Catch-up Blog 7: Building consent! (Aug/Sep 2018)

I (Andrew) moved from London back to NZ in mid-July. Alessandra moved to Italy with Fiorella and Dario, while I was finishing off my contract with the Salesforce go-lives of Ukraine, New Zealand and Australia as pilot markets – some long days and nights with time zone difference to London into early September.

And then it was time to shift my attention fully onto the house; we needed to finalise the loan with BNZ, which required a detailed plan and budget, an as-built registered valuation for the mortgage and the build insurances etc... We also needed to finalise our contract for the build with Pat, to get the Geotech and Structural Engineering completed and perform a final revision of the plans and specs with the Architects before submitting to council…  There were many other details to consider, lawyers, suppliers, quotes to get in from various sub-contractors so that’s just the highlights!

So, a whirlwind of activity starting part-time in August, going full-time for me from early September.  An application for building consent requires a lot of specifications in addition to the house plans, and so many detailed decisions were required with lots of collaboration between us, the architect Alex and our builder Pat in this period. 

Alex submitted our application to council in August, and the focus of attention shifted to getting moved out onto the land, getting earthworks done and finalising Geotech and floor design revision, so we could submit as an update to our building application already with the council during the RFI period.

Alessandra arrived in New Zealand on the 1st of October.. , on the same day our building consent was approved by Hastings District Council and Aqualine Contractors started the earthworks for the caravan site, container site and the building platform.  A big day, we had fully moved to New Zealand as our home and had moved from preparing to build, to building…

A very important step, Approved !!

It is really important to rapidly develop a good understanding of this step in the build process if you are in the role of project manager; how much effort and time is involved, by who, and what can be done in parallel vs sequentially...  a lot of time can be consumed and it’s easy to get lost in the detail.

So, do keep talking with your trusted advisors; your architect, your builder, the council, the sub-contractors who will all aid your understanding of the steps and interdependencies, as there are many… so haunt them with questions, over communicate sharing what is happening to minimise assumptions and misalignment and all the while keep driving the critical path activities until you succeed.

Another secret to success, or at the very least less stress... it to create and document a schedule of activities (a high level project plan) early, so you have an idea of what the critical path is and where you have slack, what’s flexible and what’s not. 

Create it with advice from your expert advisors, your architect, builder and key trades subcontractors – so do it with them, but own it yourself and as you learn keep refining it (and your budget) as you go.