Does anyone want to join me waiting for new build to be built and complete

Tygermoth

OOOh today was an options day then.

We went for:

Standard kitchen and tiles
Two extra sockets in the kitchen
One extra socket in bedroom Two
Extra socket in bedroom One
splashback and hood
electric hob
Garden tap
Garden electric point
plumbing for dishwasher

Just over a grand. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. We had a copy of the plans flipped so it was correct and added all the sockets on to our copy. As we were on a budget we bought very little, no tiling or flooring. went or white tiles, oak worksurfaces and white kitchen. we only added the electric hob as we bought a all singing a dancing induction one only a little while ago and we are going to swap them over.

On stalking the house they have stopped work while the drive/back door issue is being looked at and I can see why.

Currently the floor of the garage comes almost in line with floor of the second storey. By the time that garage wall is is high enough to get a car in, then add a pitched roof its going to overshadow the garden and be very high up the house. and that damp proof course will have to come further up than it currently is.

The sales lady though it was hilarious and said we will be able to park up and put the shopping though a bedroom window! (not quite - but the sales office agreed it needs re thinking)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67469783/hilda%20-%20week%205.png

The best way to resolve the issue would be to split the drive and stagger the garages. But as they have built the base already I am not sure they will.

Also surprisingly, being that its a Sunday the council have emailed to say they are doing a site visit due to an alleged breach of planning conditions.

Hou

I found options very stressful, we couldn't agree on anything in the run up to it. We found going to the site a few weekends in a row and pulling everything out of their cupboards to decide on things. Our actual options meeting only took ten mins as I already had everything written down.

Our total options came to £5,200 but we got a £4k voucher when we bought the house but it took some negotiating. Thankfully we get turf, outdoor tap and fencing included

Went down the site today, still no date until this week but I will give them a big push. I also took a massive bag of sweets down to keep them sweet

-pete-_2

@Tygermoth, from everything you described I thought you were on a massive hill, its a little worrying that they seem to be having problems with what looks like a relatively minor gradient. Good to hear you got the options sorted tho.

@Hou, you did very well getting that voucher, we would have loved to have spent a bit more on them (flooring would have being nice!) We didn't have too much stress with it, we had hit pinterest hard before we started choosing so we had a good idea of what we were both looking for. We were pretty methodical and wrote everything down, we had vetos for the options that we weren't keen on and I think we made some pretty good choices.

Good idea with the sweets though

pennyprincess

Awww I want to choose things ! _ I have been looking at customised splashbacks to buy independently though !
Tygermoth - i am very jealous of your garden electric point - I am thinking about Christmas here!! Great idea about the sweets!

As we have not had the mortgage offer through still i don't want to go down to new house but I am busy pintresting christmas home ideas lol!

Latest is apparently underwriting is finished but awaiting details from husband employer re:his complicated payslips we will get there hopefully before we go away for Easter .

Also had the draft contracts and stuff from Solicitors - had a good look at the restrictive covenants on Saturday Morning - dissapointed we wont be able to keep a boat or a VW camper van on our drive way ( No garage) If I was ever in a position to buy a boat we have lots of local sailing clubs one in walking distance so that is ok but the campervan breaks my heart haha

bt1

I want to choose things too! After reading all this, I asked the sales office when we can choose options, but they just said they would contact me when they have more info. (I'm so impatient!)


We finally got our postal address end of last week. So we can finally start applying for mortgages, sent all the stuff off to the MA today!


@pennyprincess - how random re camper van!!

-pete-_2

One minor update from us:

We exchanged today! :beer:

"Only" had to pay 5% now due to Help to Buy, rest will be done on completion. Still - the bank account does not look quite as healthy as it once did

Steelergirl

Hi all,

I've found this forum really helpful throughout the house-buying process so far and when I saw this thread I felt compelled to actually join and post.

I'm a FTB and I exchanged contracts on my new build last week, due to be completed in June so similar timeframes to a lot of people on this thread.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one 'stalking' my house. I live quite close to the development so it's easy for me to call in and have a look - pretty sure the sales negotiator is sick of the sight of me! I am trying to limit myself to visiting once every couple of weeks so we'll see how that goes...

It's interesting to see what options others have gone for. I didn't get any extras as an incentive because the development has been really popular, most of the houses have sold straightaway. I've tried to keep the extras from the developer to a minimum so I've done things like sockets and TV points and I've had the bathroom fully finished so at least one room will be done (also looks like I'll be doing the fencing through the developer as one set of neighbours want the fence done before they move in which is fair enough so we'll split the cost of that I reckon). Everything else I'm either getting external contractors in or calling in family favours

Choosing the kitchen was fun - swapping in and out different worktop and cupboard samples to see what went well together and then factoring in the tiles as well but I got there in the end. As someone else mentioned it's quite difficult to imagine what a room is going to look like fully tiled when you just have one tile in front of you but I do love the tiles I've picked and can't wait to see what it all looks like now!

Good luck to everyone else with their purchases :cool:

Derboy

For all those impatiently waiting to choose kitchens and bathrooms etc. Better to wait. We had to change half of our original choices recently as the KBB supplier had changed their range of designs.

fashionvictim

Shall we list our milestones? Re-quote and add yourself & your update

Fashion Victim - Terrace House TW
Reserved Sept 2015 (Build finish window est Dec '15/ January '16)
Options/Extras chosen,
Exchanged,
Completion now (finally) due end of April 2016.

fashionvictim

-pete- wrote: »

One minor update from us:

We exchanged today! :beer:

"Only" had to pay 5% now due to Help to Buy, rest will be done on completion. Still - the bank account does not look quite as healthy as it once did

Woo hooo ! Well done !