Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Nov 20, 2014 5:25 pm hello - my partner and I have bought land in stage 3 Aquilo and will be starting to look at builders early 2015. It will probably beechwood or allworth as we are very restricted budget wise. Any feedback on these builders? Also I am ver concerned we are not going to have enough $$ to complete the build upon handover. If we get big ticket items like a driveway and carpet / tiles as a part of the build how much is reasonable to expect to pay to finish I.e landscaping, fencing, blinds, fittings, clothesline etc. I'm thinking we will have $20k to do all this but am concerned it's no where near enough. Partner is quite handy and we will do majority of labour ourselves. Any advice given generally with regard to building a home would be much appreciated!!! Re: FHO - cost of completing a build and general advice 2Nov 20, 2014 5:45 pm There are some ideas about cost at this link http://www.anewhouse.com.au/2012/01/what-will-it-cost/ The big issue which you can't control is site costs which dependent on the site can range from a couple of thousand to tens of thousands The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: FHO - cost of completing a build and general advice 3Nov 21, 2014 7:10 am Hi Kristi, although I don't have any advice I am also looking into Allworth. We have not yet bought our land but am waiting for release 3 at cooranbong as we are on a tight budget too. If it helps check out my post "am i expecting to much" for turnkey quotes I have received. Allworth advised they will meet you at your block & can give you a free turnkey quote. Re: FHO - cost of completing a build and general advice 4Nov 21, 2014 8:13 am Thanks heaps guys. I have so many questions and expectations that I get myself into a spin. I work in the development assessment area so have a good general knowledge but it's proving to make me even more worried that I'm not considering everything lol. Re: FHO - cost of completing a build and general advice 5Nov 21, 2014 9:38 am Best of luck with your build Kristi. As someone who has just gone through this I can say that there are few things that come up as a surprise and others that you can easily allow for when you know your dimensions. 1. Unless you have any specific landscaping requirements you may just want to keep it to turf which is from around $4/sqm up to $8/sqm depending on the type of turf you want (and don't forget to include the front all the way to the kerb as I did) + maybe a few hundred for some top soil and prep stuff (keep an eye on gumtree and be ready to go immediately). You may also want to get some quotes on concrete to get an apron around your house. 2. For fencing ours is $74 per lineal metre plus around $250 per gate but depends on what you what and for some reason where you are. 3. For blinds - if I had my time again I would make sure I got windows in standard widths (mainly 600, 900 and 1200mm) check whats around it'll save you a fortune. If you need to get odd shaped windows we currently have heaps of these around our house and they are good value till you until you manage to save up for real ones (much better than sheets) http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/40242281/ 4. Clothlines aren't too expensive we paid around $250 for ours and will install it myself. The hardest things are those you sort of forget. In the first few weeks there wasn't a day where I wasn't at the hardware store/supermarket or making a list for my next visit. Garden hoses and reels, picture hanging stuff, rakes, brooms, cleaning products, light bulbs, bins, AV type cables, batteries, garbage bags, rags, door mats etc etc etc etc etc etc. It seemed like everytime I unpacked a box I had to add something to the list. None are not big ticket items but I spent a fortune just on this stuff alone. http://camdenbuild.blogspot.com.au/ by invite only please pm me Re: FHO - cost of completing a build and general advice 6Nov 21, 2014 9:54 am Thanks heaps, great advice. We will be sticking to mainly turf however our predominantly flat block has quite a steep front so I'm assuming we will need some retaining out front. Thanks for heads up re: window sizes. Re: FHO - cost of completing a build and general advice 7Nov 27, 2014 6:25 am If those two are your only options definitely go Allworth. We have a friend who's just finished with Beechwood and the place is crap. They make life difficult to get repairs done and he got to the point he just fixed it himself so he didn't need to spend every lunch break on the phone asking them to come out. Vanities not placed in the right spot, windows missing completely after being told they'd put them in and they'd made an error, kitchen cabinets already falling apart - this house is 4 months old! He said he was roped in by the no deposit tender they offer. Allworth were on our list, we liked a single story called Langford, but when selecting land the blocks we had available were only 30m in length which meant we had a 4m backyard, so we found someone else who had a nice double story instead. Good luck with it all! Re: FHO - cost of completing a build and general advice 8Nov 27, 2014 11:46 am thanks emma. Surprisingly (or maybe not) the overall opinion is allworth over beechwood. I'm not closed off to other builders but I just haven't seen any that can match the pricing and inclusions of these two. Re: FHO - cost of completing a build and general advice 9Dec 19, 2014 5:14 am Hi kristi, welcome to the forum. We just finished building with allworth in stage 2 in june. The biggest underestimate for us was landscaping. Assuming your block is like the majority; there will be retaining walls and some good soil before you do grass plus potentially some drainage. Id estimate that with fence and landscaping we have hit the 20k mark with about another 4 to spend. Half of that was just retaining walls though! Good luck with it all! You can call me Chris! Altona 4bd Media Ent by Allworth @ Bonnells Bay NSW Check out my attempt at a blog! http://bonnellsbayaltona.blogspot.com.au/ Re: FHO - cost of completing a build and general advice 10Dec 19, 2014 5:17 am Oh and to add to it, we were really happy with allworth. We had a couple of small maintenance issues which they fixed straight away. Also quick, 16 weeks from site scrape to keys, although we did all flooring, window coverings and driveway after handover. You can call me Chris! Altona 4bd Media Ent by Allworth @ Bonnells Bay NSW Check out my attempt at a blog! http://bonnellsbayaltona.blogspot.com.au/ Re: FHO - cost of completing a build and general advice 11Jan 16, 2015 9:34 am Thanks heaps casabonka. Yes the after handover works are what are making me worried at the moment. Just for our rough quote from allworth and will likely be putting down our deposit this weekend. Good to hear they went ok with and were quick to fix errors. It's all so nerve racking! Even how the bank want to do the construct loan is confusing! Re: FHO - cost of completing a build and general advice 12Feb 09, 2015 8:23 pm We're also building in stage 3, I'm currently very jealous of the builds underway in our stage. We went into council 2 weeks ago. Can't wait to get started Re: FHO - cost of completing a build and general advice 13Apr 20, 2015 11:50 am Untwisted Twist We're also building in stage 3, I'm currently very jealous of the builds underway in our stage. We went into council 2 weeks ago. Can't wait to get started Untwisted twist - What street are you in stage 3 - we are in Maddie St. We have just got our approval and have completed all selections. Hoping to sign building contracts in the next couple of weeks. What stage are you up to now? I can help you with all that, you can PM me with details if you wish 3 5853 You should check your detail drawings, it may show downpipe within brick pier. 14 14121 Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 18116 |