Delay Delay

Had a meeting yesterday with the builder's representatives who was in town over the weekend.  Only then did I find out the FIRB document that I submitted 10 days ago were not submitted at all due to some stickers that was not removed on the original document.  So I am definitely not going to receive an approval within the next 1 month, 2 weeks delay without notification.  Hate it.

Anyhow, the only progress is probably seeing the entire plan drawn out and the actual house plan.  HOWEVER, looks like what I wanted originally to build did not come out at all in the drawings.  They had given me a modified plan of a display home they have.  The consolation is this display home plan is actually one of the plan I like from their range.  The build cost is horrifying though, total at this moment is AUD 18,000 out of what I will like the total cost to come up to.  House is also much smaller than I want it to be.  There is a remark on the drawing saying the house cannot be more than 50% of the total area which is like total waste of some land I have at the back so I have a smaller home than I wanted but a huge backyard (Which is not a downside given that I think a huge backyard will be a big plus to tenants with kids who want room within the house area to let their kids roam safely).  I think I will need to do some research on that more because I do see some houses with only a 1m lengthwise backyard compared to me having like 7m lengthwide backyard.

Also, how can a letter box cost AUD 400 to build when it is a simple brick like structure which is nothing fanciful? On top of that a clothesline for AUD 435? Arrghhh this is just so weird.  Thinking of taking that out and doing it myself.

I can definitely think of items I want to take out, like keeping the passage openings 1c shorter rather than pay AUD 2000 to up 1c. Makes no sense either.  Removing of the funky windows they are designing in the study room will save me AUD 516.  At the end of the day, the study faces the side of the house, I don't need the windows to look good there and being a study, I want lots of lights coming through versus the funky windows that will not fully allow the lights to stream through.

Once I managed to scan it, I will try to post it for everyone to see and also hopefully post it on some forum to let some experts tweak the design a bit for me.