Building our family home with APG in Fremantle, WA

Hi there,

I'm very new to this forum, I've been reading lots of posts as I get more and more excited about starting the build on our home. I thought it might be fun to share our story.

Here goes...

We bought our block in February 2015. It is 395m2 in Freo. We are currently waiting for finance approval and final plans and then we will go to site.

Our story so far hasn't been a smooth one. We initially signed up with a different builder and after paying a deposit we were told the house we loved wouldn't fit on the block, so now we are currently taking them to court to get our deposit back. Meanwhile, we have signed up with APG and they have been amazing. Can't fault them at this point.

We also discovered a few months ago that City of Fremantle require our house to have a 7 star energy rating instead of the usual 6 star rating. This will save us money on energy in the future and will create a more comfortable home, but it has delayed the project and is costing us about $25k extra, which stings a little right now.

We are building a two story home as we have three kids and we are hoping that the location of our block, up on a hill, will give us slight ocean views from the second story.

Here's the plans. These aren't the final plans, but they are super close to give you the idea.

Nice two storey plan there! Looks like you've avoided wasted space which used to be common, I think, in two storey plans 👌

Thanks!

Yeah, we had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted, we really looked at how we live as a family and what we think we will need. The awkward shape of the block provided some challenges, and I didn't want to waste precious space with rooms that aren't needed. It's still a big house, but we wanted the yard space too so it was a bit of a puzzle getting it right.

Nice plan, looking forward to following along

Thanks, I'm going to go have a sticky beak at your thread now.

Great design! I think you've made good use of the space you have

nice plan there... following your build now

That sound like a lot to adjust by one Star. Dud they offer you a combination of alternatives to choose from to reach seveb Star? Glass wool blow in insulation for cavity walls, anticon in roof, full LED lighting without the gaps around them, window tinting or low E Glass, fans and smaller aircon etc?

We had a meeting with a NatHERS specialist from Structerre and they gave us the cheapest options to achieve 7 star. We then changed some things like adding north facing windows and removing the alfresco until the NatHERS software said it met the 7 star rating.

I don't fully understand it all, but here are some of the things we are doing to achieve 7 stars.

- Low E glazing on all windows
- Dark Colorbond with a solar absorbance above 4.0
- Cavity insulation to external walls
- Provisions for polished concrete
- Kooltherm beneath concrete ceiling and balcony
- Remove alfresco (on north side, lets more light in)
- Increasing living window ( north facing)

The lady from Structerre was very helpful and explained to us how the software works. Apparently the orientation of our block is the worst possible (of course) so it took a bit to get there.

Yeah, Structeere do this as bread and butter for builders in WA. We have polished concrete flooring. We didnt up the pressure of our pour though which was going to add over $15k. We arranged to polished our usual pad after handover and it came up a treat although I personally now find it really hard underfoot and wearing on my legs. Do they give you a breakdown in costs for each item you're adding?

Yeah, they did. Everything we've added hey have told us the item price. Provisions for polished concrete helps with the 7 star rating because it increases the thermal mass. So we have that.

To get them to polish it would have cost about $16k so we are getting in done after the fact. We were worried that getting it done after would be a bad idea in that walls and kitchen cabinets etc. would be damaged, but we've had people tell us they've had it done after handover with no dramas. Glad to hear yours came up a treat.

I hear what your saying about it being hard under foot. I'm planning on using lots of big beautiful rugs, and upstairs will be carpeted.

So we are days away from getting formal approval on our loan and then the fun begins. I think our builder are very keen to get this to site because it's been on their books for over a year.

Just before we signed the final documents I went through and changed all my selections (poor pre-start lady) I was really worried about what I had chosen so I'm glad I got the chance to rethink it one more time. I'm happy with what we ended up with. Will post selections soon.

Did my first blog post about our build on my website if anyone is keen to check it out.

http://www.bectougas.com.au/blog/build- ... ory-so-far

Looking forward to following your build. We are at the early stages of the building process as well.
Heading off to check out your blog

Thanks ms_prez! I'm going to have a squiz at yours. Exciting times!

We have just spent the last two days in court trying to get our $4000 deposit back from our first builder since the house we signed up to build with them didn't fit on our block.

Some of the things the Sales Consultant said in court were shocking to me in terms of how they do business. I won't get into it here; but it certainly makes me want to give everyone at APG a big high five because there is no comparison between the service we have received from the two builders. APG have been amazing and I have absolute faith that they are going to build us an amazing home. Silver linings!

P.S - the judgement has been reserved, so we don't know the outcome of the case yet. Even if it doesn't go our way I'm glad we had our day in court.

I literally only joined the twenty first century yesterday & started a blog......feeling very tech savy now.
Your blog is great & how fabulous to have your other home published.

Good luck, hope you receive your money back. Reading through this forum it has really horrified how some builders operate, again best of luck.

Hey MrsTougs, how's the build coming along?