ahuangHope this helps!
Cheers
Allan
Cheers
Allan
Absolutely!
I think I got more out of you (your posts and your blog) than builders and websites!
Thanks very much Allan.. but this is not the end
- devank
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Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Dealing with council fee 22Jul 03, 2007 5:32 pm  devank ahuangHope this helps! Cheers Allan Absolutely! I think I got more out of you (your posts and your blog) than builders and websites! Thanks very much Allan.. but this is not the end - devank No problem, keep posting questions! There are lots of people here who have more experience than me, and we are all here to share and help! Cheers Allan http://building-our-first-house.blogspot.com/ Current stage: old house demolished, contract signed, waiting for excavation to start... Re: Dealing with council fee 23Jul 08, 2007 1:20 am ahuang Allworth has a similar design called "Torquay" and it has an internal balcony, suggest to have a look. The link is here: http://www.allworthhomes.com.au/2storey/torquay.htm I visited Allworth today. After discussing all the pros and cons we discovered that they don’t build any houses in Strathfield! Apparently not many builders come this part of the world  ahuang 1) I don't see anything mentioned about water tank, isn't that standard requirement from all Sydney council? Ours 3150 litre cost $7950, Most likely I would go your path and let them do it to avoid any hassles. I would like to hide it but don’t think enough money to do that. How about putting it under the Alfresco area as the land is sliding backwards anyway? ahuang 2) what about air conditioning and alarm? With such a high price, you should have both included as well. I allocated 15K for Ducted Airconditioning (3 zones) and 2K for Security Alarm. That’s the guesstimate form the sales person at this initial stage. I got few quotes for security alarm for my current house. It ranges from 1-1.5K for the full system. ahuang3) Is the tile concrete or terracotta? Their booklet says “Leading brand of concrete roof tiles”. Should I be worried much? ahuang 4) Is fly screen/door included? Nope.. didn’t include that. One more expense now ahuang 4) What's the benchtop in bathroom? Are they also in ceasorstone? We only got the free ceasorstone upgrade to the kitchen. ahuang 5) The shower screen for all shower area, are they frameless? I may leave it as standard as I don’t want the cost to go any higher. ahuang Have you visited the home world in Kellyville yet? May be not as many times as many other people but went their few times. Mostly I scan through the homeworld website designs to choose the house as my specs. Then look at only houses. Been doing this for more than 3 months now. None of those houses weren’t suited to our house & budget. Then only we looked else where (only Clarendon though). - devank Re: Dealing with council fee 24Jul 08, 2007 9:51 pm devank ahuang Allworth has a similar design called "Torquay" and it has an internal balcony, suggest to have a look. The link is here: http://www.allworthhomes.com.au/2storey/torquay.htm I visited Allworth today. After discussing all the pros and cons we discovered that they don’t build any houses in Strathfield! Apparently not many builders come this part of the world That's not good, next time, ask if they build in your suburb first before wasting any time... How about give our builder AllCastle a try? They are also in home world/Kellyville and are quite flexible with changes (but be aware that like all project home builder they charge a lot for changes). Have a chat with Gram and mention Allan from Epping, he should be able to provide some help. If you already have an idea what sort of house you are after, you can even bring your design (read: your responsibility for any copyright issue) and see if they can do it. We did that once and abandon the idea due to copyright issue, but their $ to build exactly the same house is indeed lower and the materials included are much better. devank ahuang 1) I don't see anything mentioned about water tank, isn't that standard requirement from all Sydney council? Ours 3150 litre cost $7950, Most likely I would go your path and let them do it to avoid any hassles. I would like to hide it but don’t think enough money to do that. How about putting it under the Alfresco area as the land is sliding backwards anyway? As long as it's included you should be alright. The one you mentioned would be the "bladder water tank" thing that hides under the building structure but still stays above ground, unfortunately I don't know much about that. Do a search and you should be able to pick up something from the internet. devank ahuang3) Is the tile concrete or terracotta? Their booklet says “Leading brand of concrete roof tiles”. Should I be worried much? If cost is concern, terracotta is "nice to have". Only look at this after all other major stuffs are covered and within budget. devank ahuang 4) Is fly screen/door included? Nope.. didn’t include that. One more expense now Our builder charge $27 per window. It's a small figure compare to any changes to kitchen/wet area... devank ahuang 4) What's the benchtop in bathroom? Are they also in ceasorstone? We only got the free ceasorstone upgrade to the kitchen. I don't think anything would be "free". Project home builders like to make it unclear by putting lots of things together without detail break down. If cost is concern, ask them to break it down, also ask for the cost if it's in granite or standard. Heard that Harvey Norman (or the boss?) is the main group behind the importing business of this special ceasorstone thing, and due to their huge marketing power, it's everywhere and indeed quite beautiful, but quite expensive. Granite is another type of stone benchtop, heard that it wasn't as expensive as ceasorstone. devank ahuang 5) The shower screen for all shower area, are they frameless? I may leave it as standard as I don’t want the cost to go any higher. ahuang Have you visited the home world in Kellyville yet? May be not as many times as many other people but went their few times. Mostly I scan through the homeworld website designs to choose the house as my specs. Then look at only houses. Been doing this for more than 3 months now. None of those houses weren’t suited to our house & budget. Then only we looked else where (only Clarendon though). - devank There's a few others you might want to have a try: (1)These 2 mainly build houses for West Pennent Hill areas. http://www.gremmohomes.com.au http://www.binethomes.com.au/ (2)There's also a smaller display home areas next to Parklea Markets, corner of OLD Windsor Rd & Sunnyholt Rd, right across where Clarendon display homes are located. There's about 7-10 builder display homes there and some of the houses are quite nice. We haven't been there for more than 6 months, did a search on Internet but couldn't find their details. Hopefully they are still there. (3)Check your council for information, or drive around your area and look for houses in construction, or knock the doors of any newly built houses. See which builders normally build the houses around your suburb and give them a call. In yesterday's Daily Telegraph (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22030952-2,00.html?from=public_rss), Strathfield is listed as one of the next suburbs to join "millionaires' club" in next 12 months, you might have to consider custom builder instead of project homes if you can't find anyone that can do what you want. The way I see it is, for suburbs that are more expensive (and with convenient public transportation!), although you pay more to enter the market, whatever you invested will definitely generate much better gain compare to other cheaper ones. Keep researching, your hard work will definitely pay one day! Cheers Allan http://building-our-first-house.blogspot.com/  31 May 2007 1,041 Member Re: Dealing with council fee 25Jul 09, 2007 8:22 am ahuang(2)There's also a smaller display home areas next to Parklea Markets, corner of OLD Windsor Rd & Sunnyholt Rd, right across where Clarendon display homes are located. There's about 7-10 builder display homes there and some of the houses are quite nice. We haven't been there for more than 6 months, did a search on Internet but couldn't find their details. Hopefully they are still there. It's called Homequest. http://www.homequest.com.au And yes, they are still there. Be aware however that the builders there are rather prestigious and naturally enough, expensive. Re: Dealing with council fee 26Jul 09, 2007 11:23 am Thanks for the information Mark.
I was looking for you for something else. Have a look at my blog, I just added some notes about the latest update on North West Rail Link. Hope that doesn't impact your area... Cheers Allan http://building-our-first-house.blogspot.com/ Current stage: old house demolished, contract signed, fence ready, waiting for excavation to start... 31 May 2007 1,041 Member Re: Dealing with council fee 27Jul 09, 2007 11:33 am ahuangI was looking for you for something else. Have a look at my blog, I just added some notes about the latest update on North West Rail Link. Hope that doesn't impact your area... Don't spread this around but I actually work for Railcorp. 
And before anyone asks.. No, it is not my fault if the trains are late and/or broken. Re: Dealing with council fee 28Jul 09, 2007 11:41 am  Cookiemonster ahuangI was looking for you for something else. Have a look at my blog, I just added some notes about the latest update on North West Rail Link. Hope that doesn't impact your area... Don't spread this around but I actually work for Railcorp. And before anyone asks.. No, it is not my fault if the trains are late and/or broken. Cool! Can you get me a yearly ticket at staff price?? Ok, something more serious, any rumor/official/unofficial news about the link between Epping & Parramatta? Is it really dead? Cheers Allan http://building-our-first-house.blogspot.com/ Current stage: old house demolished, contract signed, fence ready, waiting for excavation to start... 31 May 2007 1,041 Member Re: Dealing with council fee 29Jul 09, 2007 11:50 am ahuangCool! Can you get me a yearly ticket at staff price?? Staff price is free. Might be a bit hard to swing that for you. Sorry. Quote: Ok, something more serious, any rumor/official/unofficial news about the link between Epping & Parramatta? Is it really dead? As far as I am aware, it's not going to happen in the foreseeable future. It just wasn't feasible. Unless the the big wigs upstairs know something I don't. The Northwest rail link is priority, as is the Southwest rail link to Leppington. Re: Dealing with council fee 30Jul 09, 2007 12:16 pm CookiemonsterStaff price is free. Might be a bit hard to swing that for you. Sorry. Free?? That would save a bit of money. I can only get my work to pay for the annual ticket and deduct from my pay on monthly basis. Basically, taking advantage of yearly ticket discount but I don't need to pay in advance. Then again, it's not really worth because I will be on holiday for a month or so every year! Quote: Ok, something more serious, any rumor/official/unofficial news about the link between Epping & Parramatta? Is it really dead? Just wasn't feasible. [/quote] It's not feasible if you look at the short term period. Basically, if the current state gov spends money to build it then they won't get the return now as they are just re-routeing the passengers. Politicians don't care about the long term benifits anymore
The good old planners... did they really look at the short term benefit when they built the underground city circle? I recon that's the best decision they ever made in NSW! Hmm... I'm getting a bit too much here 
- devank 31 May 2007 1,041 Member Re: Dealing with council fee 31Jul 09, 2007 12:19 pm Maybe we need a seperate thread to discuss Sydney's transport woes. Re: 33Jul 05, 2009 11:38 pm Hi Cookiemonster, did you hear anything about the Northwest raillink? I'm buying a land near that area, should be a great news if they continue the plan. Thanks. Cookiemonster ahuangCool! Can you get me a yearly ticket at staff price?? Staff price is free. Might be a bit hard to swing that for you. Sorry. Quote: Ok, something more serious, any rumor/official/unofficial news about the link between Epping & Parramatta? Is it really dead? As far as I am aware, it's not going to happen in the foreseeable future. It just wasn't feasible. Unless the the big wigs upstairs know something I don't. The Northwest rail link is priority, as is the Southwest rail link to Leppington. Waiting for 2010 Land registration.... Neosdad, There is no right or wrong answer to your question, however one of the conditions of your CDC ( should you go that direction) will be to appoint a demo… 4 6304  An Not sure where you are up to in the build but if you are mid way and they install a new footpath now it could be damaged again. What I did with mine was to install a… 3 5042 Anyone got idea how Floor Space Ratio calculation works/varies in CDC vs DA Say if the lot in FSR 0.5 in Parramatta Council, one Builder told me max they can fit is… 0 1553 |
