Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 30, 2016 2:01 pm After a lot of time and energy finally we have started our build at our small patch of dirt in Inglewood. If you are unsure of Perth, Inglewood is about 5km from the CBD of Perth, nice location with good schools and restaurants nearby.
We made the big decision to move our family from our current location North of Joondalup, due to work in the city and schooling (I am not prepared to pay for private school when you can move into an area with a good school and use that money for a house!) So... The saga begins in April of 2014, we decided to put in an offer on some land which does not come up often in Inglewood. It was not cheap... but neither is our current commute cost and private schooling! the land was not very big (240 squares) and it was on a sloping block (Boo). Pluses were though it is a cut off street with only access to it in one direction making it a very quiet street. Currently where we live in the Clarkson area you always hear the mating call of the bogan burnouts, and speeding V8s down our street due to it being a major thoroughfare. Not ideal environment for kids to play out the front! It is a subdivided block, but due to the sub divided house was on the corner, we ended up with street frontage! (Green title too!) It took awhile for the land to settle about a year but while that was going on we set about going to Homebuilders Advantage and got some plans drawn up. we build with the land to keep the costs of earthworks down and it total the house is a four story home or half stories of you will. Due to the location, we had to keep with the heritage of the area making it a bit harder, basically the rules for it are what the council deem what they think at the time. So their own interpretations differ quite a bit by every person. With this in mind there is no wonder that this council has been investigated by the ACCC. Anyway, after 12 plans and told what we could not do and what had to be included, our plans were finally approved in July 2014. Finance was sorted and after a bit of the paperwork we broke ground in late November 2015. Here in WA double brick is the norm, with one of the largest brick factories on the world (Midland brick)it is expected every house is made of brick. Well due to the heritage area we could have gone brick but decided a framed weatherboard home. This was because of a few reasons. 1: You get bigger rooms as it is not double brick as space was a premium we thought this was best. 2: Quicker build you can have the house built a lot faster than brick. 3: Due to the speed, costs are kept down not having to pay a bickie for his time. 4: 6.3 star energy rating straight up because it is not brick! 5: In the house by June! Fingers crossed! 16/12/2015: It has started, the first pad has been poured and the only brick work in the house (Retaining wall) has started! 25/12/2015: Christmas nothing happened the bloody elves did not build my house over night! 13/01/2016: Back from camping to find the pad is set with building frames on site with the rest of the wall nearing completion. 19/01/2016: Holy crap! we have the start of walls for the lower half of the house. 22/01/2016: Second floor is up and the walls for it! going really quick now! 29/01/2016: The second pad is being prepped for the last concrete pad. Good to see things going fast! ..... 1/4/16: Met electrician onsite Custom framed home build Inglewood Western Australia - Plans 2Jan 30, 2016 3:08 pm Re: Custom framed home build Inglewood Western Australia 3Jan 30, 2016 3:30 pm http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y333/LetThisBeAGoodIdea/20160113_120611_zpsnhnqrafw.jpg
http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y333/LetThisBeAGoodIdea/20160113_120704_zpso5xfvybe.jpg Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y333/LetThisBeAGoodIdea/20160119_121119_zpssal3uxo6.jpg Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Help with kitchen colour selections please 4Jan 30, 2016 9:54 pm So while the husband is focussed on the build progress, I keep getting distracted by colour choices. Most of the big decisions have been made (i.e. the ones that needed to be financed separate from the build) but the benefit / pain of a custom build is that I don't need to decide on bathroom / kitchen colours until they are close to being installed. So, I am looking for any guidance possible from those that have been there. What will work? I am aiming for something relatively classic and traditional. Partly for longevity and partly because of how it would fit with the design. Just to stop my mind from imploding, I am looking for help with the kitchen first. I have my heart set on Caesarstone Bianco Drift in the kitchen... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I like this because I think that the mix of grey and brown should (in my mind) help if I choose to switch colour schemes later on. At the moment I am erring towards pairing it with parchment cabinetry (top and bottom) and pearl white subway tiles as a splash back but would love any other suggestions. I have found grey cabinetry appealing too but I worry that I might get sick of it later. Re: Custom framed home build Inglewood Western Australia 5Jan 30, 2016 10:21 pm I am also building a customer house not too far from your house. I think the hardest part of the build is definitely the colour selections and interior design. Picking taps, vanities, dunnies etc is very straight forward as is looking at layouts. I found picking colours an absolute nightmare.... Re: Custom framed home build Inglewood Western Australia 6Jan 30, 2016 10:57 pm AussieMark I am also building a customer house not too far from your house. I think the hardest part of the build is definitely the colour selections and interior design. Picking taps, vanities, dunnies etc is very straight forward as is looking at layouts. I found picking colours an absolute nightmare.... I completely agree! All the fittings are easy to rationalise because of cost. There are too many options with colours and if I mess them up, the cost could be huge. Don't really like the idea of retiling! Re: Custom framed home build Inglewood Western Australia 8Feb 04, 2016 8:18 am Nice plan, don't see many timber clad homes on sloping blocks being built in perth I can say putting/burying concrete waste/under fill behind retaining walls is not a good idea. I hope it was removed. Also please consider adding additional bracing to that cavity fill wall prior to pour..as there is a lot of hydrostatic pressure down below on the wall. Please check your engineering drawings Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Custom framed home build Inglewood Western Australia 9Feb 05, 2016 11:05 pm Hi LTBAGI! I found your post from Google & will be following with interest. We are also thinking about buying a block in Inglewood of a similar size for the same reasons - commute & schools. I hope you don't mind me asking a couple of questions...How did you go about selecting a builder? Is it more cost effective to do a timber frame? Are there any negatives to timber vs brick? Did you buy the plot first & then work out what would fit or did you do some research before buying the plot? We are at the very beginning & it's all very daunting! Re: Custom framed home build Inglewood Western Australia 10Feb 05, 2016 11:25 pm StructuralBIMGuy Nice plan, don't see many timber clad homes on sloping blocks being built in perth I can say putting/burying concrete waste/under fill behind retaining walls is not a good idea. I hope it was removed. Also please consider adding additional bracing to that cavity fill wall prior to pour..as there is a lot of hydrostatic pressure down below on the wall. Please check your engineering drawings Yep all was done as you stated and all looking good. Compaction testing was done today and all good! Hoping for the second pad to be poured on Tuesday, fingers crossed it all goes as planned. Re: Custom framed home build Inglewood Western Australia 11Feb 06, 2016 12:49 am nicolac34 Hi LTBAGI! I found your post from Google & will be following with interest. We are also thinking about buying a block in Inglewood of a similar size for the same reasons - commute & schools. I hope you don't mind me asking a couple of questions...How did you go about selecting a builder? Is it more cost effective to do a timber frame? Are there any negatives to timber vs brick? Did you buy the plot first & then work out what would fit or did you do some research before buying the plot? We are at the very beginning & it's all very daunting! Nocolac34 Yep it is daunting especially if you like us, have never done it before! Now builders... Luckily we were forwarded to Homebuilders Advantage, a building broker. What that meant was they designed the home and after we were happy with the plans it was tendered to five different builders. We went through the quotes and it was quite surprising the difference between builders for relatively the same specs. There was a difference of close to 100K from the lowest to highest quote, so if you walked into a building company with nothing else to compare to you may be up for quite a bit. What I like about this process was the fact the builders wanted our build, not us begging one building company to build our house. Due to Inglewood being an older area (Brown fields) a lot of major building company's won't touch a build there, as they have their Mc Donald's style pre done plans where they know exactly what everything is costed and the blocks are usually nice and flat. Then there is the other matter... Heritage areas! Inglewood is a part of a big one, and as such if you build there you have to keep within the bounds of their rules or the plan will not be passed! Due to this to helped us decide on timber frame. Two doors down is a timber framed home (one of the oldest homes in Inglewood) and it has been there close to 100 years... Still standing! Timber framed homes are common place around most parts of the world and in the east coast, but due to Midland brick being here pumping out a lot of bricks brick houses tend to be cheaper here than over east. It is a lot more environmentally friendly and sustainable to build timber frame, and energy rating of 6.3 is easily achieved with timber and harder with brick. It is cheaper due to materials used and also due to time (Second floor up in a week can't do that with brick!). Another benefit of framed is the internal space. With double brick construction you loose a lot of internal space, with framed you get more as there is only one wall. As you stated, if you are looking at a block of similar size you need to utilise all the space you can get why wast it with space eaten up with walls? here is a quote from 2013 from this forum. I don't think you'll find a convincing "one is better than the other" answer to your question ... it seems to be purely about fashion. I've got work colleagues from Belgium who tell me nobody would get a house made with a wooden frame holding it up; and yet in Sydney it's standard practice (and in looking at houses in the last 3 years or so I've not seen one which wasn't built using either a wooden or steel frame as the starting-point; this includes every construction-site I've peered over the fence at, custom & project builders, etc). I think the difference comes down to wooden frames being more susceptible to rot & termites, if not done properly; double-brick is more prone to cracking/settling if not done properly. Building using a frame appears to be cheaper; but that may only be because everyone is doing it. It doesn't seem any less sturdy. From an insulation point of view it makes little difference, with modern building materials (50 years ago a cavity-brick place would be much better at staying cool in summer & retaining heat in winter - but with modern insulation it's no different). So it's all about fashion. The only thing to be wary of is getting something decent for your money. It's been said on this forum that around Perth, everything is double-brick apart from the cheapest of houses. You'd want to do your research before deciding on a wooden frame house there; because it's possible that you can't get a properly-built wooden-framed house there because everyone building "proper" houses is using double-brick. So the fashion of the area can affect you; it's not just about your preference. And fashion also affects resale; if everyone buying used houses thinks they want double-brick ... Here is the link to the post for this topic it makes good sense for pros and cons. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=66371 The land... We did not research too much, it was all about location and school zones and location to public transport and cafe strip (if a certain school is what you are after make sure you are in the catchment for it.) As there is not too much land in Inglewood you usually don't have too many options. My other half did not want a battle axe block behind someone else and strata, the land we chose has street frontage and is green title. Hope this make some sense or gives you some help with your plans. Re: Custom framed home build Inglewood Western Australia 12Feb 06, 2016 12:47 pm Thank you that's really useful! Can I ask why it took so long to settle on the land? We think we will have to sell our current home to fund the purchase of the land (deposit, stamp duty etc) so will have to move into rented so we are keen once we make the decision to get moving quickly. That's another thing that appeals with timber - the fact it goes up so much quicker! Are there specific builders that do timber framed houses or will they all do it? I have to admit it's not something we'd even considered so have just been trying to have a look to see who does 2-story builds - on my list so far are APG, Perceptions, Summit Homes, Dale Alcock and RedInk, would there be any others you'd recommend we look at? Actually the land we have seen sounds very similar to yours - I wonder if it is the one next door?? It's 245sqm and 12.5x20m on a sloping block. Re: Custom framed home build Inglewood Western Australia 13Feb 06, 2016 3:31 pm nicolac34 Thank you that's really useful! Can I ask why it took so long to settle on the land? We think we will have to sell our current home to fund the purchase of the land (deposit, stamp duty etc) so will have to move into rented so we are keen once we make the decision to get moving quickly. That's another thing that appeals with timber - the fact it goes up so much quicker! Are there specific builders that do timber framed houses or will they all do it? I have to admit it's not something we'd even considered so have just been trying to have a look to see who does 2-story builds - on my list so far are APG, Perceptions, Summit Homes, Dale Alcock and RedInk, would there be any others you'd recommend we look at? Actually the land we have seen sounds very similar to yours - I wonder if it is the one next door?? It's 245sqm and 12.5x20m on a sloping block. We put in an offer when the land was being subdivided so that was the big wait, but due to the wait and not having to pay for it till it settled, gave us an advantage of sorting out the builder/council stuff. We sold our house to finance the build and luckily the new owners were investors so we rented our house back off them. As for the big builders you listed... We went to a couple, but not many were interested without being ready to bend us over and take us for all we are worth. Most of them only deal with sub divisions, and the area you are looking at requires heritage guidelines. This means their plans would need massive alterations to fit the block and the council requirements. An example is in our plans we did not want to have a front porch, but the council insisted if no porch was there the plans were not going to be approved. So that space came out of our master bedroom and walk in robe unfortunately. If you are building in this area and you are looking to stay for the long term, I recommend you build the house YOU WANT, not what the stock standard plans state from the big builders. As for me I am a shift worker, so the plans we made are conducive for this being to entering the room or leaving without waking the other person too much while getting ready or in the bathroom. I would highly recommend a building broker like Homebuilders Advantage who had current dealings with the council, and knows what you can an cannot build in the area being heritage listed area with all the rules. If your builder or designer does not know the rules properly, you could be waiting longer than you want for approval, costing you more cash. Not only this, the building broker will offer you more than what you will get usually from the big builders and YOU help design the home YOU want. We went timber framed, but you don't have to, you can have brick like the many others in Perth, but we wanted to maximise our internal space in the little space we had, so framed was the go. As the link to the other post states a lot of builders will stay with what they know so they may not offer framed. We are happy with our builder as he is a small builder and instead of paying for consultants, flash buildings and staff, we are directly dealing with the builder no middle men or 20 something gelled up hair sales man. From the sounds of it you are looking at the block next to us, so part of the retaining is already done by us, which is a bonus on earth works cost for you. Also with market drop the land is also cheaper than it was two years ago. Re: Custom framed home build Inglewood Western Australia 14Feb 06, 2016 9:38 pm LetThisBeAGoodIdea nicolac34 Thank you that's really useful! Can I ask why it took so long to settle on the land? We think we will have to sell our current home to fund the purchase of the land (deposit, stamp duty etc) so will have to move into rented so we are keen once we make the decision to get moving quickly. That's another thing that appeals with timber - the fact it goes up so much quicker! Are there specific builders that do timber framed houses or will they all do it? I have to admit it's not something we'd even considered so have just been trying to have a look to see who does 2-story builds - on my list so far are APG, Perceptions, Summit Homes, Dale Alcock and RedInk, would there be any others you'd recommend we look at? Actually the land we have seen sounds very similar to yours - I wonder if it is the one next door?? It's 245sqm and 12.5x20m on a sloping block. We put in an offer when the land was being subdivided so that was the big wait, but due to the wait and not having to pay for it till it settled, gave us an advantage of sorting out the builder/council stuff. We sold our house to finance the build and luckily the new owners were investors so we rented our house back off them. As for the big builders you listed... We went to a couple, but not many were interested without being ready to bend us over and take us for all we are worth. Most of them only deal with sub divisions, and the area you are looking at requires heritage guidelines. This means their plans would need massive alterations to fit the block and the council requirements. An example is in our plans we did not want to have a front porch, but the council insisted if no porch was there the plans were not going to be approved. So that space came out of our master bedroom and walk in robe unfortunately. If you are building in this area and you are looking to stay for the long term, I recommend you build the house YOU WANT, not what the stock standard plans state from the big builders. As for me I am a shift worker, so the plans we made are conducive for this being to entering the room or leaving without waking the other person too much while getting ready or in the bathroom. I would highly recommend a building broker like Homebuilders Advantage who had current dealings with the council, and knows what you can an cannot build in the area being heritage listed area with all the rules. If your builder or designer does not know the rules properly, you could be waiting longer than you want for approval, costing you more cash. Not only this, the building broker will offer you more than what you will get usually from the big builders and YOU help design the home YOU want. We went timber framed, but you don't have to, you can have brick like the many others in Perth, but we wanted to maximise our internal space in the little space we had, so framed was the go. As the link to the other post states a lot of builders will stay with what they know so they may not offer framed. We are happy with our builder as he is a small builder and instead of paying for consultants, flash buildings and staff, we are directly dealing with the builder no middle men or 20 something gelled up hair sales man. From the sounds of it you are looking at the block next to us, so part of the retaining is already done by us, which is a bonus on earth works cost for you. Also with market drop the land is also cheaper than it was two years ago. Thank you again for taking the time to reply. Do the council publish a list of guidelines to help or was it a case of submitting something and waiting to see if they will approve or not? 12 plans is a lot to go through before getting them to agree! Were there any big no-no's that you would advise us to avoid? We would like to achieve either 4x2 or 3x2 with an activity/study nook area with some outside space for our little boy to play. With the slope of the block did you consider putting your living areas upstairs and bedrooms downstairs to maximize the light? Re: Custom framed home build Inglewood Western Australia 15Feb 07, 2016 12:07 am Thank you again for taking the time to reply. Do the council publish a list of guidelines to help or was it a case of submitting something and waiting to see if they will approve or not? 12 plans is a lot to go through before getting them to agree! Were there any big no-no's that you would advise us to avoid? We would like to achieve either 4x2 or 3x2 with an activity/study nook area with some outside space for our little boy to play. With the slope of the block did you consider putting your living areas upstairs and bedrooms downstairs to maximize the light? The council does have a list of guidelines but again it is best to have someone who knows what they are doing to interpret it in design, as their is wiggle room in some instances. Here is the link http://www.stirling.wa.gov.au/developme ... lewood.pdf Design wise, we had what we wanted by the 6th plan, then it went to council and we had to start again as the tree in front of the land could not be removed and in our old plans had a tree being removed to allow the driveway. Again all of this was dealt with by Home Builders Advantage and all business with council was done by them, it was well worth the money spent by getting them to worry about it. Space wise, we are both professionals and don't have much time for too much yard. With both kids getting bigger, there is a park around the corner they can play or down the road. W We designed the house so the kids had a place up stairs when older, and also when we get older, only having one set of stairs to worry about instead of three. Also to have a patio out the back for entertaining. With building up stairs with the living space, you would have only highlight windows mostly due to the proximity of the neighbours and the overview into their back yards, unless you have enough of a set back, but the land is not that big for a set back.... Something to think about for any house you may have in mind. Re: Custom framed home build Inglewood Western Australia 16Feb 11, 2016 10:09 pm More frames and time for colour choices 17Feb 21, 2016 3:30 pm Things are starting to move with the addition of more frames and work starting on the fourth floor. We met with the builder on site on Friday and it is now time to start thinking about what colour we want to house to be. We had been erring towards a darker grey but the builder has recommended a lighter grey with blue tones (which is probably exactly where we started). So far I have shortlisted Dulux Tranquil Retreat, Dieskau and Grey Pail for colour testing. I did have Miller Mood in my hand as well (mainly because it was in the Dulux colour guides) but was encouraged to pick up something with less blue in it by the sales assistant. Has anyone used any of these? Any recommendations? The blue tones do put me off a bit but I am not sure if that is just because I am not used to it. Re: Custom framed home WA - frames for three storeys done 18Feb 24, 2016 8:33 am Is that internal colour or external? What roofing are you doing - colourbond or tiles? I actually drew your house in sketchup last night, pretty impressive building really (I wouldn't want to be building it in real life - it's enough of a headache in 3D) - I can email you the sketchup file if you want to have a play. Re: Custom framed home WA - frames for three storeys done 19Feb 24, 2016 12:09 pm http://www.yourbuilds.com/2016/02/sketc ... house.html It's not super accurate, but... this is in Tranquil Retreat Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Custom framed home WA - frames for three storeys done 20Feb 24, 2016 1:08 pm Thank you so much SileNceR! That is fantastic. I'm looking forward to checking it on the computer when I get home tonight. Use a product like Equisol's Vitalise to clean the deck then coat with a penetrating timber oil. It will look 10 years younger and add value to your home. Visit for… 1 15812 Hello everyone, I have a question regarding moving a chandelier after it has been mounted. The chandelier in question is quite large, measuring 4 meters… 0 72342 |