It’s not easy being green (and pink)

And I was right to be worried. It is TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS more than the estimate. I’ll discuss it with Leigh tonight - I’m not sure where this leaves us.

Update: Leigh talked to the builder (and was far more conciliatory than I was expecting) and basically he’s not budging. He offered to take part of the payment in cash to reduce the GST we’d have to pay but I’m inclined to say no to that, mainly because he said it would help us and him, and I am not of a mind to help him. Our mortgage broker is investigating whether we can actually get any more money, and then we’ll see what to do next. Will this reno EVER happen??

Update 2: The mortgage broker emailed to say the valuation has been ordered, so obviously the bank is proceeding with the application, but we don’t know what amount they have approved! Guess we’ll do what we always do – wait.

Update 3: Well, the valuation is done. I don’t know what to expect. The valuer was an odd man who kept going on about the slope of the new roof and how we should test it by holding a super-long piece of pipe at the angle it will be on to see if water will flow down . Why? I don’t know. He’s not a building inspector, he’s a valuer. Just say the house is worth a million dollars and go about your business, okay?

A miracle happened today. The assessing officer looking at our development application actually completed a site visit! But wait – there’s more! He actually told us what paperwork we will need to supply in order to get a construction certificate!

The fact is, the site inspection only happened because leigh rang and politely enquired as to the reason for our two month wait (and the only reason she rang was because I told her I have DONE my bit and am sick of chasing people around on this – but that’s a whole other story).

At any rate, it’s done. The last time I spoke to the council guy he was blathering on about us probably needing to put a waterproof membrane over the existing concrete. Well, today it was pouring (again) and the guy got to see for himself that the concrete was bone dry and thus already suitably waterproofed. I am glad it was raining when he was here because I just know he never would have believed us if we simply told him it always stayed dry.

He’s also been going on about us needing ‘structural details’ to apply for the construction certificate (the piece of paper that lets us actually start building, once the development is approved). I’ve asked several times what, exactly, he needed us to supply but he’s always talked in circles. Today we managed to pin him down and get an answer.

He needs a diagram showing in detail how the new roof will connect with the existing roof so as to keep out the rain. He needs details of the posts and beams that will hold up said roof. And he needs something to say the wall timbers will comply with the building code. We could have organised all this weeks ago if he’d just told us, but now it looks instead like we’ll be getting the development application approved first, with the construction certificate lagging behind for who knows how long.

Oh, and he also tried to tell us we’d be required to install a rainwater tank because of the size of the extension. When I pointed out that we were not actually altering the size of the house AT ALL he looked perplexed and said he’d need to get back to us.

Anyway, for now I am just happy for some progress. the rest will take how long it takes. One of the upsides to having absolutely no idea how we’ll pay for this is that I no longer feel so pressured to get things approved!