Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 28, 2007 4:17 pm Hi Everyone,
I am new to this site and am about to embark on buidling a project home. I anyone has ever done this before can you please let me in on any hot-tips? How did you feel about the whole 'project home' experience? What can I expect from the process? What were your concerns? Why did you choose a project home? Were you happy with the service and result? I look forward to hearing about what I am in for! Thanks Hannah project home 2Mar 28, 2007 9:23 pm 1. Read ALL post are here and in general discussion. It should be your bible
2. Talk to anyone that build the house and ask them about mistakes and regrets. 3. Spend as much time as you can at home displays and visit every house of the builder you choose. Check the inclusions and exlusions. Don't think that you will spend less with cheaper builder. List all the basics and ask if it is a standard. 4. Make pictures, take plans and analyse them at home. Choose the house you are most happy with, for every change you will pay extra. 5. Read everything very carefully and ask. Good sales consultant should spend with you a lot of time. Ours spent 3 weekends for 3hours and suggested changes (this saved us heaps). Ask for $$$ allowances for electrical wiring and installation and tiles with tiling. 6. Go around and check the prices. check the flexibility of your builder and if anything is overpriced just organise it by yourself. I organised aircon, hot water system, water tank and floors. 7. The more time on research you will spend before building - the more relaxing time you will have later on. 8. Check the sustainable house. Don't be scared of spending extra money for energy and water saving devices (tinted glass, ceiling fans, downlights, european showers and taps, solar hot water system). Maybe they are more expensive at the start but this will save you money later on. 9. I painted whole house in one colour. Extra colour would cost me $200 per room. I can change colour by myself. 10. I have chosen more expensive builder and few things nicely surprised me. Most of the builders give you $25 allowance for tiles. The tiles then have to be a standard square size. for every different size and feature tiles you will pay extra + 20% margin. My builder gave me $30 so I had some room for extras. 11. Always do you homework - you will be send a lot of catalogues to choose products, colours etc. Go and check evrything and make the decision before the meeting with the builder or colour consultant. 2 hours for consultation is not much - for everything extra you will pay. Now my mistakes: 1. power points - I added a lot but still would do more. In my opinion it should be at least two in each room and two on corridors (I have a wide gallery). 2. I think I would make more space in the laundry. 3. Place you hot water system on the same wall closest to your bathroom this will save you time and water while waiting under shower. 4. Guys tend to collect things - consider extending garage. I resigned and now regret. I am happy with: 1. I installed as many downlights and ceiling fans as I could. 2. Ducted inverter aircon with 6 zones. I cool down only the rooms I am in and inverter saves me money. I paid $14k for 14.5KW Daikin and organised it on my own. In comparison to the old house - I am paying the same as for the reverse cycle. 3. multiple powerpoints. Kitchen, enterteinment area, study - don't be scared of having more. have a look at Clipsal, this will give you some ideas. 4. sensor light - I couldn't do as many as I could (2 spoilt pussy-cat cats) but it was good idea in walk in robe and around the house. mhm... this is it for that moment. Don't be scared - be excited and try to investigate as much as you can. Listen to people's experience and learn. Building for me was fun. I never checked upon my builder and I had more troubles with tradesmen and other builders than with my own. I am really happy with what I have chosen and appreciate all the times I have spent on talking to other people about their experiences. Good luck kate Re: MY FIRST PROJECT HOME 4Mar 29, 2007 8:54 am Wow! Excellent and well thought out response by Kate.
We are in the process of the pre-building stuff with Porter Davis, and I've previously built my own place as an owner builder. I'd have to say that the owner builder route is a tough one - you need to have plenty of time to do what needs to be done. In support of what Kate said in her response: 1. Research, research, research. Search the forums, search the web, and read the blogs. 2. We are getting our house done in one colour - builders charge a heap for a feature wall so we will do them ourselves. Think about the extras you can do yourself. 3. Check ythe situation with floor coverings - you may save yourself some big bucks by organising it yourself just prior to move in. 4. If you have some things that you really want in a home, check with the sale consultant very early on. For example, a grey water recycling system is a good thing to have, but some of the project builders are just not flexible enough to include it. 5. You get what you pay for - in most cases. As Kate said, a cheaper starting price doesn't mean a cheaper house. We found that PD list many things in their standard house that other offer as extras. 6. Hang out for the "deals". Some builder have promotions which include extras - but don't get sucked in. The extras are only of value if you would have paid for them anyway! 7. Once you've found a house, go back and visit it many times. Think about your own possessions in the place. Is the fridge space big enough? Will your king size bed fit? Do you have enough furniture? Where are you going to put the pool table? Check out lights, power points, etc. 8. Remember that display homes are optioned up - find out very early on what's standard, and what's extra - it will save you some disappointment down the track. What sold us on PD is the attitude - as soon as we walked in to the display home, we were given a price list of all the extras in the home. That way, we knew what was standard, and what was extra. Brilliant! I'm sure there's loads more. It's exciting. Enjoy it! Cheers Perry Re: MY FIRST PROJECT HOME 6Mar 29, 2007 10:46 pm We're just finishing a Porter Davis home (we have handover in 3 weeks). This is our first time building.
My tips (the ones above are excellent as well)... When you go to a showhome, look objectivly at the house - quality, size, layout, etc. Don't pay attention to the colours or the furniture (very hard to do, though - especially when the decorating is so opposite to what you'd do yourself or if the colours change the way you "feel" the space...eg a dark room feels small). Take your time. This is a massive purchase for you & you need to be sure you're happy with finishes, colours, accessories, etc. Otherwise you'll spend the next 5, 10, however many years annoyed about somthing you could have changed now. Kitchen lighting is important! As is storage. You can't have too much of either. What can you expect? Probably a bit of angst & maybe some frustration here & there & definately lots of excitement. Don't be surprised if you encounter some theft &/or vandalism onsite - especially if you're in a new subdivision with few established homes. We've found it definately pays to keep track of what's going on at your house at every stage - take every opportunity to go & have a look at what's happening (we picked up a few things that were wrong) but also have a healthy respect for your subbies & maintain a good relationship with your site manager. Why did we choose PD? We went to virtually every showhome in our part of town. The house we're building is the only one we fell in love with instantly. The quality was great. The layout was wonderful. And we could see ourselves living in the house - the house suited our lifestyle to a tee. All the others (even other PD homes) had at least one thing we didn't like. Overall, we've been happy with our house & the journey thus far. Yes, we've had a few incidents but nothing too major. And we're really excited to be moving in soon. Good luck! water tap for the fridge 7Mar 31, 2007 11:14 am Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery important thing.
We added the water tap for the fridge in case we will buy such fridge in future. Of course we bought such fridge 3 weeks after moving in it costed us $160. the guy who installed ourfridge said that most of the houses are not prepared for that. Taking into consideration that fridges with water filter are coming down in prices, think about this extra 160$. cherrs kate Re: MY FIRST PROJECT HOME 9Apr 03, 2007 12:04 pm Hey Kate - had to thank you for the tip regarding the fridge tap! At our tender appointment yesterday I asked for a fridge connection, and was told yes - $128! Woo hoo! Added it to the documents, and possibly saved myself some hassle later.
Also, when I told the consultant about the location of a BBQ, he suggested an external capped gas point, in case I want to get the barbie hooked up to the mains, From memory, another $60. Cheers Perry Re: MY FIRST PROJECT HOME 10Apr 03, 2007 4:51 pm perryr Hey Kate - had to thank you for the tip regarding the fridge tap! At our tender appointment yesterday I asked for a fridge connection, and was told yes - $128! Woo hoo! Added it to the documents, and possibly saved myself some hassle later. Also, when I told the consultant about the location of a BBQ, he suggested an extern capped gas point, in case I want to get the barbie hooked up to the mains, From memory, another $60. Cheers Perry That's Excellent! I am glad I can be useful...sometimes cheers kate Hi all, Been browsing project builders' website and saw Masterton with attached granny flat design Seeing bad reviews from masterton in this website/facebook, does… 0 18282 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair That laser level looks lovely! We bought one for less than a quarter of that price off eBay. It worked really well for us and it's still going now, five years later. After… 1 16704 |