Decisions, Decisions.

when you say you are blind, is your condition stable? or will it get worse with time beyond what is normal for people growing older?

Because if you know that your eyes will get worse, then I would definitely recommend single story.

I'm sure you will gain confidence and understanding over time, and I'm glad you're finding it fun rather than stressful! Definitely have a word with your builder about building constraints, but actually some builders don't know all the rules about siting and boundaries of corner blocks - I know, because I've been there, building on a corner block like yours and arguing with both builders, building surveyors and the council about the building regulations. Maybe another good place to start is your local council, they'll be able to go through the local regulations with you and confirm your residential zone, which will determine things like siting, setbacks, and boundaries.

And I'd try to do that before committing to one specific builder, as you may find another builder has the same build for you but cheaper. As for floorplans, there are definitely very few floorplans out there specifically for corner blocks. But have you had a look at ibuildnew.com.au? There are a lot of floorplans on there from various builders to inspire you, and maybe if you find a floorplan that you like, you might even be able to use that build rather than a fully customised one, and that will definitely save you a heap of money.

Hey all

Is it taboo to post contract details on the forum.

I just want to know if i'm in the ballpark for estimate costing regarding what i've got back.

I'm also not sure if what's been put up as tender will need to have other upgrades considered. The sales team is refering to it as "turn key" but without air con and landscaping. The contract indicates upgrades to colourbond roof, stone bench tops (These two are free with poromtion), bifold doors to terrace and floor to ceiling tile upgrade in ensuite.I'm guessing there probably other things i would need to consider upgrading from standard inclusions?

if it helps, my first house also comes without landscaping or aircon. I'm not sure volume builders would normally include those, unless you go for their top end stuff.

Hi Bobo5050,

I'm a bit late to the party here, but will try to offer some advice anyway. When you say you haven't signed anything yet, are you talking about the house, house+land, or the block?

Personally, if you haven't signed anything for the block, if continue to look. The reason being is that the orientation is quite poor. The large NW frontage means you'd likely have many windows facing this direction. This will make your home very hot in summer! Particularly if you locate bedrooms facing this way (as one of the posters showed with your plan). There's nothing worse than W or NW facing bedrooms. These can get scorching hot on summer afternoons!

So I'd you haven't signed up for the block, I'd continue the search. First reading this brilliant government website, which outlines how to build a comfortable, energy efficient home.

http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design

First focusing on the orientation of your block, & getting the orientation of your house right. This is called "passive solar design". Allowing northern sun into the home in winter, while shading it in summer with appropriate length eaves. While eliminating hot summer sun from the west (& east).

To do this you want your living areas (& a high proportion of your windows) to face north. Minimising (or eliminating) west facing windows, by facing the garage, laundry & bathrooms west.

If the block you're looking at had its major frontage facing north it would be perfect. But if it faces W or (NW in your case), the orientation is very poor, resulting in overheating in summer.

Also you've said you're single, & it looks like you're planning on building a home that is 290sqm. This is huge! It will be very costly to build, costly to heat, cool, & maintain. It will also be very bad for the environment. Producing large quantities of CO2 during the production & transportation of building materials (embodied energy) for the house. Then continuing to produce large quantities of CO2 to hear & cool the home.

I think it would be much more sensible to build a much smaller home, appropriate for your needs. It will be far, far cheaper, so you won't have to skimp. You can choose a custom design, which meets all of your needs. A smaller, well-designed home will have much smaller running costs. If it's in a climate like Sydney's you may have no heating or cooling requirements at all!

Sorry should of been a little more clear. The block has a 10% deposit on it waiting for settlement (10 weeks or so out at this point).

Yep i tried to get some advice pre purchase on the block but got roped in by the salemen on the estate. That said the development did sell out shortly after so it was some what time sensitive. I knew i was rolling the dice goign in without professional opinion but also didn't really have anyone i could bounce ideas off in a timely manner

I will just have to make do with the block as i don't think i could take the 30K hit to lose my deposit. I believe the blocks on next release will have a significant mark up compared to what i paid.

I very much appreciate the advice on orientation and the efficiency it provides. Seems like i will have to work around my block as best i can but will very much bring these points to the table regarding design moving forward.

I hear you on the big house, I was originally looking at something much smaller. But i like the idea of not having to up size if a new partner comes on the scene. I'm also very open to renting out some of the rooms as i have a lot of friends in the rental market (i know this comes with it's own advantages/disadvantages. I personally think it's better to shoot for the future rather than just wanting to upgrade every few years and deal with the stress and costs involved with selling and buying again. Happy to hear anyone's opinion further on this though.

In that case, I'd make the best of your block's orientation. Putting the bedrooms in the towards the rear, facing SE. Leave the NW for your living areas, as it's more comfortable to have warm living areas than bedrooms. You'd probably want larger than average eaves here, to protect the windows from NW & W sunshine in summer. You haven't mentioned your location I think. Obviously the further north you are, the more you have to protect the home from summer sunshine, while winter passive hearing isn't so critical. If you're a long way north you have to protect windows from southern summer sun too.

To increase privacy to your living areas which would face the street, you could consider clerestory (highlight) windows. This would increase cost, & increase ceiling heights in these rooms.

As for building a large house. The average house in Australia is somewhere around 230sqm, the largest in the world! Looks like you're well above this figure. So I'd consider downsizing.

If you are going to build a large home, & rent part of it out, you could consider an attached granny flat.

This varies state by state. But in NSW I believe a granny flat can be 60sqm (I'm not sure, but believe they were considering increasing this to 75sqm for attached granny flats). This could be designed as a self contained 2 bedroom apartment, & incorporated into your home if your needs changed.

You'd have to look at local requirements, as it changes state by state. I believe attached granny flats have increased fire safety requirement, that would increase cost.

290m2 is a massive house. 210-240m2 is more than adequate for someone without a big family. You will struggle to outgrow that.

I wouldn't say 290m2 is massive. Sure, it's 25% larger than the average size of a new house is now around 230-240m2, but in your plan, 45m2 is garage, and 30m2 is corridor, leaving you with 215m2 of living space. Yes, it's more than one person needs, but as you say, you're single and young, and who knows, a partner will move in, you'll get married and then you'll have 2.4 children, your parents will come over to help babysit, and bam every room is taken and the house is completed crowded. So I would definitely plan for that eventuality now, rather than trying to add on bits to your house in a few years' time!

I'm still not quite sure what contract you're planning to sign. If you mean the block contract, then I don't think there's any further thoughts needed. It's an empty block ready for building, and you've put your 10% deposit on it already.

If you're talking about a tender on a building contract with your builder, then certainly don't sign anything yet! You haven't even got a viable house plan that will meet the building regulations of your block. If you sign before you have a plan, then you'll most likely find your plans getting bounced back and forth between you, the builder, and the building surveyor for many, many months before anything happens. What you should be doing is finalising the house plan, and then taking it to several different builders to get quotes.

You guy's probably don't realise how helpful you're being, just bouncing off idea with other's is really helping me wrap my head around things.

Ben, yes the current "contract" i'm talking about is the initial tender from the builder. I agree i shouldn't give in to any pressure before i'm confident that compliance is being met and secondly that i've settled on the design itself.

So to be clear. I'm learning towards Perry homes as they are the only project builder I've spoken to who will consider custom plans. I've gone to some custom builders but they seem to be a little out of my prince range.

Once i get the plans finalized i will touch base with a few more builders but i would be surprised if i can find some one locally that will be as flexible as Perry home while still allow for volume builder prices.

Well that the way it looks so far. I'm more than open to being corrected and will probably find out soon as it's getting close to crunch time

@ddarroch

I'm based in Newcastle NSW. The block of my estate is in some what of an elevated spot being on the side of a hill so hopefully i'll get some breeze.

I'm starting to feel pretty confident i can afford the house in a state that is enjoyable for myself (Tender is looking around 370K).

Now i have my head wrapped around costing. The plan is to go back and see if we can reduce the entrance hallway length and maybe put the master bedroom and walk in pantry behind the kitchen (still all very conceptual at this point though).


Overall i don't have too many issues with the size. I like the idea of entertaining and having a larger more open feel in general. Cost was the main constraints here and it looks like i can make that work unless i have to consider more upgrades than I've already priced out (fingers crossed lol).

I would hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you will not be able to build that house on that block.
Firstly the house would need to be set back off the fence line (min 1 mtr for single storey) for compliance and also light/ventilation reasons (you can't have windows on the boundary). Most areas also call for a min 3mtr set back off the rear of the property.
You would also need to comply with street set backs off the front of the house, and the side since you are on a corner.

Your house is approx 27 mtrs long in the plan. Your block is 31 mtrs long. Street setbacks are usually around 6mtrs.
The width is approx 12 metres, with your block approx 18 metres wide.
With the front, side and rear setbacks, the house wont fit on the block.

If you don't want go go down the double storey route, then you need to reduce the size of your home considerably.
You measured a 314m2 plan (including terrace) on a 549m2 block.
At best I think you could build a single storey of around 280m2 on that corner block, which would have the south and west facades being on the setback boundary, and a 3mtr strip for a backyard. I think even then, the house is still too large.

With that said, that house could be reduced if you are set on a similar layout. The garage is huge (6.0 x 6.0 is plenty for two cars)
The theatre room is pretty big for the house size also. You also have a corridor that's close to 30m2, or more than 10% of the floor plan.
The living/dining could be re-configured to save space in the design, etc.

Good luck with it all !

To ben888 & the OP, there's more to consider than cost to your wallet when you're talking about house size. The initial & ongoing cost to the environment is great. The larger the home, the larger the CO2 production & resource usage required to build the home, & the larger the continued energy usage will be.

Australia has the highest rates of extinction in the world! Most of it due to climate change & habitat destruction. Yeah, you may say everything is fine, it's all BS, & consider it greeny nonsense.

But let's just consider one example, the koala. It's already a threatened species, due to habitat loss from land clearing & climate change. Much of that land clearing is to create new housing estates up the east coast of Australia.

Trends are only heading in one direction. To it becoming endangered, & if things don't change, likely extinct.

Do we really want that. This is only one species. There's plenty of other species, that aren't iconic, or as cute & cuddly as the koala, that have already been lost.

Household sizes have decreased, but we continue to build larger & larger homes, double the size of those from the past. Should we continue along this track, building estates of poorly designed McMansions, decimating bushland up the east coast, & losing some of the best farmland on the outskirts of Sydney.

Or should we act, building well designed houses appropriate to our needs.

The choice is ours.

Build what is appropriate. If the OP rents out much of the home, or fills it with a family soon, then a reasonably large home may be appropriate. But if the OP is occupying a large 4/5 bedroom home by themselves it would be a great waste. Not only for themselves, but also at great cost to the environment.

You're not bearing bad news your just bringing some facts to the table! Appreciated.

The design is a starting point but clearly a lot of aspects need to be locked at. I'm still confident i should be able to work with a builder and get a good end results. Doesn't bother me to much if i have to shuffle things around or reduce some size here or there.

I guess the main things at this point are working out the restriction on where the house can be placed and general compliance, that will make it more clear what i have to do with my design.

Generally, as has been mentioned, for a corner block the setbacks on the street frontages are the largest (probably around 4-6m), while the other two setbacks are much smaller (around 1m). This is different from a normal block which often has small side setbacks (around 1m), a medium front setback (~4m) & a large rear setback (~6m).

This varies from council to council. As does the maximum allowable build size, as a proportion of the block, which varies greatly for low, medium & high density zones.

So yeah, as a starting point, check with your local council, to determine the zoning laws for your block.

Not sure if this document is completely up to date but I've found this for the Lake Maurice council development Control Plan.

Does the below seem about right?

Street set back
1. Where there are existing adjoining residential buildings within 40 metres,
i. the front setback must be consistent with the established setbacks or,
ii. where adjoining building setbacks vary by more than three metres, the front setback must be the same distance as one or other of the adjoining buildings, or:
iii. where adjoining buildings vary in setback, development must locate between their setbacks.
2. Where there are no existing (or approved) dwellings within 40 metres of the lot, the front setback must be a minimum of four metres from the front boundary.
3. The secondary street setback for corner allotments must be a minimum of two metres.
4. Entry features and porticos, porches, balconies, decks, verandahs, bay windows, eaves and awnings may encroach up to 1.5 metres into the front setback area. This encroachment must not cover more than 50 percent of building width. Part 3 – Development within Residential Zones LMCC DCP 2014 – Revision 20 Page 28 – F2016/01470 Adopted by Council 23 July 2018 5. Where the site is identified as being vulnerable to flooding or expected sea level rise, street setbacks may be reduced to ensure that developments are adequately setback from the shoreline.

Rare setback

1. In the R2 and R3 zones, rear setbacks must be a minimum of three metres for buildings up to 4.5 metres in height.
2. In the R2 and R3 zones, rear setbacks must be a minimum of six metres for buildings over 4.5 metres in height, but less than three storeys.
3. In the R2 and R3 zones, the rear setback must be a minimum of nine metres for building height of three storeys or more .

Side set back

In the R2 and R3 zones, side setbacks must be a minimum of 900mm for building height up to 4.5 metres.
2. In the R2 and R3 zones, side setbacks must be a minimum of 1.5 metres for building height over 4.5 metres but less than three storeys.
3. In the R2 and R3 zones, the side setback must be a minimum of 3 metres for building height of three storeys or more.

Personally, I think you're better off going to a reputable builder and talking to them. It costs nothing and until you sign a contract, it's free. You're allowed to get prices and information off them, and the reputable ones all know setback and best house orientation for your setup.

Can't really ague with that Steve, cheers mate.

@ddarroch it's great that you're promoting energy efficiency and thinking about environmental issues when building, but in terms of the build, the size of the house itself matters very little compared with all the other measures that are involved. Things like the actual build materials, the insulation of walls, floor, roof and windows, recyclable water, and energy efficient heating, cooling, lighting and appliances. You're better off having a 8 star rated larger house, than a 5 star rated smaller house. Nowadays, you can even build a whole zero-carbon skyscraper - which just shows size is not that important when in comes to being environmentally friendly!

And besides, his plot size is already determined, so whether a 300m2 house or a 200m2 house is built, it's not going to encroach on any more natural habitat.

Yeah, I had a quick look at your council rules, and they seem about right. So your building envelope will look something like this:


But you've also got a rule on site coverage not exceeding 50% - which means that for your 549m2 plot, you can't build on more than 275m2 of it - so your 290m2 single storey idea is out!
You've also got a Secluded Private Open Space rule of 24m2, minimum 4m width - which you can't build on - eg as I've pictured.

But don't forget about "embodied energy". It's not just about the energy it takes to operate a home, but also the energy it takes to manufacture & transport a home's components. This embodied energy is a significant proportion of the overall energy consumed over a home's life. Particularly if high embodied energy materials are used, like concrete, steel & aluminium.

Obviously a larger home, built out of the same materials as a smaller home, will have a higher embodied energy.

Also, other than getting orientation right (which is free), most improvements in energy efficiency come at a cost. Increasing insulation levels in the walls & ceiling, edge-of-slab or under-slab insulation (if it's appropriate), higher performing windows, solar PV panels, solar thermal or heat pump hot water, north facing polished concrete floors, heat recovery ventilation.

Like most people, I'm sure the OP has limited funds. They're more likely to be able to afford some of these improvements if they save money on the build costs by building a smaller, well designed home, instead of a larger home.