I bought a block in December 06 with a slope of 3m rise toward rear, and drop off along the right in an established area of Sydney, with a view to KDR the sunken one room cottage, live in it, and then sell in 4-5 years time as an investment/money making strategy. The idea being that I'd then have enough money to build a "dream home" somewhere.
So far I have gone through the tender stage, variations and submission to Council with a medium sized project home builder. They have been quite good but seem to have dropped the ball a little. (Eg they never comissioned or submitted the landscape plan as described in my Tender with my DA so council have asked for it now, 3 1/2 months afterthe DA has been at council; and needing retaining walls was never discussed with me so now I have to get an engineer to design them, more $$) My DA has been in Council since June with more and more reports being required and amendments to my plans (full story on my blog - http://www.louloubelle.diaryland.com)
My concerns have been that in the interest of choosing a house that would best suit a future buyer, at a minimum cost to me, I've chosen something that doesn't really suit my block, has hidden costs, doesn't suit me, is increasingly expensive and now I'm doubting that I have made the right choice. Perhaps I should have built to suit me from the start because it's been such a painful process that I won't be doing it again in Sydney - the council's have gone mad with power.
I've gone with a single story 4 bed 2 bathroom home. It's a tight fit on the block which means I am now up for approx 25 lineal metres of retaining walls as well as all the additional site costs nescessary to be able to build on the sloping block (approx $45,000)
Total project cost is now $186,000 (initial cost just of the project home was $127,000) not including any landscaping, the retaining wall, driveway, flooring and furnishing.
Given the painful process through council I'm wondering if I should have gone for a two story which would be initally more expensive, but have lesser site cost and impact on the block (reduced need for cut + fill and retaining walls), create larger backyard and side access. My builder even mentioned that my block lends itself toward garage under, ie two story.
What do you guys think, what would be more appealing to buyers in the $720,000-750,000 range -
a single story 4 bed 2 bath double garage (with a few steps due to the split level slab) with limited side access and a low maintenance (read -smaller) backyard (no chance of fitting a pool in the future)
or
A two story, three bed 2.5 bathroom single garage with wider side access and larger backyard (room for alresco off the back with steps leading up into the grass backyard)
I'm on a very limited budget (the $186k is pretty much the most I can spend) as I'm doing it on a single income.
I really like the Kewarra and Northcliff by Cosmopolitan but given their starting prices of $155k perhaps could do it even cheaper by using a kit home like ASK Kit homes or Ezy Homes - of which there are a few designs I really like, and they can build on piers negating the need for cut and fill (and cutting out the huge project builders margins - I still can't come to terms with them charging me $8000 for a 2000l rainwater tank!)
My block has a building envelope of up to 10.7m wide (ideally a bit thinner to allow better site access and less need for cut and fill) by up to 20.5m long - but if it is shorter an alfresco area could be created at the back, and there would be no need to cut into the side and rear naturally rising slope.
Ideas, suggestions, comments? (No flaming, I'm a bit frazzled and sensitive from it all at the moment)
View from back fence toward front of property, shows the cottage and slope forward