We've received our plans - yay!
There's a few things that I want to change - nothing major, just the locations of some of the external hardware like water heater and A/C unit. We had a think about the finish surface of the alfresco too. Rawsons have the concrete specc'd with a brush finish. While this may be fine for tiling over or putting a timber deck down on, B and I considered a polished concrete surface but Rawsons say that they don't offer it as a finish. We also asked about tiling the shower recesses to the ceiling, and got the rather strange (to me anyway) comment that "Rawson homes has never provided this option due to possible maintenance issues" .... may have to research that one.
Saturday, 10 May 2014
Thursday, 8 May 2014
A long drive - but glad we did!
Last weekend the three of us make the epic (just over 600km return) trek to Wright in the ACT where the Acacia display home is located.
I am so glad we did!
Having seen the home on display made everything just that bit more real. We now can visualise the actual size of the rooms, the way the kitchen opens onto the alfresco and the like.
We've almost decided on an external colour scheme for the house as well. On the drive, B saw a house with a lighter coloured roof and dark brick and after a few mockups we are going to pursue that direction.
Here's a pic of how it might look (this isn't the Acacia in the image though)
I am so glad we did!
Having seen the home on display made everything just that bit more real. We now can visualise the actual size of the rooms, the way the kitchen opens onto the alfresco and the like.
We've almost decided on an external colour scheme for the house as well. On the drive, B saw a house with a lighter coloured roof and dark brick and after a few mockups we are going to pursue that direction.
Here's a pic of how it might look (this isn't the Acacia in the image though)
Wednesday, 7 May 2014
So many decisions!
So here we are in May. We've been in our little rental house for about 10 weeks or so, and three weeks ago we were seated in the Rawson Homes offices going through our tender with Paul.
As others have said, the tender is quite simple and the estimators factor in all sorts of things so that there are minimal surprises during the building process.
As Rawsons haven't been able to do a soil test on our land (it's not registered until September 2014) they allowed for a H Class slab and saline treatment (stainless steel brick ties, under-slab membrane, 40MPa concrete) as well as a drop-edge beam on the slab at the front of the house in case the sewer line is close by. They also included bushfire protection (BAL-19 level) although it probably won't be required at that level.
We made a few changes to the standard design too. We removed the pole where the sliding doors opening onto the alfresco area would meet and substituted stacker doors. This has the effect of opening up the area so that the inside flows to the alfresco and the into the back garden with no obstruction, and B wanted an extra window in the master bedroom.
So although the total in the tender was more than we bargained for, at least we know possible extras up front. After all, if it's not required, we don't pay for it. Here's hoping that there will be a few things not required .......
We met our pre-construction administrator (Rachel) who gave us our colour selection pack and a wad of brochures from the brick companies, roof tiles, Colorbond, paint colours, garage doors and others. It's all a bit much especially when we haven't actually seen a built version of the house that we chose!
As others have said, the tender is quite simple and the estimators factor in all sorts of things so that there are minimal surprises during the building process.
As Rawsons haven't been able to do a soil test on our land (it's not registered until September 2014) they allowed for a H Class slab and saline treatment (stainless steel brick ties, under-slab membrane, 40MPa concrete) as well as a drop-edge beam on the slab at the front of the house in case the sewer line is close by. They also included bushfire protection (BAL-19 level) although it probably won't be required at that level.
We made a few changes to the standard design too. We removed the pole where the sliding doors opening onto the alfresco area would meet and substituted stacker doors. This has the effect of opening up the area so that the inside flows to the alfresco and the into the back garden with no obstruction, and B wanted an extra window in the master bedroom.
So although the total in the tender was more than we bargained for, at least we know possible extras up front. After all, if it's not required, we don't pay for it. Here's hoping that there will be a few things not required .......
We met our pre-construction administrator (Rachel) who gave us our colour selection pack and a wad of brochures from the brick companies, roof tiles, Colorbond, paint colours, garage doors and others. It's all a bit much especially when we haven't actually seen a built version of the house that we chose!
Doing it all backwards ....
As I mentioned in the previous post, our B's dream home would not fit on the lot that we had purchased. So as well as packing the old house up, and looking for a rental to live in for the next 12-18 months we had to search for a home that would fit the block we had splashed out on.
We now had more of a feeling of what we were looking for. B had made a list of "must haves":
We now had more of a feeling of what we were looking for. B had made a list of "must haves":
- Master bedroom was not to be at the front
- Separate toilet and main bathroom
- Open kitchen, and one that had two entries to the workspace
- Easy access to the fridge
- Single storey
- Lots of natural light
- Double garage
- Study
- Possibly a room for a home theatre
Friday, 18 April 2014
Back to the Drawing Board - or Homeworld
To build our new house, we needed somewhere to put it. We needed to buy land.
We looked around the north-west of Sydney (our current area) for land in order to fit the Stroud 25 on, but we couldn't quite find the right area for us
On an off chance, we took a look around North Kellyville, and had a chat with a few developers there but all the blocks or packages were out of our budget. That was until we found the Gardeners Ridge estate in North Kellyville. John and Ross made the process quite simple and within a week we had found a block that fit our budget.
Unfortunately, it did not fit the Stroud 25.
We looked around the north-west of Sydney (our current area) for land in order to fit the Stroud 25 on, but we couldn't quite find the right area for us
On an off chance, we took a look around North Kellyville, and had a chat with a few developers there but all the blocks or packages were out of our budget. That was until we found the Gardeners Ridge estate in North Kellyville. John and Ross made the process quite simple and within a week we had found a block that fit our budget.
Unfortunately, it did not fit the Stroud 25.
Tuesday, 15 April 2014
Ch-ch-changes!
WOW! So much can happen in 12 months.
After much thought and budgeting, we can't actually afford to knock-down and rebuild on our current site. We aren't renovators either, so any savings there weren't going to happen. If we were to have a new house, we needed to find somewhere else to put it, we needed to buy a block of land.
We bit the bullet and decided to sell our Baulkham Hills home while the market seemed buoyant in order to finance what we had in mind. What followed was a busy few months of cleaning, painting (thanks to my brother M who was out of work at the time for helping out) and generally getting a forty-plus year old house saleable.
Anyway, 5 weeks after listing, we stuck the SOLD sticker on the sign.
After much thought and budgeting, we can't actually afford to knock-down and rebuild on our current site. We aren't renovators either, so any savings there weren't going to happen. If we were to have a new house, we needed to find somewhere else to put it, we needed to buy a block of land.
We bit the bullet and decided to sell our Baulkham Hills home while the market seemed buoyant in order to finance what we had in mind. What followed was a busy few months of cleaning, painting (thanks to my brother M who was out of work at the time for helping out) and generally getting a forty-plus year old house saleable.
Anyway, 5 weeks after listing, we stuck the SOLD sticker on the sign.
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
So we are going to build a house!
B and I have decided that it's time to do what we initially planned on doing when we bought our current house. We are going to knock it down and rebuild.
Thus far, we've drawn up a wishlist of things that we'd like in our ideal home. And we've spoken to several lenders. And dragged Mr 7 around a couple of display villages.
We have also been looking at display homes around Sydney to get an idea of what we like or dislike and, while B has found the house shelikes LOVES, we haven't actually seen it as built....yet. That is this weekends mission., to have a walk through the Rawson Homes Stroud 25
I'm determined to shop around a bit more - as it is still such early days in the process.
Thus far, we've drawn up a wishlist of things that we'd like in our ideal home. And we've spoken to several lenders. And dragged Mr 7 around a couple of display villages.
We have also been looking at display homes around Sydney to get an idea of what we like or dislike and, while B has found the house she
I'm determined to shop around a bit more - as it is still such early days in the process.
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