Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 02, 2013 11:02 pm We are first time builders attempting to create our dream home with a sea view. We have managed to glean some great information from this forum and maybe we can pay that back for people planning a build in Geraldton by posting some of our experiences. Everything we said we weren't going to do (big house, paying for a view of the ocean) we have done. Happily most of what we said we would do we think we will achieve. Our block is in a largely built up street at the southern end of Geraldton with a beautiful view out the back of the Indian Ocean and the southgate sand dunes (for those of you that know Geraldton). We bought the block from Activewest Real Estate and have to say you couldn't get better than David for really working hard to help you find what you want. It has its issues like a steep slope at the back end but the value compared to anything else we could find was amazing. Once we selected the block we started the process of selecting a builder, even though we hadn't made an offer. We are on a bit of a tight timeline and we decided to investigate the project builders for a start. We were reasonably pleased with our first couple of sale consultants at the major companies though there were a few who we ruled out very quickly due to poor service / attitude. Geraldton customer service on the whole is not tilted towards the service side of things so we were not particularly surprised by that. Plunkett however were very quick off the mark. We talked to their sales rep and picked up a pile of plans and explained where we looking at buying. Not long after meeting the rep we called in for another look at "our" block to consider some of the plan options. The sales rep turned up to have a look whilst eating his lunch so he could give us an estimate of the site costs. Now that is good service. In the end that helped us make our decision as to who we would go with, even with other builders having some attractive deals. The fact that Plunkett were willing to consider matching or coming to the equivalent of some of the other companies deals helped as well of course. We have gone a long way since then... well sort of. We are only at the stage now of signing our final variation document. Since signing our letter of quote we have spent innumerable hours searching this forum and Houzz and other sites for hints and ideas. Consequently the Palladian plan was modified quite considerably. And up until our latest (probably version 15) variation we were still changing quite major components of the build. But tonight we are signing the final version of this major variation and so we are celebrating by putting up our first ever post. When we get the chance will put up our modified plan and a provide more detail of how the process has gone for us so far.. the good and the not so good. Suffice it to say that we suspect most of you will say "it took you how long?" and hopefully a few of the people starting off in the process will learn from our errors. This will not be doom and gloom though... we are positive that the final outcome will be spectacular and our dream home will be a reality! Re: Plunkett Geraldton build - modified Palladian Domain pla 3Aug 03, 2013 3:47 pm Lovely floor plan. Love the alfresco and rear master bedroom Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: Plunkett Geraldton build - modified Palladian Domain pla 4Aug 03, 2013 4:33 pm HomeAngels Lovely floor plan. Love the alfresco and rear master bedroom Thanks - that was one of the major changes, moving the bedroom to the rear of the house to take advantage of the sea views. A bath with a view of the ocean has created some raised eyebrows! I was going to put up a pic of the original plan but not too sure how that would go copyright wise so some description of the changes will have to do. Where the kitchen / scullery are in our plan was a closed off games room. We added a scullery. The theatre had a central wall with two doors on either side (now about half of it is open / half height wall). Took out a bedroom Increased the garage by a metre Added a walk in linen area. More photos and plans will be loaded a bit later. Re: Plunkett Geraldton build - modified Palladian Domain pla 5Aug 03, 2013 4:45 pm love the plans your land would be amazing Re: Plunkett Geraldton build - modified Palladian Domain pla 6Aug 03, 2013 7:04 pm Looks beautiful! Love the view of the sea from you bath - perfect planning Would love to see more pics of your view and plans... Wiz Built @ Brooks Reach Built the Verdelho Guest with Beechwood Re: Plunkett Geraldton build - modified Palladian Domain pla 8Aug 04, 2013 12:16 am I couldn't find the instructions for posting pics - the link in the FAQ page doesn't work. If there's a better way of doing it (seems like most others only give a link to click on rather than the actual pic showing in the post) let us know?? Re: Plunkett Geraldton build - modified Palladian Domain pla 9Aug 04, 2013 12:36 am Love the plan! You changes are great. It shouldn't be an issue posting the original plan if it is available on their website, if not then it might be an issue, though you are saying where it came from.... The way you have done it is great, most of us prefer the photos in the thread rather then a link to the picture Some Selections 11Aug 05, 2013 6:30 pm The most important room in the house (well, maybe after the master nest....) is, for me, the kitchen. So after many hours of stressing over going non-neutral, here are my final choices. First of all - kitchen cabinetry elevation Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And colours.... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Only the wall oven stack and fridge recess will be built out of the blue/green. It's Laminex Hydramesh and greener than it seems in the pic. All other cabinets are Laminex New Graphite, benchtops are Essastone sorbet, which has little blue/green flecks The tiles look more like this when laid: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ But our white tiles are a rectified 300x600 white on white pinstripe. The plans haven't even gone to council yet (they may have today) and I have all my Neff kitchen appliances already - a steam oven, regular oven, 900mm gas hob & range hood and dishwasher - all bought while they had a good end of financial year sale on. The Ensuite has four different tiles Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The floor is in the concrete grey, the shower (takes up whole width of the room on the left) will be in the black oxide tile on the left of the pic. The bath hob will be tiled with the mosaic and any other wall tiling will be plain white. The cabinet is Polytec arctic white with a laminex greystone top and the drawer fronts are in Laminex bluegrass. The bluegrass and greystone should (and I stress 'should' - along with 'I hope...') tie the different coloured ends of the room together. I am VERY nervous about the colours, but I love them at the same time so I'm taking a gamble! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Basin and taps are Ideal Tonic Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bath is Caroma Pearl Island bath Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And because we've taken the master loo out of the ensuite, we are having the one with a basin on the top so we don't have to streak too far in winter! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The second bathroom and laundry will be polar white cabinets with Laminex Basalt tops. Plain white tiles and the same concrete grey floor tile in all the wet areas. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I have a nice little grey stone mosaic for the second bathroom, but no pic I'm afraid. Who knew there was so much stuff in a house! Counting Down 12Aug 06, 2013 4:54 pm Had a call from the builder today to let me know they are working on the building licence application today. Apparently they have the plans privately certified which brings the time the council have to issue the licence down to 10 days. The council are apparently usually quicker than that (sounds miraculous!) so they estimate 10 days from going to the certifier we will be good to start site works. What does all this mean??? We could have block action within 2 weeks!! Excited! Re: Plunkett Geraldton build - modified Palladian Domain pla 13Aug 06, 2013 6:08 pm Wow I love your selections. I thought feature tile was for whole splash back, that would be cool. We've got new graphite for most our cabinets. Lovely view too Re: Plunkett Geraldton build - modified Palladian Domain pla 17Aug 14, 2013 4:53 pm Our plans went to council on Friday and the builder just called to say we have the building permit and all is good to go! How's that for speedfrom both the builder and the city? Expecting a call any day from our building supervisor & can't really believe it! Now we're cooking with gas! 18Aug 20, 2013 6:36 pm Building supervisor made first contact today. We should have footings by the end of this week and a slab by the end of next. I'm pretty impressed with the timing, especially after a much slower than expected time to complete the variation. Champagne has just gone in the fridge! Does everyone second guess all their decisions once it gets to crunch time or is it just me? I'm glad I'm not generally a worrier! Re: Plunkett Geraldton build - modified Palladian Domain pla 19Aug 20, 2013 8:20 pm Wow that's great news! Yes I sometimes second guess but mostly im confident Re: Plunkett Geraldton build - modified Palladian Domain pla 20Aug 20, 2013 11:03 pm Managed to get a pic of our floorboards last week in Perth. It's not that good a shot, they're a bit more lime-washed looking than the photo shows, but I love them. They're really wide, and hopefully will fit the beachy look we're going for. Now the hunt begins for a flax/jute/seagrass kind of carpet for the theatre room that will join up with this flooring. 6 55353 Thank you so much everyone. This all makes a lot of sense. I guess when you talk to a builder who butters up everything to look very polished, you get to start believing… 7 17615 i thought the flipped plan initially but bec i want narrow pathway from entry to dining (dont like bend), also cannot fit the… 7 17284 |