Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 09, 2009 12:18 am Hey All, Was recently looking for information on Bamboo Floors and come accross this website and thought it was such a great idea; people with similar interests at a common point in their lives sharing information and support when it's most needed, wish I had come accross it earlier in the build process! I'm just about to start building my first home with help from the government's first home buyer incentives. I currently live with my parents (great for saving those deposits) in the outskirts of Newcastle but I've always wanted to live closer to the city centre. Late last year I began the weekend ritual of waking up early on Saturdays, buying the paper, highlighting the open houses of interest and spending most of the morning driving round in circles looking for an established house within my budget that wasn't falling apart! As my budget limited me to the outer suburbs of inner city Newcastle (namely Wickham, Maryville, Tighes Hill, Islington and Mayfield for the fellow novocastrians) most of the houses in the area were built prior to the 1950's and were in various states of disrepair. Although I love the designs and architecture of that time period my budget meant that I would be taking a risk and doing a bit of renovating. After many wasted trips to houses that would have obviously been way too much work for me and a few possibilites that slipped through my fingers before I could put in an offer I was about ready to give up! However on the way home from yet another unsucessful open house I stumbled across a vacant block of land for sale in the heart of Tighes Hill, a small suburb about 10 minutes drive from Newcastle CBD and 2 minutes from the harbour boardered by parklands and Throsby Creek. The suburb has a colourful past and sitting nextdoor to Islington (best known for it's street workers) is still quite colourful at times but with many young professionals moving to the area and a passionate residents group lobying to clean up the area the times definately are changing. The block was never going to be the easiest to work with, being 30.48m x 9.15m in dimensions and boardered on one side by a former factory with a tall brick wall but given that off street parking was available and that the price was quite low I thought it would be worth looking into. I did a bit of legwork, taking the details of the block to different builders in the area to try to find someone who would be willing to bulid on the block. Being so narrow most builders weren't able to make any of their designs work and those that could fealt that the difficulty of building should be reflected in the site costs. I was almost ready to give up when I had a chance meeting with an architect working in conjunction with Capital Homes, a small independent building company based at Maitland in the Hunter Valley. Working with the architect I was able to have a concept plan created and a preliminary tender price made. With the combined price of the build tender and the negotiated land price coming in within my budget I signed the contracts to purchase the land and gave Capital the go-ahead to go ahead with firming up their tender by conducting soil tests, order a contour survey (done by me as I am a surveyor) and drawing up a set of Autocad drawings. Jumping ahead in time a little, I now own the land and I'm at the stage where my plans are in council and I am making my colour selections. I've attempted to include a some photos of the site and the house plans for anyone interested in a look as soon as I can work out how.... If theres enough interest I'll keep this forum up to date on my progress. Your thoughts are welcome, so feel free to express them! Cheers Streetscape Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Surrounding Houses Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Looking East From Rear Lane Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Looking West From Rear Lane Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Block From Rear Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Custom Design, Private Builder Floors Sealed, Ready To Move In! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=19196 Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 2Jun 09, 2009 12:40 am hey mjt084 I love Tighes Hill!; so much so that my partner and I looked around that area for some time, trying to find something within our budget (with enough room for our dog to run around). We ended up buying in Nords Wharfs, as we weren't willing to wait any longer, and got what we believe was a great buy - water views, corner block, and scope to build a second dwelling, Can't wait to see some pic's of your land, your plans, and how your home progresses... Welcome to homeone! Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 3Jun 09, 2009 9:44 am Thanks for the welcome IkonInteriors, My girlfriend and I have a young Boarder Collie / Kelpie cross that still hasn't grown out of its agro stage so yard space could be a bit of an issue (I think the house covers about 60% of the 280 sqm site). However, there is a designated off-leash dog park only 400m away and a nice walking track down to the harbour so we're just going to have to make an effort to walk her more often! Nords Wharf is a great area, a mate of mine bought at Cams Wharf just down the road from you and it looks like a great place for summer BBQ's! Custom Design, Private Builder Floors Sealed, Ready To Move In! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=19196 Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 4Jun 09, 2009 12:25 pm Just saw the pics you've put up, they weren't loading last night, great spot! Very convenient location, and you're street is so much quieter than Elizabeth St (with regards to drive through traffic). That's a definite plus for Tighes Hill, all the park land gives you some space despite the small lot sizes. When we were looking, there were three properties in Sparke St up for sale... one was a vacant creek-front block, then next door an unrenovated house, then on the corner a renovated property - being right on the water though meant they were all WAY over our budget. Best of luck with the build!! Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 5Jun 09, 2009 8:19 pm Building Plans, hopefully the links work! Why won't the website let me attach pictures? I get the error message 'Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached'. Site Plan Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Floor Plan Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Elevations Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Custom Design, Private Builder Floors Sealed, Ready To Move In! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=19196 Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 6Jun 09, 2009 8:39 pm Hi mjt084, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on your progress. Your floor plan looks great, nice and open which can be hard on a narrow block, as we're finding out. We've just bought a narrow block of land on the Central Coast and are in the middle of figuring out which house to build. Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 7Jun 09, 2009 8:53 pm Thanks Hallie, That is something that myself and the architect both fealt was important to work into the design to avoid the feeling you're in a narrow house. It may be hard to tell from the plans because of the image quality but the idea is to achieve the feeling of space using a 1.2m wide door, a non-linear 1.1m wide hallway with views to the central courtyard. The back open plan kitchen/living/dining area also has slightly higher ceilings and lots of glass to make the most of the south-western light. Custom Design, Private Builder Floors Sealed, Ready To Move In! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=19196 Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 8Jun 09, 2009 8:53 pm Welcome mjt084, I think you make about the 4th Novocastrian on H1 look forward to seeing your home come together. Good old Tighes Hill, this will be one of the sought after areas of our town for young professionals and new families, look at Maryville. Good luck with everything. Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 9Jun 09, 2009 9:21 pm Really? Only 4 of us? You would think with all the building going on in the Hunter there would be a few more. Definately seems like a nice suburb to live in. I was at the block a few weekends ago breaking up an old concrete slab and in the space of about 4hrs met most of my future neighbours. One by one they come over for a chat and introduced themselves and I was lent a jackhammer by one neighbour and an spare power-point by another! Custom Design, Private Builder Floors Sealed, Ready To Move In! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=19196 Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 10Jun 15, 2009 8:04 pm Hey All, For those that are following my progress I just got my copy of the DA Plans which show a 3D Interpretation of the street frontage of the house. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Thats all for now, back to colour selections. Cheers Custom Design, Private Builder Floors Sealed, Ready To Move In! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=19196 Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 11Jun 16, 2009 5:19 pm Wow, that looks great! What external colours are you thinking of going with? Do you know if Capital Homes build on the Central Coast? Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 12Jun 16, 2009 8:25 pm Thanks Hallie_mia, Not sure if Capital builds on the Central Coast but I can put you in contact with them if you like, send me a PM if you want some contact information. Capital offers a meeting with a colour consultant prior to colour selections to give advice on external colours, I'm meeting up with her this Saturday to get a second opinion but at the moment I'm thinking about going with; Bricks A darker brick to give the house more of a herritage look, personally I prefer brown bricks to red and smooth to rough, with that in mind I'm tossing up between; PGH Cassica PGH Loam PGH Chocolatto Tiles Capital use Bristile roof tiles and offer slate look tiles as a no cost option. Although I'm not a fan of dark roofed houses in summer I think a darker tile is the only option with brown bricks so I'm looking at; Bristile Classic - Char Grey Bristile Classic - Slate Doors The door will be timber with large glass sections to let in as much natural light as possible. The timber of the front fence will be stained to match the door timber. The door I like so far is in the Hume Savoy range; Windows I would have loved to have done the windows in timber frame the same colour as the doors but the cost was going to be far too much for me so I just went with colourbond. As standard Capital uses Dowell Windows, I think I'll go with the 'Woodland Grey' colour. You can see it on Dowell's website here; http://www.dowell.com.au/Common/colours_by_state.asp?AUD=&site=Dowell What do you think? Custom Design, Private Builder Floors Sealed, Ready To Move In! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=19196 Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 13Jun 16, 2009 8:42 pm Marc - you can upgrade your windows at Dowell to Decrowood - looks like timber but is aluminium. This is what we are having on our front facade (very pricey however!!) Some things are worth waiting for. Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 14Jun 16, 2009 9:01 pm Kyton, I saw the decrowood windows at the HIA display centre and loved the look of them but just wasn't sure about the feel. Still thinking about changing the front window of the house to timber (theres only one window that can be seem from the street). Custom Design, Private Builder Floors Sealed, Ready To Move In! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=19196 Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 15Jun 16, 2009 9:08 pm Actually just checked and was surprised - we have 12 windows across the front - they are all the same size Dowell 1809 - cost for these to be Decrowood was close to $3k. Thought it was more. Installed yesterday and they are gorgeous. Some things are worth waiting for. Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 16Jun 16, 2009 9:36 pm 12 Windows across the front! I've only got a few more than that in the entire house! lol The benefits of a large block of land.... lol. Custom Design, Private Builder Floors Sealed, Ready To Move In! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=19196 Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 18Jun 17, 2009 9:19 am Thanks SuH Custom Design, Private Builder Floors Sealed, Ready To Move In! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=19196 Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 19Jun 17, 2009 1:32 pm make that 5 in newy. congrats on finding some land close to town, there isnt much left. tighe's hill is a great spot. like maryville, parts of iso and wickham - highly undervalued atm = lots of potential. Re: New Build In Old Suburb - Tighes Hill, Newcastle 20Jun 17, 2009 8:14 pm We have the same taste in bricks. I really love the darker brown, smooth bricks and I think Cassica would really suit the grey shades of the roof and window. I can't wait to get to the stage you're at of choosing colours. Just need to find a house! 1 4695 Is it possible to render an old corrugated iron shed.I have heard that it can be done if it is covered with chicken wire first.Not sure of the ratio of the render mix and… 0 4896 Thanks Chippy,I do have one that I levered out. I'll try to find a brand name on the windows then do some searching. Here is a photo where you can see how worn they are. 2 7958 |