First Home Build - Mount Barker

Hi Everyone, this is my first post on this forum ever!

We are in the early stages of building our first home, and we are doing so in Mount Barker, Clover Park. We have chosen to use Statesman Homes as our builder however are still early in the process

Here's our timeline so far, excited to share our journey with everyone

28/8 - Signed and deposit paid
21/10 - File formally accepted
6/11 - Preliminary plans presented and sent for energy assessment
11/11 - Energy ratings assessment failed 6 star minimum, options presented

Good luck with your build.

We are also with Statesman and also failed the energy assessment, we had to change the size of windows in bedrooms 2, 3&4, add low e-glass to our glass sliding doors, and upgrade the roof insulation to a rating 6.

Be prepared for a hike in your footing cost, our estimate was $38k and we are building on a flat block of land. After the engineering report, this increased to $46k. 😪

Hi Bebbsy, Thanks so much!

They had to go pretty hard with removing windows (as well as upgrading to Low E & insulation to ceiling and walls to grade 6) for ours unfortunately, so we are testing out if there's any other options. I'd already been thinking that the house would be too dark! Let alone with removing 4 windows, and reducing the size of all the southern ones!

They did suggest a full house of double glazed windows would fix it, but i'm hesitant to use the extra money on it in case of footings

We have $30k allowance, but the block has been benched and retained and we have a certificate for something to do with a clean fill. I was hoping to come in under, but am terrified of going over! Can I ask where you built to get that whopping footing cost??? That will really hurt us if ours is similar!

We’re building at Kersbrook, it’s not on fill and we do have some clay but the land is totally flat. During the quoting process we were informed that the slab cost was high and we could expect it to come in less. So was a huge shock when the final cost came in significantly more.

Since we started building we have been hit with an additional $1,200 cost for our septic tank and sewer/water piping installation, yet this cost had been already locked in several months before. There has been no adequate explanation why it has cost more. So you are right to be cautious.

Our south facing bedroom windows were changed to 3m wide x 900 high so they sit up high near the ceiling, the plus being that furniture can be situated underneath.

If your house ends up being too dark, perhaps you can install a skylight later on?

For a flat block, that just seems crazy! I don't have much knowledge on the complications of building houses though unfortunately, so get very nervous with this sort of thing.

I'll definitely keep on them in regards to the extra costs, we don't have an endless budget, and we've purposely tried to keep things small and efficient, so fingers crossed we are lucky! Which design did you choose from Statesman?

We didn't mind the size reducing of windows so much (although our biggest window was only 18-15 in the first place), but rather the removal of windows was a real issue for us. Left us rooms where we'd specifically added windows, and they took them right out again.

That is a positive in having higher windows though! Something we'd only really thought of last weekend when we went hypothetical furniture shopping for our hypothetical new house!

We are building the Felixstow Alfresco, it’s slightly modified as we added 700mm to the entire back of the house, and 500mm to the right side, so that wall aligns with the garage.

What style have you gone with?

Hi Nicby,
If you have not finalised on the plans than i have started a new concept to Visualise the floor plans in real size true 1:1 Scale, called Walk the Plan,
We take your existing plans and project them down on the floor so you can walk through your entire house and garden area and get the exact idea of how big everything will be in your house, Making changes to plan to suite your life style before its built.

Oh I love that plan! If we'd had a bigger piece of land, we'd probably have chosen that one! I think i would ahve had to extend the walk in pantry though!

We've chosen the Findon Alfresco, but modified it slightly. We may be in the process of modifying it again to improve energy assessment, so i won't yet post a photo, but I will when I know it's not changing again!

When we got our energy assessment failure email, I did some research and found out one way to improve it is to position living areas to the north. I re-jigged all the rooms and now have a design that I love more than our original one! It may be too late to change though. We will see what they can do!

Hi Koreahot123,

Sounds like a really cool idea! Unfortunately I think it's probably too late for us to do much changing, as much as I'd like to! If we do get away with a few more changes, it'll be pretty rushed and I don't think we'll have time to organise anything like that

Thanks though

So we had an appointment with our amazing consultant last night to discuss what we can do cut costs while still meeting the 6 star energy minimum rating. (Highly recommend Kim from Statesman - She is the best!)

We ended up changing our design, and I love it even more than the old one! Plus it should save us at least a few (more like 6) thousand in double glazing!

Here's hoping no more changes & a smooth run from here on!

Plan as below. It used to be a slightly modified Findon Alfresco, but now it's a heavily modified Findon Alfresco

Wow that is a huge pantry, great storage there. I like your wide hallways, and location of the home theatre to the rear really works.

Just a couple of thoughts, if you swing your laundry door the opposite way it means you can walk into the laundry room and immediately open the cupboard. (The current design means you have to close the laundry door behind you in order to access your cupboard.)

Also have you considered reorientating your kitchen so it faces the dining area? I think if you did that it would give you more space in your dining and family area. You would just need to relocate the csd to the pantry to one end, and put kitchen cupboards and fridge along that wall, the sink would go on the breakfast bar. I think you might gain half a metre of floor space in the meals area by doing that.

😉

I know! I love the pantry so so much, and we are stoked about the home theatre! Feels like everything is coming together again, and I'm really getting excited again!

That's a really really good point about the laundry door!! thanks so much!!

We did consider turning the kitchen, but I've fallen in love with the idea of a window splashback, so in order to do that, it need to be on an external wall. It's a good point for using space, but the heart wants what the heart wants!

Thanks for your ideas!

😉

Some further progress updates!

2/12 - our CADDS assessment failed a second time. This time, we achieved a 5.9 star rating, against a six star minimum. Paid a small amount to upgrade another window to Low-e glass (kitchen splashback), and increased the size of the meals window to 18-18, and changed the home theatre window to 09-27. We were just happy to get things moving again!

6/12 - we received final master plans (with CADDS assesment passed!!) and were advised that engineers would now be working on costing the slab, and that we could book our selections appointment! We were advised that the footings costing would take 3-4 weeks, but we know they've already taken soil samples, so I've got my fingers crossed it'll be quicker than that, and we will have the report before christmas.

8/12 - we went looking for quotes for flooring done outside the build, and visited Solomons at Reynella. Ended up purchasing some amazing laminate and carpet at an awesome price. They also through in upgraded underlay for the laminate (to reduce noise), and 10mm underlay for the carpet!

pics below:

https://www.parador.eu/products/laminate-flooring/trendtime/oak-loft-white-1730468

https://www.solomons.com.au/products.php?action=getProductDetails&cid=1&pid=708

Fingers crossed that your construction footing report comes through quickly, ours took just over 4 weeks.

If you haven’t already visited the Design centre, then call in a few times to check it out before your selections appointment. It opens on Saturday mornings too, which is helpful. You can easily spend an hour or more taking it all in.

Take photos of everything you like in the Design centre, and then check the cost in your Selections booklet, which you should be getting soon. It gives you an idea of how much your upgrades costs are likely to be before you go to your appointment.

Best of luck. 😀

Hi! I know this is years old, but looking to build in clover park and wondering how much you did end up paying for footings! Thanks 😊