Browse Forums General Discussion 1 May 22, 2010 11:55 am My house and my rants.... - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=26937 We are in!!!...and still unpacking. Thankfully there are always Tim Tams Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 2May 22, 2010 12:24 pm "In Victoria, developers are trimming the size of land allotments in new estates because of dwindling supply and that has restricted the size of homes. The state government aims to encourage greater density with new requirements for 15 homes to a hectare." First of all I was under the impression developers are sitting on about 97% of their stock. Secondly I can't believe the government has actually restricted the maximum size of land to 666 sqares in new estates. Sounds like they actually WANT to have an absense of any garden or trees in new estates and would prefer Australian suburbs to look more like suburbs in places such as the UK. As if they need to legislate this anyway - developers are doing it to maximise profits without legislation. I'm starting to think suburban life in major capital cities is fast turning into the sort of unlivable situation they have in the UK where people park in the street, take 30 minutes to drive 10km from their house and take 1.5 hours to get to work in the morning. At least thats what our government seems to be aiming for. Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 4May 22, 2010 1:12 pm Helyn Thank Goodness I built in a country town I just find it fascinating that our new block is smaller than our current block..and so much further out. We are spewing (very eloquent I know) that we have outgrown our house... My house and my rants.... - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=26937 We are in!!!...and still unpacking. Thankfully there are always Tim Tams Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 5May 22, 2010 7:25 pm Helyn Thank Goodness I built in a country town Me too! We could have paid $130 - $150K for a block around 800sqm in town..or pay $90k for an acre 12 kms further out-where we can grow enough fruit & vege to save even more money. Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 6May 22, 2010 9:25 pm Nooooo! Bad move Vic, high density living is the pits. More crime, more crowding, more problems. We have the space to sprawl out in Australia, why cram everyone in? Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 7May 22, 2010 10:06 pm Hi All Interesting that this was posted. We live in area where the council is doing the infill program. Demolish one old house and put on 3 or 4 town houses, 2 or 3 stories high. We live in one of the new houses. From our experience it just doesnt work. Half the time our garbage doesnt get emptied because of the cars on the street and truck cant get to them. Ranger had a field day last tuesday. We have no parking signs out the front on tuesdays before lunch. Everyone got booked. Doesnt affect us as we have heaps of parking. Then there is the issue of what you can and cant do. Everything has to be approved by neighbours as the houses are so close to the fence.. And the fight that causes is unbelievable. Our backyard plans are now stuffed because we cant get anyone to agree. You own your house but have no rights. We would never buy into this type of area again. Caz Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 8May 22, 2010 10:57 pm Instead of building bigger we should be building smarter. Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 9May 23, 2010 8:40 am Dollar Instead of building bigger we should be building smarter. 3 storey houses with a small footprint maybe? Geoff - Decophile. Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 11May 23, 2010 1:10 pm It seems that the builders are not actually offering what people want and as the article says builders like PD are actually being caught out with designs no one is interested in. I'd personally like to see more compact houses with less wasted space. For starters the alfresco is not an essential requirement and neither is a parents retreat/king size master room. About the only thing I'd maybe make bigger is to have larger kids bedrooms. Heating and insultation is another area where major builders fail dismally - would it be such a crime to offer something besides ducted heating through the ceiling? About the only positive that I can think of in home design over the last 30 years is the introduction of larger more open plan kitchen/eating areas. In just about every other way there has been no improvement at all. Imagine if the motor industry was like this - we'd still be driving Kingswoods. Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 12May 23, 2010 2:01 pm Deemaree Helyn Thank Goodness I built in a country town Me too! We could have paid $130 - $150K for a block around 800sqm in town..or pay $90k for an acre 12 kms further out-where we can grow enough fruit & vege to save even more money. Geeez....$130-$150K for 800m2...here in Qld that would be a dream. Where I live in Springfield Lakes, I love the place, but it's 35km from the city and to buy a 400m2 block is around $170K...640m2 is almost the biggest out here and they start at $220K...800m2 is almost unheard of in newer estates and 90K wouldn't get you any acreage closer than 80 km or more from the city. The Qld Govt has screwed the price of land here. Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 14May 23, 2010 2:26 pm I don't know if making house smaller is all the answer.. More efficent yes that is for sure!!!!!!!!!!! Ummm... I don't think the gov is the driver of block sizes... Never have been, always the developer. Just for a quick one we are 3 hrs from Perth yeh? Well we just poured a slab on a 360sq mtr plot locally( 1 minute from town) . Why, the shire and the property developers love more blocks than less. ^^ as was said above... enough land has been released, but owned and drip fed to the buying public. Land stock in our region is plentiful... ...the robbers are the ones holding it and trying to cause the price of land to go up. Now developers are doing deals with builders(consignment) to get houses out of the ground so-to-speak and make it look like there is action about. On the cost of land: When we came to town(1989) a 1/4 acre was $60K with a house around $120K for another 20K we bought 8+acres (3.4H). I think it is sad that the best of all the land has been chopped up for some poxy little block that FHO have to buy because the bigger blocks have been priced out of contention. V - Australia is a fairly large country why do we live in each others pockets??? Onc Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 15May 23, 2010 5:10 pm Deemaree Helyn Thank Goodness I built in a country town Me too! We could have paid $130 - $150K for a block around 800sqm in town..or pay $90k for an acre 12 kms further out-where we can grow enough fruit & vege to save even more money. Well said! Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 16May 23, 2010 6:24 pm mpcj We are spewing (very eloquent I know) that we have outgrown our house... We're the same. Or more, we outgrew the layout of the house. Our house was 4BR, 2 bath, 2 living and a dining...so perfect but the layout meant that we were constantly in each other's way, no space. The house we're building is probably too big, but no other designs really struck us so we went for design over size. I know someone building the 52sq Porter Davis house. All I can think of is all those bathrooms to clean. Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 18May 23, 2010 6:40 pm Quote: In Victoria, developers are trimming the size of land allotments in new estates because of dwindling supply and that has restricted the size of homes. The state government aims to encourage greater density with new requirements for 15 homes to a hectare. 15 homes to a hectare is hardly high-density living. If split up evenly, that's 15 blocks of 666 square metres, which was bigger than average even 25 years ago. The stunningly average block we bought in 1985 was 607 m2, and people used to be amazed by the size of our back yard.... If that hectare is split into a mixture of block sizes, as is the usual practice, there'll most likely be some 800-1000m2, and some much smaller, so something for everyone. We're not all the same and we don't all want the same thing. Big block/small block, city/country, large house/small house.... if you're happy with what you have, then it's not up to someone else to judge whether it's right for you. Especially not condescending newspaper reporters who like to use the word "McMansion", but probably mean "any house that's bigger than mine". Re: Article - The Age - house sizes 20May 23, 2010 7:45 pm I love this topic, and it seems to come around regularly. mek, surely you don't want to go back to living in an apartment? kek is right IMHO - everyone should be happy with their choice. She and others have also alluded to the fact that there are so many variables in house and block sizes depending on where you live, beggars can't be choosers so the outcome of your build will be somewhat dependant on where you choose to build. Some might remember that I raised a poll many moons ago on hypothetical choices: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5874&hilit=poll We have a 29 sq house on 885 m2 of land. Our previous home consisted of an 18 sq house on 666m2 of land. I have far more backyard and garden now than what I had before so who cares if someone living in a flat thinks I live in a McMansion, by focussing on the house itself? Having said that we are already thinking a decade (or less) ahead to when we might be downsizing, who knows we might even retire to the city! Why the volume builders don't offer a two-storey house of about 20 squares, to enable me to maximize yard space for outdoor and garden living on a small block, is beyond me. Geoff - Decophile. OK it's been a little while! I've been busy getting time where I can to work on this. I started by grading a pad (borrowing a… 26 19955 I have a box of quality drill bits that seem to be new but their engraved sizes covered by rust ,,,,I tried to sand them to see their sizes but still I am finding… 0 1429 You’re on the right track, wire brush in a grinder then a zinc rich epoxy primer then a top coat of some sort, like a waterproofing membrane. Raising the concrete would… 1 7020 |