Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 19, 2014 5:32 pm I have been absolutely stalking this forum since starting our whole build process early last year! A huge thankyou to everyone as we would have been much more lost and unprepared if not for all of you and especially the 'things we forgot' thread! We have been the proud owners of our very own sandpit and invisible house for what feels like foreverrrr now so I am SO excited to finally have something to post about and share with you all - yay!
We started the process in March 2013 with HomeGroupWA and had Settlement of our block in the Piara Central Estate on 1st July 2013...it has been a looong journey to get us to where we are today that's for sure! My other half and our sandpit last July. Our Sales Rep was so fantastic and we had a lot of flexibility in our ability to re-design our house exactly how we want it, which was necessary as our block is very narrow and quite long, so lots of cutting and pasting! Here is the modified version of the Loano Contempo we ended up with. As our block is so narrow we had to make use of the zero lot garage wall. But we did manage to squeeze pool in there which I am very excited about! Who needs a backyard when you have a pool right? After completing our plans we have found that the paperwork side of everything has taken an extremely long time and we had quite a few hiccups after our pre-start meeting which was on 16th August 2013, including a whopping pre-start bill initially - we nearly died when we saw the figures! Since then our 6m x 3m pool has been installed in the 'backyard', looking very lonely in amongst all the other houses around And finally after being told we were due for Earthworks to commence on Thursday 16th Jan at the end of last year but having no confirmation I headed down to the block today to find this lovely surprise We are so excited for the build to start and see all our hard work and planning come to life! Will post details of our colour selections and pre-start changes soon! Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 2Jan 19, 2014 5:45 pm Welcome and congratulations. The invisible house looks lovely but I think you'll be happier with the new one. It's been a long wait but it should move along nicely from here. Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 3Jan 19, 2014 6:02 pm Wow you guys move on fast with getting the pool in before the house!! i like how you think!! you will have a nice view of the pool from your room too Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 4Jan 19, 2014 6:13 pm Thanks oncewerefurriers! I agree the new house will probably be a lot more useful And 2-cupcakes-pls, that was about the only thing we got done quickly! The pool installer recommended it going in first as we would have had minimal access to the rear of the block after the build started. But yes the view will be lovely once its all done - at the moment it doesn't look quite so inviting! Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 5Jan 24, 2014 2:15 pm Looking good guys!!! Home group have some really practical designs cant wait to see the progress of your build. Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 6Jan 27, 2014 10:39 am cozandree1 Looking good guys!!! Home group have some really practical designs cant wait to see the progress of your build. Thanks cozandree! It was tricky to try and fit everything onto our block but our Homegroup sales rep was such a huge help in redesigning it Just saw your pre-start costing update...will post mine up soon - I love to compare! Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 7Jan 27, 2014 11:13 am As our pool is so close to the house and boundary we were asked to have our builder install drop footings around the back of the house to support it. When we went to visit the block last week we found this.... It is a bit difficult to tell in the photos just how deep it is, but they have gone and dug extremely deep and right up to the pool to install these drop footings. Even exposing the side of the pool at one point! This is a 6mx3m fibreglass pool FULL of water and we had paid for special compaction of the sand all around it to make sure it was secure and wouldn't move or break. I sent the pictures off to our pool people to see if this is going to damage our pool and they told us 'fingers crossed' it should be okay as long as they do the drop footings asap and fill it back in. Passed this info on to Homegropup who said it would be done last week...only to go visit the block a WEEK later - no change! Very worried about the pool bowing and breaking - I think I had a nightmare about it the other night! The only thing that seems to have been done in the last week is the delivery of our soakwells... so I guess more digging to come Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 8Jan 27, 2014 9:41 pm Dee_77 you're plans look amazing!! I love how big your laundry and linen area is! After reading through a few forums the other day I realised that I should put more storage in my laundry area.. all those bits and pieces you tend to forget about and wish they were hidden (vacuum, brooms, ironing board etc). Kudos to you for putting a pool in!!! The end result will look incredible and you'll be the envy of the neighbourhood! So sorry to see that no one has listened to your worries yet - I hope they fix it this week!! Mind you, a friend just had a new pool put in because he old one had been leaking badly. It was almost a year from the start of the leak til she got a new one in and hers didn't warp or 'pop' out!... Hopefully that gives you a little piece of mind and you stop having nightmares Fingers crossed!!! Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 9Jan 28, 2014 11:30 pm holly+callum Dee_77 you're plans look amazing!! I love how big your laundry and linen area is! After reading through a few forums the other day I realised that I should put more storage in my laundry area.. all those bits and pieces you tend to forget about and wish they were hidden (vacuum, brooms, ironing board etc). Kudos to you for putting a pool in!!! The end result will look incredible and you'll be the envy of the neighbourhood! So sorry to see that no one has listened to your worries yet - I hope they fix it this week!! Mind you, a friend just had a new pool put in because he old one had been leaking badly. It was almost a year from the start of the leak til she got a new one in and hers didn't warp or 'pop' out!... Hopefully that gives you a little piece of mind and you stop having nightmares Fingers crossed!!! Thanks holly+callum, storage definitely comes in handy to hide away all the extra bits around the house! And yes fingers and toes crossed it all works out with the pool, glad to hear that it may not be that big of a problem after all! Think we will have neighbours knocking on the door in hope of getting in on some pool action if the weather is as hot as it has been recently once we move in! Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 10Jan 29, 2014 12:54 am Hi Dee_77 your plans look great. We gave HGWA a very serious look, love their displays. Just couldn't quite get the right plan for our block. We're building just across the road in Newhaven. We only got titles in Dec and are now waiting on working drawings and contracts. Pool company seems very on the ball, may I ask who you used and if you recommend them? We're hoping to put one in, and I need to start getting quotes so I can try and include it in our construction loan. Good luck, I hope they get everything sorted with the footings asap and that the pool has a slab friend soon! Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 11Jan 29, 2014 11:59 am ardie514 Hi Dee_77 your plans look great. We gave HGWA a very serious look, love their displays. Just couldn't quite get the right plan for our block. We're building just across the road in Newhaven. We only got titles in Dec and are now waiting on working drawings and contracts. Pool company seems very on the ball, may I ask who you used and if you recommend them? We're hoping to put one in, and I need to start getting quotes so I can try and include it in our construction loan. Good luck, I hope they get everything sorted with the footings asap and that the pool has a slab friend soon! Oooh hello ardie514...were practically neighbours! Who did you end up going with in the end for your build? Homegroup have been very slow with the paperwork side but the quality looks good so hopefully the waiting is all worth it in the end! We went with Aquatechnics for our pool, we actually signed with them at the Pool & Spa expo, which gave us a great deal and some good extras! They were really great with making it work in the small space we had, our backyard is pretty much all pool, but we are happy with this. And we also included it in our loan which was a huge help There is another pool and spa expo at Claremont showgrounds in March this year which i would reccomend going to if your thinking of getting a pool, and that way you can compare all the providers in the one place! Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 12Jan 29, 2014 5:50 pm Oh thank you so much for the expo info. That'll be perfect timing! We're building with redink. so far so good. Our salesman was patient and helpful. Our file just went to the office at the start of the month and they seem to be moving along, but we'll see... I'll be following your build. Would love to see the colours and selections you made. Good luck. Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 13Jan 30, 2014 2:11 pm dee_77 We went with Aquatechnics for our pool, we actually signed with them at the Pool & Spa expo, which gave us a great deal and some good extras! They were really great with making it work in the small space we had, our backyard is pretty much all pool, but we are happy with this. And we also included it in our loan which was a huge help There is another pool and spa expo at Claremont showgrounds in March this year which i would reccomend going to if your thinking of getting a pool, and that way you can compare all the providers in the one place! Your plans look great and its great to have a pool, we're hoping to put one in, hopefully before handover, all depends on funds Waht size is your pool and what is the size of your back garden? we're quite restricted on space and we want to put it down the side but it will be a squeeze and may requiere structural engineers report which will put the price up, so may put it at the back, the shape of our back is similar to yours And if its any consellation, we had a long paperwork process but, so far, since earthworks started, things have been going well. Had the window frames delivered on Tuesday Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 14Jan 30, 2014 5:11 pm Thanks John+Ash, were very happy with having fit it in! Our pool is the 6m x 3m Athena from Acqutechnics. Originially we were going to get the 5m x 2.5m pool, but then when we saw it in person, the extra 1m x 0.5m makes a huge difference! Check out the picture which shows the dimensions and how close it is to the fences and the house...its only 0.6m from the fence at one point and only 0.8m from the house - we packed it in! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The Engineers letter to do this was $395 so not much in the big scheme of it..we were happy to pay this if it meant we could get the bigger pool! You will be able to fit something great in your space for sure And YAY for your window frames! Hoping we have our slab down this week fingers crossed! Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 15Jan 30, 2014 8:20 pm dee_77 Thanks John+Ash, were very happy with having fit it in! Our pool is the 6m x 3m Athena from Acqutechnics. Originially we were going to get the 5m x 2.5m pool, but then when we saw it in person, the extra 1m x 0.5m makes a huge difference! Check out the picture which shows the dimensions and how close it is to the fences and the house...its only 0.6m from the fence at one point and only 0.8m from the house - we packed it in! http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d148/dee_77/Dee%20and%20Dans%20First%20Home%20Build/Poolspecs_zpsa2ecfb4b.jpg The Engineers letter to do this was $395 so not much in the big scheme of it..we were happy to pay this if it meant we could get the bigger pool! You will be able to fit something great in your space for sure And YAY for your window frames! Hoping we have our slab down this week fingers crossed! That's great thanks, it's pretty much the same size we're looking at. We had a 9m x 4m pool in our old house and it was great, although a pain to clean. Our friend has gone for the 2.5m and it does seem so much smaller. Good to see that it can go that close to the house, we were told it would be a problem, but happy to spend $400 to getthe clearance Fingers crossed on your slab Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 16Jan 31, 2014 1:58 am Hi Dee_77 I'm interested in your pool and home groups approach to putting this in. Do you mind if I ask what the $395 engineers letter is for? We are putting a pool in directly after build and have had much too'ing and fro'ing with our three different sales reps at HGWA. In the end the costs have gone from an estimated $4,000 in pilings, to $7,346 in both deeper footings and pilings. Our pool will be 700mm from the alfresco and 1.5 metres from the living room and master suite. As yours appears to be close to both the master suite and alfresco I'm very interested in the cost differences. Thanks Nic Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 17Jan 31, 2014 9:53 am Welcome Nic! Our engineers letter was done through our pool installer to get approval from the council to build this close to the house/fencing. It was our pool people that asked us to get HGWA to do the drop footings. Have you actually spoken to a pool company yet or just spoken to homegroup about what they think you will need? If you haven't spoken to someone about the pool yet I would do that as they will know more about what you need to support the house/pool. Also will your pool be fibreglass or cement, ours was fibreglass. We ended up paying $2279 through homegroup for the drop footings to the rear of the house...plus a little extra for earthworks too. But since yours is surrounded very closely by the house on 3 sides I can see why it would be more. Good luck with it all...let me know how you go! Once it's all done though it is going to look amazing and you will have a great view! Everyone that visits your house is going to have a sudden urge to go for a swim! Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 18Feb 01, 2014 7:23 pm Okay so finally found some time to post our colour selections and upgrades, would love some feedback! We have gone for a very neutral and modern colour scheme so we can decorate and accessorise colour with furnishings. We basically have a black, white and grey house! We are doing the main tiling ourselves after handover and have chosen Carrara black and white porcelain tiles for the living and laundry areas. Carpet for the theatre and bedrooms we upgraded to a very plush dark grey colour which I love! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We are also doing the deck and landscaping ourselves after handover. We will be using Trex Transcend composite decking in Gravel path for the Alfresco area, Empire Blue 300x600 Granite pavers for the pool/backyard paving, and 290x290 Kimberley Pavers in charcoal for the driveway/entrance. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The kitchen, ensuite and bathroom are as black and white as they come! We have chosen Corian Designer White for our benches throughout, and Laminex Polar White in Crystal Gloss/Silk Finish throughout as well. We also have a black glass splashback to both the bench & backing of the island in the kitchen. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We have also (scarily) chosen both black floor AND wall tiles for the Ensuite and Bathroom...that's right...alllllll black everything! I don't have any pictures of our bathroom tiles, I will be sure to get some soon. But we have chosen 250x250 plain black porcelain floor tiles, and 300x600 black polished porcelain wall tiles which have a sort of shimmer/glitter in them. They are beautiful! We have full height tiling in our ensuite too so fingers crossed it looks good! For the exterior render we chose Dulux Silver City, and Dulux Isolde for the front door. Internally we have gone with Dulux Vivid White as the main colour (including doors/doorframes, as well as the render for the rear of the house), and Dulux Otto's boy for the theatre. We plan on doing some wallpapering in the Master bedroom as well but not sure what colour/style yet. If anyone has any advice on white I would love the help - who knew there were 1000 different kinds of white! I am still unsure about the Dulux Vivid White as we want a cool white which wont look yellow against our very white tiles and very white kitchen, but that also wont make you blind. We were told vivid white is the base white without any tint in it so we went with this. If anyone has any better suggestions let me know, or if you think it will work well let me know and put my mind at ease please! Will post again soon with all our other bits and pieces, upgrades and costs! Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 19Feb 01, 2014 8:15 pm Here are our main upgrades from pre-start: KITCHEN Black Glass Splashback (bench + island) - $1602 O/head horizontal cupboards w/ gas struts - $1596 2x 900mm bank of pot drawers - $1032 60mm thick bench + waterfall ends - $4395 Cold water plumbing to fridge recess - $284 LAUNDRY Mercury Glass Splashback - $1163 ENSUITE + BATHROOM Upgrade to 6mm shadowline mirror - $107 Nib wall in bathroom - $283 Fully frameless shower screen - $1186 Semi frameless shower screen - $280 Matelux glass door to ensuite - $644 Integrated floor wastes to all wet areas - $355 Mitred tile edges throughout - $184 BED 2&3 Upgrade to mirror robes - $40 OTHER Jarrah glosswood ceiling - $561 90mm PVC pipe under driveway - $110 Soft closers to cupboard doors throughout - $492 Three phase power - $674 NBN Smartwire pack - $1863 Cairo 3 step cornice - $2676 Plus approximately $5000 in upgrading sinks/basins/tap ware/toilets/bath/doors/door handles etc. It definitely all adds up! Hope this helps those of you still waiting for pre-start! If you are unsure about anything best bet is to get it priced up and then you can edit and delete things afterwards to suit the budget...or just blow the budget completely like we did Re: Dee & Dan's First Home Build - HomeGroupWA in Piara Wate 20Feb 01, 2014 8:37 pm Awesome Dee - I will be following very intently as our whole house is having a black, white and grey (silver) theme as well have you used any of the motorised curtain systems available from Ebay? Which one and how is it? 0 2434 So it looks like we finally have some movement on site! Definitely later than expected, but I'll take any progress at this point. I'll drop by over the weekend to get… 5 27739 hi guys. Please be nice. First time home builder in Qld. I would like some feedback please on whether I should build my granny flat first before my main house at the… 0 4596 |