The Design Review Panel: Part 2 - Revisiting the setbacks.

After finally receiving a site plan with our first choice Jandson Home, the Odyssey 43, we contacted the DRP to re-discuss our dilemna.

Our excitement at buying a 740sqm block of land lost some of its shine when we found the choice of available homes to fit within the DRP guidelines was, limiting.

I'm not confident buying off-the-plan, I guess I'm more of a visual, touchy person. If a store dummy has on a complete outfit and my size is available, I will buy the entire ensemble. So too, when choosing a house. If I can visit and walk through a display home and we are both comfortable with it, then we are more confident to purchase what we see. It should be interesting when we go through the choosing colours and material phases, I simply like what I saw at Homeworld. My response when we reach this stage, "just build one that looks like that thanks, along with the front fence and the tall banana tree on the corner next to the dining room patio.

But our precious block of land was an odd-shaped block. So while we will have a decent backyard, we will have a sizeable front yard too because of the skewed front boundary. Trying to fit our first choice home within these setback guidelines was proving to be a real challenge.

After sending four emails to the Design Review Panel (DRP), one phone discussion with the DRP and a phone call to Blacktown City Council if they would consider moving the tree bay, I received three email replies re-stating guidelines, before I received a fourth email reply with the words

From the site plan and floor plans, I think this could be acceptable, subject to
all the other Guideline/DCP issues...

Of course, like many other home-builders at The Ponds, this is a balance of compromises between building a home we want that also fits in the guidelines. Add to this the pressure of completing the build and landscaping within the required two years to receive the $5K landscape rebate. A rebate already deducted from our lenders valuation on the land, so you can expect to see us on a daily basis out there in the yard wearing our new gumboots complete with new garden tools, digging and planting.

Sound like fun? We'll see.