Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 21, 2015 1:36 pm Hi All,
Long time lurker here but have only just figured out how to start my own thread. We are currently building with a project builder in a sleepy seaside town in WA. This is our first home and neither of us have even the foggiest idea on anything construction and with both of us having busy stressful jobs (Mr M works in agriculture and is often out of town up to 5 hours away) its quite difficult to get us in the same place at what could be classed as “normal” times – Mr M often leaves at 5am and gets home at 8pm – it’s was bound to be a long process talking to finance and builders. Also where we live there is only 2 builder who don't charge by the hour. The ones we chose are newish to town and when we signed up there wasn’t an office as such just a salesman that travelled from 5 hours away and a Construction Supervisor. Fast forward, we found the perfect 1091m² corner block that already had a 10×8m shed on it. Now to start looking at plans…. Finally after 18 months we found the house we wanted… now could we afford it? Talking to the salesman and adding things like a water softener and reverse cycle ducted aircon we were happy with the price. At this point we were told we were to pay our $3000.00 deposit and start arranging finance. This is our first time remember… we still had not seen the pack of what inclusions you got and had still only seen a basic floor plan that had very few dimensions and were told we wouldn’t until finance was approved. We didn’t know any different. Finance approved. Get the pack mailed to us (this pack includes a timeline of what is required when and states that finance is not required until after prestart *but may differ between brances*)… choose everything from these ink jet printed pages on your own, calling suppliers to get samples etc and if you want anything not included let us know at prestart. Finally get a call from the admin team… can you drive 5 hours to come to a prestart meeting but have all your flooring and tile selections done the week before you get here please. We get all the way there and have a 3 hour rush through with nothing to see except the back of a computer screen as the admin lady typed away. At the end of it all we had 28 extras totalling $42k!!!!!! This is including, but not limited to, things like extra power points and lights (we couldn’t afford to upgrade lighting so it is all just standard batten lighting) we ended up removing some of the extra power points because when you are paying cash upfront it tightens the purse strings. Thankfully we had, in the time since finance was approved, managed to save up close to $50k so we could prove funds upfront as they required. We would have had to cancel out current loan and reapply with new paperwork and paying new fees and we saw that as a waste of time and money. It just means we have to both work even harder now to bump up the furniture fund again as we have nothing of any value or comfort so will be starting from scratch. It’s just frustrating that our savings for furnishing this beautiful new house have been eaten away because we didn’t have all of the information available before they made us get finance. Hindsight huh? Well that’s not the end of it… but I don’t want to waffle too much cos I feel like a moaning Minnie and no one like one of those Seeing everyone else's ideas and houses go up makes me wish I had found this site way back before we even started looking at plans. Re: First time build in regional WA 2Apr 21, 2015 1:59 pm Here are some pics Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: First time build in regional WA 3Apr 21, 2015 5:01 pm Hi, congrats on your build! The finance issue would have been extremely stressful and frustrating but at least you'll get your beautiful new house the way you want it. It'll just take a little more time for you to save up for the furnishings. I think your plan looks great and look forward to seeing how it all comes together. Re: First time build in regional WA 4Apr 21, 2015 5:12 pm ShannaLK Hi, congrats on your build! The finance issue would have been extremely stressful and frustrating but at least you'll get your beautiful new house the way you want it. It'll just take a little more time for you to save up for the furnishings. I think your plan looks great and look forward to seeing how it all comes together. Thanks ShannaLK. I was thinking my novel of an intro had put people off. Overall I'm glad we have had this experience as we have learnt alot about ourselves and our ability to handle other kinds of non work related stress. And as you say the end result will be TOTALLY worth it! Re: First time build in regional WA 5Apr 21, 2015 5:19 pm Hello to a fellow WA builder! *waves* Loving your design, especially having the living areas at the front! Its different but i love it! Love the private lounge in the master suite as well and the big alfresco! Sorry about the finance stuff that you've had to deal with! Agree with the prestart expenses! I am doing my build by myself, so had to be really careful with changes i made in prestart. In the end i lucked out because a design issue (apparently the council needed a certain percentage open space in the backyard which i didnt have) meant my alfresco had to be shortened a little and the whole house moved forward on the block) meant i was credited with around $3500 leading into prestart. So i was able to include a couple of little things i wasnt going to but ended up adding because of the extra money and only ended up paying $990 on top. But i understand the frustration, especially given the money was savings for furniture! Im scraping away every dollar i can for furnishings but with everyday expenses and interest repayments, its going to be hard! Hope your build goes as smoothly as possible though! Re: First time build in regional WA 6Apr 21, 2015 5:43 pm jlo1990 Hello to a fellow WA builder! *waves* Loving your design, especially having the living areas at the front! Its different but i love it! Love the private lounge in the master suite as well and the big alfresco! Sorry about the finance stuff that you've had to deal with! Agree with the prestart expenses! I am doing my build by myself, so had to be really careful with changes i made in prestart. In the end i lucked out because a design issue (apparently the council needed a certain percentage open space in the backyard which i didnt have) meant my alfresco had to be shortened a little and the whole house moved forward on the block) meant i was credited with around $3500 leading into prestart. So i was able to include a couple of little things i wasnt going to but ended up adding because of the extra money and only ended up paying $990 on top. But i understand the frustration, especially given the money was savings for furniture! Im scraping away every dollar i can for furnishings but with everyday expenses and interest repayments, its going to be hard! Hope your build goes as smoothly as possible though! Thanks jlo1990! It's so nice to have a WA neighbour We have managed to save approx 25k again since Jan so it seems we will be alright by the time we get in. They are saying August.. mind you with saying that I have expensive tastes unfortunately. I don't buy things based on price or "brand" but if I had to pick something in a shop of no price tags I can guarantee you i will pick the most expensive! I fell for this tap for the kitchen and had to say no because I couldn't justify $3500 for 1 tap!!! That's why I shouldn't be let loose on pintrest! How far along is your build? Are you Perth based? Re: First time build in regional WA 7Apr 21, 2015 5:49 pm Haha yeah i have expensive taste too. All the pretty stuff is always expensive! Unfortunately i dont have the means to support that taste haha. So its pretty much nice but cheap $3500 is a bit steep for a tap surely? What was it made of, solid gold? Im (hopefully) a few days away from bricks going up. Im building in Baldivis Went down yesterday and saw soakwells and the drawings on the slab marking out where the internal walls are so hopefully not long to wait. Here's my build thread if you want a peek viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76696 Re: First time build in regional WA 8Apr 21, 2015 6:06 pm Wow that's super exciting. It all looks much bigger when you see the rooms marked out! That was the first price I found online and after that I stopped looking. I will find the style name when I get home. We have ended up cheap cheerful and not worrying about being super fussy about guests and whether they are using coasters and providing those little paper shoe protectors at the door Re: First time build in regional WA 9Apr 21, 2015 6:08 pm marmot Wow that's super exciting. It all looks much bigger when you see the rooms marked out! That was the first price I found online and after that I stopped looking. I will find the style name when I get home. We have ended up cheap cheerful and not worrying about being super fussy about guests and whether they are using coasters and providing those little paper shoe protectors at the door haha paper shoe protectors. I swear if my mother knew about those she'd make us wear them! At my rate my guests will be sitting on the floor when they come over, so as long as that's clean then they shouldnt complain ahah Re: First time build in regional WA 11Apr 21, 2015 7:14 pm Hey jlo1990 it looks like the tap I want it on sale! Hmmm can I justify 2k?!! Oh no. Now I'm torn!!! http://www.cassbrothers.com.au/canyon-b ... -save-1600 Re: First time build in regional WA 12Apr 21, 2015 7:23 pm marmot Hey jlo1990 it looks like the tap I want it on sale! Hmmm can I justify 2k?!! Oh no. Now I'm torn!!! http://www.cassbrothers.com.au/canyon-b ... -save-1600 now i see why you love this tap! Its epic! Just think, 2k will get you a return ticket to almost anywhere in the world...or a tap A quick update, we didn't have site start before Easter. Summit can't seem to give me a day when they are scheduled to begin, so I'm left with a vague "within 10-20… 4 26719 Can anyone give me any onfo on New Homes WA? Good or bad, hopefully good just need to know if my choice was good or not? Thanks ❤️ 0 8855 9 24637 |