Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Canberra custom KDR 61Feb 24, 2018 5:30 pm This past week started with a cleanup and levelling of the yard, and putting the fill in place for the driveway and the pathway surrounding the house (not just a pathway - it also serves as slab protection and makes it easier to spot any termite activity should it happen). It's looking much better now! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The internal doors (solid core doors by Hume) were also delivered (the garage has turned out to be a great delivery, storage and staging spot): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And we finally get to see the front door in person (not the final colour - the timber will be stained with the aim of matching a merbau-type colouring): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We originally had something completely different in mind for the front door, but when we randomly came across that one (GD-Tetris from Doors Depot) we just couldn't go past it. Re: Canberra custom KDR 62Feb 27, 2018 8:33 pm By the end of last week (before the downpour hit Canberra on Sunday, although this area wasn't hit anywhere near as hard as the areas north of the lake), some more progress had been made. The permanent downpipes had been fitted (not painted yet), stormwater drains put in place, gravel had been laid down in preparation for the driveway and house path concrete pours. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We have a turnaround bay in the driveway, against the brick wall that is our border with the northern neighbours - a turnaround is a key safety and convenience factor with a battleaxe block driveway, and in our case it also provides access to a vehicle gate in that fence that allows access to the neighbour's rear yard (there's no obligation for us to allow access, but we make a point of being good neighbours). It also sits on an electrical easement which restricts what else we might have been able to do with that bit of space (and in any case, the yard is large enough that the few square metres needed isn't missed). Plus, it's also an additional parking spot when needed. In this case the portaloo is sitting on that turnaround spot and needed to be moved, but the concreter just spread the gravel for the turnaround further out to avoid the portaloo - if the turnaround was poured there it's be a tight turn into the garage, which is something we're living with in our current place and definitely don't want to have to put up with in the new house. The builder is aware and it should be sorted before the pour. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ In the garage, our floor tiles had also arrived (a timber-look tile for the main flooring, more of a stone look for the wet areas): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Inside, waterproofing was completed, after taking a couple of days longer than anticipated. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And the upstairs joinery has also been completed. This is the landing area at the entrance to the 'master suite', again based on looking at our habits and daily patterns, and working out what would be useful to us in a new house: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Canberra custom KDR 63Mar 01, 2018 10:19 am algernon angi.f The builder is David Ryan as David Reid Homes ACT (David Reid Homes is a franchise operation, smaller builders getting together to access group buying power, and not a large single company). I can recommend him to anyone interested in building in the Canberra region. I've mentioned earlier in the thread about the build quality being verified by our independent inspector, you can see from this thread about the pace of the build, and he's very transparent on pricing. He also creates custom designs (although this one is our own design). Thank you! My husband and I recently bought a block of land a little way past Bungendore, trying to find someone who is amazing (as it is definitely going to be a custom build) and can also build out there. Always lived pretty central in Canberra, time to move out to the country. Re: Canberra custom KDR 64Mar 02, 2018 9:55 am angi.f Thank you! My husband and I recently bought a block of land a little way past Bungendore, trying to find someone who is amazing (as it is definitely going to be a custom build) and can also build out there. Always lived pretty central in Canberra, time to move out to the country. Go the treechange! If David can't build out there, some of our friends recently build out near Murrumbateman with a different builder who does a lot of 'Canberra region NSW' builds and were quite happy to recommend - PM me if you're interested (obviously, though, I can't vouch for that builder myself). Re: Canberra custom KDR 65Mar 02, 2018 8:49 pm So, on Wednesday, we had internal doors in place on the ground floor! A small thing overall, but it feels like a much bigger milestone for some reason. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Our default internal door is the Humecraft HMC8, which is a good-looking solid door with a better acoustic rating and thermal performance than most internal door options. Hume seems to be the only door manufacturer who publishes acoustic testing results for their products, and I strongly support them just for that. Also on Wednesday the tilers started, commencing with the wet areas. The wet area floor tiles are 'Lava Chocolate' and the wall tiles 'Spacial White Satin', both from Beaumont. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture the true colour effect of the floor tiles - it's not as dark as this really (and more visually interesting), but here's the pics anyway: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The wall tiles were intended to be laid in brick bond (a horizontal brickwork-style pattern), but when the tiler started laying he realised that there'd be more lippage than expected if installed that way, so we changed to stack bond (the 'straight' pattern in the picture) instead. This was absolutely fine by me - I personally always wanted stack bond anyway (it was the other half who was insisting on the brick bond)! The advice we received is that if you want to do brick bond, you really need to go with top-notch (i.e. very expensive) porcelain tiles, if not stone or marble. We were aware of lippage, but weren't expecting it to be so much in this case - another lesson learnt. Re: Canberra custom KDR 66Mar 03, 2018 9:31 pm As of Friday, tiling had progressed, and the mirror cabinets we assembled ourselves are finally up on the walls: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Most of our internal doors are now up as well, including one of the two internal glass doors (used in locations where we want to be able to shut off access or airflow but still let light through - we selected Africana glass for privacy while still letting almost all the light through. This one is at the top of the stairwell: : Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The first of the Caesarstone benchtops ('Snow') in the kitchen have also been installed : Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And outside, progress has been made on the path around the house: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The path is 1200mm wide - we originally had designed for 1000mm, which is a standard width for slab protection, but upped it on the builder's suggestion, as the extra width makes for a more practical path when against a wall. Seeing it in place I think he was right (the additional slab protection provided by the extra 200mm doesn't hurt, either). We ended up going with standard grey concrete - we always thought that coloured concrete was a good idea, but we couldn't decide on a colour that we thought worked better than the grey (we both agreed that white concrete looked good in theory, but neither of us wanted it in practice - it gets dirty far too easily). I like it not only because it's simple and practical, but also because it's a nod to Australian vernacular architecture. I had wanted to include a few more references in the design, most notably the use of Colorbond cladding, but the other half was less keen on that and I gave it up as a compromise. On the southwest corner, outside the kitchen, there's a wider path to accommodate pads the hot water system and the airconditioning, plus a pad for the rainwater tank (a 6,000L round steel tank, another nod to Australian country vernacular architecture). Originally there wasn't going to be any gap between the tank and the footpath on two sides, but moving the tank a little to the west opens up a nicely sized spot for a convenient kitchen garden right outside the kitchen door: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Under the path, along the base of the slab, is a small ag pipe as additional slab protection. It's role is to carry away any moisture buildup that might occur, and most specifically to provide additional protection for the potential 'weak spot' where water coming down the walls could potentially get into any unsealed gap between the path and the slab. Here's a shot of it coming out from under the completed path section and around the corner: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Also in the photo is downpipe - round downpipes were always our preferred option, as they have a much greater peak drainage capacity than other profiles of the same size (there's a whole science to how water flows down pipes, but that's the executive summary for downpipes). Square downpipes are also a weak point for termite attack - square downpipes provide a sheltered area where termites can climb up undetected, whereas round downpipes provide much less shelter and ensure that any termite mud tunnelling is readily detected. To go with this we chose half-round gutters; these have greater capacity compared to traditional 'quad' gutters, and the rounded base provides 'self-cleaning' characteristics (especially important when the gutter is two storeys above the house). The gutters also have overflow slots - I still find it bizarre that traditional Australian gutters will by default overflow into the roof space! Of course, having overflow slots means that you have to be prepared to handle the overflow when it hits the ground below (making sure that it won't flow back into the house, or dig into soil and potentially undercut the slab) - and in our case, that's another function of the pathing around the house. Re: Canberra custom KDR 67Mar 07, 2018 6:03 pm The pace has slowed a little over the past few days, but things are still happening. Outside, the formwork for the driveway is starting to go in, and the formwork for the final section of the pathing around the house (along the northern face of the house and for the breezeway connecting the house to the garage) is now in place: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The biggest news, though, has been the installation of the laundry joinery - all the major joinery work is now done, with only the wardrobes and some minor finishing off left to do. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The full-height cupboard on the right of the photo includes a laundry chute in the upper portion (the top of the chute is in the upstairs hallway linen cupboard). Our kitchen island benchtop is also now in place - it's 40mm Caesarstone as a feature contrast against the 20mm on the surrounding benchtops, which have more of a slimline aesthetic: Like ⋅ 1 comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Note that the front of the island and the wall cabinets are actually the same colour in reality - I've been really struggling with the limits of photography in trying to capture colours and textures properly. Tiling is also progressing, although more slowly than I'd like - the tilers are still going with the bathroom and haven't even started on the powder rooms, let alone the main flooring tiles. This is holding us up a bit, as we're currently sitting on quotes for our Karndean vinyl planks, which we can't lock in or book installation times for until we can confirm which of the substrate options we'll go with, which in turn is waiting on the main floor tiles to be laid so we can confirm the exact final flooring height to match.... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Going back to my frustrations with trying to capture proper colours in these photos, here's a much better photo of what the wet area floor tiles in the above photo actually look like: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Canberra custom KDR 69Mar 08, 2018 12:41 pm It is starting to freak me out a little how much your build is like what we are planning for ours.. your kitchen and laundry layouts look almost exactly like our plans! Along with the roof colour, rendered foam system, etc etc... I suppose it's about great minds and all that.... Loving the updates, house is really looking great Re: Canberra custom KDR 70Mar 08, 2018 9:43 pm Lot126 Your wet area floor tiles are stunning - beautiful texture. Thanks! It's the 'Lava Chocolate' from Beaumont. It took us ages to find something that we agreed on, and if you'd asked us at the start neither of us would've guessed we'd end up with that colour. Overall, I think it was choosing the wet are ara tiles that was the most difficult decision to pin down. Many, many tileshops were visited along the way, and it took a long while to work out what'd work with the rest of the house and that we'd be happy with - but we got there in the end (with the help of an interior designer). Re: Canberra custom KDR 71Mar 08, 2018 9:46 pm JessieNewie It is starting to freak me out a little how much your build is like what we are planning for ours.. your kitchen and laundry layouts look almost exactly like our plans! Along with the roof colour, rendered foam system, etc etc... I suppose it's about great minds and all that.... Loving the updates, house is really looking great Great minds - let's just go with that I'm glad it gives you a chance to see what it looks like - we struggled to find good references for what we wanted to go with, so in some cases we were making a leap of faith. But we're happy with how it's turning out, and hopefully we'll be able to find out how the kitchen and laundry work in practice within a couple of months! Re: Canberra custom KDR 72Mar 08, 2018 10:30 pm So, today's big news - the front door is finally in! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ With translucent glass, it lets a lot of light through inside while still offering privacy, as planned: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The inner door of the entry (so the entry forms an 'airlock', which is a major boost to energy efficiency) is also glass, which lets the light through the entryway and into the living area. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Not the best photo, not least because it was late afternoon at the time, but it shows the general effect. With both doors in place, we were able to test the entry layout in practice for the first time. Both doors swing into the entry room (so in opposite directions), which aids the airlock effect - but we were worried that the space might get a bit awkward with the combined door swings when there's more than one person in the entry (especially with the 1200mm front door). Fortunately, in practice the layout worked just as well than planned (or even better!), with ample space around the door swings and plenty of room for people. Concerns that the large front door might overpower the entry room were also put to rest - it actually sits quite well in the space (having the 'shoe bench' right next to the door helps, as the empty space above the bench gives extra room at eye level and make the space look larger, helping to balance the door). Further inside, the final piece of kitchen joinery was put in place, being the small area of benchtop on the eastern wall above the space for the wine fridge: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Meaning our kitchen is now complete! Well, we've still got the flooring, painting, splashbacks, electrical fixing and appliance installation to go, but the joinery itself is now done. The door in the photo leads to the walk-in pantry - it's a little off-centre in the space to allow for ample door swing on the right-hand side (you generally want a door to swing more than 90 degrees, especially to allow for the door handle protrusion). The original plan had a slightly narrower door that was perfectly centred between the benchtops, but we changed our minds and went with a standard-sized door for the practicality. The tiling is also progressing, with the downstairs wet area floors now done. Here's the laundry (with the usual problem of not being able to capture the proper look of the tiles in the photo): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Here's a closer shot of the tiles to get a better idea of how they *actually* look (still not anywhere near as good as real life, but much better than the previous photo): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And finally, the skirting boards and architraves for the doors are going in: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The skirting boards will be partially covered by the flooring, making them seem more slimliine and providing extra comparative visual weight to the doors and windows. Re: Canberra custom KDR 73Mar 14, 2018 10:03 am Progressing very nicely indeed. Going back to the square set window idea, I requested a quote from our builder to have all our windows square set..... the price was surprising. $1250 to have all my windows square set (without architraves). I'm so very happy with this and it will look fantastic with the square set ceilings. All progress pics are in the first post - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=89917&p=1761154#p1761154 Re: Canberra custom KDR 74Mar 14, 2018 8:12 pm BrentandAllison Going back to the square set window idea, I requested a quote from our builder to have all our windows square set..... the price was surprising. $1250 to have all my windows square set (without architraves). I'm so very happy with this and it will look fantastic with the square set ceilings. That's less than I thought it'd be - good for you! We definitely like the look and the clean lines of the square set window and ceiling combo, and I'm sure you won't regret it! Re: Canberra custom KDR 75Mar 16, 2018 9:47 pm I've had a couple of queries about eave sizing and passive solar design (especially shading in summer). A lot of time was spent doing a lot of calculations using various tools, but the end result was that we ended up with standard 600mm eaves (plus gutters). The upper floor has 2550mm ceilings and a 2130mm head height. The only thing slightly different from standard construction practice is that the roof trusses have 150mm bottom chord overhangs to ensure that the ceiling insulation batts aren't compressed around the edges) - this means that the eaves sit slightly higher than they otherwise would, but it's not a significant amount. On 26th Jan, approximately one month after the summer solstice and close to the middle of summer, this is how the shading looked on the northern face of the house (facing due north), with the sun directly overhead (1pm during daylight saving time): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ You can see that the upper windows are fully shaded (the lower windows will be shaded by a pergola that'll be fitted later in construction). With a northern aspect, shadows are shortest at midday, as you can see comparing the above photo with this one taken about 90 minutes earlier: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ So this means that the upper windows are fully shaded throughout the peak of summer, meaning no solar heating gain, resulting in a cooler interior. About five weeks later, at the beginning of March (at the end of summer), here was the shadowline at 10:30 (daylight savings) in the morning. You can see that the shadowline is now almost exactly in line with the bottom of the upstairs bedroom windows (1400mm high) - during the middle of the day the bottom of those windows will now be receiving direct sunlight (with some additional gain through the larger upstairs living room window which is 1800mm high): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ While there's still a significant amount of shading, we're starting to get direct solar gain into the house - just as the weather is cooling down. As winter gets closer there'll be less and less shade, and during the middle of winter sunlight should be hitting every part of those windows for at least a couple of hours each day. The ideal is to have sunlight on all of your windows for at least a couple of hours each day at the winter solstice, as any window area that isn't contributing meaningfully to solar gain is just extra thermal leakage for no thermal benefit (of course, this isn't the full story, as there's other reasons for windows as well, such as views or indirect light). On the other side of the year, the amount of sunlight on the windows gradually reduces as the weather warms up. Note that it never works perfectly evenly - due to the thermal lag of the seasons, the ideal level of heating at any given point in spring will be too much for the equivalent solar point in autumn, so the balance will never be exactly right; but for these purposes, close enough is plenty good enough. In our case, combined with our insulation and airtightness, we should have a comfortable internal temperature year-round, with only minimal active heating and cooling. Canberra custom KDR 76Mar 17, 2018 12:10 pm Hi Algernon, so nice to see all that solar theory in action! Must be so satisfying for you. I feel excited, and it’s not even my build Re: Canberra custom KDR 77Mar 22, 2018 8:47 pm Since the beginning of last week, all the upstairs tiling has been completed and the remaining internal doors and architraves have been finished and fitted. The apron pathway has been fully finished off: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And back inside, the painters have been occupying the house for most of the past week: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We specified the use of ultra-low-VOC paint to help maintain interior air quality and avoid toxic VOC offgassing, which becomes even more important with increasingly airtight houses. I was a bit worried that the painters wouldn't follow our specification, but it turns out the worry was unnecessary: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Most recently, the staircase went in this morning - according to the builder it looks great, but we haven't been to see it yet. The tilers have been hard at work with the downstairs tiles, and should be finished tomorrow, then the painters are back in on the weekend to finish their work. Re: Canberra custom KDR 78Mar 23, 2018 6:06 am Ooh will be exciting to see the staircase! Always like seeing updates on your build, seems like it is progressing really well. Re: Canberra custom KDR 79Mar 24, 2018 5:58 pm Now that I have some progress of my own, I can come to have a look at yours - looking wonderful. Whilst very different houses, we have a lot of similar principals - I suppose that makes sense as we are building for the same climate. Glad to see someone else has two laundry tubs! Was your apron path a part of your building contract, or separate from it? Variegated Re: Canberra custom KDR 80Mar 25, 2018 8:06 pm Variegated Now that I have some progress of my own, I can come to have a look at yours - looking wonderful. Whilst very different houses, we have a lot of similar principals - I suppose that makes sense as we are building for the same climate. Glad to see someone else has two laundry tubs! Was your apron path a part of your building contract, or separate from it? I have to say, I was starting to feel a little self-conscious when your build seemed to be paused while ours kept moving forward, and it was very good to see things pick up again with yours recently. There's a lot of different ways that houses can be built, but the basics of designing for climate are the same no matter what your do. We investigated a range of different construction techniques and their various tradeoffs, but ended up making a deliberate decision to use conventional construction methods and widely available materials - both to keep costs under control and to serve as a demonstration of what can be achieved with minimal changes to current practices. Definitely wanted the two laundry tubs! Interestingly, double laundry tubs are much more expensive (if you can even find them in the size you need) than two single counterparts. Going with the two singles (and only using one tap between them) got a few questions from the builder, cabinetmaker and plumber - but they got what we were trying to do and I think it's worked out well. We got the apron path as part of our contract - we wanted to make sure that it integrated properly with the wall base, slab edge and slab insulation, so it was best to have the builder do it. It's the type of thing that could be done fairly easily post-build, though. Wow I hadn't realised things had gotten that pricey in just a couple of years since I built, that is crazy with how much land is now costing if you aren't lucky enough to… 3 7010 We were lucky in that our old house was so small (86 square metres) compared to the new house, they were able to take enough readings around the old backyard house before… 8 36896 The biggest challenge will be if you take out a loan and then run out of money - you'll have an incomplete security and lenders do not like this so you can get stuck.… 2 18894 |