Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 23, 2012 9:46 pm Having browsed this site for ages getting great tips and free advice, I've finally decided to start my own thread... We've been in the planning stages with Dechellis homes for nearly a year, and are booked in for our selections meeting in a week (next Monday). We've had land for 4.5 years but it's taken a long time to get everything to this point, starting to feel like it might actually happen! Discovered Dechellis by chance at the Aldinga displays, fell in love with the wild orchid en suite (as do many, I think). Checked out Blackwood homes as well and kept coming back to the Wild Orchid. We then modified the plans so much they stopped calling it a Wild Orchid, and it's now more of a custom design. And after getting rid of the bath in the ensuite we even lost most of the Wild Orchid "effect", however couldn't justify two baths... Will attempt to load plans and other pics, and would love to hear from others building with Dechellis... Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 3Jan 23, 2012 10:06 pm We are on a large site with views to north and south (north is the entry side and living areas, south has the bedrooms), and have tried to let in as much natural light, passive cooling and cross-ventilation as we can. At the moment the house feels like it will be enormous, but as we're living in a shoebox rental at the moment we might have been slightly influenced by that! We also figured that a big property needs a big house... Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 4Jan 24, 2012 10:29 am Congratulations EKS, I have some family building with Dechellis, let me know how the rest of the process goes, look forward to following your thread. BB Barossa Bubbles Building own design Fairmont Homes viewtopic.php?f=31&t=51265&hilit=Barossa+Bubbles Roof on-bricks next Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 5Jan 24, 2012 10:48 am Welcome ... the plan looks great - you can never have a big enough pantry .... OR HOUSE!! I'm with you if you're going to do it, do it BIG!! Lucky you to have so much land. Look forward to watching your build and good luck with your selections meeting next week .... For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 6Jan 24, 2012 12:09 pm Welcome EKS!! Your design looks really nice. We are building with Dechellis too, and had our final meeting last Friday. Im guessing our start times will be around the same date Good Luck, cant wait to see your selections and follow your build. Land Settled 08/11/11 Council Approval 23/12/11 Final Selections 20/01/12 Start Date 18/07/12 Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 7Jan 24, 2012 7:35 pm Thanks all for the warm welcome. Assuming all goes well at final selections, we've got start date scheduled for early march. A bit anxious at the moment about all the upgrades we've done, hoping we're not in for a rude shock that completely blows our budget... after talking with one of the reps yesterday it seems that even though an upgrade to entertainer door is about $400 with the supplier, Dechellis may still add thousands for the cost of installing/upgrading lintel etc.. So may be going back to basics with some options... Stage#2, hope your selections meeting went well, do you have a thread? Would love to follow your build too... Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 8Jan 24, 2012 9:04 pm No I don't have a thread, just pop in to everyone else's. Our final appointment went really well Emma was fantastic. I found all their upgrades to be quite a reasonable price, so don't be too worried. Land Settled 08/11/11 Council Approval 23/12/11 Final Selections 20/01/12 Start Date 18/07/12 Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 9Jan 25, 2012 10:04 am [quote="EKS"].... it seems that even though an upgrade to entertainer door is about $400 with the supplier, Dechellis may still add thousands for the cost of installing/upgrading lintel etc.. So may be going back to basics with some options... quote] Hi, we upgraded our family room sliding door to an Entertainer (2110 x 3213) and it cost $947 plus an extra $350 for the lintel but it was so worth it - we have the door open the full width most days and it makesthe room lovely and airy ... it was a lot cheaper than a stacker door - about $3000 from memory - A tip for your meeting - don't believe that you need to spend $800 for a rubble driveway - say no and either do it yourself or don't bother - I could find no council or EBA requirement for a domestic building site to have it despite what D says. For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 10Jan 25, 2012 3:10 pm Hi! We started off with the wildorchid plan too, but your has changed alot more lol. looking forward to following your build. would love to hear some of your selections/colours Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 11Jan 26, 2012 1:18 pm Thanks for the tips, Mclaren, we don't expect them to ask for a rubble driveway, but if they do, we'll do it ourselves. We did a quick breakdown of upgrade costs-vs-downgrade costs last night and if we exclude appliances (which we're suppling ourselves) and the entertainer door, we should break even (we think!!). The entertainer door we asked the windows people about was going to be bi-parting, with a 5m opening, which is why the lintel might be $$$. We've decided we can probably live without it... So, here are some of our selections so far, although might change on monday when we see it all together: Bricks - PGH cobblestone (no render to facade) Roof - Colourbond Ironstone Gutters, Fasciaboards - Paperbark Door and window frames - Merino Floors (not by Dechellis) will be timber, apart from carpet in beds and study Kitchen - all pot drawers, in antique white (laminate), bench and island in 20mm Essastone Macchiato (not sure about this, may change to cupboards in straight brown wenge and have a lighter worktop) Ensuite - rectified polished porcelain tiles in a beige colour (see colour in pic), straight brown wenge laminate vanity doors with panacotta essastone bench Bath - same tiles except with a feature wall and around bath in brown, same cupboards and bench Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ These are the bathroom colours. Not sure whether to do the brown tiles from the bathroom as the ensuite floor as well.... Phew! It's all a bit over-whelming! Welcome any comments.... Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 12Jan 26, 2012 3:42 pm Nice design, If you need a quote for anything pleae don't hesitate to ask. Kodiak Data Cabling onFaceBook Consult*, Design and Installation Data, TV, Home Theatre/ AV Cabling, Multi Room Audio, IP CCTV and Door Intercoms Ask for a Quote. *DIY DATA Cabling Is Ilegal Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 13Jan 30, 2012 12:45 pm sounds nice. I LOVE macchiato, but we couldnt use it as it was too coffee coloured to go with anything else we picked. have you held up the pannacotta with the tile, i also loved this colour, it was one in our narrowed down pile, but ended up being too pink (i wanted it for out vanity, but it didnt go with the paint colour) we have the same floor tile Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 14Jan 30, 2012 3:42 pm Here's my two cents worth ... we have straight grain wenge cupboards throughout the house and the finger marks (mostly in the kitchen) drive us nuts. We have brown tiles on the floor of the bathroom and ensuite and I wish we had gone for a lighter colour now - the brown shows up every mark and hair although it does make a nice contrast with the wall tiles. We have Merino frames and we're very happy with the colour. Love the idea of all those pot drawers! For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 15Jan 30, 2012 8:29 pm Thanks Wildorchid and Mclaren for your feedback... we have had our selections meeting today but only got through 3/4 of it as we had a few plan changes that they need to follow up. Apparently all the estimators went out for meetings.... However, some good news - apparently the biscuit coloured tiles we selected were not actually in the range we were allowed, even though the supplier had told us we hadn't selected anything out of the range, but we have been able to have them included. So that's good. Just have to pay the extra for the brown. After what Mclaren has said about the brown on the floor, might keep that just for the features! Have changed kitchen to silk finish snowdrift with macchiato essastone, and kept bathrooms as straight brown wenge (Mclaren - are yours silk finish or velvet?) and got the crystal salt essastone. A few other small changes but pretty happy with it all for now. Hoping the things we need followed up can be decided easily! Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 16Jan 31, 2012 7:54 am We have laminate wenge - I noticed your sample was Formica - so if your cupboards have a bit of shine you may not have the messy fingermarks problem that we have ... sounds like it went well. What happened with the Entertainer door did you go for it or was it too $$$? For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 17Jan 31, 2012 9:40 am hope its sorted out for you soon. our plans were redone heaps of times during our meeting....why would they book a meeting if all the estimators were out! floor and hair.......depends on what colour hair you have! lol. i blow dried my hair in the vanity for a change a day it was really hot, and there we have light ivory coloured tiles, and the floor was a MESS (and also you can see where the water has dripped off the kids hands below the hand towel)!! but in the ensuite where its brown, you cant see one hair. i have very dark brown long hair. Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 18Jan 31, 2012 9:42 am wildorchid hope its sorted out for you soon. our plans were redone heaps of times during our meeting....why would they book a meeting if all the estimators were out! floor and hair.......depends on what colour hair you have! lol. i blow dried my hair in the vanity for a change a day it was really hot, and there we have light ivory coloured tiles, and the floor was a MESS (and also you can see where the water has dripped off the kids hands below the hand towel)!! but in the ensuite where its brown, you cant see one hair. i have very dark brown long hair. You're right - it doesn't matter what colour the tiles are they will show whatever is on them ... I have brown tiles and silver hair!! For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 19Jan 31, 2012 9:12 pm Too true... I always have problems with hair on the bathroom floor (long, brown and curly !) Just hoping I'm so besotted with the house that I can clean it all enthusiastically! One of the negatives about a big house... Even though it's frustrating to have it all up in the air with not signing anything yesterday, it's not bad to have a bit of extra time to mull it all over. Have just gone through it all again... will be relieved when it's all wrapped up, I must say. However another positive is it's actually saved us some $ on our appliances as a new special has come out with the electrical shop and we'll be changing appliances. Final decision: to go with soft closing drawers or not - still feel like $270 for each drawer is a rip off. Re: Building with Dechellis in Mt Barker 20Feb 01, 2012 8:30 am Yikes ... that's a lot!!! We didn't get them but I know we can get them for the doors from Ikea ($10 a pair I think) and I'm waiting for some to come in on Tim & Tina's website (they're on HomeOne) for the drawers. DH doesn't think we need them but I do .. Good news about saving a few dollars ... you'll need them when you get to the end of the build! For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! go upvc window frames ensure insulation under colorbond. not just sarking, lighter color roof also not sure if you have seen this viewtopic.php?t=5823 last couple of pages… 4 110592 Even if it's not being sub-divided and you want to keep it as Torrens title, you will still need to talk to a town planner or Council themselves, to see if they will allow… 1 11039 |