Introductions Please!

Hi best of luck with your decision. I've done a couple renovations and have always found that the house itself limits what you can realistically do and given your often dealing with the unknown a lot of your money goes towards fixing or repairing previous work hidden below the surface.

The houses I renovated though were over 100yrs old and in the inner city so surprises were to expected and prices quoted by traddies often ridiculous. I'm starting a new build now and am about to get to site. So far most quotes (apart from tiles) are often the same or less than what we were quoted for a renovation.

Hi!

A friend of mine recommended I join this forum as it contains many interesting stuff for home fixtures and repairs. I wish to benefit from it and share my opinion to the community. Thanks for accepting me.

Hello.

Long time reader, first time poster.

I'm a sole-parent of three under five and I've moved us to Victoria to start over. With a very (very, very) small budget that is the hallmark of my ilk, I've just signed an order form for a build with a large project builder in the outer (outer, outer) east.

Needless to say that this is a very exciting and empowering phase for me. Building a new home for my young family is symbolic of much more than just putting the proverbial roof over their heads. So I thought I might start a blog too. There's nothing on there yet, so I won't bother putting up the link for the moment. But I'm looking forward to spending a bit more time here and sharing my journey.

Cheers.

TT.

Hi there,

We're first time builders and are in the preliminary stages. We have a plan sorted and approved through council, we have a builder but are still waiting in quoting. Is this normal? I was under the impression all quoting etc should have been done prior to council approval during the planning process. Our circumstances are not typical, I won't go into them on here. We didn't choose to be building a home and I think decisions were probably a little scrambled at times, but we're here now and there is nothing we can do about it. I'm just a little disillusioned at the moment with how things are progressing. Has anyone heard of CostPlus contracts - it appears to be a kind of 'pay as you go' system, which to me has blow out potential, as opposed to a fixed costing contract, which were now being told will take more weeks to get started as things need to be locked in. Any advice on contracts and building in General would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Hi everyone,

Great forum you guys have here. Job well done Jason. I'm Ben, I live in country Victoria and have just purchased my first investment property. (awaiting settlement) This property, will be positively geared but I aim to renovate it, and my PPR, over the coming months to increase their values and my equity. Hopefully there is enough equity made to do it all over again.

I have been looking into Rent to Buy agreements and would be very interested to hear from anyone with experience in them.

I work as a finance manager for a local motor vehicle franchise and whilst I no longer practice mortgage broking it is something I have done in the past and may look at again in the future. It is this broking background that has led me to investigate Rent to Buy. With the changes that took effect on the 12th of March this year it is going to be harder and harder for people to be able to buy their first home. I feel Vendor Finance and Rent to Buy agreements will become a mainstream way of purchasing AND investing in property over the next 5 years.

I look forward to discussing these strategies as well as renovations and alike with everyone soon.

Regards

Ben

Hi there all,

We are at the beginning of a building project. We are building a studio (fancy name for a shed) from mud bricks. We are not new to owner/building as the house I am typing this from was self built in the late 80's. It is post/beam with stone and timber walls and A frame roof.

We are here to benefit from others experience and share our own.

We are in the WA country side, just north of Perth.

http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s493/RuffTuff2/SunsetNov6_zps138f0bd7.jpg

Hi, I'm john from Yass, nsw. I have built my own home many years ago as an owner builder and have renovated a couple more since. Now I am renovating an old home and love the challenge of solving the problems of sagging floors and other things. So far so good. I particularly live working with timber.

Hi, signing in from Perth, WA. About to enter into a home building project for the very first time with my family. We've only ever bought established before, so this is a new phase. Put down a deposit last week on a block of land in the Banksia Grove Estate NOR. We're advised that land will title by end of July. Have been talking to a builder and put down a deposit for initial soil tests, etc. So far, so good. We haven't entered into a building contract yet. Quite happy, though, with the inclusions offered and the quality of the interaction we've had so far with the building consultant. We're doing the flooring and window treatments ourselves.

I've lurked on this forum for a few weeks now, so hoping to learn lots and apply it to our build too. And, maybe, pass on our experiences if they might be of use to someone else.

Cheers

Hi im Paul from Boddington WA. I am at final stage of building an investment home and then onto my own home.
Im interested in the problems others face so I can avoid them myself Cheers

Hi I'm Mark form Quicksand & Polish. I'm not expecting any work from a forum such as this. It seems to be majorly DIY which is fine.

My SEO guy says I should write more articles. I have been sanding and Polishing floors for over 25 Years. I flew to America and Learnt how to do it properly, not just the standard way we did it in the past like all other companies in Australia. We have the Perfect Process, utilizing all of the latest technology in machinery and techniques.

So since I have to write some articles, I thought I would lurk a bit and see what problems are out there. There is a lot of misinformation. People with their heart in the right place, but too many assumptions.

So if there is a topic someone would like some real information on, I am happy to write it or just give free advice. Cheers.

Hi there,

I first stumbled across the Homeone forums when Googling around looking at various colour schemes and photos of various coloured roofs, tiles, garage doors etc, and have found it really helpful so far. I signed up today, so that I can join in, and contribute!

I am building two new investment properties in the Brisbane / Ipswich area. One is almost ready to be tenanted, and the other should be reaching enclosed stage soon.

Looking forwarding to joining in.

K

Hi all,

We are just about to buy a block in Lakelands WA. We are looking at house designs by Easystart homes and Gemmill. There are so many variables to consider that we are getting totally confused as to what we want, need and can afford. Hopefully it will all work out.

Hi everyone,

Long time reader, first time poster. I am fairly new the gardens and landscaping scene. We recently purchased a house with absolutely no gardens but a lot of potential.

I have also just started working an earth moving and equipment company so it's very handy and I'm learning a lot.

If anyone needs the following, please feel free to message me and I'd be more than happy to help you out.

- Auger drives, Augers, Brooms, Trenchers, Loading Ramps, Pallet Forks & Wearparts.

Look forward to talking with you all and being a part of the group.

Hi I am Carey and my better half and self are about to commence construction of our new home by VisualDiversity here on the Gold Coast at Coomera Retreat. We had previously lived in our home at Runaway Bay for 37 years then decided to down size to a 3 bedroom apartment on the 3rd floor. Oh bugger, it was great for the first 12months as we lived next door to a tavern, 2 great restaurants and a good super shopping centre but just found the process of getting shopping from the u/g carpark up the lift and into the unit, having to drag out to the wash-bay all the car care gear etc., not having a clothesline, not being able to wash down wall and windows just became a chore. So now we have purchased our land, sold he apartment and starting our build of a Marina 33 with Visual Diversity. We had contemplated choosing Plantation Retreat 20M Q1 but we found them too pushy and too much money upfront. We then came across Visual Diversity and liked their Marina design and settled on that turn key with a few changes. We have found them easy to work with and then our daughter decided to build with them as well only 3 doors away. So hopefully all goes well with the results of our investigation into the builders.

Hi I am Carey and my better half and self are about to commence construction of our new home by VisualDiversity here on the Gold Coast at Coomera Retreat. We had previously lived in our home at Runaway Bay for 37 years then decided to down size to a 3 bedroom apartment on the 3rd floor. Oh bugger, it was great for the first 12months as we lived next door to a tavern, 2 great restaurants and a good super shopping centre but just found the process of getting shopping from the u/g carpark up the lift and into the unit, having to drag out to the wash-bay all the car care gear etc., not having a clothesline, not being able to wash down wall and windows just became a chore. So now we have purchased our land, sold he apartment and starting our build of a Marina 33 with Visual Diversity. We had contemplated choosing Plantation Retreat 20M Q1 but we found them too pushy and too much money upfront. We then came across Visual Diversity and liked their Marina design and settled on that turn key with a few changes. We have found them easy to work with and then our daughter decided to build with them as well only 3 doors away. So hopefully all goes well with the results of our investigation into the builders.

Hi I am Petra, my husband and I are looking for a builder for our sloping property in the suburbs of Melbourne. We have found this forum invaluable and are hoping to contribute with our own experiences, which by the looks of things so far will be very interesting!

Hi!
I'm Kate, my partner & I have just purchased our first house in Brisbane.
The house doesn't really need much work, but we do want to put a roof on the deck. I googled home improvement forums and this one came up and seems like there is a wealth of knowledge here. Being total newbies to home improvement etc I am glad to have found a place where I can ask people with experience and expertise.

Hi everyone,
Wow you can find a forum for everything! I found this via google trying to figure out who i need to look at my leaking swimming pool.
I'm from Winston Hills in Sydney, married with three kids....Hopefully I will learn a lot of things before I have to start extensions etc on the family home!
Have a good day everyone!

Hi everyone!!!

I'm new to the building game. My husband and I have just purchased our first block of land on the NSW South Coast and we are set to build with Allworth Homes. We are planning a nice 4 bedroom home with 3 car garage, walk in pantry, open plan living all on a single floor.

We are really excited to build! Can't wait to get chatting with everyone and find out lots of handy hints.

Hello guys.. Michelle Donaldson here from Brisbane. Good to be here. Find out about HomeOne at FB