Browse Forums Building A New House Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mt Bar 61Aug 29, 2013 10:04 am That is a really beautiful house. I really love that! If I was going to build a slightly bigger house that would be my choice. That ensuite is amazing. Good thinking on the width of the block. I have been thinking for ages we should have thought about that too. We were buying a smaller block when we picked our house and for a few months I have been wondering if even ours, which is the same width of the Wild Orchid, would look funny and we should have gone for a long country style house. Although one bonus is having your backyard on the side and room to hide the giant rainwater tanks behind the house. The Sierra and that would definitely look a bit odd on those blocks. Congrats on finding the perfect house. I can't wait to see it come together. We have had some turds playing around in our estate lately. Someone kicked some of our back fence out and broke our next door neighbours sliding door. Building the Leabrook with Fairmont Homes in Mallala, SA. Building contract 24/3/13 Council Approval 18/6/13 Selections 29/6/13 & 1/7/13 Site works 21/10/13 Slab 7/11/13 Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mt Bar 62Aug 29, 2013 9:24 pm Oh my goodness, the fun has definitely begun. I've had to sit down and thoroughly go over the gas hot water service. I really wanted solar but we can't afford it just yet. Then the issue with having timber sliding alfresco doors. EXPENSIVE! But well worth it for the main living area. We have decided not to go with Termimesh termite protection and go with HomeGuard instead. I am yet to get the okay from Dechellis but they are a company that meet the Australian and South Australian Building Code, so I can't see why not. Will find out in the next few days. All this pondering over quotes and money is hurting my head. I know it's going to be a tough, long run but in the end i'll be happy, I know it! I just don't want to not ask the necessary questions now and pay for it in the long run, especially being first time builders. LOVE the ensuite in the Wild Orchid. I will live in there! I will post pics of the plan when we finalise things on the initial quote. As for the people playing around in the estate, they are probably kids. I hope someone reported it to Paul Bruggemann, at the Mallala Police Station. You would think that being a private estate that ratbags wouldn't have the guts to venture in there. One would think anyway. Have you got insurance? Keep calm and build a house Building a custom plan 'Wild Orchid' with Dechellis Homes at Mallala THIS IS OUR JOURNEY... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64597 Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mt Bar 63Sep 23, 2013 11:17 pm sounds great, the wild orchard is a similar floor plan to what we are building. Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mt Bar 64Sep 24, 2013 12:06 am Chapter 4... One would have thought that we would have changed our minds again by the time we wrote the next chapter in our journey, but we haven't and we are feeling stressed, yet excited that things are coming together finally. It has been a long, frustrating road for us, but we have learned so much along the way. Some days it all feels like it's too much; Clayton living, working and playing football away in Port Pirie, me living with mum in Gawler, communicating between Century 21, Millard's Conveyancing and David Medlock our broker, then going through the house process with Sebastian from Dechellis Homes. It has been so difficult getting things signed by Clayton and this has delayed things in a way. In more positive news, we have since worked closely with all of the above mentioned names to get us to the stage we are at now. We were approved for finance through the Commonwealth Bank at a fixed rate of 5.09% over 3 years. So now we are nearing settlement on the block at Mallala. Hopefully by the end of this week!!! I met with Sebastian at the head office of Dechellis Homes on the weekend to go over the first issue of the architectural drawings. It was pretty daunting because I had to go in without C and tried to make sense of everything. Talk about headache! The excitement to see our house on the plan for the block was pretty amazing. We made a couple of changes like moving where the septic tank sat, delegating proposed irrigation area, planning where the 2 x 10000 litre rainwater tanks will sit towards the rear of the block, hidden behind our future double garage out the back. I got stuck with the alfresco because we nominated to have decking which Dechellis do not do themselves. So we had to work out how we wanted that area, whether it be strip footings or a concrete slab. We ended up choosing to have a concrete slab poured. I am loving the custom expanded 8.94x3.42m alfresco. I signed a variation to first draft with Sebastian and away I walked, feeling a little enlightened, scared, worried that I hadn't looked over it all enough and nervous that C wasn't there to help me make some decisions. We had the soil report done today. We were quoted $25,500 for the contingency allowance for footings above standard. I am more than hoping, wishing and praying that it comes under that and eagerly awaiting to hear back from them. SURELY! I am SO looking forward to school holidays so I can actually put all of my thought and effort into this important part of our lives. Two weeks to simply get my head around everything. Bring it on! Until the next chapter... Keep calm and build a house! Keep calm and build a house Building a custom plan 'Wild Orchid' with Dechellis Homes at Mallala THIS IS OUR JOURNEY... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64597 Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mt Bar 65Sep 24, 2013 8:44 am Congratulations on finance and getting to where you are. Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mt Bar 66Sep 24, 2013 9:53 am Great to hear it is all coming along and yay for settlement! Don't stress too much. It is a really great floorplan and it is going to look really beautiful. Crossing my fingers for good footings. The guy at the other end of the road paid like $40,000 for his :s but ours came in at $12,600 and would have been less if it wasn't for those two stupid dumb trees at the back of the block that my other half insists on keeping lol. Hopefully yours will be nice and low too. Building the Leabrook with Fairmont Homes in Mallala, SA. Building contract 24/3/13 Council Approval 18/6/13 Selections 29/6/13 & 1/7/13 Site works 21/10/13 Slab 7/11/13 Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mt Bar 67Sep 24, 2013 11:42 am Wow, great read. Congrats on using Dechellis, in the end we are more than happy with our new house, and seeing & hearing the troubles our neighbours have had with some of the other "trendy" builders we are glad we went with D. Yes it is a daunting process, but stick to your guns & plan, plan, plan and it will all come together in the end. Don't stress about changing things before you sign the contract, costs more to remember something later! D are really good at the getting the footings allowance close to the mark, so hopefully you wont get a big surprise there. Ours came in a little less, can't remember how much, but that saving vanished very quickly at selections. The Wild Orchid is so similar to the Sorrento.2 that we built, if we had a bigger back yard and outlook it would have suited. There has been quite a few WO's built on HomeOne recently that we used for help & ideas. Good Luck, will be following your thread closely. Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mallal 68Sep 27, 2013 10:56 pm TODAY WE GOT CONFIRMATION THAT WE HAVE SETTLEMENT ON THE LAND! WE ARE LAND OWNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep calm and build a house Building a custom plan 'Wild Orchid' with Dechellis Homes at Mallala THIS IS OUR JOURNEY... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64597 Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mt Bar 70Sep 27, 2013 11:40 pm Congrats and great story. Best of luck with the build. Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mt Bar 71Sep 27, 2013 11:43 pm ChargerWA Congrats and great story. Best of luck with the build. Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed reading it Keep calm and build a house Building a custom plan 'Wild Orchid' with Dechellis Homes at Mallala THIS IS OUR JOURNEY... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64597 Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mallal 72Sep 28, 2013 1:16 am It's about time I shared some photos with you all... This is our big block 1234 square metres of dirt we now own! Our puppy, Nala approves! http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag152/MellyBee85/Land_zps6bbf10db.jpg We had a meeting with Sebastian about our first draft just for peace of mind. http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag152/MellyBee85/FirstDraftPlans_zps7d390480.jpg This is our house will sit on the land... We changed where the eco sewer would sit in the yard because we want to be able to make a driveway down the right side of the house past the garage and into the back yard. We also played around with the proposed irrigation area so we could build a shed out the back later on. We transferred some of it to the front yard. Looking forward to having nice healthy plants and green grass all year long with our $14,000 system. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ THE MOST EXCITING PART... THE HOUSE DESIGN. This is our custom Wild Orchid plan. We got rid of the initial fourth bedroom that took up half the alfresco and made the computer room bigger to accommodate another bedroom if necessary later down the track. This made our alfresco area bigger. We are having a concrete slab poured and doing our own timber decking. I love the pantry and can't wait to take over the ensuite with the his and hers walk in robes!!! So exciting!! It's exactly what we were looking for! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Keep calm and build a house Building a custom plan 'Wild Orchid' with Dechellis Homes at Mallala THIS IS OUR JOURNEY... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64597 Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mallal 73Sep 28, 2013 1:42 am I've been addicted to looking at lighting options... I want pendant lights above the breakfast bar hanging from the bulkhead and also either side of the bed in the main bedroom to get rid of side table lamps... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Keep calm and build a house Building a custom plan 'Wild Orchid' with Dechellis Homes at Mallala THIS IS OUR JOURNEY... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64597 Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mallal 74Sep 28, 2013 1:53 am My other addiction to lights is fans. I can blame Pinterest entirely for being awake at 1:30am after being on a school camp for the last 3 days and only having 7 hours sleep in total... We are only going to have 4 LED downlights in the kitchen and the rest of the house is going to have normal lighting or fans. We opted to choose our own lights which makes it more exciting for me! Here are some ideas... Indoor Fan http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag152/MellyBee85/IndoorFan_zps9f61647b.jpg Outdoor Fan http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag152/MellyBee85/OutdoorFan_zpsd51600dc.jpg Another Outdoor Fan http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag152/MellyBee85/OutdoorFan2_zps8e9a83bd.jpg Alfresco Timber Decking Lighting Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Keep calm and build a house Building a custom plan 'Wild Orchid' with Dechellis Homes at Mallala THIS IS OUR JOURNEY... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64597 Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mt Bar 75Sep 28, 2013 9:09 am Congratulations, Melanie. Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mt Bar 76Sep 28, 2013 10:21 am It all looks great. So much space Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mt Bar 77Sep 28, 2013 2:46 pm _lucinda ::party:: Congratulations, Melanie. Thank you Lucinda! I still can't believe it! Yay!!! Keep calm and build a house Building a custom plan 'Wild Orchid' with Dechellis Homes at Mallala THIS IS OUR JOURNEY... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64597 Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mallal 78Sep 28, 2013 2:50 pm FairmontSAcustom It all looks great. So much space Thanks FairmontSAcustom!! We are more than just happy with it. The space is perfect for us and on such a large block. We are intending to extend the alfresco into a huge entertaining area which we are going to design and do ourselves. We are outdoor people and couldn't have done it on a small block. Just need to keep saving! Le sigh... Keep calm and build a house Building a custom plan 'Wild Orchid' with Dechellis Homes at Mallala THIS IS OUR JOURNEY... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64597 Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mallal 79Sep 28, 2013 4:39 pm Some more pictures which are helping with the colour scheme we want... We are comparing the Wild Orchid display to the Cedar Retreat display... The Wild Orchid Facade Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The Cedar Retreat Facade Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I personally like the darker roof of the Cedar Retreat with the white rendering. Keep calm and build a house Building a custom plan 'Wild Orchid' with Dechellis Homes at Mallala THIS IS OUR JOURNEY... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64597 Re: One small step for most, one giant leap for us in Mt Bar 80Sep 28, 2013 4:45 pm Ensuites... Wild Orchid Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Cedar Retreat Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Wild Orchid is definitely the winner here. So happy with the his and hers WIR, vanities and having a bath in the ensuite... BLISS! Keep calm and build a house Building a custom plan 'Wild Orchid' with Dechellis Homes at Mallala THIS IS OUR JOURNEY... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64597 Do I need to concern about this pattern of crack? Is this crack showing some signs of bigger problems? Thanks for any suggestions! 1 2004 Thank you. That is really helpful. Once we get the place done and passed for OC we can upgrade in the future once we get back on our feet and not paying mortgage and rent. 4 6004 The worst thing you can do is sign a building contract without a pre contract review. Over the years many people have come to me with disputes where they just signed… 0 8639 |