geordie mandy

I love looking at new house builds can i ask can you alter the lay out of the house to suit you? Or do you have to stick strictly to the build design?
Mandy

Vash the Stampede

Absolutely fantastic!

I've been in the UK for so long, I'd almost forgotten what a proper house looks like.

Bix da Boss

More pics - lovely dubbly I want to build our own house

cheers

Gill

Wol

You *are* joking, are you not?

Or perhaps you only look at the outside....

The place we are renting is some ten years old, suffering severe subsidence which based on personal experience will cost probably some $200k to "repair" and is thrown together as if the builders were on LSD at the time. It was on the market 18 months ago for $1.2m and is now up for sale again at under $1m.

I have been up in the loft several times over the last week (rats & mice...) and you would not believe the way the roof is held together, nor the plumbing.

And skilled tradesmen coming from the UK can't get work until they meet Australian standards. Words fail me!

Teliko21

You can alter it, obviously it will cost more. We have changed so much on ours it hardly looks like the house it started out as. And my boyfriend found a bargain on doors so we are getting a house with no internal doors :scared: I am busy planning a holiday back to the UK so I can get out of staining 24 or so doors

Vash the Stampede

Nope. I'm talking about the design more than anything else. But having said that, I'm sure that sassie's house is being built properly.

No, I take the inside into account as well. Nice open-plan living, high ceilings, big windows, plenty of space, ample ventilation, and a proper fully detatched building, as opposed to some sort of truncated afterthought bolted onto the side of a terrace or another semi.

What's your point? You're only renting it, so why should you care how much it will cost to repair? And if it's really that bad, why did you rent it in the first place?

If it's on sale for $1 million it must cost a packet to rent, which means you're obviously rich enough to buy your own place - so why don't you?

Rats and mice in the roof; so what? This has no relevance to the quality of the construction. And do you think UK houses don't get rats and mice in the roof as well?

Gee, and has it ever crossed your mind that the house you're living in wasn't actually built to Australian standards?

Look, you'll get good houses and bad houses all over the place - yes, even in the UK, strange as this may sound!

In Australia, I had a 1944 California (see attached) bungalow which was in perfect condition when I bought it, never gave me any trouble during the 2.5 years that I had it, and was still in perfect condition when I sold it. That's a lifespan of 66 years+ and still going strong; I guess the builders must have done something right!

Oh, and the next time you want to sing the praises of British houses, please do come and visit me in the Midlands, where I'll introduce you to the house I live in.

To list just a few of the joys we put up with every day: skirting boards which don't meet the walls properly; ceilings which don't line up with the floors; uneven floorboards; exposed plumbing (very common over here; people think nothing of a huge copper pipe running down the bathroom wall); electrical wiring which hasn't even been recessed, they've just stuck a sort of thin plastic cover over it (again, very common over here - they're obviously too lazy to drill a hole!); no ceiling fan in the bathroom; no ventilation in the kitchen (you have to open a window to clear the air) and so on, and so forth.

BTW, before you ask "If it's that bad, why did you buy it?" - my missus bought it before she met me, because it was all she could afford at the time.

Thankfully, we're now in a position to start patching it up.

Wol

>> No, I take the inside into account as well. Nice open-plan living, high ceilings, big windows, plenty of space, ample ventilation, and a proper fully detatched building, as opposed to some sort of truncated afterthought bolted onto the side of a terrace or another semi. <<

My point! I may have expressed it incorrectly, but I was talking about the CONSTRUCTION of the places - what is behind the walls rather than what the casual eye sees.


>> What's your point? You're only renting it, so why should you care how much it will cost to repair? And if it's really that bad, why did you rent it in the first place?

If it's on sale for $1 million it must cost a packet to rent, which means you're obviously rich enough to buy your own place - so why don't you?

Rats and mice in the roof; so what? This has no relevance to the quality of the construction. And do you think UK houses don't get rats and mice in the roof as well?<<

My point was that I was in the roof and that I could see the standard of construction. I put in the bit about the rodents so as to allay any impression that I spend my life in the roof <g>

"Rich enough to buy my own place?" Yes, we looked around for 18 months for somewhere to buy, almost signed up for one place but the survey confirmed what I really knew and we pulled out. Now we are trying to build.


>>Gee, and has it ever crossed your mind that the house you're living in wasn't actually built to Australian standards? <<

Yes it has.

>> Look, you'll get good houses and bad houses all over the place - yes, even in the UK, strange as this may sound! <<

Yes, many of the homes thrown up in the 60s and early 70s were appallingly badly designed. Some of the construction was poor too.

>>In Australia, I had a 1944 California (see attached) bungalow which was in perfect condition when I bought it, never gave me any trouble during the 2.5 years that I had it, and was still in perfect condition when I sold it. That's a lifespan of 66 years+ and still going strong; I guess the builders must have done something right! <<

Our rental is being advertised as in perfect condition....

>> Oh, and the next time you want to sing the praises of British houses, please do come and visit me in the Midlands, where I'll introduce you to the house I live in. <<

I don't sing the praises of any particular places' houses; I call it as I see it. I've owned some half a dozen houses since the sixties, done a lot of building work on most of them and reckon by now I know what I'm looking at. Certainly if I haven't learnt by now - there's not that much time left! <g>

>> To list just a few of the joys we put up with every day: skirting boards which don't meet the walls properly; ceilings which don't line up with the floors; uneven floorboards; exposed plumbing (very common over here; people think nothing of a huge copper pipe running down the bathroom wall); electrical wiring which hasn't even been recessed, they've just stuck a sort of thin plastic cover over it (again, very common over here - they're obviously too lazy to drill a hole!); no ceiling fan in the bathroom; no ventilation in the kitchen (you have to open a window to clear the air) and so on, and so forth. <<

I've been there, too!

>> BTW, before you ask "If it's that bad, why did you buy it?" - my missus bought it before she met me, because it was all she could afford at the time.

Thankfully, we're now in a position to start patching it up. <<

Good luck - we've spent many happy hours with the cement mixer churning away! Just be thankful that paint in the UK is affordable - unlike in Oz <g>

robert cowan

Great photos, keep them coming. I, too, love seeing other peoples new builds

Marie

Sunny_Glesga

OHHHHHHHHHHHHh! I reckon your slab should be atleast 350-400mm under the ground to accomodate for Frost!


Apart from that it looks excellent!

sassie

[QUOTE=sassie]

Hi there

Heres a few more piccies for those that are interested.

everything's going well and we are really pleased with progress so far.

If all goes according to plan, should be in in about 3-4 weeks.

http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dtg.../ph//my_photos

Juliecabs

[QUOTE=sassie]
You're house is coming along great Sassie.
Must be a good feeling watching it all come together

Julie. x

Lee Family

[QUOTE=sassie] that is one very nice looking house bet you cant wait to be in

Jon

paulf

LOL, love the paint remark

Bix

Hi - bix da boss here!

Thanks for that sassie! Looks blinkin FANTASTIC!! bet you cant wait to move in!

Gill

sassie

Hi Gil

Yep, we are really looking forward to when we can move in. We really should be in by now, but public holidays and bad weather have unfortunately got in the way, so about 3 weeks and we should be in.

My partner went up to the house yesterday and we have had all the internal fittings installed, ie. taps, showers, etc and wardrobe doors, mirrors in the bathrooms, bedroom doors hung, things like that.

Next Monday the electrician will be installing all the lights/fans, etc and on Wednesday we have all our kitchen appliances delivered, i.e. cookers, rangehoods, dishwashers, etc.

Then when we move in we will have all the landscaping to get stuck into. Can’t wait.

Will post some more piccies when it’s all finished.

Gina