Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Dec 04, 2017 1:39 am G'day everyone.
Thought I'd start my own thread and update it as time goes on. My wife and I are building the Devonport 363 with Dennis Family Homes in northern Victoria on a half acre block, outside a small town and our block backs onto a very large forest that goes all the way to the Murray River. Lots of good bush walks and bike rides coming up for us. This is my 3rd time building. Second with my wife. We have 6 kids ranging from 5 to 18 and although we have not modified the house structurally, we have made a few changes to their base design and we are using the study as a small bedroom (very small) for one of the young ones and a living room as a bedroom/play room for the two youngest boys. Eldest is off to Uni after year 12 next year, so that gives a bedroom back and another 2 years later, so we didn't want to have a heap of bedrooms as we'll more than likely retire there and the kids will be leaving us as time goes by. Hope that made sense. Here's a picture of the house from their site, but our house is flipped the other way, so the garage is on the right and we will have a colourbond roof. Colours are different, but more on them later. Here's another image from their site and this is the basic floor plan flipped the way we will have it. Some of the changes we have made... Pantry - Added wide windows to look out to rear of property and let light in. Added exhaust fan, power points, removed shelving from wall with new windows and added a bench along that wall. Added large, deep sink and plumbing for sink and dishwasher. Games Room - Added wall and door to hallway, added cavity slider to family, added sound proofing to walls. Ensuite & Bathroom - Removed cornices and squared off each room for floor to ceiling tiles. Added niche's to showers. Living Room - Closed off openings to hall and put double doors into entry. Study - Added cavity sliding door to study. Bedrooms 2,3,4 - Swapped WIR's around in beds 2 &3 and changed opening on WIR in 4 to suit layout of bedroom furniture. Closet outside Bathroom - Removed this, added sink, mirror, vanity & towel rail to make it a powder room opposite toilet. Garage - Added set of wide windows, up high to external wall. Kitchen - Widened fridge space (took a little from WIR 1b) for water cooler to go beside fridge, which will be a bigger model later on. Added plumbed water behind fridge. Removed microwave space and pot drawer from under island bench and added a door so this will be converted to a pull out bin. Door will attach to pull out bin. Black Void behind fridge - This was the central heating unit, but we removed it completely. That is now a cupboard to store school bags, charge the Dyson Stick Vac, and will contain the communications hub for the house. Doors - Added door to the start of hallway. Changed doors at hallway, Pantry, sliding cavity doors to Study and Games to ones that have large frosted glass panels. Various Upgrades - Boutique Sliding doors from Meals and Games to Alfresco. Colourbond roof instead of tiles. Evaporative cooling and 2 whirly birds. Double Glazing to all windows and doors. BAL 12 requirements met. Surprised we were not higher rated. Very relieved. Freestanding 900mm oven, glass splashback, waterfall Ceaserstone Island bench, drawers to part of island on Family room side. Upgraded kitchen cupboard to gloss finish. Upgraded basins to all bathrooms and powder room. Changed bayonette mounts to screw mounts on various bedrooms and hallway light fittings, to suit wifi/zigbee smart lights that can be controlled by motion sensors, phone apps and wireless switches. Using them now and they are great with so many kids who leave the house lit up like Luna Park. Added data points to most rooms. Changing many power points to quad points and adding additional power points. Still to confirm with sparky. That's about it for now. More to add, but it's 1:30am and I'm dying to play a zombie game... Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 2Dec 04, 2017 8:17 am rattleAU G'day everyone. Thought I'd start my own thread and update it as time goes on. My wife and I are building the Devonport 363 with Dennis Family Homes in northern Victoria on a half acre block, outside a small town and our block backs onto a very large forest that goes all the way to the Murray River. Lots of good bush walks and bike rides coming up for us. This is my 3rd time building. Second with my wife. We have 6 kids ranging from 5 to 18 and although we have not modified the house structurally, we have made a few changes to their base design and we are using the study as a small bedroom (very small) for one of the young ones and a living room as a bedroom/play room for the two youngest boys. Eldest is off to Uni after year 12 next year, so that gives a bedroom back and another 2 years later, so we didn't want to have a heap of bedrooms as we'll more than likely retire there and the kids will be leaving us as time goes by. Hope that made sense. Here's a picture of the house from their site, but our house is flipped the other way, so the garage is on the right and we will have a colourbond roof. Colours are different, but more on them later. Here's another image from their site and this is the basic floor plan flipped the way we will have it. Some of the changes we have made... Pantry - Added wide windows to look out to rear of property and let light in. Added exhaust fan, power points, removed shelving from wall with new windows and added a bench along that wall. Added large, deep sink and plumbing for sink and dishwasher. Games Room - Added wall and door to hallway, added cavity slider to family, added sound proofing to walls. Ensuite & Bathroom - Removed cornices and squared off each room for floor to ceiling tiles. Added niche's to showers. Living Room - Closed off openings to hall and put double doors into entry. Study - Added cavity sliding door to study. Bedrooms 2,3,4 - Swapped WIR's around in beds 2 &3 and changed opening on WIR in 4 to suit layout of bedroom furniture. Closet outside Bathroom - Removed this, added sink, mirror, vanity & towel rail to make it a powder room opposite toilet. Garage - Added set of wide windows, up high to external wall. Kitchen - Widened fridge space (took a little from WIR 1b) for water cooler to go beside fridge, which will be a bigger model later on. Added plumbed water behind fridge. Removed microwave space and pot drawer from under island bench and added a door so this will be converted to a pull out bin. Door will attach to pull out bin. Black Void behind fridge - This was the central heating unit, but we removed it completely. That is now a cupboard to store school bags, charge the Dyson Stick Vac, and will contain the communications hub for the house. Various Upgrades - Boutique Sliding doors from Meals and Games to Alfresco. Colourbond roof instead of tiles. Evaporative cooling and 2 whirly birds. Double Glazing to all windows and doors. BAL 12 requirements met. Surprised we were not higher rated. Very relieved. Freestanding 900mm oven, glass splashback, waterfall Ceaserstone Island bench, drawers to part of island on Family room side. Upgraded kitchen cupboard to gloss finish. Upgraded basins to all bathrooms and powder room. Changed bayonette mounts to screw mounts on various bedrooms and hallway light fittings, to suit wifi/zigbee smart lights that can be controlled by motion sensors, phone apps and wireless switches. Using them now and they are great with so many kids who leave the house lit up like Luna Park. Added data points to most rooms. Changing many power points to quad points and adding additional power points. Still to confirm with sparky. That's about it for now. More to add, but it's 1:30am and I'm dying to play a zombie game... Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 4Dec 04, 2017 11:27 pm Thanks Lenz88 and Cleef85. Been pretty flat out with all kinds of stuff, so a bit behind on updates and photos. Here's a pic from early last week when they were setting up the preps for the slab... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ ...and another. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Slab was done late last week.... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Have really been wanting to see the slab as it really gives us an idea of how much yard we actually have. Pretty pleased with the placement as the back yard will have plenty of space for my fruit trees, pool water tanks, open lawn space etc.... Really hard to see in these photos. It's way bigger in the back than it appears in the photos. The house is a wide design, so we went as far forward as we could in the building envelope. Could have had other house shapes and gone forward more, but we like the areas we will spend most of out waking hours in, looking out to the trees as in this design. Didn't want the house too close to the street anyway. Front yard will be circular driveway and native trees, bushes, ground cover. Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 5Dec 05, 2017 9:24 am Looks great. Its a awesome feeling once the slab goes down and yiu certainly can see what you're trying to achieve. I love the bigger blocks. We have 5 acres (just sold our first house on 20 acres) Suburban blocks are way too close these days there is no privacy and are usually too small. We are in the process of finalising price and think we have settled on the kimberly 30. But have added alot of area as it is now about 330sqm and will upgrade most things. The davenport was our first choice but there is a huge difference in price and we are on a budget! Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 6Dec 05, 2017 9:37 am Looks like a good size on a lovely block. Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 7Dec 13, 2017 3:27 pm We have just signed up for our 2nd build with DFH! We are building Devonport 313 on 3 acres Macedon 322/DFH 2016!! Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 9Dec 13, 2017 4:32 pm Lenz88 Cass Row+4 We have just signed up for our 2nd build with DFH! We are building Devonport 313 on 3 acres Sure did!! We have got the building bug!! And are looking forward to having more land around us Macedon 322/DFH 2016!! Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 10Dec 13, 2017 4:45 pm Cass Row+4 Lenz88 Cass Row+4 We have just signed up for our 2nd build with DFH! We are building Devonport 313 on 3 acres Sure did!! We have got the building bug!! And are looking forward to having more land around us Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 11Dec 13, 2017 4:50 pm Lenz88 Cass Row+4 Lenz88 [quote="Cass Row+4"]We have just signed up for our 2nd build with DFH! We are building Devonport 313 on 3 acres Sure did!! We have got the building bug!! And are looking forward to having more land around us [/quote] The Macedon is a beautiful plan! We love ours and hope someone else will too Macedon 322/DFH 2016!! Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 12Dec 13, 2017 6:11 pm Cass Row+4 We have just signed up for our 2nd build with DFH! We are building Devonport 313 on 3 acres Oh, nice! Looking forward to following your progress. You are going to do updates, yes? When are you looking at commencing? Our materials for the frame, roof, gutters etc rocked up the other day and the guys were meant to start today, but it's about 41 degrees out there today, so they decided to not work and start tomorrow with some extra guys to catch up. I'm not fussed at all. I wouldn't want to be out there in that. Bloody water company have told us to supply and fit a 2500lt water tank that will hold an emergency supply of water for a day, should water be cut off. The area has been flagged as possible low pressure. Neighbors don't have issues and do not have to have the tanks. Apparently they are going to get letters. I don't think they will be happy, but it wasn't our fault. Hah, hah.... I don't mind having an emergency water supply, but it means a pump is going to be using electricity every time the house uses water, as they want the water supply to run through it. Then, if the pump dies, and a good chance it will in time as we were on 100% tank water for 18 years and had it happened a couple of times, well that means we have no water to the house until we source a new pump. Not many options up here to shop around and find a great price. Also bad luck if we are at work and can't get away to buy a replacement. Anyway, it is what it is... People have had way worse situations with tank requirements. I'll look at a rectangular one to sit against an unused wall, so it doesn't take up too much room. We have a separate 2 mega liter share of water with the property for use on the yard each year, so there's another tank to buy, get connected and make room for. Going to look at have that one partially put in the ground at the very least. Oh crap. Late for work.... Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 13Jan 05, 2018 12:20 am Happy New year and all that. I'm waaaay behind on photos and the update. Did one before Christmas, but the web page crashed and I lost all the text and photos and could not the bothered to do it all again at the time. So... Our supervisor said that he wanted a frame and roof by Xmas and bricks delivered by then too, so the brickie had them ready for when he gets back from the time off and that's what happened before Christmas. Brick work hasn't started yet, but it is that time of year, so no stress here. It's all looking good. Really good to walk around the frame and get a feel for room sizes, actual view from doors and windows etc... Here's a couple of the frame stage... Looking at the front of the house... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Looking from back left... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ A neighbour kindly plated natives along our rear fence line to the forest a few years ago and they are nice and big now. I've bought some flowering natives and have planted more along the back fence in the gaps, so it should look good when they get bigger and there is all kinds of birds in the area, so they should enjoy that. Bindi's are a huge problem there and they are those nasty hard ones with horns, so we've been out 3 times to spray them so far. They are all green, so it's killing them, but they just keep on popping up. Looking forward to eventually getting lawn, driveway and garden beds to fill the space and make it hard for them to grow. Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 16Jan 05, 2018 2:16 pm Oh yay thats exciting it looks great coming along nicely. Your block is a good size too! I wish we could start our build but have to wait a few months 😣 we've been to our block numerous times to peg out a house site. Currently In the process of obtaining a planning permit. Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 17Jan 11, 2018 11:31 am You'll get there Cleef85. It will come around before you know it and then you will feel like you have so much to do. Really behind on photos. Here's some with the roof on and bricks waiting to be worked. This was actually done before Christmas, so the bricks are ready for the brickie when he comes back from his break... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 18Jan 11, 2018 3:00 pm Love your colour selection. Its similar to what were after 😊 keep sending updates i love seeing the different stages! Do you mind me asking did you have to pay much extra in upgrades? I'm so nerbous going with the kimberlery as it's their base range. We were going with the devenport 343 premium inclusions but it was getting too expensive for us. Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 19Jan 12, 2018 2:34 pm Went to the block today to water the natives I have planted on the back fence line and the brickies have started. Woohoo. Really friendly guys who had a chat and said that they should have it done in 2 weeks. As long as they do a great job, I don't care how long it takes. Very keen to see what it will look like when it's done though. Cleef85, totally understand your move from the Devonport to the Kimberly due to budget considerations, but I think you'll love the Kimberly. It was our initial choice until we were eventually able to reorganise things and go for this one instead. We did pay for extras like squaring off the bathrooms and going floor to ceiling tiles and went the glossy cabinets in the kitchen and it does add up. We removed some items like ducted heating (as we will be on gas bottles) and used those funds to pay for other things. You can see most of our changes listed in the first post of this thread. What helped a lot though, was that we signed up during one of those promos where you pay, X amount of dollars and get X amount of extras that would cost a lot more if you did it another time. Ours was a bit complicated as we removed some stuff and some things are already included for "for free" such as colourbond roof, 2 whirly birds and ducted Evap system as we are regional. Off the top of my head, the promo gave us higher ceilings, boutique sliding doors, floor coverings (carpet and tiles), Alfresco, render (we changed to cement), undermount sinks, ceaserstone bench tops, tiled shower bases and slightly better range of finishes and fixtures. Think that's about it. One of the main reasons we moved from the Kimberly to the Devenport 363 is that it cost a bomb to add all the upgrades and extras to the Kimberly and many were included as standard in the Deveonport range, so it made sense to combine that and the promo at the time. Hope all that made sense. Re: Dennis Family Homes - Devonport 363. Build has started.. 20Jan 12, 2018 7:40 pm Looking really good!! Hi everyone, Newbie renovator here, after some advice for combining our family room in the picture and the alfresco and make a larger family room. There is a flush sill… 0 1533 Thank you so much everyone. This all makes a lot of sense. I guess when you talk to a builder who butters up everything to look very polished, you get to start believing… 8 2129 1 25959 |