So here we are in May. We've been in our little rental house for about 10 weeks or so, and three weeks ago we were seated in the Rawson Homes offices going through our tender with Paul.
As others have said, the tender is quite simple and the estimators factor in all sorts of things so that there are minimal surprises during the building process.
As Rawsons haven't been able to do a soil test on our land (it's not registered until September 2014) they allowed for a H Class slab and saline treatment (stainless steel brick ties, under-slab membrane, 40MPa concrete) as well as a drop-edge beam on the slab at the front of the house in case the sewer line is close by. They also included bushfire protection (BAL-19 level) although it probably won't be required at that level.
We made a few changes to the standard design too. We removed the pole where the sliding doors opening onto the alfresco area would meet and substituted stacker doors. This has the effect of opening up the area so that the inside flows to the alfresco and the into the back garden with no obstruction, and B wanted an extra window in the master bedroom.
So although the total in the tender was more than we bargained for, at least we know possible extras up front. After all, if it's not required, we don't pay for it. Here's hoping that there will be a few things not required .......
We met our pre-construction administrator (Rachel) who gave us our colour selection pack and a wad of brochures from the brick companies, roof tiles, Colorbond, paint colours, garage doors and others. It's all a bit much especially when we haven't actually seen a built version of the house that we chose!
