Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 16, 2008 1:56 pm Hi guys,
I have been reading your forum with great interest over the past week and after finally getting my registration complete I am ready to annoy you all with lots of questions Ok so my hubby and I are looking to build our dream home. We are located in an established suburb in Melbourne's west and after much searching have found one of the few project builders that will build for us. Btw it is M****con. We are ok with this we quite like some of thier designs. Our budget is $850k, however, we have to buy some land first, there is not alot of it going around where we are so our second option is to buy an old dump and knock it down. Problem is most of the old dumps around here (+ stamp duty) will set us back about $450k, leaving a further $400k for building our dream. Ok so if you have got this far (thank-you!!) and please keep reading, I have lots to know. So because most of the blocks around here are narrow, M'con have suggested the Laguna 35 as it caters for narrow block, we like the plan (we need the 4 bedrooms) however we would like to add the rumpus room and possibly outdoor room if we can afford it. FIRST QUESTION - does anyone know how much it will cost to add on rooms with the big M? So I am guessing the base total of the home will be around $250k, leaving us $150k remaining for 'extras' and 'site costs'. SECOND QUESTION - Is $150k enough to cover the cost of demolition of the old house plus site costs (I'm estimating $50k for the two) leaving $100k for 'extras'? Ok onto the extras I'd need: 1) Ducted air-con with approx 7 points 2) Carpets to 4 bdrms, study, formal lounge and upstairs living and hall 3) Timber floor to main living area, kitchen, meals 4) Possibly tiles (or any other suggestions?) to the Rumpus? 5) Making the fridge space bigger to fit a double fridge? 6) Window furnishings (ideally I would like white shutters but not sure on cost?) 7) Driveway Kitchen upgrade (I don't really know what M'con's standard range is like, I saw a package for $5000 which included caeserstone benchtops 20mm, which I would upgrade to 40mm) 9) Landscaping - have a friend in the buisness, so could work out alot cheaper 10) Council fees - again no idea of cost 11) Some misc stuff - extra powerpoints, doorbell, clothesline, letterbox, foxtel connection, tv connections (not sure if this is included etc?) 12) Flyscreens to windows, security locks to doors/windows 13) Roof/Wall insulation (again not sure if it needs to be upgraded, or what is included in 'standard) Of course there are some luxury items I'd love - gas fireplace, spa bath - but I am willing to give up on these for the sake of the budget (and my poor hubby!) Ok so do people think $100k for the list of extras I have provided to be adequate or am I way off! Also is there any extras i am forgetting? What is the deal with facades? Am I correct in assuming the front of our house will be plain brick unless we pay extra $ to have it partially rendered? We are VERY new to this whole building game, we have been on the look out for an established home but really there are none that suit our needs within our budget in our area. We could increase our budget by moving out of our area but my husband really wants to stay put. Oh and finally if anyone has any pics of M'con's standard finishings of bathrooms, kitchens it would be great so I know what I'm up for. Of course I fell in LOVE with display homes Another question - Is it possible to have soil tests and plans submitted on a house/block of land you don't own, I have seen an old house we could knock down but I don't want to buy it if a) the council wont approve our plans or b) the soil test comes back and out site costs exceed $30k!! Oh one final question (I'm sure I'll have more later!) is it possible to arrange an appointment with 'M' give them my list above and for them to give me a rough idea of budget without me having to 'promise' them my buisness or give them any sort of cash? Thanks for any help you can provide! I'm happy to be PM if you want to keep your 'M' experience confidential Cheers Bel Re: Lots of help needed!! 2Feb 16, 2008 5:18 pm When you say you are in the west of Melbourne and there isn't a lot of land available, do you mean you are very inner west of Melbourne? We are building in the west and there is plenty of land available there!
As for a budget of $850k, you ought to be able to find a great house for that, a/c and spa bath inculded! Fiona Re: Lots of help needed!! 3Feb 16, 2008 5:49 pm haywgl Hi guys, Problem is most of the old dumps around here (+ stamp duty) will set us back about $450k, leaving a further $400k for building our dream. So I am guessing the base total of the home will be around $250k, leaving us $150k remaining for 'extras' and 'site costs'. SECOND QUESTION - Is $150k enough to cover the cost of demolition of the old house plus site costs (I'm estimating $50k for the two) leaving $100k for 'extras'? Ok onto the extras I'd need: 1) Ducted air-con with approx 7 points 2) Carpets to 4 bdrms, study, formal lounge and upstairs living and hall 3) Timber floor to main living area, kitchen, meals 4) Possibly tiles (or any other suggestions?) to the Rumpus? 5) Making the fridge space bigger to fit a double fridge? 6) Window furnishings (ideally I would like white shutters but not sure on cost?) 7) Driveway Kitchen upgrade (I don't really know what M'con's standard range is like, I saw a package for $5000 which included caeserstone benchtops 20mm, which I would upgrade to 40mm) 9) Landscaping - have a friend in the buisness, so could work out alot cheaper 10) Council fees - again no idea of cost 11) Some misc stuff - extra powerpoints, doorbell, clothesline, letterbox, foxtel connection, tv connections (not sure if this is included etc?) 12) Flyscreens to windows, security locks to doors/windows 13) Roof/Wall insulation (again not sure if it needs to be upgraded, or what is included in 'standard) Ok so do people think $100k for the list of extras I have provided to be adequate or am I way off! Also is there any extras i am forgetting? Is it possible to have soil tests and plans submitted on a house/block of land you don't own and/ is it possible to arrange an appointment with 'M' give them my list above and for them to give me a rough idea of budget Cheers Bel Okay here is my guesstimate which may or may not be close to the mark Base price could be up to $300k or more depending on your upgrades. Additions: R/c Aircon - around 12-13K Carpets - ask Ash but budget 10K or more (we spent 5K on 26 lm) Timber floors - we spent 14K (80 sqm) Tiles - 3K Windows (shutters) budget about 10-15K depending on your windows. We had quotes between $550-$700 sqm Driveway (depends how long) but we are spending 3K on 50 sqm including base prep. Kitchen variations (endless ) but we had variations of about 10K Landscaping - whats your budget - 5-10K (minimum) Gas fireplace 3-4K Council fees (no idea - you can check this out by contacting council). We had encumbrances of 15K Insulation upgrades can cost around 2-3K (Phoenix might be able to help with this) Usually rendering front elevation is an extra cost unless stated in the inclusions (often costs about 5-10K). Dont know about the Vic regulations for council & site costs, but Adelaide would be fine. You need approval from developer. Yes you could go to your preferred builder and give them the list and see what they come up with. No obligation is the norm and don't cave in to pressure sales. 850K should be fine but I would expect to pay at least 100K for upgrades, variations and finishing off. I think our upgrades, encumberances, variations and finishing came in at about 90K but our inclusions were good i.e. glass splashbacks, miele appliances, $45. sqm tile allowance all included. Re: Lots of help needed!! 4Feb 16, 2008 6:07 pm haywgl Oh one final question (I'm sure I'll have more later!) is it possible to arrange an appointment with 'M' give them my list above and for them to give me a rough idea of budget without me having to 'promise' them my buisness or give them any sort of cash? Thanks for any help you can provide! I'm happy to be PM if you want to keep your 'M' experience confidential Cheers Bel You can book a 'walkthough' appt at the display home you are interested in and they will give you prices for everything that you see, that would give you an idea of how much you would be up for. Some upgrades you mentioned are also often offered in "bonus" type promotions. Re: Lots of help needed!! 5Feb 16, 2008 6:20 pm Hi guys,
I knew this would be the right place to ask You are all a wealth of knowledge. It's funny people think a budget of $850k sounds alot, but where we want to build it won't go that far (FWIW, We are in Newport, and looking to stay there) It is so hard to find an old place to knock down for less than 400k, I have seen one but most of the houses in the street are quite old (not heritage listed) but in need of a makeover and I'm afraid the council will reject our plans for being 'too modern'...is this at all likely? I might just book a walkthrough with 'M', I'd just like to have a rough idea what it all came down to at the end so I don't get my heart set on the house and then realise it is WAY out of budget!!! I have been told to budget 100k on top of the base price, but 'M' has yet to get back to me on what the base price of the Laguna is, plus the added on Rumpus/Alfresco....I guessing it will be over 260k Ok well I have no doubt I will be back with more questions later, thanks again guys you are really so helpful Cheers Re: Lots of help needed!! 6Feb 16, 2008 6:40 pm Quote: Landscaping - whats your budget - 5-10K (minimum) I would not expect landscaping to cost this much, especially if you do the labour yourself, if you are going to put a 4 bedroom house on narrow block there won't be a huge yard area left to landscape. Much cheaper to do the landscaping yourself than pay to get it done, especially by the builder who will only out source it and then charge you builder's margin ( ie middle man markup) as well. You may have an encumbrance /covenant such that front landscaping must be done within a certain time, I know ours states 6 months from handover (we removed it from builders package so we can do it ourselves), but you can gradually do the back yard after you move in. Re: Lots of help needed!! 7Feb 16, 2008 8:00 pm Helyn Quote: Landscaping - whats your budget - 5-10K (minimum) I would not expect landscaping to cost this much, especially if you do the labour yourself, if you are going to put a 4 bedroom house on narrow block there won't be a huge yard area left to landscape.. I dunno Helen. we initally budgetted a small amount for landscaping and were unpleasantly surprised. Surround paving is quite expensive - even plain cement is about $50 sqm. If you like pavers then it would be more in the vicinity of $75+ including labour and site prep. I think 5K is the bare minimum and might include paving, plants and extras for a smallish courtyard home. But it won't take you far. Ours is costing approx. 8K, we are doing nothing spesh , we have a lot of mature plants we are taking with us and we are doing most things ourselves. Bel, Its very hard to know what you will spend as each person has different likes/preferences and costs change accordingly. Good luck and the forum should be a great place for you to ask questions and search for answers. Re: Lots of help needed!! 9Feb 16, 2008 9:00 pm Helyn OK, didn't realise you were including cementing in this; that is already included in our house/land package. I guess I was only thinking of the actual garden part. Yes landscaping could mean anything really. Completely up to builders inclusions which are never easy to compare. Re: Lots of help needed!! 10Feb 16, 2008 9:19 pm Scary this building stuff isn't it? So much variation!!
And I can just keep thinking of more costs - just adding up some of the figures and I am coming in at well over $100k in extras, which is making my budget very depressing...I honestly don't know if we can do it.... I hope that I am overestimating ALOT, I think the tour of 'M' is what I need and to email/ring around to a few carpet/flooring companys and get rough quotes... Silly Question - but will 'M' paint my house for me, I'm not talking fancy feature walls etc, just a basic colour throughout? Is this included in the cost or an add on?? Just curious also if you can pick from a number of colours or is it just a standard white.... So much to think of!!! I REALLY want to build though!! Re: Lots of help needed!! 11Feb 16, 2008 9:29 pm haywgl Scary this building stuff isn't it? So much variation!! And I can just keep thinking of more costs - just adding up some of the figures and I am coming in at well over $100k in extras, which is making my budget very depressing...I honestly don't know if we can do it.... I hope that I am overestimating ALOT, I think the tour of 'M' is what I need and to email/ring around to a few carpet/flooring companys and get rough quotes... Silly Question - but will 'M' paint my house for me, I'm not talking fancy feature walls etc, just a basic colour throughout? Is this included in the cost or an add on?? Just curious also if you can pick from a number of colours or is it just a standard white.... So much to think of!!! I REALLY want to build though!! Dont panic too much .. yes there are lots of costs but it is better to overestimate than come out short in the end. 100k should be plenty. Get a hold of their specification and you will see what they include in the base price. Yes two or three coats of paint throughout is pretty standard and included in the base price. Check your spec. It should be easy enough to get hold of one ... they will usually hand them out at the display village if you show interest in the house. You can pick from colours but it is usually one colour throughout i.e. no variation except for ceilings usually. 450k is pretty good for a medium-high end build (are you thinking single or double story?) and will depend on the spec. I'm talking SA so you would be best to get answers from members building in Vic. But as you can see even in SA the variations are huge in terms of inclusions. Re: Lots of help needed!! 12Feb 16, 2008 10:03 pm Thanks Dy....It will most likely be the Laugna 33 which is a double-story with 'M', I haven't got a base price for it yet, but i would like to add a rumpus room to the plan so I'm guessing that will push it up a bit, however, I am willing to give up the formal lounge position to put the rumpus room there, not sure if 'M' will do this though...
I saw the standard inclusions on the website, however, I must admit half of it is in a foreign language I guess what I basically want to know, is if I just paid for the base price on the site, what would my house look like?? As in unfinished etc or just not 'great quality'. The not great quality I can live with, its the unfinished part - ie walls not painted, door handles not on, which would throw me Atleast this way, I can just add the extras we really need - ie. ducted a/c, some upgrades to kitchen, extra electric points, flooring. window coverings etc and hoepfully then have a bit of money to play with, but if not, we can add the non-essential items later... This site has just been so great though, I have learnt far more here than anywhere else Re: Lots of help needed!! 13Feb 18, 2008 12:58 pm Hi Bel,
It's reasonable to have all those list. Don't scare yourself with the huge list. To make it more achievable, you might want to split your long list into "essentials", "must haves but can wait later", and "nice to haves"....etc, then work out some sort of budgeting for each category. Also visit a few project homes in your area to have a better idea what sort of house is within your budget... ================== Some times landscaping also depend on the land and council. E.g.: if you got some slope you will need retaining walls. In certain council, retaining walls over certain height requires proper footing + drinage, ...etc. This all cost money... Some councils might require min X% of area covered with plants or even native ones, ...etc. Re: Lots of help needed!! 14Feb 18, 2008 1:37 pm Interesting....
There really is so much to think about, I'm a bit put off by the house we were originally looking at knocking down as I noticed there was a big electricty pole on the front naturestrip and it had wires going across to both neighbours houses Does anyone know if this would cause problems, increase$$ etc I think the hardest part is finding an old home to demolish or land to build on!! Once we have that under our belts we will be fine I am sure Re: Lots of help needed!! 15Feb 18, 2008 2:12 pm haywgl SECOND QUESTION - Is $150k enough to cover the cost of demolition of the old house plus site costs (I'm estimating $50k for the two) leaving $100k for 'extras'? Hi haywgl, We are also knocking down and re-building in the inner west. Demolition of our house was $8800 including asbestos removal, but you might be lucky enough to find someone who wants to pay to relocate your house, giving you some more money for extras. Our block is pretty flat and so far we have not had to pay any extra in site costs, but we might have just been lucky. If you have your eye on a block, perhaps you could put in an offer subject to soil testing, or ask your preferred builder about the probability of site costs for that block before you buy. To my (untrained) eye $50k sounds like a nice safety net though. Good luck! donuts Re: Lots of help needed!! 16Feb 18, 2008 2:30 pm Cheers donuts
Your costs sound very nice I am really hoping I am overestimating everything so that I get a nice surprise at the end of it all Do you think if I saw an old house I wanted to knock down that I would be able to get a soil test done with the house still on the block? Thanks again Re: Lots of help needed!! 17Feb 18, 2008 2:50 pm Yes, although it would only be a guide. But might be enough to tell you of any drastic things you would need.
For eg, we had a soil test done on our site before house got knocked down, it confirmed we needed a H class slab, which is what our builder had as standard, so we knew we weren't going to be too surprised. Once the house came down, the next soil test done by the builder discovered 300mm or so of 'fill', but doesn't affect slab type and won't cost us anything more. It also drilled down to 1.5m in 3 places and found no rock. The independent soil test cost around $300-400 from memory. However, our contract still stipulates that we are to pay for any rock removal if any is found, and the prices are pretty steep for that, but because of the test results we are fairly confident. It's always going to be a bit of a gamble, all you can do is minimize your risks as much as you can... We're crossing our fingers anyway! Re: Lots of help needed!! 18Feb 18, 2008 10:14 pm Hi haywgl,
Welcome to the forum. I missed a lot of posts recently... been very busy... Nice to hear that you are building with M too. We are building the Nevada 39 and we also looked at Laguna before. I know that blocks at Newport is quite expensive. So I can understand your dilemma. I am quite familiar with the Laguna. If I can find the quote that we had before, I can share it with you. You can certainly add add/change some rooms. We did it... we changed the formal lounge (same location as the Laguna - front of the house) to a Home Theatre room (enclosing the area). We relocated the laundry opening (to make way for a bigger fridge opening and WIP). I reckon, based on the upgrades that you listed, you should allocate approx. $130k-$140K on top of the base price. Our upgrades were almost the same, but we don't have the spa (we don't like it) and fireplace and the total went up to $130K. But that is based on an $8K site costs only (and no knockdown expenses). I'll check our files for the Laguna base price and the cost of each facade. [/quote] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Lots of help needed!! 19Feb 19, 2008 8:57 am That would be great if you could check the costs of the Laguna VJ, greatly appreciated
Do you mean $150k for extras only or is that including site costs and knockdown? I was budgeting $150k for the lot Thats good to know about being able to change rooms/make fridge space wider...out of curiosity how big did you make your fridge space, I want one of those snazzy ice/water side by side fridges! If I got rid of the formal lounge I could scrap the cost of the fire place too because I only wanted it in that room most likely Thanks again guys - really can't thank-you enough for all your info/trouble Re: Lots of help needed!! 20Feb 19, 2008 1:49 pm Gudday
Couple of little items which may interest you.... Powerlines Noticed you were talking about overhead powerlines. My brother recently built in Macleod (north of Melbourne). Was a knockdown job. The council required him to have underground power to his house even though it was above ground everywhere else. He had to pay for the power to be diverted down the pole to a pit and then underground to his house. In his case he was fortunate that there was a pole out front and therefore the costs were much less than if the pole had have been some distance away. Might pay to check with council and add to site costs if necessary. Narrow Blocks I was looking at building on a narrow (14 metre) block with houses on two sides. One of the additional site costs one of the builders were going to slug me was an additional allowance ($5000) for cranage of materials (roofing, bricks, windows, etc) because they wouldn't be able to get around the side of the block with the truck (houses/fences already up). Asked them why they couldn't organise themselves and deliver materials in two lots one to the back one to the front prior to framing, seeing as they generally get stuck into bricking and roofing straight after framing. Said "what a good idea"...reckon he was trying to stick me for "extras". Always read the fine print. And if you are looking at narrow blocks make sure you familiar with overlooking provisions and how any existing homes are laid out. The design of your house may need to be changed to accomodate next doors windows. Again my brother had to have opaque film to a certain height above the floor on the top storey. Just a couple of things to think about.... mmm....donuts Homer Simpson 1956- Links: Site Costs Ready Reckoner | H1 Addiction Medical Advice | Château TDL: The Backyard My land is 260m2 (10m x 26m) located in claymore NSW. Under campbelltown council. I know in general the following setbacks would apply ground floor side setback =… 0 6896 Hi All, I engaged a tradie to install concrete retaining wall 600-800mm high over 32 meters in Victoria. Sleepers are 200*75*2000 mm installed over 17 steel posts. I… 0 6882 Building Standards; Getting It Right! Don't think they are designed for double brick. WA has a particular way of building and unfortunately that's the way a large amount of sills are finished. 3 6996 |