Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Nov 23, 2008 10:23 pm Hi my name is Jo,i'm new to post here but been reading a lot of posts and loving seeing all these houses come together, such lovely homes out there.
my husband and i own a house and have done so for 5 years but always had the dream of building one day in the future. It is coming to a point where we need to decide if its worth it and if we should start thinking about it or should we live how we are. The more posts I'm reading the more i realise the hard work, time and patience that has to go into building a house. Do you all think its worth knocking down and building a dream home on the land you have, or buying a house and land package? hubby wants to do the package where as i love my block of land our house is on, plus we have a school right near us, walking distance, and we have a 6 year old child that goes to the school so that helps, and we have family really close, also walking distance. so i cant picture myself living anywhere else. but hubby says theres better blocks out there and thinks of the knock down re build will be more of a pain in the bum. So what do you all think of packages, and knock down re builds etc? Thank you Jo Re: Not sure what to do 2Nov 24, 2008 8:06 am l wont lie building can be frustrating/stressful/annoying etc! BUT it can also be rewarding and fun and exciting, l can name many occasions when lve just cried cause its become all too much, you deal with LOTS of different parties and sometimes it feels like none of them know anything or arent too forth coming with telling you anything!
BUT then you see your slab laid, then the frame, then the first sign of the colors you selected coming together, bit by bit it becomes more exciting until you see the house you chose completed! thats when its rewarding its YOUR house, YOUR colors, unique to YOUR taste! to me that part makes it all worth while! As for building where you are or house or land, l don't have experience in that area, but the things that come to mind for me would be location location location, we all know its the land that tends to make you more money then the house, so if your in a great location why get it of rid! Also it might be worth checking out some of the new estates around your area, l know for me around us most have a new school or two, shopping centres, LOADS of parks and reverse, family days, etc great places for kids to grow up! Plus another thing l would be considering is cost, will it cost you more to build where you are now by the time you take down the old house start the new one etc, or less, could you get a reasonable price on your current house as is! there things l would be considering Anyway good luck deciding! yes it can be stressful, but if you can prepare yourself for that part it is well worth it, l wouldn't have it any other way! Re: Not sure what to do 3Nov 24, 2008 9:54 am Thanks for the reply, i was starting to think no one would reply.
i do love the land we are on, we have a nice size corner block, and as i said im in walking distance from my daughters school and family, plus im central to shops, shopping centres, everything, and ive only lived in this st for 5 years but ive lived in the suburb for 25 years so i love the area. i grew up in it and i want my daughter to aswell so moving isnt on my list, but its on hubbys lol. i must admit the more im reading the more im thinking building is a mistake, i was so excited that in a few years i may be building my dream home, but i havent read stories that go to plan, or with minor probs, it seems to be one massive headache lol i do have a lot of patience, i did renovate this house and by the time we settled it took months till we moved in but hearing stories that sometimes over a year is such a long time. but on the other hand ive never heard anyone build and regret it. thanks again for your reply it explained a lot. Jo Re: Not sure what to do 4Nov 24, 2008 9:58 am JoJo80 The more posts I'm reading the more i realise the hard work, time and patience that has to go into building a house. Do you all think its worth knocking down and building a dream home on the land you have, or buying a house and land package? Read these two threads. https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=10894 https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=10844 Re: Not sure what to do 5Nov 24, 2008 9:59 am We went the knock down and rebuild option for the very reasons you have stated.
We have lived in the general area (both Husband and I) all our lives and have family close. We have 2 kids (7 and 5) who are settled in the area (school and kinder), and we really liked our neighbourhood. It is close to everything we need and in walking distance to the school and stations/buses and shops. We had our house valued a couple of years ago before deciding on this path, and knew what we would be paying if we were to sell and buy then renovate still within this area. There was only one option for us, and that was to demolish and rebuild a much bigger (and well designed home with more storage!) for the future for our kids. We had pretty much paid off our house, but it was way too small for us, three tiny bedrooms, one bathroom and only one lounge/dining...certainly not enough space for us now, let alone when the kids are growing teenages! This situation worked very well for us. We also thought about renovating, but because of the way the old house was designed, it would have lost all of it's street appeal, and would not have 'flowed' very well. It also would have been too costly, as the whole house would have had to have been redesigned anyway to accommodate a double garage which we were lacking. This way, we have a brand new house with the future of our kids in mind (we plan on staying there for at least 25 years!), in the suburb we want. Sure it's hard work (we haven't even started yet!), but all the planning and deciding what goes where etc, will be worth it in the end. We are very much looking forward to watching our dream home being built and moving into it sometime next year! It is a decision only the two of you can make, and there are many pros and cons to it, but you have to do what is right for you! Good luck!! Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: Not sure what to do 7Nov 24, 2008 11:15 am Hoffies Stormy, how much will the demolition and clear out cost approximately. It must take a bite out of the budget? Hi Hoffies, Our demo and clean up was $10,700. This included the 3 brm house, 2 sheds out the back, a large amount of concrete (driveway and shed flooring), brick paving and 6 trees (2 of which were large). They salvaged the roof tiles, kitchen cupboards, front picket fence, front and back doors. We were lucky to escape an extra $800 for removal of the large concrete footings: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We knew the demo would be around the 10k mark, so it was always included in the initial budget. It's the costs AFTER building which I think will be more of a surprise. Flooring, decking, driveway, front fence, landscaping, more furniture, window coverings, letter box etc, etc! Also with demo, there is asset protection from the Council ($155 for the piece of paper, and $1800 security deposit), power pit if needed (ours ended up being $1059 for the pit, extra cabling and GST), temp fencing for about 3 months ($300), the annoyance of waiting AGES to get the gas and electricity services abolished, storage if you need it, mail redirection, putting your phone number 'on hold' so you don't have to change that when you move back etc! It will all be worth it in the end... Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: Not sure what to do 9Nov 24, 2008 12:26 pm Oh its nice to see someone knocking down and re building.
You know how you just get that feeling its the right choice? thats what i have, i have no doubts in the block and st etc i really love it here. yeah there maybe better and bigger blocks but the chances of finding THE one in THe location is hard and i will admit I'm picky lol but this could be forever so i have to be. We thought of doing further renovations but this is a very bad set out and so not how i would do it plus its over 50 years old so theres so many new and better ways, and we have 4 bedrooms, use to have 3 but turned a backroom into a bedroom but the 3 rooms i have in the house i feel guilty when i have another baby because my daughters room is large and the size of the master bedroom but the 3rd room is so much smaller, how can i give one child an awesome room and another child a room i wouldnt use myself cause of the size. so this way id build similar size rooms and allwould be good size. and we want to extend our family so i want more room and an adventure for my family and myself and i think this is it. Re: Not sure what to do 10Nov 24, 2008 12:34 pm Hi JoJo, we also knocked down and re-built for basically the same reasons as Stormy, and like your house the old house on it was a bad design and would be hard to renovate. (Although we did buy the house knowing we were going to knock it down.)
We are nearly at handover and so far everything has gone fairly well (there are always going to be hiccups whichever way you go). I know ppl that have been quoted as much for a 3 room upstairs extension as we are paying for our whole new house to be built, so cost-wise it has definitely been to our advantage. Good luck with your decision! Re: Not sure what to do 11Nov 24, 2008 12:40 pm I think my husbands biggest problem is finding somewhere to stay while knock down happens and the cost of knocking down we have been hearing it can range for $7,000 to like $20,000 and he is thinking its not worth it paying that to knock down, then the rest to re build and its easier to do the house and land package.
That's why im glad im looking into it all now so when we make the decision i will be more up to date with what to do next and where to go. and im so glad i accidently found this site, i think its going to help me along the way. Re: Not sure what to do 12Nov 24, 2008 12:54 pm It was the right choice for us, but it still was a huge decision to make. We had to find somewhere else to live, move a lot of our stuff into storage and , of course, find the perfect house that was going to fit on our block!
Before you do anything, get your house valued, have a look at local properties for sale/auction and see if it feasable to sell and move. Then look at display homes. You will soon work out what you like and what you don't like! For us to sell and move in the same suburb was going to cost a small fortune to get the sized house we were after. It was not worth it at all. Also think about stamp duty costs and agents fees. I know to knock down and rebuild is a huge undertaking, I know for us it was the right decision. Weigh up all the pros and cons, think about what you want in a house for the future (how many bedrooms, private space for teenages AND parents, entertaining areas, double garage, storage, bathrooms etc). Even post a rough sketch of your current house so we can all suggest renovation plans for you! It took us about 2 1/2 years of looking, planning, discussing before we made the committment to go down this path. It's a huge decision, and we were knocking down our 'first' house after living in it for 12 years...I think that was the hardest part. What State are you in? 20K for a knock down sounds a little extreme. You can always strip the house yourself and sell stuff over ebay, or there is a company called Golden Age Homes that will buy your house from you and take it away. http://www.gah.com.au/ There are many options! And you have come to the right place to ask for them! Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: Not sure what to do 13Nov 24, 2008 3:42 pm We agonised for years over what to do and eventually went down the knock down/rebuild path. For us, it has proven to be the best decision, we are about half way through the build and it has been going pretty well so far.
We looked into both renovating and buying established. Didnt renovate because the house wasnt orientated properly on the block, and we still would have ended up with a compromise solution that didnt 100% meet our needs and the costs weren't worth it, it was better value to build new. I also spent lots of time searching for established houses in the area - again we would have been compromising on what we wanted, established houses are really expensive in the area (and I was looking during the boom), not to mention the huge transactional costs in buying/selling. Stamp duty alone would have been about $50k. So for us the knock down rebuild solution seemed the best fit. Our demo costs were approx $10k. $20K sounds pretty over the top to me - I found most of the demo companies i asked were wanting pretty much the same. No question that building is a huge commitment but i think it's also worth remembering that a lot of the posts on this forum are for things which have gone wrong or have been frustrating in the process - there are both good and bad and mixed experiences out there... Re: Not sure what to do 14Nov 24, 2008 4:46 pm Hi JoJo80
We are doing a knockdown/rebuild. We went with a knockdown/rebuild because we also loved the area we were in. We had the house for over 10 years, kids go to school and kinder in the area, we are settled here. Looked at renovating but that was actually going to cost more than building new. One good thing for us because we live in an established area the neighbours have also been keeping an eye on our site for us. We know everything that goes on there even though we are not there. And when we move back we already know everyone and the area (which we love) and the kids don't need to change school. I can see what your husband does mean though in terms of land being more suitable. Because we are in an older suburb our block is longer rather than wider so it can limit house choices from a volume builder. Our builder was able to do a custom for us but not all can or will, so this is something you may have to think about. One thing that has to be taken into account though is somewhere to live whilst it's all happening. That would of course be the same if you have to sell your house to finance the purchase of house and land, but if you were able to stay in your current house whilst building that will be less cost. You would have to budget for renting and possibly also paying mortgage whilst renting so you need to take those costs into account. I probably haven't helped to make the decision any easier but it is good to know all the things you need to take into account. Good luck with it. Re: Not sure what to do 15Nov 25, 2008 7:39 am Thanks for all the replys, its good hearing so many people saying its the best choice for them because i really think it is for us too.
hubby is slowing seeing my point about using the block we are already on and staying put where we know everyone and our daughter is settled nicely into kinder and i always said id never make my kids change schools. It will be a few years before we can do it, i want to save a fair bit of money 1st and have time to find the right house, im pretty picky with what i want, so i need the time lol. so i will stick around here and get ideas, and follow other stories of people building, and by the time we are ready to build i should understand a little more about how it all works. once again thanks everyone you all were a great help Jo Re: Not sure what to do 16Nov 25, 2008 9:24 am Hi JoJo--
The thing about spending "all that money" on a knockdown is that $10-20,000 dollars is still a lot cheaper than buying a new block of land. In addition, I'm sure you can work something out with the bank about your repayments while you knock down--we've found banks to be remarkably flexible when they stand to gain more than a million dollars from us over thirty years. They're just the financial considerations, but like I mentioned elsewhere, Kepner-Tregoe Analysis is your friend. --Mike Everything I know, I learned from SBS. LATEST: Frame Complete http://metricon-mercer.livejournal.com The HIA contract, in the term & conditions section states that "Commencment" is deemed when the drainage is started or the piers are dug or the slab is formed up (incase… 2 6178 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair But if it is a ground level open pit, then it is not a charged system. No surprises there. The pipes have obviously been altered and there would be a reason for this.… 3 31281 I work with owner, he/she is my man on the ground and I instruct them when to visit the site and take photos and I have other tools in the bag. 4 15275 |