Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 08, 2015 7:57 am Hi! We bought a 313m2 block (12.5x25) in Pakenham (the old racecourse). Our release was expected to title Oct 2014 but they've pushed this back to Jan 2015 and I expect further delays.
Our builders have been wonderful so far - we're delighted with our plans and with the friendly people we've been dealing with. Colour selections are in a few weeks. Can't wait! Building our first home in the Ascot Estate Pakenham - East 5Jun 17, 2015 8:46 pm Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The above house is the one in our current estate (we're renting in Pakenham) that my partner and I adore. We normally hate red roof with red bricks but it just works here. We're going with a dark grey roof, but we love the red/blue/cream combo in this house. We also love the flowers climbing up the house, and plan to copy this look: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I also want the same type of blinds, but my partner prefers curtains. We've compromised, and decided we'll have these types of blinds on the front windows and curtains for all side and rear windows. Hooray! Here are more pictures of the lovely inspirational house: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Building our first home in the Ascot Estate Pakenham - E 6Jun 17, 2015 8:50 pm Welcome! Exciting to see your thread! Love the bricks. I'm not a massive red fan, but I like those, they look very traditional and I don't think they will age. Um.. hate to be downer, but you might not be able to have those roof tiles, the estate guidelines say flat roof profile only . I asked about the elbana profile, which looks a bit like your macquarie pictures and they said no. Burbank wanted me to pay a $1,200 upgrade for flat roof tiles. My current builder didn't charge me anything though. Just double check, so you don't get bad news when you apply to the design panel. Good luck picking the gutter colours! I'm still not sure about my choice of basalt. I decided to go all three the same colour, felt it would flow better, but my window frames are white to break it up. That's a cool idea with the plants, can't wait to walk past your place one day and see it in action! When do you get to do your colour selections? Re: Building our first home in the Ascot Estate Pakenham - E 7Jun 17, 2015 8:56 pm Thanks for the heads up! The two types of tiles were the ones our builder said we could choose from. I prefer the flat tiles actually, but hopefully they won't cost us more!! I checked the design guidelines and you're absolutely right: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I'll chat to our builder about that tomorrow. We do colour selections on June 30. I can't wait! Building our first home in the Ascot Estate Pakenham - East 8Jun 17, 2015 9:31 pm Here are our plans with some in-progress changes marked on them. We've made a few extra changes since then too, like adding a cupboard to the front lounge room (on the wall it shares with the kitchen). Adding the cupboard makes it a bit squeezy, but we just needed extra storage space. The front lounge will have a little desk at the front window, a wall mounted tv and two seater couch, and most likely some bookshelves if they'll fit. It's a room for my partner and I. I'm so glad there's a door we can slide closed between the front and back parts of the house - I'm hoping it'll really feel like our retreat of an evening. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Building our first home in the Ascot Estate Pakenham - E 9Jun 20, 2015 1:53 pm Excited as we're now doing colour selections earlier - this Wednesday June 23. We found out (thanks Dawn!) that we can't have the macquarie roof tiles (design guidelines don't allow them), so now we just have to choose from the two dark grey colours from the slimline tiles. Re: Building our first home in the Ascot Estate Pakenham - E 10Jun 20, 2015 4:33 pm Good luck with your colour appointment Mine only took about 1.5 hours, was quite impressed. But I think I had done a LOT of research, plus I was lucky enough to view my show room early so I knew the ranges I had to choose from for most things like counter tops and floor tiles. Although ..tempted to change builders... Building our first home in the Ascot Estate Pakenham - East 12Jun 24, 2015 11:03 pm Today we had our colour selection appointment. It was cut a bit short due to an unexpected visit to the vet, but we still got a lot done. Yesterday we went for a walk around our suburb to check out facade colours. While we were looking at houses, we suddenly realised (and focused on) what houses really look like with eaves and more importantly, without them. Our plans currently had eaves only to the porch, but today at our appointment we added them to the whole front of the house. Hooray for eaves! Our walk was also helpful in that we got a definite idea of what we liked and didn't like when it came to colours. We've ended up with: BRICK: Austral Homestead Redgum MORTAR: Natural grey, rolled Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ ROOF TILE: Bowral slimline gunmetal Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ FASCIA: Colorbond Classic Cream RENDER TO PILLARS: Colorbond match to Classic Cream Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ GUTTER & DOWNPIPES: Deep Ocean GARAGE DOOR: Deep Ocean (Madison profile). INFILLS: Colorbond match to Deep Ocean Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ EAVES: Builders White SECURITY DOOR, WINDOWS & FLYSCREENS: monument satin Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ DRIVEWAY/FRONT PORCH: coloured concrete, bluestone Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Apparently we'll get a pic of how that will all look together, which I'm excited about The company we're building with gave us a voucher for lunch at Shanikas nearby. It was a great chance to have a break and stop thinking about the house! The ravioli was delicious We came back with fresh eyes and chose some colours for flooring and cabinets, but couldn't finish as we ran out of time. I'll write more about those later. Building our first home in the Ascot Estate Pakenham - East 13Jun 26, 2015 6:47 am Before we started the building process I was sure about one thing: I wanted hardwood floors, something that would be warm in tone yet durable enough to hold up for 20 years with maybe just a re-polish a decade in. I loved Jarrah but also considered Spotted Gum for its Janka rating.
Well, budget eventually became the biggest priority. The builder tried to persuade me to have vinyl wood-look floors. I considered them but they just don't look right to me. Next the builder suggested bamboo as he knew timber would be outside our tight budget. I said yes to bamboo. It's a $1200 upgrade, and the product is Tru bamboo from carpet call. I'm concerned about the quality and durability of this product, as I've heard with bamboo that there are huge variations in quality from supplier to supplier and that you really do get what you pay for... We are thinking about changing to hardwood floors, and losing some other upgrades to justify/afford it. The builder has suggested we look at carpet call's hardwood flooring, but again I'm concerned about quality. I was considering buying our own timber from a discount timber yard in Dandenong, and asking the builder to find someone who can install and finish it (or find someone myself) Has anyone here ever gone for flooring from a different supplier to their (volume) builder? Or waited until handover then got someone in to do the flooring afterwards? Has anyone gone with either bamboo or hardwood flooring from carpet call? Any thoughts re quality and durability? Re: Building our first home in the Ascot Estate Pakenham - E 15Jul 07, 2015 11:18 am We're designing our front and back yard at the moment (ourselves, oh oh). Today we realised we needed to move the HWS from the side of the house to the back of the house to allow access from the front yard to the back yard via the side path. It requires the shifting of a window in a kids' bedroom from a backyard view to a side path view. Poor future kid! That way the hot water service and wall mounted clothesline can be on the back of the house, on the exterior wall side of bedroom 3. We're also making plans for where our chooks, veggie garden and compost bin will be (living the dream!). My partner is more excited about the lawn and flower beds. All in a 12.5 x 4m yard! A squeeze but... doable. Re: Building our first home in the Ascot Estate Pakenham - E 16Jul 12, 2015 7:48 pm Nice colour choices for the exterior I can see we have completely opposite tastes! I think your colours will make a great combination though. Did you end up finalizing your interior selections? Your builder sounds nice! I has 1.5 hours in a local tile store (with a little desk with sample books in the back corner) with an interior designer (not sure what her qualifications are, but she was nice) for my selections. No free lunch!! Dad wants to go check out the estate next weekend, but I'm just over it. No word from the builder still. Just waiting for 1st of September now, then I will look at new builders XD Building our first home in the Ascot Estate Pakenham - East 17Jul 12, 2015 8:27 pm If you come over to the estate, let me know! I'll pop round and say hi!
This Wednesday we're going to Elegance tiles to make sure we like the tiles we've chosen (we want to see more than one tile together, at their showroom). We're thinking of asking if we can get a nonslip finish to the tiles to make them even safer for me with one leg. I'm currently recovering from a massive fall getting out of the shower (torn cartilage in one hip, sprained joint in my back, horrifying bruising to half of my leg), so safety is really on my mind. It'd be an upgrade of course, so we'll need to get a price. Char has also been told by a friend about some apparently incredible grout this friend got, which is stain resistant. Could be cool, but again more $$$ Next Wednesday we're also visiting Decina to look at their Uno bath. We think it's the one that's closer to the bath we have in our rental, which we love (sadly we can't work out the exact brand or model so we're guessing based on design and dimensions): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Both of these visits will help with our second colour appointment on July 22. Anything we choose now will be changed by variation, as we've signed contracts already. A bit topsy turvy but that's ok! We also need to meet with the builder to chat about some changes we want to make / questions we have, like a drainage point in the laundry floor, checking we have outdoor taps at the front and back, asking for our manhole to be in the laundry, and making sure all of our windows can be opened/closed and locked. Building our first home in the Ascot Estate Pakenham - East 18Jul 12, 2015 9:09 pm Char and I sat down to work out what we want the back yard to look like: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The blue areas are the concrete paths we'd like. Down the side we'd like a 0.75m width path with a garden bed along the fence, the area with the clothesline is 0.9m, and the path that leads to the veg/chooks is also 0.75m We plan on getting silkies. Not the best layers but GREAT with kids. A very sociable, friendly, gentle chook: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Here's the chook shed I want, from Bunnings: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We'd like a wooden fence with a gate to divide the back yard so that the dog/kids can't get to the veg garden, compost and chooks... I'm imagining something like this dividing the two halves of the backyard: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Here's what we've got in mind for the front yard: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The tree out the front will either be a crabapple... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ ...or a Crepe Myrtle: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The garden outside the bedroom will include: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And the gardens up the sides will be: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I'm wondering how we get these sketches into a format we can give to the Design Review Panel? Do we have to work with a landscape designer? I don't want to fork out any money if I can help it, but I'm assuming I'll need to do better than my little sketches. Any advice anyone? Building in the Ascot Estate Pakenham with East West Homes 19Jul 14, 2015 12:43 pm Today we're visiting Bunnings to make sure we like the toilet listed in our plumbing fixtures:
Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I'm also going to look at some samples of timber from a flooring supplier our builder recommended. We're pretty decided on feature grade blackbutt (14mm) with a plywood underlay. Something like this: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I'm not sure what width the boards will be yet. This is the look we're going for in the kitchen. This picture convinced us to get a black glass splash back instead of the white tiles we chose originally: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I hope it'll go with the blackbutt flooring! It's so hard to know. We have dark wooden furniture too, most of which are treasured family pieces, so unlikely to be given up. I hope it looks ok with the floor. We will most likely be getting black leather couches for the family room, and black cushy dining seats to go with our beautiful heirloom table (the chairs that go with the table are horribly uncomfortable to sit on), so I'm hoping the black accents throughout the house will tie in with the black glass backsplash. We like Wattyl 'misty white' for the walls, but I'm wondering if it'll go with the stark white benchtop and white cupboards above the bench in the kitchen... The paint colour is almost a creamy white. We'd love to do something like this in the entry/front room, but we'll have to save up and do it later. I'm wondering if we should do the walls in the kind of white in this picture instead, to match the orange later: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ So many decisions! Building our first home in the Ascot Estate Pakenham - East 20Jul 14, 2015 1:25 pm We'll also be going to the Decina showroom to check out this Uno bath (I think I've already posted a pic, above.
My wife is the long one in the family, so she will actually climb into the bath and make sure she can fit comfortably in there. The small things can be really important - I care about the safety and comfort of the ensuite shower, and my wife cares about fitting into the bath so she can have a long soak and a good read when she needs it. For reference, this is the Austlii reference. My take on this is, that they would be breaking the law denying access to a homeowner in Victoria, or their agent from having… 1 9070 Hey everyone Not for me or anyone I know, just generally interested. For a single allotment house, are you allowed to take the fence on both sides of your house and… 0 20877 |