Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 25, 2011 7:47 pm We've been following this forum for several years. Thanks for all the information here, we eventually decided to build our new house. Hubbie wanted a dream house so we decided to buy a property and then knock down and rebuild after cash up a bit. We bought the property (almost 60 years house) on a beautiful piece of land in Upper Northshore 3.5 years ago. The reasons why we bought the it was that: 1. It's north facing and we'll wake up in the morning in the sunshire. 2. It's not on the main road so we do not pay for traffice control when we start building. (Friends paid thousands for that) 3. Reasonable wide frontage. 18-19m frontage means it's easy to put on a project home on it. 4. Reasonable size of the land so we can build a house 40SQ (2 storey 5 bedrooms) with the ratio of 40% 5. Land not below the ground and considered level. It's only 1m drop from side to side. During 3 months that we were looking for the property, not much land had got less than 1m drop. 6. Good school nearby and good environment. We like the suburb and neighbours are very nice. I'm a MA myself so I draft a plan (and of course a budget). We went and visited lots of display homes during 3 years. Lots of the houses were crossed out due to the frontage. We want the frontage wider the better so that our house can look as grand as those mansion nearby. The facade is the second important thing. And then floor plan....and then budget. It leaves us not many choices. After half a year talk and negotiation to different builders, we decided to go with Pronvincial Homes. We accepted the tender and paid the commencement fee last weekend. Here we go! Our dream house is on the way... The reason for beginning my own thread is that I want to share our own experience and welcome any good advise on how to deal with builders from here and assistance if anything was to go wrong from here. How to choose a builder 2Sep 25, 2011 8:24 pm How to choose a builder Luckily, we have a lot of friends and relatives having experience in building. We went and talked to them and listened to their story. The first lesson I learned was that if you were not rich enough, don't go with a small purely customer designed house. Hubbie's uncle ended up paying close to $1m to build his 2.5 storey 4 bedrooms house with a lift 5 years ago. My friend had to pay $870k for building a split level house (43SQ). We simply can't afford to leave it as an open cheque book. We then considered project homes were the right to go. Among all the project builders, not many have good reputation. Hubbie's uncle built with C and it took much longer than the building period in the contract. Only $105/w compensation wes paid to uncle & untie while they were renting a $650/w house nearby. It far less than enough. W and B had financial difficulties so they were off our list because we don't want to start a house that might never finish. Some of the builders will give a lower basic price but with everything on top. the final price is not low at all. So when we compared the price, we included a whole list. We also took a lot of necessary upgrades into consideration, such as high ceiling. One thing that we were told by our friends and relatives were to check the inclusions for every builder. Some builder might provide you the brick that you want for free whereas you might have to pay $3-5000 extra if you are with another builder. Some builders cut cost by not providing brick on the back of the first floor. Some builders charge extra for off-white morta. etc etc Re: Building our dream house with Provincial Homes 3Sep 25, 2011 8:29 pm welcome and goodluck on your build l love the provincial style if the name of builder implies it will be that,are you going to put pic of your plans up would love to see. Re: Building our dream house with Provincial Homes 4Sep 25, 2011 8:34 pm Before we made final decision, we went and checked the "real" house that the builder built over the last several years. The good things are that you can feel how it looks without all sorts of upgrades (such as render, stone on the facade etc) and it makes it easy for color selection later. We found a brick within stardard range. Initially, we thought we might have to pay $5k extra for the brick. It's very easy to lose mind when it's under pressure to do color selection. We also had chance to talk to one of the owners. She shared some experience with us and told us she was very happy about the quality of the building. Thanks for this forum, I got chance to talk to someone built with the same builder and was told of some good tips -- something that was not covered in the tender--building certificate. I've later asked builder to add into the final tender We understand that no builder is perfect. If perfect, then the price will go much higher...which we can't afford. So overall, we are happy with the builder. Re: Building our dream house with Provincial Homes 6Sep 25, 2011 8:47 pm pattycake4 welcome and goodluck on your build l love the provincial style if the name of builder implies it will be that,are you going to put pic of your plans up would love to see. Hi Pattycake4, We love the arched window...is that French Provincial style? The builder's name is Provincial. Also I'm not new to the forum, I still don't know a lot of function. I'd love to upload some pictures but don't know how Re: Building our dream house with Provincial Homes 8Sep 29, 2011 9:58 am Quote: reneegogh I do not know how to upload a file or picture. Can anyone help me? Hey Reneegogh, Great to hear about your build and good luck with it. You need to upload your photos to a site like http://photobucket.com/ Once you have upload you photos there it will give you a link you can copy and paste onto this forum. Our Build Thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50638 Re: Building our dream house with Provincial Homes 9Oct 26, 2011 8:50 pm B&V Quote: reneegogh I do not know how to upload a file or picture. Can anyone help me? Hey Reneegogh, Great to hear about your build and good luck with it. You need to upload your photos to a site like http://photobucket.com/ Once you have upload you photos there it will give you a link you can copy and paste onto this forum. Many thanks B&V I will have it a go Re: Building our dream house with Provincial Homes 12Oct 26, 2011 9:23 pm Hi reneegogh, Great looking houses. In your photobucket album, if you place the cursor over a picture a box will pop up with a list of links underneath. Go down to the IMG code box and left click in the box. The words "copied" will replace the link. Come back here and into your reply right mouse click and then click paste. The img code will be pasted. You can then type text above or below the link, which will appear as the picture when posted. Use the Full Editor so you can preview your post before submitting it to make sure your image worked. Hope I've explained that well enough. Michael Built Carlisle Atlantique 36 Our build thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50256 Re: Building our dream house with Provincial Homes 13Dec 02, 2011 1:58 pm hey everyone, We are a young couple this is going to be our first home and we just paid our depoist for the tender for provincial. I just want to say the consultant who we are dealing with is amazing and i couldnt do this all without him. I am in the early stages so i just want to see how your house is going with provincial any extra payouts you had to do ?? I was told only the site costs will be the extra charge has anything else popped up ? The Dulux colour consultants are awesome. If you show them the photos they should be able to figure it out for you straight away 1 1609 of course there are legal avenues. You've already mentioned it. Sue them. I find it odd that lawyers wouldnt be willing to take on the case, given CCT evidence and… 1 23758 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74688 |