PatchPoole

Hi, we are from Rolleston too, and I have lived here for 25 years, so if you have any questions fire away we are off on our adventure, and are moving to the Sunshine Coast next Wednesday. You look like you got a great price for your section, it is really nice there. In regards to pellet fires, you will find they don't put out anywhere near the same heat as a woodfire, especially in a larger home, we have a woodburner, and wouldn't be without it. Our friends had a woodburner, and took it out to put a pellet fire in (they have a smallish house), they said they now wish they had never put it in, apart from the noise factor, they agree you don't get the same heat from them (and they also have a heatpump), and they are also more expensive to run, especially as you are governed by the people that sell the pellets in to regards to the price of them, you will find wood cheaper, you may find you can also get wood cheaper locally sometimes, or even go and cut your own, the only downfall with a woodburner is the inconvenience of having to stack the wood.

teebrown

Hi all, well I thought I would keep you updated on progress of the build.

We have secured our mortgage, for all you guys out there that don't know, when you build a house, you have to pay stage payments on the house, so our first stage payment is 10% which is for foundations and timber work, you have to submit the invoice to the bank or mortgage people and they will pay money into your account and then you pay the builders, we are only paying interest on stage payments as and when we get money from the mortgage people (kiwi bank in our case). Anyway, all is in place and the dig should start end of next week (fingers crossed). We are sitting down the a colour consultant tomorrow to choose everything for the house, it's sooooo confusing, you think you know what you want, up until you see something else! But we think we have got it a selection we like, we are going for creams and chocolates and maybe a reddy brown for the media room to make it cosy.
Someone said a 100% wool carpet isn't very stain resistant, they offer you this in the build, so we have been investigating and apparently 80 - 20 mix of manmade and wool is the best if you have kids etc, as stains and marks come up easier - if anyone has any advice on this, i'm all ears.

So there you have it, we are almost ready to go, so far everything have been straight forward with no headaches, everyone has been so friendly and helpful (lets hope it lasts).

I will keep you updated

Tee

BEVS

The colours sound lovely . How exciting.

CarolineSwan

Im having a dilema with colours, our last house we did all creams and chocolate and pink for lucy so i wanted different this time round, but hink i may do same lol with maybe feature walls in the rooms

teebrown

yep sounds like a duplicate of our house, my daughter pleaded for a pink room so we have given in and let her have one wall pink (ish) - ha that's a compromise!

Although we had thought of the wall colours we didn't give thought to the colour of the roof, front door or windows, so that put us on the spot - but I think we got there in the end.

Next will be the dilemma where to put he light switches and plug sockets - another sleepless night.

Oh and we have decided to go for 80/20 mix carpets, def better for stain resistance - god, all these things you just don't think about until someone down the pub mentions it!

alanmacc

Hi tee

Cool you are well moving into the fun time in the build, you actually end up with too many choices, we were a bit overwhelmed and got a little confused, but kept ours pretty simple.

As for the carpet, ours is wool carpet, ours is wool and with Keira we have had one or two spills to say the least, but it does seem to clean up ok, but we have always managed to get to it right away, so not sure how it would be if it was left for a period of time.

One of the colours we chose we had it re painted again cos when we imagined how it would look it turned out to be completely different so we had the painters re paint it before we moved in.

Let me know how you get on with the colour 'consultant' if it is the same one we got we were not wholly impressed with her, but maybe we were expecting too much ...........

teebrown

Yeh, they have started our house build. Building concent took about 7 weeks to come through, but now we have it and GJ Gardeners have started. They will pour the concrete on Friday, the weather is on our side as it's beautiful here in Chch. It's strange though, because the floor space seems small at the moment, but we were told that would be the case until they get the timber up to divide the rooms.

CarolineSwan

yea i think my house looks tiny, but when i spoke to my new neighbours they said the same, i think theirs looks big (4 bed) but it turns out theres is only 180 whereas ours is 257 so i think we will be fine

we were raging as last monday and tue the builders were a no show and it was sunny, then the rain started so they couldnt pour the cement, but atleast its done now i guess,

oh my new neighbours came into my work and invited us round for a meal , how nice eh so we going next saturday

teebrown

Hi all, well it's week 3 and everything is moving really fast, the base concrete has been laid and the very next day they started to put up the frame, they say that all could be finished by the end of the week. Everything has been stress free so far, I can't believe how easy it has all been, if we change our minds about anything they amend the records. We did change our minds about putting in a heat transfer system from the family room to the bedrooms, we thought the bedrooms were so far away the transfer system would loose most of the heat before getting there, so we have opted for a heat pump (like a fan heater) in the hall way outside all the bedrooms. A pellet fire is going in the family room to heat the kitchen study, and media room.

I was standing in our kitchen yesterday, the spring sun shining and just imagining the bi fold doors open and the wine poured and relaxing after a hard day. Oh it's getting exciting.

CarolineSwan

Looking great, and im with yiu on the excitment its so amazing building your own home, keep the pics coming

caz

ukmouse

Such a great thread... it must be so exciting. Cant wait to see it finished...

teebrown

Hi all, thought I would update you to the progress on the house. All is going to plan, even with me changing my mind about the colour of the window frames at the last min, our builders were great about it. It's week 5 and they are storming along, the windows are due to go in next week and then the brick will go up. It's been stress free so far, and it feels a pleasure to build. We go up to the section most evening and just stand in the middle and smile and pinch ourselves and say 'god we are actually building a house - yippee'.

Our next next step is getting quotes for drive ways and the decking area, we have decided to do the fence ourselves, we contacted the council, who gave the phone number of our future neighbors both side, we have contacted them and had a glass of wine and decided between us that we will do the fencing ourselves. We are getting a builder to cement the posts in and we will do the rest, it works out at half the price. By law over here the fence costs have to be split with the neighbors and the height must be 1.8 meters. We have also contacted a drive way company to give us a quote, when we bought the land it looked pretty flat, but since building we have noticed it slightly dips at the end, making a big step upto the front of the garage and front entrance, but we will speak to them about solving that problem.

Anyway, enjoy the photos.

CarolineSwan

you are so lucky, We are having a nightmare and still havnt got the trusses up (aparently due to weather) how long is that now for you guys? 5 weeks? I think you will definetly be in before xmas and so will we just maybe next xmas

CarolineSwan

Do you means its a law nz wide or just papamoa regarding fences, we have a neighbour ( the ones we went to dinner at) and they are happy to split costs and do it our selves but apparently they asked the people along the back of both our sections and they said no, and theres is a wee crappy fence with barb wire at the top.. think this may need to be looked into

teebrown

Well it's definitely law in Rolleston, and I thought it was thoughout NZ, but maybe it's down to council area, just phone your local council and they will know the regulations. If we want the people at the back to pay they would have too, but as it is, it's only at couple of hundred so not worth the hassel, but either side have agreed to pay and all the 'boy's' will be helping each other with the fence, I think I will get a 'crate' in and make a garden warming party out of it.

Sorry to hear about your house, yes it's only been 5 weeks with ours, they were even working in the rain putting the tressels up, so I wouldn't buy that one about the weather. Start mentioning bad press to them and maybe they will get their finger out.

Chin up, keep going.