Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building in SA! 3981Jan 05, 2011 1:52 pm If anyone loved their plastering job, would you happen to know your tradies details, name, contact number or anything? Re: Building in SA! 3982Jan 10, 2011 3:16 pm Hello to everyone. I'm a newbie to this building game and would love to pick your brains re: thoughts and ideas. We just had our offer to purchase a property accepted and are looking at either gutting the existing building to renovate or demolishing and then start afresh. At this point in time, the feedback we've been getting back is that it'll be a lot easier and cost effective to demolish. However, the house on the property atm has a lovely outside - 1920's triple fronted old gentleman's bungalow. The inside though doesn't have much character - no nice frieze or lead light windows. My other half is keen to demolish as he wants a smart house with all the mod cons and thinks there is no way we could renovate the house to meet all our requirements or the cost is going to be rather prohibitive. So, have been looking around at various display homes and we really like the styling of Alan Sheppard, Samuel James and Scott Salisbury. I would love to hear your thoughts on what you think of those builders - both good and bad, and if anyone has build with them before, I would love to know what your experience was like. Building in SA! 3983Jan 10, 2011 3:51 pm Can't help you with those builders but just stopping past to say congrats on the purchase! Goodluck with whatever you decide to do! Re: Building in SA! 3984Jan 10, 2011 5:02 pm babygirl03 Hello to everyone. I'm a newbie to this building game and would love to pick your brains re: thoughts and ideas. We just had our offer to purchase a property accepted and are looking at either gutting the existing building to renovate or demolishing and then start afresh. At this point in time, the feedback we've been getting back is that it'll be a lot easier and cost effective to demolish. However, the house on the property atm has a lovely outside - 1920's triple fronted old gentleman's bungalow. The inside though doesn't have much character - no nice frieze or lead light windows. My other half is keen to demolish as he wants a smart house with all the mod cons and thinks there is no way we could renovate the house to meet all our requirements or the cost is going to be rather prohibitive. So, have been looking around at various display homes and we really like the styling of Alan Sheppard, Samuel James and Scott Salisbury. I would love to hear your thoughts on what you think of those builders - both good and bad, and if anyone has build with them before, I would love to know what your experience was like. Welcome to the forum and congrats on your purchase! If you're looking at any of these builders, for the cost of one of their new homes, you could also afford a fairly awesome extension. Relatives of mine did an extension with Scott Salisbury and were absolutely thrilled with them - both in service and quality of workmanship. We also sat down with them because of this to discuss our options when we bought our property and were most impressed with what they came up with. However, in the end, we demolished and rebuilt because we didn't want to have "old house" maintenance issues and didn't want to restrict our floor plan. Good luck with your decision making ! Re: Building in SA! 3985Jan 11, 2011 10:51 pm Thanks for your well wishes, Cooped07 and your welcome, evelyng evelyng If you're looking at any of these builders, for the cost of one of their new homes, you could also afford a fairly awesome extension. Relatives of mine did an extension with Scott Salisbury and were absolutely thrilled with them - both in service and quality of workmanship. We also sat down with them because of this to discuss our options when we bought our property and were most impressed with what they came up with. However, in the end, we demolished and rebuilt because we didn't want to have "old house" maintenance issues and didn't want to restrict our floor plan. Your last sentence really resonates with us. Also, we need more than an extension as the current floorplan is not anywhere close to how we would like it to be. It's so hard though to know which is the right thing to do. We love real character homes and find it sad to see them all slowly disappearing. At the same time, we love modern homes that are light and airy with lots of glass and totally wired up with modern technology. Ultimately though, hubby's lack of handyman skills may just make that decision for us. Re: Building in SA! 3986Jan 12, 2011 9:55 am babygirl03 Thanks for your well wishes, Cooped07 and your welcome, evelyng evelyng If you're looking at any of these builders, for the cost of one of their new homes, you could also afford a fairly awesome extension. Relatives of mine did an extension with Scott Salisbury and were absolutely thrilled with them - both in service and quality of workmanship. We also sat down with them because of this to discuss our options when we bought our property and were most impressed with what they came up with. However, in the end, we demolished and rebuilt because we didn't want to have "old house" maintenance issues and didn't want to restrict our floor plan. Your last sentence really resonates with us. Also, we need more than an extension as the current floorplan is not anywhere close to how we would like it to be. It's so hard though to know which is the right thing to do. We love real character homes and find it sad to see them all slowly disappearing. At the same time, we love modern homes that are light and airy with lots of glass and totally wired up with modern technology. Ultimately though, hubby's lack of handyman skills may just make that decision for us. Happy to be of service I love character homes (triple fronted tudors are my favourite ) and there are certain suburbs where special efforts should be made to preserve architectural history, and something new would detract rather than add to the value of the street, but am also of the opinion that we should build for the times that we live in rather than simply replicate the past (sheesh, I've seen too many episodes of Grand Designs....). Oh and yes, maintenance skills, or lack thereof, is a huge factor Re: Building in SA! 3987Jan 16, 2011 3:34 pm I know it’s been a while since I last posted. I’ve been keeping up to date with everyone's build though. Not that too much seems to be happening with Xmas and all. Just an update from me. Seems my build is moving along. We’ve got council approval and have booked in our final interview for the 1st of February. I’ve booked in demolition of our old house (that we're currently living in) for the 21st of February. It was the earliest I could get with Magill Demolition. I enquired about demolition just before Christmas. I’ve been madly searching for a rental and finally got one that I like today. It’s a huge relief. I didn’t realise we needed to vacate our home 3 weeks prior to demolition so they can disconnect the services so I didn't give myself much time. I’ve never rented before so this should be interesting. We’ve signed a 12 month lease. Seems to be what every landlord wants. Unfortunately, we couldn’t bring our dogs so they’ll be staying with family for the duration of the build. Our family doesn't live too far so we'll get to see our dogs regularly. We’re planning to move into our rental next weekend. It’s all getting very exciting. Re: Building in SA! 3988Jan 17, 2011 2:05 pm Hi Everyone It has been terribly quite on here. Good to hear everyone is still moving along. Welcome babygirl03 - sorry i cant help you out with your build/not to build saga. I often see old houses that have been rennovated, but not nicely. I am not a fan of old and new styles combined - with the new addition tacked on the back, so if i couldnt afford to rennovate keeping to the existing style i would want to start a fresh, but thats just me. Well some things have moved along for me. I am moving out of my current house this weekend, as it is being removed from site the following weekend. ATM we are waiting to confirm ETSA will disconnect the services on 25 Jan. At this stage however, we still arent expecting to commence building until March. We had our final interview prior to christmas, so just waiting for the final price so we can move ahead with all the bank formalities. Moving in with my mother in law this weekend, so hope the next 6-7 months goes ok. Re: Building in SA! 3989Jan 21, 2011 2:41 pm Hi All! Well seeing as it's been so quiet on here I am helping with the not so quiet I have been doing a lot of reading and keeping up with people's building but not really updating on my own (quick recap - building a Hickinbotham Georgia Spa in The Settlement Golden Grove)! We have progressed really well - believe it or not had work going on over the Christmas/New Year break. We even had brickies working over the NY long weekend...couldn't believe it! They are pretty much finished the bricks now after a small glitch thanks to the lintels being stolen (the steel that sits across the top of your windows to support the bricks). I am wrapped with the colour of the bricks and the grout that we chose....it's definitely going to be a modern looking frontage (will post pics ASAP). Next step is the internal insulation which we are doing ourselves over the weekend prior to the gyprocking of walls starting on the 27th. Has anyone else done this themselves before? It's all just flying by which is fab! Rest assured those that are just starting out that it really does fly by We are very lucky that we live in a house we bought over 5 years ago so we don't have any pressure re moving. Re: Building in SA! 3990Jan 21, 2011 5:48 pm Hi chipndip, We only did some of our insulation as we wanted some sound barrier between the master BR and family room. It's so easy to do especially if you get the right nails to secure the string to keep it in place. We did a better job than the professionals who just seem to cram it in and leave gaps elsewhere. Good luck in doing it. BTW... Handover for us is in 2 weeks. It does finally happen!:-) Handover February 2011 Happy with our home Re: Building in SA! 3991Jan 23, 2011 7:39 pm Hi everyone, welcome to all the newbies. Robin congrats on handover very soon, how exciting! Seems like just yesterday things weren't even started! We are very pleased, things are happening at lightening speed and I think bricks are starting this week.. Very exciting! I have a couple of questions if anyone can help... For those who had brighton lite mortar - was the sand used in the mortar light in colour or a reddy brown? I am concerned because the sand that has been delivered for the bricks is a reddy brown colour and it doesnt fit the image I had in my head of what the mortar is going to look like! I figure it will look different mixed in with the cement but if anyone can comment that would be great. Also, do you get fly screens on your windows as standard or do you have to pay to have these fitted afterwards? Thanks in advance, hope all are well Re: Building in SA! 3992Jan 23, 2011 8:12 pm Lee75 Hi everyone, welcome to all the newbies. Robin congrats on handover very soon, how exciting! Seems like just yesterday things weren't even started! We are very pleased, things are happening at lightening speed and I think bricks are starting this week.. Very exciting! I have a couple of questions if anyone can help... For those who had brighton lite mortar - was the sand used in the mortar light in colour or a reddy brown? I am concerned because the sand that has been delivered for the bricks is a reddy brown colour and it doesnt fit the image I had in my head of what the mortar is going to look like! I figure it will look different mixed in with the cement but if anyone can comment that would be great. Also, do you get fly screens on your windows as standard or do you have to pay to have these fitted afterwards? Thanks in advance, hope all are well Hi Lee, we used brighton lite mortar, and the sand is definately very light, Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The flyscreens are standard with Hickinbotham and one of the last things to happen. Hope this helps, and good luck with your build Contracts signed Dec 09 OK to Start Sep 17 Slab Oct 6 Frame Oct 25,26 Windows and Gutters Oct 28 Bricks Nov 2 -20 Roof Finished Nov 10 Insulation and Gyprock Finished Nov 30 Locked Out Dec 13 Cupboards Installed Dec 17 Tile prep work Dec 26 Painter started Dec 30 Stormwater Jan 17 Tiles Jan 10-19 PCI Feb 2 Handover Feb 9 viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37120[size=85] Re: Building in SA! 3993Jan 23, 2011 8:38 pm Lucene, thank you so much! We had a look at our paperwork after seeing your picture and it does say "brighton light - yellow sand". And the sand definitely aint yellow! Will call the builder first thing - you may have helped us to avert a potential disaster (ok not such a big disaster in the scheme of things but you know what i mean!) and i was thinking that the screens would be an extra after handover expense *yay* its probably not! Phew.. I love this forum!! thanks so much Re: Building in SA! 3994Jan 24, 2011 2:14 pm Well, internal insulation all done! Messy job and despite being covered from head to toe, still managed to get itchy arms! It will be well worth it though for climate control and we used sound proofing in the wall between home theatre and bed 2. Now lets hope they start gyprocking this week like they said they would, before it all gets stolen!! Building in SA! 3995Jan 30, 2011 3:35 pm Hi All ... I'm a newbie to this forum. Tried starting at the beginning of the thread but piked out at page 39! I'm especially curious to hear how ChrisL, DudleyDog and especially Andronicus' homes have turned out as we have our sights set on building with Weeks Peacock. If you are still about and have a blog - I'd love to read it. We are at Somerton Park (east of Brighton Rd) and are knocking down our home of 20 years to rebuild. I look forward to sharing in your experiences and learning. Cheers Building in SA! 3996Jan 31, 2011 8:09 pm I have now read this thread up to page 100. Yikes, do I really want build? Yes ... Even more excited! Re: Building in SA! 3997Feb 02, 2011 12:28 pm We called the site supervisor the other day as we think the house is travelling along quite nicely to find out when we could expect handover as it is anticipated for Mid March... imagine our surprise when he said -- should be ready for pre-handover inspecting in about a week and a half - so about 3 weeks until handover. Jaws dropping!! So now its rush rush rush to get our paving contractors booked, our curtains organised and our remaining side fence/gate ... eeekk.. we also bought a stack of new furniture from Harvey Normans which is going to take about 6 weeks to arrive so we thought that would tie in nicely .. not so if we are in within 3 weeks!! So excited. House looks fabulous. We had some off so actually got to go in and have a look while they were painting. It is sooooooo worth the wait. We've been though a lot of garbage building this house so to see it coming to an end is fantastic! I'll try to put some more pics up soon -- just a matter of loading them onto photobucket Re: Building in SA! 3998Feb 02, 2011 12:45 pm Tashmarsh, congrats on your imminent PCI and handover. Exciting times ahead. I'll look forward to pics. contract signed: Nov 09 Released to Construction: 23 Jul 10 Slab poured: 9 Aug 10 Frame completed: 30 Aug 10 Windows & Gutters: 7 Sep 10 Bricks: 15 - 23 Sep 10 Roof: 24 Sep 10 Gyprock: 20 Oct 10 Lockup: 25 Oct 10 Kitchen: 27 Oct 10 Tiling: 6 - 9 Nov 10 Painting: 17 Nov 10 Carpet: 30 Nov 10 PCI: 15 Dec 10 Handover: 17 Dec 10 https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=35943 Re: Building in SA! 3999Feb 02, 2011 9:52 pm Lee75 For those who had brighton lite mortar - was the sand used in the mortar light in colour or a reddy brown? I am concerned because the sand that has been delivered for the bricks is a reddy brown colour and it doesnt fit the image I had in my head of what the mortar is going to look like! I figure it will look different mixed in with the cement but if anyone can comment that would be great. Lee, if you've specified Brightonlite Cememt, if you mix that with the "reddy brown" sand, the mud will come out tanny brown. When mixed with white sand, it will come out, well a "white" colour. Depending on what colour bricks you've chosen will determine best match. Re: Building in SA! 4000Feb 02, 2011 9:54 pm Lee75 Lucene, thank you so much! We had a look at our paperwork after seeing your picture and it does say "brighton light - yellow sand". And the sand definitely aint yellow! Will call the builder first thing - you may have helped us to avert a potential disaster (ok not such a big disaster in the scheme of things but you know what i mean!) No, the yellow sand is the "reddy brown" sand. It's the local brickie sand. If you wanted white sand, you'd need to specify it as it's double the price. Thanks for your reply. I will just wait and see I guess. Trying to get some more information from our builder. 9 30236 go upvc window frames ensure insulation under colorbond. not just sarking, lighter color roof also not sure if you have seen this viewtopic.php?t=5823 last couple of pages… 4 110524 |