Thought it was time to stop hijacking everyone else's thread and create my own page.
Purchased our block October 2012 and it has been along journey to get us to where we are today.
We have so far survived
-buying our block
-preparing and selling our house
-packing and moving to our Rental property
-designing our house
-colour selections/lights/doors selections etc etc
-prestart
We are technology junkies so have smart wired the house to accommodate the children of 2013 and beyond...
We signed up with Greater Concept to assist us to design our own floor plan which was a modified version of one of their designs added in as many variations we could think of and got our first preliminary plan including costings completed. Jeff was awesome during this time and put up with our many changes and insistence of things being exactly how we wanted them. Once we reached the final plans staged we were passed onto our builder Premiere Homes with Jeff available to assist us if we require help or support during construction.
http://www.greaterconcept.net.auIf you contact Jeff make sure you tell him that you saw a great write up on homeone and Karina highly recommended him and he will look after you.. I'm sure he will anyway but at least then he knows where his business is coming from
Our builder Premiere Homes and designer Jeff from Greater Concept have been fantastic and so far our experience has been a very positive one. Excellent Customer service and value for money would be the key points so far. As well as flexibility and the ability to design our house exactly how we want it. Variations costs were reasonable and justifiable.
We have signed up for a house that not only is not a display home but the plan has been completely redesigned and modified by us...lots of cutting little rooms up and gluing them where we want them
But at the end we have a plan that is exactly what we want.
So may the countdown begin...let the small builder take on the big builders in a race to the finish
Timeline:
Block purchased - October 2012
Put house on the market November 2012
House sold December 2012
House settlement -Late January 2013
PPA -Late January 2013
Plans and Contracts - 4th April 2013
Prestart - 10th April 2013
Final plans first draft - 30th May 2013
Final plans - 7th June 2013
Plans sent to shire - 7th June 2013
Shire ordered retaining wall inspection and alfresco needs to be reduce by 140mm to get approved.
Plans needed to be redrawn and resubmitted to shire with an engineer report on retaining walls to perimeter of block.
Building Permit - 28th June 2013
Earthworks - 5th August 2013
Footings - 20th August 2013
Slab - 21st August 2013
Soakwells installed - 29th August 2013
Bricks delivered & Portaloo delivered - 30th August 2013
Brickwork Commenced - 11th October 2013
Brickwork Completed - 27th October 2013
Roof Complete - 12th November 2013
Grey Set Complete - 22nd November 2013
Slight delay while builder fixed a few items picked up by building inspector.
Windows and glass doors in -3/12/13
Outdoor render started but stopped due to window problem 5/12/13
Slight delay builder can't get a cavity slider it has been in back order since August
Cavity slider finally on site and installed 12/12/13
Ceilings completed - 13/12/13
Slight delay problem found with one of the Bedroom ceilings needs roof guys to come back
Cornices completed except wet areas-20/12/13
White set started 17/12/13
White set completed 26/12/13
Locked out 18/12/13 well almost 1 sliders not locked yet
Internal and external doors fitted 30/12/13
Completely locked out 30/12/13
Robes and linen cupboard shelving installed 31/12/13
Kitchen and wet area cabinets installed -
Tiling started-
Tiling completed-
Ceilings and cornices completed-
Painting to exterior started-
Painting to exterior finished-
Stone benches-
Final plumbing-
Final electrical-
Floor plan
Front elevation colour scheme
Changed from monument/jasper/half royal beige to
Tiles gutters fascia and windows are all black Dulux night sky
love your alfresco along the back with the northern sun
that's something we went for as well and have just started to think about landscaping and what to actually put under it....have you guys got a plan/idea in mind?
good work on the rest of the plan, can see a lot of thought has gone into it!!
we have a pretty similar master layout, are you putting your bed between the windows or on the kitchen wall?
Bed between the windows. In both bed 1& 2
Windows are awning windows height to fit nicely above the bedside tables.
Our plan if we don't run out of $$ first is a water wall feature on the back fence.
We originally only had three piers on the alfresco but added a fourth to get a centre water feature spot with planters either side.
Haven't decided what to put in them yet but will have to be something that needs little or no sun.May even go for indoor plants in the planters we have retaining walls at the back as we'll (we are on the low side) so the planters will be very sheltered.
We are not big gardeners so garden beds and plants will be minimal we are having fake lawn all down the side as we have lots of kids equipment....trampoline etc and a big playground
yeah we got a retaining wall at the back too...only 2 limestone blocks but enough to create more shade than i was hoping! we are trying to minimise lawn too but getting a puppy so need some!
do you have a king or queen bed? reason I ask is we have a king and needed to have the windows 2m apart to fit between without overlapping the windows. looks like yours are 1800 apart? if queen bed then all good ignore me
goodo!
we changed our minds about 20 times with the windows in the master lol
we are in whiteman edge, we were going to buy in corimbia and fell in love with the estate...waited for months for a block with what we wanted but it never came up and then it just pushed our budget too much and then we stumbled across whiteman edge by accident
We were so lucky we wanted a block over 600 sq and with a big enough frontage to fit a triple garage...two things impossible to get in Corimbia and we managed to score a 608sq resale block..Corimbia just released a new stage with 600sq+ blocks ouch a lot more than we paid
yeah i saw them we were wishing we bought one as an investment lol
looking forward to watching your building journey
hey butterbing, you've done a great job designing your own home! We're not brave enough, lucky we found a display home we absolutely adore
Your plan looks great, I love the living area and the huge alfresco! Look forward to follow your progress.
Thanks Janicec
This is my fourth build and none have been display homes so hopefully I've learnt a lot along the way...mind you I did say this time I definitely wanted to build a display home something I could see touch and copy everything lol but in the real world finding a display that is perfect was not a reality....finding 10 display homes I liked bits of and mixing them all together...lets just say so far so good lol and time will tell
Hey Butter, great to see you've started a thread! Love your alfresco, wish we had the room for something so huge!! I bet you and your family will enjoy having bbq's out there
Plus the fact you're so close to the park - envious!
Hi Butterbing just thought I'd chime in to say that floorplan is amazing! We are just in the middle of purchasing a block in Corimbia (one of those new 600sq lots awaiting titles) a few weeks ago at and must say I'm quite excited to see what our future neighbours are doing there too. I also can understand the difficulties of going through display home after display homes with kids in tow as we have almost 2yr old twins with short fuses in tow.
looking forward to see the updates on your build journey!
Kitchen under mount sink-Palazzo
Bathroom and ensuite semi inset sinks-Seima
Laundry sink-Seima
Tap Wear throughout - Posh Solus MK II
Bath spout - Phoenix Bath outlet swivel 200mm
Towel Rail & Toilet roll holders Phoenix Gen X
Deco 3 doors throughout including robes and linen cupboards
(Must of been told by designer a thousand times "but everyone gets sliding doors these days" lol
And replied each time "that fine but I still want opening robes...stuck to my guns and got my robe doors
I want to be able to open up the whole robe and linen cupboard and have easy access to everything inside.
Just a personal choice thing I know but in the end it was something that Was on my must have list ( no extra charge either - always a bonus)
Inspiration that led us to request an Alfresco with coffered ceiling
Our kitchen inspiration came from here. I can still hear the shock in our designers voice when we requested a door in our pantry lol "who puts a glass door in their pantry" I guess we do....
Looks lovely!
I love the idea of the glass door in the pantry, particularly if food prep will be done in there.