Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 18, 2014 9:43 pm So I discovered this forum a little while ago and given we're (hopefully) not far off getting CDC approval for our build thought it was time to post up some info of what we are doing.
Up until last April our family (my wife and I and two kids) were happily living in a 4 bedroom house in Acacia Gardens. Then we found out we were having Triplets... After the shock wore off (a little) a friend gave us a heads up about the Grey Gums Estate in Kellyville. The big blocks for a cheap-for-the-area price combined with the scenary and being close to good schools won us over. So we decided to jump in, buy a block and start the journey to build our (almost) dream house. Being somewhat risk averse and not wanting to pay any more mortgage insurance than we had to meant we had to sell our house in Acacia Gardens and then move in with my mum. 10 people in a 5 bedroom house was always going to be a challenge but we decided it was for the greater good (luckily one of my brothers moved out not long after we moved in which made things a bit easier). So our plan was to build a house big enough for us plus my mother and one of my brothers (it's time for her to downsize plus the additional help with the Triplets is welcome). One of our key requirements was to have a toy room, we were tired of the lounge room looking like a bomb had hit it so this meant we needed 7+ bedrooms. We also wanted most of the bedrooms on the ground floor to avoid the "herd of elephants" effect of the kids running up and down the stairs constantly. After looking at various builders floorplans and with good feedback from friends led us to Wisdom. Their salesperson (Colt) was a great help, listened to our needs and we ended up with the Trinity 33 Retreat with an extra 2 bedrooms added upstairs and some mods to the ground floor. Here's the block: Here's the final floorplan: And the Landscape plan: External colours: Roof: Monument Gutters: Monument Fascia: Monument Windows: Monument Bricks: PGH Espresso Stria board: Taubmans Greylocks Garage Door: Merbau Internal colours: Walls: Taubmans Shaded Grey Skirting & Windows: white Flooring in Hall/Kitchen/Dining/Living/Alfresco's and Pool area: Kitchen: Cabinets: Poly Gloss White Benchtop: Ceasarstone Walnut Splashback - Glass: Latte Bathrooms: Cabinets: Poly Gloss White Vanity top: Ceasarstone Walnut Tiles: Full height grey with a feature tile in the niches Laundry: Cabinets: Poly Gloss White Benchtop: Ceasarstone Raven Splashback - Tiles: White rectangular Tiles: Grey floor tiles Lighting will be a mixture of LED downlights in the open plan areas and the HT and oysters everywhere else (will change these later as needed). We've invested a bit in insulating as much as possible, a mixture of Soundscreen and "normal" batts. We've also fitted the biggest ducted system that Actron make plus a 6kw solar system to hopefully offset the power usage. Our BAL rating is 29 so we needed thicker windows and Invisiguard screens on all the windows. Can't think of anything else for now. Will update as things progress and time permits. Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! 2Apr 19, 2014 7:44 am Looks like a sensational house and you won't know yourself when you move into your master suite. Nice colour selection too - is the Polly kitchen standard or an upgrade? Is the upstairs retreat for you or the kids? I'd restrict them to the rumpus downstairs and put the retreat actually in your room . I like the idea of a toy room as well and we've set aside one for our boys. We just had the lounge room for them to play in our last house and it was always a complete disaster zone. http://camdenbuild.blogspot.com.au/ by invite only please pm me Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! 4Apr 19, 2014 10:38 am Thanks, The Poly kitchen (and bathroom vanities) was an upgrade. Originally we weren't planning on going poly but we were convinced at the kitchen appointment (and by then we'd cooled to the idea of getting a Zip tap so the money from that payed for the upgrade). The retreat upstairs is all for us. The Rumpus is for the kids (we're going to have to be strict about "no toys outside the toy room"). That'll become a bedroom as the kids get older and need more space. The Home Office is really a bedroom too (which is why it has a walk-in and ensuite) but they never changed the label on the plans. Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! 5Apr 19, 2014 11:21 am Big house . We are nearly finished building our 7 bed house in perth . I also needed a big games room . I am sick of having toys everywhere . Hopefully they stay in there . We are also taking tvs out of bedrooms . The bedroom will be a place only for quite time and sleep . Triplets how exciting . You will need your mum there . And a few exta nannys . But it will be fun . Oh love all the bathrooms I would of loved another one . But three will have to do . Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! 7Apr 19, 2014 7:03 pm KGsGirl When you say poly kitchen do you mean polyurethane cabinets? Yep. Originally we were going to go with laminate cabinets as we'd heard that poly would be prone to chipping (with lots of kids running amok) and would be hard to keep clean. Then we got a second opinion which swayed us the other way (and the diff in price from gloss laminate to poly wasn't that much in the scheme of things). Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! 9Apr 23, 2014 11:10 am It all looks very practical and well thought out. The landscaping plan looks great. Got a feeling that's going to be a well used retreat... http://www.housebythewater.wordpress.com From blank block to new home in Mandurah, Western Australia. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65564 Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! 10May 20, 2014 2:03 pm Just waiting on our stamped plans back from CDC and then we should be pretty close to starting! Here's our kitchen layout. The window to the left is fixed and looks out over the pool. The window on the bottom is a stacker and opens onto the alfresco. Accidently deleted the photo's of our tiles and haven't been back in to take more yet. Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! - Kitchen layou 11May 20, 2014 4:29 pm oh wow I can see why you need a bigger house! How exciting Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! - Kitchen layou 12Aug 19, 2014 3:04 pm hi We had to build a bigger home Due to me wanting a third child, but i got lucky and only had twins haha i thought that twins were hard work!!! i hope you guys are getting help from the government? I was able to get 13 weeks of help from them. i had a lady come for 50 hours a week for 13 weeks (free) because of having three under the school age and a few other reasons (i don't have a lot of family support) Wishing you all the best on the babies and building your new home!!! Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! - Kitchen layou 13Aug 19, 2014 8:03 pm Wow 6 kids . How easy would that be . Not I have 6 . I might not have triplets but there are times when think I have . You would think having older kids they would help . I put 1 in the car and she gets out . And then another in the car and there are days you go around circles . I couldn't imagine having triplets . But thank god you have help . Love your plan . Trust me I came from a small house to a big one ( not as big as yours ) I think people think I clean all day . But it stays clean and looks tidy . I think it's because it's more open . If you know what I mean . Building with all those chn ( speaking from experience ) is hard . But it will be worth it . And I always said that I did it for them . Enjoy the ride . Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! - Kitchen layou 14Aug 20, 2014 8:32 am 2-cupcakes-pls hi We had to build a bigger home Due to me wanting a third child, but i got lucky and only had twins haha i thought that twins were hard work!!! i hope you guys are getting help from the government? I was able to get 13 weeks of help from them. i had a lady come for 50 hours a week for 13 weeks (free) because of having three under the school age and a few other reasons (i don't have a lot of family support) Wishing you all the best on the babies and building your new home!!! We had a couple of volunteers who would come over for a couple of hours each week in the first six months but that’s stopped now. Otherwise we didn’t get anything from the government (and we had 4 under school age). Luckily we have a lot of help from my Mother. We’re living with her while we build and then she’s coming with us when it’s finished (we’re helping her downsize and she’ll help us with the kids, not sure who’s getting the better deal....). Also a couple of her sisters live nearby and are semi-retired (ones an ex-midwife and the other doesn’t get to see her own grandkids) so they’ve been a big help too. Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! - Kitchen layou 15Aug 20, 2014 8:37 am Melsie68 Wow 6 kids . How easy would that be . Not I have 6 . I might not have triplets but there are times when think I have . You would think having older kids they would help . I put 1 in the car and she gets out . And then another in the car and there are days you go around circles . I couldn't imagine having triplets . But thank god you have help . Love your plan . Trust me I came from a small house to a big one ( not as big as yours ) I think people think I clean all day . But it stays clean and looks tidy . I think it's because it's more open . If you know what I mean . Building with all those chn ( speaking from experience ) is hard . But it will be worth it . And I always said that I did it for them . Enjoy the ride . Luckily it’s only 5 kids (not including the dog) although I think my wife was a bit delirious the other day as she was half-suggesting that she wouldn’t mind another one! The big ones can be a help but then that can also be a lot of work when they want to play rough right on bed time. Generally they are pretty good though. We figure the cleaning we can live with to be able to have the space we need for everything/everyone. We could have stayed in the old house and it would have been workable but I don’t think we would have ever seen our loungeroom floor ever again… Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! - Tiles 16Aug 20, 2014 12:04 pm congrats on the land and house triplets fantastic i had twins and 2 other kids under four. so alot of work it is great you have help congrats Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! - Fence & Dunny 17Sep 11, 2014 8:34 am Drove past last night and found we finally have a fence and dunny! Our first tender was presented almost exactly a year ago and we were beginning to think that we would never get to this point (when we started this journey we optimistically thought we might be able to move in sometime during the first term this year.... how wrong we were) . Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! - Fence & Dunny 18Sep 11, 2014 10:16 am Congratulations on the arrival of your loo, it must mean its all about to start. Exciting! Just popped over to your thread to have a look at your Landscape plan after you said how much you were quoted over on the Wisdom thread. I felt sure there would have to be some mega exotic features to rack up that big a quote! Guess it was the retaining walls that took a chunk of change or did they quote for the pool as well ..... Building a Wisdom Majestic 40 at Gardener's Ridge My blog: http://majestic40atgardenersridge.wordpress.com/ Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! - Fence & Dunny 19Sep 11, 2014 10:48 am Exciting times ahead! My build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=68002 Re: 2 Kids + Triplets = Need a bigger house! - Fence & Dunny 20Sep 11, 2014 3:56 pm Nope, the $100k didn't include the pool (that's another $50k ). The big items were: Excavation - $5k Retaining walls - $29k Concrete (driveway, steps and around pool) - $20k Garden beds - $6k Turf - $6.5k Plants - $5k Fencing - $9k (full cost) Irrigation - $6.5k Bathroom renovation will likely include a back-to-corner bath and we’re considering a freestanding tap with hand-held shower such as the picture included. My hesitation… 0 24692 After some ideas on making our patio kid friendly . Currently we have exposed aggregate. The patio faces west and is always in sun even though it has a shade directly… 0 3602 I’m not a structural engineer but I’m free. you still need an engineer for the plans. I only have part of your plans, but you seem to have a 850mm drop from the side… 3 9956 |