Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Proposed Floor plan - Any suggestions 21Jul 25, 2007 12:05 pm So Devank.. what's your next course of action? Re: Proposed Floor plan - Any suggestions 22Jul 25, 2007 12:53 pm $316k I think is pretty reasonable for a minimum of a 39 square house with the alterations you made. Are the retaining walls for the yard or do they need to be done for the house construction? We have $20,000 worth of retaining walls to build for the house construction. All this money is so scary! Re: Proposed Floor plan - Any suggestions 23Jul 25, 2007 9:06 pm It’s not just 316K Brittany. I need to add another 100K for other must costs such as Demolition, flooring.. etc. Then other additions such as fly screen, extra power points. Add another 20-30K for that.
Bottom line is, I’m going to build only 1. IF most of my requirements are met 2. IF I can afford. Otherwise, I’ll look for another house which can come close to my requirements. I’m not in a hurry to build or anything. Live like how I’m living now and still enjoy the holidays. - devank Re: Proposed Floor plan - Any suggestions 24Jul 25, 2007 10:34 pm Hi devank,
I can understand how you feel. When we got our first quote from Binet Homes early last year, the figure was $476K (they don't even ask you to pay $600 for soil test/survey!) and we almost fell off the chair... Then it was Clarendon, after $600 paid, also roughly the same range as yours (not including air con, alarm, with P slabs, council liason fees, ...etc). Then it was Domaine, after $600 paid, later we start seeing some lights at the front as we realised there's indeed some builders that can build the house we want for much lower price.... Then a few others Eden Brae, AllWorth, ...etc, the more builders we approached, the clearer the picture becomes and we finally settled with AllCastle. I bought a small Canon multifunction printer (with scanner) early last year. I use it to scan the floor plans builders gave to us, change it, print it out to discuss with family, present/email to builder, back and forth a few times. I am now on my 3rd ink cartridge... It's very time consuming and lots of hard work. But after all these process you will have much better idea how much each of the things you after will cost. And your ideas/requirements will change and adjust accordingly as well. You can also try to spend another few weeks changing the floor plan and inclusions here and there to cut cost down. But trust me, you won't be able to cut it down a lot without sacrificing some of your requirements. Every company has their own set of rules and min % of profit on certain things. Even if you show them another quote from different builder with lower price on some items, you won't get much back. My suggestion is: (1) Get a few more quotes, it might cost you extra $600-$1000 each, but you will get a lot of different opinions/ideas. (e.g. why can't you use normal "M" slab? If the site cost has to be that high? Why 10$ for BASIX, what's included? Why the council liason fee?) (2) I have a quick look at your council's web site and found that there are actually quite a lot of new constructions happening. Why not visit some of them and get some ideas? They are in the same council as you and their DA have been approved!! They should have a lot of knowledge outsiders like us couldn't provide. See URL below, addresses are there as well. The list should be updated every few weeks. http://www.strathfield.nsw.gov.au/page/planning-and-development/proposed-and-approved-developments/recent-approvals/ All the best! Re: Proposed Floor plan - Any suggestions 25Jul 26, 2007 11:48 am Thanks for that link Alan. I don't why/how I missed that!
I'm looking at other builders who build houses in my area. Masterton has a very similar design (http://www.masterton.com.au/santorinigrande.htm) which require less modification compared to what I have done. Need to look at smaller builders as well. - devank Re: Proposed Floor plan - Any suggestions 26Jul 26, 2007 10:15 pm There are many house floorplans with study and powder room next door which can be easily converted to a 'study cum guest bedroom' with 2 way bathroom (ensuite effect). M'kon charged us $700 for that modification. Rumpus in the back (as in Matt'shouse ) can double as dance studio (we are making it a music room)...similar floorplan can be found in Henley's Wilshire, PD's cremorne.
Good luck we r happy with M's Nolan-44 floorplan which was reasonable at 240 K base price. with upgrades it'll be a little ove 300K Re: Proposed Floor plan - Any suggestions 27Jul 26, 2007 11:53 pm I agree!
Firthy26 (Mike) has knocked out the wall at the front of the Bordeaux 40 (Carlisle Homes) to make one big room at the front and there was no extra charge. I think he took the dividing wall out between the study and the formal lounge room. You could easily do something similar. That house is 40 sq with a base price of $230,000. Do you really want to accommodate the window? What is on the outside of the window? Do you want to be able to see your towels from outside? I would blank the window from… 2 6650 i thought the flipped plan initially but bec i want narrow pathway from entry to dining (dont like bend), also cannot fit the… 7 17167 Hi, Seeking volume or semi-custom builder in victoria(east), which have existing double story wide floor plans. Seeking 18-20m wide homes with depth of 12-15m long. Or… 0 25049 |