Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Nov 09, 2014 9:56 pm *deep breath* my KDR plan which began as a wistful pipe dream a year ago is now starting take shape thanks to this forum and all the blogs that people people keep of their builds! I started off not knowing anything about CDCs vs DAs, not knowing anything about project home builders, and all the little 'pretty much compulsory but extra priced upgrades' like electrical fit out, insulation etc that aren't in their base price. Also understand you basically need a solicitor to go over the contract and you *must* have a 3rd party trustworthy building inspector to sign off on all the different stages of the build. Been to heaps of display homes over the last 6-8 months and for some reason I keep ending back at Wisdom. I found their Ambassador 41 layout suits my block of land in inner Sydney really well (old school 15m wide frontage, 650m^2 total area). I went to look at some M3tr1c0n homes today and although I liked one of their layouts I was a bit dismayed at the apparent quality in their display home, they were the only other ones in the running. Slowly but surely I've been crossing off places like Fowler, Allcastle, Clarendon, Sekisui, Champion mostly because they didn't have the right designs or didn't feel 'right' when walking through. So my question is to the forum is where do I go from here? I'm planning to spend about 650k all up including driveway and front fence, are there smaller, boutique builders who could do a 40-41sq 5 bedroom house with a similar fitout to the actual homes on display (you know the ones with all the bells and whistles). I just want to exhaust every avenue before I actually pull the trigger and go get a tender. Also does anybody know when Wisdoms price rises are each year and how much in % terms these are every year? Basically the brief is to max out the 380m^2 floor area allowance for CDC, must have a largish bedroom w/ ensuite on ground floor + 4 bdrs on upper floor and large open plan living/dining on ground floor for entertaining. Wisdom Homes Abode 27 KDRB - Inner West Sydney https://wisdomhomesabode27.wordpress.com/ Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 2Nov 09, 2014 10:17 pm I also wanted to ask - am I crazy for spending this much money on a project home? Just trying to get other people to play devils advocate for me here. Wisdom Homes Abode 27 KDRB - Inner West Sydney https://wisdomhomesabode27.wordpress.com/ Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 3Nov 10, 2014 7:48 pm Good luck with the build. Sounds like it will be a fantastic build! With that sort of budget I personally would be trying to go with a custom builder... but you won't get as good bang for your buck! And if you want 5 bedrooms it's unlikely you'd get there on that budget, but with a project builder you will get lots of upgrades which you can afford on that budget and get a large house and if you have a house plan from Wisdom, it sounds like it's a good match! We went through the dramas of a custom build and it go to the point a building consultant (who was coming to quote to build for us) basically advised us to go with the project build and upgrade things like ceiling heights, windows, doors etc to a good spec. Consider we're at the very top of our budget with our project build, I'm glad we didn't end up going with the custom build as I suspect it'd have blown out budgetwise and we'd be in the poo now. (mind you it'd be built by now... but that's besides the point!) Looking forward to hearing about your build! Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 4Feb 07, 2015 9:30 pm reviving your old post, have you looked at horizon homes? they are at the old show homes in bella vista, they do custom homes. personally we are going through a custom builder because we have a narrow block, we got our house designed and got tenders, roughly 650K. I think it would go over because I've never heard of people ever not. Also we wanted hebel power floors and want a builder that we can deal with directly, and not a SS that is hit or miss. But your block is of great standard size and will fit most project builders. drive down home quest Bella vista and checkout the other custom builders other than horizon homes. Yikes! Totally deluded by the planning and building process Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 5Feb 07, 2015 10:26 pm Also check in some of Forg's posts about his experience. He built with a project builder but was thinking (post build) that maybe he should have just spent more time and effort going to different custom builders. Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 6Feb 07, 2015 10:30 pm ha thanks for digging this up to show me how far I've come. Plans have actually changed a lot since I first posted, building on a much smaller block now (10m frontage) with a much a smaller budget. Scaled back from a 'forever house' to a 'smaller place for a growing family for the next decade'. Requested tender from Wisdom after doing heaps of research on the whole process, getiing my soil and survey done next week. Fingers crossed the site costs don't blow out otherwise we're going standard inclusions all the way except for electricals Although with W it's ok, 40mm stone to all kitchen and bathrooms is standard Double storey custom build for < 450k going to be hard to make happen, Clarendon didn't have a single design that could fit. Metricon was too expensive and used too much cladding for their 2nd storey on their narrow block designs. Wisdom Homes Abode 27 KDRB - Inner West Sydney https://wisdomhomesabode27.wordpress.com/ Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 7Feb 07, 2015 11:01 pm 10 frontage for the house frontage or land? That is really narrow. You're in my boat, we have a narrow house plan too, and is one reason why we went custom, I think it's still worthy to ask the builders down at home quest to see what they can do. A few house in my suburb built with Metricon, narrow block. Good luck. Yikes! Totally deluded by the planning and building process Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 8Feb 08, 2015 12:10 am 9.9m frontage for the land. 450k budget with 50 remaining for 4x building inspections, landscaping and drapery/shutters and other finishing touches. I'm (planning on) building http://www.wisdomhomes.com.au/homes/abode with alfresco and upgraded facade, higher ceilings, sound insulation to walls and floor, colourbond roof etc. I think my tender will be very close to my budget already. I like the layout, they've been decently professional so far, we'll see how it goes. You're right though, if this falls through for whatever reason my only option is to go full custom but then I'd put off the build a bit to have a bigger budget. Wisdom Homes Abode 27 KDRB - Inner West Sydney https://wisdomhomesabode27.wordpress.com/ Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 9Feb 08, 2015 7:35 am I know our builder has narrow lot designs and are reasonably priced. Have you looked at Sekisui House? Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 10Feb 08, 2015 7:37 am That design (abode) by wisdom looks lovely! Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 11Feb 08, 2015 8:51 pm Hey yvonneh, thanks for checking the design out you're not the first to have suggested sekisui to us but they only had the Solana 220 which was too small for us. Nobody can build the garage to the zero lot line in established suburbs which really limited the 'narrow lot' designs we could choose from. Apparently you need an easement on the neighbours land which only new estates come provisioned with. Wisdom Homes Abode 27 KDRB - Inner West Sydney https://wisdomhomesabode27.wordpress.com/ Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 12Feb 08, 2015 9:12 pm What's on the block now - as in how wide is the house? Can you do a a 'replacement' or is it even more narrow? What was the base price of the Wisdom Abode before any upgrades? And is your budget including demolition? I know our budget has definitely crept up as we were allowing up to $450k but that was to include everything including architect fees, demolition and the build and finish. I think we'll be slightly over Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 13Feb 09, 2015 3:03 pm @yvonneh there's a 3 bedroom double brick 'cottage' with a couple of small extensions that's on the block now. Can't do a 'replacement' cos it's too close to the boundary on one side and the volume builders flat out refuse to build within 950mm for Clarendon/920mm for W of the boundary cos of 'company policy' which is prudent enough. Need enough space for scaffolding, drop edge beams and what not without impinging on the neighbours. After reading all the slab heave threads I'm happy with the fact I can have 1.2m down each side now to give enough space to concrete it and drain the sides properly to stop water getting into the clay underneath. Abode is 310k base price + 17 for a partially rendered facade + 13k for an alfresco + 10k for promo package = 350k for bare minimum on an M block. 450k for me doesn't include demolition but the site costs are going to eat heavily into the difference, probably so much so they won't be much left over for nice tiling in bathrooms cos extra windows, high ceilings, insulation and eletrical take priority. It's going to take a lot of restraint in the upcoming appointments Edit: I meant to add I'm actually inspired to do a blog once I get through more of the process just as a way of documenting everything and making sure I stay on top of the bigger picture Wisdom Homes Abode 27 KDRB - Inner West Sydney https://wisdomhomesabode27.wordpress.com/ Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 14Feb 09, 2015 9:03 pm That house plan is very practical. Wisdom homes finishes does look really good. @ Yvonneh your blog page is very informative, I've learnt lots. I have my house plans up for people to comment , it's under the heading custom home design - narrow block - please comment. If you both have a moment to have a look at it and suggest any changes? We went brick shopping over the weekend - PGH, and Austral so overwhelming with choice. We've decided to get an interior designer to help us, hoping to save time and help decide. Yikes! Totally deluded by the planning and building process Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 15Feb 09, 2015 9:11 pm @shudda Definitely start a blog or at least document via H1 your journey. it's good to be able to share the info and the highs and lows of building with others. The structural stuff you mentioned are super sensible options. We went with standard tiles and were happy with the selection and definitely priortised the same sort of stuff. our glazing took a huge chunk of our budget. Since you are going 2 storey the electricals are definitely important too. In our case we're still going to be doing stuff post handover (for electricals) Re: Wisdom vs M3tr1c0n vs smaller/custom builders for KDR 16Feb 09, 2015 9:13 pm @building3my3tots ooh a custom home design! I'll definitely check it out. Yeah exterior is definitely harder to get right unless you like a combination that is already there. One thing we found is looking at the book with photos (at PGH in our case) which you can then just point at and ask what the combo is! Otherwise putting one together is always going to be stressful. Esp since you won't see it for months after selection! Ok off to check out your plan We were lucky in that our old house was so small (86 square metres) compared to the new house, they were able to take enough readings around the old backyard house before… 8 37139 The biggest challenge will be if you take out a loan and then run out of money - you'll have an incomplete security and lenders do not like this so you can get stuck.… 2 19096 Hi, I am looking into doing a KDR in Melbourne and am contemplating using Kialla Homes. I am looking for feedback on them from others who have built with them. 0 13442 |