Hi all

Commenced our latest owner build.
Owner build number 4 for us, wouldn't have it any other way.
On our 2969m2 block of land we are building ....a house with 35 squares of living, (4 bed plus study) plus verandah, garage, alfresco area - all up 50 squares under roof. Shed at rear 16 X 9.
The home will be clad in polystyrene with rendered finish, with a colourbond roof and on a concrete waffle pod slab.

Cheers

Paul and Cheryl

Updated blog at last.
Progress today, finally.
Shed is finally being erected and slab ground work commenced. Been delayed due to wet weather.

Hi Delatite13,

Good luck with the build. Are you going to update this thread with pics or should we follow your blog?? Do you have floor plans to show?? Is it similar to other houses you have built??

We are also owner/building (3rd for us) and current home is polystyrene.
Love to see some colour selections and ideas you have.. you must have it perfected by now.. they say it takes 3 builds to get it right... so fourth must be absolute perfection!!!!

Hi Rocketship

Pics are all on the blog. Hoping to keep the blog updated regularly.

http://kareenhillsestateownerbuild.blogspot.com.au/

Just uploaded the floorplan to the blog.
It's very similar to our last home. We just improved/modified a few of it's features.Having lived in it for 8 years, you find what you like and don't like.
The last one was brick veneer with terracotta tiles. This one is polystyrene/render and a colourbond roof, so will look a lot different.
We've chosen Dune for the roof, Jasper gutters and fascia and the wall render will be Paperbark or something similar. The shed is coloured to match it.
All going well, the shed will be finished this week.
House slab pour scheduled for early next week.

Shed is finally complete


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and everything is on track for the slab pour early Tuesday morning.

Lots more pics on our blog.


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Looks really nice there ....

Congratulations on your slab.

How long are you thinking your build will take??

By the way, I noticed you started a new thread with the slab update - It is probably easier to just keep adding progress to this thread!

Hi Rocketship

Hoping to move in all going well - September.

Oops.... understand what you mean...shouldn't have done it as a new post, .

Might try and delete the new topic then.

Hi all

Busy week on site.
After heavy rain interrupting work, finally some good progress .

Yesterday we had 70m3 of concrete laid. Finally the house slab is down and awaiting the frame.

Updated our blog with more pics of the build.

Thanks for looking
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We are at the frame stage of the build today

The wall frames arrived on site late yesterday arvo and have been erected today.Great to see them in place.

Loving seeing the build finally take shape.

More pics uploaded to the blog


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Wow!! Flying along.

You have perfected the owner build - how much of the build will you be 'hands on'??

Re hands on. My bones are aching today after standing the frame up Will probably labour for nearly all the tradies we use. Will do all the flooring -except laying the carpet - tiling, painting. Anything that needs certification like electrics, and some plumbing will be done by the tradie. So will be a pretty busy time with little time off.

Easter over, now back on site.
Busy couple of days squaring up the wall frames, and securing them in place, attaching brace boards, gang nail tie downs, cross braces, etc.
Also digging the holes ready for the verandah posts, propping the alfresco area beams up in place......all ready to accept all the roof trusses arriving tomorrow by semi (to be craned on top of frame).

Had a footpath BBQ lunch today at the site -very nice

More pics on the blog.

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Looks great .... can't wait to see this one unfold!!

Roof trusses arrived by semi on site this arvo a day later than promised, so no work until Monday now.

Impressive sight seeing them get craned up and get lowered on top of the wall frames.

More pics on our blog

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Alfresco area posts erected today, removing the temporary struts holding up the alfresco beams.
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Also the start of the roof truss/frame erection today with the trusses over the garage and alfresco area starting the transformation.
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More pics on our blog

Great progress

It all looks fab thanks for sharing, nice to read progress and see photos
I find it very tiring and I don't do a lot of labour
We are currently doing our first owner build, question do you wait the 3 years in between or do you build them under different names? Lots of ways to do things I guess and we are trying to work out how is best to do about it so we can jump in to another project when its done?
Also did you start off small?

Hi Mclaren and Yadie05, thanks

Our builds have been spread out over the last 19 years (with a renovation of an existing house prior to that)

Each have been different styles of home and progressively have gotten bigger.....so have the sheds

Each time we have as much work/labour as we are able/allowed to do, resulting in substantial savings and also the satisfaction of doing it ourselves.

Build 1 was in 1993
we designed the plan ourselves
a homestead/ranch style home on 10 acres - it was a cedar weatherboard home on a slab with colourbond roof - 3 bedroom, lounge/kitchen/dining all 1 big open room and a separate games room- with 17sq living, 4 1/2 garage and 10sq of verandahs

Build 2 was in 1996 3 years later
we shifted an old 20sq Californian bungalow onto 100 acres- then designed an extension plan ourselves an added a further 8 sq of living, to bring it up to 28 living, plus 15sq of verandahs, 4sq garage and 4 sq alfresco - turning it into a homestead style farmhouse - weather board/colourbond roof -4 bedroom, lounge/kitchen/dining all 1 big open room, plus separate formal lounge and separate games room

Build 3 was in 2003 7 years later
we designed ourselves and built a brick veneer/terracotta tile roof home on a 1/3 (1400m2) block
it was 30sq living, 6 sq garage, 6 sq alfresco - 4 bedroom, study, lounge/dining/lounge all in 1 big open room, plus separate games room

Build 4 started designing it 2011 - 8 years later ....and building it in 2012
the current build
this time on 3/4 acre (3000m2)
plan - we revamped/improved the previous house plan -we liked it so much
this time polystyrene/render cladding with colourbond roof
35sq of living, 6 sq of garage, 6 sq of alfresco and 3sq of verandah - 4 bedrooms, study, lounge/dining/lounge all in 1 big open room, plus separate games room

Have updated the blog with pics of todays progress on the new build

More progress on the roof trusses today, with the help of a crane.

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Also our composite double glazed windows arrived onsite.

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More info and pics on our updated blogpage