Lessons Learned - Building a House

[Squawk]

Shall we enlighten Squawk on tradeys views on out of work hours quotes ?

Squawk, asking a tradey to do an after hours quote carries the death penalty...

Yeah mate but this wasn't tradespeople - it was your regular customer service types. Routleys were good and the guy at Carpet Call was also good - both accommodated a Thursday night. Harvey Norman open their stores every day of the week but Harvey Norman Commercial? No way. Clipsal? No way is their showroom open outside 9-5 Mon-Fri. I mean, even the banks are starting to open a few hours on a Sat in some instances.

Dutchy - what is your start date? Think ours is March 2. What is your forecast end date? I'll check. Then we can compare and have our own "Amazing Race"

Re don't think do - our final price is nearly 100% more than the standard 'as displayed' price. As displayed does not include site works, wind requirements, council requirements for stormwater and rainwater etc, landscaping, air con, and after you use up your allowance of 8 light switches, 6 single powerpoints, one phone point and one tv point etc (a bit exaggerated but not far off), add a few ceiling fans, get a dishwasher installed, buy an aerial to connect to the tv points, and add a few extra square metres etc it seriously doesn't take long for $$$ to fall out of your pocket.

[Dutchy]

Yeah Squawk we are still with council engineers, went to them before Christmas, one of our retaining walls goes over the easement...builder is ready to go as soon as approval comes through, we rang the council and shouldnt be too far away so Im hoping In Feb, but I know not to hold my breath.....as discussed we havent actually signed a building contract

We are paying a fair bit of cash for stuff and getting huge discounts, cash flyin everywhere at the moment, its a mess actually but should save us plenty in the long run....scares me how much some people must get ripped off that just "go with the flow" and not challenge/investigate things

The race is on!!!

[heater31]

Squawk, My company deals with Routleys a fair bit always accomodating, they will also price match items of what they can source from their own suppliers if need be.

[dont think do]

Hey Dutchy and Squawk can I join the race??

We have all of our approvals now and got a letter yesterday with a Ok to start date of Feb 19. So we have some hope of the slab in early march, not bad as we signed the contract in June 06.

[Squawk]

No worries - it can be a "three legged race"!
We all just need to quote our scheduled start and finish dates and then decide who wins - maybe it can be on the basis of how close the actual finish date is to the scheduled finish date and whoever is closest wins? (I'm assuming that we all have different build times based on what is being built/incorporated? Otherwise if they are all pretty similar we will just have an out-and-out race I suppose? What are your thoughts?

[Dutchy]

Hey Dutchy and Squawk can I join the race??

We have all of our approvals now and got a letter yesterday with a Ok to start date of Feb 19. So we have some hope of the slab in early march, not bad as we signed the contract in June 06.

who you building thru and where?

[Wedgie]

I'll never understand why people build their own house. Lots of expense, lots of time and lots of hassles. FFS its just a roof over your head.
Must be the Aboriginal in me coming out.

[Squawk]

OK lads, as at 18 Dec 06 this is the schedule that was provided to us:

Construction phase commences - 20/3/07
Site excavated, sewer and plumbing layout installed and footings poured - 10/4/07
Wall and roof timber (1st fix) are constructed - 16/5/07
External walls are erected, (brickwork) and roof cover is complete - 6/6/07
Internal plasterwork, electrical and internal timber (2nd fix) is installed, including kitchens - 26/7/07
Plumbing and wet area tiling is completed as well as painting and final fittings are installed as required. And hand over to you - 13/9/07.

Declare your hand, Dutchy and dont think do!

[Dutchy]

I'll never understand why people build their own house. Lots of expense, lots of time and lots of hassles. FFS its just a roof over your head.
Must be the Aboriginal in me coming out.

thats why it has taken us 10 years to do it, even building thru a family owned company and getting many benefits has been a pain already...mind you I keep thinking of the $50k - $75k min capital gain the day we walk into the house and it all seems worth it

[Dutchy]

OK lads, as at 18 Dec 06 this is the schedule that was provided to us:

Construction phase commences - 20/3/07
Site excavated, sewer and plumbing layout installed and footings poured - 10/4/07
Wall and roof timber (1st fix) are constructed - 16/5/07
External walls are erected, (brickwork) and roof cover is complete - 6/6/07
Internal plasterwork, electrical and internal timber (2nd fix) is installed, including kitchens - 26/7/07
Plumbing and wet area tiling is completed as well as painting and final fittings are installed as required. And hand over to you - 13/9/07.

Declare your hand, Dutchy and dont think do!

wish I had something like this!!!! ad hoc is the word that comes to mind with ours...

[Wedgie]

I'll never understand why people build their own house. Lots of expense, lots of time and lots of hassles. FFS its just a roof over your head.
Must be the Aboriginal in me coming out.

thats why it has taken us 10 years to do it, even building thru a family owned company and getting many benefits has been a pain already...mind you I keep thinking of the $50k - $75k min capital gain the day we walk into the house and it all seems worth it

Fair enough if you have a family business involved.
Christ, I can't even find the time to mow a lawn, never mowed a lawn in my life.
Personally I have better things to do like get online and abuse Glenelg supporters!

[Squawk]

Yeah Squawk we are still with council engineers, went to them before Christmas, one of our retaining walls goes over the easement...builder is ready to go as soon as approval comes through, we rang the council and shouldnt be too far away so Im hoping In Feb, but I know not to hold my breath.....as discussed we havent actually signed a building contract

We are paying a fair bit of cash for stuff and getting huge discounts, cash flyin everywhere at the moment, its a mess actually but should save us plenty in the long run....scares me how much some people must get ripped off that just "go with the flow" and not challenge/investigate things

The race is on!!!

By the way - we are sub contacting the landscaping to the same guy who is contracted by the builder. The builder quoted $15.5K, the guy quoted us $10.5k directly with him. Work that out!

[Squawk]

I'll never understand why people build their own house. Lots of expense, lots of time and lots of hassles. FFS its just a roof over your head.
Must be the Aboriginal in me coming out.

thats why it has taken us 10 years to do it, even building thru a family owned company and getting many benefits has been a pain already...mind you I keep thinking of the $50k - $75k min capital gain the day we walk into the house and it all seems worth it

Fair enough if you have a family business involved.
Christ, I can't even find the time to mow a lawn, never mowed a lawn in my life.
Personally I have better things to do like get online and abuse Glenelg supporters!

Dutchy has 3,000posts and you have 6,000 posts. Why don't you go part time on the site Wedgie and you might find time to mow the lawn in a brand new house?

[Wedgie]

Dutchy has 3,000posts and you have 6,000 posts. Why don't you go part time on the site Wedgie and you might find time to mow the lawn in a brand new house?

Where's the fun in that?
Plus, the way I look at it is if Im employing someone to mow my lawns Im helping out the local economy, Im a community minded person!

(And on top of that the lawn mower man gives my dog someone to chase around the back yard once a fortnight and helps alleviate her boredom, another bonus!)

[Squawk]

Dutchy has 3,000posts and you have 6,000 posts. Why don't you go part time on the site Wedgie and you might find time to mow the lawn in a brand new house?

Where's the fun in that?
Plus, the way I look at it is if Im employing someone to mow my lawns Im helping out the local economy, Im a community minded person!

(And on top of that the lawn mower man gives my dog someone to chase around the back yard once a fortnight and helps alleviate her boredom, another bonus!)

If you build a house you employ dozens mate! You also keep people meaningfully occupied at the Council and many other places! You will also get the chance to choose the lawn type, put it where you want it and after all that you can still pay someone to mow it!

All jokes aside, it is a painful process but hopefully by the end of it a small smile might creep across my face, especially if I have to choose between a handover or watching Norwood win the GF this year - the dream agony so to speak!

[Wedgie]

If you build a house you employ dozens mate! You also keep people meaningfully occupied at the Council and many other places! You will also get the chance to choose the lawn type, put it where you want it and after all that you can still pay someone to mow it!

Lawn type?
I thought there was only one called "grass", only watering it gets is from my dog peeing on it and the occasional monsoon from Darwin.
Next place I move into will be a retirement village with a bowling green!

[dont think do]

Ok,

All we have is the okay to start date of 19th of feb, we are building with Stateman Homes and are building out at Angle Vale. Nice big block of land enough so I can kick the cat.

Have been told it should only be 6 months to complete the house from the OK to Start date, but was also told the paper work would only take 4 months and it took 7, so if thats anything to go by am expecting to be in by christmas 2034.

Really am hoping to be in by the last saturday in september for a big piss up, (sorry dear i meant house warming)

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Ok,

All we have is the okay to start date of 19th of feb, we are building with Stateman Homes and are building out at Angle Vale. Nice big block of land enough so I can kick the cat.

Have been told it should only be 6 months to complete the house from the OK to Start date, but was also told the paper work would only take 4 months and it took 7, so if thats anything to go by am expecting to be in by christmas 2034.

Really am hoping to be in by the last saturday in september for a big piss up, (sorry dear i meant house warming)

Yeah ?, we're working on the new Child Care centre there next week.

[dont think do]

Ok,

All we have is the okay to start date of 19th of feb, we are building with Stateman Homes and are building out at Angle Vale. Nice big block of land enough so I can kick the cat.

Have been told it should only be 6 months to complete the house from the OK to Start date, but was also told the paper work would only take 4 months and it took 7, so if thats anything to go by am expecting to be in by christmas 2034.

Really am hoping to be in by the last saturday in september for a big piss up, (sorry dear i meant house warming)

Yeah ?, we're working on the new Child Care centre there next week.

Have seen a couple of new child care centres going up there, whcih is good as we have a kid on the way now. Its becoming a big town now, just not all on the main rds there. We have a block in the St Ives Estate which has 100 blocks all 1800 sq metres.
Beats the courtyard stuf.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Ok,

All we have is the okay to start date of 19th of feb, we are building with Stateman Homes and are building out at Angle Vale. Nice big block of land enough so I can kick the cat.

Have been told it should only be 6 months to complete the house from the OK to Start date, but was also told the paper work would only take 4 months and it took 7, so if thats anything to go by am expecting to be in by christmas 2034.

Really am hoping to be in by the last saturday in september for a big piss up, (sorry dear i meant house warming)

Yeah ?, we're working on the new Child Care centre there next week.

Have seen a couple of new child care centres going up there, whcih is good as we have a kid on the way now. Its becoming a big town now, just not all on the main rds there. We have a block in the St Ives Estate which has 100 blocks all 1800 sq metres.
Beats the courtyard stuf.

The big one just north of the shopping centre, its a monster, 200 kids or something.