Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Dec 01, 2013 2:00 pm (June 2011) We have always dreamed of building our own home. As my wife and I run a non-profit organisation that is involved in overseas community development, we have built a number of homes overseas but have not built anything in New Zealand. There is a positive side to being a volunteer and that is being time rich - because we all know volunteers aren't rich in much else! Our plan is to buy a cheap section, and build a cheap house on it. Initially we are thinking around 60sqm, just enough space for us but with plans to extend in the future. Our budget is low; we are thinking of buying an entry level section around 170k and spending around 50k on the building. Everyone tells us we are naive and that to build a house you want to budget around $1600 per sqm but that is crazy talk as we are going to do as much of the work as we can ourselves. We would like to make the type of building that is easy to add onto in the future and are even tossing up the idea of straw bale houses or even a pole barn house. Re: DIY build for 100k 2Dec 01, 2013 2:03 pm OK, here is a bit of depressing information. If you want to buy a home on it's own section in Auckland you need $250k +. For that price you will get a cold house in the worst area, backing onto the SH1 motorway. We have toyed with the idea of buying an older unit and doing it up, but after going to a run down 75 sqm unit (with water damage) mortgagee sale recently, and seeing it sell for $230K, we decided to try and build our own. It really is the dirt that is the most expensive thing! Unfortunately we are not eligible for much of a mortgage at all. We've recently inquired through a mortgage broker but he thought we were crazy even asking him if we were eligible for one! It's kinda lame though as we know a DINK professional couple and even they cannot get a mortgage to build, being on what I would think is serious money. So it seems that our income is just not enough to get a typical mortgage - you need hard earned $ in the bank weekly... I suppose that makes sense, but doesn't mean I am happy about it!! The rest of the build (7 pages and counting) is on the Homeone nz - here's the link http://forum.homeone.co.nz/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=49845 Assuming the structure of your cabinetry is good then I would DIY everything as follows: - replace your counter tops entirely, - replace all drawer runners with soft close… 1 4784 Re my second point – yes exactly. And often it may take additional time if the manufacturer recommends no more than X meters… 3 5652 |