Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Things to do yourself/after handover? 2Nov 13, 2018 3:54 pm All progress pics are in the first post - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=89917&p=1761154#p1761154 Re: Things to do yourself/after handover? 9Nov 19, 2018 7:06 am Our builder didn't even offer window-coverings, so that was a given for us. They didn't do landscaping & driveways either. What's strange is the mismatch in pricing. Or rather, how builders can get some things at such big discounts that even when they add their 20% it's still WAY cheaper than you could've gotten it. They charged us a lot less for the wood-look floor tiles than we could've organised ourselves, and they were still a New Thing 4yrs ago (probably a lot more cheap knock-offs around now - if they're still a Thing at all). Moral is - it's always worth getting a quote from your builder for something, it can't hurt. The flipside is that some things are stupid expensive; and when you delete them, if the builder's honest you can get a lot more back than you expect. Now our builder wasn't able to do floor-to-ceiling glass sliding cupboard doors (their supplier didn't have the appropriate product), and cabinetry was really expensive; so we decided to get one of those brand-names-you-know mobs to do our wardrobes & WIR & fit some drawers under the stairs as well as some angled cupboard-doors under there. We got, I think, nearly $5k back from the builder for deleting the doors & a single hanger rail & some really basic shelves from the cupboards (actually part of that was probably not having to install bulkheads above the part-height cupboard doors which we didn't want anyway). So after handover & moving in, we spent about: (*) ~$17k on wardrobe cabinetry (soft-close drawers etc), WIR (quite a large one so a fair bit of work there), pantry, under-stair storage, a built-in desk in the study (*) ~$13k on driveway (have a garage at the front & at the back so it needs to go all the way up the side of the house) (*) ~$25k on landscaping (inc. stairs to laundry required for occ certificate - we did most of this ourselves, quote from a landscaping place was ~$80k) (*) ~$2k on temporary window furnishings from Ikea & Cresta while we decide what we wanted to install permanently (and which are still there 3yrs later ) I guess those numbers won't mean much to anyone because it's SOOO dependant on the individual block/house. The window furnishings are probably indicative of what it'd really cost someone who (like us) just wanted to make it liveable for a few years & worry about the more attractive alternatives later. Re: Things to do yourself/after handover? 11Nov 19, 2018 10:35 am House is average (butting up against 330sqm limit for block), block's on the small side at 585sqm. In terms of landscaping, we needed small retaining walls on all 3 sides, there was a little bit of cutting & filing (moving from back yard to front yard by wheelbarrow - it's amazing how little we moved & yet it took 6 solid 7hr days to actually move it), that cost is mostly materials (gravel, we paid for someone to do the grass, bark, retaining wall timber & posts & oil/stain & many bags of concrete for the ~130 posts). Some pavers. That's about it. Cabinetry - all the project home builders in Sydney use totally useless wardrobe fittings as standard. Storage is tight in most standard designs as it is, and then having super inefficient shelving/hanging exacerbates it! It's no wonder so many new houses have cars parked in the driveway or in the street, the garage gets used for storage that should be possible in the house … Depends what you're current inclusions are, but we're not including wardrobes and will just use second hand ones until we can save later on to get them built. Also have a… 3 11822 The DIY project can be broken into two major steps. Planning and Design and Construction. Both of these steps are as important as one another to ensure you give… 0 5215 yes it does, you've just not understood it. theres a difference. 4 5492 |