Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 41Jul 06, 2015 4:43 pm We had methven shower rails in our old house and they were lovely quality we never had any problems. Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 42Jul 06, 2015 5:46 pm bluesteel We had methven shower rails in our old house and they were lovely quality we never had any problems. Cool thanks for the reassurance! They had an extensive produce range at Harvey Normans. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=75739&p=1299716#p1299716 Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 43Jul 06, 2015 5:55 pm Our stairs aren't a feature either but since the husband want hardwood floors I got to find a hardwood I like, I prefer the darker colour ones but their isn't that many around. Also the darker they are we could see the dirt and dust easier relative to the light colour wood such as spotty gum. Too Much choices is a bad thing too waste too much time. My kids are over going to look at this and that they rather stay home. Luckily the in laws are handy. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=75739&p=1299716#p1299716 Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 44Jul 06, 2015 6:38 pm TomCat Agree with gandn - nice looking stairs. Thankfully our stairs are set in the side of the house, so not spending any money on them won't be obvious. I love seeing people's feature stairs. Nice tapeare too. It's great how you two can pic anything and know the costs involved, not have to go through builder and their crazy markups We did the opposite and pretty much designed the house around the stairs. I'm hoping they will be a real feature of the house. If I had a wider block it would have been even more grand LOL! Yes, certainly advantages going owner builder or with a small builder rather than project home. Not only is there no markup but usually there is a discount. Some of the prices people are paying as upgrades are more than what I will pay for the whole thing. Eg splash backs, doors etc. For us it wasn't about saving money though. It was about having control of the build. Especially build quality. In the end we will probably come out about even with what it would have cost us through a project home mob but we will hopefully have a quality build with everything we want in it. Edited to add. Reading back through what I wrote I just want to add I'm not meaning to offend any project builders. It just wasn't the right path for us. Not many builders offer suspended slab and triple garage, would push the DA limits like we did and let us do all the electrical and plumbing ourselves! Hope I haven't offended anyone Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=75302 Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 45Jul 06, 2015 10:46 pm I'm a big fan of the first stairs, the jarrah with the **** risers and balustrades - I love contrasting colours. But yes I know what you mean about the darker colours showing up the dust. Where we're currently staying there is a really nice polished parquet floor, not sure what type of wood but it's like a dark red. They have a woollen rug in living room which fluffs up day after day and you constantly see fluff all over the floor, the mini vac comes out every day it seems. So my thinking is if you choose an appropriate rug, the fluff problem will be less apparent. We used to (well, actually still do in storage) have one of these rugs in our old place, and it didn't shed at all http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/30174616/ That strip with the different woods is awesome to compare the colours and how different they are. When I was a little rascal my parents renovated our house, when they were product searching my sister and I would run around the shop looking for the most expensive thing, maybe that's a game you can get the 2 older ones to play when the babysitters aren't available? Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 47Jul 06, 2015 10:58 pm Totally understand gandn! I wish my husband was as handy as yours! I would be doing owner builder too. We really maximized our house design by doing a custom for sure and pushing it through council and obviously approved. (Most of the project builders also frown when they hear about my council, which was weird, but maybe because of the construction boom in Sydney they can be choosy). With the design of the house as well we really used the landscape lady to help think of other ways to maximise the soft surfaces so we could have the full 65% site coverage with a long drive way down the side. We will be using a product called grass cel http://www.grasscel.com.au to support the turning circles of our drive way at the back of the house without using concrete as a drive way. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=75739&p=1299716#p1299716 Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!!! 48Jul 06, 2015 11:03 pm Can't wait to see your feature stairs gandn! Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 49Jul 06, 2015 11:08 pm jsmi I'm a big fan of the first stairs, the jarrah with the **** risers and balustrades - I love contrasting colours. But yes I know what you mean about the darker colours showing up the dust. Where we're currently staying there is a really nice polished parquet floor, not sure what type of wood but it's like a dark red. They have a woollen rug in living room which fluffs up day after day and you constantly see fluff all over the floor, the mini vac comes out every day it seems. So my thinking is if you choose an appropriate rug, the fluff problem will be less apparent. We used to (well, actually still do in storage) have one of these rugs in our old place, and it didn't shed at all http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/30174616/ That strip with the different woods is awesome to compare the colours and how different they are. When I was a little rascal my parents renovated our house, when they were product searching my sister and I would run around the shop looking for the most expensive thing, maybe that's a game you can get the 2 older ones to play when the babysitters aren't available? I thought you'll like the Jarrah too! Lol! Went to the Felton house at Bella vista waters! It's hamptons styling! I think with 3 young kids I'm not a fan of the Hampton styled houses, looks hard to upkeep! I think my theme is modern contemporary. I went by myself so I couldn't stand down stairs to hear the Hebel floors effect from downstairs! viewtopic.php?f=31&t=75739&p=1299716#p1299716 Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 50Jul 06, 2015 11:38 pm I'm looking forward to seeing both your stairs ... B4M3T's and gandn's. I think it's brilliant your OB and doing custom designs ... for the skilled, experienced or brave only Your comment about quality is absolutely justified. The trades rush in and rush out, and possibly because they don't have any contact with the owner, that human connection is missing along with pride in their work. Although I'm happy with my house so far, you just have to shake your head at some stuff. They way they leave $h*t in the house is a sign (mud traipsed all through, drinks spilt on the ground along with the food wrappers, empty coffee cups etc) Oh and the nail work Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 51Jul 07, 2015 2:54 am I just showed the missus your stair options and she thinks the jarrah is too dark, as it will need to match the rest of the ground floor floorboards (which I agree with). At this stage we're also thinking of having timber floorboards on most of the ground floor. The display homes we've seen where the dark wood stairs looks good have light-coloured tiles on the floor at the bottom of the staircase (Felton, Charleston). She is mainly worried about the house being too dark downstairs with darker style floorboards...what do you guys think? We're planning a fairly light colour scheme on walls plus couch/rugs but not sure if that's enough to to counteract. Not many displays have the darker colour floorboards so relying on what you've seen in family & friends' houses. My in-laws living area is quite dark with the parquetry, but that's more from poor natural and artificial lighting design than the floorboards so unfortunately it's a bad example.....any opinions? Has anyone else out there done Hebel powerfloor for their sub-floor and can report back? It certainly feels more solid underfoot, in my opinion. TC I too am amazed at how many progress photos on the H1 threads show that the builders & tradies just leave a coke can or other rubbish on say a bathroom basin, rather than put it in the bin....I know it's an under-construction building site but to me that's just disrespectful. I hope their mothers are as disappointed with them as mine would be! Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 52Jul 07, 2015 9:13 am Great plan and looking forward to seeing you get started! Jen (& Dave) Plantation Bronte, Ormeau Ridge, Gold Coast QLD 12/03/2015 - Commencement... 26/08/2015 - Handover! viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76446 Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 53Jul 07, 2015 11:52 am TomCat I'm looking forward to seeing both your stairs ... B4M3T's and gandn's. I think it's brilliant your OB and doing custom designs ... for the skilled, experienced or brave only Your comment about quality is absolutely justified. The trades rush in and rush out, and possibly because they don't have any contact with the owner, that human connection is missing along with pride in their work. Although I'm happy with my house so far, you just have to shake your head at some stuff. They way they leave $h*t in the house is a sign (mud traipsed all through, drinks spilt on the ground along with the food wrappers, empty coffee cups etc) Oh and the nail work I also think its because they are rushed to get a job done. For example, my brickie was telling me how with what the home mobs pay he has to race in throw the bricks in a certain time and get out. If it makes you feel better my house and block is tidy because i'm doing it, not because i have tidy trades They literally just drop everything exactly where they last had it. And mud!!! OMG! Can't wait for a roof! RE stairs i'll post a photo on my thread of what i'm thinking Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=75302 Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 54Jul 08, 2015 9:00 pm Building4my3tots Haha, I do have a thread... I have time and motivation to feed my thread now since everything's approved. I'm usually breastfeeding when I'm on H1 and usually on my phone, (my youngest is only 9months). I don't remember how to change my topic title from my phone! I think I need to access via the computer, which I don't have time for, so topic titles not changed. I have not found a way to do this via tapatalk directly. However this is what I do: Navigate to the first post in the topic. On IPhone tap and hold anywhere in the post and select more, then web view. When it goes to whatever browser login and save password. In my case this is Chrome and in that browser I can tap and hold and select edit post. From there I can change the title. Convoluted I know;) Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 55Jul 08, 2015 9:02 pm Tribe7 Building4my3tots Haha, I do have a thread... I have time and motivation to feed my thread now since everything's approved. I'm usually breastfeeding when I'm on H1 and usually on my phone, (my youngest is only 9months). I don't remember how to change my topic title from my phone! I think I need to access via the computer, which I don't have time for, so topic titles not changed. It takes that approval to fuel the desire to get the thread going hey. Tell me about it. Intended to do a blog but it's seriously not a good experience trying to do that from an iPhone. Too hard really. Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 56Jul 08, 2015 9:06 pm Nice on the laundry chute. I had one in the house I grew up in. That house was a single story, but had a basement dug underground where the laundry was. The chute was in the floor of my bedroom closet. My brother used to stick his head up through it with a flashlight and try to scare me:) Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 57Jul 08, 2015 9:10 pm bluesteel We had methven shower rails in our old house and they were lovely quality we never had any problems. I had Methven stuff in the house built 4 years ago and it was good. However, the older stuff had solid metal/brass connections and was a lot moe robust than what I see on the shelves today. Pretty much everything had plastic connectors and supply hoses so we just went with some cheaper hardware I know I can get anywhere. Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 58Jul 09, 2015 8:41 am TheBigHouse bluesteel We had methven shower rails in our old house and they were lovely quality we never had any problems. I had Methven stuff in the house built 4 years ago and it was good. However, the older stuff had solid metal/brass connections and was a lot moe robust than what I see on the shelves today. Pretty much everything had plastic connectors and supply hoses so we just went with some cheaper hardware I know I can get anywhere. Methven isn't that expensive, compared to the other common names such as grohe and dorf. From this builder we have to find our own tap wear and he will install it for us. So hoping Harvey Norman has a sale in Christmas/news years sale period. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=75739&p=1299716#p1299716 Re: Custom home design Sydney - narrow block - DA Approved!! 60Jul 09, 2015 3:43 pm Mmm, define "not that expensive". My new shower heads are rail type and are $25 each;) dimensions on your original plan are inconsistent and with accurate dimensions (including site plan, upstairs and down) i could make a proper scale drawing with furniture… 3 6198 Thanks NativeZen! I can't wait to start landscaping, though it's going to be a while away yet. No movement on site yet as of the weekend. Hoping to see some earthworks… 3 2167 ideal house depends on the site and location as much as internal floor plan....what is the distance from the house to all four boundaries, where is north, describe your… 3 10281 |