Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 08, 2014 11:39 pm Hi everyone, We have been following everyone's Lightsview terrace progress for some hints & tips, and thought we will start my own thread for direct advice and guidance - so will appreciate everyone's input please After obtaining some rough quotes from some builders, we decided to commit to a 7.5m wide terrace block (suiting both our budget and needs). My partner was tired of the maintenance required that comes with big backyards, and she fell in love with the terrace style of living. We signed for a North facing allotment in Waterford (a block behind the waterfront), which settles in November. Meanwhile we are narrowing the list of builders we had inquired with (initially we drew our floor plan ourselves and listed the must haves bells and whistles). We was fortunate to build some relationships with some excellent sales consultants, however it appeared that majority of them when it came to price point was way over our predicted budget. Two sales consultants were suggested that we maintain the relationship and was happy to help us out further with their competitors knowing that they will not be getting the sale. Then there were the horror stories, we had a sales consultant who bad mouthed every other company in Lightsview, was negative about our chosen block (knowing that we had already signed and deposited). Another sales consultant who knew that he didn’t have our business due to price point - had the biggest cheekiest grin when offered us a quote that was $10,000 less than the initial quote (in actual fact he altered the quote to include a deposit of $10,000 so the total end price appeared $10,000 less). We are strongly leaning towards Weeks and Macklin Building Group, as the service has been A grade (transparent, honest, etc), price point, we liked their display homes, custom service and the range of bells and whistles to choose from. Please find below our floor plans so far, we are currently waiting on architectural floor plans/designs and soil tests since last week. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ What's everyone's thoughts about balconies? Our allotment will require dual frontages however both frontages do not have views. Initially we thought that we save costs by not having them at all as we doubt we will ever use them and the costs we save can go to other bells and whistles that we want. However, we are just thinking of re-sale value in years to come, majority of the terraces in Lightsview has the balconies (only a handful don't, will our 4 bedroom + study, 3 living areas, & double garage out weigh this? Re: Y_and_W Build: Lightsview Terrace Living 2Oct 09, 2014 9:31 am Hi Y_and_W, About value, your own opinion, as people interested in the terrace living concept and the area come into it, plus it's what people will pay, co conjecture until there are sales. Extra rooms are a big plus though as you will have larger families also interested in the sale. About cost of such a house. The more external walls you have the higher squarage price. Just take a 20m square and compare with a 40 x 10m rectangle - same house size but 25% more external walls. However the courtyard is nice - would design mine around such an area too. Maybe just one balcony but not too thin... perhaps only half frontage though if you are unsure... more external walls... sometimes it cannot be helped. Good luck with the decisions Leonardo_23 Re: Y_and_W Build: Lightsview Terrace Living 3Jan 06, 2015 3:06 am Hi Y and W it's good to see another neighbor building here, we just few blocks next to you. First of all, I am not sure if you already passed council approval, but if not, you will be very lucky if you can pass through, your library looks too much like a "bedroom". Lightsview and council won't allow you do this. You have a normal door + BIR, this instantly tells them it's a bedroom. They require a wide "no door" entrance to call it library. The stupid excuse they made is "there's not enough street parking on our dual frontage block, therefore the maximum is 3 bedroom. From what i can see, lots people who bought the 7.5M dual frontage block, has no success in building a house, and ends up sale back to lightsview. Dual frontage terrace block is more expensive than what you expect. You will be surprise it's actually cheaper to build a standard block 10~12.5M block in lightsview rather than our blocks. So don't be upset if you got hit back by some builder's quote. Leonardo already explains to you why terrace blocks are more expensive both 20M2 block, one is 4x5M one is 2x10M 4x5M only needs 4+5+5+4=18m wall where as 2x10M is 2+10+10+2m =24M wall from my point of view, all our nearby dual frontage 7.5M all end up cost 750k~850k, so if you are gonna to spend this much amount of money, make sure you maximise the living areas, don't don't waste any little bit of spaces. I think you waste so much spaces creating 2 passage ways on ground floor on both side of the house, do you mind to make your courtyard smaller?? you already have a little bit on the north side. on the upstairs, you again created a long passage narrow way lead to your 3 bedrooms, you might need to rethink about it. Squeezing "5" rooms all upstairs are a bit too much. However, I cannot really comment on this one cos LV required us having balconies on both sides and the minimum was 2x7M each side, if you can have no balconies on one side, that's great. It's always more ideal if all of your bathrooms have windows, it's better for resale, some people cared about this. 7.5M Dual Frontage terrace @ lightsview SA /viewtopic.php?f=31&t=58754 moved in - April 2014 furnitured - August 2014 home theatre - September 2014 Game room - December 2013 moved in - 09 April 2014 Re: Y_and_W Build: Lightsview Terrace Living 4Jan 20, 2015 1:46 pm Hi Y & W
Logging on to the forum after such a long time and it’s great to see so many people building in Lightsview! Glad to see another future resident Please feel free to PM me if you need any advice, will try my utmost best to be helpful. PS: Don't forget to like Lightsview official page on Facebook to follow the latest news and development. Re: Y_and_W Build: Lightsview Terrace Living 5Jan 22, 2015 6:13 pm my neighbor told me he spent more than 100k on his corner home fencing, and it's nothing fancy, just normal fencing. It blew me up. 7.5M Dual Frontage terrace @ lightsview SA /viewtopic.php?f=31&t=58754 moved in - April 2014 furnitured - August 2014 home theatre - September 2014 Game room - December 2013 moved in - 09 April 2014 I would be wary. Is you site demilished but nothing else done? Sounds like liquidity problems to me. Our builder did the same. Got hundreds of thousands of dollars of… 2 15480 3 5676 Can anyone suggest a house layout where the kitchen-dining - living runs the length across the rear of the house left to right where our best view will be we… 0 4380 |