Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Canberra custom KDR 101May 05, 2018 10:33 pm It's amazing how much having lighting working inside makes a difference. I can actually take a photo that shows a a vaguely realistic colour for the kitchen upper cabinets: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ (There's also lighting strips under the wall cabinets to provide task lighting): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The wet area floor tiles (still looking too dark, but much better than previous photos): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The ensuite vanity (complete with inbuilt vanity sidelights): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And the stairs, now uncovered: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Here's where the master bed will be going - the light switches in the middle has been carefully located to be above most typical bed-heads while still being low enough to easily reach while in bed - there are three switches on that plate, one each for the two reading lights, plus one for the ceiling lights (as part of a 2-way switching arrangement). The windows have been sighted for cross-ventilation and extra natural light (the window on the right looks dark in the photo as it's looking directly onto a tree - it gives a big "bedroom in the treetops" feel). The power outlets under the windows have been located to sit above typical bedside tables, and contain USB power connectors. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ In the upstairs linen cupboard, the laundry chute has finally been completed: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Outside, the water tank has been moved several inches to its correct location, and now sits much more neatly on its pad: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And in the garage, the Merbau steps have been assembled, ready to place in front of all the doors: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ There's a couple of minor touch-ups required, but generally we're looking good for handover on Tuesday. Re: Canberra custom KDR 102May 10, 2018 11:23 am Quick update: handover went well, although some subsequent dramas about getting our telecoms hooked up (hopefully done by now). Our vinyl flooring is going in, and we've started moving some things in (although we won't do the actual moving in until later - we're still waiting on our certificate of occupancy to be issued anyway). The finished product is looking good, a few minor cosmetic defects but nothing major or structural (confirmed by our independent inspector), and also a couple of lessons learnt. I'll try to post something a bit more significant in the next few days, but right now we're really busy, as you might imagine... Re: Canberra custom KDR 103May 10, 2018 10:18 pm algernon Quick update: handover went well, although some subsequent dramas about getting our telecoms hooked up (hopefully done by now). Our vinyl flooring is going in, and we've started moving some things in (although we won't do the actual moving in until later - we're still waiting on our certificate of occupancy to be issued anyway). The finished product is looking good, a few minor cosmetic defects but nothing major or structural (confirmed by our independent inspector), and also a couple of lessons learnt. I'll try to post something a bit more significant in the next few days, but right now we're really busy, as you might imagine... Re: Canberra custom KDR 104May 11, 2018 9:43 pm I'm sure you've had a very busy week! Super exciting though, to be moving your stuff in already! The kitchen looks slick, I am jealous! The thought of working in a brand new kitchen is just amazing.. Love the stairs and ensuite vanity too. A question about one small detail of your home - the linen chute. This has been something in our plans since the start, but I'm wondering, whose job is it to fit this? Does it come under the scope of the ??joiners ?the main carpentry crew ?someone else? Is yours fully custom built or from a kit? We are up to nutting out all the million final details of the planning stage... taking forever but I keep telling myself the more we sort out now, the less pain future us will have.. When you have a spare minute, or just get sick of unpacking, share some more photos with us! Re: Canberra custom KDR 105May 11, 2018 9:50 pm Oh an p.s. is your linen chute upstairs within the linen cupboard itself? That is our plan and wondering what is the best way to go about it. Re: Canberra custom KDR 106May 11, 2018 11:00 pm Searching4 knowledge Hi Algernon, well done and congratulations. Looking back, what if anything, would you change? This might be design, materials or anything else that comes to mind. As your journey comes to an end, mine is about to start. Thanks, Bruce I'm hoping to get together a full list once things settled down, but there's a few things that come to mind. Overall, happy with the plan. There's a couple of things that I think can be improved in theory, but don't have concrete ideas of how I'd do things differently in practice. I think we've ended up with a good balance of all the tradeoffs. There was a little rushing with the final plan as we had to redo it in a short period of time due to compliance issues that were only identified at the last minute - some of the dimensions could be fine-tuned, and I've mentioned before about the stairs not being exactly as I wanted due to the placement of the floor joists. I would, in hindsight, use my own structural engineer rather than the builder's (the builder's engineer was remote and it was a pretty generic "plans in, engineering out" arrangement). There's a couple of things that I might've tweaked had I had the chance to bounce things off an engineer in-person (like upgrading the kitchen lintel), and it would've been good to have a clear engineering plan for the interfloor structure before finalising the floor plan - a few placement issues came up during the build. Using my own engineer would also give me peace of mind via a second opinion on key structural elements, rather than having to assume that the truss manufacturer read everything correctly and didn't miss anything. I'd also, as part of the plan, do elevations of all the walls, clearly indicating positions of power/data points, light switches, towel rails, etc. This will save time having to communicate these things during the build, but mainly it'd get us thinking of these details well in advance so we didn't have to make calls on the spot. It'd also allow extra time to identify any issues in advance and make adjustments accordingly - there were a couple of things we had to change at the last minute due to issues with placements only being identified post-framing. Also good to get "stakeholder signoff" on these placements in advance - I might've done one or two things differently had I known about the last-minute "executive overrides" from the other half Materials - overall, happy with the way we went. There were a couple of issues with lack of familiarity from the carpenters and plumbers with how to fix to Hebel floors - I'd suggest to others using this product that they get the official product guide to fixing and make sure the builder has copies to pass on to the trades. Despite these issues, though, I'm happy with the choice of PowerFloor. If I were to use an alternative, it'd be a full-on suspended concrete slab, rather than going back to particleboard. The EPS cladding system also presented a few challenges, as you can't fix something directly to it as you can with masonry or timber. Thinking ahead and planning about anything you might want to attach to the outside of the house - pergolas, shutters, hose reels, clotheslines - is strongly recommended so you can provide for it in the initial design. Note that you can adjust post-build by simply cutting holes in the EPS and attaching to the frame (being sure to waterproof the penetrations afterwards), so it's not the end of the world if you miss something, but best to make specific provision in advance. That being said, still happy with it as our choice. One thing I do think we could've done better is the location of the border between the XPS (slab-edge insulation) and EPS cladding. The builder put it low-down as a "shadowline" just above the concrete apron, which is a clean visual effect, but I think complicated the termite protection and drainage arrangements too much to be worth it. In hindsight I'd bring the XPS up a bit more (maybe around 10cm above the apron) - much more straightforward, at the expense of a visual line around the house at that level. I hope that makes sense. I'd also extend the XPS further up to fully replace the EPS in front of doorways - we had some issue with wear to the EPS under the front door during the course of the build. Installing a wooden strip across the exposed top resolved the issue, but I think it'd be better overall if it were underpinned with structural XPS instead of EPS. A big point: accept that things won't be perfect, but close enough is good enough. Avoid design that requires everything to be *exactly right* - I'm not convinced that the stress would be worth it. An example is to design-in redundancy with insulation (e.g. like we did with EPS cladding combined with batts in the wall frames), so any imperfections in one layer are mitigated by the second. Likewise, our use of a single airtight membrane combined with some basic other airtighness methods (such as square-set plastering and internal wall insulation) means that we were able to achieve a good level of airtighness without the expense (and stress) of having to make sure that the membrane was absolutely perfect. I'm very happy with our approach to this and how it turned out, especially on a "bang-for-buck" basis. Also, if running comms conduits from a power pole and the sparky finishes short, be sure to have the exact spot marked so you and the contractor don't have to spend half a day digging up the yard to find the ends (grr....) Re: Canberra custom KDR 107May 11, 2018 11:12 pm JessieNewie The kitchen looks slick, I am jealous! The thought of working in a brand new kitchen is just amazing.. Love the stairs and ensuite vanity too. A question about one small detail of your home - the linen chute. This has been something in our plans since the start, but I'm wondering, whose job is it to fit this? Does it come under the scope of the ??joiners ?the main carpentry crew ?someone else? Is yours fully custom built or from a kit? We are up to nutting out all the million final details of the planning stage... taking forever but I keep telling myself the more we sort out now, the less pain future us will have.. When you have a spare minute, or just get sick of unpacking, share some more photos with us! Thanks! We're certainly looking forward to getting into the kitchen, and everyone's been commenting on the stairs as well. For the laundry chute, the "frame" of the chute as it passed through the floor structure was done by the main carpentry crew (basically just a square wooden box with open top and bottom). The rest of the chute was custom built by our kitchen and laundry joiners (who did the laundry and kitchen), and was a fairly straightforward job for them. We went with an in-cupboard chute for simplicity and to cut down on any draughts. More photos are on the to-do list! Re: Canberra custom KDR 108May 12, 2018 6:49 am Your posts are always so informative, big thanks for the time you put into them, it helps so many of us others who are yet to start! Cheers for the laundry chute info, sounds relatively straightforward. Re: Canberra custom KDR 109May 12, 2018 11:38 am algernon Searching4 knowledge Hi Algernon, well done and congratulations. Looking back, what if anything, would you change? This might be design, materials or anything else that comes to mind. As your journey comes to an end, mine is about to start. Thanks, Bruce I'm hoping to get together a full list once things settled down, but there's a few things that come to mind. Overall, happy with the plan. There's a couple of things that I think can be improved in theory, but don't have concrete ideas of how I'd do things differently in practice. I think we've ended up with a good balance of all the tradeoffs. There was a little rushing with the final plan as we had to redo it in a short period of time due to compliance issues that were only identified at the last minute - some of the dimensions could be fine-tuned, and I've mentioned before about the stairs not being exactly as I wanted due to the placement of the floor joists. I would, in hindsight, use my own structural engineer rather than the builder's (the builder's engineer was remote and it was a pretty generic "plans in, engineering out" arrangement). There's a couple of things that I might've tweaked had I had the chance to bounce things off an engineer in-person (like upgrading the kitchen lintel), and it would've been good to have a clear engineering plan for the interfloor structure before finalising the floor plan - a few placement issues came up during the build. Using my own engineer would also give me peace of mind via a second opinion on key structural elements, rather than having to assume that the truss manufacturer read everything correctly and didn't miss anything. I'd also, as part of the plan, do elevations of all the walls, clearly indicating positions of power/data points, light switches, towel rails, etc. This will save time having to communicate these things during the build, but mainly it'd get us thinking of these details well in advance so we didn't have to make calls on the spot. It'd also allow extra time to identify any issues in advance and make adjustments accordingly - there were a couple of things we had to change at the last minute due to issues with placements only being identified post-framing. Also good to get "stakeholder signoff" on these placements in advance - I might've done one or two things differently had I known about the last-minute "executive overrides" from the other half Materials - overall, happy with the way we went. There were a couple of issues with lack of familiarity from the carpenters and plumbers with how to fix to Hebel floors - I'd suggest to others using this product that they get the official product guide to fixing and make sure the builder has copies to pass on to the trades. Despite these issues, though, I'm happy with the choice of PowerFloor. If I were to use an alternative, it'd be a full-on suspended concrete slab, rather than going back to particleboard. The EPS cladding system also presented a few challenges, as you can't fix something directly to it as you can with masonry or timber. Thinking ahead and planning about anything you might want to attach to the outside of the house - pergolas, shutters, hose reels, clotheslines - is strongly recommended so you can provide for it in the initial design. Note that you can adjust post-build by simply cutting holes in the EPS and attaching to the frame (being sure to waterproof the penetrations afterwards), so it's not the end of the world if you miss something, but best to make specific provision in advance. That being said, still happy with it as our choice. One thing I do think we could've done better is the location of the border between the XPS (slab-edge insulation) and EPS cladding. The builder put it low-down as a "shadowline" just above the concrete apron, which is a clean visual effect, but I think complicated the termite protection and drainage arrangements too much to be worth it. In hindsight I'd bring the XPS up a bit more (maybe around 10cm above the apron) - much more straightforward, at the expense of a visual line around the house at that level. I hope that makes sense. I'd also extend the XPS further up to fully replace the EPS in front of doorways - we had some issue with wear to the EPS under the front door during the course of the build. Installing a wooden strip across the exposed top resolved the issue, but I think it'd be better overall if it were underpinned with structural XPS instead of EPS. A big point: accept that things won't be perfect, but close enough is good enough. Avoid design that requires everything to be *exactly right* - I'm not convinced that the stress would be worth it. An example is to design-in redundancy with insulation (e.g. like we did with EPS cladding combined with batts in the wall frames), so any imperfections in one layer are mitigated by the second. Likewise, our use of a single airtight membrane combined with some basic other airtighness methods (such as square-set plastering and internal wall insulation) means that we were able to achieve a good level of airtighness without the expense (and stress) of having to make sure that the membrane was absolutely perfect. I'm very happy with our approach to this and how it turned out, especially on a "bang-for-buck" basis. Also, if running comms conduits from a power pole and the sparky finishes short, be sure to have the exact spot marked so you and the contractor don't have to spend half a day digging up the yard to find the ends (grr....) Thanks for your thoughts, this is what I think the forum can be so good at. Letting others know the good and the not so good. We are using Hebal flooring as well, in fact, there is a lot in common with your build. I designed this house with Home Designer, I know you moved on to another program but I found it was good enough to be able to plan the design and give it to my drafty (Design Confidential in Sydney) to bring up to specs for council. The main difference here is it generally doesn't get as cold or as hot on the Northern Beaches as Canberra but we do get humidity...which I dislike. Won't be long now before I start my own description of our build. Thanks, Bruce Re: Canberra custom KDR 110May 12, 2018 10:07 pm Searching4 knowledge Thanks for your thoughts, this is what I think the forum can be so good at. Letting others know the good and the not so good. We are using Hebal flooring as well, in fact, there is a lot in common with your build. I designed this house with Home Designer, I know you moved on to another program but I found it was good enough to be able to plan the design and give it to my drafty (Design Confidential in Sydney) to bring up to specs for council. The main difference here is it generally doesn't get as cold or as hot on the Northern Beaches as Canberra but we do get humidity...which I dislike. Won't be long now before I start my own description of our build. Thanks, Bruce I look forward to seeing how you're going! Are you using EPS cladding too, or another wall system? I still think Home Designer is a good product, if a little US-centric, and certainly good enough for planning to pass on to a drafty. The main reason I moved on was that I got access to Revit for free; otherwise, I would've stuck with Home Designer. For the Hebel, the specific issues we encountered were around fixing and cutting. The carpenters did a very good job of installing it - but then made a real meal of fixing the floor-mounted bath spout because they didn't bother to do any research (in hindsight I'd just use a wall-mounted bath spout instead to avoid the hassle), and also were a bit overzealous cutting the laundry chute penetration and caused a small section of the Hebel outside the cut to crumble away (easily rectified with filler). They became quite "gunshy" about fixing anything to the Hebel, so when they framed the upstairs linen they left a section of frame (the section that sits between the two sets of double doors) "floating" - with the effect that by final fixing it had warped slightly out of alignment, leaving us with slightly uneven wardrobe doors. Nothing major (still within permitted tolerances, and not worth all the ripping out needed to properly rectify), but a minor annoyance that we could've had an almost perfect result if it had been done properly. All it would've taken was a couple of 14-10 bugle head course-threaded screws. The Hebel is a good product, but it does need to be treated with a little care - not just during installation, but during fixing as well. If you can, I'd suggest confirming recommended fixing methods directly with CSR and then make sure they're specifically referenced in any plans/docs you give the trades. Do the same with any other "less mainstream" materials as well, just in case, but if you're using specialised installers then there shouldn't be any issues (our NRG Greenboard and Proctorwrap installers were brilliant - no issues there whatsoever and very happy with the work). Also, just to illustrate what I was talking about with the front door: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ In hindsight, the circled section of EPS should've been XPS instead (to be able to directly carry the weight of traffic over the doorstep without needing additional wooden framing). Fortunately, one of the advantages of the polystyrene cladding systems is that you can cut and replace sections as needed (the biggest hassle will be redoing the rendering). Re: Canberra custom KDR 111May 12, 2018 10:12 pm JessieNewie Your posts are always so informative, big thanks for the time you put into them, it helps so many of us others who are yet to start! Cheers for the laundry chute info, sounds relatively straightforward. Thanks! I've learned a lot from these (and other) forums, and hopefully my contributions will be as useful to future builders. The laundry chute really was easier than I was expecting. The biggest hassle was working around a floor truss that was in a less-than-ideal location - again, in hindsight I'd do my own engineering up-front, so I could work out the precise placement of all structural elements and identify (and rectify) any placement issues. Re: Canberra custom KDR 112May 12, 2018 10:44 pm And now, the first greenery: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Just a potted dwarf lemon tree, which probably won't be staying there. We've got a few fruit tree saplings that we've been growing in pots - we're now moving them across to get ready for planting. In the meantime, the Karndean looselay vinyl fooring is being installed. The downstairs bedroom has already been finished (where it's a simple matter of putting underlay down directly on the slab and then installing the planks on top), but I'm still trying to get a good photo of the finished result. Upstairs, it's a much more involved job over several days. First, the Hebel is cleaned and primed: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Then a levelling compound (Ardex) is applied: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Apart from providing a solid, smooth and level surface for the flooring, the Ardex also covers and protects the Hebel from any impacts, while still allowing control joint movement (@Searching4knowledge, possibly relevant for your build). The next step is the installation of Regupol acoustic underlay: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The Regupol's main purpose is to reduce impact noise and floor vibrations from people walking around upstairs. It also helps a little in reducing general noise transfer between floors, and (apparently) will make the floor feel a little softer. The Regupol is only being installed upstairs; there's not much point installing it on the downstairs floor (on the concrete slab). The actual vinyl planks will start going down on Monday. Re: Canberra custom KDR 113May 18, 2018 6:42 pm Algernon, Everything is looking great, and it must be good to be coming to the end of the build. Hope that your moving in goes smoothly as well. Variegated Re: Canberra custom KDR 114May 22, 2018 3:52 pm Quick update: we've moved in (although we still have a lot of stuff - furniture and other things - in a big pile in the living room that's only gradually being sorted out). A couple of minor issues - the dishwasher wouldn't fit into its recess due to the kickboard not being trimmed off properly (apparently fixed this morning - I look forward to seeing it this evening!), and we've had to order a drain hose extension for the washing machine. There's also been issues with getting the painter to come back and finish his defect list (now booked to come back next Wednesday to finish stuff that should've been done last week - the builder is even more annoyed at the painter than we are). Otherwise, though, it's all going well. On the night before we moved in, we set the downstairs airconditioning to maintain 18 degrees through the night (overnight minimum was about -2). In a day with an 18 degree maximum, with furniture being moved in all day and with windows open for ventilation, the solar gain ensured that it was still definitely t-shirt weather inside. Walking around barefoot at 11pm you can still distinctly feel the difference between the northern sun-exposed areas and the cooler southern part of the house. The upstairs airconditioning was run to maintain a constant temperature for the new flooring to set, but hasn't been run since, despite sub-zero overnight temperatures. We open up the windows in the evenings to provide cross-ventilation and fresh air, and still have a comfortably warm house to sleep in. The house we've just moved from had a 4.5 star energy rating, but this is just worlds apart - and in another universe entirely from the typical the ex-govvie houses we've experienced (including the one that used to be on this block). Re: Canberra custom KDR 115Jun 18, 2018 10:47 pm Okay, its now (almost) a month after move-in. It's been hard to find the time to post with everything going on! Overall, we're quite pleased with how well the house is performing. It's not a Passivhaus and hasn't been done to that high a level of airtightness - but we suspect that we've achieved an even higher level of airtightness that we were aiming for, based on how poorly the dishwasher dries the dishes when the house is fully closed up. Being a fairly airtight house, and not having a dedicated ERV system, we control ventilation manually by opening windows in various combinations/locations depending on our use patterns and which areas we want to get ventilation through. While it might seem strange to spend effort on airtightness and then opening windows, the aim is to have CONTROLLED airflow, not air leakage randomly occurring in various ways that you can't turn off or redirect. The power of thermal mass and passive solar orientation also works well with this - doing several complete turnovers of the internal air volume, even when the outside temperatures are single-digit, only very slightly reduces the total thermal storage of the house, and the internal air temperature quickly returns to original levels when the windows are closed again. The reverse-cycle aircon also helps air quality through reducing humidity and helping to get rid of any excess moisture. Our strategy was always to not fit dedicated ERV, especially since we knew we were going to need some form of active heating/cooling, so we went with reverse-cycle aircon (to control both temperature and humidity) and the plan to manually ventilate via windows as needed, keeping open the option to later install decentralised ERV (like the Lunos systems) if we felt it was needed. We're definitely still considering adding the decentralised ERV, but we'll wait until we've had more experience before committing. However, we've since found out about a centralised ducted ERV system that's now available that includes a heat-pump for active temperature control - if that was available at the time, then we probably would've gone with that instead of the aircon. Our standard weekday routine has been to leave several windows tilted (tilt-and-turn windows) when we leave the house in the morning, which is enough to fully air the house out during the day, while the passive solar heating warms up the slab. Coming home in the evening we fully close all but two of the windows and turn the ground-floor airconditioner on to heat to 18 degrees (the minimum) - it runs for maybe 30-60 minutes (depending on how overcast the day has been), then only runs intermittently throughout the evening to keep the temperature topped up. When we go to bed we close all the windows (the internal volume of the house providing plenty of air for the night) and turn off the aircon. In the morning when we get up the house is still at a comfortable temperature (for reference, outside temperature minimums are currently around freezing and maximums in the low teens). Even with a couple of windows tilted for ventilation, the lack of imperceptible draughts due to the airtightness makes a surprising difference to comfort. Having the aircon set at 18 gives an internal environment that's comfortable in t-shirts. In our last house (built 2006, 4.5 star EER) we'd have the aircon set at 21, and we'd still need to wear long sleeves (if not a jacket). I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't experienced it myself, but it really is a huge difference, and just drives home how leaky typical Australian houses actually are, and how much of a tangible benefit is provided by paying attention to airtightness. We've experimented with leaving the upstairs aircon on - but if we do this the house gets too warm to comfortably sleep in (in a Canberra winter!), so we always have it turned off overnight and only occasionally run it for a couple of hours in the evenings (if at all). On the recent weekend with overcast days and single-digit maximums, we kept the ground-floor aircon on overnight set at 18 degrees - by early lunchtime the passive solar gain had been enough to heat the main living area to over 23 degrees. All this is also with mostly bare windows. The only window coverings we currently have in place are temporary $10 Ikea stick-on pleated blinds ('Schottis') to the bedroom windows while we're getting quotes for permanent curtain and blind installation - the large living area windows are currently completely bare (the privacy afforded by the battleaxe block means that we can get away with this). Obviously, the performance of the house will be better once we have proper window coverings in place. Iincidentally, I can definitely recommend those Ikea blinds as a temporary option as an alternative to the traditional 'old bedsheet' treatment - they don't require mechanical fastening, so no need for nails or screws, and for what they cost they're quite serviceable. The internal soundproofing is working well. Upstairs footfall is still audible below, but only as muffled bass sounds - noticeable, but not intrusive (and ambient noise doesn't seem to carry between floors at all). It's no longer an option to yell out to someone on the other floor, or even at the other end of the same floor if the doors are closed (which admittedly sometimes does have its downsides, especially when kids are involved!). We had a couple of minor maintenance issues - the tempering valve on the hot water needed replacing due to a weird flow-rate issue that would sometimes see us without hot water unless we ran two taps at once, a toilet roll holder needed replacing because it was slightly out of alignment and wouldn't close properly, the concreter took three weeks to drop off a metal cover for the drainage access hole in the driveway, but nothing of huge significance. There were some delays with the final painting defect fixing, which also held up the installation of the wooden steps for the doors - but it's finally all been done (although we're still cleaning up random bits of paint splatter - they weren't the cleanest painters ever). The most painful to fix issue is a cosmetic one with some of the tiles in the main living area - they've been bleached in some places by an unknown chemical, and will have to be smashed and replaced (fortunately we've got plenty of spares). The tiler should be coming back in the next few weeks to do this. I'm still struggling to take photos that show proper colours, but here's a quick shot of the Karndean to give an idea (the colours are definitely richer in real life, though - the lighter tones are particularly washed-out in this photo): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Canberra custom KDR 116Jun 19, 2018 10:03 am Fantastic write-up, as usual Algernon! Great to hear all the energy saving measures are paying off. The upstairs floor looks great! I can't differentiate if that is real timber or not from your picture, very impressive. Cheers ligongl Re: Canberra custom KDR 117Jun 20, 2018 9:22 pm Algernon, Great news that your home is working so well for you - it's terrific when all the planning pays off! Long may your comfort continue! Variegated Re: Canberra custom KDR 118Aug 23, 2018 9:53 am wow, your posts are incredibly informative and useful! Your attention to detail and research behind every aspect of your build is impressive, I only wish we stumbled on your thread a year earlier! We are five months into a custom build and whilst we thought we were organised and we’ll researched we have nothing compared to you. Unfortunately we had no experience in the building game and planned and researched for about two years before signing a contract. However you don’t know what you don’t know and so whilst most things are coming together there are some frustrations, and some areas we feel the builders are taking us for a bit of a ride. I was particularly interested in your energy efficient features, Canberra gets so cold and we were keen to avoid the freeze as much as we could! In the house we knocked down olive oil would freeze in the kitchen!! Wish I picked your brain earlier! Congratulations on the final product! Re: Canberra custom KDR 119Sep 03, 2018 11:55 am Thanks! We did put a lot of effort into planning and research - but yes, there's always the "unknown unknowns", and we've had a few of those. Now that we've built one house we'll be much better prepared for the next! (Just kidding, not going to be going anywhere for a while). There really is a lot of stuff that comes up - the trouble is a lot of it is second-nature to those who do it all the time, so even if you ask them they won't necessarily think of it as something to mention. Accepting early on that it'll never be perfect certainly helps a lot, and ironically means that you'll probably end up closer to perfect than otherwise (stressed and worried people don't tend to make the best decisions, especially under time pressure). "Good enough" is definitely good enough - our house, for example, isn't a Passivhaus, doesn't incorporate a range of new systems and technologies, doesn't use SIPS or ICF or any other 'non-standard' construction style that might have been 'better' - but it's still significantly better than most houses out there, and is close enough to 'perfect' that doing anything 'better' will involve a lot of extra cost for only a little marginal more benefit. Eight stars means very comfortable living with minimal utility expenses (and is good enough for potential future energy independence via PV solar and battery storage). Re: Canberra custom KDR 120Sep 03, 2018 11:55 am A quick update on how the winter's gone: we're definitely not getting our money's worth out of the upstairs aircon! (although it'll be used a lot more in summer). We've got our fist permanent window coverings in - roman blinds on the downstairs living room windows. The reverse-cycle heating has never been changed from the minimum settings, even on the coldest nights, and the upstairs aircon has only been run a handful of times for (at most) a couple of hours in the evenings (generally on the coldest days where it's been overcast, reducing the passive solar gain) - even then it's just been to take the edge off the slight chill, rather than *having* to run it just to be bearable.
We've had some hot water issues and had to have the tempering valve replaced (under warranty) - hopefully all solved now, although I'm starting to suspect that there might be a crossover issue with the laundry mixer tap - we'll keep an eye on things and see what happens. Our new steam combi oven unfortunately had an issue (the steam part didn't work properly) and had to be taken away to be repaired - it couldn't be repaired and had to be replaced, but we're waiting on the replacement to arrive from overseas. All covered by warranty, and a big shoutout to the customer service from Winning Appliances (including chasing up the manufacturer and the repairer on our behalf when needed) - but we've had an oven-shaped hole in our kitchen for several weeks now (our microwave is an oven-micro combi so we do still have a functional, if smaller, oven to carry us through). We've also started the final landscaping planning, and planted our first tree a few weeks ago (a red oak sapling, which as it grows will become the centrepiece of the northern yard). It's been a dry winter, so it hasn't usually been an issue, but when it rains the bare front yard quickly becomes very muddy (clay mud too, the worst kind). Hi Im having trouble getting anyone to provide useful advice on going for an insulated slab North facing extension. I had Lighthouse group do the energy assessment last… 0 2403 The biggest challenge will be if you take out a loan and then run out of money - you'll have an incomplete security and lenders do not like this so you can get stuck.… 2 20049 Hi, I am looking into doing a KDR in Melbourne and am contemplating using Kialla Homes. I am looking for feedback on them from others who have built with them. 0 14225 |