Fairmont Homes - Flagstaff Hill SA

Background

Well I have been lurking on these forums for some time gleaning information - so hopefully I can put back some thoughts that can help others.
We have lived in Flagstaff Hill for the past 16 years. We have an AV Jennings home circa 1972 that we have renovated to a good standard, but the floorplan didn't quite suite what we needed.
About 2 years ago we started toying with the idea of building on a family room (and potential second toilet). Out we went to various builders after having plans drafted and all quotes came back upwards of $90k.
We were fairly surprised by the price and realised that completed work would be well over $100k allowing for any variance and toilet.
It was a lot of money to put into a single room on an aging house so our plans went into stasis.

About 18 months ago we were watching TV late one night and there was an advert for building a new home for $120k!!! The wife and I looked at each other and our planning process took a turn to the different. As obscene as it was it occurred to us knocking down the current house might be a plan.....new room for $110k.....new house for $200k (if we could work around that number)

And so the hunt began

Change of plans

So where to start.....We have a large block and we had originally purchased for that reason.
We love the area, are close to schooling needs. Rather than move again and spend money on stamp duty we decided to look at ways that would make sense financially for where we are at this point in time. Downsizing the block is a no brainer for us. Family is growing and doesn't use the yard as much and if we build we would be in the new house for a long time.
So it was decided we would demolish - subdivide and build the house we wanted!

Where to start?

So after only ever having friends who have built it was where to? From reading forums I managed to piece together steps, processes and costs that would be needed to get to where we wanted.
We started off visiting display homes and getting ideas of floorplans that would work with a narrower frontage ( at the moment we have over 35m)
I drafted up some ideas of how we could split the block and trundled off to Council.
The staff at Onkaparinga were great......but this is where I hit my first hurdle. note to all YOUR PROPERTY DOES NOT START AT THE EDGE OF THE FOOTPATH!
Maybe I was naive but I had always thought this. It turns out our front boundary is close to 2m in from the footpaths edge - essentially in line with where the water meter is placed....so there is a nice 2m strip I have landscaped and watered for the past 15years that I probably didn't have to.
Not the end of the world...however it turned my 40+m frontage into closer to 35m. Council printed off overlays of the block on google maps with some water/sewer pipe layouts and I went off to redraw.
My second visit was also fruitful. I confirmed what we were looking to do met council requirements on block size, set back etc.
Turns out we could have divided into 3 - but it is an odd shaped block and then we were looking at a 2 story build which we didn't want to entertain.

The deciding factor

So the concept seemed to work...Council had said it was good in theory and pointed me to some information about subdividing and the costs we could expect.
The way we are splinting we need to run sewer to the second block and water to our block. Surely this would be free after all the water rates I have paid over the years (or a nominal fee). An SA Water fee for these services is already built into subdivision fees...and it isn't a few hundred dollars.
I started reading some online forums and soon realised that this is for a vanilla, bog standard, we dont have to do much work install. Any variation and SA Water costs escalate exponentially. I read some pretty tear inducing stories online of costs reaching over $50k to run these services. That sort of cost was a deal breaker.
So how do we find out a cost....off to SA Water. After some discussions and being put through to the right area I was informed for the princely sum of $300 someone would come out and draft costs for the services.

So this time last year I was checking the mail box when an SA Water car turned up and parked across the road. I loitered and someone came out and walked across to the water meter. After a quick shout out it was confirmed they were here to look at the planning (damn happy I was home as they wouldn't have found half of what they were looking for and I had the original sewer plans for the block) The two from SA Water were great and very helpful. After reviewing AV Jennings plans they confirmed even though a 100mm sewer pipe crossed both blocks a 150mm sewer pipe would need to be run to the new block.
So a couple of days later I received the draft plans and estimated costing. It made my eyes water but wasn't a deal breaker. I can only assume once in we will have some of the most valuable 150mm pvc pipe in Adelaide.
It turned out the nightmare costs usually came in when traffic control on major roads or horizontal boring was needed.

So that is a start. I will continue the tale...add a time line and some plans over the next few days.

And sa water overflowing with profits
Sounds fun project
I look forward to following

Look forward to reading about your building adventure

Good luck with it all

This looks like an exciting journey to follow, I look forward to watching your progress.
All the best

Builder Hunting

So the next step was to find the right house for the block...and the right builder. We thought it easiest to go with one of the volume builders for ease and looked at man display homes across Adelaide.
As reflected by many others it is a form of Black Magic to get solid quotes at this early stage, and unless you sign and put money down you cant expect much. To try to negate this we spent some money and had our land surveyed and soil tests done before we started the hunt. Finding several house plans we liked we then sat down with numerous builders, laid out our information and popped the 'what can you do for us?' question. Most were fairly helpful and detailed with responses....however even with the information we had none would be firm with expected footing costs - with some large differences in estimation. I was also surprised at the difference in detail in quotes at this stage, and some of the effort put in - some were detailed, some were vague and some drafted detailed plans and some almost did napkin drawings. We eventually narrowed down to variations of a Homestead and Statesman build. We still had a few niggling questions that we couldn't get addressed without commitment. My wife was speaking to a friend at her work who had built with Fairmont - a builder we had overlooked - who gave great reviews. So we grabbed the consultants details from her and made contact. So late Jan we headed out to Mt Barker sat down with the consultant and spun our story. The level of engagement we had was superior to most other experiences. After showing drafts of the layout we were after it was suggested we look at a design that wasn't on their website but they were shortly to have a display home open at Woodcroft. Several days later we recieved some of the most detailed draft plans any builder had provided. One of our key thoughts was if using a volume builder we wouldn't go with a design that we couldn't walk through - we wanted to get a feel of the layout and dimensions. So we waited for the new display home to open - paid several visits and sat down with the Consultant and made some changes to fit what we needed.

Timeline

I hope I have most of this in the correct order!

5/3/16 - Contract signed and deposit
31/3/16 - Contact from engineers to organise soil testing
4/4/16 - Contracts received
6/4/16 - Soil tests
7/4/16 - Site Survey
8/4/16 - Site Survey
2/5/16 - Footing and Engineering report
5/5/16 - Prelim plans received and returned
6/5/16 - Application for build received and lodged at council
9/5/16 - Final plans and selection packs recived
17/6/16 - Supreme Kitchen
20/6/16 - Direct Interiors
16/7/16 - Plans for second house build supplied by Fairmont
18/7/16 - Subdivision application lodged with DAC by surveyor
22/8/16 - Subdivision application received by council
16/9/16 - Council approval for build
22/11/16 - Subdivison approved by council
25-30/1/17 - block survey
26/1/17 - council approval for demolition
7/2/2017 - block pegged
13/2/17 - pegging plans received
21/2/17 - application to bank to subdivide
8/3/2017 - power disconnected
16/3/2017 - approval to subdivide from bank
30/3/2017 - big invoices from SA water for new sewer and DAC for open space levy
1/4/2017 - landscaping removal
3/4/2017 - Gas disconnection
6/4/2017 - demolition commence
18/4/2017- Stamped plans lodged at LTO by surveyor
28/4/2017 - demolition complete

Construction
1/5/2017 - Left hand side retaining wall
1/5/2017 - block wetting for 10 days
3/5/2017 - SA water contractors installed new sewer line and water meter
18/05/2017 - site work commenced
13/6/2017 - Trenching
14/6/2017 - Plumbing
17-18/6/2017 - plastic and reo
20/6/2017 - lower slab poured
21/6/2017 - upper slab poured
23/6/2017 - sewer plumbed in
27/6/2017 - power and phone line conduit run
5/7/2017 - PORTA LOO onsite!!!
12/7/2017 - timber delivered
13/7/2017 - bricks delivered
19/7/2017 - framing started
24/7/2017 - Roof trusses on
26/7/2017 - Framing complete
27/07/2017 - Roofing delivered
28/07/2017 - Facias and guttering complete
31/07/2017 - roofing complete
2/08/2017 - windows and sliding doors installed
10/8/2017 - Building wrapped
- plumbing and gas installed
11/8/2017 - first fix electrical and networking
14/8/2017 - Gyprock delivered and commenced
16/8/2017 - internal Gyprocking complete
21/8/2017 - internal flushing
- brickwork commenced
25/8/2017 - internal flushing sanded
28/8/2017 - Lock up!
- First fix carpentry
- Internal doors hung
- bulkheads framed
30&31/8/2017 - architraves and skirting boards fixed
4/9/2017- bath installed
5/9/2017 - waterproofing
6/9/2017 - SAPN connect power and install meter
13/9/2017 - kitchen and cabinetry delivered. WIR and bath vanities installed
14/9/2017 - tiles delivered
- second fix electrical
16/9/2017 - tiling commenced
18/09/2017 - brickwork completed
23/09/2017 - tiling complete
5/10/2017 - internal painting started
16/10/2017 - Eaves started
17/10/2017 - internal painting complete
18/10/2017 - Eaves complete
20/10/2017 - External paining complete
24/10/2017 - main floor tiling started
25/10/2017 - Gas meter installed
26/10/2017 - main floor tiling complete

Hopefully this works! Modified version of Charleston

Im loving your storytelling, very well written! Looking forward to following your build

Well it is engines full slow ahead. It is amazing how things grind to a halt when dealing with banks, local council and Government.....I often wonder how some of these people would survive in the real world where results are expected!
Anyway the time frame has nudged a bit. was expecting demolition to have commenced by now but that should be in the next few weeks. Will continue to update as it happens!

And so it begins...dismantling of landscaping
We have quite a few $$$ in moss rock retaining. We have no idea what we will need at the end of the process so we are storing them offsite. View from the house to the street.



Not a dramatic change - but they are gone!

Looking forward to seeing your build progress! We have quite a sloped block so look forward to seeing your landscaping also! Good luck with it all house plan looks great that wrap around alfresco will look fab

Roofless!

Heavy machinery is in.




with the rain the ceilings have fallen in!

For sale: 1 slightly used ceiling. Damp in places. Pickup only

coming down will be quicker than the build I am sure.

A blank canvas at last!



Demolition guys were great. Kept neighbours informed and in the loop throughout the process.
Now to continue the block wetting!

programmed for construction! For some reason some emails sent last week didn't get picked up at the builders end but sorted out now.
3-5 weeks and they start digging again.

First hiccup of the build....Retaining wall team strung up the boundary lines and discovered neighbours driveway was 40mm inside our property. Surveyors hadn't called this out - they came out and rechecked pegging and confirmed this was the case.
Apparently no uncommon to have fence lines out in a property of this vintage.
Fortunately we have some of the best neighbours going around and after a trip back to the depot to get the concrete saw a 50mm strip was cut off and the retaining wall construction recommenced.

Prebuild retaining wall is in.

Wow you're lucky!

Site works started. They ran out of fill...more of which is coming today or early next week.