Building my first home

[maknilsin]

I recently purchased a house and land package for my first home. I'm finding the whole process to be a daunting but enjoyable experience so far. 

Has anyone had any experience building their home? Hopefully your experience was problem free, but horror stories are definetely welcome! 

[ProjectPete]

I've built a home before. Loved the experience although it wasn't entirely smooth and I don't think it ever could be.

What stage are you at? Do you plan to make many variations to your plan?

Importantly,do you and your partner agree on colours. Styles, etc? Haha

[maknilsin]

I have just finalised contracts, so all my variations are in. Haven't really made any changes to the structure just added in a few quality finishes as the standard inclusions were fairly woeful. 

Luckily for me there is no partner in this equation. Although it means if I hate anything in the house when it's completed that I only have myself to blame.

[ProjectPete]

It's a good feeling when you've got the (majority of the) paperwork out the way. Now on to (hopefully not) see how little your builder delivers on their promises.

Are you planning to have an independent qualified inspection complet d at each key stage? I highly.recommend it. You might set you back a grand but it's money well spent. They're trained and paid to spot flaws in workmanship or deviations from the plan/speck and they'll quickly call it out.

Regardless it's a great idea to schedule several sites visits and also drop some surprise ones on them too just to keep them on their toes.

Also keep an eye on what they're chucking on the rubbish pile...for one reason, I saved above 250-300 papers and about 150 building bricks from my pile which meant I extended some paving and built a Brock BBQ (at my other house) essentially free - I mean I'd paid for it but it was going to be thrown out.

Hope those tips help with this next phase for you

[Baretta11]

@maknilsin,
I have started a discussion called "From Scratch" not sure if it will help you in any way but hubby and I are building entirely ourselves, so we did not have the benefit of a home designer who might otherwise have spotted some design flaws for example but ultimately, we are happy with the plan I drew up and are now up to lockup stage, or pretty close.
There are photo's and a story on my profile page.
Things I might suggest to be sure of are:
#1. Make sure you have outdoor taps, something often forgotten but more expensive to put into place once the excavator or trencher are gone.
#2. If you have a dog, he/she will need a bath and I have a hot and cold tap fitted beside the HWS if you have it on the ground and if it works, you can have a duckboard nearby where with a hose, you can wash the dog OUTSIDE using warm water, or alternately if you have the HWS on the roof, you can still have a hot and cold water tap fitted outside your laundry on the wall.
#3.Consider an outside power point for vaccing the car for example or if like me, you perhaps clip your dog if you have one, it will be handy to do it outdoors of course.
#4. Allow for a furniture move in the bedrooms or lounge for example, so if you decide to move the bed or lounge suite from one position to another, the only power points you have in the room, aren't blocked by furniture. I have in the bedrooms for example, power points on the two walls that the bed can be placed on and then an extra power that is specifically for vaccing near the door. Also have plenty of power points for a computer, printer, etc... if you have one like I have for our business. I have had 4 double points fitted in the office nd I hve also had a couple of points fitted in the laundry to use as a charging station for a torch etc...as I'm on a farm so this is sort of a must. A point inside the broom closet if you have a rechargable vac for exmple that will hang there.
#5. Be mindful that too many floor to ceiling windows can prevent adequate places for furniture to sit and can be unnecessary, so I have kept my windows off the floor a little without loosing plenty of light.
#6. Hubby and I are in the over 50's bracket and so we decided to build this home, our last home, invalid friendly, so we have a wider passage way, stepless shower and invalid access toilet and room for a wheelchair to move around the island bench. We have also had a ramp built outside for both wheelchair and pram access.
#7. Consider aluminium windows for low maintenence and I have gone a step further, as all my external doors are hinged aluminium doors and we are very happy with how they look. A lovely timber door would have been nice but the maintenence is NOT NICE.
#8. We have a veranda around the perimeter of the home, so we have timber fascia's and again to eliminate maintenence, we had the fascia's covered with colourbond steel so they well never be exposed to the weather, hence neve need painting or changing.
I could go on with plenty of other stuff but perhaps none of this is relevant to you but being older, I have past the stage of wanting to be painting, repairing or climbing stairs!!!
Good luck with your build experience and I will be very interested to see progress photo's.
cheers,
Barbara

[Brad]

Ok @Baretta11 spit it out!

"my external doors are hinged aluminium doors"

I take it your not refering to just securiety doors so what and where did you get them?

[Baretta11]

@Brad,

Hi Brad,

Ok I'm spitting it out, ha-ha!!

I got my windows and doors from Avista Windows in Moolap, Geelong.

My contact Eric, was an outstanding rep, couldn't have been more helpful and patient with our sometimes protracted delays and part orders.

I don't have screen doors yet but they too will come from Avista.

I couldn't reccomend Avista more highly, a smallish show to look at, no fancy front of shop so to speak and all the staff were considerate, approachable and down to earth.

I've attached a few pics, the first is our double front doors in the colour, Stone Beige or its equivelant is Colourbond Paperbark.
The cost of this combination was $2,140 with dimensions being 2100 x1800

The large window is what I call my viewing window, as it looks out on the garden and it was $1,500 and dimensions of it are 2980 x 1560 and the last pic, our laundry door was $1,300 and 2100 x 904.

Based on my research at the time we first started looking for windows and hinged aluminium doors 2 years ago, Avista was the best price.

What do you think?

Cheers,

Barbara

[Brad]

Hi @Baretta11

I like them Barbara.

Nice that you can choose a colour that matches the house so well.

First set of double hinged doors I have seen in alum suitable for a house.

I like that the laundry door is wider than the off the shelf 820mm standard.

I think you found a balance between the cheaper take it as it is and a quaility product that looks good.

Now if they would just open an Adelaide branch.

[Baretta11]

Hi Brad,

Thank you for your kind words.

The actual laundry door is 820mm, so still standard, the measurement I gave you are OD but I did get a larger door in the master bedroom at 870mm.

Didn't realize that 904mm wasn't the actual size but once I did know I made sure that the door in the mater was bigger.

I don't think there would be any reason why any of your window places in Adelaide couldn't make a hinged door like I had made in whatever size and colour normally availble.

If they can make windows, they can make doors.

Best get back to work, looking to cut the holes for the downlights in one finished plasterd room, then I can put the insulation in the roof there, such fun putting in  insulation, NOT. Have to dress up like an eskimo with mask, plastic pants, plastic jacket, gloves and beenie to avoid the glass debris.

Cheers,

Barbara

[maknilsin]

Just a quick update for everyone, after an extremely long wait I have finally been moved to site! Concrete pouring is happening next week so fingers crossed for some good weather. Once everything really starts to ramp up I'm going to go be posting countless photos. So get excited for that.

I can't wait to share my building journey with everyone and hopefully it can inspire some others to share their own building joys and woes as well.