Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 09, 2014 10:08 pm Our current house was built in 1952 with whatever bits and bobs the owner/builder could scrounge post WWII when 'things' were scarce. He did a good job, it's pretty solid. He made his own bricks by hand out of cement and his own timber windows. Clever boy. Needless to say it's not too pretty. We've lived here a long time. It's an odd layout that we could never get our head around what to do with it. Anyway, we got comfy in it. It was our first house and it was all ours and it's in a great location.
Now we're ready to move on. After many years of living in a yucky house, we're going completely OTT for us. We're building the Simonds Avalon. It's a beautiful house which we've modified to suit us. Simonds have been great, their staff are incredibly knowledgeable, helpful and professional. This is our downstairs floor plan Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And upstairs Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And this how our façade should look. We're on a corner, so it has to look pretty on both sides. The long edge faces north, so we'll have lots of light in our living areas. We should be signing our contract soon and I've been told as we already own our land, they are keen to get going with it. Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 2Sep 09, 2014 10:37 pm Yay! Tomcat has a thread! Woohoo! Looks fabulous, so much space.... Ahhh you'll love it Looking forward to seeing more (of course) Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=66299 Slab: 16/6/14 Frame: 4/7/14 Roof: 22/7/14 Lock Up: 20/8/14 Fixing: 26/8/14 PCI: 9/10/14 Handover: 20/10/14 Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 3Sep 10, 2014 12:21 am Oh good! Get a move on then and share some pics Cool little outside drawings! What are you going to do with your decking? Simmonds or another mob or DIY? You guys have spoilt yourselves indeed. Our first home was a massive 12sq approx. Blogging Our Home Build With Simonds - Avalon 3512 4/05/14 Signed Contracts Land 5/05/14 Signed Off with Simonds Homes - Slightly Modified Avalon 3512 4/06/14 Simonds Gallery Appointment 4/07/14 Settlement! 28/07/14 Site Start Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 4Sep 10, 2014 12:23 am Oh yeah, the Avalon display opening this weekend is 10mins from my place, will post some pics, hehe Blogging Our Home Build With Simonds - Avalon 3512 4/05/14 Signed Contracts Land 5/05/14 Signed Off with Simonds Homes - Slightly Modified Avalon 3512 4/06/14 Simonds Gallery Appointment 4/07/14 Settlement! 28/07/14 Site Start Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 5Sep 10, 2014 1:06 am aRoba Oh yeah, the Avalon display opening this weekend is 10mins from my place, will post some pics, hehe Ooh, yes please, fantastic, we want photos! Snap yours too We'll tile the alfresco (and the whole downstairs) after handover. $10k in savings right there, who would of thunk it. Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 7Sep 10, 2014 9:05 pm We've been waiting for our energy and footing report for five weeks. We have R5 insulation in the roof and chose pale bricks and the lightest roof we could in their range to keep the house as efficient as possible. We're going to install whirly birds and blinds or roller shutters on windows, so aren't interested in 'low E' glazing. Double glazing maybe but we're having blinds, so probably no. Our verandah/porch protects our western windows too so glazing them is also unnecessary. Yet the energy report said to put special glazing across a lot of our windows, including SOUTHERN windows. We have been waiting for them to come with something else. I thought they were supposed to provide options but they kept pushing windows when we said no. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 8Sep 10, 2014 9:20 pm Looks great Tomcat - love the butlers pantry, library, ensuite........ We too are trying to get started hopefully will sign in next week or too if all falls in place. We have our footings already - and nearly all selections are in the contract but working drawings will only happen post contract. Will live vicariously through your selections and build for now. All looks great !! Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 9Sep 10, 2014 9:28 pm bluesteel Looks great Tomcat - love the butlers pantry, library, ensuite........ We too are trying to get started hopefully will sign in next week or too if all falls in place. We have our footings already - and nearly all selections are in the contract but working drawings will only happen post contract. Will live vicariously through your selections and build for now. All looks great !! Thanks pups. I can't remember what you've got planned, was it Dechellis? Will have to wait for your thread Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 10Sep 10, 2014 9:32 pm TomCat bluesteel Looks great Tomcat - love the butlers pantry, library, ensuite........ We too are trying to get started hopefully will sign in next week or too if all falls in place. We have our footings already - and nearly all selections are in the contract but working drawings will only happen post contract. Will live vicariously through your selections and build for now. All looks great !! Thanks pups. I can't remember what you've got planned, was it Dechellis? Will have to wait for your thread Yes this build I will have a thread - keep wanting to start one......but want to have something happening first. Will start it once have a working drawing. We have two builders doing same process for us - we will sign contract with one..... Not Dechellis. There is a dechellis house near kids school have been watching it for last 6 months they are landscaping now......so green with envy Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 11Sep 10, 2014 9:47 pm Nice choices Tc! You did fabulously... Love those Aubergine feature bricksand evening haze is a lovely colour for a garage door! The options we got given in regards to the energy rating, the window option with the SP10 glaze is the most cost effective. The other option, can't remember what it was now, was more expensive and only raised it to the same rating. So we picked the SP10 smart glass, it's all done by an independent assessor so we couldn't really argue! We needed to bump it and glass was the cheapest "fix". Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=66299 Slab: 16/6/14 Frame: 4/7/14 Roof: 22/7/14 Lock Up: 20/8/14 Fixing: 26/8/14 PCI: 9/10/14 Handover: 20/10/14 Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 12Sep 10, 2014 10:12 pm Thanks D, that means a lot coming from you! I want to bump it LOL! I really do want an energy efficient house, but we had to question special glazing in southern windows. Just sounded like a rubber stamping exercise. After reading about engineered stone chipping, we decided to have stainless steel benchtops. There's a custom designer here in Adelaide that does a stirling job (not cheap, but neither is stone. But Simonds wouldn't allow it, and it got too hard. So we're staying with Caesarstone. AND I spent more ... I ended up putting waterfall edges on the back bench too! Our back bench juts out/floats and I was worried it would look ugly from the sides. Most kitchens have their back bench framed by walls. I chose chocolate woodgrain 'Belgian Oak' floor cabinets with white snow Caesarstone benches/waterfalls with white overhead cupboards. Did the same in the bathrooms. We've now got $10K of Caesarstone in the house. Hoping it lasts as long as I do These are my colours for kitchen (and bathrooms). Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Our living area tiles will be similar colour (but square 600 porcelain) and our carpet upstairs chocolate. Bathroom floor tiles chocolate/wall tiles white (one wall chocolate). Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 13Sep 10, 2014 10:20 pm wow that looks awesome TomCat... great colour selections!!!! Building Marriott 32 with Simonds... Let the fun begin!!! -------------------------- Building Topic: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=73303 Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 14Sep 10, 2014 10:28 pm Oh my god!! What were you even worried about??? That will look amazing!! Fantastic fantastic fantastic! Love love looooooooove Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=66299 Slab: 16/6/14 Frame: 4/7/14 Roof: 22/7/14 Lock Up: 20/8/14 Fixing: 26/8/14 PCI: 9/10/14 Handover: 20/10/14 Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 15Sep 10, 2014 10:35 pm Thanks Bomber. It helps to copy! We had a lot of trouble with the externals though (really nothing to copy) and still nervous ... Thanks D (yep, copy!) LOL Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 16Sep 10, 2014 10:52 pm You have thread, woohoo!! Will be following this to see all your ideas Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=71963&start=50#p1203154 Settlement: January 2014 Currently waiting council approval Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 17Sep 11, 2014 10:11 am Good to see you've started a thread TomCat. That master bedroom is fabulous Building a Sierra on the Gold Coast https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=68899 Full timeline on Pg 1 Settlement: 13/05/14 Retaining Walls: 20/06/14 Site Start: 02/07/14 Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 18Sep 11, 2014 1:33 pm Ooh thanks for popping in Stephy Yah, hope I dont get lost hehe ... don't know how on earth to fill it yet but I'm working on it Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 19Sep 11, 2014 8:52 pm Haha I know what you mean. The place we currently live in is quite small and we really don't have enough stuff to fill up the new place so I'm getting good at saying "empty space is always great" haha. Are you doing your WIR fit out after handover? Building a Sierra on the Gold Coast https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=68899 Full timeline on Pg 1 Settlement: 13/05/14 Retaining Walls: 20/06/14 Site Start: 02/07/14 Re: Simonds Avalon Adelaide 20Sep 11, 2014 10:12 pm Yes. I got Wallspan to quote and it was cheaper with them supply/fit than getting Ikea/flat packs and DIY. It was decent quality too (their Platinum range). The wardrobe is no problem filling We've had the offer of a short term tenant whilst waiting for CDC/DA home approval and demolition for our knock down rebuild. It would achieve a pretty low rent as it's… 0 14788 The fastest thing a builder will do is bank your cheque, those systems work perfectly with lightning speed, everything else is slow burn. Just the way it is. 1 9417 Just to makea point about this, an approach that some people have found sucessful in negotiating these rises down, Is to provide some workings to the builder, specifying… 4 82843 |