Our custom build in the Barossa - Guided Tour Anyone?????

We have a looong way to go! For sale sign went up yesterday and the reality of moving sets in - even though it's only to rent for a while. Hubby is determined to sell house before approaching builders with our plan. Oh well, one step at a time *sigh*

At least I can watch everyone else's progress

Good luck with your sale!!! It's hard waiting isn't it!!!

Well we have another wait, for power until 9th May!!! But aparently you can request they do an after hours install (at a cost of course) but that may still be cheaper than hiring a gennie.

Also, got my shower grates delivered!!! They look great, funny thing to have when you have no house!!!!

NOt much else to report, shed conrete floor goesdown next Saturday so prep work this week.

Can't believe you have your shower grates already! These guys work quick that's for sure - if you have another big rain you may be able to use them for drainage

I am really looking forward to following your build, Rebecca.

Yeah - I only got them personally as I could get 1 x 800 and 1 x 1200 for a smidge over $700. The builder could only do $1000 each!!!!

Consequently he is looking into the supplier I used if he is happy with the quality! The tile shop has had a look at them and thinks they are great, so they will be using them too!!!!

Hi All, we finalised our kitchen, bathrooms and laundry selections this week.....here are some more specs...

Kitchen

I hate corner cupboards so we got around it with the litle skinny pullout cupboard that will house tea towel rail and container at bottom for detergent etc. OUr bin will be beneath the sink cupboard.

Walk in Pantry

Bench and cabnitry shelving.


This is going to be espresso ligna - cant wait to see that!!!

Ensuite


Bathroom


Laundry

There will also be a tall linen cabinet in the laundry

Happy with the selections, but cant wait to see it come together.....

And our other piece of news.....shed floor has been laid today!!!! Here are some pics of progress....











Just the final screed to go......and of course my boys put their hand prints in....will get a pic of that later! We are designing a safe, secure cellar lid to fit in between those angle irons. Then we can fill with wine!!! We bottled 400Lt of Grenache last night, from last vintage!

hi Rebecca, so excited to see your last two posts! The shed looks great with the floor in and the cellar. I was telling DH about it and that you bottled all that wine. I said you're going to be a busy lady - he said 'more like a p****d lady!'

What are you planning to do with it anyway?

I love the specs for the kitchen, bathroom and laundry. I can sort of 'see' your house coming together now. We are seriously thinking of going with a private builder too. You already had plans available for your builder, I recall, whereas we will have to get ours drawn up by a plan drawer first I think.

Looking forward to your next step.

Thank you!!!

We had our plans drawn by a building designer after we may many iterations, like you guys!!!! Kersbrook Cons, wasn't 'completely' happy wiht the plans and woud definately recommend someone else, could find out for you if you like. There are a huge number of plans that come back, electrical, bushfire considerations, floor plans, site plans etc. Definately DONT get a builder designer (or architect) to draw your wall and roof framing, new legislation says that the timber companies must provide that now. If you want to go with a smaller builder, you should really have a prelim chat with Kersbrook, I could pm you his email details and even give him a heads up.....? He is particular, black and white, and likes all his Is dotted and Ts crossed, which I think is great in a builder. But he does goes a good amount of leaway for design creativity and innovation. The supplier's he has asked us to deal with through the selection process have been excellent. The Kitchen and Bathroom designer we met at the Laminex showroom which is gorgeous, the tiles and santiary ware consultant at Ceramin World was great, patient, knowledgable and excelelnt quality choices!!!

Anyway, I should stop ranting on.......Did I mention we are sooo much happier than with Rendition!!!! Much more personalised service, and 1000000 times more professional!

Looking great Rebecca cant wait to see it as it all happens for you.


Cheers Janet

Thanks so much for posting this info Rebecca. It would be great to get the names of building designers and if Kersbrook Cons are happy to recommend one or two it would be appreciated. (Yes please - PM me their details) Is it expensive to go to an individual designer? I know that sales consultants for the project builders can draw up plans at no cost - Lee75 said in a recent post that a Homestead consultant drew up 6 different designs from scratch - but I don't know if that would include the electricals and footings, site placement, all the other stuff that needs to be on a plan before a builder can work from it. Obviously an individual designer is not going to be potentially getting my business to build a house as in Lee's case, so a cost will be involved of some sort.

So another legislation just to confuse matters! Not only to find a building designer but to find a timber company. And how do we know if they know what they are talking about? (rhetorical question) Perhaps Kersbrook can recommend someone there too.

Thanks again for your help Rebecca

Deb

Hi Bec, great progress!! You are lucky seeing your kitchen plans already - I have to contact our kitchen people and ask them for a plan . The shed floor looks huge - the cellar will be great. So how did you bottle your wine - did you go through a local winery? I used to work for Hardys/Constellation Wines for 14+ years so I know a little about wine. What varieties have you got? Annette

Deb - you dont need to find a timber company......the builder will do that for you once you sign and have an unconditional contract - that's when they order the timber for your job. Regarding the private building designer vs plan that a in-house building consultant draws up, WORLDS APART. The in-house guys do really no more than sketches, we had some prelim sketches drawn up by homestead and they weren't even to scale. I am sure the product that your husband is using is probably better. The prelim plans are building designer did cost about $350 from memory.....the full working drawings (with elec, site etc) cost us nearly $3000, but you wont get a detailed quote from a private builder without. This cost would be absorbed into the prelim contract fees you would pay with any builder, but when we tried to get the credit back from Rendition (we already had our plans) they only credited us $1500. (But that's pretty normal for credits, you will never get back the retail price.)

Janet - thanks for your comments, yours is still speeding along!!! Exciting....

Hi Annette! My husband has a good friend whose brother is the amature winemaker of the year for 2009. We swap services for grapes!! So no cost involved, just time with managing our vineyard!

it's great to finally see some work being done!!!! The plans look amazing and I can't wait to see things happen

Thank you

I feel a lot better about the timber company - phew! $3k not too bad, I thought it might be more. So that would include them doing a soil test for the site too.

Talking about the program hubby is using - he decided to draw a plan of our current house to compare with the one we are designing. It has turned out really good, he put in furniture and wall colour similar to what we have in our house etc. It is also 3D to enable a 'walk-through', it's just like walking through our house. The program designs a roof for the plan automatically with pitch etc and it is pretty much identical to our roof line. Quite impressive!

That's amazing!!!!

Ummmm, bad news - soil tests are done by engineer along with footing designs - that cost us around $1200, sorry to be misleading before. Didn't think of that.

Hi Rebecca, your progress looks fantastic! Very exciting to have a slab date! Your WIP looks fab, a little similar to mine. I'm having one deep shelf under the bench in my pantry, did you consider having a shelf under? Or are you leaving it open for wine storage

Hey Pinchy!! I think we have enough wine storage!!!! lol We did decide to leave under bench open, for larger 'bins' (recycling) and other larger storage items. Did you have a thread, would love to see!!!

Hi Rebecca, I just noticed your WIR is 1800 high with one rail. We are having 2m high which enables two rails - just a thought if you wanted to make the change.

Bec, if I had to change something I would change our 1800mm WIR to 2m as Annette recommends. It will allow you to have hanging space plus draws if you need. We find that 1800m is okay, but in hindsight, abit higher would have been better as some of my longer dresses hang just above my shoes.