Well, I’ve gained a lot from reading everyone else’s home threads. Now, it seems I’m pretty close to the start of my own build so I thought I’d start sharing the experience (and of course, plenty of pics) in my own thread.

DH and I bought a small 1960s home on a flat, rectangular 700sqm block about 4 years ago. We found we were quite limited in the range of display homes we could choose as our block is quite narrow (15.8m wide). One of the first display homes we went through was the Monaco. It seemed to tick all the boxes – narrow design, lots of storage, 4 bedrooms, home theatre, etc. It took us about 9 months to finally sign up to build the Monaco. This is our first build so we didn’t want to rush into it. Here is a timeline of events:
13/09/10 – Signed contract
03/12/10 – Selections with Direct Interiors
09/12/10 – Kitchen selections
06/01/11 – Council approval
28/02/11-04/03/11 – Demolition
10/03/11 – Site pegged - stormwater pipe (easement) discovered
04/04/11 – Stormwater pipe removed
19/04/11 – Slab poured
30/05/11 – 06/06/11 – Frame erected
21/06/11 – 22-06/11 – Roof
29/06/11 – Windows
04/07/11 – 21/07/11 – Bricks
28/07/11 – Gyprock installed
15/08/11 – Lockup
26/08/11 – 27/08/11 – Kitchen installed
06/09/11 – 16/09/11 – Tiling
21/09/11 – Cornices installed
21/09/11 – 23/09/11 – Eaves installed
23/09/11 – Shower screensand bathroom accessories installed
27/09/11 – Plumbing
28/09/11 – 17/10/11 – Painting
21/10/11 – PCI
27/10/11 – Handover

Below is the plan. It’s basically the same design as the original but we’ve made a lot of the rooms larger and changed the front elevation:
[ img ] [ img ]

Hi Theresa,
It's good to see you start your own thread. Are you demolishing the 60's home? What a big thing to do. Hope all goes well with your build.

Hi robinred, yes, will be demolishing the 60s home. Waiting on Magill Demolition to do the job. They're very busy but we've heard that they're very good.

Looking forward to reading your updates especially since we're building the same house!!

Hi Teresa, Looks great! We will be starting our build aroudn the same time. Look forward to reading about yours!

Congrats on starting your thread, and almost starting your build. Good luck with the demolition and build. It's good to have another SA build to follow.

Just thought I would post our colour selections. We've gone very safe and neutral. I'm thinking we'll add more colour with our furniture pieces and accessories.

External
Roof: Surfmist
Bricks: Austral Grange
Mortar: Standard Grey
Render: Wattyl Colourbond Dune
Entry Door: Medium Stain
Front Panel Lift Door: Surfmist
Rear Roller Door: Dune
Windows: A&L White
Fascia: Dune
Gutters: Surfmist
Downpipes: Wattyl Colourbond Dune

Kitchen
Benchtop: Caesarstone Latte
Splashback: Vanilla White
Doors: Gloss Warm White

Bathroom/Ensuite
Benchtop: Caesarstone Latte
Doors: Gloss Warm White
Wall Tiles: Eureka Plain White Gloss
Floor Tiles: Luxe Avorio

Laundry
Benchtop: Sail White Oxide Velour
Doors: Gloss Warm White
Wall Tiles: Eureka Plain White Gloss
Floor Tiles: Luxe Avorio

Other Internals
Paint: Wattyl Oxford White (half strength)
Theatre Cabinets: Silk Pumice

And here are some pics of our colour selections:

External
[ img ]

Kitchen
[ img ]

Bathroom/Ensuite
[ img ]

Laundry
[ img ]

Theatre Cabinets
[ img ]

Nice colours there!!! I like the latte cstone too!!!

Thanks Rebecca. Look forward to seeing your colour selections. Seems like it's all finally happening for us

Looks like demolition will be happening on Friday. We had expected it to happen at the start of the week but ETSA hasn’t removed the power line running to the house. ETSA were meant to have done this a week ago but now they plan to remove it on Thursday this week.

Hi Theresa, Like your floor plan - all the rooms are a good size and you've got a huge pantry You'll be able to take some pretty impressive pictures of the demolition when it happens and then we can look forward to seeing your slab, frame, bricks, etc etc. Won't be long now - the waiting is terrible isn't it? Good luck with everything and look forward to following your thread!

Thanks Mclaren. Yes, I love the pantry. We made it bigger than the original plan. We never seemed to have enough storage in our old house so I was keen to add heaps of storage to the new one.

I agree, the waiting is awful! I think it got worse when I thought I'd see some action this week but got held up

Your selections are great Love the earthy tones

Your plan looks great and I love your selections. We have gone for earthy natural colours too similar to yours. Looks like we will be building about the same time as you - our plans are into council and we are just waiting for that to come back so we can get a date for slab. Really looking forward to following your thread - when are you expecting your slab after they have knocked the house down? We are hoping for April, but who knows. Keep your pics coming....

Pops xxx

Thanks Pops. I had a look at your plans and they look fantastic. I look forward to watching your build also. I'm expecting the slab late March/early April.

Well, ETSA came and removed the power line as they said they would on Thursday but there has been no action by Magill Demoliti0n all week The demo mob said they could start taking the house down during the week even with power line connected but that never happened. They had told us the demo would happen today but there’s no action at our block. Two streets away I can see that the demo mob are still working on some retirement homes which they've been demolishing for a couple of weeks now. It looks like they’re almost done and should finish today sometime. I wonder if this is what the holdup is. We’ve tried to contact the demo guy but he hasn’t been returning our calls since Wednesday. I hate the lack of communication and not knowing when they plan to start. Whenever we speak to the receptionist, she just says it’s fine, they can do it in a day. I’m thinking surely it takes longer than that???

Normally, I wouldn’t be so stressed about them running a few days late but the fixed price contract with Fairmont runs out on Monday. We had made the demo mob aware of this. The fixed price contract has already been extended once and the builder thankfully didn’t charge us for that. I just hope we don’t get charged anything extra. It’s out of our control now.

I think it was a mistake for us to book in with this demo company. They seem way too busy. We had to book it in for a date later than we'd wanted as they couldn't fit us in any earlier. We should've stopped right there and found someone else. We've been really counting on them to stay on schedule.

Hi Theresa, Sounds stressful! You should phone Fairmont and explain what the problem is - they won't want to lose your business so play a little bit of hard ball with them if they say they will penalise you - there are dozens of other builders out there - I know you don't want to go through the whole process again but they don't know that! Good luck!

What a bugga. Maybe the demo guys can know yours down tomorrow. Have you got a sledge hammer, maybe you could go and make a start for them

Yeah, DH has suggested we contact Fairmont a couple of times now. I've been telling him not to but I guess we probably should contact them rather than make them follow us up by not saying anything.


I hope so. I've got my fingers crossed that they'll work on the weekend.