Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 25, 2012 10:17 pm We discovered a land release after being away for a Christmas vacation in Forster and seeing so much land for sale up there and overlooking the ocean too. I think my husband got inspired or something because within a week of returning we bought a 700sqm block. That was January 2011 and the land registered and settled in November 2011. During that time we investigated project builders, custom builders and finally went with owner building. We'd spent many years looking through display homes over and over so we knew what we wanted.
I am a female owner builder which seems to be a shock to many at first but it seems a natural thing to do for me... I may not be trade qualified but I am a builder's daughter and I work in the industry. Let me clarify, my dad has had nothing to do with this build except to commiserate when things go to #%^& and you have a difficult day. Re: Vess's Build 3May 25, 2012 10:26 pm Here are some progress shots along the way to where we are now..... 4 January: Empty block - not very exciting but seeing the fence go up was extremely exciting at the time. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ 8 February: Slab - hooray! So much wet weather. Very frustrating coordinating everyone to arrive on the same day. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Colour schemes: Went with a Woodland Grey metal roof in the end with Woodland grey fascia and gutters Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bathroom cabinetry adn tiles: 20mm caesar benchtops, polished 300x600 wall tiles and 300x300 matt floor tiles, square basins and mixer tapware Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Vess's Build 4May 25, 2012 10:32 pm Great to see another owner/builder. Well Done!!! Your pics worked just fine and it looks like a great plan.... look forward to following your build... Oh, hang on, are you Vess building near gogo!! Yes, I think you have been on gogo's thread - am I right?? or wrong person?? Re: Vess's Build 5May 25, 2012 10:37 pm Early days with the frame and and joists for second storey.
Standing in living room looking thru meals area to kitchen wall Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Standing on the kitchen wall looking back through meals to living room with alfresco to the left Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Look at the family room fixed glass windows facing NNW Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Standing between meals and living rooms looking at family and kitchen Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Standing in the corner of the family room looking back in Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bricks Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Upstairs: Looking from front to back with stair void to the left in the middle Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Upstairs: Rumpus room outside B1. To be used as a TV and games area for kids Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Upstairs: Looking from B2 doorway to front of house Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Vess's Build 6May 25, 2012 10:38 pm rocketship Great to see another owner/builder. Well Done!!! Your pics worked just fine and it looks like a great plan.... look forward to following your build... Oh, hang on, are you Vess building near gogo!! Yes, I think you have been on gogo's thread - am I right?? or wrong person?? Yes, that would be me Re: Vess's Build 7May 25, 2012 10:43 pm Well Done on starting your own thread. Gotta love peer group pressure!!!! Re: Vess's Build 8May 25, 2012 10:45 pm Where we were at a couple of weeks ago. Photos taken at 2pm during winter. Haven't taken any pics but will have to now to provide an update Back of house view Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ and again Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Side view - front to the left, rear to the right Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Front view Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Vess's Build 10May 25, 2012 10:52 pm Geez, all the houses in your area are on steroids!!!! MASSIVE!! Looks great! Re: Vess's Build 11May 25, 2012 10:53 pm what's next? Feature bricks at the front of house being completed in the next few days, top floor brick clean on Wednesday and painting eaves on Friday and Saturday. Can't wait for the scaffolding to be removed! I will do a big happy dance then. The structural stuff has been a very, very, long, wet road. Re: Vess's Build 12May 25, 2012 11:11 pm Ok, so I have a little snooze on the lounge( been a big week) and wake up to a new thread. Oh I better join in, cause it is my other neighbor Vess Great to see your plans, even thou I walked through last week Looking good! Re: Vess's Build 13May 26, 2012 1:14 am Yay!! You have a thread, Vess! Your plan is great, would love to have a look someday.... I was laughing when rocketship said the houses in our area are on steroid ...but that's true, because your facade do looks huge & wide! Looking forward to follow your journey, Vess! Re: Vess's Build 14May 26, 2012 8:24 am willcres Yay!! You have a thread, Vess! Your plan is great, would love to have a look someday.... I was laughing when rocketship said the houses in our area are on steroid ...but that's true, because your facade do looks huge & wide! Looking forward to follow your journey, Vess! I think it's just the angle I took the photo on.... I'll take a more realistic one today Re: Vess's Build 15May 26, 2012 8:42 am Vess I am a female owner builder which seems to be a shock to many at first but it seems a natural thing to do for me... SunshineT's Build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34585 Designs start: 4/12/09 DA: 5/7/11 Demo: 22/12/11 Slab: 24/2/12 Keys: 31/8/12 Re: Vess's Build 16May 26, 2012 8:55 am Yay Vess for this thread. Learnt heaps more about your build already, rather than snippets. And I LOVE your design. The solar orientation is spot on perfect, including your window placement. Your living areas will be beautiful and sunny (flowing out to a northerly lawn too I assume?). And western wall perfectly closed. You will have a very comfy house I expect. The 3 bedrooms upstairs will be lovely too. What were those boxes with a dot in the middle? For the air-con? Also love your choice of Woodlands Grey metal roof and gutters. Which caesarstone did you choose? And I can see you did sarking all around your house too. Excellent. (Wish we did that now, we only did the Western walls, plus roof of course). I was curious what people with sarking all around the house do about the brick ties? Do yours pierce the sarking or do you just not have bricks ties to attach the bricks to the frame studs? Awesome, awesome Vess. We are about the same stage too. I am going to love watching your build. SunshineT's Build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34585 Designs start: 4/12/09 DA: 5/7/11 Demo: 22/12/11 Slab: 24/2/12 Keys: 31/8/12 Re: Vess's Build 17May 26, 2012 9:41 am Hello Vess, house plan is fantastic. . . I had the sami WIR combos that you have in an earlier iteration of our design, they didn't fit in the end though. . . Shame. Look at all that storage! I'm in awe. . . You can never have too much storage. . . I'm having more if we ever build again. More storage = more Cogno Bros! Re: Vess's Build 18May 26, 2012 9:44 am Oh! And I also noticed the cool ensuite layout. I saw this in Andrew's house (Zen), then at an amazing new house around the corner from us last weekend (they are asking $2M! ). Really love it, with the bed infront of the WIR too (something else I wanted when we were originally designing but just couldn't fit it in). SunshineT's Build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34585 Designs start: 4/12/09 DA: 5/7/11 Demo: 22/12/11 Slab: 24/2/12 Keys: 31/8/12 Re: Vess's Build 19May 26, 2012 5:29 pm SunshineT Yay Vess for this thread. Learnt heaps more about your build already, rather than snippets. And I LOVE your design. The solar orientation is spot on perfect, including your window placement. Your living areas will be beautiful and sunny (flowing out to a northerly lawn too I assume?). And western wall perfectly closed. You will have a very comfy house I expect. The 3 bedrooms upstairs will be lovely too. What were those boxes with a dot in the middle? For the air-con? Also love your choice of Woodlands Grey metal roof and gutters. Which caesarstone did you choose? And I can see you did sarking all around your house too. Excellent. (Wish we did that now, we only did the Western walls, plus roof of course). I was curious what people with sarking all around the house do about the brick ties? Do yours pierce the sarking or do you just not have bricks ties to attach the bricks to the frame studs? Awesome, awesome Vess. We are about the same stage too. I am going to love watching your build. Thank you, thank you We love the design too (obviously). Took 7 rounds of tweaking and still there are structural things we would have changed to make the build process easier but we live and learn. Didn't know at the beginning but I have felt the pain and have learnt from experience. Western wall is very shaded by project managers McMansion but when we were designing we had no idea what would be next door so we minimised western windows as uch as possible plus we upgrades our glass to the Viridian Comfort Plus glass for added thermal properties. Yes, the brick ties pierce the foil wall wrap and I will be following up with foil tape to seal those off but that's just me being anal The frame carpenter was there straightening frames in preparation for electrician and gyprock install. The dots on top floor plans is where the a/c droppers were estimated to go but in actual fact they are actually in B3 WIR, B4 WIR and linen plus directly in the cente of B1 WIR. We now have a 3 door robe in B1 instead of a 2 door because of a proposed dropper. Caeserstone in kitchen is 40mm White Shimmer. We like the sparkly silver fleck through it and the bathroom benchtops are 20mm Osprey because there is more of an earthy tone in the bathrroms. Our kitchen is white poly on the long wall and glossy black on the short wall backing onto the pantry. We are getting a shiny black fridge (electrolux) in the next few weeks in preparation. DH has done all the internal fit out investigations while I work on the actual structure but if he changes his mind on the staircase one more time, I'm going to have a conniption. I'm already 2wks late on ordering garage doors and staircase. He's killing me. Re: Vess's Build 20May 26, 2012 5:31 pm jodge Hello Vess, house plan is fantastic. . . I had the sami WIR combos that you have in an earlier iteration of our design, they didn't fit in the end though. . . Shame. Look at all that storage! I'm in awe. . . You can never have too much storage. . . I'm having more if we ever build again. More storage = more Cogno Bros! I did plan for wine storage Pantry somewhere....... Storage - Yes there is copiuos and ridiculous amounts of storage. If I can even fill half of it with stuff I clearly have too much crap to store. regardless, your contract stipulates a payments schedule and SOPA doesn't give provision to that scenario. Your contractual terms appear to stand. Hence get a lawyer, it… 4 11869 Ideally you would engage a landscaper to give you some insight what they may need in the space to make your vision come to life… 1 13639 I ended up going with 'Andrew Belic Construction Co.' https://www.instagram.com/andrewbelicconstruction/ 2 59667 |