Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 04, 2015 12:24 pm So it is time to build again. I never thought it would come so soon. I moved into my current new home in September 2014. Before the year was out, we were planning our next home. Originally the plan was to move somewhere relatively nice and affordable and take a mortgage out that could be met our wages after taking into consideration all of our other expenses. We chose Manor Lakes and built with Burbank. The allotment was a flat 400sqm block with no easements. We stuck a 25sq single story home on the block and have been pottering around ever since with landscaping, furniture making etc. Two months later, wifey’s father died. Her mother was left with a dilapidated home, no income of her own and no prospects of gainful employment in the future. While the short term is ultimately covered for her mum with super from her husband, death benefits and life insurance, its simply not enough to do all the repairs her house sorely needs. We pitched a KDR to her mum with the view that she would live with us. After some convincing, she agreed. Long story short, her mum is now alone, ageing rapidly, not overly healthy and would benefit from being close to family. The house is brick and fibro shack on a nice almost 700sqm block in the SE suburbs of Melbourne, about a 5 min walk from the beach (one of the nicer ones in Port Phillip Bay). We got a curbside appraisal from a local RE agent who gave us an estimate of approx. +600k on the land (the house being worthless). This house is in such a state of disrepair that anyone buying it would be knocking it down. Wifey’s parents bought the house in 1981 for $40k. She grew up in it, and it is the only place that her mother has lived since she was a young 20 something. We both love the area. The area is now gentrifying, new houses and developments popping up, and infrastructure upgrades occurring etc….and beach. We were always unsure what we would do with this block when it eventually became ours. Develop it to a stack of units, build our dream home, or retire out here etc. It looks like our mind had been made up for us. We have decided on building a nice home for three people with some modifications to give the mother in law a self-contained attached “apartment” to the house. This was more mum-in-laws requirement, as she didn’t want to feel like she was living on top of other people. She wanted something that she could retreat to if she needed etc. Fair enough. It’s her land. We spent a good time looking at volume builders that had designs that would suit our needs with minimal changes. We settled on a number of plans and pitched them at wifey’s mum (we will call her mum from now on). Mum would find things that she didn’t like on almost all of them. We decide that it might get a better response taking her out to some display villages to get a proper feel for dimensions. This went down a lot better, because mum has been living in a 2 bed fibro shack for over 30 years that is rotting and falling apart. Seeing all the glossy finishes, wood floors, lovely paint etc made the right impression. Mum was ready for this, although she still insisted on a separate kitchen/apartment. I need to highlight that Mum has not been in the workforce for many years, hasn’t done any prior research on homes, building, value of goods upgrades, land prices in the area etc. So when it came to discussing layouts or requirements, her view was that builders would build whatever we wanted them to build however we wanted on the land. She is partially correct in that if we decided to go custom, this would be possible. While between wifey and myself we are not poor, and earn well for our age and jobs and have minimal debt, our strategy is very much about being sensible. Not borrowing to the hilt, being able to service debts on a single wage and being able to have funds for life. Whether that be saving, spending, investing, buying that new big screen TV etc. We do not want to be scratching by month to month like so many of our peers (and some of our friends). So our only real option was a volume builder. Mum did not understand the cost difference between custom and volume builders. Surely they were the same. They build houses. We had to explain how this all works to her several times over several weeks until it sunk in. I eventually broke it down to her in $ per Square and sqm. When she understood that there is simply no way we could pay for a custom build without jeapordising our sensible strategy she was a little more open to not being able to design to her specifications. However she still wanted her own “apartment”, and no stairs…. Finding a volume builder that could do this for us was difficult. Some advised that some minor changes could be made within their existing footprints, but major structural changes were out. We finally got a confirmation from Henley that they would be able to accommodate, but advised that our problem would be finding a block that would fit such a house (not a problem for us). We found a home we really that we really liked after walking through it (even though we hated the printed floor plan) and saw a lot of potential with minimal changes. The home was a MainVue Amalfi 536. This had originally been scrubbed out of the pool because the floor plan was a bit “meh” and we were looking at one of the double story Agean homes from MainVue. Changes could have been made to the bottom floor for mum, but it effectively meant losing all the additional living areas to accommodate for her “no stairs” requirement. Meaning that the top floor was a bit wasted :/ When we just by chance decided to walk through one of the Amalfis at Williams landing, the possibilities were clear. We really liked the grandeur of all the areas we would be using while having ability for repurposing the secondary bedroom wing to mums apartment. Given Henley’s ability to accommodate us, we contacted MainVue to ask if they would also accommodate given they were under the same group. MainVue was able to help. However one caveat appears to be that a second kitchen may raise dual occupancy questions with the council. We agreed that it is something we could do after hand over if we could at least get capped gas/water points under some installed cabinetry. So thus starts out second journey in as many years. There are a number of things that still need to be finalised before mum is in a place for us to hit the “go” button, but the ball is rolling. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Creator of superduperonium, expert at expert things, nobel laureate, can hold my breath for 10 minutes. Re: Building again - Mainvue Amalfi 536 - with custom change 2Feb 06, 2015 10:33 pm Hi Ponzu, looks nice. Very interesting with the attached single bedroom unit! Very interested to see how this comes along. How far are you off starting the build? We are building with MainVue too, the Amalfi 428. Should be starting in June. Our build - MainVue Amalfi 428 - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=75482 Re: Building again - Mainvue Amalfi 536 - with custom change 3Feb 09, 2015 9:55 am Not started yet. Some detail still to be sorted out ( title transfers, demo quotes, asbestos removal, tree removal etc). Will probably touch base with the sales consultant again in April at this stage. Creator of superduperonium, expert at expert things, nobel laureate, can hold my breath for 10 minutes. Re: Building again - Mainvue Amalfi 536 - with custom change 4Feb 09, 2015 6:11 pm Ponzu Not started yet. Some detail still to be sorted out ( title transfers, demo quotes, asbestos removal, tree removal etc). Will probably touch base with the sales consultant again in April at this stage. For me four things stand out from your post 1 You are becoming a serial builder 2 Comprehensive research and planning is something others could do well to emulate. 3 You touch on the balance of need and affordability and the importance to have a good and comfortable life without being on the financial cliff edge all the time. 2&3 should make your project comfortable 4 There is something special and magic about living seaside. I spent a decade on 40 acre bush block and it was very nice but in my view nothing beats seachange. You are lucky to have a good start with the block Good luck Cheers Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Building again - Mainvue Amalfi 536 - with custom change 5Feb 09, 2015 8:20 pm Are you able to do inspections in se suburbs mate? Would lile to use you again. Creator of superduperonium, expert at expert things, nobel laureate, can hold my breath for 10 minutes. Re: Building again - Mainvue Amalfi 536 - with custom change 6Feb 09, 2015 9:23 pm Ponzu Are you able to do inspections in se suburbs mate? Would lile to use you again. Yes Call when ready Cheers Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Hello, we can help you please get in contact 0421019219 thank you 3 24647 Hi, Seeking volume or semi-custom builder in victoria(east), which have existing double story wide floor plans. Seeking 18-20m wide homes with depth of 12-15m long. Or… 0 18349 |