Building A New Home
Building A New Home – How To Go From A Block Of Land To A New House
Building a new home doesn’t have to be a dreadful venture. Though the whole process can sound daunting, long and stressful as compared to buying an established house.
Besides if you talk to different people who had their houses built chances are a few of them may even advise against building a new house from scratch.
Our house floor plans were approved pretty quickly (less than 5 business days even in December). In our case the complete set of plans we submitted for approval comprised of: detailed floor plans in compliance with Lease and Development Conditions, elevation, Energy Rating report, clear indications about heating, cooling, insulation and rain water tank
Given our set of criteria and from a financial standpoint we decided that the best route for us was to design and build a new home rather than buying an established one.
It was our first custom house construction project in Australia and we were very excited. We made mistakes here and there but also learned a lot along the way. We now live in our new home and are very happy with the final result.
We believe that building your new house is worth the effort and can save you money if you are well prepared and follow a clear process.
That’s why we have set up this website to share with you our experience. We hope the information provided here will help you build your dream house in a smooth fashion with the least deal of stress possible!
The overall process we went through was:
- Buying a block of land in a new estate
- Consult an experienced architect to discuss and finalise house designs and floor plans for our custom built house. The outcome of this phase was a detailed sketch of our house floor plans with the roof lines. The design had to be in total compliance with the Lease and Development Conditions imposed on our block of land. Our architect then handed the sketch over to a specialised architectural firm to produce complete and detailed working drawings and Energy Rating report. This set has everything required by the building approval authority
- Submit complete set of house floor plans and working drawings for approval
- Work out building costs
- Assess and select house builders
- Building a house took six month from signature of contract until handover. The kitchen design was finalised in step 2 above.
- Finishing with floor covering and blinds
Click to view in pictures the stages involved in building our custom house from start to finish.
Remaining things we are doing now include:
- Landscaping is with us to complete
- Home improvement projects (e.g. garage shelving, garage storage)
If you like these articles please share the love so others in the same situation can benefit too. You are also welcome to share your experience in the comment section.
Enjoy the journey!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Great write up, and I think there is no substitute for building a custom home, far better than the volume builders.
Cheers,
Matt
Hi Matt,
Thanks for your kind words. A few of my friends would prefer to go with a builder’s design after visiting display houses. They perceive process as more hands off with less surprises.
I hope with the information I’ve shared on this site more people would consider building custom houses.
Cheers,
Another thing I have come to notice Vince, is when you custom build you are allowed on-site depending on the builder, but with the project / volume builders they will not allow you to be on site regardless, even though you own the land!
I much prefer new houses as I always find there are too many compromises when I look at existing houses
I’ve had a custom house built and a project home with substantial modifications.
Both have worked well probably because i spent a lot of time on research and was fairly hands on.
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Hi Brian,
I also renovated a couple of apartments (tiling, new kitchen, etc.) and I found it was a headache to live in the apartment at the same time. And in the end we were not very satisfied with the result.
With a good preparation I find that building a custom house turns out to be a rewarding experience.
Cheers,
Vincent
What a great site. Looking to start to build and you have supplied me with a great reference tool. Thank you
Hi Troy,
Thanks for the nice comment. I’m glad you found the content helpful.
All the best of luck with your house building project.
Great website and write up! Building your own home is so much more rewarding then letting someone else build it. Plus most of the time you save quite a bit of money that can be used for upgrading different features of the home.
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