Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 04, 2016 2:41 pm 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! Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 2Mar 04, 2016 7:35 pm Hey welcome. I have read so much on this forum and it has been really helpful. We are also at the same point as you, building in SM hopefully settling in about a month. Maybe we will be neighbours I look forward to checking out your build as it progresses Building a Fairmont Custom in Seaford Meadows Our Build Thread Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 3Mar 04, 2016 9:02 pm We are also building at Seaford Meadows. I'd love to know which road you're both building on? We are signing our drawings off next week so we're still in early stages. Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately for me, I love the shiny surfaces, even though I know they'll be a pain to clean. New Building Seaford Meadows SA 4Mar 05, 2016 3:14 pm We are building at Seaford Meadows also. We are on Cook Street. This forum has been an awesome help and I can't thank everyone enough who updates their threads regularly. Like Marshall5858 we have also chosen the shiny surfaces as we feel it looks modern and slick. Which builder are you building with JayaJaya, it sounds like your sales person was pretty flexible (albeit maybe not willingly ). Looking forward to following all you guys during your build process! Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 5Mar 06, 2016 7:41 pm Well Howdy, everyone! We are on Naval Rd... our builder starts with an f and they are SA only... you can work it out from there! I don't want to say too much, because they do trawl these sites for their names...I'll reveal all when we are done... drumroll please.... I don't want a hassle with them putting my windows in crooked, if I have a little whinge on here! Not that they would, and I'm having an independent building inspector as well; you just want it to be as pleasant as possible for everyone. They have a good reputation, and not being national, I thought they would be more eager to maintain that reputation. They really did bend over backwards to provide the design we wanted. Our land settles soon, so I'm off to see the mortgage broker on Tuesday. She's a great lady, we've dealt with her several times. We can buy the land, but the build needs finance. So I still have no idea as to how long council will take etc. I'll sign up with the builder as soon as the land settles, seeing as we should have pre-approval before then. *sigh* - I didn't want to do all this, but it's worth it for the 'forever-providing-there-are-no-surprises' house. So I'm happy about what we will get, but not thrilled with choosing all the stuff and blah blah blah. In an ideal world, some clinician in a white coat reads your mind and has it all built for you for about 5 bucks a pop, hahahahah lol. In my real and actual fantasies, I live in 'Gull Cottage' from the movie version of 'The Ghost and Mrs Muir', with Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison - if I can't have that I'll have the next best, which is this! I worked out our sqm price and it's surprisingly under the national average, and also the Adelaide avg, that's after I added $40, 000 for incidentals like flooring, concreting surrounds, fences etc. And we're going steel frame as well. Then again, it's a bigger house and by the time you pay for everyone to show up and everything, it gets cheaper as you get bigger, seeing as everyone's there anyway! The delivery costs are about the same for materials etc, as long as it's not a whole extra truck. BTW, anyone know what footings/site costs are likely to be for Seaford Meadows? They put in a really super generous allowance, but I'd like a rough idea. Don't get me wrong about the shinies! I quite like it sometimes, and have a white bureau that is gloss, but I can't take it in what is already a warm place like the kitchen...so much heat bounces back with the light! I'm not having ultra modern anything, it's not us, so the bedrooms will be more classic, and the kitchen area is more 'transitional'. Anyone else going with the engineered stone counter tops? We are going with Bianco Drift from Caesarstone... all our colours will be whites greys silvers creams and taupes with brushed silver and antiqued brass fittings. What colour palettes are you all having? We are considering bamboo flooring... does anyone have any experience with it or know anyone who does? Thanks everyone for your answers, it's nice to know we'll all be in it together! New Building Seaford Meadows SA 6Mar 08, 2016 10:12 pm JayaJaya when we got our quote from Fairmont the sales guy told us word for word "we have built many houses here in Seaford Meadows and we know what the footings are like. If you were building at Seaford heights vista (this is when the vista development had just went on sale) then we would have to put in a contingency because we don't know the area that well yet".
He then quoted us $15000 fixed footings for a 255m2 house as we told him it was unacceptable to give us a "contingency" if they knew the area that well. Don't let Fairmont play you on this one because it was RealtySA who are part of the Fairmont group who developed the land and they have built hundreds of homes there. That goes for any other builder as well! The soil at Seaford Meadows is actually pretty good and I would be interested to see what other builders including Fairmont have quoted folk. Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 7Mar 08, 2016 10:52 pm JayaJaya Anyone else going with the engineered stone counter tops? We are going with Bianco Drift from Caesarstone... all our colours will be whites greys silvers creams and taupes with brushed silver and antiqued brass fittings. What colour palettes are you all having? We are considering bamboo flooring... does anyone have any experience with it or know anyone who does? Hello! I intend on going with Bianco Drift in my kitchen. I like the mixture of beige and grey through the stone, I am hoping it gives me more flexibility if I ever decide to change my cabinet / splash back colours later on down the track. At the moment I am erring towards pairing the bench top with a parchment white cabinetry and white / cream / light grey subway tiles but.... still not locked in on that. Would be great to see your final colour selections if we are going the same way. We are going bamboo flooring through the living areas (in Rustic I think) with a charcoal carpet in the bedrooms. Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 8Mar 20, 2016 8:02 am Cook2091 JayaJaya when we got our quote from Fairmont the sales guy told us word for word "we have built many houses here in Seaford Meadows and we know what the footings are like. If you were building at Seaford heights vista (this is when the vista development had just went on sale) then we would have to put in a contingency because we don't know the area that well yet". He then quoted us $15000 fixed footings for a 255m2 house as we told him it was unacceptable to give us a "contingency" if they knew the area that well. Don't let Fairmont play you on this one because it was RealtySA who are part of the Fairmont group who developed the land and they have built hundreds of homes there. That goes for any other builder as well! The soil at Seaford Meadows is actually pretty good and I would be interested to see what other builders including Fairmont have quoted folk. Hey there Cook2091... It's not Fairmont! It's the steel frame mob in SA who also start with F. They've given us a $34000 allowance for a 330sq slab, so we should be more than covered! Especially since our slope is only 20cm fall across 18mtrs... dead flat! Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 9Mar 20, 2016 8:31 am LetThisBeAGoodIdea JayaJaya Anyone else going with the engineered stone counter tops? We are going with Bianco Drift from Caesarstone... all our colours will be whites greys silvers creams and taupes with brushed silver and antiqued brass fittings. What colour palettes are you all having? We are considering bamboo flooring... does anyone have any experience with it or know anyone who does? Hello! I intend on going with Bianco Drift in my kitchen. I like the mixture of beige and grey through the stone, I am hoping it gives me more flexibility if I ever decide to change my cabinet / splash back colours later on down the track. At the moment I am erring towards pairing the bench top with a parchment white cabinetry and white / cream / light grey subway tiles but.... still not locked in on that. Would be great to see your final colour selections if we are going the same way. We are going bamboo flooring through the living areas (in Rustic I think) with a charcoal carpet in the bedrooms. Hi LetThisBeAGoodIdea... (love the user name - feeling a bit like that ourselves) I'm having the Bianco Drift in the kitchen and Raven in the bathrooms. I'm leaning towards a quarter strength of Dulux Silkwort on the kitchen cabinets 2pack, (I'm getting the builder to do their extra thin wall paint in Dulux vivid white, which I will go over in 'lexicon' or a more stony grey, but I will be having the painters use eco-colour no VOC paint). Floors in heavy duty commercial laminate -AC5 - or bamboo. Would prefer bamboo, but am fussy about the colours... it's got to be greyish without being too light and stark, or too uniform... looks like laminate is winning, here. I'll need a different colour in the living room, as all our furniture and décor is burgundies, creams and muted golds, brasses. We're having some sort of solid splashback, but haven't decided what just yet...still looking! Laminex do a heat resistant metallic one, now, so we may look at that... that's exactly what I thought about the bianco drift...it can pick up so many colours, you have a huge range when you want to change the look, and the stone will change with it. I'm having a 'soul-search' about the kitchen lighting... Much as I like the three pendants over the kitchen bench... I've seen it so much, I'm not wanting it anymore... have to see what I can dream up. To my conformist husband's everlasting shame, I am not the most conventional person, so I have to come to some compromise between what I really want, and what he will stand, We are signing up today...uuurrrgh...He's ok, but I have a pathological despite for salesmen. I know there's worse out there, but they make 'cagey' a competition between them. It's never occurred to any of 'em that you sign up more people if you at least 'pretend' that you aren't hiding anything. Good luck with everything! We're off to the lion's den... Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 10Mar 21, 2016 4:04 pm Have found out we are delayed on settlement with the land... end July/beginning August... our builder was fabulous and said we can amend dates on contract, no penalty. Yayyy! Now we've got more time to scrape up money and examine selections. I've already decided on a xeriscape cacti and succulent garden, so y'all will know where I live! I've just been looking at deciduous trees for the west side at the front... gotta be fast growing, non-allergy, drought/cold resistant, small height, easy care, insect, animal and bird feeding (including me!), and small root system. Don't want much, do I? Fortunately we have a winner...!!! Pomegranate!!! I love everything about it... perfect. Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 11Mar 21, 2016 11:38 pm JayaJaya Hi LetThisBeAGoodIdea... (love the user name - feeling a bit like that ourselves) I'm having the Bianco Drift in the kitchen and Raven in the bathrooms. I'm leaning towards a quarter strength of Dulux Silkwort on the kitchen cabinets 2pack, (I'm getting the builder to do their extra thin wall paint in Dulux vivid white, which I will go over in 'lexicon' or a more stony grey, but I will be having the painters use eco-colour no VOC paint). ... We're having some sort of solid splashback, but haven't decided what just yet...still looking! Laminex do a heat resistant metallic one, now, so we may look at that... that's exactly what I thought about the bianco drift...it can pick up so many colours, you have a huge range when you want to change the look, and the stone will change with it. I'm having a 'soul-search' about the kitchen lighting... Much as I like the three pendants over the kitchen bench... I've seen it so much, I'm not wanting it anymore... have to see what I can dream up. To my conformist husband's everlasting shame, I am not the most conventional person, so I have to come to some compromise between what I really want, and what he will stand, Glad to hear that your meeting today went well. Also that I am not alone with the second guessing of the decision to get into this whole building fiasco. It seems that we are similar in colour choices. We are using Silkwort on the exterior of our house . Look forward to seeing it in action on your cabinetry. I may have to look into the heat resistance laminex splash back. I have been in love with the subway tiles since we first started looking but similar to your lighting dilemma (which I have also had) I have seen them everywhere. With our lighting, I was convinced that I needed feature lighting throughout - ignoring all my husband's complaints that they were dust collectors. Him sticking to his guns has paid off though, I have come around to his way of thinking and now I am on side for downlight through the whole lower levels and upper living. My kitchen pendant dream was the last to die but now I am increasingly convinced (because of the relatively small space) that they would be a distraction. Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 12Mar 22, 2016 3:44 pm Hi, Have any of you (that are building around Seaford Meadows) found a well priced fencing contractor yet? We have had a couple of quotes but need 2 more and would really appreciate a recommendation. Thanks in advance Building Simonds Palisade soon.. Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 13Mar 22, 2016 6:32 pm Hey Marshall we are also needing a fence done on the right hand side of our property (our neighbours did the left and the rear) so if you could let us know who you get the best quote from that would be awesome. Thanks! Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 14Mar 22, 2016 7:46 pm Hi Everyone! Re fences... I had a runaway car smash into our front fence... I don't know what it cost as it went thru their insurance, but the guys who did it were excellent. They didn't grunt into the phone, either, when I called (bonus!). All I have is a mobile number, his name is Aaron and the # is 0401 761 288 I don't know if he is cheap, but the work was excellent, cleared up after themselves beautifully... on time and everything! I asked him if he did big and small residential jobs and he said yes. It was about 12 months ago, so I hope he is still around. Hope that helps! Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 15Mar 22, 2016 8:26 pm Hi LetThisBeAGoodIdea! I'm glad that I'm not the only one who's over the whole lighting thing...trouble is I have loads of downlights making Swiss cheese of my current ceiling and I hate them with a deep and abiding hatred. I really love the look of subway tiles... growing up in Sydney, they remind me of the lovely old underground stations of Museum and St James... I really don't want to clean grout, though! I would have punched holes and put led spotlights in the eye pits of mannequin heads and had them fastened to the ceiling, but my husband would have nightmares... my Mum would think it was hilarious, and my bestie would say 'You're so weird', like she always does. I'm actually having 'short' 30/40cm pendants with three alabaster glass light shades in most of the house... we have high ceilings happening, and I don't want to climb the big ladder to change bulbs when I'm 90. So I thought two in the dining area and then two in the kitchen, in line, and the ones in the kitchen centred at the working edge of the island IYKWIM. So when you are working at the island they will be hovering by your shoulders, slightly in front of you, and you aren't working in your own shadow -still lighting the whole kitchen though. Then I think I'll have wall sconces over the sink area and by the range-hood on the other wall... I want to avoid overhead cupboards. If I can figure out how, I will put up an image of the floorplan at some point and ask you what you think. Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 16Mar 22, 2016 9:53 pm hi all im building on naval road seaford meadows. unless i change my mind again that is! seems the house has to fit on the land haha. at this stage im thinking of the sutton with a builder starting with h... seems good value and gives me a 7m backyard if i have calculated correctly. im hoping this process doesnt break me Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 17Mar 23, 2016 6:09 am Hi Buildingnanna! So we will be neighbours!! Excellent I'm guessing your settlement date has been delayed as well, then? Or did they have you down for another time? I hope everything goes well for you... we bought a big block so we could fill it up with house, however we couldn't fill up as much as we wanted. Not a huge difference, but we had to sacrifice half a metre here or there. Off to work, now - I'll be back this evening and we can chat some more. Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 18Mar 25, 2016 6:29 pm There's no way I can post my floorplan, as it's custom and there's no online link to it... I don't do facebook and I certainly don't splash my life all over the interwebs, be it in pics or whatever else, so sorry to disappoint Pooh! A very kind soul on another build thread (sorry, I don't remember your username), indicated a free visualizer that's supposed to be really good. http://www.digitaldecorator.com.au/ I hope it's useful to y'all, as it wasn't much chop for us. The selections for each item like floor and cupboards was way too limited... they had nothing remotely like what we were looking at in floors, for example. The rooms were nothing like ours, either. The builder has assured us [i]in writing[i] that they will not charge us in any way for the late start with the land settlement, so I can confidently say I am extremely happy in our choice of builder so far, even though I'm not over-fond of the salesman's manner. I don't think he's over-fond of my manner either, so that evens out nicely, and we're all square. I feel he thinks we're being unnecessarily nit-picky, but then again, we're paying - not him. I've potted up lots of cuttings from succulents, and been slowly increasing the cacti collection, so I hope I'll be ready to go with the garden, immediately the concrete surrounds and driveway are in. I guess I'm on hold for now... are you across the road from us, buildingnanna? Has your land settled already? Happy Easter everyone Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 19Apr 08, 2016 12:34 pm Cook2091 Hey Marshall we are also needing a fence done on the right hand side of our property (our neighbours did the left and the rear) so if you could let us know who you get the best quote from that would be awesome. Thanks! Hey Cook2091, how is your build coming along? We've not been up there for a couple of weeks Re: New Building Seaford Meadows SA 20Apr 08, 2016 4:39 pm Hey JJ I woul LOVE a cactus garden. I'm jelly haha A neighbour up the road where we lived 25 years has one. It's amazing. Has couple of Palm trees and a metal wagon wheel feature central. It's fantastic. I wish I could do that but have no idea Enjoy your tips and ideas 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 9098 Is it just a report written to give to the bank initially and it is based on what and how your payments are made up for, or is it a full service where they go out and… 2 5605 Hi Suku18 In NSW the statutory required insurances are: 1. HBCF ( Home Building Compensation Fund) - This is if the builder dies or goes broke. But this only covers 20%… 1 2713 |