Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 30, 2011 11:32 am Hi everyone, I have been a reader for the last few weeks but this is my first post. Although we have bought pre-finished homes before this will be our first crack at building and honestly I feel we have no idea what we are doing! A bit of background.... our block is 950m and slopes front to back and is towards the top of a hill. This will enable us to have a grogeous view of our citys lake. We designed the house ourselves and then got a draftsman to help us finalise etc. It's 400 under roof and we are in love with the design . Block settled in January, DA approved a few weeks later, CC is in at council at the moment and we are waiting to get quotes back from 3 builders. We are happy with all 3 builders workmanship and we get along with each of them well so it will literally come down to $. We will getting them to complete just pass lock up and will do the kitchen/bathroom fit out/tiling, heating, cooling, floor coverings, window dressings, outdoor paving, electrical fit out etc ourselves. Has anybody else done this? Did you find it saved you money? The council won't give us a CC until we have a builder chosen which we didn't know! So hold up there. Kind of seems there has been one hold up after another for the last 3 months and we haven't even started to build yet!!! lol. Is this what it is usally like? Any advice you can offer for a first time builder who has no idea would be great. Thanks, Ange Re: Totally new to the forum & getting ready to build first 2Mar 30, 2011 12:11 pm welcome to the forum ange. GOOOOOOD LUCK!!! I am sure it will be fine once you pick a builder...then you are off. can you share the plan at all? or is it secret squirrel till you get some quotes back? have you seen the custom design thread...that is always a laugh. have fun and enjoy the journey Re: Totally new to the forum & getting ready to build first 3Mar 30, 2011 12:48 pm I'm happy to share the plan... but not sure how?!?!? lol. Do I just san it and then copy it in? Hope your right about it being OK once the builder is picked!!! Thanks!! Re: Totally new to the forum & getting ready to build first 4Mar 30, 2011 6:01 pm Welcome to the site. I am new around here as well and we are just about to started building (contract signing stage) Congrats on deciding to take on some of the work yourselves. Would love to one day but going the relatively safe option first time around. Will be great to follow your build along the way Katrina Use a product like Equisol's Vitalise to clean the deck then coat with a penetrating timber oil. It will look 10 years younger and add value to your home. Visit for… 1 15793 The Soil classification has little to do with piers. The purpose of the classing of the soil is to identify the clay content and the "average expected range of movement… 2 9854 So it looks like we finally have some movement on site! Definitely later than expected, but I'll take any progress at this point. I'll drop by over the weekend to get… 5 27712 |