ozhappy981

Well, for some time I’ve been dithering as to whether to do a thread of our house-build, thinking nobody will be interested. But recently a few people wrote how they enjoy reading these threads. And I certainly enjoyed other people’s threads prior to us coming out to Australia. So, here goes ….

We are building in Perth, northern suburbsz. We looked at land in December 2007, made an offer on a block in January 2008. Land already had title and settled early February 2008. We then spent a few months in shock Oh my God, what have we done. We know nothing about building! Looked at loads and loads of display homes. Trawled builder’s websites and their plans.

A few things crystallised in our minds: We wanted an upstairs bedroom and retreat for us. And we wanted a design where the kitchen was NOT directly in the living room. And we couldn’t afford to instruct an architect and builder. We’d have to go with a project builder and adapt one of their designs.

More looking at house plans. We couldn’t find one that matched what we wanted. But we made a short list of plans that “had potential”. Looked at more show houses and interviewed sales agents.

We then struck gold with the sales agent for an APG house. He saw no reason why we couldn’t change everything, as long as we kept the shape of the slab. And we wanted European-style double-glazing (from our chosen supplier), cavity wall insulation, R6.0 ceiling insulation, solar hot water (our supplier), a rainwater tank (our supplier). “No problem”, he said. (We found out much later that our changes caused him enormous problems with head office, but he stuck to his guns and we got everything we wanted.)

Once the above “extras” had been agreed in writing, we signed up with them at the end of July 2008. For some reason that has never been explained to us, getting the contract documentation took until just before Christmas! I really am clueless why it took so long; we made no changes, just sat and waited and waited and waited some more (got told it was out of their control – but no idea “why”).

Contracts finally arrived just before Christmas. Pre-start meeting was booked for end of January 2009.

In February 2009 the pool shell was dug (Aquability Pools – Scossie is a BE member).

In early March, the building licence for the house arrived. Beginning of April the site was pegged and on 18 April the slab was poured. Now it’s the 3rd week of the brickies on site and the walls are going up.

Over the intervening months we had lots of problems. Nerves of steel are needed for this house-building lark – and in the absence of those I had a few sleepless nights. Maybe I’ll write about that some other time.

Below are some photos:

ozhappy981

Here are the standard plans of the builder (pdf) and our changed version (jpegs). You can see I wasn't kidding when I said we've changed everything

ozhappy981

Our block in January 2008 before the developer put the back fence up. The Indian Ocean is 800m from our back fence.

1st pic is from the street. 2nd pic half-way down our block.

ozhappy981

The digger turns up for the pool. And a few weeks later the concrete shell was put in.

ozhappy981

Early April 2009 the site was pegged. From left to right is bed 2, study, porch, laundry.

Because the garage doesn't get a slab, the finished house will come forward left to right rather than go backwards (see the plans).

Then the porta-potty arrived! According to the building licence, construction work cannot be started until this convenience has been installed - therefore a major milestone

And then the soakwells arrived.

ozhappy981

We have a slab.

Slab gets its termite treatment (at least I think that's what it is). This pic was taken from roughly the same position as the one when the slab was pegged.

And the slab gets loaded for the brickie.

ozhappy981

Two weeks ago, we had some heavy rains and storms. Our plastic potty fell over and the site supervisor requested this sturdier version .

The brickies make a start.

Theatre room with cavitiy wall insulation sticking out

This morning we had a site meeting and the brickies have done loads more. Tomorrow I'll take some more photos when they've gone home.

OzWannabee

Looks great! You will have fantastic sea views from there!

Your much more informative than me! You can tell I have no idea what I'm doing!!

ozhappy981

Thanks for replying! There is land between us and the sea that will eventually get built on. But it is 2.7m lower than our block and we raised our slab by 4 courses. We are keeping fingers and toes crossed that we'll keep the view from upstairs (we have a sea-facing balcony).

Wol

You were being overmodest in saying that no-one would be interested!

(Grand Designs is one of the UK's best selling TV series internationally - most people have a great deal of interest in how others build and their various designs.)

Keep the photos coming - and thanks for reducing them <g>.

ozhappy981

Thanks for replying, Wol. Yes, I think it was you who put me on to "PixResizer" months and months ago. Really useful utility.

Zambia

I like your design oz and the block is lovely, I really liked the idea of the upstairs retreat. The wife reckons you would not hear the kids ...

irishbloo

So far so good.keep them coming.You seem to know what you are talking about.Some of us can only dream.

IndieG

Wow - lovely house and views!! I am envious

Wol

No, someone else - I use Oscar's JPEG Thumbmaker - but PixResiser looks good.