Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - concealed rangehood issue 41Aug 19, 2013 5:36 pm love the kitchen you are planning sorry did not get back sooner with pics will take a pic in morning of our finished pool area Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - concealed rangehood issue 42Aug 26, 2013 8:39 pm 1rocky love the kitchen you are planning sorry did not get back sooner with pics will take a pic in morning of our finished pool area Thanks rocky! Any pics to show me? Tans1970 I have discovered Colorbond Visualiser as well - so much fun. I love the facade - colour choice is so hard! - it looks great to me. What is the name of the main paint and roof colour that you used? - it's a bit hard to tell on the screen. I love the stackstone look personally - I guess it depends on whether you want a more natural look or very modern? ...... decisions decisions! The roof colour is Woodland Grey. I really like it. People keep telling me it's green but I don't really see it! I see a warm muddy grey. I'm worried about emphasising the green. Not sure about the paint colour actually, I just chose a really light one to see how it would look. :s Tans1970 How did you get on with the kitchen fan situation? - were you able to sort something out? Are you providing your other appliances?? - We certainly plan to as we had heard through many sources that the Technica brand are not great. However, we were a bit annoyed that the credit the Salesman told us we would get was less than what he quoted! Yes the kitchen exhaust situation seems to have been sorted out thank goodness. I didn't think it would be difficult! I'm kind of glad we're covering all these sticky issues before signing tender, I feel maybe they are more proactive in getting answers for us at this stage. Yes we're providing all the kitchen appliances. We ummed and ahhed about this for a while but the rental we moved in to helped us decide haha. It has a technicka rangehood and I can't hear a blardy thing when it's on, and the technicka oven keeps blowing scalding hot air into my face and burning one side of my dinner! AKB Love the elevations you've done - wished I was clever enough to do them. You girls and your Shacker Kitchens have really got me thinking lol Thanks AKB! Tracyw I've just found your thread. Love your kitchen idea! Maybe cos its very similar to mine, ha ha! We supplied our own rangehood too. Had to pay the builder $180 for insurance and admin fee on it, plus the additional cabinetry to be built around it, but I figured it was worth it. I don't see why your builder won't accept yours. Very frustrating! Site works on sloping rocky blocks, they hurt, I know! I'm the same as you, I wanted a house on a single level with no stairs. I'm hoping one day I will forget how much we paid for our site costs! Goodluck with your build, I'll certainly be following it! Haha that's right Tracy I'm trying to forget the site costs already!! I am the same I really love single storey all on the one level. I seriously dislike split levels and double storeys and we loved the land so in the end it's part of achieving our dream I guess! I would be totally okay with paying the extra insurance fee (I even offered but they said no!), but they have said it will be okay, just not worked out exactly details yet.... hmmm I should probably try and pin them down on that front. Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - concealed rangehood issue 43Aug 26, 2013 8:45 pm So here are our latest plans. Getting very close now, there's only some minor tweaks to be made from here. We're probably adding a hall linen cupboard to bed 2, deleting the gas alfresco point, changing the ensuite a bit etc etc. I'm very excited that they said they CAN do 3m ceilings in the entryway. We saw this in a Metr1con display home and it looked amazing. Also I'm querying the height of the bulkheads throughout, they seem very low. Anyway here they are, please feel free to make any suggestions or thoughts. Gotta dash now, back with more details later! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ PlansMon by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 44Aug 27, 2013 1:27 pm Hey there Its looking really good. Love how you have done the garage into the laundry and the WIL. Unfortunately since changing ours round to fit the alfresco at the front, we can't do this easily, but we are making a small mud area on the side of the garage. The entry will look awesome being that high. Would have liked to do that also. ..... but our costs are getting up there, so we can't really add anything more now. What are you putting down outside your alfresco out of interest - are you doing a concrete slab or decking? We are really undecided on this - love the decking look, but don't love the thought of the ongoing maintenance. How are you going with your colour selections? We have our colours and contract appointment on the 6th Sept - can't wait! Looking forward to hearing more reports on how you are getting on. Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 45Aug 27, 2013 1:57 pm Hi There! I have just joined this forum today and I am so relieved to find somebody in a similar situation to us. We are building the Retreat Nouveau at Augustine Heights on a similar slope to yours (2m fall) and we have had so much difficulty communicating with the Plantation rep. (Gary) out there. I think from what i've been reading it will be best to approach the people at Roachedale or even Sunshine coast if I have to! Can you let me know who you have been working with? We would really appreciate if you could tell us what sort of problems/if any you have had with retaining or building to boundary with Plantation? Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 46Aug 27, 2013 2:10 pm HI Questioneer. When we were first visiting Plantation at Augustine Heights the guy was also impossible to deal with. Couldn't have been less interested in selling us a house. But his name was different, so they must just hire them uninterested out this way! This was quite a stark contrast to the Metr!con mob out here who wouldn't let us get away and kept asking for contact details every time we pop by to look at displays! So yes, we drove to Rochedale and found them much more helpful there (swamped with work and still needed to be chased up but much better). Also once we got past the "sales consultant" stage the head office so far have been excellent, we've been quite picky so there's been a lot of back and forth and they've been very patient and helpful with great communication. I prefer not to use people's names on the public forum (also for you Tans as you were asking about what tender person we had) so if you're interested to know specifics send me a PM. I can't speak about building to boundaries because we're not doing that so I don't know what's involved. Our retaining walls are going to be massively expensive and we've got rock so it's possible our cut and fill will be really expensive too. Only time will tell. We got a retaining wall quote through plantation which was nearly 15k more than the guy we've decided to go with so they are not particularly competitive in that regard. In fact the sales consultant said they had only just branched out into offering retaining walls. Any other questions feel free to ask? What stage are you up to? Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 47Aug 27, 2013 2:14 pm Tans1970 Hey there Its looking really good. Love how you have done the garage into the laundry and the WIL. Unfortunately since changing ours round to fit the alfresco at the front, we can't do this easily, but we are making a small mud area on the side of the garage. The entry will look awesome being that high. Would have liked to do that also. ..... but our costs are getting up there, so we can't really add anything more now. What are you putting down outside your alfresco out of interest - are you doing a concrete slab or decking? We are really undecided on this - love the decking look, but don't love the thought of the ongoing maintenance. How are you going with your colour selections? We have our colours and contract appointment on the 6th Sept - can't wait! Looking forward to hearing more reports on how you are getting on. Thanks Tans! We haven't even signed the tender yet! They are currently preparing the next lot of plans for us so I can't see us having contract/colours for another month or so (VERY sad!). We've got a pretty good idea about colours for the main house and kitchen but the bathrooms will need a bit of thinking. We want to do two-tone (white and dark) bathrooms and will need our final elevation plans before deciding if that will work or not I think... We'll be doing concreting and tiling for the alfresco, it will hopefully continue all the way around the pool and just be one continuous area. That's the dream anyway! I am really put off by decking maintenance also. How exciting about your colours appointment coming up - have you made any decisions about that?? I'll be watching your thread with interest if you update about your colour selections. Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 48Aug 27, 2013 2:20 pm We have put a deposit on a lot but it's not even released yet! We searched for months looking at floor plans and we've (my partner and I) set our heart on the Retreat Nouveau. It's a bit tight with budget but we think we can do it. I'd be happy to PM you so we can discuss finer details! I'd love to keep in touch with you through the build so we can share experience and help each other out to reach our dreams! Thanks for the advise regarding retaining . Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 49Aug 27, 2013 2:23 pm P.S. Here is the latest (and likely final) siting. Any comments welcome? Especially from PAB who warned us about drainage initially? Those are 5 yard gully traps down the South side of the house (the cut side) and the retaining walls will be backfilled with pebbles and an "ag sock pipe" Do you think that's enough? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Siting by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 50Aug 27, 2013 2:28 pm Also love how you walk through the laundry from the garage. Hmmmm, maybe cos we are also doing that! It's great to have that as a drop off zone for all the dirty shoes, school bags etc. I also like how you have put a double vanity in the main bathroom. I actually wish I had done that in ours and just had a single vanity in the ensuite and put a bath in there instead, I think once my kids are teenagers they would probably rather have more sinks and bench space than a bath. And I would rather share a sink with my DH and have a bath all to myself on the other side of the house. My build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64437 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - facade visual fun 51Aug 27, 2013 10:51 pm EmyN Current issue is the rangehood. The tender lady said that concealed rangehoods MUST be done by the builder because it has to be built in to the cabinetry at the time of cabinetry construction and therefore they couldn't accept us providing our own appliance as they only allow this after handover. Seeing as how their rangehood is horribly loud and sucks only 150m3/hour (!) AND the fact we've already paid a grand for our lovely concealed rangehood on the advice we could supply our own appliances that's not going to work for us!! Was a bit disappointed by their attitude which seemed a bit "well this is a problem for you" but I've asked them to sort a solution out for us so we'll see what happens. Sorry for the late reply to this one...... We too have a Qasair range from Winning. We just gave the kitchen company the dimensions of the unit, they built the cabinets to suit the opening and we are having the range installed this week by a third party. I hope you stuck to your guns on this one. Just be aware that you need a 'rangehood fitter' to install the hood as it needs a series of ducts to get the exhaust out of the building (up through the roof or out the wall behind) not the standard tubing builders use, if this happens it voids the range's warranty. ----------------------------------------------- http://pab34newdigs.blogspot.com.au/ ----------------------------------------------- Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 52Aug 27, 2013 11:02 pm I also wanted to add, for anyone building floor plans that are advertised as being suitable for a certain width lot. In our case the floor plans are advertised as being suitable for a 17.5m width lot. We are awaiting council approval tomorrow to build on an 18m width lot. Being that we are new home builders we didn't figure a house suitable for a 17.5m width lot would not be suitable for an 18m width lot. Lesson learned! Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 53Aug 27, 2013 11:30 pm EmyN P.S. Here is the latest (and likely final) siting. Any comments welcome? Especially from PAB who warned us about drainage initially? Those are 5 yard gully traps down the South side of the house (the cut side) and the retaining walls will be backfilled with pebbles and an "ag sock pipe" Do you think that's enough? As long as they can get the fall (350mm+) from the front trap all the around the house then down the back yard then they look ok but they will be collecting all the runoff from your top neighbour over the wall if they don't put a spoon drain along the top of the retailing wall (which they should do). As for the retaining walls, as long as it's constructed to code then it should be ok. I'd want to be there on site when the lay the pipe/s and back fill and take a lot of photos so you know exactly what's behind the wall if there is any problems in the future. Don't let them skimp on the amount of aggregate they use to back fill. Find out what size ag they are using and what size pipes, how deep the pipe/s are being buried and where the outlets are going. ----------------------------------------------- http://pab34newdigs.blogspot.com.au/ ----------------------------------------------- Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 54Aug 28, 2013 9:12 am Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 55Sep 06, 2013 9:47 am Rocky that looks amazing!! Your outlook is fantastic! Can I ask you a few questions please?? 1) Do you find the glass pool fence blocks breezes at all? 2) What is your tiling?? It looks exactly the sort of thing we're after. Was it able to be continued all around the pool area? 3) I love the blue of your pool - what lining does your pool have?? Thanks again, the pics are much appreciated! Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 56Sep 06, 2013 9:49 am Tracyw Also love how you walk through the laundry from the garage. Hmmmm, maybe cos we are also doing that! It's great to have that as a drop off zone for all the dirty shoes, school bags etc. I also like how you have put a double vanity in the main bathroom. I actually wish I had done that in ours and just had a single vanity in the ensuite and put a bath in there instead, I think once my kids are teenagers they would probably rather have more sinks and bench space than a bath. And I would rather share a sink with my DH and have a bath all to myself on the other side of the house. Thanks Tracy. I am sooo excited about the "mudroom" dumping area haha. It's one of the things about the house I'm most looking forward to. How sad is that?!!? I'm not sure if there will be enough bench space in the main bathroom really.... I was more concerned with floor space at this stage haha. The rental we're in now has a teeny main bathroom and it's so squashed and awkward trying to get both kids bathed and dressed at once. But hopefully the bench space will suffice when they are teenagers... Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - facade visual fun 57Sep 06, 2013 9:53 am PAB_34 We too have a Qasair range from Winning. We just gave the kitchen company the dimensions of the unit, they built the cabinets to suit the opening and we are having the range installed this week by a third party. I hope you stuck to your guns on this one. Just be aware that you need a 'rangehood fitter' to install the hood as it needs a series of ducts to get the exhaust out of the building (up through the roof or out the wall behind) not the standard tubing builders use, if this happens it voids the range's warranty. Thanks PAB. I did stick to my guns! (Thankfully was able to push as we hadn't signed tender yet!). They've said the rangehood should be able to be fitted into the cabinets afterwards. I don't have specifics (just a general reassurance from them) so hopefully we won't run into trouble down the track. I had heard that about the ducting, thanks... Whereabouts are you located? I wonder how I would find a Qasair certified rangehood fitter? And thanks again for the advice about the retaining and drainage. I've confirmed with them that there will be fall from the front to back gully traps. I haven't heard about a spoon drain though. Our neighbours are required to have well designed retaining walls also so I don't see why we would get run off from their property. I'll ask our retaining man about it. Cheers again! Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 58Sep 06, 2013 10:00 am thanks emyN The glass does not block the breezes at all. which is great the tiles are similar to what is in our ensuites it is around the pool and non slippery. it is a beige tile 300x600 and the pool surround is sandstone . the tiles where about 15 a sqm from memory (which is not good at the moment.) i need to find the brochure again but i think it was blue grey in the starlight range . it is a harvest pool shell. Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 59Sep 06, 2013 10:13 am So our latest update is rather depressing. Got tender 4 back. Finally all the structural things are looking right! The problem is the latest items quoted for seem excessive so it's going to take more back and forth to figure out why and where we can adjust things. They have quoted our 2-pack kitchen at 11k rather than the 4.5k they originally estimated. This is purely for changing the skin of the kitchen to 2-pack and doesn't include extra or different cabinetry (as far as I can make out). The problem is we really need an itemised quote to decide what we can trim out of the kitchen design and what we can't, and it's going to be a nightmare getting that. I am sooo not willing to give up on my shaker kitchen though so it's just going to take forever to get this all sorted and I'm getting very depressed!! Meanwhile just to add a linen closet to the hallway (taking space from bed 2) has been quoted at 2k!! How can that possibly be for what is essentially robe doors and 4 shelves?!?! Also extending our ensuite shower 50cm to make sure the door doesn't stick out into the middle of the room when open has come back at 2k also even though we actually need LESS glass in the shower (as it can just be a fixed panel at either end of the shower now). I know it is an extra 50cm of tiling but seriously..... Sigh. So all these things are currently under negotiation. Taking forever.... where's my chocolate and icecream..... Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - latest plans! 60Sep 06, 2013 2:53 pm It's always depressing when the costs come in. Always way more than what you think is reasonable. We paid an extra $5k to go from laminate to vinyl wrap cupboard doors. It's so ridiculous but they really have u by the balls, so to speak! The doors make such a difference to the look of your kitchen. You could go the basic and replace yourself later but who can be bothered doing that! The extension of the shower costs seems over the top. I guess you have to look at your budget and prioritise. My build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64437 We already paid for somfy motors for the blinds. The quote above was purely for “pre-wiring” so the blinds company can install the motors and blinds. That’s why we… 5 16276 of course there are legal avenues. You've already mentioned it. Sue them. I find it odd that lawyers wouldnt be willing to take on the case, given CCT evidence and… 1 23777 "Losers" "humanity" "off time" "your" "top notch" "love symbol" Sounds like ponzo is done using other people's toilets 36 23894 |