Process

Below I list step-by-step the process as we have experienced it. Hopefully this will give others and especially people new to building an insight on what to expect - at least from our perspective and how it relates to Ichijo

1. Purchase of land - The land we purchased was already Registered, which meant we could build on it straight away. Through the purchase of the block of land, we applied for and recieved the NSW $5000 New Home Grant which was paid as a reduction of our stamp duty. To qualify for this, it needed to be Vacant land, the value of the land was less than $450,000 and the value of the house to be built was less than $650,000. Teh condition of the Grant is that the slab must be commenced within 26 weeks of the settlement date of your land purchase.
2. Initial enquiry with Ichijo homes -  Once we had secured our land, we took our contract / land layout to ichijo which we had selected based on the Luxury 34 display home at Gledswood Hills (now the Luxury 36 MKII due to the alfresco now being included). We went through and added any upgrades or additions that we were interested in and paid the $750 to have a tender drawn up. This was to include allowances for:
• Kitchen upgrade
• 7 Star Energy Upgrade (Solar and Hebel)
• Butler's Pantry upgrade
• Laundry Upgrade
• 2.7m Cielings
• Air Conditioning
3. Acceptance of tender - Once we were happy with the initial tender, we paid the remaining $4,250 to lock in the pricing and proceed to formal tender stage. Once this was paid, Ichijo commenced with drawing up the contracts based on the tender. We were also issued with a folder that held multiple colour and design brochures for us to read and choose in preparation of our selection consultation. 
4. Contract Signing - We signed the building contracts which were then issued to our bank for our construction loan. the remainder of the 5% deposit was also paid at this stage. The following week, we were contacted by the Ichijo colour consultant to organise meetings with the tile, carpet, and alarm suppliers. We were also contacted directly by other suppliers such as air-conditioning and electrical. finally we booked in our consultations with the Ichijo interior design team to select from our boutique inclusions - all done in a design centre located in Kellyville.