Hi All! First time posting own topic, we are finally at the end of the design phase of our house. I have checked it a gazillion times but would like any further considerations and comments!
It is 5 months in the making going from concept to working drawings to changes, getting tenders from various builders, deciding on a builder, checking with builder about the plans, changing the plans again etc...
The brief:
This house will go a land that is 610m2, 13.4x45m with side access to rear granny flat/and double garage (which I havent included in this post).
We have chosen a builder, he is happy to put Hebel powerfloors in the subfloor.
This house is for my 3 girls, 7, 4, 5 months, we want to be our forever, but if things change for the better we are happy to go with the flow.
The front of house faces North.
Oh... I'm in Sydney!
21.06.2015
Today I've updated my plans: these plans are DA approved! YaY!
Site Plan
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Front Facade
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Side views
Our Journey started in Nov 2013, when we brought our block. We thought the planning process will only take 3-4months, council for 3, and we can build after that. We initially found a builder first, paid him $2500 for contour survey and started the design process with his draftsman. After 5 months working with his draftsman and meeting up with him to discuss the build we soon realized that they could not build the house we wanted and so we had to start from scratch again.
This time we purposefully choose a house designer not affiliated with anyone. Once he finished the concept drawing he gave me a list of builders that he designed for, and I also had a few builder recommendation from friends that I showed the concept plans to, and was able to gauge how much this build was going to cost.
During that time, my husband through that we needed more storage, and he wanted a basement carpark, when I enquired about it, it looked liked it would cost an extra $150K for a 100m2 basement. The builder said there is a lot of issues that you need to consider when building a basement such as the water pump (failing, noisy), issues with dampness, cracks. There is a need for maintenance of the pump in 5 years time too. So we decided not to risk it and just have long narrow house with a drive way to the garage.
Also, we have wasted enough time, and although living with the inlaws are great (no cooking, free childcare), we still want our own place, one year of living out of boxes, does takes its toll.
TBC down post... Pros and cons of custom, deciding on builder... Council process...
Would like to share since I've learnt so much from H1.