Hello!

After a few months lurking around I'm ready to start own our build thread! I'm Theresa, a part time nurse, mother of 2.

We started toying with the idea of building a new house about april this year, mostly so that in the event we have another baby it could have its own room for a while, and so that we can solve the current HUGE storage problem we have here. We are lucky in that we built the house we are currently in around 9 years ago, which has left us in a good financial position, so that we should be able to build a new house and sell this one, and still have a mortgage the same size, or, even smaller if we are lucky.

We started looking for a block of land around Canning Vale, where we are now, as we like the area and its about as far as we were prepared to go from both my husbands and my work. We were initially waiting for a block in the latest release of Bletchley park but found a smaller estate just up the road from there that was looking to be much cheaper. Dh camped out overnight on the second coldest night on history and we managed to secure 600m2 at the end of June. Titles are expected late sept-early oct.

AFter looking at what feels like 300 display homes and another 600 house plans online we were initially quite attracted to a switch display home which we thought was within budget. Unfortunately, the price the sales man had written on the plan/spec list was wrong, and the specs we'd been basing things on was $60, 000 more.
So, we went back to the drawing board, looked at a heap more and then saw a switch ad in the newspaper for the three90, which was very similar to the other one we'd been considering and MUCh cheaper.

We met with the salesman yesterday and got back the first draft of plans, and went through the PPA, which we plan to sign early in the week. Saleman said we can expect prestart in 6-8 weeks which is a scary thought!

Final plan-
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elevation- this has changed slightly, but I haven't scanned the new one

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Colour selections- page 3
site scrape- page 17



Ok, so a timeline for you
Camped out and secured block- 26 June 2010 (titles expected october 2010)
Titles Issued -8 april 2011
Unconditional approval from bank- 17 may
Settlement- 17 June (third attempt- banks not playing nicely)
Site scrape- 5 July
Footings- 15 July
Slab- 16 july
Bricks on site-17 august
Brickwork started- 19 august
Bricking finished- 5th September 11 working days !!
Roof timbers finished- 21 september (inc fascia, eaves and first fit out electrical and plumbing)
Roof finished-24 september
Grey float finished- 30 september
Ceilings done-4 october
Cornice done-7 ocotber
Front render done- 7 october
Front doors plus some internal doors-14 october (wrong front doors!)
Spa and bath in- 18 october
Front render second coat done- 20 october
Glass in windows-21 october (all but 2 windows!)
Front windows in, locked up!-22 October
Cabinets excluding kitchen plus brick cleaning- 24 October
Garage grano, painting started- 25 October
Tiler started, tile meeting and apparently 6 weeks til pci- 26 October
Kitchen delivered-8 november
kitchen fitted- 9 november
tiler finished- 14 november
Block cleared, electrical fit out started- 16 November
Built in robes/cupboards- 17 November
Electrical finished, oven in- 18 November
Robes finished, benchtop in, insulation in-23 November
Taps and sink and toilets-25 november
Front doors and portico stained, cabinets in ensuite finished, hotplate in- 1 december
Taps finished off, ducted vaccum fit off- 2nd december
Shower screens- 6 december
garage door, first coat paint on walls-7 december
second coat of paint-9 december
soakwells part one- 10&11 december
Door handles, dishwasher in, fixed kitchen cupboards, tree removed- 12 december
site clean, earthworks for driveway - 13 december
pci-14 december
handover-15 december
Driveway- 15 december
Aircon- 19 december
Carpet, antenna, blinds and splashback-20 december

Hi Tinkster

welcome to the switch group there are a couple of us on here building Switch Homes How are you finding the who process?

Thanks feggle!

Its not too bad so far, tho was initially VERY annoyed that the saleman had put the wrong price on the specs list, but, in the end we are getting the house we want cheaper anyway, so it worked out ok.

Welcome to the forum. Your house plan is great. Lots of space. I love your ensuite. Good luck with the build, I hope it goes smoothly for you.

Hi tinkster - welcome! I love your floor plan! There are huge amounts of space - hopefully solving your storage issues!
I know what you mean when you say "prestart in 6-8 weeks which is a scary thought!" - I was the same - all the days you spend dreaming about this then suddenly it's real - it's scary and fun at the same time!
Wishing you luck for your selections and I look forward to following your build

Thanks carlswil, we are pretty pleased with it, its about 80m2 bigger than our current house, so should work great

sleven- Thanks, my husband said today that just cos I'm getting more cupboards doesn't mean I HAVE to fill them, and not to use it as an excuse to buy stuff! Signed the PPA today, so its all rolling now!

Hi tinkster,

Nice house plan! We are also building with Switch homes. We need to do our pre-start now. Someone from the interior design service from Switch contacted us and wil help us with our colours and tile selection , which is great because it's good to have an expert advising us!

Good luck with your build!

Hi V&R, would love to hear how you go at prestart!

Which house are you building??

We had our design drafted by a draftsman and then we went to a few builders for a quote. Switch came back with the most competitive quote.

So far we haven't had any major issues. A bit stressed abt the pre-start now. We went to look at our tiles last week and this week should be for the vanity and taps.

Have you received your pre-start pack yet?

Ahhh ssshhhh - what they don't know won't hurt them! Just pack the new things in inconspicuous boxes and he'll never know with all the boxes when you move in... "Oh hunny, we've had that for years!"

Lol. Its ok, he's pretty unobservant about most things so won't notice. I've already bought a new dinnerset for the new house, which I did just after signing papers for this one, after 9 years, its time for a new one!

Its hiding in the laundry cupboard atm

hehehe let's hope your hubby doesn't read these threads ...lol

mate, fabulous house plan - I really love that plan!!!!

well done, and good luck!

Thanks Annietom, we're pretty happy with it!

Drove out past the block today and they've been busy! The roads are all but done (including kerbs) and they've done retaining walls (we don't have any, but the next street over does).

Looks like late september might be accurate for titles!

how exciting

Prestart pack arrived today!!! Very exciting

And the estate is looking all but complete, we can drive onto our street now

So did you get the box with the files in it tinkster? Make sure you go through it with a fine-tooth comb and compare it with your spec list. Ours was poles apart. We started choosing everything based on the brochures provided in the pack, and then when we got the contract and addenda it was all different so we had to start again. Hopefully they have accurate information in it now since we pointed out all the issues/errors to the sales manager 4 or 5 months ago...

Yep westy!

I've had a quick look and it seems like we're going to be spending a fortune on upgrades

oh how exciting - we were missing a pile of brouchers too although these had been set up from Homebase

the fun begins