First home build with Dale Alcock in Aveley: Opinions please

Hi everyone,

My partner and I are planning to build an altered version of the Avoca with Dale Alcock in Aveley, once finance has been arranged. We should have settlement on the block in the next few weeks and the house not too long after that.

In the meantime, here are our preliminary plans:

I’ve loved reading all of your threads. They’ve been endlessly useful in helping us to decide exactly what it is we're looking for. So far our experience has been great, both with Vale and with DAH. Our Sales Consultant has been nothing short of brilliant. I can’t believe that this time next year we’ll be in a place of our own!

fancy pants

Timeline:
*First meeting with DAH 8/03/13
*Land contract 12/03/13
*Preliminary plans + contract 12/03/13
*Final building contract 23/04/13
*Prestart 3/05/13
*Land settlement 7/05/13
*Final plans + addenda 7/06/13
*Building permit 10/06/13
*Site works + footings 28/06/13
*SLAB 1/07/13
*Construction settlement 9/07/13
*Bricks delivered 24/07/13
*Bricklaying started 02/08/13
*Roof timbers delivered 26/08/13
*Bricklaying finished 31/08/13
*Roof frame completed 2/09/13
*First independent inspection 4/09/13
*Colorbond roof installed 18/09/13
*Grey float finished 18/10/13
*Ceiling installation completed 25/10/13
*Cornices installed 1/11/13
*White set finished 6/11/13
*External render completed 7/11/13
*Window glass installed 18/11/13
*LOCK-UP 20/11/13
*Ceilings and cornices painted 23/11/13
*Cabinetry installed 3/11/13
*Tiling meeting 4/12/13
*Gave up trying to follow the build with any accuracy 11/12/13
*Second independent inspection 28/01/14
*PCI #1 31/01/14
*PCI #2 4/03/14
*PCI #3 17/03/14
*KEYS 21/03/14
*Moved in 14/05/14

hi fancy pants and welcome .
love your plans

Thanks 1rocky. I've had a look at your thread and I think I have house envy. Everything is looking great!

Looks like a lovely plan! WIL is huge!! are you going to be adding a window to your ensuite?

Hmm might be a window there already it just isn't drawn? Only other note I would make is to check that the fridge space is wide enough for any upgrades you plan on making in the future. It looks like it is a bit deeper than the standard 600mm as well but also check depth of the fridge. Looks like if your fridge sticks out a bit which they usually do may have problems with the pantry door? Would be good to check a display for this?

My bad..ignore above! I thought the pantry door swung the other way

Sadly there's no display xxkatxx, so we're flying blind (somewhat). You're right, there's a highlight window in the top of the shower recess but it's not visible on the image. Will be checking the dimensions of the fridge recess to see how far my ideal French door fridge will stick out. Might not be able to afford it for a while but I want it to look decent when we do finally get it!

Nice plan! Maybe I would consider adding a door in the garage to allow direct access to the garden. We do not have one - I did not think about it - but now I am realizing it could have been a good idea..

+1 very handy having the door

Hi FancyPants.
I'm subscribing to your thread.
Looking forward to following your journey with us!
If you need anything at any point please do not hesitate to get in touch with me - I'm usually lurking on here most days...
Best regards,
Jemima.

Thanks Jemima, we're really looking forward to the journey too!

So this is where we're currently at with our design -

Upgrades we’ve made (after reading all of your threads):

• Widened the house so the living area, main bedroom and theatre are bigger.
• Brought the garage slightly forward so there is room for storage/shelves along the back wall, moved the door between garage and house to accommodate this.
• Put a small roller door from the garage to the backyard.
• Changed the one big sliding window in the theatre for three separate awning windows.
• Added an extra highlight window to the east wall of the theatre (this will be my studio, need lots of light).
• Put a door on the walk-in wardrobe and the bathroom (want both to be 180° for ease of use).
• Added a double vanity to the ensuite.
• Added double showerheads to the ensuite.
• Added double glass doors to the office and a single glass door to the laundry.
• Took out the linen cupboard in the laundry and converted to a bench with cupboards underneath.
• Added a microwave hub under the kitchen bench, overhead cupboards either side of the hob and cupboards over the fridge recess.
• Upgraded kitchen benches to caesarstone.
• Changed the web hub to a walk-in linen closet (with broom cupboard) and a wardrobe for bedroom 4 (removed the original wardrobe).
• Made the alfresco significantly larger.
• Added a planter box in front of the theatre windows to meet design guidelines.


Upgrades that have been suggested to us:

• Adding a waterfall edge to the island bench and increasing the depth to 1200mm for island bench (deep enough to read a newspaper on).
• Adding a sliding bin drawer under island bench.
• Changing kitchen sink to an undermount bowl.
• Adding nib walls to showers to eliminate dust-gathering gaps.
• Extending bedroom robes all the way to the entry doors for extra space.


Things we’ve been told to leave until after handover:

• Interior wall painting.
• Wood floors and carpeting.
• Skirting boards.
• Roman blinds and curtains.
• Shelving to robes.
• Liquid limestone for driveway, path and alfresco.


Would love to hear any further suggestions you might have, or any feedback on what has been suggested to us so far.

Love the plan!!

Have you considered a sliding door to the WIR?

Also have you considered the location of the sink on the island?

We made our island bench 1m wide. Particularly if it's long you want the width to not be disproportionate to the length. Waterfall edges look great! Wish we'd asked about the cost.... Maybe next time

This plan works. It's a simple design that you can't go wrong with. Good idea to extend the garage. The only thing is wherever you have walk in rooms, the walk in area is wasted space. Sure the WIR should be doored off but is there a way to make the WIL along a wall, maybe in the laundry so the access area to the linen shelves is used an another way as well?

I've had bad experiences with rattling sliding doors in the past - almost drove me insane! But they do save space, which is always a good thing.

I think a 1m wide island bench might be a sensible compromise. With the sink smack-bang in the centre? I just assumed that would be where it was located, especially if we upgrade to an undermount bowl.

The linen cupboard was in the laundry, but that meant no bench space or cupboards at all which I wasn't really happy about. The result was to convert the web hub in to a WIL, which is far more useful to us. You're right about the wasted space, but I can't really see another way around it. It might just have to be one those 'compromises' people keep talking about!

We've actually out our sink to one end of the island, about 50cm from one end so you can still put dishes next to it as required. Then you get a nice large section of bench space on the other side of it.

I have noticed builders tend to centre everything in the kitchen but it often leaves not very much usable bench space. I see the island as the main food prep area so have the sink to one side and I think we end up with about 1.5m of uninterrupted bench space.

But it does depend how you use you kitchen

^^ This is why I love this forum! Thanks for the input, fmac.

That's what we did a well with the sink. When it was centered there was little space for a breakfast area for the kids. Now with the sink to one side there is adequate open space.

It is personal preferance but something to consider. We have the set of draws before the sink, then the sink then dishwasher recess and 750 wide pot draws. I have wondered if we should have just had it right on the edge but we thought it might make doing any pot washing etc difficult. But we won't know if it was the right decision of about 6 months

We also have our oven/cooktop off centre so we have a long section of bench to one side. Hopefully it will lead to a kitchen that is practical to use. I think if I had my time over I would have two 600 ovens in a tower rather then the 900 oven. But can never be 100% perfect