Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE**** 41Mar 26, 2009 5:47 pm i love the library idea. It is a beautiful plan. Wow! Owner builder, good for you. The owner builder course from homeone is pretty good (and easy). Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE**** 42Mar 26, 2009 5:50 pm Hey Loretta, The plans are fantastic - I am soooo jealous of you OB....that's what I wanted to do but with two little toddlers just out of the question . It must be so good to have it all "back on track". Giselle Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE**** 43Apr 02, 2009 11:55 am Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE**** 45Apr 02, 2009 2:19 pm Great floorplan Loretta! Esp the library - cant wait to see it constructed! Keep us posted on your progress. Hopefully its smooth sailing from here on end. P.S. I love the look of your land! WOW Idiots are fun, that's why there is one in every village! - Dr. House - Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE**** 46Apr 02, 2009 2:49 pm Wow, your house plans look absolutely amazing! Ditto about the library. Building with PD - Regent 23 Cascades on Clyde Estate HomeOne Building Thread - PCI Completed - 28th August. Handover - 11th September. Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE**** 47Apr 02, 2009 3:26 pm I really like the timber look door but not 100% sure. The other option is colorbond, maybe surfmist or similar Thanks for the compliments! Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE**** 48Apr 02, 2009 3:38 pm Still looking good! How long before you go into council? You'll probably be in and out and built before me! Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE APRIL**** 49Apr 21, 2009 9:56 pm Yippee! Our DA is lodged! Look a bit of mucking about (oh, I'm sorry, you don't have an erosion plan. You need to draw one. Oh and the architect hasn't put the hot water system on the plans, you need that too). So we had to sit down and redraw things then photocopy them fifty million times to add back into the pile of copies we already had. I WAS NOT leaving today without that thing being lodged! We then went to the Bank of QLD who told us up front that banks DO NOT like owner builders. Hmmm...helpful. They went on to say that if we had any chance of getting $$ we needed to employ a licensed builder to build the place (huh?) and just how were we going to show them a fixed price contract (huh again?). I explained that by definition, OBs do not have fixed price contracts. Rather, you get quotes for everything or you get an estimator to do an estimation for you/bank. He then focused on that and said that we need a quanity surveyor and not any old QS but one that is Bank Approved. I asked for a list of Bank Approved QS and he didn't have one but pointed out that unless it was a BA QS any old person could put together an estimation. Ok....now i understand they are talking about lending a decent amount of $$ but they truly don't make it easy. Anyway, we are going to go knock on NABs door and see what they can offer. So the wait for approval begins. Lets hope that our aim of starting mid june works out!! Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE**** 50Apr 21, 2009 10:26 pm Loretta the nab should be able to help you. We had our loan drawn down a couple of weeks ago and just about to get our first lot of money from them this week. If you go prepared with quotes, building permit, plans, slab engineering etc. you should be fine. The more professional you come across the more likely they will want to deal with you. I had a spreadsheet set out outlining all the quotes and the final cost that it was going to come to. Also included things that we had already paid for ie: plans, building permit, engineering. Also on another spreadsheet did a breakdown of all the different building stages ie: base, frame etc. including the price for each stage and the approx. completion date. This helps as they don't want the build dragging out forever so want you to have a plan in mind. When we handed all this over it took about 3 weeks for the loan to finally come through. Hope this helps Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE**** 51Apr 21, 2009 10:31 pm wow katie that is great re 3 weeks. Can I ask if they lent you 60% or 80%? I think we will try and be as prepared as possible. We are having a meeting with the project manager on Sunday to try and work out a plan and get a feel for the costs. Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE 29 MAY 09**** 53May 29, 2009 5:08 pm We have just receievd a phone call from NAB - they are not going to give us finance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am really upset - the other half is much more prosasic about it but i am a mixture of upset and anger. Apparently, despite all the assurances given to us over the last 3 weeks PLUS the amazing amount of documentation we have given them, since we will be committing 50% of our salaries to all our mortgages they won't do it. Hellooo!!! How many people living in Sydney committ less than 50%???? In addition, of course we have committed that much right now since we need to continue to live in our current house until the new house is build - ie two mtgs going at once. We will of course sell the current place when the new one is done but in the meantime we need somewhere to live. But they won't take that into account.... On a happier note, Council rang today and said that the DA should be approved by next Tuesday which is great except we may not have any money to build the damn thing!! We are going to call westpac - all our investment loans are with them so they may be interested. The banker said to me "12mths ago we wouldn't have had this conversation". Which annoys me somewhat as our personal circumstances have not changed - in fact, they have got better! I understand tightening lending criteria for people with no deposit or other assets, low paying jobs or jobs that are not secure but we are pretty much model applicants (which he agreed with). Not happy at all!! Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE 29 MAY 09**** 54May 29, 2009 5:21 pm Hi Loretta, was happy to see 'update' on thread but not happy with the news .........hopefully Westpac gives you a better outcome. I hope things work out and you get to build this lovely house Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE 16 AUGUST 09**** 56Aug 16, 2009 10:40 pm We have finally started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Amazing - felt like we would never get to this point. Have a look at our blog for some pics of the footing trenches. Welcome to WW1!! We are hoping to pour the footings on Wednesday and with any luck, have a slab and floors down within 6 weeks. Wish us luck! Loretta Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE 16 AUGUST 09**** 57Aug 17, 2009 1:01 pm OMG, you're a sly one loretta!!!! You've come soooo far Congrats on your progress !!! Oh & BTW, welcome to the neighbourhood Fancy having a blog for so long & not telling us Built the Eden Brae Cambridge 34 Family with Boston Corner Facade Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE 16 AUGUST 09**** 58Aug 17, 2009 7:25 pm Congratulations!!! That's so exciting! Can't wait to follow your progress It's been a long time coming!! Re: Loretta's new house - ****UPDATE 16 AUGUST 09**** 59Aug 17, 2009 8:57 pm [Quote: Going owner builder after Wincrest - terrified but very excited!Quote:] I would be feeling pretty much the same as you if I was going owner builder Loretta. I take my hat off to you Good luck with the pouring of your footings on Wednesday and happy owner building All eyes will be watching the progress of your grand new home! PCI Done Hi HomeOne, I'm in the midst of landscaping a cat run down the side of my house, and the recent rains have me wondering if I need to install some sort of drainage. I've… 0 12444 13 6734 How long is a "long period"? For a few weeks, it should be ok. It also depends on the area you live in...I would let your neighbours know that you will be away too and… 1 28611 |