Why!!!

haywgl · Mar 28, 2008 9:58 am

Ok so the topic name is a bit dramatic - but seriously why is it so hard to find the land I want!! :lol:

You may remember we were looking at a few different blocks in our area with old houses to knock down...

Our home (Cremorne 41) needs a block of 14.50 x 32m+ (to allow room for a decent backyard)

The first one is in the perfect street and is a great width (15.2) but was only 31m deep, after much discussion with the council they informed me I wouldn't be able to bring the house forward leaving us less than 3m for a backyard - OPTION RULED OUT!

The second one is on a busy road, surrounded by old houses, blocks of flats etc, however it is the perfect size 15.2m x 42m - leaving us a great size backyard - after much discussion though we have decided the street does not have much appeal and is too dangerous with young children - OPTION RULED OUT!

The third option is in a great location, great depth 36.6m so plenty of backyard, except it is only 13.5m wide....now I'm not giving up on this, I have checked the current boundary to one neighbours fence and it is 1.45, I have written to council to ask if this current boundary could be kept, meaning we would only have to lose .5m off our current house plan to have it fit....I'm hoping that PD might chop .5m off the 6.1m garage to make it 5.6m in width - but then I don't know if both our cars would fit!!

Why does it have to be soooo hard!!! Why can't I just borrow Block 2's width and add it to block 3's length and put it in Block 1's location !!!

Seriously though, did it take you long to find a good block? What annoys me is that I know if DH would just back down and move out to an estate we wouldn't have this problem!! :roll:

He has been very good with everything else though, and he loves the area. plus he travels far enough to work as it is, so I'm happy for him to stay here, but really how long is it going to take!!!!

Sorry for my vent - just so frustrating - when everything else is ready to go!!

oznow · Mar 28, 2008 10:05 am

Some body in the forum has advised to find a block first then the house design.

For our case, not much option. We went to the land ballot (one system in ACT, where the government sell the land using the ballot system). There were only about 40 blocks, but with 400+ applicants. Our number was called when 4-5 blocks left, not much choice.

If i were you, i will choose the street and suburb that you like most, and then find the suitable design.

First_Timer_Ray · Mar 28, 2008 10:13 am

I agree, find the perfect spot before deciding on a plan. Especially in an established area.

Ray.

stevec · Mar 28, 2008 10:14 am

oznow

If i were you, i will choose the street and suburb that you like most, and then find the suitable design.

I agree completely as something will have to give, either location or home design and at the end of the day you have to like the location of your home and you might surprise yourself and find that you can get a great custom home in the area you are happy with.

Rachelle · Mar 28, 2008 10:19 am

Yeah I agree, I think you need to find the perfect street etc, and then make the house fit. Could you shave a bit off the other side of the house? I think a double garage should be about 6 metres wide, not sure what the minumum is.

But I reckon you could shave 10cm off the garage, and 40cm off the rest of the house. You'd just have to decide which rooms to take the 40cm from. Downstairs you could take 20cm from the entry, and 20 from the study and then 40 from each of the other rooms, lounge, living and rumpus etc.

Upstairs you could lose 20 from each side, or even make hallway 10cm narrower etc etc. I think if you love the block you can make the house work.

Paula · Mar 28, 2008 10:24 am

Oh dear, I feel for you, its hard enough as it is building a new house without the added worry of finding land as well.

Maybe the others are right, find a good block first then find / alter a plan to fit.

Are there any established houses in your aera that fit into your budget?( I know you had a decent budget for the build)

Good Luck.

PhoenixStar · Mar 28, 2008 10:26 am

LOL...sounds VERY familiar to me Belinda!!!

We knew the only estate we wanted was The Chase in Berwick...good....so tick that box

Then, we went through 5 different blocks and 3 different houses, then thought it was all too hard and started looking at established homes.....

Then out of no-where we saw an AV Jennings house and land package....it wasn't perfect but the location WAS...court location, quiet area, lots of parks/wetlands etc....Great!!!! Big tick!!!!

Signed for the block...paid the deposit with 30 day settlement...we didn't want to delay anything!!!! Let's just move in a.s.a.p!!! Guaranteed move in before X'mas '07!! Geat only a few months living with the parents!!!:lol: :lol:

Signed for the house, paid the deposit....soil survey and colour appt. done in a matter of 2 weeks and that was when we started requesting changes to the plan as the house was too small, we wanted a larger garage, we wanted internal entry from the garage....bzzzzzzz...nope wrong answer....not allowed.....wanted 90cm underbench oven instead of 60cm wall mounted.....bzzzzzzzz....nope can't do.....slowly fuming inside now.... :evil:

It got to the stage we hated the house!!!!! And we were paying a more than we are now and would still have to spend and get another builder in after handover to make changes!!!! Grrrrrrr

SO..... we pulled out in writing and subsequently lost our $1000 deposit on the house....stuff it...it's only money!!!! :roll:

THEN the salesman, who didn't even bother to contact us to discuss our reasons behind the cancellation of the contract, decided he'd try to sell the house and land package from underneath us!!!

One working day before settlement we get a call from the Land Sales Co-ordinator at The Chase who says there is a couple in their office at the moment who are paying a deposit on OUR block of land...do we still want it???

Ummmm....let me think......YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Oh!!!" was the reply......"these people have been negotiating a house with AVJ for the last 3 days and are not happy that you have the land they paid a deposit on with the builder...."

Guess what!!! TOUGH!!!! :evil:

"Do you want to sell it??? They're really upset!!! They want you to call them and deal directly to sell the block????"

You've got to be joking....NO!!! It's taken us months of looking to get this block and we're not letting it go!!!

Then we ended up signing with H3nley and were told that if people who buy house and land packages can pull out of the house side of the deal and keep the land as long as they are on two separate contacts!!!!

We later also found out that this block of land was previously up as a H&L package with Dennis Family Homes but they couldn't sell it so AVJ got a chance to offer it as a H&L pkg.... The block is great, no issues at all...H class site which is standard for the estate.... so we couldn't understand why it was still there???? It was never offered for public sale...allocated for builders only.....

FATE perhaps????

Mind you, if we sold our block now (6 months later), i think we'd make about $60K on it....but we don't care... we just want that block and don't care about the money we could have made..... we're very happy!!!

So moral to this long-winded story (sorry guys :oops:

) Belinda......your block WILL hopefully pop up......but probably when you least expect it!!!!

My advice is to keep looking.... you don't want to regret something down the track....find the block and home that you are both happy with!!!

MrT · Mar 28, 2008 10:29 am

Location, location, location. Work out WHERE you want to live, then WHAT you can build. We're rebuilding on our suburban block, as we love the suburb, but this put all sorts of constraints on what we can build. However, if you find a good builder, they should work with you to maximise what you can get on your chosen location. We're using a volume builder, and they've been great at accommodating changes.

Good luck!

haywgl · Mar 28, 2008 10:40 am

Thanks for all your understanding comments and great tips

We know we are definatly going with PD so it has to be one of their designs -- we also know we want double story and a narrow lot width - Cremorne is the perfect home! We can downsize to the 34 and we wouldn't have this problem - but the rooms would be too small...

We should have gone block first then plan but we did it the other way and we can't change now..we have fallen in love with our home....

I agree with you P = I know the perfect block is coming, I just wish it would come sooner!!

Rachelle - yep I have thought of shaving off other areas of the house - i'll give our lovely contact at PD a call and see what they think

Paula - We have looked and looked for established - but they are all too small, not enough bedrooms, too expensive, not enough yard...the list goes on, plus i have fallen in love with the idea of building (mad I know!!)

DH is glad people agree with him about location - he isn't budging!

Thanks again
bel

brittany · Mar 28, 2008 10:43 am

Decide where you want to live - then wait for the right block or change plans. Location is worth a lot more than an extra foot on your garage. We took 500mm out of our entry hall and home theatre downstairs, and upstairs out of my walk in robe - the kids play room and my study. Hopefully it won't make too much difference when finished. p.s. - hubby wouldn't take anything off his garage!

Talinsmum · Mar 28, 2008 11:57 am

our double garage is 5.6 wide and it should be big enough for our 2 cars (we are adding depth so we can have work benches and storage) - we have a Magna and a Kia 4wd so not teenie cars - that garage size is standard with our builder for a 2 car garage so I think you would be fine reducing it to that size .... just might need to say constantly "watch the doors" when you pull into the garage and kids start to get out of the car though! :lol:

We also went house first then block - we had to, we had fallen in love with this design and nothing else came close that we walked through .... the block then turned up as a possible option and over the last couple of months we have just fallen in love with it - and its a block no-one else has expressed any interest in cause its a battle-axe (but with only 2 neighbours at the front and guarenteed bushland behind) and has an uncleared block - which adds more to our costs to have it cleared - but worth it on so many other levels....

I'd be curious what the council says tooo about how far your house boundary must be from the fence - up here it is 0.9 so if it is actually less than the current 1.45 you may be able to get a bit extra room there as well..... I'd call council rather than wait for a written response - but I hate waiting!

Good luck

Fiona

haywgl · Mar 28, 2008 12:25 pm

Thanks for your help Fiona - if your garage will fit those 2 cars maybe I should be alright - we have a Territory and a Commondore SS....they are less than 2 metres wide each I am pretty sure....

I'll give my s/c at PD a call and see what they say, I email council because when I called them yesterday I got a pretty null response, when I have emailed them in the past they seem to take more time in responding..

You have definatly got me excited about the double garage tho...

Cheers

sneakersss · Mar 28, 2008 12:26 pm

haywgl

We should have gone block first then plan but we did it the other way and we can't change now..we have fallen in love with our home....

Same thing happened to us. But as fate would have it we weren't meant to have that house on that block. Ever since then we haven't looked back. We even contemplated looking to build in another estate just to keep the house. But we said to ourselves that location was the first priority. And our current house eventually found it's way into our lives.

michaelharvey1982 · Mar 28, 2008 12:55 pm

We also chose our house design first, so then had to do some shopping around to get a block with the ideal aspect for the home, then more shopping around to get one as big as possible for our budget!

I don't think it matters which order you do it in, just make sure you meet your needs and objectives for land size, location, and house design.

Talinsmum · Mar 28, 2008 1:07 pm

haywgl

Thanks for your help Fiona - if your garage will fit those 2 cars maybe I should be alright - we have a Territory and a Commondore SS....they are less than 2 metres wide each I am pretty sure....

I'll give my s/c at PD a call and see what they say, I email council because when I called them yesterday I got a pretty null response, when I have emailed them in the past they seem to take more time in responding..

You have definatly got me excited about the double garage tho...

Cheers

I know we won't be able to open the car doors fully on all sides and have both cars side by side but we're ok with that ... to my way of thinking & estimating it is going to be about the same size as 2 shopping centre car parks next to each other - standard car park width is 2.3m wide for a parallel park (I picked up that figure from a Vict Gov website somewhere)... so thats still only 4.6m wide for 2 of them ....

Fiona

ahuang · Mar 28, 2008 1:42 pm

You might want to adjust your plan a bit, say come up with 3 or 4 different options by shuffling some rooms around, or rotate a few rooms to fit different kind of width/depth land size... Otherwise it's going to be very difficult.

Or, cut 1M from your huge WIR and that will fit most of the land!

sammy · Mar 28, 2008 1:44 pm

we were adviced by a friend that when you have kids, you need extra space in the garage width to get them in and out of the car seat. i personally think you should find the location first, then find the house for the block. Why not custom design your house?

And Phoenix, I would have sold the land in a tick and make $60K!!! That is a lot of money! (buy another car!)

Paula · Mar 28, 2008 1:46 pm

Quote:

Or, cut 1M from your huge WIR and that will fit most of the land!

Smack

Every girl needs a WIR!!

Rachelle · Mar 28, 2008 2:17 pm

That's great news about the double garage!

Just checked my original plans with the double garage and ours was only 5.6!

haywgl · Mar 28, 2008 2:20 pm

Thanks Rachelle - more good news - even if we can't look at that block we might be able to look at a few other blocks that are 14m rather tthan 14.5m wide - just gives us more choice