First home build,Movida Midvale WA, Smart Homes For Living

Hey everyone,

We have just put deposits down on our house and our block and are looking forward to what is to come.
We picked The Alaska as it ticked pretty much all of our boxes.

The base plan and our updated plan so far:





We enclosed both the study and the theatre room. Deleted the walk - in robe from bed 2 and swapped the places of the store room and toilet as well as turned it into a powder room. We wanted room for two fridges so that fridge space will be moved to the right and we will have a double width pantry. The kitchen will go from an island to a U - shape kitchen giving us more bench and storage space. The recess between bed 2 and the meals are has been brought out as it just seemed like wasted space to us.

We chose an elevation (is that the term) called vogue:



The block doesn't title till February so the updates might be slow till things start moving other then colour choices etc.

Exciting times coming up and fingers crossed it all goes well.

Alright guys sorry for the lengthy wait between updates, everything was in a kind of lul before things started to get up and going. We have completed our Pre-start and final drawings are completed. Our block was supposed to title on the 20th of this month but hasn't as yet.









Colour choices are monument for the roof and garage door, Flint smoke for the main walls and Distance for the feature wall.

Loongana Limestone for the face brick



Charcoal for the driveway and alfresco pavers.





Moving inside to the kitchen, We selected Jakarta white for the floor tiles, Formica Black pearl for the cabinetry, Silestone White storm for the bench tops and Lanka Mattoni white for the splashback.





For the en suite and second bathroom. Floor tile Belga Charcoal, Wall tile Lanka Gloss white, Feature tile Lanka Vento Black gloss, Cabinetry Formica Black pearl and bench top White storm.

Block has finally titled, apparently settlement will be complete on the 30th of April and then hopefully we can finally really get into this journey. Unfortunately due to the new border check points we probably wont be able to check on the progress as often as we would like but will try to keep as up to date as we can once the build starts.

Good luck with it all!

We recently turned down Smart Homes but they were certainly a competitive option and even our chosen builder regarded them as decent. We were looking to build something very similar to you.

It looks really good, but I would suggest putting a door between the dining room and bedroom hallway. Otherwise you have a line of site directly from the dining room to the toilet.

Thank you very much. When we started researching we wanted a plan that ticked most of our boxes without having to change too much and the most inclusions we could get for the price so it would be as close to if not finished so we could move straight in.

All floor coverings, window treatments, ducted a/c as well as interior wall painting got them over the line for us which frees us up to save for solar and security during the build.

We did actually think about it originally but ended up deciding against. We have a family member with medical issues that has seizures etc and another sound barrier would keep us on edge all the time. We wanted to give them as much of their own freedom without us having to constantly be checking in on them. It doesn't show in the plan but it is also the reason we made the third bedroom door open outwards so if they fall at the door we can still get in to help.

Hello!

This is exactly what we would like to do, in the end minus the block how much did the house cost with the changes and the site works?

Hey just flew home from work so sorry for the late reply.

The base house was $222,605

Our site works were quoted as $14317 but the developers got the class of our block wrong and we needed more piering etc so had to cough up another $6300 so $20,617 was the total for site works.

With our pre-start upgrades and electrical it cost $12815.

Hope that gives you some food for thought.

Well it's been a long time coming but the slab is finally down and the bricks have just been delivered. Everything feels a bit more real now.

I was waiting for this news! Awesome can’t wait to continue following this thread!

Had our first meeting with the construction supervisor today, went well and we all seem to be on the same page with everything moving forward. He said the only delay we might have is with the glaziers for the windows and that could be up to two weeks but we should pick that time back up in other areas. Bricks should be finished by end of next week and these are the progress photos so far sorry there aren't more or more detailed it was raining didn't want to get soaked for the drive home.

Good progress in less than 2 weeks. Well done

Have a look at photo 6, have they used 2 different batches of bricks there or is the photo deceptive? Something also doesn't look right with the brickwork in this photo so maybe it is a problem with the way the picture has come out?

Hi future Movida neighbour! Im glad to see your thread! We will be building in Movida Midvale, too. We go and check our block almost every week. We’re still in pre construction phase and finalising our variations so hopefully we finalise variations this week! Fingers crossed!

Hi Deacon91,

Thanks for sharing you build.
We have just signed up to build with Smart Homes for Living in Alkimos. We too have chosen the Vogue elevation. Our land wont be titled until November but im very excited. We had a look through the pre-start gallery and oh my gosh it was very overwhelming.

Did you find pre-start expensive? We are wanting to put in extra LED lights and powerpoints as well as other things. Also how did you find the portal? We haven't got access to it as of yet.

Sorry for the many questions.

Cheers

Louise

Sorry for such a late reply Louise. The pre-start was expensive for us yes as we wanted a lot of data points which were each around the $200 mark. Power points aren't so bad around the $75 I believe. We already had our calculations as to what the total at pre-start would come to and we weren't far off. There was 16 Led lights included in the package which is almost nothing and their packages start from about $1200 I think up to $3-4 thousand depending on how many you need. We just stayed with the bayonet lighting everywhere else and will change to LED later. We upgraded a lot of things and added extra things as we were wanting this to be our forever home so do it once do it right from the start was the motto, hopefully it works out.

As for the portal it's good to know when stages are finished but we usually have driven past and already seen for ourselves by the time they update the portal. Also our main gripe has been lack of communication with our construction consultant. I won't name names here as it's not really fair. They also said there would be photo updates on the portal but there has been none since the start.

Once again sorry for the late reply. Feel free to private message with any other questions you might have I will try to be more prompt with replies.

That's Awesome 00cookie Hope to see you around once we are all moved in

There is discolouration, it's actually a bit green we asked about this and were told it is vanadium coming out of the limestone and it sorts itself out over time either way if it doesn't it can be acid washed I believe.

Ok guys sorry for the delay on any updates but here is a few all at once.

The bricks were completed and the roof timbers started.