Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 13, 2010 7:59 pm We have nearly completed our house with East West. I wish we had kept a blog or diary or something along the way. I will try to sum it up from beginning until now. Damien (my partner) found out he could be approved for a personal loan for a new car around the start of last year (possibly late 2008?). I talked him out of the car, and told him we should get a house instead. And he listened (one of the few times hahaha). We spent a few months looking at different estates, and display houses. Oh, so many display houses! Changed our minds many times. Then gave up on building and looked at established. Then back to building. We ended up finding the right land in Skye. The location was perfect for us. Close to the shops, not far from where we already live and a primary school just around the corner. We chose a block in a court and paid a deposit. We managed to get $5000 off the land on condition we built with their preferred builder, East West Homes. We just had to choose a design with them that we liked. We decided on the Drysdale 27 (ours is a bit different to layouts they have shown on their website). I will try and upload the plans later. We signed the land contact on 7th March 2009. The land was due for title release in June (this got pushed back to end of July). We signed the building contract on 6th May 2009. By the time land was ready we thought our final plans would be ready as we barely made any changes to the original plans. Nope, we were wrong. It was October/November before any work began. We are now nearing completion. Meeting with the SS on site tomorrow to (hopefully) find out a date. There have been times when we have gotten annoyed with their pace, but overall are pretty happy. One thing we noticed is that quite a few houses in our court have the a very similar design. Which kind of upset me at first. But they will all look different from the front I hope... Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 2Apr 14, 2010 8:37 pm Welcome Izzehz, Building is an exciting time (well most of the time anyway ) Your journey seems very similar to us... deciding whether to build or not to build with lots of display home visits in there... we ended up going with the preferred builder as well. However luckily... the three people on our street that went with the same builder... all have different tastes and all chose quite different designs Our build - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=31696 Our new house - moved in but so much more to do! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=31696&p=442009#p442009 Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 3Apr 15, 2010 9:38 am It has been mostly exciting, but at times frustrating. There are times we wish we had found a good established house, as we would have been in already! This isn't our dream home, we are only young so this is just a starting block for us. We met with the builder yesterday, and he has pencilled us in for handover on the 14th of May. Which isn't too bad. All along they have been saying approx April. Anyways here are our plans. They are pretty simple really. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ (I hope that worked. If not I will have to keep trying) Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 4Apr 15, 2010 12:44 pm Our build experience is sounding more and more similar Our block is exactly 508m2 and our frontage is 16mtr too. I am young too... so this isn't my 'dream' house but I figure i've got plenty more time to upgrade. After all we are most likely not going to be here for a long time due to work commitments. In saying that though I am very happy with our house... after all I am used to living in the communal living quarters at university So even though my house is tiny due to most house designs on here... it will seem huge to me Your plans look really very similar to ours... except that your house is bigger than mine I really like how you've seperated the living and entry (it looks like with maybe a sliding door).. we have the same kind of design except its not seperated.. would of made our living area a lot bigger. Maybe I'll have to do it for my next home. I also like your rumpus space... that will be a nice area. Congrats on nearing the end of your build. Our build - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=31696 P.S I like looking at photos and other peoples colour choices... so feel free to post photos Our new house - moved in but so much more to do! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=31696&p=442009#p442009 Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 5Apr 15, 2010 1:22 pm I plan on posting photo's once I have time. I have been so busy lately. Working long hours too =( I can't even think of the 'official' names for every thing we have chosen. But we have kept it all pretty neutral. I want to add color with furniture or accessories. Maybe have 1 or 2 feature walls. Nah, there isnt anything seperating the entrance from the living, not sure what that marking means hahaha. Will have to have a look what they have done there. We have tiled the entry, down past the living, alongside the kitchen (which was actually an extra?) and the family/meals area. Compared to other houses in our estate our house is average to small. We thought it was more important to have some outside space (even if it is still small out there) The rumpus was a very important feature. Damien plans on having it as a theatre room. But may not happen as we like the open feeling there is from standing in the kitchen. I had a quick look at your thread. Layout looks great. Can't really see the colors properly right now. Work computer is really crappy. I'm so excited to move in. I think I am going to be the youngest home-owner in our street! Was hoping to be in for my 21st, but that came and went already =( Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 6Apr 15, 2010 9:14 pm Look foward to photos when you are no so busy We wanted yard as well. Our house is the smallest house built in our area... but we do have the biggest yard so far I can't imagine having virtually no yard. I'm 23... all of the neighbours that we have met so far are a least in their 30s. All of my friends party up their wages... pretty much all my wage either goes into the house or savings.. being sensible is boring ! Our new house - moved in but so much more to do! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=31696&p=442009#p442009 Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 7Apr 16, 2010 7:08 am Being boring....I know the feeling. I'm 21 now, so all my friends are still partying and drinking their money too. Started saving just before I turned 20. So didn't have much time to enjoy my money either. I will in the house tho. It makes it all worth it. I went to upload some photo's last night, only to realise all the photo's are on Damien's phone, and not my camera. Will have to go down there over the weekend and get some. How many squares is your house? I have read your thread, but can't remember seeing it on there. Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 8Apr 16, 2010 12:59 pm Our total internal living area is 132.32 m Our total house is 184.25m (if the patio, porch and garage are included) How many m is yours? Your internal living area will definately be bigger than ours because of your awesome rumpus/theatre room. It would appear that you and me have taken over your thread... other members out there feel free to comment too Our build - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=31696 Our new house - moved in but so much more to do! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=31696&p=442009#p442009 Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 9Apr 16, 2010 1:26 pm The internal space is 190.6m. Including our garage and porch, it is 230m. Others are probably waiting for photo's to be posted. They are coming! Might even go down tonight after work to try and get some. All depends if I can get out early. I mainly started this thread so if people looked up East West on google at least something would come up. Considering how many homes they are building at the moment - there is not much on the net about them. Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 10Apr 27, 2010 9:17 am Wow - I have been so busy! If I'm not working, I'm out looking at furniture, and if I'm not doing that then I'm probably packing! I have taken photo's, but can't find my camera cable anywhere =[ The carpet went in the other day. Looks different to how I remember, and not quite sure I like it. We are meeting with the builder again Thursday to do our final inspection so I will get Damien to take photo's on his phone, and put them up that way. Can't believe it's just over 2 weeks until we get the keys. That is, unless something goes wrong. I have started telling people they are welcome to comve over for drinks that night (it's a Friday) but its BYO chairs, tables and glasses. As it's our first place out of home (we have been living with Damien's parents) we don't have any furniture yet. I am going to have to start planning the garden soon. We are doing it ourselves to save money, and my dad likes to think he is pretty good in the garden. I will probably need help in the designing tho! The backyard is easy as most of it is going to be decking. It just the front we need to worry about... Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 11Apr 28, 2010 1:45 pm Getting keys is definately exciting.. congratulations!! You're good packing!I hate packing... I haven't packed much at all yet.. and we are moving this weekend. Luckily for us... we don't have very much.. and we only live 5 min away from our new house. I do love furniture shopping though . Hope that you have fun furniture shopping and garden designing Hope that nothing goes wrong between now and getting your keys. Our new house - moved in but so much more to do! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=31696&p=442009#p442009 Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 12Apr 28, 2010 3:06 pm So I just spoke to our SS, just to confirm our meeting for tomorrow, and he wanted to change it to Friday as he will be the other side of the city. We ended up deciding that Monday would be better for all of us. He could not remember when handover was, and actually thought it was a week earlier than what he originally told us. I'm not complaining, but you'd think they would know this stuff right? He also said that the shower screens hadn't been fitted yet as they hadn't been measured up yet. They would be in in about 4 days or so. Door handles still need to be fitted too. There has been a lot more action since this SS took over. We never heard from our last one. He walked out the day before Good Friday, which was very frustrating. But we didn't like him much anyways, and feel the new guy is doing a better job. We don't have very much to pack, but its still a pain, and its taking up so much space in the wardrobe where we are now. All up it will take probably 2-3 ute loads at most. This weekend, how exciting! Did you have much that the builder needed to fix up? Is there anything I should keep my eye out for? Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 13Apr 29, 2010 9:33 am We were pretty lucky compared to some of the horror storys that i've read on here. There were things to fix up... but only minor things that were easily fixed... a broken fence pailing ... a missing lock on the garage/internal door... bathroom door not closing smoothly (still waiting for that one to be fixed - happening Friday apparently).. and a few other minor things. I guess just make sure that you bring your plans, electrical plans and inclusions list and check that everything is in the correct place... and just try everything out... open and close every door... turn the taps on... etc... We bought along a ladder to check that the insulation was there... and to check that previously mentioned broken roof tile had been fixed. We didn't pay a building inspector to come and inspect because we were pretty happy with our builder and their previous progress. However we did bring along my dad who is a carpenter. Our SS was nice enough to let dad come through with us.. but i know that some builders won't let anyone whose name isn't on the contract through. Our new house - moved in but so much more to do! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=31696&p=442009#p442009 Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 14May 10, 2010 3:24 pm Well, handover was to be this Friday. Was getting all excited, am half packed. I rang the builder to find out when they were sending the Certificate of Occupancy to me and he tells me there is an issue. No idea why he didn't call me and tell me but whatever. The bricks hang over the slab too much at the front of the house. This means he has to go and put some steel posts there to hold the bricks up (will the steel posts really provide that much support?) This means that the certificate is delayed 2-3 days, which means that handover will probably be delayed by more since there is the weekend in between. I am so frustrated right now! Especially considering we are already half packed - have packed all my weekend clothes and only left out my work clothes, so got nothing to wear over the weekend. Overall, the house is looking great - but I suppose something had to go wrong, things had been right for too long hahaha =[ Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 15May 16, 2010 1:18 pm How's everything going with your house now? We are all settled into our house now... and I FINALLY have internet again yay! Have your sorted out the issues with the bricks and occupancy certificate? All moved in? Our outdoor tiles overhung the slab too much out the back... but they just filled the excess space with concrete... but its not really the same because the tiles don't need as much support as bricks. I hope the steel is enough support. Our new house - moved in but so much more to do! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=31696&p=442009#p442009 Re: Our first home - Built by East West Homes/ Healy Homes 16May 17, 2010 8:02 am We are in =] All thanks to the bank. They fast tracked the process for the final payment - what normally takes 2 days, they got done in half a day for us. For once the bank did something good! House is pretty good. Have noticed a couple of things that I need to call the builder about - kitchen sink leaks, 2 of the ducted heating vents are't working, and they didnt connect some piping up in the laundry properly, so we flooded the laundry =[ We are having trouble agreeing on blinds. We can get them real cheap through a mate, so have to stick to a particular brand. The range is pretty good tho. Still haven't come across my camera cable. Hope I find it soon. Hi, can anyone recommend a custom home builder who can build in north east area? Looking to build a custom 4-br energy-efficient home with a max budget of 750k. If they… 0 22804 May I ask why you chose not to use GJ Gardiner? I'm actually meeting with one of the sales guys tomorrow for an appointment. Definitely not signing anything yet… 3 13234 The warning is on the sticker on the door too. Second the aluminium powdercoat 6 18178 |