Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 21Jun 22, 2012 4:53 pm Hi Kiwi, Things are going well!! We had to scale the house back a bit as our initial quote was $374,500 lol! We took on board people's advice with the cutting back - when I jump on the computer I'll post a pic of the floor plan =) we're now sitting around the $360,000 mark - which is still probably more than I would like but we've been really smart with our money, haven't upgraded much but we did put in an apricots solar tube hot water system on and went fr a 3 to a 5 star ducted heater. I'm hoping the 2 of those things will save us a bit of money in the gas bills! A lot of people are saying that the price of the house is too much, they expect that the fences and driveways and retaining walls etc should be done for that price however we're doing them all ourself. I also (stupidly) didn't realize that we were expected to pay 5% on signing contracts - which we'll be doing within the next week or so - luckily I explained that we don't have the money and that I'm an idiot and didn't know about the deposit and they have been soooooo good, saying that we can sign the contracts now do that we can get the FHOG and then pay the deposit when we have it =) they have been do helpful, I think we definitely chose the best builder in our area! We've also been advised by some of our family members that we should be getting a solicitor to look over our build contract. I can understand with the land contract etc, but I dont see what we need someone to check over the contract when it's mostly pretty self explanatory? I can't justify spending the money if we don't HAVE to - do you think we should? Is it a normal thing to have the build contract looked over? Thanks for keeping up with my build though!! It's been hectic the last month or so, I won't know what to do with myself after contracts are signed as I'll just have to sit around for the next 2 years or so, waiting until we can start!! Hehe. Becc x Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 22Jun 22, 2012 4:56 pm Reading it back, I realize how bad it is to write replies on my iPhone lmao!! Most of my so's are changed to do's and my apricus solar hot water system is apparently an apricots solar hot water system now!! Gotta love looking like a fool, thank iPhone haha =P Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 23Jun 22, 2012 5:13 pm Sure...blame your tools! I built with a local guy here in NZ, and didn't feel to get a solicitor involved cos the guy is so laid back..he was horizontal. However I did look through the contract word for word and added/ deleted anything I didn't like/ want. I felt really good about my guy, I had spoken to his last 2 builds, everyone in the area had high praise for him, so I trusted we would also have a good relationship. If you have heard the same and you feel ok and you are up with reading contracts and seeing things that are a bit sus, then maybe save the money and put it towards a holiday Get someone else to also look over it...maybe dad etc? I know in oz a few have had problems with rain days and compo and also getting things fixed after their maintenance period. We didn't have one of them, if there was anything wrong in the next few years, just ring him etc!! And so far ( we had copper pipes contracting at night and making a noise over our heads, and it would bang some joists, he got plumber back and he put some foam under the pipe.sorted) everything has been great a year on. That is nice they are happy to wait for the freebie money ( we don't have that here) 5% is a lot, but hey...if they are the rules , they are the rules. Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 24Jan 09, 2013 4:13 pm Hey Guys, I'm sorry, I'm sorry - I know its been a while....and by a while, I mean 7 months haha! But I'm back & ready & raring to start getting excited about this bloody house again! Ok so. We're looking at titles for the block in June this year (was originally April) am still hoping it gets pushed back further, but if it doesnt then meh. Would just give us more time to save for other things! Anywhoo, we're well on our way to saving the deposit we need to actually GET the loan, $20k in 7 months isnt a bad effort if you ask me =) another $14k to go by June & we're laughing! (Hopefully!! Lol) Starting to try and figure out when to be seeing a conveyancer and make a visit to Mr Bank Manager man! We have a big year this year, sh*t's going to get hectic haha. Righteo then - here is a picture of the final floorplan. We can make minor changes if/where needed, we just had to get the design mostly done so that we could sign the contracts to get the FHOG before they phased out the bonus payments. Let me know thoughts & I'll write them down to go through with them as we get closer. (Sorry about the pic quality, I took the pics off the colour board that the builder did up and the lighting in the room was really bad =/ so i edited them to try and make them look better lol! Plus, the kids had moved stuff around and pulled things off the board so its a bit grubby!) So that is pretty much our final floorplan! Woop! Now this is our colour board so you have an idea of what the inside will look like =) Colours are as follows; External colours Bricks: Boral Kurrajong, Mortar - Natural, Caulk Colour - Clear, Mortar Style - Raked Roof: MacQuarie Profile Tiles - Twilight Fascia: Standard Profile - Jasper Gutter: Quad Profile - Monument Downpipes: Jasper Garage Door: Panel Lift Door - Monument Windows: Aluminium - Slate Grey (with Cathedral glass to bathrooms, toilets etc) Front Door: Dark Oak Stain & laquered Sidelights: Desert Sand Glass Eaves, Porch & Alfresco: Simply White Water Tank: Woodland Grey Internal colours Kitchen: Benchtop - 40mm Essastone: White Truffle. Doors - Lower: Sandstone, Upper: Alabaster (all doors Gemma Square profile) Kickboards - Sandstone Laundry: Benchtop - Laminex Quicksand. Lower & Upper Doors - Mist Grey, Kickboards - Mist Grey Bathroom: Same as laundry (but no upper doors) Ensuite: Benchtop - 20mm Essastone: New Sable Luxe. Doors - Mist Grey. Kickboards - Mist Grey Paint: Walls - Solver: Beaver (its pretty dark, but I like darker walls, harder for the kids to make dirty!) Ceilings - White. Internal Doors & Trims - First Snow Carpet: Hollywood Nights Range - Sable All SS appliances in kitchen Wall Tiles: White Gloss Ripple for all wet areas, although in the bathrooms, there will be a vertical run of tiles that run from top to bottom (and through the wall niche) as a feature. They are a dark brown =) Floor Tiles: Alexa Graphite Gloss (although this might change if these tiles arent available come time to build) they are a beautiful high gloss black colour with light brown flecks and lines running through them. Ok so I think thats it!! Let me know your thoughts, would very much love to hear your feedback! Kimmy x (P.S. I promise I will be on heaps more during the year, asking for advice etc!) Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 25Jan 09, 2013 4:24 pm Woah! What a huge house! I wish our bank would let us borrow that much to build haha! Can't wait to see it start and come together! 1st build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=59376 *New*-2nd build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=70324&p=1154282#p1154282 Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 27Jan 09, 2013 8:05 pm Thanks guys! I never actually realized how big it was going to be until I showed my Aunty the plans and she said her house was 320 squares - ours is 349! And I thought her house was ginormous lol. We want to have another couple of kids hopefully, we already have 2 boys and I think we will need the room with them running around! I have massive plans in my head for things I want to do to it, it might take 20 years to afford to do them all lol. Luckily I've actually scored a job with our builder, should be starting next month so I'll have all the inside scoop on how it's coming along & get to walk through it often! Can't wait! We probably won't be starting to build until this time next year-ish. See what the bank says! =) Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 28Feb 10, 2013 3:47 pm Hey guys, Just thought I'd update you on things! Sadly, hubby was laid off from his FIFO job in WA late last week and its not looking good for him to get another job over there. Without that income, there is a high chance that we won't be able to scrape together the rest of the money to get the loan for our block, meaning we'll lose $11k's worth of deposits & the chance to build our house. Will let you know what ends up happening! Kimmy87 Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 29Feb 10, 2013 4:11 pm Oh Kimmy I'm so sorry. My DH also does FIFO work. Where do you guys actually live? I hope he can find something else that will allow you to continue. When you signed contracts, did you have a subject to finance clause? The first block we had a contract on, we decided to pull out (still in the finance period) as we found out they were building housing commission houses across the road. We just told them we couldn't get finance, and we got our deposit back. Can you not do the same? 1st build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=59376 *New*-2nd build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=70324&p=1154282#p1154282 Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 30Feb 10, 2013 4:23 pm Hi Stellabella, We live in Vic. If we lived around Perth he would get a job easily enough doing FIFO but apparently they're trying to stop employing from the Eastern states - and if they do, we'd have to pay for flights from Melbourne to Perth, which isn't cheap! There was a subject to finance clause, but because we purchased off the plan in Feb last year, titles aren't until Junr this year and the subject to finance only lasted for 3 months after we signed the contract. We have them a letter saying that they couldn't approve us for a loan until we had 20% deposit saved up, so if we didn't pull out of the contract before that 3 months was up, it was taking a risk to stay in the contract without the approval. However, we definitely didn't see this coming, we have about 15% saved up and we are so close to being able to get the finance but if he gets a job closer to home, we will be back to living week to week again without being able to save any money. I am absolutely devastated as we have worked so hard to save that money up in the last year, he's been doing FIFO for 2 years to try and get us and our young boys a better start in life & now after all the blood, sweat, tears & sacrifices, I feel like we're just going to be stuck in the rental trap forever =( sorry to whinge, I'm just really down about it all as its a lot of money to lose, and not only that, but to have our dreams be so close only to be ripped out of our hands at almost the last minute is heartbreaking for us. I know that we still have a little while to go before the block settles, but unless a miracle happens all our planning & researching etc is just all going to go down the gurgler. Keep your fingers crossed for us! x Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 31Feb 10, 2013 4:29 pm Oh that's so unlucky. DH just works in QLD so it's not an issue for us at the moment. Depending on what he does, could he get something up here? Apparently there are a lot of guys from VIC/NSW working on the gas rigs around Roma. I know a contract is a contract, but maybe closer to the date if you haven't got a solution, you could try to explain to them your situation and see if they can make an exemption for you, to get at least part of your money back. It's worth a try, right? But I'm sure he'll get something before it gets to that, have faith! xx 1st build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=59376 *New*-2nd build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=70324&p=1154282#p1154282 Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 32Feb 10, 2013 4:37 pm Thanks lovely! He's been wanting to get up to QLD for a while, he's an all round operator so does the earthworks etc, but hasn't been able to find any FIFO work up there doing what he does. If your DH knows of anything he would be more than happy to apply! Apparently a lot of places don't even advertise, so it makes it hard! We're going to speak to the bank this week and see what they say, then depending on the outcome will go and talk to the estate manager. We're hoping for the best but expecting the worst at this stage! Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 33Feb 10, 2013 7:28 pm Crossing everything for you. Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 35Feb 11, 2013 6:35 am all the best prayers and thoughts are with you that hubby can get another job and you will have the lovely house Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 36Feb 11, 2013 7:50 am Thanks for your thoughts guys =) will let you know the outcome! Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 37Mar 16, 2013 10:34 am How's it going guys? Any updates? 1st build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=59376 *New*-2nd build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=70324&p=1154282#p1154282 Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 38Mar 17, 2013 8:39 pm Hey Stellabella, Not much news as yet, spoke to the bank & they definitely can't lend us the money as we've had to use about $14k of our savings for hubby to get to & from work as he has a job from home for now until we can get him back to the mines. Plus we're back to struggling to make ends meet every week so can't save any more money - have spoken to the estate manager but am waiting on a reply from him and we'll be talking to the builder on Wednesday to see what our options are there (and hopefully see when I'll be starting work with them!) Once we have some more answers I'll post & let you know how we're going with it all! Bloody stressful though, that's for sure lol!! Thanks for thinking of us but =) Kimmy xx Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 39Mar 17, 2013 8:40 pm I meant to say used $14k of our savings to buy a car for hubby to get to & from work lol!! Whoops!! Re: Kimmy & Fin's Jackson's View Build - 'Sundance' by Hoton 40May 12, 2013 10:06 pm Was just thinking about you guys, anything new? Hoping for good news! 1st build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=59376 *New*-2nd build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=70324&p=1154282#p1154282 Thank you so much everyone. This all makes a lot of sense. I guess when you talk to a builder who butters up everything to look very polished, you get to start believing… 7 17517 thank you! do we need to get this or our builder before we commence new build on the block? 2 10404 Hi, did you get any money from insurance? if you did, does it match what you've already paid the builders? 3 9559 |