The story so far....

15 February 2008

We are a family of 4 and this is our House building story so far....

We moved to Sydney from London in October 2006. We owned a stereotypical 3 bedroom home in Brentford, West London and always dreamed of owning something bigger and better. We thought that we would be able to find something easily in Sydney, but after some searching and many wasted Saturdays we soon began to realize this may not be the case. Having a big house with a big garden meant big money.

We viewed one property in a good location on a good size sloping block but the house was in poor condition. It was the real estate agent that suggested to us the possibility of knocking down and rebuilding. He gave us a ball park figure for how much it would cost and to our surprise it was not as much as we thought.

This is when the first of many visits to Homeworld in Kellyville began. With the property details in hand we began to look for a house we liked. We soon found that not many builders are keen to build on a sloping block. We also found that the steeper the slope the more money has to be spent on sight costs. This made us realize that this particular property was not as straight forward as we’d hoped for re-building.

After the idea being put in our heads and the type of home that could be built, we were still keen to build our dream home. So our search continued but became more focused on block size and location, without being too worried about what the existing home was like. Finally we found an old 2 bedroom house on a 775 sqm block of land in West Ryde. Once we saw the backyard, we new that this would be perfect to build on. We put in an offer which was accepted and so we began to search for a house to fit the block. It’s a slightly narrow but long block 12.7m x 61m long which reduced those options available to us. Fortunately there are many builders which have designs specifically for narrow blocks so we still had a few too choose from.

The first builder we choose was AVJennings, as we liked the layout and finishes of the ‘Axis’ design. We arranged for a site estimate which covers site cost, BASIX, provisional allowances & service connections. This was estimated to be approx $40,000. This was stretching our budget a little but thought it would still be worth it. We then paid $1000 deposit to have the engineering report done. After we had this done we chose to have a few variations inside the house like the addition of a downstairs shower. Nothing particularly drastic as AVJennings don’t like to make many changes from the original house design. We also went to select our colours and upgrades.

It was almost 2 months after this, due to various staff being off sick and poor communication, that we were given a revised cost of the house build. We had quite a shock when we found the site estimate had practically doubled in cost. This totally blew our budget and decided we could no longer proceed with AVJennings. We were very frustrated, as it had taken 4 months to get to this stage and it had all been a waste of time. We could not understand how the first estimate could be so far out. One of the reasons was we now had to have a storm water detention pit which before we were told we would not need due to the size of the block. The storm water detention pits are expensive (approx $25,000) to put in and seem like a complete waste of money. They are used to allow any over flow from your water tank to seep into the ground rather than run off the top causing silt to pollute the rivers. Our back yard is so big we cannot see how there would ever be any run off, but that’s another story.

So it was back to square 1 and trying to find another builder which was not only suitable but also affordable. At least this time we were a little wiser now as to what to expect. We ended up deciding to go with the ‘Kensington’ which is built by Allcastle homes. We had looked at this house when we first started looking but weren’t so keen on the layout. We spoke to the salesperson this time and she said that we could make as many changes as we liked. Each variation comes at a cost but if it meant we would get the house we really wanted then it would be worth it. This house is also bigger than the ‘Axis’ so we were happy to be getting more house for less money. We also asked about the possibility of having to put in a storm water pit. The sales person suggested running a storm water pipe to the back of the garden and any over flow would run into the TAFE’s storm water system which is at the rear of our block. She got an estimate for around $2ooo to do this, far cheaper than the $25000 to put in a storm water detention pit.

We had the first tender price given to us within a week, much quicker than AVJennings took. We accepted this and paid to have another survey done. Next we went for our colour selection and variations. After this we arranged for a Hydraulics engineer to compile a storm water report for us. We were given contact details by Allcastle for a couple of Hydraulics engineers. We decided not to use them though as they were adamant that we would have to put in a storm water detention pit, as Ryde council would insist on it. We phoned another Hydraulics engineer and he agreed with us that the pipe to the end of the garden was the best option. We had to get permission from the TAFE to allow us to use their storm water system. When we spoke to someone at the TAFE they verbally agreed this would be OK. Unfortunately getting someone to put this in writing was another matter. Due to the school holidays we did not get a decision until the beginning of February. After all that waiting, we were not given permission to use their storm water system. Unbelievable! So we still have to have a storm water detention pit. Our Hydraulics Engineer told us not to worry as we could probably put it in ourselves. He thinks the price builders are charging to put them in is extortionate. If we do the work ourselves we could do it for around the same cost as the original design.

Finally we had our plans ready and they were submitted to council on 14th February. Now it was just a matter of waiting and we were told it could take anything from 1 month to 6 months to get a decision.

Front entrance floor tiles

We finally got around to laying the floor tiles at the front entrance. We thought we would have a go at doing it ourselves as we were a bit disappointed with some of the tiling inside the house and thought we could do better. Well now was a chance for us to to see if we could, or eat our words.

We had a few tiles left over from the upstairs balcony and so we just had to purchase another box from Beaumont tiles for us to have enough.

Here's the entrance before we started.



We started laying the tiles.





Here are the tiles all laid.



We waited until the next day before we grouted the tiles as shown below.



Here they are all finished. We're very pleased with how they turned out.

Stepping stone pavers

We finished the stepping stone pavers at the side of the house today. The roadbase had been put down a few weeks ago when we did the retaining wall. We then had to screed a layer of river sand for the pavers to be laid on.



Here's all the pavers laid. We ended up with a few left over as we spaced them more than we originally planned. Better to have too many than not enough, we can always use them elsewhere in the garden.



We then surrounded the pavers with blue metal gravel. This is good for drainage and we quite like the colour of it. We also made a border using some left over block pavers from the driveway.
The area under the window will be a flower bed.



Here it is all finished.

Retaining wall

We managed to get the side retaining wall finished today. It's a dry block wall which does not need morter to hold it together.

We had to dig a trench at the front of our block of land as this is the highest part. This enabled us to get the wall level all the way down the side of the house.



The wall was laid on a bed of Roadbase and levelled using river sand.



It's important to get the first coarse laid level.



After that the rest of the wall is easy as the blocks just lay on top of each other.



Here it is with four coarses laid and capping on top. The wall is four blocks high at the front and gradually steps down to one block high.

Decking

We have finished the main part of the deck now. We used treated pine for the frame and the deck boards are Merbau hardwood 90x19mm.

Here is a break down of how it progressed.

Tuesday 3rd Feb

We had already dug the holes for the posts which would hold the frame of the deck. We had to remove some excess soil so that the frame would be sitting off the ground.





Here the first bearer has been bolted to the house.



We then attached the joist hangers to the bearers.




Wednesday 4th Feb

Next we started to screw the perimiter beams to bearers.



We then dropped the joists into the joist hangers.



Thursday 5th Feb

Here is the frame finished with steel posts cemented into the ground.



Friday 6th Feb

We then started to lay the deck boards out ready to be screwed to the joists. This took a bit of working out so that we would not have too much waste.



We started to screw the boards down



We then couldn't do anything for a week due to work commitments.

Friday 13th Feb

We finished off srewing the deck boards down.







Just need to add a step down to the garden and some fascia around the front and sides. We also need to add 1.8m high privacy screens at the sides of the deck to comply with council regs.

Garden takes shape.

Started on the side access today. We hired a mini kanga and a hole borer from HireOne and got a really good deal over the Australia Day weekend. This is the side before we started.



Started to dig and found a HUGE stump which we had missed when we hired the stump grinder. Would of taken ten minutes to take out using the grinder but in stead took half a day chipping away. Thank god we had some help.



Road base down for the pavers, pebbles and retaining wall.

The next job was to remove all of the rubble from the deck area.

After a few trips to the waste management centre and a heap of cash later.

It was looking good.

Side access from the front of the property.

Just a bit more road base to go down and we can get on with the retaining wall.

Drilling the holes for the deck.

One done.......9 to go.

Holes all bored

Air Conditioning unit installed

We had the Air Con unit installed yesterday. We couldn't use it for a day so that it could settle. It works well. Can be switched to come on either upstairs or downstairs or both.

We are dissappointed with how the ducting outside has been left though. We shall be speaking to Allcastle about this to see who and when it will be finished off.