Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 22, 2015 5:46 pm Hello All. I have been a lurker on this forum for about a year now.. I have followed some interesting builds and have gained a wealth of information from this forum and thought it was about time I created a thread to share my building experience with you all.
Firstly a little bit of background. Aroud mid 2012, My wife and I started looking for a property to buy in the Illawarra as our first home. The house needed to be 4bedroom, 2 bath and 2 car garage. You know, the standard. It also needed to be close enough to the freeway as I worked in sydney and wanted to be able to on the freeway on my way to work in the morning as soon as possible. I think we must have started our search during a massive real estate boom because We searched high and low and found a couple of places that were quickly snapped up before even the first open house inspection. To say we were disappointed was an understatement. We were leaving one of our disappointing house inspections in a new-ish estate (which the real estate agent didnt even show up as someone had already made an offer to the house), when we saw a bunch of vacant blocks of land close to the house we went to inspect. My Father in Law made an off hand remark "You guys might as well build." and from then on, our house search became a block of land search We found a 665sqm block of land , which was one of 3 blocks at the end of a battle axe driveway. The block had a flat area on the left side and then steeply dropped off on the right. I think its a 6m fall across the whole block. Being the naive first timers that we were, we thought, "yeaaa we can easily chuck a project home on here, nooo problem" Ohh how wrong we were. Our block of land was settled mid 2013. Now came the task of finding a builder that would build our first home. We visited the Brooks Reach display village in Horsley one lovely sunny afternoon. Now this would be the first time i have ever been in a display home, so i was obviously amazed about how awesome everything looked. The first house we walked into was the Hayward 22 by Clarendon homes. As soon as i walked in, i was all "YEP this is the house that i want. its amazing. lets sign up now" (remember the naive comment from before?) Its safe to say that I had this reaction with all the houses that I walked into that day. I was so excited. Now the disappointing part. After looking at price lists (base prices are sooooo deceiving), we spoke to all the builders in brooks reach and the responses we got were different variations of "Nope. Block unsuitable" To cut the long story short, We ended up getting in touch with a private builder early 2014 who told us that we can build whatever we want on our piece of slope. He gave us the details of a draftsman/engineer business who assisted us in drawing up some plans and passing it through council which we took back to the private builder for a quote. However we hit a snag in our finances and werent able to secure a construction loan. Fast forward to 2015 and we are still in the process of getting this done.) However, we do have conditional approval, signed a contract with the builder, and also have our contruction certificate. We just need to now sign our loan documents (when they are ready) and then start building when we receive our letter to commence. You are all probably bored by now from reading all that, so here are our plans. Any feedback is appreciated Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 2Mar 22, 2015 5:52 pm Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 3Mar 22, 2015 8:13 pm Yay Abztronic another bearer and joist slope build, so excited to see your thread! So happy you've found a builder to realize your dream Looks to be all on one level which was a requirement for us as well. Happily posting to follow! Custom build Northern NSW viewtopic.php?f=31&t=72217 Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 4Mar 22, 2015 9:49 pm Thanks TraceyWayne! I will be following yours too quite closely. When Is yours starting?? Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 5Mar 22, 2015 10:01 pm This week apparently, fingers crossed, yours shouldn't be far behind Custom build Northern NSW viewtopic.php?f=31&t=72217 Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 6Mar 22, 2015 10:33 pm My fingers are crossed for you! Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 7Mar 22, 2015 11:15 pm Plans look great. Look forward to following your build progress and hope the loan approval comes soon. All the best with your build. Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=75302 Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 8Mar 23, 2015 10:25 am Thank you gandn. I'll try to update as often as I can Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 9Mar 24, 2015 1:34 pm woohoo! found you and your thread. Exciting stuff! Looking forward to seeing how you progress! Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 10Mar 24, 2015 1:38 pm Plans look great! Looks like a challenging site but no doubt the house will look magnificent when completed! Our Build Thread: The "Extended" Marina by Visionone Homes Our Inspirations: Frank Lloyd Wright | Houzz Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 11Mar 24, 2015 4:06 pm Thanks guys! If the rain stops I'm going to walk to the block today and take a picture from the lowest part and then take one from the highest part so you can all get an idea of the slope we will be building on. Landscaping should be interesting Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 12Mar 24, 2015 9:30 pm That looks good. The raked ceilings and northern celestory windows will give a nice space inside. Have you thought of opening the pantry off the main hallway to save some more bench space in the kitchen? Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 13Mar 25, 2015 7:56 am Thanks onejohn. I really hope it turns out the way we imagined We thought about a few different ways of increasing bench space. We ended up deciding on installing a bench top in the pantry with open shelving. I'll see if I can upload 3d images of the kitchen Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 14Mar 27, 2015 2:17 pm We have made a few changes since signing the contract with our builder (the main benefit of having an independent builder). I'll try to list them as I remember them. Anyway this is what our pantry is going to look like. Bench top with open shelving. Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 15Mar 27, 2015 4:08 pm looks like a lovely pantry!! Will it go to the ceiling? Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 16Mar 27, 2015 4:21 pm Looks great Abztronic, very nice Are you having storage underneath? Jen (& Dave) Plantation Bronte, Ormeau Ridge, Gold Coast QLD 12/03/2015 - Commencement... 26/08/2015 - Handover! viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76446 Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 17Mar 27, 2015 4:51 pm Yvonneh, yes the pantry will be to the ceiling. I hope there is enough room in there for a microwave we are having tall pantry doors that will be flush with the rest of the kitchen so it doesn't look like the entrance to a pantry Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 18Mar 27, 2015 4:52 pm Thanks ilaeria. We are having some storage underneath. But only for garden tools and the like. The door is not drawn on the plans but we are having one under the deck Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 19Mar 27, 2015 5:23 pm The surveyor has been To our block and the house has been pegged out! woo!! I like seeing progress no matter how little. To give you all an idea how steep our building platform will be. I've taken a picture from the rear right side of the house. Re: Our First Home! Bearers and Joists Build on Sloping Bloc 20Mar 27, 2015 5:25 pm That's the top of my car in the pic, just above the random blue boogie board Thats been on the block for as long as I can remember Give Jonathan a call. Tell him you know me. He is in my opinion the best surveyor I have ever worked with. His number is 0425 285 622 All the best Simeon 3 12278 i did click it, still couldnt make it out rofl. in any case, doesnt look like too extreme a slope, you may be in luck. Just shoot out some emails to volume builders in… 3 18507 |