sink" side of the island bench.  To the far left we have a bin draw, the bin draw has a bin for rubbish, a bin for recycling and a shelf at the top.  The shelf stops the bins from being over filled (hmmm), keeps any smells contained by acting like a lid and also creates a space for storing spare garbage bags.  Next to the bin draw is the dishwasher and either side of the sink are my gorgeous little creations...the slide out cupboard drawers.  One slide out cupboard drawer has baskets in them, the other has towel rails, like these ones below:

One side will be used for storing sponges, dish-mops etc, the other will have rails for a tea-towel and hand-towel.  This should keep my gorgeous butlers sink free from sponges.

Under the butlers sink is another drawer which has a very clever, "draw in draw" design.  Having a draw under the butlers sink makes access a breeze - no more searching for that illusive cleaner at the back of the cupboard.  The draw in draw means small items like spare sponges, cloths and scourers can be easily found.

The other side of the island bench has full sized cupboards which will help with table setting duties. You will see what I mean when you look at our family room floor plan.

Ground Floor Plan

Our dining table will be situated between the kitchen and family room, so the cupboard at the back of the island bench will be very handy for storing all the things we need for setting the table each night.

We have included a study nook (hmmm, nook?  It is 1.5m wide) in the main area of the kitchen for the same reason the sink is in the island bench - I can keep a close eye on homework, or internet activity, or I can do some work while still being in the main living area of the house.  The study nook is at bench height so the bar stools can be moved around from the bench to the study nook.  There is a draw under the bench in the study nook which acts as a "charging station" - this should keep all the devices neatly stored away while they are charging - they can also be checked in at night so they don't find their way to the kids' bedrooms!

The butlers sink decision was a change of heart.  Originally I had a double bowl undermount sink planned, however after some prompting from our cabinet maker, we changed to a butlers sink, not just for aesthetics but for practicality.  Our butlers sink is about 80cm wide, we favoured the space for washing large pots and platters rather than the need to fill the sink.  This did lead to our decision to include a smaller sink in the butlers' pantry and a double bowl sink in the laundry - which may act as a double ice bucket from time to time!!

There is so much to love about the butlers pantry, an additional dishwasher, room for a 60cm wall oven and microwave, room for a second fridge, a place for the kettle and toaster and so many shelves for food storage.  Those are all a given in a dream butlers pantry, but for me, what I am really excited about are two little storage additions.  The first is the vertical shelves that we are including above the wall oven - these vertical shelves act as dividers for platter storage - no more deconstructing platter towers to get to that super large platter I need at the bottom!

Pinterest

The second storage addition is the book shelves above the fridge.  My cabinet maker suggested keeping the kitchen free from clutter but was all for having shelves for my recipe books above the fridge in the pantry.  We also have a large blank wall in the pantry - this is likely to become the family organisation station and include the whiteboard calendar and a place for the endless stream of school notices and birthday invitations.

Either side of the main oven are two slide out drawers (the same style as either side of the sink) for oven and baking trays, either side of the mantle are condiments cupboards.  The banks of drawers either side of the oven include a shallow top draw for spice racks, tea-towels, foil, cling wrap etc.

Pinterest

Designing this kitchen, thinking about how we will live and come together as a family in this space has been such a joy.

Thanks for stopping by,
Jo

Building lesson # 3 - Getting through the evil that is council planning permission

"Getting through council is a wonderful, learning experience designed to assist the rate payer ensure that their project is sustainable in every way"......said no one ever!

Getting through council in Melbourne is a necessary evil. Don't expect logic or fairness or you will be sorely disappointed.  Every council is different, as is every town planner.  If you happen to get a town planner with a God complex, then buckle up, you are in for a bumpy ride.

So if I was going to build all over again, what would I do differently?  Here's a list which may help you navigate your own experience with the devil incarnate, oh excuse me, also known as your local council town planner.

1.  Know your overlays and your block of land - this is as easy as logging on to Land Victoria for those of us living in Victoria.  Other Australian states have similar websites you can use.  Type in the address of your block and voila...the planning overlays affecting your title will be listed.  Best to jot these down, you will need them.  You can also get this information from your section 32, however if you have had your block as long as we have and the section 32 is in a file somewhere under your house, then Land Victoria is the way to go.

2.  Visit the devil online - simply go to your local council's web address.  Search on their planning descriptions.  For our council, all the various planning overlays were contained in one 1000 page document, but before you fear death by legislation, you only need to refer to those overlays which affect you, as such, the reading for us was a mere 100 pages or so.  One hundred pages seems a lot, however it is imperative that you understand what you can and can't do, on the bright side, you will have the best few weeks' sleep of your life!  For us, knowing the detail of our overlays helped us negotiate a positive outcome with council as I could speak with authority about certain issues and refer them back to their own guidance.

3.  Visit the devil at his/her place of residence - your local council offices.  When you have lodged a planning application, find out who your planner is and ask to meet with them as soon as it can be arranged.  We didn't do this, however I wish we had have.  It is easier to negotiate with people face to face than over the phone or by email where the devil's helpers (planners) can be as rude and unhelpful as they like.  On that note, it doesn't hurt to know who your planner's two away manager is - we needed to contact this two away manager to assist us with his staff member, let's call her Attila for short.

4. It's good to have friends - on council!  Fortunately a colleague and friend of mine is on the Board Audit Committee for the council which governs our property, he was able to help me with people to contact if we got stuck.  Also having an ex-colleague who happened to be a Mayor of a neighbouring council didn't go astray either.  Add to that a mum from school who was a town planner for another Melbourne council and this provided of wealth of inside information which was incredibly helpful for final negotiations.  If you are not as fortunate in this regard, then there are services that you can engage to assist with getting through council, they do come at a cost though.

5.  Here's a taste of some of the fun and games we dealt with.  Our block required a BAL assessment.  A BAL assessment is a Bush Fire Attack level rating.  These provisions were introduced after the tragic 'Black Saturday' bush fires in February 2009.  Fortunately, our block is at one of the lowest ratings which reduces the additional requirements, however without a doubt, money well spent.  You would think having a BAL rating would mean you would have a Bush Fire Management overlay (BMO) on your property - think again, these two requirements at present, do not go hand in glove.  A BMO assists in relaxing some of the native vegetation rules to assist the land owner manage their bush fire risk.   What that meant for us is that we have to be BAL compliant without getting any of the assistance that the BMO can provide.  Add to that the State wide 10/30 rule - that's a rule that allows vegetation clearance within 10 metre of where your house is located....did I say state wide rule?...ahhmm.  Yes, it is a state wide rule introduced by the Royal Commission after Black Saturday, however 21 councils in Melbourne are exempt from the benefits of this rule, of course, our council is one that is exempt.  Two doors to the right of our property, is the boarder for the neighbouring council, that council does allow the state wide 10/30 rule to be used.  So in a nutshell, we have additional cost and burden for the build based on the BAL applied to our property, however no assistance from either the BMO planning overlay or the "State-wide" 10/30 rule.  Our neighbours two doors down though, can remove vegetation to their hearts content.

We have a low-density overlay which applies to our property, originally this was one of the reasons we purchased the property as it meant that the area will never be over developed.  Not far from our block there are a number of beautiful acre blocks, however our block is 1200 sqm in what is really a suburban street.  Our block is rectangular, 20 meters frontage and 60 meters deep, however our overlay required us to have a meandering driveway....huh?  How do you have a meandering driveway on a regular, rectangle block?  Council did concede that this was not possible, however not without time delays and going back and forth over and over again.  Furthermore, they wanted the driveway to be gravel or porous, but demanded that the new cross-over we have to build be concrete,,hmmm.  Fortunately, we were able to get around this ridiculous conundrum by telling council that we would retain the existing gravel driveway that is currently on the property.  You see, you don't need a planning permit for a driveway unless you are obtaining planning for a whole new development - that means once you have your certificate of occupancy, you don't need a permit to build a driveway - that must be how all our neighbours were able to pave their driveways!!

After all that heartache, contemplating selling the block and throwing it all in, 6 months later we were notified that we actually didn't need planning permission and council refunded us our application fee - you heard right!

There's our council war story, I hope your battle scars are few and far between.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo