KDR - Rawson Edge 39 - Ryde - Completed Sept 2016

Hi All,

We have used this forum a little and I felt we should share our experiences with Rawson and the building process. The good, the bad and the ugly.

We are building a Rawson house which is a heavily modified Edge 39 MkI. I believe we have made about 100+ changes, some small and some abit bigger to the original design. Some of the changes were required due to the narrow block (12m), council being council and the fall of the land.

So this is the story of the house Bav and Shannon built.

Timeline - ongoing updating

April 2014 - House and land bought
June 2014 - Tender Signed
Late June 2014 - Birth of our son - Jackson
July - Nov - Making Changes to the plans, Brick over construction on all external walls, shower downstairs, Alfresco twice the size, redesigned ensuite to remove the bath and extend to double showers (should save time in the morning), wider and taller kitchen bench, longer garage, inverted some sections of the house to reduce western facing windows, smart glass in all western facing windows and fireplace. The planner had to make some changes due to the narrow block as well.
...
Nov 2014 - Contracted Signed
21 Nov 2014 - CDC Lodged, turnaround time 2 weeks.
Dec 2014 tenants evicted
...
Issues with CDC and Rawson had to put a DA through Ryde Council instead.
...
12 Dec 2014 - DA through Ryde Council
20 Jan 2015 - re-lodged DA through Ryde Council with Arborist report and landscaping plan
...
Advised council "should" approve by 2nd march
...
Feb 2015 - current house demoed
21-05-2015 - Ryde Council approved plans (online inquiry)
29-05-2015 - Rawson received approved plans from Council with changes, one of which was we had to dramatically reduce some upstairs windows, including the front retreat window.
10-06-2015 - Compliance Plans from Rawson
14-06-2015 - My beautiful wife and I got married.
16-06-2015 - Construction Certificate stamped
02-07-2015 - SS assigned and peg out completed
10-07-2015 - Pre-work for Slab
12-07-2015 - SS collected file (yes the slab work started prior to the SS picking up our file)
15-07-2015 - Slab poured
22-07-2015 - External plumbing
07-08-2015 - Windows and door frames arrived on site.
12-08-2015 - Ground floor frames completed
22-08-2015 - Level 1 frames completed
01-09-2015 - Roof frames completed
08-09-2015 - Bricks arrived onsite
12-09-2015 - Bricklayer started
30-09-2015 - Ground floor bricks laid, scaffolding going up
01-10-2015 - SS leaves Rawson
30-10-2015 - Brickwork completed
01-11-2015 - New SS starts at Rawson but has laptop issues and we don't see or hear from him in the first two weeks.
03-11-2015 - Upstairs eaves and gutters were done
10-11-2015 - Tiles arrived on site
15-11-2015 - SS says last SS didn't book any trades and everyone is booked out till mid-Jan.
21-11-2015 - Level 1 Roof started
24-11-2015 - Level 1 Roof Completed (excepted for one or two capping)

Now for 2016.
Mid-Jan and early Feb the carpenters had so come onsite and fixed the frame. Apparently they missed some important load bearing beams in the frame thus making the site dangerous and all trades were cancelled until this was fixed.
13-02-2016 - Plumber visited to do some internal plumbing bits
17-02-2016 - Sparky visited to complete the pre-wiring
18-02-2016 - Lifestyle Store visit to pre-wiring the home theatre setup
23-02-2016 - Alarm and CCTV pre-wiring were done
24-02-2016 - Ground level roof finally completed. and yes after the pre-wiring.
26-02-2016 - Fireplace arrives onsite
27-02-2016 - Waterproofing to all areas besides ensuite. Issue with the floor levels in the main bedroom/ensuite area
01-03-2016 - Fireplace installed
10-03-2016 - SS phoned number is forwarded to someone else. SS has left and a new SS will take over.
21-03-2016 - Birth of our daughter - Charli
23-03-2016 - Another new SS assigned to our job
25-03-2016 - Site cleaned
30-03-2016 - Insulation arrives on site
30-03-2016 - Framing inspection is done by Macro Building Solutions
05-04-2016 - Lower roof scaffold removed
08-04-2016 - Issue with the floor levels in the main bedroom/ensuite area fixed
09-04-2016 - Pre Internal lining inspection done with SS and us
12-04-2016 - Insulation installed
18-04-2016 - Gyprock on site
19-04-2016 - Ensuite waterproofing completed
20-04-2016 - Internal walls going up
30-04-2016 - Cornices and architraves set. Front door frame installed but was wider than the gap left in the bricks, thus the bricks needed to be broken down and built with the correct size. Rear sliding door and adjacent window reseated as per plans. The sliding door is meant to be set in the slab (25mm) so it finishes flush with the flooring once complete.
05-05-2016 - Front door arrives along with correct size from door frame
11-05-2016 - Staircase started, internal doors installed
14-05-2016 - Staircase completed
19-05-2016 - Kitchen. Laundry and wetrooms cabinetry installed
25-05-2016 - Pallette of Tiles and sand appear on site
26-05-2016 - Wetroom screte has been laid
28-05-2016 - Upstairs floor tiling completed
02-06-2016 - Caesarstone benchtop installed thru out, kitchen sink in, progress in all tiling areas


I'm finally upto date. I will update as things progress.

House plans.

Ground floor


Level 1


I had to remove quite a few layers to get a cleaner floor plan as above.

So April 2015, the starting point was a fully brick 2 bedroom cottage. It was quite lovely and our original plan was to keep the old and extend. But after a few quotes and the driveway being abit to narrow to drive an average car down, we decided a complete knock down and rebuild would be a better use of our money.

Here are some photos of the original house.





This last pic was after a landscaper cleared most of the greenery behind the garage.

The Demo (med Feb 2015 to mid March 2015)

It was sad to see a lovely cottage go, but from the rumble our dream home will be built.
There are a few things to watch out for when getting a demo done.
Find out if the quote included water, gas and electric disconnect. Our quote didn't and ended up costing abit more than some of the other quotes which apparently did.
We were told it would take 3-5 days to complete. But this was over the course of 3+ weeks, another thing to watch out for.
Some quotes include fences some don't.
It was pretty amazing watching these machines work and how well the operators can controls it.

The next series of pics took place from med Feb 2015 to mid March 2015.

Wow. missed your thread Bavshan.

Subscribed now.. looking forward to seeing more happen.

This is a great thread Bavshan. We are building the Balmoral 34 in Sydney East and just getting demo quotes now. Thank you so much for the tips above - will certainly confirm what's included. Can I ask how much it cost to disconnect gas, electricity and water? I had only budgeted $1k for this but sounds like I might need more! Thanks

We are building a Rawson balmoral kdr - will be following your thread

I noticed you wrote your knockdown was feb-mar 15? Is it 16....

Hi sideb06, the electricity was a few hundred but the gas had to be done by AGL and was over a grand. I think the telephone was also done by the sparky. Democorp gave us the best price and included a fence.

Rawson Edge 39 MKI in Ryde, Sydney

Yes that's is correct. The demo was Feb 2015, the slab was July 10, 2016. Council took forever to pass our plans. I have a timeline further up this thread. There were many delays mostly with getting tradies onsite. The materials seem to be onsite much earlier than needed. We did have some bad weather slowing things down. We lost 2.5 months from the start of Nov 2015 till mid-Jan 2016 due to SS leaving and Xmas/new years break. Then the 2nd SS left the start of march and now we are on our 3rd SS. Met with him last week and he seems great, only time will tell. Third time lucky we hope.

Rawson Edge 39 MKI in Ryde, Sydney

The Slab and external Plumbing (10-22 July 2015)

With the old house and garage gone, we finally had access to clear the jungle at the rear. Our plan was to put some retaining walls to give us a bigger area of flat backyard.
We agreed with the SS that the slab work will start on the 27th of July 2015. This will give our landscaper time to put the rear retaining walls up. Of course Murphy law, the concreting company had a quite week, saw the site cleared and decided to start early. This almost never happens in building
So our build wasn't off to a good start. To prepare the slab took 2 days with a small army of men. A few days later the slab was poured. Finally we could see our dream take shape, well the footprint anyway. Over the next week the external plumbing was installed and add dirt to level off the slab. Some pics below showing the progress.

The Frames (10-31 Aug 2015)

After a few weeks of inactivity, just when we were getting concerned the frames start appearing on site and was being installed. The skeleton of our dream house was up and it looks amazing. For the first we could walk around our house and imagine where our things will go and how we will live there.

Next steps are the bricks. We picked Sand Dune colour as after visiting the brick yard, advice from a solar engineer friend, and Rawson (we needed exposure grade brick being so close to the water). These weren't in the base price but didn't cost much to upgrade too.
The brick colour/choice was a very tough decision for us. And in the end we picked something that we hope will be ageless. The plan is for this to be our forever home but who known what the future holds.

08/09/2015 - Bricks appeared onsite


12/09/2015 - Day 1 for Brickies. At this rate they will finished well within the 2 weeks we were told it will take.


16/09/2015 - Some progress


26/09/2015 - The rear steps and alfresco have been bricked. We were very disappointed on how the bricks and concrete of the alfresco finished together. It still hasn't been fixed to this date, but is on the list.


30/09/2015 - 2 weeks after they started and they aren't even half way. Apparently the scaffold delayed them


03/10/2015 - Scaf is up - Yeh!!


07/10/2015 - progress is still slow - More bricks arrive - SS advised he has given his 4 weeks notice.


19/10/2015 - Its been over a month since they started. We had about a weeks worth of rainy days


20/10/2015 - boy are they messy.


28/10/2015 - tick tock - brickie almost finished - SS gone


03/11/2015 - Upstairs eaves and gutters installed and the scaf was raised.


10/11/2015 - Tiles delivered - New SS started


21/11/2015 - Upstairs roof progressing - Haven't met the new SS yet.


24/11/2015 - Upstairs roof completed.


I've left the lower roof out because that was completed till 2 months later.

So how is it tracking, five months into 2016?

We are progressing at a very pedestrian pace. The internal linings, stairs and cabinetry are all in. Next to come is the caesarstone and tiles.

Now for 2016.
Mid-Jan and early Feb the carpenters had so come onsite and fixed the frame. Apparently they missed some important load bearing beams in the frame thus making the site dangerous and all trades were cancelled until this was fixed.


13-02-2016 - Plumber visited to do some internal plumbing bits


17-02-2016 - Sparky visited to complete the pre-wiring


18-02-2016 - Lifestyle Store visit to pre-wiring the home theatre setup
23-02-2016 - Alarm and CCTV pre-wiring were done
24-02-2016 - Ground level roof finally completed. and yes after the pre-wiring.




26-02-2016 - Fireplace arrives onsite
27-02-2016 - Waterproofing to all areas besides ensuite. Issue with the floor levels in the main bedroom/ensuite area


01-03-2016 - Fireplace installed


Things started to look up and we could finally see progress happening. But the was short lived and suddenly the SS couldn't be contacted and his mobile was forward to someone else (John, his boss in fact). The SS had left Rawson and once again we are left high and dry. We expressed our concerns and both Tracey(Colours manager) and John(manages the SS's) from Rawson took the time to explain the situation and even met us onsite and addressed our worries. Our major concern is now the further delay.

23-03-2016 - Another new SS assigned to our job. He seems to be on the ball and has already taken over a few site from the first two SS's I had.
25-03-2016 - The first thing he did was clear and clean the site. Things always look better clean
30-03-2016 - Insulation arrives on site


30-03-2016 - Framing inspection is done by Macro Building Solutions
05-04-2016 - Lower roof scaffold removed
08-04-2016 - Issue with the floor levels in the main bedroom/ensuite area fixed
09-04-2016 - Pre Internal lining inspection done with SS and us
12-04-2016 - Insulation installed






18-04-2016 - Gyprock on site
19-04-2016 - Ensuite waterproofing done


20-04-2016 - Internal walls going up






30-04-2016 - Cornices and architraves set.




30-04-2016 - Front door frame installed but was wider than the gap left in the bricks, thus the bricks needed to be broken down and built with the correct size.


05-05-2016 - Front door arrives along with correct size from door frame

11-05-2016 - Staircase started, internal doors installed
As you can see we made the staircase wider (1100mm) and the void even wider. I highly recommend this. It was no cost to make the change. If we went 1200mm wide then there was a cost. We feel it makes the stairwell feel even wider and a bit more luxury, plus makes carrying furniture up easier.




14-05-2016 - Staircase completed
The design we settled for will have carpet to begin with (safer for kiddies) then, later on, we have the option to put timber risers and treads.

Things are moving faster now with the new SS but we have lost too much time and there has been some rework delaying the progress.

Kitchen cabinets finished in semi-gloss white.

The wife's huge island bench. We made it 100mm higher than the std and made the bench 1000mm wide (810mm is std for the Edge).


Not sure why there is a bathtub in my living room. I've seen the same thing on other Rawson home builds lol


Laundry with full wall cupboards and benchtop with spaces for the dryer and washing machine.


Main bathroom vanity


Huge ensuite vanity and mirror backing board gives you an idea of its size.

Next up the Tiles
25-05-2016 - Pallette of Tiles and sand appear onsite


I think these are the rippled white wall tiles


Dark textured ensuite feature tile for the floor and behind the mirror.


26-05-2016 - Wetroom screte has been laid