Who's built a new house?

[Turkish Delight]

progress payments will start as soon as the builder starts on the block. The builder charges a portion of the price of house when he completes a stage. There are a few stages from start to end. Of course that doesn't include your repayments on the block.

Floor coverings can be expensive depending on the type you choose, as can lightfittings. Our aircon is ducted and cost us $6k depending on the size of the house, this can change.
It is soooo expensive building a house of scratch. We have just completed everything in our house (which we built). It's been about 4 years since we moved in.

Drivways are expensive too. Our is exposed aggregate and cost us $4k.

GL.

[melbel]

Also be careful you dont get caught out on the site costs....generally they are only calculated for a standard level block with stable soil, what they call an "M" class slab. Anything outside this will incur extra costs as we found out being on a slope. So check the fine print carefully and ask lots of questions.

Our driveway which is a standard size and is fully sealed concrete cost us just over $7000 five years ago as a guide to cost.

Curtains for a full house lot would be in the $10,000+ bracket for proper ones.

[Nelle]

We move into our house in 11 days, and I sort of think that apart from the obvious up-front expenses like foundation and actual house, it depends on how much of a work in progress you want it to be.

If the builder specialises in sloped blocks then you'd think they'd be prepared for yours, but definitely find out. Often finance is dependent on the soil test and land being surveyed anyway, in case the cost blows out beyond what you can afford.

As for the other things - it just depends on how you want to start out. For us, we compromised on the things that we can sort out later.
- Like we didn't include an alfresco area, because we're handy (okay, well our family are) and we can do it ourselves when we have some spare time and money.
- We have vinyl floors because they're gentler than tiles on little boys sliding around in socks and if we get sick of them in 10 years then they're relatively easy to replace.
- We got our curtains from IKEA because one day I want plantation shutters which I will have to sell a child to buy and I can't decide which child to sell yet.
- We will take awhile to put in a permanent clothesline because I don't know what area gets the most sun. And the same with the garden, I need to know where the sun and wind hits to know what will survive where.
- We have heating, but I imagine air-con will come when we decide we just can't do without it anymore. And when we can afford it.

But yeah, things can be upgraded. When you want better taps, showerhead, oven, curtains, letterbox, driveway, light fixtures, paint colours, benchtop, carpet - that is all stuff you can compromise on for now if you need because it's not incredibly costly to replace down the track.
When you're building you want things like room size and window placement and any garage and storage issues and kitchen and bathroom layout to be right, because they're the things that will cost a packet to change later. If I had a budget, I'd rather spend that money on a house with great kitchen and lots of storage cupboards, and then get the air con later.

So that's my essay for you. It really is great to build, because you can have things just where you want them. You just need to go into it knowing how much everything will cost, and having some things you can compromise on if you need. If it's going to be your forever home, then you might be okay with it being a work in progress - as long as you give yourselves a timeline for things so your backyards still isn't all mud after years of living there!

[misty]

alot of good points already.

Just thought I would add:
- you may need to pay an independant certifier (not sure about all the states, but this is a requirement in ACT) they cost about $3000.
- mailbox, clothesline
- (in ACT) you are also required to have a water tank, connected to the toilet and laundry; and in some suburbs, solar hot water systems. So ceck out with your local council any extra's you may be required to have

Basically go through the inclusions list with a fine tooth comb before signning anything. On the current house we are building It took us four weeks of going back and forth about the inclusions in the contract.

[Lulu]

The only thing I would disagree with is to get decent fittings (taps etc) from the start - it makes a HUGE difference to the overall look of the house. Yes, they can be expensive but always worth it in the end.

[Cupcake]

Hey ControlFreak, i work for a construction company and the way it works for us is payment in 6 stages, 5% Deposit, 10% Base Stage, 15% Frame Stage, 35% Frame Stage, 20% Fixing Stage, 15% Practical Completion. Your bank will go out at every stage to ensure the work has been done. Any variations you do throughout a job often incurr a Variation fee plus the cost of changing whatever you changed, that money can either be claimed at the end of the job or at the appropriate stage of the job.

A lot of builders give a base price which seems cheap but as you say it doesnt include fixtures, fittings, floor coverings. Sloping blocks can be quite expensive.

We have a standard Specification which is included in all our houses then you can add or subtract anything you like, our extras list is

Draws and Glass fronts to kitchen
Glass splashback as per display
Microwave with trim kit
Main floor tiles as display (supply and lay)
Rectified wet area tiles as display (supply and lay)
Glass feature tiles as display (supply and lay)
Feature shower bases
Carpets as per display (supply and lay)
Tiling to front porch & rear patio and around pool (Supply and lay)
Glass wardrobe doors to Bed 2, 3 as per display
Intercom as display
Security System as per display
Ducted Vacuum as per display
Light Fitting as per display
Fans as per display
Split system Air conditioners as per display
TV Antenna with booster
Letterbox Rendered (800 x 600)
Wall mounted clothesline
Pool as per display including sandstone edge
Pool fencing to owners requirements
Exposed aggregate drive way and laundry pad-as display
Drive way sealing
BBQ Cabinet & BBQ
Designer Flake to Garage floor
Metallic Paint on Feature wall
Water tank to owner?s requirements
- 5000L Above-ground
- 5000L Under-ground
Fencing to owners requirements
Landscaping to owners requirements

Some of those items are just upgrades of already included stuff but thought it may help. Also window furnishings like blinds are extras.

Hope this has been of some help if you have any questions PM me, if im unsure there will be someone in the office i can ask, goodluck!!

[~Kim~]

We've been in ours nearly 12months.
In NSW watertank is mandatory and must be connected to toilets. You also need a basix report and epending on a lot of environmental factors yo may need special lighting/insulation etc to make sure it all complies. You must also have a clothesline installed inside and out. Otherwise the house won't be passed.
An estimate of our costs were
Carpet $5K - included though
Fences - $4K
R/C AC - $12K
Garden $3-5K
Drive/paths/patio - $15K This was at mates rates too. The others were much dearer
Window treatments $5K

So no tiles etc are included? Ours were as long as the styles we picked are in a certain pricerange. We paid extra.
I know you loved the disply home and builder but shop around as some will have waaay more stuff included. eg mine came with a 900mm oven as standard.
Some builders don't even put 2 courses of bricks over the windows. They either put the windows higher and stop the wall at the top or use weatherboard. That was something I didn't like about some builders. They charged extra for more bricks.

[~Raven~]

Also be careful you dont get caught out on the site costs....generally they are only calculated for a standard level block with stable soil, what they call an "M" class slab. Anything outside this will incur extra costs as we found out being on a slope. So check the fine print carefully and ask lots of questions.

If you're buying land make sure you add a clause where you can back out of the sale if it's not class M or better. It doesn't mean you have to back out, but it's your choice to go through with it depending on how much it will cost for the footings for your house. Some soil types can cost an extra $10,000 + to build on.

Some land sales people will be honest with you and say which blocks contain fill once you ask them but they generally aren't upfront with that information. Same with fall.
It should be all there in the documents (in Vic it's called Section 32) for you to read in the plan of subdivision but they won't tell you