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! 

[maknilsin]

So after the greatest deluge of rain ever seen in September for Victoria we have some progress on the house! Managed to head out to the property a few weeks ago to see if any progress had been made - hadn't heard from the builder since the rain settled in and I wasn't expecting to see much progress. But as I rolled up to the property I was met with the wonderful site of formwork strewn across the block. 

This was great great progress considering I was expecting the block to still be bare due to the rain. It was also the first time that I could get a sense of how big the house would actually be and I'm pleasantly surprised. 

It did however highlight how small the backyard is going to be, but that's to be expected with a block this size. I have some plans for the backyard to try and make sense of the space.

[BIM_Engineer]

Hi maknilsin

Thanks for the update and photos but
I suggest you take more photos before the concrete is poured
you should have the geotech /engineering report and engineers details
please focus on the engineers details. Although wide shots show its a waffle slab with water ponding around the perimeters?... the devil is in the detail..so as to speak. HTH

[Andy_Mann]

@maknilsin, from the last photo, it appears that they've removed soil (maybe 30cm or more?) from that side in order to level the site for your build. It's hard to tell from the angle of the shot, but could it be higher than the finished slab?

I may be being over-cautious, but maybe down the track, a retaining wall & aggie drain system might be needed on that side, but @BIM_Engineer would definitely be the man to sort that, as I have zero experience in site gradients, retaining walls, & drainage.

Good luck with it all

[maknilsin]

Thanks for the advice @Andy_Mann and @BIM_Engineer, however things have already escalated quite quickly. A day after I went out to check the formwork I was informed that the slab had been poured which was good news as it meant we were finally progressing into the actual build. 

Things have gone even quicker since then as a week after that the Frame has gone up! So I was finally able to have a bit of a walk around and actually see how the house is actually going to look and feel. It's definetely a lot bigger than what I was expecting. It's only a 17sq house but now that I can actually see all of the rooms it's definetely more than enough for me for the time being.

So slab and frame have all been completed and my site supervisor has advised me that fascia and guttering should be completed on Friday. Things are really ticking along. 

I've also been given the go ahead to go onto site and run some AV cable between the wall of my living room and the linen press directly behind it. I've got plans to keep all of my media devices and a little server tucked away in the linen cupboard so my living room wall can be nice and simplistic with just a giant TV mounted to it.

[Andy_Mann]

@maknilsin, it's looking good, I thought there may've been a time-line difference in the your last post, going by the photos (I didn't see any framework on site). So yeh, the framework goes up in the blink of an eye, the windows will too, & Friday's look'n good for the fascia & gutters.

Now that I've seen your photos taken from your street frontage, the site gradient from your neighbour, is way less than I'd thought, plus after I posted, I realised that your site slopes gently toward the street, so run off should be good.

I can't make it out from the photos, but is there an entry from the garage to the interior? We (I) didn't think of it for our build, but it'd be great for staying under cover while unloading the car, in bad weather.

Thanks for the updates, I'm really enjoying them, it's like reliving the dream.

[maknilsin]

@Andy_Mann - had to get the entry from the garage added as an extra. The wall I've included in, is a retaining wall so had to also install a nice metal frame to make sure the door doesn't cause the house to collapse. 

But I think it's going to be money well spent once I've moved in!

[Andy_Mann]

@maknilsin, money well spent indeed, not only for convenience, it will definitely lessen the risk of a slipping hazard.

[Jason]

I'm enjoying the updates @maknilsin. Please keep them coming! It must be such an exciting time for you. Thanks for sharing.

Jason

[maknilsin]

@Jason exciting and nerve wracking! Finally seeing the size of the place has made me realise how ill prepared I am to actually fill the place. The shopping list has exponentially grown since visiting the house.

[Jason]

@maknilsin

Hope all is well. How's your build going? It would be great to see an update with some pictures.

Jason