Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 14, 2012 12:49 pm Firstly hello to all. I am new to this site and this is my first post I have thoroughly enjoyed reading through peoples posts and seeing the great community in here with lots of advice and support. Quick little background: My brother and I just purchased an old house in Niddrie on a 651 size block. In almost 1 month from today we will be moving in and plan to live in it for 2 years with a manageable mortgage. The big picture plan however is to eventually knock down the house and then build 2 side by side (duplex) townhouses (double story). 1 each for him and his partner and me and mine. I have been doing a lot of reading but i really wanted to get involved in a community with people that may have gone through the same experience as i am about to. I hear a lot of horror stories about delayed permits, problem with builders.etc and its pretty daunting for someone with no building experience what so ever! So where to start? Well my dad is retired now and spent his career as a civil engineer (no builder but he was a draftsman early on) and my brother and I have decided to give him a project to keep him busy. Just the small project of building us the perfect homes! Apart from speaking briefly to the council about building on the block (they said no issues as far as they can tell) and starting to draw some rough plans we basically have no idea what we are doing. We have considered using a builder such as simmons, porter davis.etc but a this stage want to try the owner\builder route as we want something a bit different and to our own specifications. So with all that being said I just wanted to come an say hello, get my idea out there and hear what people have to say. Any tips, advice, feedback, questions.etc would be fantastic. The one thing we have is a bit of time up our sleeves so over the next 6 months i want to absorb as much knowledge as possible. Chances are be the end we may just pay someone to do it but unless I ask i just wont know Thanks in advance Ben If so what were the "special circumstances" under which it was granted? "Note: If the development consent is for 'dual occupancy' an owner-builder permit can only be… 0 10942 multiple occ properties are always billed by trades at a premium, rarely per sqm for the lot. You either have trades you know whoe will do by sqm or youre going to get… 1 1058 Hi folks, Victoria resident here. I've submitted my owner builder application to the VBA. I thought I'd share my experience so far. I submitted my application… 0 6179 |