Stellabella's second build - work stopped...again - 1 month+

Wow Stellabella! Your second build looks like an amazing journey! Will be following your build

Not sure about where you are but in NSW you save on stamp duty if you buy a block, then build. With a house+land package you pay based on the value of the whole thing.

Thanks Matt! We are in QLD, but that's definitely something to ask about and consider.

Yes, this is how it also works in QLD. We paid the stamp duty only for the land when we bought it, then started to build a house after nearly two years and did not have to pay any stamp duty again.

Thank you Sebeva! I'm hoping to get an appointment with our bank this week (or at least talk to someone) about how we are best to go about it also with regards to mortgage insurance. It's good to know about stamp duty though.

We definitely won't have the 20% required to avoid the mortgage insurance - we should have 10% or just above on both house and land - so I just want to speak to someone to get an idea of how much it will be so we can figure this into our savings/timeline too.

Thanks again for your responses

The cost of mortgage insurance depends on the value of the loan. On average, mortgage insurance costs around $10k.

Well, after nearly ten months off from the forum, I'm back!

We ended up spending WAY too much on the holiday last year (as in, bye bye land AND house deposit)...but hey, it was our 'bucket list' holiday. And we ticked A LOT off that list! Christmas (although not a white Christmas) in New York - at The Plaza hotel, no less! New Years in Times Square at an amazing party...as well as LA, Hawaii, and a few days skiing in Utah.

Needless to say, the house planning was put on hold. But we are back on again now! Although we have booked flights to New York again (trip number four) in December, we are hoping to already have land by then, and then build next year.

We have found a block we love...but it has been on the market for 5+ years already. We haven't quite got the deposit saved yet (we have only been saving for a month haha) - but we should be there in around a month or two. We are *hoping* that this block will still be available when we are ready - looking good so far - although it does only take one person who loves it! My parents have offered to give us part of the deposit so we can lock it in, we are going to reassess in a month or so. Whatever will be, will be! We are a little concerned with the reason why it hasn't sold yet...so will do contract subject to soils pending our agreement. We can tell there is a bit of fill toward the edge, hopefully not too much.

The other houses are quite close to their boundaries, which is the major reason we are questioning this particular block. We are hoping to block one with a shed and the other already has mature trees, but we will fence that as well.

We are also looking at plans to suit...while it is a 2 acre+ block, the house pad (already level, woo) is around 45m length x 27m wide, with the driveway coming up from the south east. The views face south/slightly SW. I have a compass app on my phone that I'll check next time we are there! Have attached a mud map showing what I mean.

Blue area is the level house pad; red is the driveway.

The View:

We have seen a few plans we like, but all of them need adjusting to suit what we are after - outdoor area must face the view, and so must the master bedroom (which also needs to be at the back of the house). I will post some of the plans we've been looking at soon!

Welcome back Sounds like you had a great holiday. Good luck with the block

I'm new here, but commenting to follow. Can't wait to see your block and build come to life!

Hi everyone! I'm back...again! I had (another) break when the land we were looking at sold, but we are back on again now...land contract signed this week, and finance approved, so now we wait for settlement! We requested a long(ish) settlement to give us time to save some extra money - we weren't planning on buying land until later this year/early next year, so we need every penny we can get!

We purchased 6.64 acres of land with river and surrounding hill views, the top does have a reasonably level area for house/shed/pool.

We still aren't really looking at building until mid next year, but I did get a rough plan drawn today...haven't shown DH yet, as he's at work, but we'll see what he thinks! Photos to come....

View from house site:









You can see the river slightly in the photos. Will try to get better photos next time!

And...the plan. A work in progress!

DH is 'ok' with the plan, but it isn't really like what he wanted...but what he wants is nearly double in size, so I'm trying to meet him in the middle. Went back out to the block with mum yesterday, and we are reconsidering the location/direction of the house. I think we will have to get it slashed once it's settled, and the go back out with the builder to see what we're really looking at - the grass is a bit long in some areas.

Yay you're back!! Your block is amazing!! Just gorgeous!!

I love the floor plan, men always want bigger but remind him who has to clean

Can't wait to see more photos, I'm sure what ever direction you decide you will have gorgeous views all round


GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
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Love the location of your land! Your proposed houseplan looks nice too.

One suggestion, you may want to consider adding a door to the toilet in the ensuite

View thread:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=83776&start=80

Hey Stellabella, any more progress? Just finished reading through the thread, looks like it's gonna be an exciting build!

Lovely block!
Which way is north? And are you still in Gympie QLD? It doesn't get very cold there does it?

Would be lovely to have one of your lounge areas on the view side, so you could sit inside in the air con on the stinking hot days and still see the view. Not sure how that works with your plan though!

Hi everyone! Sorry, not much happening on the house front - most of our (read: my) effort had gone into holiday planning but that's all done with now! No NYC this year, just a quick week-long trip to Bali for a friend's wedding.

The last week has brought a little bit of progress on the house front - we finally have a legit prelim plan. Well, DH hasn't seen it yet (he saw the pre-prelim plans before these got drawn up!), he gets home from work tomorrow, so he'll see it then. I'm not loving the elevation, I think I'll like it once it's drawn correctly (with the cladding going the whole way to the roof), but I still am not sure if it's 100% what I want - though that may not be possible with our plan. Anyway...I'll post the plans in the following post!

Still lots of changes to be made, they were only drafted so we could get an idea of the roofline...so these are still very early plans!

Fantastic rural views. The roof looks a bit squished though.

Ok...I'm back again - kind of! I was a bit unsure of the plan because I didn't love the laundry being internal - so we've redrawn it again. I've already got a list of minor changes (doors, windows, etc), so once they are done it'll go back to the draftsman again. I also want him to relook at the roofline again, there's a house in town with a roofline I love (I won't post pics for privacy), and I'd like him to try and get ours to something similar. That's all I have to update for now! Will try and post pics but I'm on my phone.