Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Aug 24, 2010 6:19 am I am working with Coral Homes on alterations to the Stradbroke 279 to be sited on an acre in a valley to the west of my present home. I'm taking early retirement and want a hassle free build that doesn't include *me* breaking my back on the job. All the dealings I've had with the SC have been great. I'm now waiting for a final costing. Over the years, when I was young and foolish, I was an owner builder on 3 homes. My first in 1980 was a pole frame on 100 acres of bushland in rural north coast NSW and my last has been my present home right on the beach north of Byron Bay. All 3 house have needed a different approach to the design of siting and materials. Each of them I have designed as passive solar houses [also read greatly reduced power bills ], long before it was widely talked about or incorporated into the average house design. Up to recently I've never been very interested in project homes as they generally have ignored most, if not all elements of good passive solar design. IMHO the Stradbroke 279 is the only project house design, with some changes to layout, windows and upgrade of insulation, that addresses the majority of passive solar principles. On the nth coast of NSW [ and generally most of coastly NSW ] there is an overwhelming need for both flow through ventilation for humid summers and maximising sun into living and b/rooms for winter. However, there are some aspects of layout Coral Homes won't change. The main one would is the position of the main bedroom. Good passive solar design places the majority of bedrooms on the nth side of the house. In this case I have flipped the rear section of the plan so b'room 3 & 4 are on the nth side, but Coral will not flip the main b'room, without a huge upcharge, so it is on the nth and the garage is on the sth. I recognise that this is a radical change to the floor plan and roof design, but it is a failing in their initial design of the 279. One other gripe I have with Coral is over the costing of labour. I live in the Tweed Shire and while the block of land I have is in that shire the company has included the locality for purposes of labour costs, in the adjoining Byron Shire. This means that I would have to pay an upcharge of $6000 for labour as they claim tradesmen charge a higher rate in the Byron Shire. Will this be a deal breaker after I go through the final costings ? I mean I could get a solar hot water system for that sort of upcharge. Andy 1 2986 Ardo That is so funny! I wonder how many people know who Larry Haun is these days. I have a couple of young guys we call Mo 1 & Mo 2 who run a crew of 6 boys and… 9 15511 I couldn't attached the photo for some reason. Here is the link to the photo https://pin.it/79jwdMp 1 3113 |