Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 14, 2009 6:46 pm Hi, I read the forum all the time and have just started my build with Shelford First. They're a family owned company based in Rockingham. Initially we were building with Impressions but I found them to be impersonal and not give the time of day to listen to your concerns....unless are handing out cash. Any time I emailed a query to them, I didn't get a reply, it worried me. The second that shelford took over (we have been doing a subdivision and have built a massive retaining wall over the last 18 months which has been HELL), the stress has gone! The initial contact with Shelford was with Adam. He was great and had the patience to put up with me (I have control issues!!!!!). He understood the grief I had been thru with my subdivision and was always happy to help. One of the things he said was "we want you to enjoy the build" - and you know what - he's right - so far so good. The hard decision was sorting out all the colours and choices at prestart but my hubby and I have the same taste so it was fairly easy. Lisa, who organised the prestart was also really helpful with helping us choose and any time I had a query on the price of an upgraded item, she was prompt with her reply, awesome customer service. We starting building 10 days ago and in that time the plumbers have done their job, the electrician has been in to connect to the green dome, the concrete guys put the mesh in and have poured the slab (they worked like machines!!) and the guy with the bob cat has been in to do a clean up. This afternoon the brickies turned up to mark all the internal walls and let me know that the bricks will be delivered tomorrow and they are starting on Wednesday. I'll try to attach some photos - but it doesn't seem to be working at the moment. Nat W Building with Shelford Started on 5/9/09 Slab down 8/9/09 Brickies started 16/9/09 External walls bricked up 23/9/09 blog thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23415&start=0 Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 2Sep 14, 2009 10:35 pm Hi Nat! How exciting! Which home did you choose? I looked at building with them about a year ago. They have some nice houses and the family based business was appealing. We ended up going with Gemmill as they had the plan we liked the most. You will have to put up some info about pre-start as well as construction!!! I can wait to see it! *Built with Gemmill Homes in WA* Slab - 1st June 2009 Plate Height - 17th June 2009 Lock Up - 18th August 2009 PCI - 5th October 2009 Hand Over - 15th Oct 2009 https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20844 Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 3Sep 15, 2009 9:28 pm Alrighty - having issues with adding the photos. Can anyone help me out? It keeps saying the board attachment quota has been reached. I have no idea. This house is going to be lived in for around 5 years so it is primarily investment. We chose the Archer as our house as it takes advantage of the views we have from our block, which way the sun faces, the location of the garage and the open plan area with the kitchen family and dining room. The separation the main bedroom from the other rooms is a bonus (especially when family visit!!!!!). We made no changes to the actual layout of the house but changed a few structural things. -raised the ceiling up a few courses -changed the roof from tile to colorbond -got rid of the ugly pelmet -extended the paved driveway right to the road -rendered the front of the house -changed all the taps and handles -changed the doors and door handles -changed the laminate kitchen benchtop to corian and added the corian to the sides of the bench -removed the backsplash tiling in the kitchen as we'll add our own later on. So we are day 11 into out build and tomorrow morning the brickies arrive to make a start. Their sheds arrived today so they can store all of their stuff on our block - highly excited to have a look tomorrow afternoon. We also had a look at Gemmill but Shelford really trumped everyone with customer service and with me that goes a long way. I needed a builder that I could trust with my investment, it makes sense to go with these guys. I haven't been disappointed yet. They are really flexible with their house designs and go above and beyond for their customers. Totally stoked, i can't rant on enough about them. If u can tell the subdivision was horrible - such a nightmare so the feeling of relief is welcomed!! If anyone can help me out with the photo issue, would be greatly appreciated. Nat. Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 4Sep 15, 2009 9:33 pm Step 1. Sign up for a photo bucket account or somewnere online to host your photos. ie a blog, facebook etc. see this thread http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1272&hilit=post+photo good luck with your build. I look forward to checking out your photos. Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 5Sep 15, 2009 10:03 pm Best of luck with your build Can't wait to read all about it! viewtopic.php?f=31&t=22766 - my build thread! Time waits for no man. Unless that man is Chuck Norris. Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 6Sep 16, 2009 7:48 pm Alrighty, I think I've figured the photo stuff out. Did the photobucket option, thanks for the tip. Getting to the build has been 18 months of crap - to put it bluntly but I so enjoying the build side of things. So here are some photos of the before we subdivided and the demolishing which my hubby and I did ourselves (torture) <a href="http://s857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/?action=view¤t=P1000646.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1000646.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> <a href="http://s857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/?action=view¤t=P1000731.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1000731.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> Then we built a massive retaining wall care of Australian Limestone Company - such a great mob - I would use them again in a flash - professional, fast, quality. <a href="http://s857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/?action=view¤t=P1010240.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010240.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> Here is the block as of September <a href="http://s857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/?action=view¤t=P1010546.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010546.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> here is the block today!!! <a href="http://s857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/?action=view¤t=P1010594.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010594.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> I hope these turn out properly - I have a feeling they won't Let me know what you think Nat. Building with Shelford Started on 5/9/09 Slab down 8/9/09 Brickies started 16/9/09 External walls bricked up 23/9/09 blog thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23415&start=0 Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 7Sep 16, 2009 7:50 pm god damn, didn't work, where am I going wrong!!!!!!!!!!!! Building with Shelford Started on 5/9/09 Slab down 8/9/09 Brickies started 16/9/09 External walls bricked up 23/9/09 blog thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23415&start=0 Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 8Sep 16, 2009 8:03 pm Hi Nat, You need to use the right links. If you go into the sharing option on each photo, then click "get link code", look near the bottom of the window that opens for the lMG for bulletin boards & forums. It looks kinda like [ IMG ] address [/img ] just without the spacing http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1000646.jpg Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 9Sep 16, 2009 9:41 pm Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 10Sep 17, 2009 6:31 am That is awesome!!!! A bit more of a story from my end now that the photos are below. 18 months ago, my hubby and I organised to buy half my neighbors block via private sale and subdivide the two lots into three. we are on a Way, my neighbor is the top right hand block, we're the one underneath and both of our backyards together created a new block. Now we undertook the subdivision on our own. Lesson number one, always get a good surveyor, the one we had did a ******* and it bit us on the *** last on when we were getting our final approval thru the Western Australian Planning Commission. We got given conditional approval so we were given a list of things to accomplish, connect all services, clear the block, get approved plans for a retaining wall, meet conditions for the water corp and electrical company and the council. Sounds easy on paper - not!!! Clearing the block was a feat in itself. There were parts of my neighbours yard which she hadn't seen in 20 odd years including 6 palm trees, 3 massive asbestos sheds, a chook cage, bird cage, 8metre cactus (which was her security), a granny flat (old, mouldy, damp - gross!!!!) It was horrible. But skip after skip, we got thru it. The concrete was an effort aswell. We hired bobcats, jackhammers, you name it. it was finally clear. Then the services had to be put in. We had to dig a massive trench from the block, down the side of my house across the front lawn and nature strip and across my driveway (yep, had to rip a bit of that up). Horrible job. Got the sewer connected. http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1000646.jpg http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1000731.jpg http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1000756.jpg So we get our approval and after the bank annoyed me for a while, got the money to the neighbor and we start on the retaining wall. This was a massive feat. The people at the Australian Limestone COmpany in mandurah (speak to Paul, he's awesome) did our retaining wall. It is huge, at one point it is 3.5metres tall. This ventured well well well into the 5 figure sum. But they were fast, professional and did a great job. We had a few hiccups such as not realising we had to apply to the water corp if u are building near any mains and the council were quite annoying too which caused a 3 week delay http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010228.jpg http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010247.jpg http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010255.jpg http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010272.jpg http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010292.jpg So then we have created this massive retaining wall, now we have to fill it. The required volume was 900 cubic metres of dirt - and it has to be super clean fill otherwise u can end up paying more for your footers!! http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010367.jpg Sooooooooooooooooooo now we find ourselves in this position. In the last 12 days, the plumbing has been done, the electrics, the slab has been poured, bricks and frames delivered and I'm sooooooo hoping that when I wake up after a nap (it's 4 in the morning and i'm on night duty) that there is a flurry of activity. http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010594-1.jpg Our Shelford sign was put up yesterday, so friggin stoked. Nat PS hope the photos work if not, it's 4 in the morning and I'm stuffed!!! Building with Shelford Started on 5/9/09 Slab down 8/9/09 Brickies started 16/9/09 External walls bricked up 23/9/09 blog thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23415&start=0 Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 11Sep 17, 2009 8:22 am wow what a job you've taken on!!!! I admire you but it will certainly be worth it in the end. Where are you in Rockingham if you dont mind me asking? Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 12Sep 17, 2009 2:12 pm i'm in coolbellup, not in Rockingham. The builder, Shelford is based in Rockingham. Building with Shelford Started on 5/9/09 Slab down 8/9/09 Brickies started 16/9/09 External walls bricked up 23/9/09 blog thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23415&start=0 Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 13Sep 24, 2009 10:09 pm Hi, just an update. We're up to Day 19 building with Shelford First and I couldn't be happier. It's wicked to go see the build and every day it's awesome to go out there and see all the changes going on. Anyway, so far the brickies are going like the clappers. We have got the front of the house finished and all external perimeters are up to 28 course. They have started the internal bricks around the perimeter and the first internal frame is up (the pantry). Tomorrow, they continue to work on the garage. Here are some photos so far: http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010643.jpg http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010644.jpg http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010649.jpg http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010654.jpg Thanks, Nat Building with Shelford Started on 5/9/09 Slab down 8/9/09 Brickies started 16/9/09 External walls bricked up 23/9/09 blog thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23415&start=0 Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 14Sep 24, 2009 10:31 pm Wow Nat!! Your builders are certainly doing a fantastic job so far!! Are you able to attach the plan?? I wasnt able to view it unfortunately!! viewtopic.php?f=31&t=22766 - my build thread! Time waits for no man. Unless that man is Chuck Norris. Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 15Sep 24, 2009 10:58 pm Wow and we thought our project was horrendous (demolish and rebuild). You must have a lot of patience to have gone through all that! Mind you now that the build is well and truly underway, all that is history. BTW - if you don't mind me asking, are you building on the bottom block and the middle block created is now...? Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 16Sep 25, 2009 10:07 am Here's the low down on the subdivision to give u the visual - it's hard to imagine. So here are the pics. I live on a Way (U shaped street) http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010657.jpg So I bought half of my neighbors block and subdivided the two blocks into three. http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010658.jpg Turning my backyard and her backyard into a new block with street frontage. http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010660.jpg The retaining wall is not the end of the block - there are stairs at the back that go down to the rest of the block (place for the shed and the dogs to play!!!) Here is a plan of the house. It's the Archer (Shelford First) but we've made quite a few inclusions to change it. http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab140/natwollenberg/P1010661.jpg Let me know what you think! Ohh, Dragon I hope that answers your questions. We are keeping the current house in the view of renting it out when we move into the new house. Cheers, Nat Building with Shelford Started on 5/9/09 Slab down 8/9/09 Brickies started 16/9/09 External walls bricked up 23/9/09 blog thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23415&start=0 Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 17Sep 25, 2009 11:35 am Oh ok!! Now I *understand* what it is that you've done with the blocks! I was a tad confused before Great houseplan tho! Am very eager to see it all come together for you. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=22766 - my build thread! Time waits for no man. Unless that man is Chuck Norris. Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 18Sep 25, 2009 4:35 pm Thanks Jodie - I'm a huge fan of the layout aswell. Just had a bbq n beers with the brickies!! We've had a great relationship with all the tradesmen coming thru our block. The guys are great and done mind me asking fifty million questions about what they are doing (I'm curious!) Initially when Adam from Shelford said that he was going to see that we enjoyed the building process, I seriously thought he was talking a bit of crap. I've had so many friends hate the building process and have horrible experiences. I hate to admit it, but he's right so far!! I have a friend going thru another building company and he couldn't get an appointment to do pre-start even though everything was ready to roll. It's frustrating. So glad I went with these guys. Will throw more pics up this afternoon - the garage is up to scaffold height - starting to look like a house!!!! Nat Building with Shelford Started on 5/9/09 Slab down 8/9/09 Brickies started 16/9/09 External walls bricked up 23/9/09 blog thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23415&start=0 Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 19Sep 25, 2009 4:43 pm Ahhh living right next to the construction site!! What a way to keep an eye on the brickies! No need for updates from the builder....just look over the back fence. Re: Building a new house with Shelford First in WA 20Sep 25, 2009 4:52 pm dragon Ahhh living right next to the construction site!! What a way to keep an eye on the brickies! No need for updates from the builder....just look over the back fence. Makes me wish i lived a bit closer to mine!! Although its only about a 2 min drive away from where i live now anyway... Great to hear that your tradies are doing so well Nat!! Must give you peace of mind viewtopic.php?f=31&t=22766 - my build thread! Time waits for no man. Unless that man is Chuck Norris. hi guys. Please be nice. First time home builder in Qld. I would like some feedback please on whether I should build my granny flat first before my main house at the… 0 4596 Can anyone give me any onfo on New Homes WA? Good or bad, hopefully good just need to know if my choice was good or not? Thanks ❤️ 0 8950 That is a really good attitude Akin to you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I do enjoy watching that tik tok inspector from Victoria but he does go a little… 12 81896 |