New Building Seaford Meadows SA

Hi All,

We are new here, however we would like to say a massive THANK YOU!!! To everyone on here for advice and general informative discussions that we have read.

We will be settling our land later this month, and have gone through the design process with our chosen builder... don't get me started on that! You'd think they were the ones going to live there, the crap they try to push on you, and they are mightily offended if you don't want it...hahahaha.

My parents were owner builders, so I'm not a complete newbie... they don't like that, either

So a couple of colleagues of mine are also soon to build, and I pointed out a few things about our house design, that they have then gone and changed in their own plans. Not because we're so great, but because I was determined to have a sensible house with no silly bits like an exposed basin area to the main bathroom, (guests don't get any privacy at a basin? Really?), and things like that.

So I just wanted to list a few considerations for other people building. I'm just gonna bullet point them, in no particular order; it's just what we are having in our 'last' house, and by no means any advice. We are having what is considered in SA to be an extra large house... Being that I'm from NSW, I think it's a medium-large house, more on the medium side.

* We are having the 2700mm ceiling - therefore we are having short pendant lighting throughout. I don't want to have to be on the big ladder when I'm 90 to change a lightbulb. A step ladder will be tricky enough. My colleague looked horrified when I mentioned that to her, and rang up her builders on the spot. She was also building her retirement house.

*We are having no Dutch gables or other paint requiring surfaces outside... I don't want to paint it in my 'golden years', and neither do I want to pay someone from my small pension to paint it.

*We initially looked at a double story, b'cus my Welsh husband was used to that. However, after I told him that we then had to have a dumb waiter, as there was no way in H€££ that I was carting laundry or meals trays up and down... we have a single story. I also told him that I wouldn't call an ambulance if he fell down the stairs once he got feeble! (It's ok, we're like that with each other - it's love, really!)

* I refused to have the bouncy shiny pvc edging in the kitchen cabinetry... I didn't want it outgassing for a million years, and plus - shiny... uuurgh. Bouncy...uuurgh. Also the satin 2pack paint I wanted can be easily re-sprayed at any time for touch ups, or just changing the look. With 2pack you can have any colour - I heard of a lady who sent away a pillowcase to be colour matched... and she got exactly that. The silly salesman who wouldn't know the first thing about liveable house design in general was horrified/astonished that I didn't want the pvc. You would have thought we were paying to build his house. It's not like I have a million kids slamming doors in the kitchen... it's just two of us!
They wanted me to have gloss cupboards. Ok. If you like the 'bling factor' (I personally don't), then go for it.
However my main concern is that it not only reflects light but also Heat. Capital h, Heat.
If you go into a kitchen showroom, deliberately notice the heat difference in the satin or matte kitchen, from the gloss kitchen. I brought a scoffing friend through one of the showrooms, and asked her to do exactly that. The dawning realization on her face was something to behold! There is an appreciable difference. Our summers are too hot for me to even consider gloss finishes.

*Try to avoid getting the wardrobes put in... you will be charged an exhorbitant fee for a rail and cheap doors.
With what we saved we had superior spec doors (2pack satin, preferred colour and routing design), interior drawers and hanging spaces to our design, for two big bedrooms and all the pantry, linen press and cloak room shelving. To give you an idea, the main bedroom robe is 5.2mtrs, the guest bedroom robe is 3mtrs, my linen press was actually the whole laundry on the design at 1.8x2.5. My pantry was the formal dining area at 2.5x 4.25... so you see the saving we made.

*In the laundry again. I made the laundry the linen press, one of the bedrooms is now the laundry... if you like arts and crafts, like we do, have a big laundry. Here I can scour and dye wool to be spun, paint, sculpt, starch the clothes, do the ironing, have a table and chairs, make soap, soak quilts, and do sanding and painting of small furniture items etc. This room is 3.3x 4.15.
If you have or want to take up crafty hobbies in your retirement, this space is worth considering. Why mess up your living areas?

*Room sizes. There were 5 bedrooms in all, and now it's a really spacious three bedder. We didn't need the third robe, as we have one for what will be my sewing room/another guest bedroom. One bedroom has become a retreat/musical instrument room, that can also become a fourth bedroom if necessary. We have a guitar, dan bao, erhu, and various percussion instruments - they need a place to live and be used in.

The fifth bedroom space has become a super generous cloak room that can easily be converted into a study, if not wanted, but I hate hats, coats, umbrellas, shoes, gloves, handbags, backpacks, hiking sticks, tennis rackets etc being visible, or having to traipse back through the house to get hold of.

Why be squashed? I'm sick of moving something, to move something else, to move something else, in order to do some quick cleaning behind things. I don't want to pull the whole house apart to find one thing!

If you don't need extra bedrooms all the time, or a billiard table space, consider having rooms that can be temporarily bedrooms, and reducing room numbers to have larger rooms. Unless you own nothing, larger rooms are easier to clean.

Another colleague, has now reduced her plans by one room, as she didn't need it, and has a spacious and luxury main bedroom in consequence. They didn't even tell her they could change the plans! She thought she had to have what was on the plan.... sheesh!


*They kept trying to sneak an undermount sink into our plans... I wasn't paying all that for engineered stone, only to chip it when I wash up an outsize pot. I want to USE my kitchen, not look at it. The guy seemed to have trouble realizing that I want to use my benches, not show them off. I got the feeling that he dealt with a lot of people who 'saw' something shiny and wanted it, without realizing that they gotta actually live there afterward. Not to mention, I ain't cleaning that rim under the stone where all the crap collects. One of my hubbies friends rues the day she got hers...


*Toilets. You can't have too many. I have one in the laundry. If you are doing mucky outside work, or simply enjoying the outdoors, you needn't strip off dirty clothes or track wet/dirt through the house for a loo visit.
I have a powder room in the front near the lounge, by the cloakroom. If you are in the lounge you needn't hike to the back. If you have to entertain a stranger or salesman etc, they needn't go through and see your house if they need to 'go'.
Then there is the main bathroom and the ensuite. Believe me, if you have a houseful of guests, and you all got food poisoning from last night's less-than-hygienic restaurant... there are never too many toilets. Ask me how I know!

*We decided not to have the ensuite any where remotely close to our clothes. Hot, moist air + clothes and shoes = mildew & ruined clothes.

*Our kitchen is central in the house, but was going to end up a dark hole. Every skylight I ever had leaked, se we decided to put openable hilite windows, with plantation shutters, in the tops of the walls around the kitchen, including to the main bedroom and back hall. That way we can have maximum light penetration, as well as superior air circulation.
We are having roman blinds and plantation shutters throughout. I never want to see, sew, or wash a curtain again!



So this is a few of the things we thought about... and I thought it might be useful to some people, as it seemed a few of our friends and colleagues hadn't thought about these things.
I only hope my build isn't as painful as some I've seen here; and EXTRA GOOD LUCK, to all who are about to take the plunge!