Hi All

Well thought it was time I started by build thread.

We have just had finance formally approved for our land which we purchased in Wattle Grove, WA. 516m2 block with 15m frontage. Our land is due to settle on 4 December subject to issue of titles, however Landgate tell me that titles will be issued in the next week or so - fingers crossed there are no delays.

We've just signed with Dale Alcock to build their current promotional home The Osprey. Their promotion includes $20,000 worth of wooden flooring and carpet and we've also secured the kitchen upgrade package which gives us 900mm Blanco under bench oven, cooktop and canopy rangehood, semi frameless shower screen pivot doors and a stainless steel inset laundry trough with laminex cupboard underneath.

We've made some major changes to the Master Bedroom, ensuite and walk in robe, completely upgraded the frontage to be similar to their display home "The Reflection" minus the middle window - due to us being on a narrow block. We have flipped the home so that the garage will be on the right hand side. Other changes are:

* High ceilings in living area and alfresco
* Stacker doors to Alfresco (depending on $$) with door track recessed into slab
* Sunken Theatre Room
* Timber look sectional door
* Extend wooden flooring to theatre room, activity room and hallway to minor bedrooms
* Caesar stone benchtops to kitchen
* Overhead cupboards either side of rangehood
* Drawers rather than cupboards in kitchen (all with soft close feature)
* Laundry bench and under bench cupboards
* French doors to close off theatre room, extra door to be added between living room and activity room entry, and also to WIR
* Hi Lite window to activty room so we can take advantage of wall space to Alfresco
* Solar Hot Water System
* Ducted Air Conditioning
* Window treatments

So far we are sitting at $60K for additions. We haven't had pre-start yet - so I'm a little nervous but we have an allowance of $10K. But this is our 2nd build and we are specking up the house considerably from the first time around. The idea is that we are hoping to have nearly everything finished before we move in with the exception perhaps of the landscaping.

We are also looking at putting in the pool prior to the move and considering our completion will be possibly October 2010 - it will be just in time for summer. Instead of extending the Alfresco we have a friend looking at putting in a patio which will square up to the end of the house. We are hoping to deck the alfresco/patio area.

I know how much you all like pics, so to give you some idea on our layout and elevation (without our changes) here goes:

The Osprey:
http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad92/jab_7433/Osprey.jpg

The Reflection (Elevation only):
http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad92/jab_7433/Reflection-Elevation.jpg

Our block in Wattle Grove:
http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad92/jab_7433/Block_Front.jpg

We are having concepts being drawn up at the moment and hopefully plans and building contracts will be finalised just prior to Christmas. I will post some updated plans and elevations once I have them. Pre-start looks to be early Feb.

So exciting and I look forward to sharing more over the coming 12 months. However we've got so much to think about and decide on over the next few months.

Cheers

JBarry

Looks great!

elevation is cool, always been a fan of the raised portico's! I'm only just finishing my first build and already can't wait for the second, it's amazing all extra's you want to do once you've gone through the process once!

Looks like all the finishes are going to be nice and will make a huge difference to the presentation of the house!

Good luck and look forward to following!

wow your house has a really really nice layout!! and the frontage will look great!

what colours for the frontage are you going?

Hi jpeg and miss_petepie

Yes really exciting - but it just seems so far off. I've spent a lot of toda going through the building threads of some of our fellow WA H1 members. It's so neat to see the progress and pics. I can't wait till we have some action on the block - but that's probably at least 5 months away. At least Christmas is in between and will break up the waiting.

I'm really liking the colours of the reflection frontage as is. Our current house has a colourbond roof and this time around we decided we wanted a portico and tiles. Love the look of the timber look sectional door and love the black shiny look roof tiles. Our consultants is going to give us the addendum for that particular display home so we know exactly what they have used. I'm not absolutely certain on colours yet - we want to spend some time look at lots more displays and getting a feel for what we like (and what we don't).

We've just been so busy over the last few weekends with family birthdays and my daughters concert rehersals (dancing) and haven't been able to get out and about. We are itching to lock in our pool as well to avoid a price rise, but am awaiting the titles to be issued to ensure we haven't got any easements which would prevent us putting in the pool.

I'll be sure to check out your posts and hope to be a regular contributor from this point onwards. I'm afraid my thread will be a little boring for a while...

Cheers

jbarry

It's a lot easier to figure out what you don't like, rather than what you do! Its still helpful though, by process of elimination anyway. We drove through a lot of new suburbs to check out exterior colours. I think the colours on that display are really nice

That elevation is gorgeous!! And the house plan is very nice! So spacious

I'm also a fan of the colours on that elevation Very swish i think.

Hey,

Thanx for the Welcome.

Love Wattle grove, grew up around there.
Your Elevation is similar to mine, however mine is on an angle. Is that Cedar up Top?. Is that hard to maintain?

Had a pool in Forrestfield/Maida Vale years ago, but had gravelly soil and it does not keep the heat in with Fibreglass. Concrete or some form of heating was the go , otherwise we could only use the pool when it was 40+ degrees.
No land releases in Rivervale, bought an old dump and flattened it.

Best of luck

Hi JBarry

Good luck with your build - look forward to watching it progress!

You might want to allocate a little more money for Pre-Start - its amazing how it all adds up!

Looks like we might get our contracts and be able to apply for our building licence before Christmas - we'll know before the 18th when our builder then closes for Christmas. So here's hoping that being ahead of schedule at this point will continue when it comes to construction. If we are in by October next year, that would be great - but September would be a real bonus (might be wishful thinking I know but one has to be positive). Would love to be in sooner rather than later to get the landscaping and paving down and settled in time for summer - and we won't have to worry as much about sand etc getting into the pool.

Thanks for all the advice you have all given. We are having the plumbing put in for future solar heating at the time of installing the pool. We've decided to go through one summber/autumn without it to see if it's something we really will use. Then at least if we decide we do want to go ahead with solar heating, we won't have to dig up the back yard/paving/landscaping to put it in.

We've picked out our flooring - we are going with Big River Blackbutt wooden flooring. DA's use this product in many of their display homes - it's gorgeous. So much more to decide and selections to pick prior to pre-start but this is not something I'm daunted by. I love this stage and then to see it all come together is very satisfying.

I am constantly browsing your build threads and can't wait till I can post some more on my build. This is the longest time in the waiting process I think. Once construction starts at least it seems to move quickly (weather permitting of course) and you have lots to look at over that time.

Cheers

WOW what a gorgeous home I can't wait to follow your thread and watch your house built.

Thanks Lynne

I've been following your build - so many dramas and such a high level of stress for you. Though good progress over the last week - so hope it's all smooth sailing from here. And hoping your health stabilises quickly and you're feeling better soon. You're not too far away from lock up I see. I wonder whether they'll push to reach this stage before Xmas?

Take care of yourself.

We built in Wattle Grove, just a couple of streets from your block going by your photos, in 2005. Sold the house in December, now building in Forrestdale.

We had a pool installed & had it plumbed for future solar heating, but we found the pool blanket was more than enough. We hit water when digging for the pool but fortunately no rocks/clay. We were very lucky our site costs were $3000 when we built, each block surrounding us paid over $15,000 due to clay/rocks so it can get expensive for pool installation in Wattle Grove & surrounds.

Oh I hope we might be one of the lucky ones re the site costs. We have presently allowed $12,000 - so will see.

Unfortunately finance on our block has not settled as yet - we are still waiting for the titles to be issued. No problems though as our Land Offer is subject to titles being issued - finance to be finalised 21 days after. It actually gives us a little bit of a breather in that we are not paying anything on the block as yet - as long as the titles are issued by mid Jan at the latest, it will fit within our time frame. We were told when we signed that it wouldn't be long - the subdevelopment was signed off by council about 3 weeks ago and our street number issued, and we are now just waiting on Landgate.

Cheers

Hi Everyone

We are still waiting on titles to be issued. Apparently they are just waiting on final sign off from Landgate. So will see how long this sign off takes. Can't wait till I can make some more meaningful posts. Great to see all of you powering along with your builds and to see those of you who had handover before Christmas, moved in and enjoying your new homes.

The builder is back from break this week so perhaps we may receive our plans.

We haven't really thought much about the house over Christmas and with myself and my hubby off work till the 11th January (our first lot of annual leave in over a year) we have used this time to just totally relax, catch up with family and friends although we've probably been indulging in too much food and drink. But hey, before too long we'll be back into our routine again and wishing we were back on holidays - so we will enjoy it while we can.

Wishing everyone a Happy and Prosperous 2010. We're looking to 2010 as our turning point and are very excited to be building our new house.

Cheers

Happy New Year to you to jbarry.

Completely understand the frustration of having to wait for titles. We've been waiting since July 2009 and only got the call two days ago from R/E agent to say they've finally been issued. Settlement soon and then on with the new build.

Wishing you good luck and fortune and will be eagerly keeping up to date with your topic

Hi Ezi4few

Congrats on your titles being issued. Gosh that is a long time to have waited. We bought our block mid October with the understanding titles were to be issued within a week of us signing the offer for purchase. But this was not to be. On the plus side though, the block is ours, the builder is proceeding with the admin side of things, yet it's not costing us in interest as yet. So we are able to pump more into our savings which is nice.

I know that we will be building before we know it and in hindsight all this "waiting" will seem like it passed by so quickly. I have to say though that I'm rather impatient and want everything "now". I've just checked our schedule and we are due for pre-start next month so I expect we are likely to receive a pre-start pack very soon. The next few weeks should see quite a lot of contact with our builder. Plans hopefully this week before signing off and submission to council. I'm assuming we will need titles before this though, - if anyone knows, I'd be grateful if you could let me know.

Good luck with everything and think positive. Hopefully *** under the guidance of your sales guy will be professional, diligent and speedy. I too look forward to watching your progress.

Cheers

Hey there jbarry, looking forward to following your build! I initially looked into finding a block in Wattle Grove (my parents are in Forrestfield) but at the time vacant land was hard to come by.
After months of deliberating, hubby and I have done the initial sign up today to build with Dale Alcock too. We're looking at building the Santorini in Helena Valley with upgrades similar to the display version, the Ambrose. It's a great deal that you're getting with the Osprey - the floors they have in the display homes are beautiful.
It looks like we'll be putting in some of the same upgrades that you have - but will see what the costing comes up as, as I have a feeling we'll be over budget!!! Hoping to learn a lot from these forums. Fingers crossed that all goes well

Hi Lis

Congratulations. Hope all goes well. DA have been great thus far. Our plans are already in shire with a variation to come. We decided to extend the Alfresco to the back of the house - which gives us roughly a 4m x 7.6m Alfresco. We've changed our paving also to the Stylestone Quartz paving and increased our pre-start allowance following advice from fellow builders.

Still no titles which is frustrating us no end. So council won't even look at the plans till titles are issued. Hopefully only another month to wait.

We are starting to get very excited. We had a few changes which we required to the plans, but nothing too dramatic. We went with the Reflection frontage (reduced in width) instead of the Osprey frontage. We especially loved the huge Portico. My dad who we are contracting to do the plastering is doing a feature limestone finish on the Portico so hopefully this will pop out against the rest of the render (which we'll probably go Lundy Grey):

[ img ]

We picked our bricks and roof tile on the weekend and got some quotes for our pool. There is so much to decide and we've been trying to do a little bit each weekend so it's not such a rush once we come close to prestart. We are going with the Big River Blackbutt wooden flooring. This is the same as what they use in the displays (along with the Spotted Gum). We've also got it in the Theatre Room, Activity Room and the hallway near the back bedrooms - just so it flows right through.

Just waiting on the final plans to come back so we can sign off. Then they will book pre-start.

If you want to know anything about our extras ie costs etc, let me know. I'm off to the DA website to have a look at the Santorini.

Regards

Ooooohhh I L O V E the look of the limestone finish!!! I really hope that we can get a feature like that for our elevation - again, depends on the budget

We too are looking to extend the alfresco to 4m x 7.5m (must have very similar tastes ) but out through the side not backwards. Our rep says this might be a problem due to us wanting it at 31c and the rooms next to it will be 28c..... Will have to wait and see what the design team comes back with. Might look at extending out thru the back if it will work on the block - could be a better option

Hope the titles come through soon. All this waiting must be excruciating!!!

Well it is all starting to happen.

We have Titles!!! I just didn't think this day would come. Settlement on the block is due 16th March.

We've also had pre-start booked for 17th March. Must now get a wriggle on and finalise all my colour selections. I haven't yet made it out to the tile shop or the kitchen shop either - so guess what we're doing on Saturday morning.

We are expecting our final plans soon and I'll upload a copy once I have them.

Cheers