Saturday 30 November 2013

Day 1

Welcome! Hello!

Someone told me it would be a good idea to write a blog about the endeavour of building our first home so here I am!

About us - We are a young couple (B -20 and K - 22) who are getting married in October 2014. We were lucky enough to be able to save a 5% deposit to get us in the door to the housing market. We are going into this with the philosophy that this won't be a forever house but it will be our first house and we are pretty damn proud to be able to achieve this so young!

The Land - a 452sq m block in App!n Valley. It is a corner block so we also receive a $5k rebate back from the developer which is super nice (and basically pays for our site costs). They are estimating it will be registered in Feb 2014 - I think April is more realistic at this stage which is great as we wanted to start 

The House - W!llow by Mer!dian Homes
Mer!dian have been excellent so far. They are a small builder who only start 3 homes a month. You work directly with the builder/director for the entire process which is making everything quick, efficient and less costly.


This is the basic draft of our plan. Its only about 19 squares but its only the 2 of us. The plans are currently with the designer working on the concept and design as we have made a few changes.

Changes on the table at the moment:

- 2.7m high ceilings
- design change of Master WIR/Ensuite to a large built in robe with the ensuite behind.
- 300 mm in length added to the house - to be added to the bedrooms
- The alfresco 'slab' being added to the rear of the house - this won't be under the roof as we are intending to install a nice pergola
- front facade will have 3 vertical windows instead of 2 horizontal
- design change to main bathroom - remove the separate toilet as its not really separate.
- bamboo flooring to all areas except wet areas
- design changes to space between benches and island as well as cupboard modifications
- 3 phase connection
- added a door out the back of the garage to the yard
- mirrored wardrobes to all built in robes
- extra TV points, gas points and downlights

We will be doing landscaping, fences and air con after handover.

We have signed the estimate tender on Thursday 28/11/13, and have pre-approval from the bank. It's a house and land package so the builder wants both signed off which should speed up the process as well. Our bank is pretty positive so I've got everything crossed for no issues but you never know.