Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 26, 2009 10:26 am Construction timeline 10/05: Site scrape done 12/05: On site meeting 13/05: Screws piers installed 15/05: Excavators on site for digging services trench and plumbing installed 15/05: Meter box installed (telephone and electricity conduits in) 01/06: Slab frame built 02/06: Slab poured 02/06: 33 tonnes of dirt and rock removed (by me, not Coral) 04/06: Soil laid around slab 09/06: Internal and external frame completed 10/06: Roof frame completed 11/06: All windows and sliding doors in 11/06: Bath installed 15/06: Roof rails in 16-17/06: Colorbond roof installed 19/06: Internal plumbing done 19/06: Ensuite bath installed 19/06: Front door and laundry door on 22/06: Electrical wiring completed 23-24/06: Bricking completed 25/06: Plasterers on site: Gyprocking all done 25-26/06: Eaves in 29/06: Rendering (front) completed 30/06: Gables in 03/07: Kitchen cabinets and benches in 07/07: Bagging and painting done 08/07: Painters on site 08/07: Tilers on site 10/07: Tiling finished (excluding splashback) 10/07: Bathroom/ensuite cabinets and laundry tub installed 13/07: Soil spread around house to assist in drainage 14/07: UPVC downpipes fitted 15/07: Interior painting completed 17/07: Exterior painting done 20/07: Toilets, sinks and taps fitted 21/07-22/07: Electrical fit out complete (lights, dishwasher, cooktop) 23/07: Heat pump hot water system fitted 24/07: House cleaning complete 27-29/07: Floorboards laid 30/07: Heat pump connected to water supply 30/07: Water tank pump fitted 30-31/07: Carpet laid 14/08: Splashback tiling completed 21/08 onwards: Defects being fixed Blah, blah, blah.... January 16 I thought this may help someone out on these forums Back in September 08, the missus and I were casually looking at land on realestate.com.au and we stumbled across a true bargain. The land was 750m2 of flat land (slight incline on the right side where the driveway goes) at Narangba located in the newest release in the Forest Ridge estate and was priced to move - $214 990. It had been advertised on Friday afternoon and we had come across it on Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning my missus gave the developer's (Heritage Pacific) local sale office a call and arranged a meeting. We had a chat to the bloke and viewed the land and was extremely happy with what we saw. 30min later we put down the $1000 deposit on the land. It's a beautiful location with surrounding lush bush land right on Burpengary river. The lot next to use was priced at $215 990 and is 783m2 but had a smaller frontage as its right on the cul-de-sac but was still a very nice piece of land. It had sold for that price on Saturday morning though so it went quick. The reason being for the special prices was that the developer had originally reserved those lots for their own house and land packages (10-15 lots to the left are all future house and land packages) but had decided against it. Land across the street and throughout the estate has been selling for $230 - $240K for 600m2 blocks and $240 - $260K for 750m2-800m2 blocks. I got this info from the sales agent who was happy to show me. The sale went smoothly, I was satisfied with the contract and looked over it myself (i've completed a semester of Business Law at uni) without sending it to a solicitor. The purchase went smoothly - we used a solicitor to do the conveyancing which cost just under $500. Total fees (mortgage duty, transfer duty, no stamp duty due to FHOG concession) came in at just under $5000. Building the house! We looked at just about every decent builder out there and ended up choosing Coral. We would have loved to go with Plantation but they were just too damn expensive since we could get a bigger house for the same price from most of the other major builders around. The design we picked was the Hamilton 279m2 (30sq) with an extension to Bedroom 1 bringing it to about 32sq give or take. Now the base price of the design is $150 600. Naturally you won't be able to build it for anything close to that since you need flooring (carpets etc), fascade (if your covenant requires it), alfresco (normally not included in the standard price) etc etc. Also soil type can drive up the cost quickly. The base price of just about every builder out there will allow a S class soil and even some such as Orbit offer a M/H for no extra cost as part of a special upgrade package. Our soil type is M which is good (Best to worst - A, S, M, H, P, E) but not far down at all is rock. Stable rock is great for building on (very little movement) but it drives up cost since excavation must be carried out to install the stormwater, electrical etc services which came to about $1000 extra. Drainage is also an issue as water will just sit on the rock so the engineer requested two grated drains be installed for a cost of $1078 for both. The great thing about Coral is that they do not use the typical CHEAP waffle void/styrofoam slab design but a metal screw pier system (Stable Slad by Helitech) which anchors the slab into the ground). The presence of rock also added to the slab cost ($630 extra for M class soil and rock). Screw piers greatly minimise slab movement and "prevent" cracking. I'm inclined to believe it as i've been in two brand new rentals since 2005 and both starting cracking within a year. We left the first rental a few months ago and at that stage there was a 2" (5cm) gap between the driveway and the garage/house. There was no gap when we moved in. I won't even go into the cracking that they had to fix up inside the house. The contract price is about $218 000 which includes everything except driveway, landscaping, letterbox, and light fixtures/covers. We get $1600 credited as first home buyers get the Deluxe Inclusions packages for free and a $3000 discount. Build time is 180 days, less 17 for bad weather, less 53 for weekends etc so about 110 working days. Will be signing the contract next week and submitting the plans to the developer for covenant approval which is required by the builder. Al & Caitie- Building the Hamilton 278 (Coral) at Narangba Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 2Apr 26, 2009 10:27 am February 9 House Plan We were choosing between two Coral designs - the Hamilton 278 and the Brampton 278. I loved both designs but was leaning towards the Brampton as it was a few grand cheaper and had a bigger Bedroom 1. The only problem was that there was no display Brampton 278, only a smaller Brampton design which had a very different layout. Despite this I was happy to build off the plan but the missus wasn't so (fair enough) we picked the Hamilton. A plus for the Hamilton was that it had a private Bedroom 2/3/4 area which would be good for the long-term when we have kids and the short term - when my dad needs full time care (see HERE. The land is only 1-2min from my dad's place so that's a bonus as well. Standard Hamilton 278 (30sq, 278m2-duh) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Modified Hamilton 278 Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ As indicated by the red lines are changes to the structure of the house. Bedroom 1 was extended to be flush with the garage/ensuite wall. The study was recessed into the house to delete the small hallway for one reason - covenant approval. Something we didn't pick up and neither did Coral was that our covenant required no front exterior wall to be greater than 6.0m. If it was greater than 6.0m, it needed a "step" of a minimum 60cm in or out. We could've "stepped out" the study by 60cm at a cost of $2500 to make it larger but we're running on a tight budget. The other option was to reduce it by 60cm and save $850 but then we'd have a tiny study. Thankfully Coral came back today with another option as they knew we had a tight budget. The solution - push the study back against the wall to delete the small hallway behind it. We were happy as you don't really need the hallway as the Family room has two entrances into the Bedrooms/Garage/Laundry hallway. No word on cost saving as yet but it won't cost us anything to do it. Coral will even wave the structural plan change fee. If you want to change anything once the plans have been drawn up, it can be done but at a fee. Structural changes cost more where as minor changes (moving a window, the water tank etc) are generally only $100 or so. The extension of Bedroom 1 cost $3254 which included extra tiles for the laundry. Apparently since we were making the two rooms flush, they needed to slightly extend the laundry to fit the door frame (outside). As indicated by the blue lines, are new window positions. We moved the windows in the Bedrooms at the rear as they would be looking at the back fence which is very close to the rear of the house. The water tank position is indicated by the brown box. Something I forgot to mark on the plan - the kitchen cook top has been centred and a window will be on either side of it, rather than just one window. Budget The contract price for the land is about $218 000 which will need to be borrowed pretty much in full. We used all our savings for our land which we borrowed $172 500 (total purchase price $220 000). We're happy to see another interest rate cut as we are very low income earners. I'm still working at a service station and only finished uni in December 08. The missus and I are both 21 so we think we're doing quite well even though it means saving every single dollar and not going out much at all. I'd be happy to keep the loan under $400 000 which should be possible. LMI is a killer, just under $8000 which gets tacked onto the loan. Al & Caitie- Building the Hamilton 278 (Coral) at Narangba Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 3Apr 26, 2009 10:29 am February 11 Interior and Exterior We're happy with our electrical allowance. More than enough lights and power points. Only thing is that we will need more TV and phone points (Coral don't provide any) which doesn't matter as we have a mate who does that sort of thing. Reagarding cracking/movement etc - I feel better about building with Coral though as they use a screw pier system for the slab and not the waffle void slab (styrofoam) which is much more prone to cracking and movement. We have already picked our tiles (just the wet areas, house will be floorboards and carpets). Got centre discount at Amber and got Majer to match it (since they have a bigger range, better allowance and better service). Still deciding if we want a feature or not. We'd love to but it will hurt the budget since we'd get it in the kitchen, bathroom and ensuite. Timber floors (real timber) will be about $11500 laid. Carpet will be $4400 laid, it's Coral's silver range but is nice soft stuff (bedrooms, study, and front living room will be carpet). We got a quote from Andersens which was meant to be an extra special best price since the father in law is very close to the owner of a franchise. For the exact same carpet, it was a couple grand cheaper to go with Coral who use Carpet Call Builders Division at Logan. Absolutely stunned us. I've actually got our tiles at home, i'll put up a pic soon. The floor ones are porcelain and very expensive *pulls out his pockets and moths fly out* Driveway/paths/outdoor is being done by a mate. Quoted over $10K by the builder for just a driveway, we're getting it ALL done for $3-4K. Al & Caitie- Building the Hamilton 278 (Coral) at Narangba Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 4Apr 26, 2009 10:30 am April 18 Still Waiting on the Bank So it's now 18/04, the construction start date on the contract was 15/04. Coral hasn't started yet. It's not their fault, it's the bank's who shall remain unnamed ("WHICH BANK?"). The land was a separate loan and was funded in record time, about 5 working days which was necessary since Westpac stuffed us around. Now when we got the construction loan, it was approved soon enough but the re-valuation of the property and construction took nearly three months. The reason? They were so busy due to all extra loans coming through due to the FHOG Boost. I can understand that but three months? The problem with the crazy delay was that the QLD government was introducing new energy efficiency laws for new homes (insulation) from March 1. This meant that if we didn't get the contract signed and deposit in before then, we'd have to spend about $3000 extra on insulation :wired: As if we would, what a waste of money in my opinion. We already have upgraded insulation, sarking and whirlybirds. After threatening the bank with an ombudsman complaint late on a Friday arvo, they managed to get a valuer to the value the land/construction on the weekend. So we made the deadline. Coral were great, they even gave us a contract with no date to speed things along. Now what? Coral are ready to begin, they just need a letter (Authority to Commence Construction or ACC) from the bank. The bank is hopeless, the loan manager doesn't even return my calls so I have to drop in a few times and week hoping he's there/not busy. Coral sprung a variation to contract on me. They now are saying Colorbond downpipes are unavailable and I have to have UV treated PVC pipes. Not entirely sure why are Colorbond downpipes are in plentiful supply. I've heard that if you have a watertank, builders prefer to use UV PVC, not sure why. Another variation that came through was that they now do not want to pivot my front door and want to hinge it. It's a Hume XS24 1200mm and it was included in the original tender/contract so its as good as paid for. We've told them that we will refuse to sign the variation as we want a pivot door. They said they'll get back to us. Mind you, they aren't giving us money back for using UV PVC and hinging the door even though its cheaper. Al & Caitie- Building the Hamilton 278 (Coral) at Narangba Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 5Apr 26, 2009 10:31 am Decision on Pivot Door and Downpipes Regarding the pivoted door, we originally requested the Saleswoman to put it in the tender as pivoted but after checking the tender, she put it in as hinged. At the colour selection, we told them pivot it which they say they just don't do (health and safety). Since its in the tender, can't do much anyway. Coral are claiming that they are no longer using Colorbond downpipes when they are supplying the rainwater tank. I'm not 100% sure why but all new houses i've seen that have a watertank, have UVPVC downpipes. Also, the downpipes will be a charged system on my house. Start Date! We finally have a start date - 12 May. I'm a bit surprised as I thought once the bank sent them the Authority to Commence Construction (ACC), they would begin almost immediately since they had been waiting on it for about two weeks. Not so, when the ACC is received, they will commence anywhere up to 20 days later. It was a PITA to get Commonwealth to send the ACC. I had to go in about five times to ask them to do it. Coral told me that Commonwealth did it in record time for me, normally they claim it takes them much longer. Al & Caitie- Building the Hamilton 278 (Coral) at Narangba Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 6Apr 26, 2009 10:37 am Summary of Variations -$1690 (First Home Owners discount for Deluxe Inclusions) -$3000 (Discount) -$781 (Resizing and pushing back the study to comply with covenant) +$110 (Laminex gloss benchtops) Thoughts on Three Phase Power I nearly went three phase at the last minute but I decided there is no need unless you have a huge double story house and want ducted air con or if you're doing welding at home. My mum has single phase Daikin ducted at her house (about 28-30sq). They also have two split systems Also, some people say you need to get three phase to have a decent pool pump. Again not true. We did our research and there are plenty of single phase pumps on the market. Al & Caitie- Building the Hamilton 278 (Coral) at Narangba Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 7Apr 26, 2009 11:09 am Hi alk, You sound quite organised! I do like your house design. If money is tight, could you delete the study and use the activity room as a study? Pushing the study back does work, however, if the savings are only minimal, perhaps keeping it how it is would be better. I like that you don't have to walk all the way around to get from the garage to the kitchen, especially if you have gone supermarket shopping. If you want to save some money, could you make the formal lounge/dining smaller? Would you actually use it as a dining room, or more a sitting room or home theatre room? If not as a dining room and a lounge, I would make it smaller to end inline with the study (left as originally planned). 12th May isn't far away, how exciting for you! I hope it all goes smoothly. Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 9Apr 26, 2009 3:08 pm nice to see a couple of young ones with their heads screwed on. keep in mind if your repayments get on top of you sell the house before the banks step in. it can and does happen sometimes secure jobs are no longer secure if it does happen to you guys dont be stubborn sell sell sell. this way you keep a good credit rating and you can always do it again its not a failure on your part just life and a lesson learnt i do worry about the size of your mortgage at such a young age my kids are same age but i wish you guys all the best you sound very tuned in and thats great stay safe happy building Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 10Apr 26, 2009 5:05 pm Hi Alk, We're building with Coral too and so far have had a great experience. That's good advice from Bingoshelly, hopefully you wont have to reflect on it though but certainly keep it in mind if things get tough. I'm a mature age student at uni and I'm hearing a bit of grim news about grad jobs, so keep that in mind and play safely. Our rainwater tank pipes are PVC, but all the others are colourbond. I wouldn't accept that you're not getting any colourbond, stand firm on that one. I personally don't like the look of the PVC, even though they can paint them a colourbond colour, so I would be pretty peeved if I had to have them. Our feature tiles (see my first post in my blog) just for the bathroom and ensuite cost about $350 at Majer Tiles. I'm not sure what it will cost us to get the tiler to lay them, hopefully that will be next week, and hopefully it will only cost a case of beer We also went to Andersons at Logan and were BLOWN AWAY with their great service. The guy spent well over an hour with us, and his advice has been so valuable. We've still shopped around, and I've got one more place to check out, but if all else fails we'll go back there for sure. Good luck with it, keep us all informed of the progess and some pictures are ALWAYS appreciated here Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 11Apr 26, 2009 5:16 pm hi alk! (again...) great thread, very very comprehensive - can't wait to follow your build! that really does suck about the pivot door re: the downpipes, i recieved my tender on friday, and did notice that it specifically stated pvc downpipes - so really not sure what the situation is... 2014 - Prepping to build the Soho 4 with Plantation homes, industrial style 2009 - Built the Brampton with Coral Homes viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15399&start=280 Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 12Apr 27, 2009 7:37 am Hi Alk You're definitely very organised which is great to see We're also building the Hamilton so I can't wait to follow your build. We also had a similar issue with the downpipes as we didn't want the PVC ones. Our SC is claiming that it's a new safety regulation in regards to the old tin downpipes which apparently over time can degrade and it affects the water. I really don't like the new pipes but hey what can you do. What was the $3000 discount that you received for ?? Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 13Apr 27, 2009 9:28 am -Rebekah- We're also building the Hamilton so I can't wait to follow your build. It's a bit of a case of the Hamilton Club in here at the moment. We're building it too. What is interesting is the changes you guys have made to the standard plan. Different people valueing different things. ALK tacking more room onto the Master, Rebekah giving more to the garage, master, WIR & Ensuite. Wereas we actually took a little off the master to give to Bed 2 & the activity room. That's one positive of Coral, you can change a fair bit of the design without wearing any modification fees (still have to pay for the material change though). I guess it's our chance to personalise an otherwise common design. Mind you, I think we took it a bit too far. Looking at ours, the only rooms in the house that we haven't changed the dimensions is the garage and the main toilet. Some changed by as much as 500mm, others by just 100mm. edit: Oh, the wife I think tacked an extra meter onto the kitchen........didn't even try to argue with her on that one.......prefered instead to keep all my limbs. Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 14Apr 27, 2009 11:27 am lostcause edit: Oh, the wife I think tacked an extra meter onto the kitchen........didn't even try to argue with her on that one.......prefered instead to keep all my limbs. Smart move My man stayed well away whilst i was doing things with the kitchen. Thats MY ZONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Living in Caloundra Thread****** Lovin my house all finished!!! Now tackling the HUGE task of the Garden- viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14782 Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 15Apr 27, 2009 1:36 pm -Rebekah- Hi Alk You're definitely very organised which is great to see We're also building the Hamilton so I can't wait to follow your build. We also had a similar issue with the downpipes as we didn't want the PVC ones. Our SC is claiming that it's a new safety regulation in regards to the old tin downpipes which apparently over time can degrade and it affects the water. I really don't like the new pipes but hey what can you do. What was the $3000 discount that you received for ?? yeah, i'm wondering about this discount aswell... 2014 - Prepping to build the Soho 4 with Plantation homes, industrial style 2009 - Built the Brampton with Coral Homes viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15399&start=280 Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 16Apr 27, 2009 10:08 pm The discount was given as there was an error in the final calculation (amount) in the tender letter. Came to about $214 000 with the error when in reality all the options came to $218 000. We had borrowed accordingly (the very max the bank would lend us) and we just couldn't afford the extra $4000 - $5000. We told Coral this and that we would have to turn down the tender and go to a cheaper option (a smaller design by Orbit, we didn't like any other cheaper desings by Coral). Coral were excellent and went and had a look and offered us a discount of $3000 via signed variation. The downpipes (to the tank) will be a charged system (holding water) so I guess that's why Coral don't want to use Colorbond pipes. Colorbond is more durable in my opinion but UVPVC looks nicer. My dad's house is about 20 years old and the Colorbond gutters and downpipes are perfect. So yeah, Jellylegs, little ** off we can't get Colorbond but **** happens ey? Rebekah and lostcause: Both your modifications sound good. We were generally happy with the standard 278 plan but wanted a slightly bigger master (like the biggest Brampton design). The other rooms are a good size we thought (bigger than our rooms growing up) so we were happy to leave them as is. Our laundry has also increased in width by 18cm which gives us a bit of extra room for a benchtop and washer/dryer. A big kitchen is a good idea, another reason why the Hammy appealed to us so much. Jelly: Yeah grad job prospects aren't too good. They were many more positions out there half way through my degree but now, its not good at all. So in the mean time, its just another uni grad working at a servo Let me know with how much they charge to lay your feature tiles. The missus went a bit crazy and spent about $1000 on feature tiles (have the invoice somewhere...) but it should look good. We got a porcelain tile for the wet areas so there are extra laying charges for that. Al & Caitie- Building the Hamilton 278 (Coral) at Narangba Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 17Apr 27, 2009 10:41 pm thanks alk for the info - that's pretty awesome that they came back with a discount to keep you!!! pretty happy today all the tender issues were resolved (very shortly after 8:30 this morning - great service from sales consultant & estimator that were involved ) they have discounted my base rate by $2500.00 (due to some recent price changes in my area that were not included in the original tender... ) so happy with that 2014 - Prepping to build the Soho 4 with Plantation homes, industrial style 2009 - Built the Brampton with Coral Homes viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15399&start=280 Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 18Apr 28, 2009 9:29 am alk We were generally happy with the standard 278 plan but wanted a slightly bigger master (like the biggest Brampton design). Slightly Bigger! It looks to me like you've whacked another 25% onto it..........gotta be happy that. Bigger laundray will be good also......it is a bit on the small side off the plan. Re: Building the Hamilton 278 with Coral 20May 13, 2009 2:12 pm alk- put up pics, put up pics so I can see. Im stuck at work and want to see the progress!! Living in Caloundra Thread****** Lovin my house all finished!!! Now tackling the HUGE task of the Garden- viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14782 Any advice on a builder in NSW who is demanding an extra 22000k after the house is completed and contract paid in full .Standard HIA contract. Never received a variation.… 0 20509 Joe, it depends on your certifier but we are noticing the ones we deal with are really cracking down. So i would recommend you follow your approved landscaping plans to… 4 10959 Hi Simeon, Thank you for laying it down for us. Makes sense. Appreciate it very much. Have a nice day. Cheers 2 9001 |