Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 09, 2010 3:12 pm I thought I should probably start a build thread as we have now received our first draft of the house plans. Below is a link to my introduction thread incase you were curious viewtopic.php?f=26&t=28660 and below are the eagerly awaited plans. Sorry if the first is a bit unclear as there is just so much 'guff' all around it it is a bit hard to see the actual floorplan. I have attached the electrical plan aswell as it is a bit clearer. The main amendments are to be made with the bathroom, wc, laundry area as we think it is too small. We are toying with the idea of adding another metre or so to the house and including a mudroom with access from both the garage and directly outside. Also the kitchen needs a bit of reworking to include a wine rack, pot drawers and space for a desk and overhead shelves (for all my cookbooks). The fr/fz recess is gigantic and so is most likely going to be reduced to accomodate my desk. FYI at the moment the house is 384.79m2 including verandahs and garage (261.47 excluding) and is 31.6m long and 16.7m wide. Its a beast!!!! Happy, Healthy Free Range Wessex Saddleback Pigs My doom and gloom paperwork nightmare viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32170 Construction viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43653 Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 2Apr 09, 2010 6:51 pm looks great. Love this design. I look forward to following your progress. So is the old house gone now? go for loads of double powerpoints and additional points where ever you think you might want them in the future or at least singles as you can upgrade them with your own sparky yourself later it might seem silly but its one thing you can easily regret. I'm assuming you'll have wall insulation on external walls so putting powerpoints in later is a bit of a task though not impossible but on any internal walls it means conduit sitting on the outside of the wall. Not so attractive. . BTW the sparkie who did our place and the one across from us does not put conduit in the wall for his electrical switches. If you ever want to add ceiling fans later this means you can't use the same point for fan switches as internal light switches. The sparkies were not interested in me digging out the plaster so they could use the existing wiring or in doing this themselves. this means wiring will have to be run to outside walls. BUT if he puts the switches into conduit at a later date your fan sparky can add in the additional wiring needed for fans. I think you might be able to get them to add the wire in advance while building if you know where you want to add ceilings fans later or else get the builders sparky to install them at the same time. Might depend on who the sparkie is. Most of the sparkies we spoke to about installing our ceilings fans said they use conduit automatically in builds. BUT the WA country B contractor we had doesn't. One other things we discovered yesterday. we went for an external power point in the alfresco. I'm wishing we'd had one installed near the external metre box. The retic guy who came said this would ahve made our retic install easier. now we'll have to get a sparkie out to drill through from the point int eh garage and /or extend it along the wall. Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 3Apr 27, 2010 5:04 pm Time for an update... The old house is STILL here but won't be for much longer. They have stripped the fibro off and are recladding with tin for the journey to Dardanup. Next is the roof and then a quick cut up the middle and away she goes. Maybe by this time next week she shall be on her way (weather permitting). As for the otherside of the process (the new house), we ended up with 62 ammendments to the plan I am beginning to wonder if we should just find another house design (kidding, well sort of). We have requested that another set of plans be drawn based on these changes, prior to prestart, as they significantly change the layout of the laundry,wc and bathroom and will include the addition of a mudroom. Without some plans of these elements we don't think we would be in a position to start making decisions about colours etc that is required for pre-start. Plus we need these changes costed out so we can approach the bank for some more $$$. We are waiting to hear back from WACB to see if they will meet our request and not make us wait until final plans (thus increasing the chance that we will be hit with the redraw fee, as no doubt there will be some minor changes) We are also moving ahead with our water tank selection, as we spent some time at the Balingup field day talking to the various reps about the pros and cons of each type. My DH is thinking about getting a 240,000ltr one but I think it is too big, as we won't be using rainwater in the laundry or any of the toilets...better to have too much than not enough is his argument, but my concern is where we are going to put such a behemoth. anyhoo....will post pics of the house removal process and perhaps the new plans in my next post fyi Happy, Healthy Free Range Wessex Saddleback Pigs My doom and gloom paperwork nightmare viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32170 Construction viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43653 Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 4Apr 27, 2010 6:09 pm love your pantry idea...not seen that before. Only as a wir, very good use of space. LOVE it (the plan) well done nicky Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 5Apr 29, 2010 2:55 pm Thanks Nicky....the plans are going to be altered quite a bit from how they are now (subject to $$$) Here are a few pics of the house removal process so far.. BEFORE Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ CLADDING REMOVED Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ RECLAD WITH TIN TO PROTECT THE PLASTER FOR ITS JOURNEY DOWN THE ROAD Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Happy, Healthy Free Range Wessex Saddleback Pigs My doom and gloom paperwork nightmare viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32170 Construction viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43653 Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 6Apr 30, 2010 9:46 am WOOT WOOT!! We had a win. WACB have agreed to do a pre-contract quotation for the main structural changes (adding the mudroom, changing the bathrooom & WC and extending the bedrooms), which if we are ok with the costs will then go to drafting for another set of plans PRIOR to prestart. Awesome. It will add about another 4 or 5 weeks (possibly closer to 6 if we go by country time) but thats ok, as it will give us time to sort out our water tank and septics etc. Happy, Healthy Free Range Wessex Saddleback Pigs My doom and gloom paperwork nightmare viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32170 Construction viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43653 Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 7Apr 30, 2010 6:52 pm congrats on getting that agreement. It means you will be able to get your finance sorted out far more easilier knowing what you are up for. Hope things go smoothly for you. I notice someone else is building right in Newlands on the main road. At first I thought it might have been you but it's a far smaller slab and the outlook didn't match. Interesting the way they'd removed the cladding to protect it. I didn't know they did that. Lovely to see those old lead light windows. Keep up the photos Blog http://wherethehearthis.blogspot.com/ Build https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=6634: Yard https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27687&p=378401#p378401 Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 8Apr 30, 2010 9:14 pm Hi Kerry, The tin cladding is to protect the plaster on the internal walls (and to assist with stability whilst the house is in transit). The original cladding had asbestos so was removed and disposed of. I will let you know when the house is due to be moved, so that you can plan your travel to avoid getting stuck behind it!! (not too many detour options and nothing worse than getting stuck behind a house (or rather half a house to be exact). Happy, Healthy Free Range Wessex Saddleback Pigs My doom and gloom paperwork nightmare viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32170 Construction viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43653 Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 9Apr 30, 2010 9:40 pm oo thanks. yes considering I drive to Bridgetown for work everyday it would be good not to be stuck while a house passes by. Slabs are notoriously smaller than you expect. if a slab looks big then the house is huge. But the slab looked too square for your place anyway. Did you buy the rose place? or somewhere near it? Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 10May 01, 2010 12:24 am They transported the current house onto the block in 1994 from Bicton of all places! Would love to know the reason behind that decision! And now it is going to Dardanup - that is one well travelled house. Happy, Healthy Free Range Wessex Saddleback Pigs My doom and gloom paperwork nightmare viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32170 Construction viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43653 Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 11May 11, 2010 1:30 pm Huzzah - ITS GONE Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Happy, Healthy Free Range Wessex Saddleback Pigs My doom and gloom paperwork nightmare viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32170 Construction viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43653 Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 12May 11, 2010 7:48 pm fabulous news. And how long until the next stage? Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 13May 12, 2010 11:01 am Hi Kerry, That is a very good question!. Spoke to our sales consultatnt yesterday who didn't really have anything new to tell me (other than the drafting dept were snowed under). He said he had spoken to our Contract Administrator who would be in contact with me this week. Will wait and see. Once again I expressed our concern over the width of the verandahs not being finalised (our house faces west as that is where our views are, and consequently we need to make certain our verandahs on that side are wide enough to protect us from the afternoon sun). The issue we have is we are building on a slope and if the house ends up being too wide, we run our of flat land to build and would incurr significant increases to our sitecosts. Once again he said that he would bring it up with the drafties, but I have heard this before How is everything in your patch of paradise? How bad was that smoke?They are still burning in Greenie so we are still confined inside or risk severe smoke inhalation - not good Happy, Healthy Free Range Wessex Saddleback Pigs My doom and gloom paperwork nightmare viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32170 Construction viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43653 Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 15May 12, 2010 1:35 pm Hi Redd, Yeah we are trying to have the house face as northerly as possible within the confines of our site. At the moment it is almost due west (not good) and we have asked for it to be situated north/westerly to at least partially mitigate the afternoon sun. As yet though, the builders still have it on there plans as west facing despite repeated calls from us to have it turned.... I will see if I can dig out a copy of the contour plan to illustrate what I mean Happy, Healthy Free Range Wessex Saddleback Pigs My doom and gloom paperwork nightmare viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32170 Construction viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43653 Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 17May 12, 2010 2:17 pm Excuse the lameness, but I only have a PDF of the plans, so I have attempted to illustrate our predicament through Microsoft Paint This is how the house sits now. The red line is 9.5m contour Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And this is how we have asked for it to be situated. We are trying to make the best use of the flat land, without inpinging on our views (which are NWerly) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Its not a huge difference, but it does require the width of the verandahs to be set, so we know how far forward we can bring the house. If the verandahs turn out to be quite wide, then we would have to bring the house back, and thus loose the majority of our views (which will make the choice of house design, with its summer room and windows to the west, redundant). Alternatively we could be looking at considerable site costs if we come forward, due to the slope we are on. If the only choice is to come forward then perhaps a pole home would be more suitable......aaaaggghhhh. I am getting tired of trying to stress to our builder the need to have this sorted before we proceed, but they are only interested in getting us to pre-start to get their $$$$. Does anyone know how we could calculate the required width of our verandahs based on the angle of the sun. I am sure their is a calculation you can do, but not sure where to find it? Happy, Healthy Free Range Wessex Saddleback Pigs My doom and gloom paperwork nightmare viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32170 Construction viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43653 Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 18May 12, 2010 3:18 pm If the windows are due west , the sun is always going to come right in unless you use some sort of external shutter. The depth of verandah will delay the sun in summer but won't totally stop it. I'll try to do an example for you on a simple box with eaves representing a verandah Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 19May 12, 2010 3:26 pm Redd If the windows are due west , the sun is always going to come right in unless you use some sort of external shutter. The depth of verandah will delay the sun in summer but won't totally stop it. I'll try to do an example for you on a simple box with eaves representing a verandah How wide is your verandah currently Re: Benara Farm Build - Initial Plans 20May 12, 2010 3:54 pm Ok this is a very quick sundiagram based on your longitude and latitude (Newlands). It was calculated on Jan 12th at 5pm based on a box with 2.5M eaves (or verandah) So it looks like the sun probably starts to come in the west windows at about 4:30. So every month from January the sun will be a few metres further in at the equivalent time of day. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ By April it will look like this at 5pm , so as you can see it wouldnt matter how wide the verandah is , you can't keep the sun out. Of course depending where you are, by April you won't mind getting some sun in on most days. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hopw that all makes sense , and helps regardless, your contract stipulates a payments schedule and SOPA doesn't give provision to that scenario. Your contractual terms appear to stand. Hence get a lawyer, it… 4 11882 i would suggest nothing is unreasonable for PCI. we did all sorts, including checking the hot water, checking all the GPO's had power, testing that the showers were… 9 98697 Hi, I am approaching end of the build. My final invoice will be given to me soon to pay. Some context before I ask my question. 1. My builder wont do the landscaping or… 0 3879 |