Ellenbrook
Jul 20th 2010, 6:30 am
#46
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Joined: Aug 2007
Location: Perf
Posts: 560
Re: Ellenbrook
Hows everyone going with their land up in Ellenbrook? we have just had LWP approval for our house plan and have gone to shire approval today things are dragging on a bit but should be starting pretty soon now 
Costing a bloody fortune though, think our garden will be a sandpit for a while until we save up some more money to have it done!
Costing a bloody fortune though, think our garden will be a sandpit for a while until we save up some more money to have it done!
Jul 20th 2010, 12:20 pm
#47
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2010
Location: Perth
Posts: 49
Re: Ellenbrook
Hey Ian, great news.
Our titles were issued early June same as you. We signed our PPA start of June. Survey and soil samples have just been done about a week ago and we are now waiting on drawings before we head to pre-start. We signed for the land at the start of April and only then started to hunt for a builder so we expect a few like yourselves will be further along the process than us. Lots of blocks in the area have had their soil samples done so there will be a lot of activity in the coming months.
I think we'll be lucky to see the pad go down this year if everything I have read is true.
Cost wise building houses isn't cheap, we're over 500 so far before even thinking about carpets, curtains, painting and so on. If it helps we checked out the surrounding area on RP data prior to signing for the land and I remember some of the displays that were sold went for around the 600 mark. Granted these are upspecd houses but an indication of prices nonetheless.
Did you receive your 5k furniture voucher? That'll help a bit.
I am hoping someone in the DC builds a triple garage. I really wanted one, the 20m frontage was perfect for it... but no matter how far back we pushed the house, or how wide we made the third garage, it came down to the 5m driveway opening being too small. We mocked up the key measurements in a carpark and it was very difficult to get a small car into the garage. We varied the measurements, even tried a 6m opening, and it made no difference it was still very, very tight to the point where it was simply not an option. Oh well
Our titles were issued early June same as you. We signed our PPA start of June. Survey and soil samples have just been done about a week ago and we are now waiting on drawings before we head to pre-start. We signed for the land at the start of April and only then started to hunt for a builder so we expect a few like yourselves will be further along the process than us. Lots of blocks in the area have had their soil samples done so there will be a lot of activity in the coming months.
I think we'll be lucky to see the pad go down this year if everything I have read is true.
Cost wise building houses isn't cheap, we're over 500 so far before even thinking about carpets, curtains, painting and so on. If it helps we checked out the surrounding area on RP data prior to signing for the land and I remember some of the displays that were sold went for around the 600 mark. Granted these are upspecd houses but an indication of prices nonetheless.
Did you receive your 5k furniture voucher? That'll help a bit.
I am hoping someone in the DC builds a triple garage. I really wanted one, the 20m frontage was perfect for it... but no matter how far back we pushed the house, or how wide we made the third garage, it came down to the 5m driveway opening being too small. We mocked up the key measurements in a carpark and it was very difficult to get a small car into the garage. We varied the measurements, even tried a 6m opening, and it made no difference it was still very, very tight to the point where it was simply not an option. Oh well
Jul 20th 2010, 1:20 pm
#48
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 64
Re: Ellenbrook
Hey Ian,
Good to see things are finally moving along mate. My builder suddenly changed from 2 weeks after the block was ready to 6 weeks before the plans would be finished. Supposed to have them today but nothing, and no answers!! Anyway, hoping to finalise it all by the end of the week and have tha plans to LWP early next week. How long did they take to approve your plans? I'm told the council is actually pretty quick compared to most so hopefully that's right. I'm not expecting the pad to be down until late September at best. At least it's all starting to happen
Good to see things are finally moving along mate. My builder suddenly changed from 2 weeks after the block was ready to 6 weeks before the plans would be finished. Supposed to have them today but nothing, and no answers!! Anyway, hoping to finalise it all by the end of the week and have tha plans to LWP early next week. How long did they take to approve your plans? I'm told the council is actually pretty quick compared to most so hopefully that's right. I'm not expecting the pad to be down until late September at best. At least it's all starting to happen
Jul 20th 2010, 1:22 pm
#49
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 64
Re: Ellenbrook
Hey Ian, great news.
Our titles were issued early June same as you. We signed our PPA start of June. Survey and soil samples have just been done about a week ago and we are now waiting on drawings before we head to pre-start. We signed for the land at the start of April and only then started to hunt for a builder so we expect a few like yourselves will be further along the process than us. Lots of blocks in the area have had their soil samples done so there will be a lot of activity in the coming months.
I think we'll be lucky to see the pad go down this year if everything I have read is true.
Cost wise building houses isn't cheap, we're over 500 so far before even thinking about carpets, curtains, painting and so on. If it helps we checked out the surrounding area on RP data prior to signing for the land and I remember some of the displays that were sold went for around the 600 mark. Granted these are upspecd houses but an indication of prices nonetheless.
Did you receive your 5k furniture voucher? That'll help a bit.
I am hoping someone in the DC builds a triple garage. I really wanted one, the 20m frontage was perfect for it... but no matter how far back we pushed the house, or how wide we made the third garage, it came down to the 5m driveway opening being too small. We mocked up the key measurements in a carpark and it was very difficult to get a small car into the garage. We varied the measurements, even tried a 6m opening, and it made no difference it was still very, very tight to the point where it was simply not an option. Oh well
Our titles were issued early June same as you. We signed our PPA start of June. Survey and soil samples have just been done about a week ago and we are now waiting on drawings before we head to pre-start. We signed for the land at the start of April and only then started to hunt for a builder so we expect a few like yourselves will be further along the process than us. Lots of blocks in the area have had their soil samples done so there will be a lot of activity in the coming months.
I think we'll be lucky to see the pad go down this year if everything I have read is true.
Cost wise building houses isn't cheap, we're over 500 so far before even thinking about carpets, curtains, painting and so on. If it helps we checked out the surrounding area on RP data prior to signing for the land and I remember some of the displays that were sold went for around the 600 mark. Granted these are upspecd houses but an indication of prices nonetheless.
Did you receive your 5k furniture voucher? That'll help a bit.
I am hoping someone in the DC builds a triple garage. I really wanted one, the 20m frontage was perfect for it... but no matter how far back we pushed the house, or how wide we made the third garage, it came down to the 5m driveway opening being too small. We mocked up the key measurements in a carpark and it was very difficult to get a small car into the garage. We varied the measurements, even tried a 6m opening, and it made no difference it was still very, very tight to the point where it was simply not an option. Oh well
Wasn't the 5k voucher for the next land release? I think the dress circle blocks got the $500 bike voucher or gas conversion.
Jul 21st 2010, 12:52 am
#50
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2010
Location: Perth
Posts: 49
Re: Ellenbrook
Hey Ian, saw your blog update, congrats at getting LWP to agree to your elevation. We saw that requirement very early and designed our house with face brick and a rendered portico.
Jul 21st 2010, 11:14 am
#51
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Joined: Aug 2007
Location: Perf
Posts: 560
Re: Ellenbrook
I am hoping someone in the DC builds a triple garage. I really wanted one, the 20m frontage was perfect for it... but no matter how far back we pushed the house, or how wide we made the third garage, it came down to the 5m driveway opening being too small. We mocked up the key measurements in a carpark and it was very difficult to get a small car into the garage. We varied the measurements, even tried a 6m opening, and it made no difference it was still very, very tight to the point where it was simply not an option. Oh well
We arent having a triple garage though we want space at the side of the house for a future pool.
Jul 21st 2010, 11:17 am
#52
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2007
Location: Perf
Posts: 560
Re: Ellenbrook
Hey Ian,
Good to see things are finally moving along mate. My builder suddenly changed from 2 weeks after the block was ready to 6 weeks before the plans would be finished. Supposed to have them today but nothing, and no answers!! Anyway, hoping to finalise it all by the end of the week and have tha plans to LWP early next week. How long did they take to approve your plans? I'm told the council is actually pretty quick compared to most so hopefully that's right. I'm not expecting the pad to be down until late September at best. At least it's all starting to happen
Good to see things are finally moving along mate. My builder suddenly changed from 2 weeks after the block was ready to 6 weeks before the plans would be finished. Supposed to have them today but nothing, and no answers!! Anyway, hoping to finalise it all by the end of the week and have tha plans to LWP early next week. How long did they take to approve your plans? I'm told the council is actually pretty quick compared to most so hopefully that's right. I'm not expecting the pad to be down until late September at best. At least it's all starting to happen
Last edited by ianhutch1; Jul 21st 2010 at 11:25 am.
Jul 21st 2010, 11:19 am
#53
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Joined: Aug 2007
Location: Perf
Posts: 560
Re: Ellenbrook
We received our "$5000 voucher" by registered mail last week although its not a voucher yet its a letter for us to arrange a consultation with one of their style gurus so im pretty sure there is going to be a catch somewhere...
Jul 21st 2010, 11:23 am
#54
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2007
Location: Perf
Posts: 560
Re: Ellenbrook
Cost wise building houses isn't cheap, we're over 500 so far before even thinking about carpets, curtains, painting and so on. If it helps we checked out the surrounding area on RP data prior to signing for the land and I remember some of the displays that were sold went for around the 600 mark. Granted these are upspecd houses but an indication of prices nonetheless.
Land 250
Base House 190
Variations 50 (eek!)
Air Con 12
Wooden Flooring & Decking 16
Carpets 6
Security & Smart Wiring 9 !!!!
Wood Heater 4
Curtains & Blinds 13 !!!!
The smart wiring and the blinds have been the biggest shocks so prepare yourself for them
Last edited by ianhutch1; Jul 21st 2010 at 11:37 am.
Jul 22nd 2010, 12:44 am
#55
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2010
Location: Perth
Posts: 49
Re: Ellenbrook
We haven't followed up on the voucher. I guess we will see, it wasn't a selling thing for us... we didn't even know about it until we saw the contract. But if it is legit it's nothing to sneeze at.
Cost we're at:
255 for land, stamp duty and settlement
264 for house and site works (base house was 227, 9k worth of variations, rest in spec upgrades)
One of the big costs for us was the floor to ceiling wall tiles in the ensuite, bathroom, powder room/WC and laundry, that was around 8-9k.
We're estimating another 50k minimum to finish the house off. Priorities for us will be driveway/paving, flooring and painting in that order. Curtains, shutters, air con, patio and shed to follow after that. We have estimates for some of these things, others we will be getting in the coming weeks. I wouldn't have expected curtains and blinds to be so expensive, at that price you could roller shutter your entire house.
We're not expecting to come across too many surprises at pre-start as we spent a lot of time getting the plan right and specced most of the upgrades in the quote. No doubt we will add more things, the pre-start book has show us that, but I can't see it being more than 5k.
After much research we're not doing smart wiring but we will be running conduit on key internal walls and key light switches for future functionality.
Looking at your air con cost I'm guessing you are getting ducted reverse cycle? And a wood heater as well? We've lived up the road in Bennett Springs for many years and we're just going to get another swampy.
Cost we're at:
255 for land, stamp duty and settlement
264 for house and site works (base house was 227, 9k worth of variations, rest in spec upgrades)
One of the big costs for us was the floor to ceiling wall tiles in the ensuite, bathroom, powder room/WC and laundry, that was around 8-9k.
We're estimating another 50k minimum to finish the house off. Priorities for us will be driveway/paving, flooring and painting in that order. Curtains, shutters, air con, patio and shed to follow after that. We have estimates for some of these things, others we will be getting in the coming weeks. I wouldn't have expected curtains and blinds to be so expensive, at that price you could roller shutter your entire house.
We're not expecting to come across too many surprises at pre-start as we spent a lot of time getting the plan right and specced most of the upgrades in the quote. No doubt we will add more things, the pre-start book has show us that, but I can't see it being more than 5k.
After much research we're not doing smart wiring but we will be running conduit on key internal walls and key light switches for future functionality.
Looking at your air con cost I'm guessing you are getting ducted reverse cycle? And a wood heater as well? We've lived up the road in Bennett Springs for many years and we're just going to get another swampy.
Jul 22nd 2010, 3:38 am
#56
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Joined: Mar 2010
Location: Perth
Posts: 49
Re: Ellenbrook
Wouldn't make any difference for a triple though, we tried a 6m opening and it was still a big ask to make it work.
Jul 22nd 2010, 5:16 am
#57
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 64
Re: Ellenbrook
I'm relieved to hear about the driveways. I just finished my pre-start meeting today and the builder said i would have to speak to LWP about the width. They couldn't understand why they would make them only 5m to start with!!
Jul 22nd 2010, 5:32 am
#58
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 64
Re: Ellenbrook
LWP were very quick to be honest, within 3 days, but they rejected our plans at first because we didnt have a highlight feature (stone wall, weatherboard, etc) on the front elevation of the house which they insisted was part of the dress circle requirements. We argued for a week and they finally backed down when we said we would add a second render colour. We were having the house fully rendered so as far as we were concerned the highlight feature was a very grey area...
As for these 5k vouchers, i asked the girl at the office about them and she told me that i wasn't eligible as they were for the next stage release and also something to do with when you actually signed up or paid for the block. Well i signed up for mine back in late January and paid for it as soon as it was titled which was early June i think. May have to call them again and see what the deal was.
Just finished the pre-start today and managed to add an extra $10k to the price just with changes of tapware, powerpoints, lights etc.
In regards to wooden floors...i actually bought mine a few months ago(don't ask why!!) from a company in Sydney called slivenblueconsulting.com. Saved myself $5k on the cheapest quote i could find in WA and it only cost $55 in freight to Perth. Well worth checking them out if you are looking at wooden flooring. Ask for Maya, she was a great help.
Jul 22nd 2010, 5:44 am
#59
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Joined: Mar 2010
Location: Perth
Posts: 49
Re: Ellenbrook
The furniture voucher was listed as a condition on the contract for the land.
10K in taps, powerpoints and lights, must have added a fair bit?
10K in taps, powerpoints and lights, must have added a fair bit?
Jul 22nd 2010, 6:48 am
#60
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 64
Re: Ellenbrook
There were a few other bits n pieces as well but the taps the missus chose were not cheap...last time she comes shopping with me!! lol Had to pay extra for dishwasher recess, and door handles etc. It soon adds up!!