Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Dec 09, 2008 9:05 am Hi all,
I am building a house in South Australia in a new node of an existing estate. When we purchased the block of land there were no houses in the new area. The housing in the existing part of the estate is by project builders. It was a nice estate but not ridiculously upmarket. People are now starting to build in the new area and the new display homes have recently finished and the housing being built in the new area of the estate where we are is all custom design, $1,000,000 houses. We were not planning to build a custom house, just a house by a project builder. I am wanting everyones opinion on what we should do. We can't build a house to that standard as we don't have the money but I am getting anxious that our house will look stupid with all of the mansions being built on our street. I have a copy of our house facade in pdf but I can't work out how to post the picture for everyones comments. If anyone could help me work out how to post it that would be great. In the meantime I have posted our colour selections for peoples comment. We are trying to build a classic style house that won't date. Roof tiles: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bricks: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The rendered quoins, the render around the window, the poles on the verandah , the fascia and the garage door are paperbark: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The gutters are monument: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ What do people think that we should do? I'm tempted to pull out of our current builder and spend a bit more money on something a little more upmarket but that will be stretching our budget. I don't know where the people building these custom houses are getting their money from. My husband thinks that we should stick to our plan and build the house that we will be happy with. To be honest, if we weren't being surrounded by these amazing houses I'm sure that I would be happy with our house but I think it's a case of me comparing our house to their houses and feeling like ours doesn't measure up. I hope this makes sense. I know I'm rambling a little. People's comments would be greatly appreciated. Craigburn Re: House facade 2Dec 09, 2008 9:22 am Craigburn2008 My husband thinks that we should stick to our plan and build the house that we will be happy with. To be honest, if we weren't being surrounded by these amazing houses I'm sure that I would be happy with our house but I think it's a case of me comparing our house to their houses and feeling like ours doesn't measure up. I agree with your DH. It is natural for you to feel the difference each time you pass by those mansions, but there is nothing that can dampen the joy in living in your cozy mansion and having a great time creating memories. Your choice of bricks, tiles and gutter colors for a classic style house will look great when put together. Good Luck Re: House facade 4Dec 09, 2008 9:37 am Hey I dont think you need to spend heaps of money either. Why do you try to make your house big from the front. Ie use the full width of your block, Consider using paripret walls on the front elevation to gain extra height. On front elevation use 2.1m windows instead of 1.8. This may give you the apperince of a bigger house. Re: House facade 5Dec 09, 2008 9:37 am Hey I dont think you need to spend heaps of money either. Why do you try to make your house big from the front. Ie use the full width of your block, Consider using paripret walls on the front elevation to gain extra height. On front elevation use 2.1m windows instead of 1.8. This may give you the apperince of a bigger house. Re: House facade 6Dec 09, 2008 9:58 am Hi all,
I have finally worked out how to post my frontage for comment as well: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ If anyone could take the time to photoshop my colour selections onto my frontage I would be eternally grateful but I appreciate if people are too busy. The door is also paperbark. The battens on the gables on the roof are charcoal to match the roof with the hardiflex lining in paperbark. I look forward to peoples comments. Re: House facade 7Dec 09, 2008 10:36 am My Dad said it's always better to have the worst house in the best street that the best house in the worst street, because it's the best thing in terms of value. Although I certainly don't think that your house is bad - I LOVE that facade! It looks so nice. You should keep it just as it is - a classic will always be a classic where I betcha some of those mansions will look out of date. And your house value will be more if you're in a street with high value houses. I would stay and not increase the budget at all. Re: House facade 9Dec 09, 2008 1:18 pm Don't over extend yourself just to keep up with your soon to be neighbours! They aren't going to help you out with your mortgage repayments if times get tough! And your facade and colours look just lovely to me. My friend is about to start building with a custom builder in an exclusive estate in Melbourne - her house is going to cost over 900k. We are about to start building in a not so exclusive estate with a volume builder, and our costs are just short of 300k. ( Granted though, her house is 10 squares bigger. ) We have been comparing notes and have found that our two different builders are getting our bricks from the same place, same roof tiles, same door company, same toilet/bath etc company, same door handles, same garage door company, same electricals and the list goes on! She just has to pay a much higher price than I do for a similarly fitted out house. Oh, and the houses currently in her estate don't look that much better than a nice house by a volume builder, certainly not in line with the price they paid!! Good Luck with your decision. Re: House facade 11Dec 09, 2008 2:31 pm Thanks so much for that D@n. Your photoshop skills are much better than mine.
A few of the colours are in the wrong spot but that really helps me to visualise the colours of the finished house better. If you combine D@n's lovely looking picture with my very basic attempt with the rendered quions on the outside (don't laugh), this is what my house will look like. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I really appreciate everyones kind comments. I have been really curious what people would suggest as I know that some people feel that you should build a house to the standard of the houses around you. Do be honest, you won't hurt my feelings. Re: House facade 14Dec 09, 2008 6:20 pm Thanks for that D@n.
The battons on the gables will be charcoal to match the roof with the infills in paperbark. At this stage we have picked paperbark for the door but I'm now thinking that we may have too much cream. Oh well, at least that is easy to paint afterwards as we have already finalised our colour selections. If I was to change the colour of the door, what colour do people think would look good? A charcoal to match the roof? The gutters will be monument with paperbark for the fascia so there will be a little more contrast between the roofline and the house. The paperbark is looking awfully brown on my computer screen and I remember it looking much more yellow/cream in real life. I have seen it on an actual house, just not with our exact bricks and roof colour (but with red bricks and a dark roof). I'm feeling a bit better after everyones comments which have been positive. I'm feeling a bit silly now but (and i guess everyone can relate to this) I'm finding the whole decision making process of building a house really hard. I'm a perfectionist and I keep second guessing all of my decisions and worrying when I find out what our neighbours are doing. I appreciate everyones feedback. Re: House facade 15Dec 10, 2008 3:56 pm Has anyone else got any opinions? We are not far away from a site start so I want to make sure that I have considered everything before I make a definite decision to go ahead or pull out.
Thanks Re: House facade 16Dec 10, 2008 7:50 pm Just because someones building an expensive house doesn't mean they are going to get the money back on it. They may be seriously overcapitalising.
It's about what you are happy with. You will be happy with what you can afford, that is more important than anything else. When you say mansions are you saying that all the houses in your street are large two storey and yours is the only single storey, or is it that you are just noticing the larger houses but there are other single storey houses. Re: House facade 17Dec 11, 2008 7:53 am l also think spending more doesnt mean better, as they say size doesnt matter!
Try not to worry about what others think, its YOU who is living in it and YOU who has to love it, if others want to form an opinion on it, let them cause at least you designed the house you loved, within the budget you can afford, the way your want it! Whos to say half the ppl around you can really afford their houses, it could be all for show, least you know this is what l can afford, this is what l want and this is how im going to do it! Best advice trust yourself and your design, if you love it, the rest doesn't matter (btw, l think the choices you have made so far look good !) Re: House facade 18Dec 11, 2008 8:20 am Thanks guys. I think that I have pretty well made the decision to stay with what we have decided. I'm sure that I will still wonder about it sometimes but everyone has set me at ease with their supportive comments.
Just to give you an idea, approximately half of the houses on my street are being built by one of the following building companies (see links below). In SA these are the most upmarket builders that you can build with, with a very small and basic single story starting from around $450,000-$500,000. It is worth a look just to get some ideas (not that I can afford a lot of the fittings they are using ). As the blocks in my area are quite sloping (my block is one of the flattest with a 2.5m slope from front to back) many people are going two story to compensate for the slope. I hope these links give people viewing please. I guess I need to look on the bright side. As one of my friends said, my children could end up marrying their children . http://www.scottsalisburyhomes.com.au/ http://www.medallionhomes.com.au/ http://www.samueljames.com.au/ Re: House facade 19Dec 11, 2008 8:30 am To put my house into perspective, here are two of the display homes on my street:
Scott Salisbury: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Medallion homes: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Here is the link to where we are building if anyone is interested: www.blackwoodpark.com.au Thanks everyone. Re: House facade 20Dec 11, 2008 10:41 am [quote="Craigburn2008"]
http://www.medallionhomes.com.au/ Many years ago (about 15) we investigated building with Medallion we saw them at a home show and visited a display house and really liked what we saw, so my wife made an appointment to see them at their office on Glen Osmond Rd, when we got there we were ushered into a huge room with extremely expensive furniture, at this point we should have thought "oh no" we were probably there for about 10 minutes and when they started talking budgets it was very obvious we were wasting everyone's time , it was seriously embarrassing! We will never be that naive again! Dear Members I have to decide the Facade column size. My custom builder standard is 350mm with rendering, but i asked for 470mm plus stone or tiles and yet to get… 0 7493 traditional gable roof facade - Have you did the dark and light gray color combination in facade with gray stone in facade… 0 4203 Looking to tile the facade pillars rather than rendering. Builder is quoting 2500$ laying cost for upto 10msq. The 2 pillars come to be 16msq. So laying costs are 5000$… 0 7524 |