Our First Dream Home G&P Builders

We built with Masterton in 2014, in a new estate in the same town that we already lived. But with new estates come many other factors..... way too many neighbours, all way too close! Including two that put their houses on a holiday letting website, so way too many loud noisy party people! Sadly, we decided to sell. But that also gave us the opportunity for a whole new adventure....... we decided on moving to acreage, and although we couldn't find land to build again, we did find this house which ticked pretty much all of our "wants". So, we didn't build this house, although the layout if very similar to the design we would have built anyway!

None of our bathrooms have privacy glass either..... I did plan on buying the stick-on privacy glass film from Bunnings, but I thought it may look odd on our ensuite windows (from the outside) being the only windows along the front of the house to be opaque. And the shutters work perfectly!

Looking forward to following your journey!

It’s really happening!



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Moving along nicely. Still waiting for engineering for the retaining wall we are doing ourselves. Getting very annoyed, they said it was done and as soon as we paid the fee they would release it but I sent the receipt on Monday and still nothing.




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Thats annoying. Hopefully they send it to you by the end of the week!

I followed up with the engineer and I’ve finally received the drawings and forwarded them to the certifier. Now the wait starts again. I’m sure they think it’s done in a timely manner but to me it feels like everything takes forever.
I’m really happy with the progress on site though. The drainer is on site today and he had a chat to me about trying to make it visible for us where he has run the power and water so that we don’t hit them with our retaining wall posts.
And our builder called to check where we wanted our shower grates. It does feel like we have chosen a quality builder that is interested in getting things just how we want them



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The trenches have been filled in and the site looks ready for boxing up Monday and slab Tuesday as planned.

The boxing up for the slab was well underway at 9am this morning. Right on schedule. Loving our builder at the moment. I hope our build keeps up this pace.

All ready for slab pour tomorrow.

We nearly have a slab!

beautiful! and your view will be so stunning

Yes that will be an amazing view! Congrats on the slab

Looking good, coming along well!


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Great progress it’s exciting seeing that slab go down. What a beautiful view!

Thanks guys. It feels so much more real now that there’s a slab down.


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Congrats! First major step done!

The slab is finished . My husband and I don’t have a day together until the weekend because I’m on afternoon shift so we’ll have to celebrate on the weekend.

I’m a bit concerned that the waste for my freestanding ensuite bath is in the middle of where the bath will go but our bath has the waste at the end. I’m not sure if that’s normal and they run it along or something or if it’s an error. I’ve emailed my concern and a photo to the builder to clarify.



Also this part of the slab where the ensuite shower meets the outside wall seems very thin.

I’ll see what they say. Still very happy with the slab though. As happy as someone can be about concrete lol.

Yay! Hopefully they’ll be able to fix the bath waste location.

We are having a free standing cabinet in the powder room so the drain was supposed to be recessed behind the wall instead of coming up through the floor but wasn’t. Our builder can and will rectify this so sounds like it’s not impossible to do stuff like that after the slab has been poured

Thanks Dani, that’s interesting I thought it would be near impossible to fix. My husband said maybe they planned to put it on a platform like they have at their display. Our spec specifically says no allowance for it to be on a platform though. I’m worried being on a platform looks a bit busy but I’m happy to have it if it saves the integrity of the slab.


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Congratulations on your slab and progress Sparrownest.

I hope you get a quick response about your bath waste. I think some free standing baths have a cavity below the base of the bath to be able to deal with wastes points not lining up.

Can I ask how high the back of your pad is? Will you retain the whole back?

Thank you Tribe. I’m glad to see you back!
The builder emailed me back about the bath waste and said it is their error and they will cut out part of the slab and reposition the pipe. I’m a bit worried about the integrity of the slab but they have assured me it will be fine.


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