Eden Two Wells SA

We have purchased lot 188 Daffodil Drive, Two wells in the new estate - EDEN 🙂. Building with SA Housing centre (Hickinbotham) and financing with Homestart

Signed our contract back in January, now we are waiting eargerly for the roadways to be developed so we can start making some progress 🤞🏻


Would love any advice for first home builders,with such an exciting time I’m sure there will be things we have overlooked,

I’m hoping to document the process of our build

Chosen to build the Kentucky Alfresco MKII

Hi. Just wondering how it is all going with sa housing

So far so good, we haven’t had much contact with them since signing our build contract as we are still waiting on the civil works to be completed.

They have been great so far though, easy to talk to and very prompt with any queries we have had.

The road, footpath, lights, water points for stage 2 is down. Our stage 3 civil works are starting and should be completed by November 😁

So far this is what we are looking at going for our external colours:




Austral praline with natural mortar
Dune rendering
Monument colourbond roof
Dune panel lift double roller door

How’s your build coming along?

Currently our stage is due to have civil works completed by November 😀

We’ve signed our Master plans, we are slowly working our way through our Colour selections and Electrical plan - it’s really tough when you start with a blank canvas


Really just waiting for some more progress on the land, I’m hoping to upload some more pictures soon

We are currently costing a modified Harrington Alfresco, very similar in size as yours, also on a flat block (which is not a house/land package). It has 2.7 ceilings and free rev cycle air con included.
The build alone has been costed at $260k so far including a $25k siteworks/footing allowance. Does this seem about right to you?
How much extra would you expect this to increase after selections are complete?

We are at $176,000 currently with our build, that’s incluseds $18,000 allowance for footings ( which is the current average within the Eden estate ).

As we are building with SA Housing, so a lot of the standard inclusions are fairly basic but are actually quite nice for what we want.

I am expecting our electrical plan to be our most expensive part of selections, I’ve been told that the downlights can be up to $140 each. We aren’t quite ready for our selections appointment yet but I’m anticipating we will be around the $10,000.


So by the sounds of what you’ve said you are pretty well on track 😀

Cheers for that. $18k sounds good, fingers crossed it comes in at that cost for you. We checked out the Hickinbotham Design centre yesterday to see what the standard inclusions are.

We noticed that both SA Housing Homes and Hickinbotham Homes have virtually the same inclusions, was a little frustrating they could not tell us what upgrade costs are for various options are (eg from standard toilet to upgraded version) and was told we have to speak to the salesman we are dealing with to get that info. 🤨

Our consultant Dominic Weakley, was great when we were going over the house contract. I would highly recommend him if your ever looking for someone to speak to from SA Housing/Hickinbotham.

I have my fingers crossed we come in under the $18,000 just for the extra $$$, we are building ‘turnkey’ so will need some more inclusions within the home loan then we initially expected 🤞🏼


I’ve spent quite a few Saturdays in the design centre, Ive gotten to know the standards fairly well now. It is very frustrating cause we also would like to know the comparison cost from standard to the upgrade cost.

It’s so expensive building a house, a lot of unseen costs to cover. 😕

I think I will have a few visits to the design centre too, took my other half yesterday and trying to keep him focussed was very challenging!

I like your selections, we like both the Praline and the Chiffon bricks, but have worries with the chiffon look like the grey paint chips off quite easily and you see the brick underneath. I like your Monument roof but think we may go a bit lighter, maybe the Basalt. Will probably have Surfmist render, but also like the Dune too. So many decisions!

I noticed on your plan you have a single panel lift door for your double garage. We have one on our current house and is great, so have included in our plans for the new house. Got quoted upgrade cost of $1,925, does that sound about right? Also $450 for 1 remote control, unbelievable!

It’s so expensive building a house, a lot of unseen costs to cover. 😕

I think I will have a few visits to the design centre too, took my other half yesterday and trying to keep him focussed was very challenging!

I like your selections, we like both the Praline and the Chiffon bricks, but have worries with the chiffon look like the grey paint chips off quite easily and you see the brick underneath. I like your Monument roof but think we may go a bit lighter, maybe the Basalt. Will probably have Surfmist render, but also like the Dune too. So many decisions!

I noticed on your plan you have a single panel lift door for your double garage. We have one on our current house and is great, so have included in our plans for the new house. Got quoted upgrade cost of $1,925, does that sound about right? Also $450 for 1 remote control, unbelievable![/quote]


I am pretty confident with the Praline bricks but I’m not 100% on any other choices so far, especially what colour to go with on the window frames etc

The lady at the Design centre recommended a ‘White’ render but I was put off by how bright it looked and also how dirty it may become especially at Two wells 😑



Our panel lift garage door has cost us $776 - This was the upgrade cost from the original two roller doors with a pillar between them and $446 for the Automatic component with 2 controllers. So it seems yours is a bit more expensive then ours .

Houses already being built at the beginning of Daffodil drive 🎉🤩





Here is our block 😀 so excited to see some pegs in the ground and a waterline









Roads getting all prepared 😊

I’d love to know everyone’s thoughts on ceiling heights?

I’m a shortie 158cm so we have opted for the standard ceiling height, purely for ease of cleaning/access etc.
We are currently living in a house with 2.7 ceilings and I can’t change a light globe (Even with a chair & phone book), I can’t clean exhaust fans or clean webs/dust in corners.

My partner is a tradie and we plan on staying in this house for a long time so our will be 2.7m and I had no say in it. It makes it feel more grand I think

I’m also on the shorter size and providing you have a partner or someone who can change the light bulbs and pull down the exhaust fans, I would go with 2700 high ceilings if you can afford to. 😁

Our current house is 12 years old and has higher ceilings, and always looks light and bright. Our home before that had lower ceilings, and you really notice the difference.

It does feel more impressive than the standard height ceilings. Also will look different from the front as well because the roof line is not sitting lower over the windows, so has a bit more kerb appeal. Resale value will possibly be higher.

Hickinbotham are charging us upgrade to 2700 high ceilings $6,500 on a house similar to yours.

Good luck with your decision.

I’m considering going for the higher ceilings but I’m just going to have to see if we can also afford it now 😬

It’s honestly suprising how fast the original price grows with small changes