Land Construction Complete

I checked the status update of our land registration from the website and I saw that the construction has been completed on the 5 November 2010.  Unfortunately though we went away on our holiday and did not have the time to visit our land.

It's amazing to see the difference when we first set foot on Waterfall block about 6 months ago .  It's not like we only visited the land a couple of times.  Over the 6 months period we have visited a number of times but it just feels different.  A noticeable difference.

This is what it looks like 6 months ago:

This is what it looks like today (taken from almost at the same spot as the previous):

One thing that we did notice is that the big green electricity box that is situated on our neighboring block is not there.  Not that we are complaining of course.  We think that it is great that the box wasn't there.  That would only mean the restriction at the front yard of our block no longer applies.  YAY!!!  No more headaches trying to find a material with a certain fire rating!

When we visited our block, we met our first neighbors.  The couple own the land just right behind us.  I have a feeling that we are going to have some very nice people living around us.

Landscape Plan

To get the developer approval as well as Blacktown Council, we needed to submit our development application along with the landscape plan.  Well other than the landscape plan, I don't think that the developer needed to see the development application.  Only the council do, however in order to progress to development application, we need to get by this first.

We hired a professional service, recommended by Metricon, to come up with our landscape design and plan.  The company is called Eco Design and according to The Ponds Design Panel, they are one of the company that have successfully submitted a landscape plan that comply to the covenant rules. There were actually two companies that Metricon had recommend but we chose to go with Eco Design.  We have heard and talked to them before earlier in the year in one of the Home Show annual exhibition in Darling Harbour held between April and May.  We'll definitely be making our way back to the exhibition next year to search for some home improvement ideas once it is built.  Plus they have some nice give away at the show some times.

We visited their stand and quite impressed with their design.  There were obviously some other landscaper within the exhibition but in terms of price, Eco Design was one of the reasonable one.  So when they were recommended to us plus they are also one of the company that have worked with The Ponds design panel, we didn't hesitate to acquire their services and it was well worth it.

This is quite a big move for us, having to move from a two bedroom unit to a four bedroom house (potentially five bedroom if we rearrange the floor plan).  In all these years as a family, we haven't had to do any gardening type of work, let alone lawn mowing.  Thus we wanted a garden that is easy to maintain and waterwise.

I've told our landscape consultant that I am a big fan of modern Japanese themed garden.  But I think that some of the 'Japanese' like plant that we have chosen will break our rules of easy maintenance.  Some of the other plans that we chose were natives and recommended by The Ponds design panel.

Judging by the very long list of the plant schedule, it would appear that it's going to cost us a fortune!

Some plants that were chosen for us and some that we chose ourselves: