Building with MOMU @ Duncraig

Hi All, I'm here to share with you my journey of building my house, with the hope that you guys can share your experiences that I can benefit from. I've built a house in the past, but that was for investment purpose. This time it is the real deal, as I'm looking forward to move out of my current house, which just completed 50 years (yes, it's older than me). I have been warned of the hassles of building vs buying a ready-made house, but for me it's an opportunity for creativity, that I can dream up, get constructed and then live in. Hence, rather than allowing the builders to push me into one of their run-of-the-mill plans, I created my own and then got them to bend their's to suit mine. In the end, I'm happy with a layout, that is custom made, suited to the non-rectangular shape of my corner block, within my budget, and ticking all the boxes that I had in mind.

The lot is a 360 sqm corner block, facing a park. The entry is from the North and the side-yard is to the East. The plan is slightly outside the BCA requirements, and hence submitted for approval to the council. However my builder is confident that it'll go through, based on their past experience. Without further ado, here's the Plan with some Model-views for your comments. Oh, and did I mention that we are a family of 4 with two small kids (3 & 10)...

Plan looks great! Only query I have is the odd door configuration in your pantry and garage access. Seems very cramped you would only be able to have one person twisted sideways to open and close the doors!

I'd change the internal pantry to living access door to a sliding barnstyle or cavity slider (a little more difficult with WA brick construction.

Duncraig is great though, we are doing a KDRB just one suburb further north to you 😊

Hi Unikitty, I'm happy that you liked the plan. The pantry issue has been a major talking point between me and the builder. However the option of cavity slider was too expensive. The only other option for us was to include the WIL into the pantry, which DW didn't like. Hence the compromise. We did confirm though that the doors don't overlap.
Are you building in Padbury? It's also a great suburb (possibly at an elevated level), but we wanted to be in the catchment of Duncraig Senior School. The Park opposite to our lot was the final decider though. Please share your build too. Good luck.

Yes Padbury - it's in Duncraig SHS catchment too.

What about a feature barndoor?

I really think you'll end up leaving the pantry door open all the time as it will get in the way otherwise.

We actually didn't think of the barn door option, and now it's probably too late (variation fee). However I don't think we'll be using the pantry all the time. It'll more be like a long-term storage for kitchen items. Our current kitchen is much smaller than this one, and we don't even have a pantry. However your concern is a valid one. If it was not our residential home, we might have combined the WIL with it.

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Hi Bobjane, thanks. Wish you good luck with your build too. Have you finalized your layout? I've build in the past with Content Livings, who are in the same group as MOMU. It was a great experience. I hope me and you have the same experience with MOMU too. However "Fixed Contract" may not be entirely fixed. I suggest you get full disclosures before signing.

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You must ask them for an itemized breakup of the site-works. Then you can confirm if every item is fixed or some are provisional. You can't be too careful with the builders. Contents or MOMU, I don't think it'll be much different at the build stage. The main difference is the kind of inclusions they offer, which you can negotiate with them anyways. Also, their office staffs would be different, but I think they use the same contractors.

Thanks for sharing your plans, it looks great. I especially like the privacy turn from the hallway to the family room and the extra length of the garage for storage. Simply love the 3D images.

Thanks LOL2000, it's my custom made plan, but I had some great advice from this forum. The 3D drawings I did in Sweethome3d, a free app, that's easy to use.

Finally I got a call today from my Construction Manager today that the slab will be laid this week. That was such a relief, considering the fact that the PoP was signed with MOMU on 10th of July. Meanwhile my neighbours, who's lot titled on the same day as mine, have their roof frame up. Let's hope there are no further holdups.

One thing to be aware of with your pantry opening into and backing onto the garage is that your pantry could get quite warm with potential impact on shelf life of food items
External garage walls and the ones between garage and house are generally only single brick so heat transfer can be an issue.
Maybe consider insulation on the garage side of the wall?

That's a good pickup mate. However I can confirm that this particular wall is a double wall.

That's good news

Happy that your house is up to the next stage

I have pre-start coming up this week. By any chance do you remember how long it took from finishing pre-start until the slab stage?

Hi Bobjain, I signed my PoP on 10th July. The slab is going to be laid this week. That would be about 18 weeks.

Finally some progress... The slab was poured. However then the crew went on their Christmas break. Hopefully they start the brickwork by mid-Jan, as promised.

I did see that the slab was out of measurement at couple of places by upto 300mm. Is that a concern, or they manage it in some form in the latter stages?

The slab only reaches as far as the internal leaf of brickwork. The external leaf of brickwork sits on the footing below it. Did you take this into consideration when making your measurements?

Thanks amilelka, but I referred to the plan for the slab only. Even going by your information, all sides should have been less than the plan dimensions, not just those 2 edges. I'll have to take it up with my builder when they open after Christmas.