Building a new house

[Linzy]

Going through this at the moment too, site costs were our main concern especially rock removal from the site..I have heard many a horror story of people who don't have fixed site costs being stung up to $12 000 for the rock removal!! We have an extra 47k set aside for aircon, curtains, furniture (as we live with the inlaws so we really only have bedroom furniture).

[Cupcake]

Most builders give a base price that doesnt include fixures, fitting, floor coverings, landscaping. It really depends what you have nutted out in your contract as well as land, if its your land or theirs, different blocks will have different site fees.

Sorry i cant be more specific, but i work for a construction company so if you need to ask any questions just PM me sweets!

[HotI]

You also have to think about little things like power points, because often the basic house package only has one powerpoint per room. Do you want to change anything from the plans? Little changes can add big costs.

[Pretty Butterfly]

I've built twice, and the 'extras" can be very exxy!!!!

air con
driveway
fencing
turf/gardens
blinds
curtains
carpet/tiles
clothes line
garden shed
window screens ( ive seen these not included before!)
water tank ( complusary in most states now)
mailbox


Also check with your builder about your allowance for each item. They may allow you $20 per door handle, and they could be the most basic ugly ones. Nice ones might cost $35, which is a lot if you have around 7-8 doors!!! And this goes for bricks, tiles, paint, handles, bathroom acc. etc......

HTH......

[Mum2SweetCs]

Thanks heaps! I think we have steered away from building because everyone is saying how unpredictable the prices are.

Got scared when someone said that the site costs for escavation (sp?) can be as much as $30k on top if your land is not flat and rocky

[Pretty Butterfly]

Oh babe, I hope we didn't scare you off!!!!!!

Building your own house is amazing, I love it.

If your land is flatish, its no extra. And if you deal with all the extras at the start, and get them all put into your contract, it all gets done together, for a price you've already agreed on.
If you do your research, and dont let the builder push you, it can be easy and fun.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

We are in the process of building at the moment, well the contracts are signed but still sorting a few things out.
We ended up needing a stronger slab than usual, also a tree root barrier ($11,000).. our price ended up being something like $18,000 over what we had originally estimated and thats not including air con, curtains etc.

It's very scary but i can't wait.. so what if i have to live with sheets on my windows for a while and a portable aircon in the lounge? lol
The girls will have curtains as they are at the front of the house and we have some nice ones for their rooms now anyway, DP is going to do the driveway himself and 2 sides of our block already have fences so am hoping we can get away with minimal costs there!

GL with it all, i would suggest either way you go have a look at display homes, ask whats included and go from there!

[LimeSlice]

yes - beware of Site works!
Generally they will allow $5k - however, tehy will never know what the ground is like until they begin - flat or not.

Ours unexpectedly got up to $17k for the site works alone! So bear in mind that this needs to be covered.

Shop around and take your time

GL!

[Cupcake]

Generally they will allow $5k - however, tehy will never know what the ground is like until they begin - flat or not.

You will need a soil test to go to contract, (atleast in QLD we do?) and the Soil Test will let you know what you are in for site works wise. Its part of our Preliminary Agreement to provide a Soil Test, not sure about other builders?