Have you built your own home?

DF and I are looking to sign a contract with a building company early in the new year.

We already own a block of land that we got quite cheap and are looking to get a reasonably priced home build on it so that in a few years we can make some money back - so we don't want to go too overboard with the cost of building.

Neither of us have built a house before - or really had anything to do with anyone who has. I would love to hear your experiences with building - what went well, and what didn't. What you would do differently next time, and what you wouldn't.

We are in brisbane, any suggestions of companies to make sure we look into (or avoid) would be great too!

Thanks so much and Merry Christmas!!!


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We built with a major builder. We picked them because everyone that we knew who had built with them had an easy time. We had a horrendous experience that dragged on far longer than it should have.

So without going into the nitty gritty of everything, I can only recommend that you make sure they are clear on communicating with you. If you think it sounds a bit weird, off, or too good to be true, question it with either a project manager or supervisor. If you know something is wrong, then make sure it's fixed. Stay on top of the building. They don't like you going onto the premises when they're building, but we ignored that and checked often, always finding problems that were able to be rectified with minimum fuss.

Our experience was bad. Our project manager ended up being the PA to the managing director. She took it over because it was one stuff up after another and the wrong people making promises they could never deliver. In saying that though, we intend to build again. If hasn't deterred us from the project, just from the builder. It's exciting and interesting to watch it all unfold.

We are building at the moment just west of Brisbane, but DH is actually building it. So far all of our experiences with contractors (e.g roofing and solar) have been good. But I don't have much experience with building companies.

We just moved into our new house which was built by AV Jennings (which got taken over by a Japanese company, Sekisui House, Half way through)

We had no major dramas, lots of little things though. DH checked on the house most days so was able to keep an eye on things such as they started gyprocking before the gas had been sorted and the sound proof batts weren't in. DH is a cabinet maker and works for a timber yard so he has some industry knowledge. I think the big thing is having someone who knows a bit about construction keep an eye on things.

The other thing is plan ahead. Tghink about extra power points, where you need light switches, antenna points etc. Getting things done at the time of the build is heaps cheaper than doing it after.

Check prices or some things as getting extras done by the builder can be quite dear, they often add 40%+ The contractor that got the job for the electrical work contacted us and asked if we wanted anything else done directly through them. We saved $60 per downlight doing it that way!

Remember if something is not in your contract you are not going to get it so triple check your contract and keep asking questions.

Most display homes have a lot of extras including things like trims and bulkheads which you might expect to be included

The home one forum has some great threads on things to think about before you build right down to the tiny details heaps of which we would never have thought of

Good luck building it can be fun and we were lucky it wasnt too stressful

We built a few years ago and generally the whole process went really smoothly. The only issues we had were pretty minor ones looking back - made my blood boil at the time though! We built at the height of the peak in WA so things were pretty crazy. We rented a house a couple of streets away so most nights after work we would wander over and see what had been going on.

Like Sararose said, things like powerpoints, extra lights, dimmers, two way switches etc are definitely something to sort out well before you sign the final contract. The basics that come with the building price are usually pretty useless, eg one light fitting per room. Pretty stupid if you have open plan. We spent thousands upgrading lights, power points, two way switches etc.

Think carefully about what appliances, tiles etc you want before you sign off. Building companies make huge money when you upgrade appliances because they give you almost nothing as a credit on what yu're not having, and charge you retail and then some on what you are upgrading to.

Make sure you factor into your budget finishing the house off after handover - curtains/blinds, floor coverings for non-wet areas etc. The general rule is to allow 30% of the build cost for these things so its not an insignificant cost. Also landscaping when you're done - nothing worse than a beautiful new house that you have to trudge through sand to get through.

If you are doing this as a stepping stone, think carefully about resale appeal. Kitchens and bathrooms sell homes to women so try and spend any extra $$ you can on them. For instance, full height tiling in bathrooms if you can. Stone benchtops, splash backs etc in the kitchen.

Unless they are included as standard in your contract, fitouts to robes etc are MUCH cheaper if you do them yourself post build. You can literally save thousands.

Try not to sweat the small stuff when it comes to taps, door hardware etc. There was a particular style door handle that my DH just loved but it was expensive - would have cost us another $5K given all the doors we had. We spent literally weeks trying to tweak things to get them in the budget and in the end didn't but you know what? By the time its all done, its a door handle and after the initial "oh look. Don't they look good" you just don't notice them anymore. Same goes for taps (to a certain extent - real cheepies look it), towel rails etc.

Good luck with it. It can be lots of fun. I love the shopping around for things part - probably why we have built one house and completely renovated another in the space of only 4 years! There will always be something that you get to the end and think you could have done diferently or better, but you just save that up for your next project :p

We built with Coral on the Sunshine Coast and were happy. We enjoyed it and would build with them again. My advice is to get all the extras when you build if you plan to live in the house, with the builder we used it worked out thousands cheaper to do it that way (sorry to give conflicting advice on previous posts). An example of this we got tinted windows, fans in all the rooms, power points & light switches everywhere and dimming lights. Lots of people just get the standard stuff the builder throws in but we wanted the works.

I work for a builder in SA. I would say in my experience dealing with people and having built myself, everyone thinks of going to the big project home builders because they seem to be cheaper initially, but they dont include HEAPS of stuff. I would work out exactly what you expect from the build and then shop around a few custom builders and maybe one big project builder. You just want to check they are all including for the same things because there can be big price differences in things that you may think are only small.

I know this is a bit late, but we've built twice, the most recent house our current house that we moved into in Nov 2010. We plan to build again in the future (so we haven't been too scared off lol). I agree with the others that you do need to ask lots of questions and keep on top of things, which can actually be very time consuming. If you still have any specific building questions, please ask :)