Building a House

[Ellee05]

We are looking at building a house and know that what the builders first tell you as far as costs are involved is totally different to what you end up paying. So to anyone who has built, building. I would love to hear your tips, tricks, do's and don'ts.

We have found a block of land, M class soil and it is relatively flat, looking at a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 garage house.

Also, what are your favourite things about a house, things you hate - design wise. E.g. I want a massive linen cupboard, lots of powerpoints in the house - especially kitchen, and would love a walk in pantry (not sure if I'll get it!!).

Thanks in advance.

[LimeSlice]

I am FAKing so will be brief, and come back later.

Do NOT use Home Buyers Centre, the quality is atrocious.

[RhiChiChi]

We built quite sometime ago and the things I personally wouldn't/would do again are:

Spa bath in the ensuite
900mm shower - would go double
Formal Lounge with dining (we never used the dining)
Double front door - was handy to get furniture in & out of the house but for most of the time we only opened one door
Roman blinds (the gaps let in too much light)
Make sure we got the concrete driveway done and internal curtains/blinds before we moved in

Things we did / changed:
Added more cupboards in the laundry
Added built in cupboards in the study
Got rid of carpet in high traffic areas. So where you would walk into the house and into the kitchen used to be carpet and eventually we put down floating floor boards.
Changed the batten lights to down lights
More outside powerpoints
More outside garden taps

[MummyNaomi]

Hey Ellee05

We built back in 2007 and a few things that come to mind are....

• Check what 'standard' windows come for the bathrooms/toilet - our builder only supplied clear glass - we had to upgrade to frosted glass (don't want the neighbours peering in LOL)
• Get your floor coverings from tile/carpet retailer/warehouse - we saved $9000 doing it that way rather than through the builder - clearly they add a whopping %age
• I wish I'd gotten more powerpoints - especially in the hallways for the vacumn!!
• If you have a hallway - get lightswitches that are dual wired - eg that can be turned on at each end of the hallway - this was a great idea for us
• Lighting - don't scrimp on this - good lighting totally changes the feel and atmosphere of a home
• Outside taps - really think about how you will use your garden, I wish we'd positioned out back tap in a totally different place
• Have a think ahead of how you hope to grow into your house - eg more kids etc? Try to plan ahead how your needs will change and how the house will need to change with you - eg do you need a playroom that will become a teenagers retreat?
• Think about furniture placement before you build - what must your house accomodate?
• Storage - another thing I wish we had more off - there is never too much storage!!

We had a great builder and were/are extremely happy, the best advice I can give is to have great (and constant) communication with the builders and site supervisor, and check on the build regularly (so you can pick up any errors early)

There's a few ideas, will pop back if I think of more

[KimB]

We contemplated a knock down/rebuild with McDonald Jones homes. They sent out a guy to do a site inspection and then they came back to us with a quote for everything. For a 5 br house with dble gge, kids areas, ensuite and bathrooms it was $165,000. This was a few years ago now but it costs nothing to get them out to assess your block. Good luck with the building

[~Kim~]

TOtally agree with the PPs,

also I had a 900mm oven as opposed to a standard, but that only matters if cooking's your thing.
I had a walk in linen room and LOVED it.
Check what structure is in any built-ins - wardrobe fittings are expensive if not included.
Make sure the space allows fits the fridge you want to put in there
If there is no covered area out the back and this is important to you, enquire how much it will cost to extend the slab and the roofline. Often this is less than laying concrete later and having a pergola/awning built and it is already included in the council planning as opposed to after market.

[SammyRo]

Hey Ellee05


We had a great builder and were/are extremely happy, the best advice I can give is to have great (and constant) communication with the builders and site supervisor, and check on the build regularly (so you can pick up any errors early)

Def agree with this.

When considering your builders, compare their standard features and the cost to upgrade. We ended up going with a slightly more expensive builder, because their standard features (eg toilets, cupboards, handles, etc) was better than the other builder.
When it comes to the electrical plan, really consider powerpoints etc. We paid extra to put more in, and I'm glad we did, eg extra at both ends of the hall, external powerpoints, extra lights outside.
Consider what you really need and what you can do without. Because we see this house as a ten-year house, we decided that rather than an ensuite we would have a 2way bathroom, so we had the space for a seperate study as both DH and I work from home, but we figured small children don't need an ensuite. The next house we build will be suitable for teenagers.
Play a couple of builders off against each other - we were toying between 2 builders. We told them that if they included BIR in both children's rooms and extra overhead cupboards in the kitchen we would go with them, one builder came to the party and we went with them.
whilst you're deciding, drive round new developments on a regular basis and take a look at what how long some builders take for each stage. Some near us seem to be taking almost a year, and there is big delays between stages. The builder might be cheaper but you might end up paying more in rent as it takes twice as long.
Something that happened accidently, was we ended up with grey grout in the shower/bathroom, with white tiles ( a paperwork stuff up) but I would do it again as thats the one area that grout discolours quickly.
When it comes to your selections for tiles, paint, cupboards, etc, do it once and then forget about it. I've heard people going back 2 or 3 times, which really slows things down, plus you just end up 2nd guessing yourself.

I've already started compiling the list of what I want next time, but it was out of our budget this time anyway, like a laundry that is double the size and already has fitted cupboards, drawers in the kitchen, a pantry that you pull out.

As to your original point, we were first quoted around $122,000 and ended up paying about $127,000, so didn't think that was too big a difference.

Good luck! We really enjoyed the process and will definately do it again.

[alish]

we bought our house as a spec home (so 3/4 of the way through building it)

make sure you have eaves all around the house, if you dont and have a window open dirt and rain and sh*t comes in from everywhere, plus imo it looks yuck

DISHWASHER!!! i dont have one and its a p.i.t.a!!!!

thats about it for me really haha!!

but if you dont like something or it dosent look right, speak up about it, chuck a hissy fit if you have to, at the end of the day, they work for you.. i have learnt my lesson about not speaking up

good luck!

[~Phoenix~]

We are building at the moment, get our keys in just under two weeks YAY. So can't really comment if what we've chosen suits us or if we'd change anything but as PP's have said - power points, you can never have to many and make sure they are placed for any possible furniture upgrades/room rearranging.

A couple of extra's we added were also extra garden taps and outdoor gas outlets to run bbq and/or outdoor heaters.

Lots of kitchen benchspace was a must for me (my previous kitchen was a matchbox) and after looking at display homes I "needed" a walk through pantry, luckily DH agreed I kinda of wish my laundry was a bit bigger but we added extra cupboards in there so hopefuly it will be ok.

Think someone also mentioned making sure you visit the site as often as you can to pick up issues as they crop up, we've had a few along the way and not entirely happy with response to concerns with our brickwork so we are getting an independent inspection and report done before handover.

Best of luck with it all

[Ellee05]

Fantastic. All of your points are exactly the sort of things I'm looking for. We are currently looking at a more expensive builder but their finished product and service seems far superior to those others we have been speaking to. I'm always amazed at how the price they give you first up is sooo different to the end cost will be (this is the scary part) I just hope we don't have too many unforeseen costs.

Thanks again!

[~Phoenix~]

Another thing we asked the builder so we could kind of be prepared for what we were in for, we made a list of everything we wanted included in the finished house ie stone benchtops in kitchen, 3 coat paint system, higher ceilings, spa, floor to ceiling tiling etc and got them to price the house this way we could then choose to subtract to meet our budget if we needed and also so we weren't in for too much of a shock when it came selection time even then we were another $11K out of pocket - they make their money on the small things like an extra paint colour, each additional light/power points, upgrading shower screens, security screens etc.

We spent the money on things that aren't easily changed like tiling & additional cupboards and went with the standard ugly mixers/taps which we can change over anytime we like.

[Floweryfields]

A couple of things I can think of - an island bench with powerpoints on it is fabulous if you love baking and outside powerpoints are a must, especially if you like to put up Chrissie lights!