Sorry again. I didnt mean to come off as insulting anyone personally. I'm just saying that its a stupid idea.
Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 101Mar 22, 2012 3:52 pm Pete_n_Pet Yes, we get your point. But calling people greedy and stupid ain't going help and was/is unnecessary. A simple "I don't agree with large houses" without the insults would have been sufficient. Sorry again. I didnt mean to come off as insulting anyone personally. I'm just saying that its a stupid idea. Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 102Mar 22, 2012 4:52 pm BradS So how you can say that the answer is building up is beyond me. We have a country that has so much unused land that there is no reason to build up. The majority of Australian landmass is desert and not "comfortable" to live in. Australia has a very small area that one would consider "comfortable" to live in. As at 2012, the whole of Australia had a population of 23 million. Tokyo metro alone has a population of 35 million. People build up. With a smartphone app, I was able to grok Tokyo's spaghetti-like subway system within half a day. Seoul metro alone has a population of 20 million. Again, people build up. They had to rebuild their entire subway system. It sucked for 10 years while rebuilding occurred. Now, train comes every 30 seconds at peak hour. Here in Melbourne at peak hour, train comes every 7 minutes...sometimes 20 minutes. WTF? Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 103Mar 22, 2012 7:41 pm zeitgeber Here in Melbourne at peak hour, train comes every 7 minutes...sometimes 20 minutes. WTF? And after that comment your still trying to tell me we should build up lol I cant speak for Seoul but i am pretty sure in Japan 60 seconds late is considered late, here in Sydney something like 7 minutes or less is considered on time I understand the vast majority of Australia is desert, but we have far from exhausted the area of Australia that can be lived in Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 104Mar 22, 2012 9:39 pm Living at home past 30 may seem "looserish", but with the way cost of housing is going, it seems possible that our children won't be able to afford to buy until that age (if at all). Unless, of course they make the compromise of a 2hr commute or an apartment. Perhaps they'll just resign themselves to renting for a lifetime, as I understand is the norm in many more populated countries. Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 105Mar 29, 2012 12:54 am With a background of a father who was a master builder all his life and ended up building a mansion for bell bros daughter as a wedding present in Jutland Pde Dalkieth... My ol man before he died - always lamented the idea of these 4 x 2s with family and games room cinema etc etc for first home buyers that project home builders evolved as the "aussie standard". The fact is you have quite a few rooms that never got lived in for sometimes up to 10 years! Some people just can't punch out 3 kids in 3 years, when you factor in life's realities that no one talks about, like miscarriages and stillbirths etc - suddenly those 3 kids might take you 10 years or more to achieve. Generation or 2 ago they started out with a 2 x 1 (2 bed one bathroom)....and people bought their block - saved up and build a garage on it and moved into the garage to save rent while they saved a deposit of 1/3rd or more for the house loan from the bank! We are headed back to those days with the GFC/ Fiscal meltdown to come. The thing is - if you DESIGN a house to be added onto from the outset - so that you end up with the 4 x 2 eventually - you could build it for half what a 4 x 2 costs - still have large rooms and pay enough off the mortgage to have sufficient equity in your house to borrow against in 10 years time when space is getting tight once the 3 kids arrive! Then you re finance the house to a larger mortgage - and add the rooms you need/want for a larger growing family to the original design plans. Yes costs of building MAY go up as well as cost of living etc etc BUT you won't have been paying compound interest on capital for half a house you never set foot in. The current system ties youngsters into high mortgage payments and large compounded interest bills for life...for houses gar larger than they need. Your parents likely ended up with a 4 x 2 after a lifetimes work raising a family etc - but todays kids expect to start out where their parents ended up. Well guess what - with 7 billion now on this planet and the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) those days arewell n truly over and if you don't think so then your kidding yourself... Employers are outsourcing your job security overseas. It will all be temp or casual work thru employment agencies who cream the top off your earnings and keep you n temp employment so you always need them for the next job placement - how do you have job security for a big mortgage then? So essentially the system is setting kids up to waste the best 10 or 15 years of their life when they go to 1 wage to have a family and the partner is retrenched - its called foreclosure! Employees at the bank - keep an eye out for such people in fiscal trouble - they can and do borrow money at minimal interest direct from the bank and they are the ones who buy your house at the foreclosure auction for about 2/3rds what it cost you to build it, so essentially it's in their direct fiscal interest to sign you up for a mortgage they HOPE you can't pay, in the hope they will get you hard earned $100K equity in your house for nothing! They do this every month or so, flipping many many houses from youngsters who sign up for the sucker deal from the project home display village for a 4 x 2. They retire quite wealthy from others "bad luck" You don't have to run with the rest of the sheep... You can design a 6 x 3 at the outset and only build the first 2 x 1 to get started - and add too it in years to come... 50% of marriages fail these days - and someones going to be borrowing a LOT of $ to pay their former partner out of a 4 x 2 McMansion. If people don't understand that the rules have changed - then too bad for them... with the crazy new mining and carbon taxes etc - the big mining players are looking to divest themselves from Australia - already Rio Tinto wants to sell the Argyle diamond mine and are looking to ramp up their offshore iron ore mines to supply China instead of using north west WA iron ore. Labors just killed the goose laying the golden eggs in Australia with their taxes on mining and as a result the 2 speed economy is about to slow down to a 1 speed economy like the rest of the world in financial crisis, meaning only an idiot would sign up for a large mortgage requiring 2 wages to service it. We are going back to the days like the great depression of the 1920's and 30's between the 2 wars! Face up to it or lose everything! That's the choice that no one is telling the kids of today about what the new unwritten rules of the game will be. Too bad these kids of today are still putting a noose around their necks they will one day live to regret most likely. Can't put an old head on young shoulders sadly. Cheers! Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 106Mar 29, 2012 1:31 am PS_Sirocco7 with all due respect, who are you to say people are greedy for wanting kids rooms to have ensuites. If it is what he or she wants and it is affordable to them what does it matter. The fact is it is irrelavent when you or your partner left home, people leave home at different times for different reasons. I left at 25, could have left at 20 but chose not to. I paid a nominal sum to my parents for rent but didn't need to. I can cook, clean and manage to do the things you mention although I left later. I am in the process of building a house which will have 4 bathrooms and two powder rooms. I only have two kids, a girl and a boy and would like them to have their own bathroom, my choice and my decision. I will share a bathroom with my wife and I will also have a bathroom for the guest ensuite so any friends relatives or even my mother/ mother-in-law do not have to share or be inconvenienced. If you think it is stupid then I am happy you have an opinion that I do not share. I am also building the rooms in my house bigger because I want it that way. I would be very happy if my children never move out as I love having them around. I have decided not to have formal lounge or formal dining as I do not think that these will be used and have opted for a cinema because my family, including me, enjoys movie nights. We will also have a large entertaining area outside as that is something we also enjoy. I think what is stupid is under or over capitalising in an area or living beyond ones means. Aside from that I can look at all sorts of different plans and houses and appreciate that whoever owns them has their reasons for why they have gone that direction. To insist on saying someone is stupid because their view is different is quite narrow minded. Ian, I have been in banking for many years and I am not so sure that what you say is true. For starters the rates in Australia that staff get are often worse after FBT that off the board rates at competitors. It is not the banks' fault people default, thats what financial planning is for. My last thought is that every house I have owned in my life has been "my" mc mansion, from the two bedroom apartment to what I am about to build. Ciao Mark Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 107Mar 29, 2012 6:36 am Mark - if there was a "like" button I would hit it. Also one last point from me is this. I love how the person who is stating that people having many bathrooms are both greedy and stupid. From what I have read they are a small family of 3 building a 4-5 bedroom home? Pot meet kettle? Some things are worth waiting for. Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 108Mar 29, 2012 2:53 pm Quote: Ian, I have been in banking for many years and I am not so sure that what you say is true. For starters the rates in Australia that staff get are often worse after FBT that off the board rates at competitors. It is not the banks' fault people default, thats what financial planning is for. Hi Mark. I hear you that not every banker is out to intentionally destroy their clients in order to profit directly but there's no doubt some definitely are (about to give an example below). As a banker are you disagreeing that young first home owners should limit their borrowings to their need and develop some equity in their house before doing additions to meet the needs of a growing family in say 10 years time? Just curious because it would seem to me it is in the direct fiscal interests of banks for youngsters to buy the standard 4 x 2 and pay compounded interest for 10 years on half a house likely never set foot in. Should banks give financial planning advice when they have a bested fiscal interest in the outcome? Should it be mandatory that their vested interest be declared up front when giving such advice?. I'm just curious which parts of my advice that you as a bankers representative actually disagree with? I would ave thought a judicious risk averse banker would applaud the idea of first home owners not over extending themselves with their first mortgage? I'm just trying to clarify what part of my post you disagree with is all - maybe its only the last part about bankers wanting youngsters to fail so they can capitalize on the misfortune of others via the foreclosure process.... just trying to clarify your remarks is all. As the the example. I have a couple acquaintances, hubby and wife in late 30's, who owned a very nice 4 x 2 in a suburb about 15 km's out of the central city of Perth for 10 years. below ground pool all surrounded with natural slate, and manicured fully automated reticulated lawns and gardens. Hubby worked for a mining co on fly in / fly out work in WA's northwest on a terrific wage and wife had a administrative job n private industry in the local area. They owned and paid their mortgage this way for fully 10 years - whats called "dinks" over here (Double Income No Kids). So they were about 1/2 way thru their 20 years mortgage on the place and had with the values at the time more than 150K equity in the place which was valued around $430k - $450K. They were trying for kids for some years without luck and starting on the while IVF thing which is very expensive. Hubby was offered a better job on Barrow Island with the Gorgon project, at even higher pay so he took it.. still fly in fly out and mining so pretty secure so he thought. 6 months later the company he was contracted too lost their contract with Gorgon and he was out of a job....at the same time his wife was retrenched from her job. He took a truck tyre fitting job in Perth, working 6 days a week and couldn't make half what his previous salary was, while his wife struggled to find another job at all - the occasional casual stint here or there but nothing they could count on. As a result they were struggling with their mortgage and fell behind & tried to work it out with the bank...who seemingly went out of their way to start foreclosure proceedings... In an effort to rescue their equity they listed the house at the valued $450 for 3 months while begging and borrowing from family and friends to keep up with the ever increasing demands from their bank...for late fees etc etc. Hubby injured his back at work and went onto comp - facing a back/spine operation in 12 months but the wages went even lower than when he was working 6 days a week... They got no offers on the house and the bank foreclosed on them! As soon as they were out - the bank switched off the power and water - letting the gardens and lawns first grow long and unkempt until they then died. The bank sold that house at auction, which was poorly advertised thru an obscure realtor no ones ever heard of and as a result poorly attended with only 2 bidders. A family member relative of their friendly banker bought the now unkempt looking house at just over $300k, at the auction. Immediately the power and water went back on, the retic started up again and contractors were sent in to mow the unkempt lawns, and landscapers went in and revitalized the garden replacing a few dead plants while the rest recovered....and the place looked like the former show home it once was. Within 6 months it was re-listed by the friendly bankers family member with a major local realtor - with a huge advertising campaign and a huge hoarding sign out the front, replete with photos of the lovely interior etc etc, it sold within 2 weeks for 480K! Yes the friendly banker managed via a family member he approved the loans for from his bank - to "flip" the house within 6 months for a handy $180K profit roughly...minus a few landscaping and lawn mowing costs. After 10 years of very high mortgage repayments the DINKS blew all their equity (they still owed about $350K on the mortgage so are to this day still paying the bank the extra $50K the house didn't make at auction) while they rent a small place in the boondocks... The wife picked up a job again the hubby's back operation was a failure and he will never be able to work again - because of his wife's income he doesn't qualify for centerlink assistance. IF he sues his former employer he MAY get a lump sum payment in due course, but they are limited now by legislation and that will be required to pay his medical expenses the rest of his life... Essentially after 10 years they lost all their about $130K equity in their house and are still paying $50 k shortfall. Their mortgage payment at the time was around $1150 a month, (13800 per annum x 10 years payments), so in effect they had paid around $138,000 in payments plus the near 100K deposit they started out with, i.e $238k plowed in, to come out with a 130K equity loss and a debt still of $50K.... Their 10 years and $238K "investment" lost them about $180K plus, the $50K debt they still owe to the bank and their friendly bankers family member made a quick $180K profit flipping the house within 6 months of buying it at a foreclosure auction... This is how your friendly banker and his family make their superannuation and retirement fund contributions - out of other peoples misfortune! All you need is a friendly banker in the family to be on the lookout for a sucker or two to rip off. Anyone thinks their banker is their friend is a fool... Your bank won't tell you these unpalatable facts of life. Banks are fair weather friends - they will loan you an umbrella when the sun is shining and take it back the moment it begins to rain. If you want to see how banks operate just look to the US example with their 13 trillion public taxpayer funds bailout after the 2008 stock market crash & multi million (billions even) bank bosses annual bonuses, combined with the now MILLIONS of homeowner foreclosures - and the while robo - signing catastrophe where the debts were rolled into collateralized debt instruments and sold off to the point where no one knows who actually holds your mortgage and title deed... I can link a LIST of URLS of such stories from the USA if anyone's interested. Not everyone's stupid - some people can see whats really going ion that's why new home starts are at a record low - just yesterday I heard Dale Alcock homes here in Perth advertising on the radio for home reno/extensions work because they don't have enough new home starts to keep their building contractors in employment.. The writing's on the wall and in my opinion if you listen to your banker for fiscal advice - your doomed to fail. Cheers! Re: Are you building a 109Mar 29, 2012 3:29 pm kyton Mark - if there was a "like" button I would hit it. A big "like" from us as well. Frankly I was quite offended indeed being called "stupid" for basically building a house that is not only something we have always wanted but also well within our means (without taking out a mortgage either). It's our choice what we spend our money on and if we want to spend it on en-suites in our kids bedrooms because we feel our lifestyle is improved by having that feature its our business and nobody else. As I've said we have lived in big houses and small houses and for us bigger has been better other peoples experiences might differ and that's fine as well but we are going to decide on what's right for us. I can see how for many people a smaller house can be a better choice and I wouldn't dream of disparaging their choice. For us our choice was for a large house for a myriad of reasons but all of them valid and important to us and I certainly don't see why other people have to disrespect our decisions we have made for ourselves. The size and design of anyone's house should be something they personally decide taking into account what's most important to them alone. I'm certainly not going to call someone who wants to build a 5sq or 500sq house "stupid" if that's what they have decided is the best choice for them. Our Building on 118 acres in South Gippsland thread - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=54556 Re: Are you building a 110Mar 29, 2012 4:40 pm drpopper kyton Mark - if there was a "like" button I would hit it. A big "like" from us as well. Frankly I was quite offended indeed being called "stupid" for basically building a house that is not only something we have always wanted but also well within our means (without taking out a mortgage either). It's our choice what we spend our money on and if we want to spend it on en-suites in our kids bedrooms because we feel our lifestyle is improved by having that feature its our business and nobody else. As I've said we have lived in big houses and small houses and for us bigger has been better other peoples experiences might differ and that's fine as well but we are going to decide on what's right for us. I can see how for many people a smaller house can be a better choice and I wouldn't dream of disparaging their choice. For us our choice was for a large house for a myriad of reasons but all of them valid and important to us and I certainly don't see why other people have to disrespect our decisions we have made for ourselves. The size and design of anyone's house should be something they personally decide taking into account what's most important to them alone. I'm certainly not going to call someone who wants to build a 5sq or 500sq house "stupid" if that's what they have decided is the best choice for them. To be brutally honest, if I had virtually unlimited funds to build the house of my dreams on a huge block of land, I reckon I would be building a bigger house than what we are planning now. Even with the plan we have now, I'd like certain rooms to be bigger, but it throws out other aspects of the plans and to pull it all into context would simply cost us too much. Most people are constrained by (i) money (ii) block size and (iii) council regulations. If these three constraints were waived, it would be no surprise to me that many new builds would be much larger. Nowdays, people are throwing more money at building their home, but often block sizes are smaller - hence the huge-house-on-a-small-block thing (aka McMansion). One of my constraints is cleaning the damn thing! Hence why I don't want more bathrooms than necessary. I'm lazy that way. @drpopper - you're not building a McMansion - you're building a proper mansion! Do it well and do it proud! 2010, June : Land bought (1700sqm, battleaxe block). That's it so far! We're in the design phase .... Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 111Mar 29, 2012 6:58 pm For anyone wondering why i suggest limiting your exposure to bank mortgage debt for housing, the following US summation of their fiscal situation should be sobering at the least. Anyone should know that when USA sneezes we catch a cold - if anyone thinks the coming world fiscal collapse won't affect us and there won't be "bank holidays" such as occurred with the Commonwealth Bank during the great depression of the 1920/1930's then you need a good wake up call. (A "Bank Holiday" in this parlance is where they close the doors to prevent people accessing their funds because of a run on the bank that would see it insolvent within a day or so - i.e. it's not a long weekend public holiday to go fishing with ya mates!). Quote: Here are the March, 2012 Bank Closings and their cost to the Federal Deposit Insurance Fund: Premier Bank, Wilmette, Illinois: $64.1 million. Covenant Bank & Trust, Rock Spring, Georgia: $31.5 million New City Bank, Chicago, Illinois: $17.4 million Metro City Bank, Doraville, Georgia: $17.9 million Total Cost to FDIC: $131 million How Much Money Is in The Fund? "The unaudited DIF balance — the net worth of the fund — rose to $9.2 billion at December 31 from $7.8 billion at September 30... The contingent loss reserve, which covers the costs of expected failures, fell from $7.2 billion to $6.5 billion during the quarter. Estimated insured deposits grew 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter." (Source) Banks pay into the fund based on assets. American taxpayers will cover the rest. The above list of banks are small players, yet, 12 months of similar failures would cost 1.5 billion dollars. This is why the FDIC contingent loss reserve fell from 7.2 billion to 6.5 billion in the last quarter of 2011 alone. They spent over a billion in January 2012. Big Banks Cost Big Money: FDIC spent almost a billion dollars on failed banks in January of 2012 alone. One of the bigger hits came from Tennessee Commerce Bank. This bank could cost FDIC up to 1.3 billion dollars: "Tennessee Commerce had $1.2 billion in assets and is the largest bank failure of 2012. The loss to the FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund was $416.8 million. "The quality of assets at Tennessee Commerce Bank was so poor that the acquiring institution purchased only $203.9 million (17%) of the failed Bank’s assets. The FDIC, which is already holding $30 billion of failed bank assets, got stuck with the balance of $854 million of junk loans to be disposed of later." (Source) The Elephant in the Room: Global Derivatives exposure is estimated at 1,000 trillion dollars. It could be double that. No one really knows. Bank of America and JP Morgan transferred 70 trillion dollars of derivative exposure to their FDIC insured accounts. This is a move towards insolvency that cannot be ignored. Ron Paul's audit of the Fed disclosed an additional 34 trillion dollars in Federal Debt, add this to the 15 trillion currently being reported. Then add this to the liabilities we will incur when JP Morgan and Bank of America go under. The total will exceed 119 trillion dollars. The United States Gross Domestic Product is only 14.5 trillion dollars. This means if every penny from what we produce as a nation was applied to the national debt and FDIC future liabilities with just two major banks, it would take us 8.2 yearsto pay it off. Hyper-Inflation is Coming: Like the Weimar Republic, the Federal Reserve will start printing massive amounts of paper Federal Reserve Notes (dollar bills). Printing enough to cover 119 trillion dollars. The Federal Reserve states there are 1.1 trillion dollars currently in circulation. (Source) An additional printing of 70 trillion dollars to handle FDIC obligations would bury the dollar and trigger hyperinflation. Image a dollar cut in half 70 seperate times and you will get the picture. It will happen. The only question is when. 10 years ago I would have advised differently - I'd have said build big at the first go and pay it off - when money was plentiful, but the rules have all changed...in the last 3 or 4 years and all bets are off as they saying goes. Here's a tale that explains what to expect... My Grandfather Lucky Eddie lived thru the last great depression of the 1920's and 30's however he was relatively "lucky" in that being a steam train driver his job was considered indispensable for the war effort thru WW1 and 2 such that he couldn't be drafted to serve. Also that he was on what was then a basic wage guaranteed by the govt of about 5 pounds ten and six shillings a week...or thereabouts. During the great depression a builder in Midland WA (Dudley street for those of you who know Midland) had bought a full quarter acre block and built a double brick and tile 2 x 1 house for himself and new wife. This builder, then got onto financial strife because the building industry died as its about too here. He wanted to go farm a block with his returned soldier brother up the bush on a war service settlement block - at least he would be able to feed his kids he figured! Only thing was he needed 10 pounds (or just over 2 weeks wages) to be able to buy into the partnership in the farm with his brother. He also owed the shire of Midland about 40 pounds (8 weeks wages) in unpaid back rates on the property. My Grandfather happened to have 50 pounds (about 10 weeks wages) tucked away at the time and gave him his 10 pounds and paid the owing back rates at the shire - in return for the title deed to the house. As a result in his entire lifetime my grandfather never knew what it was to have a mortgage or a house payment of any kind. To put that into today's dollars context ;- lets imagine that if your a fly in fly out mine worker on $3 grand a week - he bought his land and new double brick n tile house in Midland for the equivalent of 10 weeks wages or $30K! That's what happens to real estate in a great depression which it appears we are headed for in this country only no ones game to mention it. Who wants that 3 or 4 hundred thousand dollars mortgage when your out of a job and have to walk away from your house cos it costs more to pay the loan than it is worth to sell? This is already happening in the USA - owners who are "upside down in their loan" i.e. owe more than the property can now be sold for, just mail the keys back to the bank and say - "its all yours, good luck with it" and default on their mortgages because that's cheaper than continuing to pay inflated prices and inflated interest on houses not worth half what they are mortgaged for. Rather than lose money every week with house price deflation and high interest rates - they move out and rent while they save a deposit for a newer cheaper house than the old expensive one they had! Homeowners in the USA are already "cutting their losses".... and truthfully this is why new home starts are so slow in Oz right now - some people can see the inevitable "writing on the wall" and are deliberately staying OUT of the market right now and for good reason. Your bank won't tell you this - they don't want you to know. Neither will your builder or your accountant or mortgage lender or real estate agent - all of whom rely on you taking the plunge and the gamble in order to make their living and keep their house and mortgage in line. It's like a game of Chinese whispers, and last man standing - last one outs a rotten egg! Life must go on we all have to live and feed our families and put a roof over their heads - again my advice (unless your a cashed up retiree building your dream retirement home) - other words for first home buyers just starting out is that we are in for a rough ride fiscally globally in the next few years, and t would be prudent to limit your liability to any bank...by starting small and adding on later as the physical need for additional space actually arises. That way you cut back your mortgage as quickly as possible and also get some equity in the property hopefully as value increases in the longer term...against which you can THEN perhaps borrow under better terms and increase the size of the place - the TRICK if you like being to design the eventual place you want to end up with NOW but just build what you actually NEED right now while there's so much uncertainty in world fiscal circles. If the above US debt figures don't scare you into some semblance of reality, then maybe this link will.... http://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html Australia's current public debt to GDP ratio is ~37.8% and our external debt to GDP ratio is around ~105% By contrast the US debt position? http://www.usdebtclock.org/ Us Total national debt is approaching 16 trillion! Total debt per citizen (man woman and child) is $182,618 and per family is $690,648 with combined family savings of just $4,268 per family! Anyone besides me see that this just isn't sustainable in the short or long term? THATS why if at all possibly you should be avoiding large bank mortgages at the moment. If your cashed up and building the mansion from your own savings now's the time to do it and all the more power to you. I think a LOT of people in Oz are under the impression these 2 tier economy good times are set to continue ad infinitude and sadly that's not the case. Hopefully this clearly makes my point. Forewarned is forearmed! Cheers Madness takes its toll - please have exact change handy! Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 112Mar 29, 2012 7:24 pm Quote: Most people are constrained by (i) money (ii) block size and (iii) council regulations. If these three constraints were waived, it would be no surprise to me that many new builds would be much larger Cannot speak for 'most people' - but this attitude is annoying me - if people who build huge multi ensuite homes can justify their choice as being right for them (as several posters above have done) then why can you not also see that people could choose to build smaller homes because such is right for them NOT becasue they were restrained by budget, block size or council regulations. As I said before, DH and I both have steady reasonably well paying jobs - we have no mortgage and no other debts, we have a block of over 700m2, much larger house or 2 story house would of fit or we could of bought larger block, council would certainly let us build larger house - nothing constrained us, we purely chose to build a 23 sq house because thats what we want. Accepting peoples choices has to work both ways - not assuming people who built smaller didnt choose that. Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 113Mar 29, 2012 8:52 pm I can understand your feelings Helyn. . . we had our big dreams of building a big house, now we have a big house which is too big. If we ever build again we will definitely build a smaller house, as we just don't need all this space and this huge mortgage. "our eyes were bigger than our bellies" . . . so to speak. Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 114Mar 29, 2012 10:14 pm Ian, PM sent.... Helyn, completely hear your point and am happy you have what suits your needs and wants.....and it is your mansion. Constraints aside, I respect that each person/ family has different needs and that's fine. I actually know people that choose to live in a small house but have cars that are worth multiples of the house, others that are into Hifi and spend a large fortune on it. Its their choice and if it makes them happy I say go for it.... Jodge.... this is really the first house we will be living in and hopefully the last for me. Up til now we have lived in apartments. I think the cleaning will be an adjustment, but we are taking the plunge and hopefully we will enjoy the ride. Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 115Mar 30, 2012 10:12 am to the OP who seems to have run a mile from this thread.......... go for it - build what you want - life is short. And have fun doing it! Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 116Mar 30, 2012 7:30 pm I am one who was constrained by money and council (or in our case mines subsidence). The display home we looked at is 49sq's, our home is 38sq's. Mines subsidence will not allow me to build a home larger than 18m x 30m on the 2024sqm block we bought. Is it to big, i don't think so as we still have a backyard the size of an inner city block. Would i have built a bigger house if i could, of course i would as i feel we will use the entire house. I can appreciate why some wouldn't, but small homes aren't for me Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 119Mar 30, 2012 8:51 pm Ohhhhhhh. . . to the original poster. . . and to you all. . . please consider our environment and rapidly diminishing oil supplies as well as what you want before building your house. If you don't know much about passive solar design, google it. Re: Are you building a "Mcmansion"? 120Apr 01, 2012 8:25 pm wow, i am amazed at all the replies this thread has recieved! Hopefully it allowed for some entertainment rather than anything inflammatory. We will take into consideration everything everyone have suggested. To update whoever is interested with regards to our decision in building the Sandringham 45-we are still very keen. My partner who is fanatical about budgeting has readjusted our budget and from a financial point of view, from commencing build in an anticipated 2 years time, we will be able to pay the house and land off in 5-10 years time, accounting for lives every changing scenarios ie, kids, illness, loss of income. From a practical point of view, I realise that we could have gone for smaller, and older generations have made do with living in much smaller places but everyone have their dreams and this is the one we have chosen to pursue. Taking that into account, I think we can get away with living our dream because we have worked hard and sacrificed short term dreams to achieve it. Looking to start the journey of becoming an owner builder in SA. Feeling pretty (overly) confident on the building and construction details, but really struggling to find… 0 8417 No. It's not original. Circa early to mid 90s would be my guess and maybe even as late as early 2000s 1 6631 A question. Im in Queensland and building a new home. We managed to reach practical completion 6 weeks ago but we haven't heard any date for handover yet. Who should we… 0 5806 |