Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 08, 2021 10:57 am Hi Everyone, I have constructed a lot of duplexes in my career, but never for myself. That is about to change. I just purchased a site in North Ryde NSW, and as the site has a number of challenges which come up as questions on this forum, I thought it might be fun and educational to post regularly about the challenges and solutions that I come up with, and also an honest look at the financials to help people who are thinking about doing the same thing. I have set myself a challenge which is to have these completed by the end of June 2022. The site settles on November 17th 2021, which gives me 7 months. The first goal is to have the slab down pre Christmas so that it can cure over the break. The biggest threat to this is going to be stormwater approval. Below is a summary of the site details and major challenges from a design and engineering perspective: Site Summary 1. Site Area - 676 sqm 2. Frontage - 15.24m 3. Fall from the front to the rear of the property - 4m ( RL 49 at the front & RL 45 at the rear) Major challenges: 1. The site is flood affected as it backs onto a creek, which is also a positive from a marketing perspective as the outlook is fantastic 2. As the site falls to the rear we have to find a way to drain the stormwater off the property 3. My wife is the project manager/interior designer on this which is why I only have 7 months to build it North Ryde Duplex BuidBack yardLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ North Ryde Duplex Buildrear yardLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Financial Summary: 1. I purchased the site for $2.5m 2. I am budgeting spending $1.2m on the build and design fees 3. I am budgeting to sell each duplex for around $2.5m 4. With interest, marketing, taxes, agents fees etc the project will owe me just over $4m. Next Weeks tasks: 1. Survey is booked for Wednesday the 13th 2. Design Brief to be finalised and issued to the design team I have attached a couple of site photos to put this into context. Till next week Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 3Oct 08, 2021 11:52 am @ashington Homes Simeon let me know if I can help a fellow builder out, you have always been very generous with you time on this forum Cheers Chris Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 4Oct 08, 2021 12:09 pm Ashington Homes Hi Everyone, I have constructed a lot of duplexes in my career, but never for myself. That is about to change. I just purchased a site in North Ryde NSW, and as the site has a number of challenges which come up as questions on this forum, I thought it might be fun and educational to post regularly about the challenges and solutions that I come up with, and also an honest look at the financials to help people who are thinking about doing the same thing. I have set myself a challenge which is to have these completed by the end of June 2022. The site settles on November 17th 2021, which gives me 7 months. The first goal is to have the slab down pre Christmas so that it can cure over the break. The biggest threat to this is going to be stormwater approval. Below is a summary of the site details and major challenges from a design and engineering perspective: Site Summary 1. Site Area - 676 sqm 2. Frontage - 15.24m 3. Fall from the front to the rear of the property - 4m ( RL 49 at the front & RL 45 at the rear) Major challenges: 1. The site is flood affected as it backs onto a creek, which is also a positive from a marketing perspective as the outlook is fantastic 2. As the site falls to the rear we have to find a way to drain the stormwater off the property 3. My wife is the project manager/interior designer on this which is why I only have 7 months to build it North Ryde Duplex BuidBack yardLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ North Ryde Duplex Buildrear yardLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Financial Summary: 1. I purchased the site for $2.5m 2. I am budgeting spending $1.2m on the build and design fees 3. I am budgeting to sell each duplex for around $2.5m 4. With interest, marketing, taxes, agents fees etc the project will owe me just over $4m. Next Weeks tasks: 1. Survey is booked for Wednesday the 13th 2. Design Brief to be finalised and issued to the design team I have attached a couple of site photos to put this into context. Till next week Simeon Excellent Project & Good Luck Simeon.. Thanks to you & few more in this forum, I have started my journey too.. Look out for my thread shortly.. My build post here: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=103852 Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 5Oct 08, 2021 3:36 pm RameshN Ashington Homes Hi Everyone, I have constructed a lot of duplexes in my career, but never for myself. That is about to change. I just purchased a site in North Ryde NSW, and as the site has a number of challenges which come up as questions on this forum, I thought it might be fun and educational to post regularly about the challenges and solutions that I come up with, and also an honest look at the financials to help people who are thinking about doing the same thing. I have set myself a challenge which is to have these completed by the end of June 2022. The site settles on November 17th 2021, which gives me 7 months. The first goal is to have the slab down pre Christmas so that it can cure over the break. The biggest threat to this is going to be stormwater approval. Below is a summary of the site details and major challenges from a design and engineering perspective: Site Summary 1. Site Area - 676 sqm 2. Frontage - 15.24m 3. Fall from the front to the rear of the property - 4m ( RL 49 at the front & RL 45 at the rear) Major challenges: 1. The site is flood affected as it backs onto a creek, which is also a positive from a marketing perspective as the outlook is fantastic 2. As the site falls to the rear we have to find a way to drain the stormwater off the property 3. My wife is the project manager/interior designer on this which is why I only have 7 months to build it North Ryde Duplex BuidBack yardLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ North Ryde Duplex Buildrear yardLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Financial Summary: 1. I purchased the site for $2.5m 2. I am budgeting spending $1.2m on the build and design fees 3. I am budgeting to sell each duplex for around $2.5m 4. With interest, marketing, taxes, agents fees etc the project will owe me just over $4m. Next Weeks tasks: 1. Survey is booked for Wednesday the 13th 2. Design Brief to be finalised and issued to the design team I have attached a couple of site photos to put this into context. Till next week Simeon Excellent Project & Good Luck Simeon.. Thanks to you & few more in this forum, I have started my journey too.. Look out for my thread shortly.. Hi Ramesh I really look forward to reading about your project Thanks Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 6Oct 08, 2021 3:37 pm StructuralBIMGuy @ashington Homes Simeon let me know if I can help a fellow builder out, you have always been very generous with you time on this forum Cheers Chris Thanks Chris I look forward to getting your advice along the way Cheers Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 7Oct 08, 2021 3:40 pm alexp79 Nice, Simeon. Will be interested to follow this thread. Any snakes in the area (near the creek), by the way? Hi Alex Im guessing there probably are. Hope I don't get to meet them! Cheers Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 8Oct 27, 2021 1:08 pm Hi Everyone A quick duplex update. Its been 19 days since I last posted and a bit has happened, but not enough when you are on a tight schedule and interest is theoretically costing $210/day. So far we have achieved the following: 1. Detailed survey is now completed 2. The valuations were completed and my mortgage has been approved, finance documents were signed yesterday 3. The design team have been appointed. I am targeting having the floor plan sorted by next Wednesday 3rd November. This will then allow the architecturals to be fast tracked and sent off to the engineers. The big decisions I have to make in the next few days are: 1. Do I build a basement garage or not, this would mean an additional $200k of costs and will make them unique in the market and increase the sales price, but it means I have to cashflow the increase and add time to the build. 2. Construction type - ie full brick versus steel frame with rendered brick veneer. Is it worth the extra time and money to go full brick? Last week a gorgeous full brick duplex sold for a suburb record of $2.625m, compared to my anticipated $2.5m that I have in the feasibility, so it's tempting to look at the extra gain. I will do all the numbers over the weekend and make a decision on both early next week. here is a link to the duplex that sold in Ryde. https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/prop ... -137438038 There are some quality details in this duplex, like the kitchen with the gorgeous waterfall, the bathroom tile selection and really nice joinery in the robes. The agents are telling me that you need at least 2 of these features plus a really decent alfresco with BBQ to maximise returns. I will post some plans as soon as I have them in state I am happy with. Till next time Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 9Nov 02, 2021 7:32 am North Ryde first floor planLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Ground floor planLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hi Everyone, Well I was super excited to get the first draft of the plans last night. As you know we are on a pretty tight schedule so I need to have these locked in by COB Wednesday so we can send them off to the engineers by Friday. So keen to hear everyones thoughts. Below is the list of things we love and things we don't love as much and possible changes: Things we love: 1. The designers have managed to get 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 living areas, a butlers pantry and full sized laundry which is amazing. 2. The agent has said that buyers prefer the driveways to be separated, so I guess you have more privacy when you wash your car and it feels more like your own house, with a fence separating both dwellings. 3. The indoor outdoor feel of the alfresco is great. There is a really nice private bush aspect to the rear. Things we don't love: 1. Apparently its bad Feng shui to have the front door lined up with the rear door. There is a big Chinese population in North Ryde so we have to take this into account. 2. Not enough natural light to the living and kitchen. Thinking of flipping these so the kitchen is on the party wall and then we can have windows on the external walls 3. Upstairs rumpus is small. Going to flip the main bathroom so the door is on the RHS and see if we can move the stairs to give so more usable space. The one thing we are unsure about is the open ensuite. On one hand it could be a seriously gorgeous feature if you get the finishes right, on the other hand there is a distinct lack of privacy. Interested to see what you think. So we have a meeting with our design team tomorrow. They run a service that we take our clients to where we sit it a room with the design on a large screen and make changes in real time. It's great for fast tracking design changes. Keen to hear feedback by tonight. Will post the final plans in a couple of days. Cheers Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 10Nov 02, 2021 8:02 am Hey @Ashington Homes Here's some quick observations 1 I know it's rough but they forgot the windows? 2. Sorry I can't see the separate driveways as a deal breaker? 3. Maximising Indoor/out door space is definitely the way to go Flip the K/D/L to the party wall and extend the bifolds along that side create a opening into the courtyard You really need to jazz up the 2D plan with a 3D model... OT what software are they using? hth Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 11Nov 02, 2021 8:18 am StructuralBIMGuy Hey @Ashington Homes Here's some quick observations 1 I know it's rough but they forgot the windows? 2. Sorry I can't see the separate driveways as a deal breaker? 3. Maximising Indoor/out door space is definitely the way to go Flip the K/D/L to the party wall and extend the bifolds along that side create a opening into the courtyard You really need to jazz up the 2D plan with a 3D model... OT what software are they using? hth Thanks for the input Chris, I agree with your observations. At tomorrow's meeting we will start putting windows in. None shown at the moment, then by the end of the week we should have all the 3d's, internals etc which I will post as soon as I get them. Not sure what software they use, I will ask. With the driveways, I don't think it's a deal breaker, below is a link to one that sold a couple of weeks ago approx 200m away from mine for $2.4m and the driveway wasn't separated, but just trying to follow some agent's input as much as I can https://www.realestate.com.au/property/ ... e-nsw-2113 Here is one we just finished building in Greenacre which is about 40 mins away in a cheaper part of Sydney. First one sold last week for $1.375m, second one is on the market. Cheaper area so we will need to step it up a notch for North Ryde: https://www.realestate.com.au/property/ ... e-nsw-2190 Cheers Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 12Nov 02, 2021 8:47 am If you need to set the standard above the rest then I generally add at least 3 internal features that will draw potential clients through the house starting at the front and by the time they get to the end IT'S SOLD LOL make sure you model these features up in 3D and show them to the RA Cheers Chris Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 13Nov 02, 2021 1:34 pm Nice Open & Free Flowing Design.. Windows & Ventilation for the Study, Laundry & Bath were my first pick.. have you thought of flipping the garages out ? Have you posted the first floor designs yet ? As a feature could you create a glass wall + double ceiling void between both the homes ? right around the landing zone of the steps. My build post here: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=103852 Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 14Nov 02, 2021 2:02 pm RameshN Nice Open & Free Flowing Design.. Windows & Ventilation for the Study, Laundry & Bath were my first pick.. have you thought of flipping the garages out ? Have you posted the first floor designs yet ? As a feature could you create a glass wall + double ceiling void between both the homes ? right around the landing zone of the steps. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Ramesh Thanks for point out my error, I stupidly posted the ground floor twice and didnt check. Designer has just confirmed that we can delete the rebate between the two dwellings and move the stairs over, this will give us a proper rumpus entrance downstairs So there will be a void over the stairs which will bring light into the study. We can put some high level windows into the laundry. Ill look at your other excellent ideas and come back Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 15Nov 02, 2021 2:22 pm Nice design in the FF too.. I reckon you may have 1 Bath extra.. could consider a powder room accessible from rumpus instead of the en-suite for Bed 4.. it can also make bef 4 bit bigger.. Couple of Sky lights for the passages in FF - on either side of the home, plus a wooden rail to the void & large glass fixed window to the void on elevation A - Would look great & add some life to that passage & make the whole area bigger… Are considering creating a bulk head for TV, in the rumpus in FF ? Are you considering high ceilings & large windows to make the rooms bigger / roomier? Ducts for master bed seemed big & I couldn’t find the ducts for other beds.. possibly in the robes ? My build post here: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=103852 Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 16Nov 02, 2021 2:32 pm RameshN Nice design in the FF too.. I reckon you may have 1 Bath extra.. could consider a powder room accessible from rumpus instead of the en-suite for Bed 4.. it can also make bef 4 bit bigger.. Couple of Sky lights for the passages in FF - on either side of the home, plus a wooden rail to the void & large glass fixed window to the void on elevation A - Would look great & add some life to that passage & make the whole area bigger… Are considering creating a bulk head for TV, in the rumpus in FF ? Are you considering high ceilings & large windows to make the rooms bigger / roomier? Ducts for master bed seemed big & I couldn’t find the ducts for other beds.. possibly in the robes ? Hi Ramesh Some great ideas. Let me try and answer: 1. Aircon/service ducts aren't in yet. You may be looking at the showers (assume you are looking a the area with a cross) 2. Skylights - yep great idea especially in the southern one, like in the rumpus and master bedroom 3. Niche for both TV's - Absolutely and we may do some fancy ceilings as well with recessed LEDs. Watch this space 4. Windows - I am going as big as I can, especially in the master as there is a really nice outlook over the creek so thinking of a major window 5. Timber - have to check with my interior designer ( my wife is in charge of the interiors), but maybe a feature wall of timber slats would be nice. found a great supplier recently and just got some samples. What do you think of the open ensuite from the master bedroom? cheers Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 17Nov 02, 2021 3:49 pm Awesome.. I had a similar design (I.e open WIR onto the left & open en-suite on the opp end of the master) - I went with 2 cavity doors for en-suite !! You could build it & remove the cavity doors during the display home visits.. 😉 My build post here: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=103852 Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 18Nov 02, 2021 7:42 pm We've visited a couple of newish homes over the past couple of years that were for sale that had open ensuites and everyone there thought it was a serious mistake. Personally, I can't think of anything worse ( for all the obvious reasons ).
Good luck with the build. Stewie Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 19Nov 02, 2021 7:45 pm True that, I am building with closed en-suite!! With cavity shutters. My build post here: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=103852 Re: Building & Developing A Duplex In North Ryde 20Nov 03, 2021 8:45 am Stewie D We've visited a couple of newish homes over the past couple of years that were for sale that had open ensuites and everyone there thought it was a serious mistake. Personally, I can't think of anything worse ( for all the obvious reasons ). Good luck with the build. Stewie Stewie I hear what you are saying. How about a frosted glass barn door? I'm off to Bankstown shortly for a meeting with the designers. Will post updated plans as soon as I can Cheers Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Always handy to have the facts on hand when relying on agents advice, a lot of times sale agents advice is only good anecdotally, and when you actually dive deeper it's… 33 52659 3 6402 Even if it's not being sub-divided and you want to keep it as Torrens title, you will still need to talk to a town planner or Council themselves, to see if they will allow… 1 11034 |