Plans Are Approved

Yay! Our plans have been approved.

I was heavily stalking our local council website to see the status of our plans and was really disappointed that the plans were approved 13th of June, and when I contacted BH the week after, they had no news for me and told me that it has to go through their head office. Anywho, I heard back from them last Thursday, the 14th of July to say that the plans had been officially accepted by both council and BH.

Now they need some documentation from my lender to show we have been given preapproval, and then we book in for our colour selections and contract signing appointment. That will be in two weeks time.

We have checked through the colour selections booklet so many times and we have found it really hard to make a decision, probably because it's going to be our forever home that we will live in, well, forever.  No big deal, right!?

Anyways, our sales rep kind of chastised me that there's no point booking us in for our colours if we haven't agreed on anything so Aaron and I sat down over the weekend and made almost every single decision. The only thing we haven't agreed upon as of yet is the kitchen bench.
We've upgraded to caesarstone bench tops and one of us wants jet black, and the other wants ocean foam. We are having light grey flooring, white cabinetry and stainless steel appliances and handles. What do you think?



Until next time, when hopefully I have more to tell you and can share our colour selections!!!
Sheridan

Council Amalgamation - What it means for us

On Friday it was announced that the Gosford City Council and Wyong Shire Council would be amalgamated into a Central Coast Council. As a result, all of our councilors were given the flick. Our region is now being managed by a council that is run by administrators.
And whilst I know that, government-wise, our region is probably in some sort of turmoil, all I can think is "what's happening to our house plans that are supposed to be approved by the Wyong Shire Council any day now" (think positive thoughts, think positive thoughts).
Definition of dilemma, IMO.

I called Beechwood Homes Sales Office at Cooranbong on Saturday and the lady I spoke with told me that unfortunately she couldn't tell me anything I didn't already know. She'd follow it up Monday and let me know.

So I spoke to another rep today, and here's the scoop as I understand it:

• Any plans that are already in Council are going through as per normal
• The Central Coast Council will be altering the state of the Wyong and Gosford council as far as labour and administration staff, however, it should not directly affect plans (the only risk I put to her is that staff applying themselves to our plans may be retrenched/dismissed and our plans may be redirected to someone else, thus lengthening the process)
• Beechwood Homes have a team at their HQ dedicated to chasing up plans in council. If they feel that any plans have taken longer than what Beechwood Homes deems as an adequate amount of time, they will follow this up with council.

Oh and lastly, our plans have been in with  council for a week now! Are they done yet?! I'll just sit here waiting by the phone...

There you have it. Hope there are some people now feeling a little relief that your house plans are in good hands with this weird hybrid "Central Coast Council".