Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Nov 20, 2013 6:56 am Hey Everyone!
This is my first post and I'm super excited!!!! I've spent a fair bit of time on here recently reading through lots of other threads getting ideas and tips! I'd love to hear feedback on what we are doing, if you've got any advice etc and I'd also love to hear about what stage your build/reno's are at! We have a 860sqm block of land in the "Sierra Vale" estate in Drouin which is just gorgeous! Our block backs on to wetlands (which we have had checked out and won't be a problem with flooding etc) and have been told that the wetlands cannot be built on, so we will never have houses behind us which will be awesome! The block also backs on to a path that takes you around the lake of the "Jackson's View" estate, so the plan is to have a gate put on our back fence so that we can access the lake and park for the kids from our back door Anyways, we have decided to build with Roseleigh Homes! They are a local builder who we have heard nothing but good things about and I have to say, they have been SO SO accommodating! They are extremely quick to get back to us with any query that we have, changes that we want to make or additions/deletions from the quote/contract! Cannot speak highly enough of the so far, and knowing people who have been through the entire build process with them before and are starting another one this week, I'm confident that we will be extremely happy through the whole build! Here is a link to the standard floor plan, we have made a couple of minor changes (made the laundry a bit bigger, changed the position of the powder room downstairs, made the WIR larger, double shower in the ensuite, added a WIP, changed positions of a few windows etc) I'll try and get a copy of the plan with the changes we've made (it's on my husband's work email) and show you guys soon! Any suggestions you have would be appreciated! http://www.roseleighhomes.com.au/images ... 20plan.pdf So here is the stuff that I'm after some opinions on... - We are leaning towards Bamboo flooring, I've heard good and bad things about it... What are your thoughts? - We want to build a large deck off the living and meals areas but the quote the builder gave us to include the decking was quite a lot so we want to do it ourselves after the handover... the house is on stumps and footings so the back will be 1.7m off the ground (giving us awesome views of the lake and baw baw ranges ) but will we get our certificate of occupancy by just making the doors out to the back un-openable until the deck is built? (sorry if that makes no sense) - I really want timber french doors but the builder has warned us against them saying they are too much maintenance and cost too much so we should go aluminium... We are going with a country style home and I just think that timber windows and doors would finish it off nicely but I don't think it's in our budget at the moment will aluminium still flow? - Is there anything that is usually forgotten in the contract that you guys would recommend we ask the builder for/about? I'd love to hear any feedback!!!! Thanks in Advance! Meagan Re: Our dream home in drouin!!! 2Nov 20, 2013 7:20 am Hey Meagan, Welcome to the forum and the area! We're building with Fairhaven Homes in Warragul. Just to let you know you've picked a great area to build in. I have friends with blocks in your estate who will build in the near future as well. Roseleigh Homes are a great company. I know a number of the senior guys there as well as their contractors. They've very friendly and accomodating. Really helpful. Unfortunately they didn't have the plan we were after hence going with Fairhaven. Bamboo is a great product. Their modern display home in Warragul actually has a dark bamboo floor in it. Our concerns with it was that it has 'grooves' in it that we felt could hold dirt so we opted for regular interlocking flooring. BUT I was really close to going with Bamboo. Happy wife happy life. You can get away with making the doors unopenable. It depends if Roseleigh want to do this for you as its up to them but I cant see it being an issue. Timber doors are a lot more maintenance and a lot more costly. I guess thats a personal decision if you can afford them then I would go timber. Alu sliding doors are still really good and we have opted to go that way as asthetically it looks nicer with our bricks to have white doors that regular timber. Really glad to see somebody else here building in Baw Baw Shire! Keep us updated with photos and progress really keen to see how it all comes together! Cheers, Met. Re: Our dream home in drouin!!! 3Nov 20, 2013 10:16 am Hi Met,
Thanks heaps for the reply! I'm so happy to hear that there are other people out there building soon in the estate, maybe we will have mutual friends one day! haha! Thanks also for the feedback on the doors and floors! Pretty confident that we will be going with bamboo as we've heard that it is a little bit more durable than solid wood or floating timber. We've got 2 inside dogs so the durability of it is a huge factor! Plus, the bamboo that we liked has a bit of texture to it, which is good for us as it means that if the dogs do happen to scratch it a bit, it won't be AS noticeable! Good to know that you've got good things to say about Roseleigh! We were originally going with a different builder but my husband's boss put us onto Roseleigh and I think it was one of the best things that could have happened to us! The quality of their build (that we've seen) and the price are a lot better in comparison to the first builder we chose! Looking forward to reading about your build too! Re: Our dream home in drouin!!! 4Nov 20, 2013 9:59 pm Hi Meagan, Sorry I don't have time for a long reply, but just one thing that struck me when I looked at the base plan - there's no sink with the downstairs powder room, meaning that your guests would have to go into the laundry to wash their hands, which is not ideal! You mentioned that you'd made a change to the powder room so perhaps you've already taken care of it. Although we don't live in Drouin we did look at building there as my wife works in Warragul, so I'm familiar with the area. Hope all goes well for you. Michael Built Carlisle Atlantique 36 Our build thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50256 Re: Our dream home in drouin!!! 5Nov 21, 2013 8:57 am Hey guys! Thanks heaps for all of the feedback!!! Michael, you're right about the sink in the powder room! I can't remember exactly what we've done, we've fiddled with it a lot so I can't remember what we landed on but I'm getting my husband to email through the most recent floorplans to me now so I'll try and upload them Does anybody know how to put a picture on a thread? Re: Our dream home in drouin!!! 6Nov 21, 2013 5:43 pm To put a picture in the thread you'll need to upload it first to a hosting site such as Photobucket. Once you've uploaded it there will be a url link for each image. Copy the link & using the Post Reply page, hit the img button. Copy the url between the IMG tags that appear. Michael Built Carlisle Atlantique 36 Our build thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50256 Re: Our dream home in drouin!!! 7Mar 18, 2014 7:17 am Hi Guys!
It's been a long time since I have been on here! But we have FINALLY started things on the house (woooo!!!) Was a long couple of months with drama from the bank, changes to the house being needed etc but now its all finalised and they have dug out the piers and are pouring the slab on Thursday (all going according to plan) I also finally figured out how to upload a picture of our floor plan (at least I think I did!) I hope it works! Let me know what you think of the layout! I'll try and get together all of the specs on colours etc and upload them here later! Re: Our dream home in drouin!!! 8Mar 18, 2014 7:18 am I uploaded the photos but as somebody reminded me, they've got the address details etc on them so I'll get my husband to vrop them so that information can't be seen! Can never be too safe I guess!
Re: Our dream home in drouin!!! 9Mar 18, 2014 2:37 pm Hi darl, you might want to crop the photos, everyone can see your names and addresses. I am very narky about internet security. Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our dream home in drouin!!! 10Mar 18, 2014 2:49 pm EmyN Hi darl, you might want to crop the photos, everyone can see your names and addresses. I am very narky about internet security. Thanks! You're totally right! Have taken down the photos and will figure out how to crop them! Never even thought of it but a really good point so thank you!! Re: Our dream home in drouin!!! 12Apr 23, 2014 9:12 pm Yes would love to see how your build is going My build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=70636&p=1161767#p1161767 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 16286 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 23784 "Losers" "humanity" "off time" "your" "top notch" "love symbol" Sounds like ponzo is done using other people's toilets 36 23914 |