|
  Having a house built in Australia is the norm. It doesn't have to look like next doors because it can be chosen by you from any number of designs on today's market, or you could even employ an architect to draw one for you. Here's the diary then of a couple of expats who thought they would give it a go. Buy the land. Build the house. Move in. Could it be any easier?
Dec '04 - Feb '05
In late 2004, after an exhaustive search for a property that fitted our impossible criteria of a view, 3 bedrooms plus study, garage, a garden, that indefinable “special” feel and a price we could afford in the Montville, Flaxton or Mapleton area - we came to the conclusion that it would be cheaper, and perhaps more desirable in the long run, to build ourselves. We wouldn't build our own house, of course, a registered builder would, but we'd help formulate it, from the inside out and learn many new things along the way. It's every Aussie's dream to own a block of land and build upon it. So the dream began.
Renting whilst building is the first cost you will incur if you are not able to live in a caravan or shed (liveable sheds with separate rooms, plumbing and air-conditioning are a reality here) on site during the process. Unfortunately for us building covenants associated with our chosen block prevented this and so renting was our only option. A build can take up to a year and the contract you'll sign for the build will not permit you to live in the house until all payments are complete and the keys are handed over. At $200 - $300 a week typically for rent, that's an awful lot of hard cash. Oh well, the price of happiness! Here is the story of our house, we hope the following will be of value to those seeking to do the same - whether it deters or encourages you! What we both can testify to is that it is incredibly exciting and at times somewhat daunting to start with a plain piece of paper, progress to a house plan and then see that plan turned into a reality.
The basic process for having a house built is as follows:
 Buy land
Undertake soil test and contour survey of block
Agree house design with chosen builder
Sign building contract and pay deposit
Submit plans to council for approval
Wait for plans to be approved
Start building
Finish building
Move in and open the champagne.
Having established where we wanted to live, it was simply a matter of purchasing a block of land. Simply is not the word. We looked at quite a few - some reasonably flat, others fairly steep, some with a view and some with a glimpse of a view, with prices being fairly predictable - better the view, higher the cost. Also the availability of power, extent of clearing required and proximity to the local town are other obvious factors which influenced the price. In this neck of the woods - Maleny, Montville, Flaxton and Mapleton (see map), land sizes vary from about a "small" 800 m2 to many tens of acres, the most popular from a residential buyers perspective being in the range of about 1-5 acres – plenty of room and privacy but not too much to manage. We settled on a sloping block of about three quarters of an acre with a view over a local lake – it was the peace, tranquillity, and of course the view that won us over.
 Houses are, needless to say, built to a plan, and you'll find plans (hundreds of them in fact), display homes and companies known as project builders that will handle the whole process to turn one of their many plans (or even one of your own) into a house. First port of call to find them is at a ‘display village'. The display homes give you a feel for the type of houses they build, the quality of fittings and an idea of the internal space. It can be very difficult to visualise the size of rooms and space in an open plan house (which most are over here) from a 2D floor plan and the display homes certainly help even if the design isn’t exactly the same as the one you eventually decide upon. It's not the only way to go; you can use independent architects, builders and trades people if you feel confident in arranging everything yourself but the project builder route is a good start and most folks seem to follow it. We'd certainly recommend using a project builder for first timers like us. The style of house that you'll come across at these display villages - there are three or four within half an hour's drive from us - will probably surprise you. Anything from modern, spacious, glass walled, geometric master-pieces to more traditional Queenslanders and contemporary pole home designs - houses quite literally on stilts, or 'stumps'. The latter are specifically aimed at sloping blocks of land. Prices reflect the types of building materials used, the degree of complicated engineering required and the quality of interior and exterior fittings that goes into each build. The build time is around six months to a year depending on the builder, although horror stories are frequently recounted by people and generally amount to a builder being stretched between too many projects at the same time. Great – thanks for telling us now!
We’ve chosen to build a modern version of the traditional Queenslander style of home which we feel will suit our sloping block and country location best. We’ve selected a project builder, namely the
Colonial Building Company, who had just such a house available for viewing at a builder's display village located in Buderim and were willing to work with us to design a house specifically for our block and our way of living. Our dream was to have a “high-set” house built up off the ground with cool, shady, verandahs to relax on, a traditional Queenslander look on the outside combined with a modern and open plan interior. It's not much to look at through a lens, but here's a snap shot of part of the block. It's set amongst other similar sized blocks. A 'block', incidentally, refers to a defined area of land whereas a 'plot' is where you're buried, in Oz speak. Yep, we made that mistake too! The posts were placed by us on a blistering hot day
as marker points for the house boundary when we were making sure it would fit and leave enough space for gardens and parking etc. I know that sounds stupid when there is ¾ of an acre but much of it is on steeply sloping land which we cannot use for anything other than the driveway. A more exact positioning of the house can’t go ahead until a 'contour survey' and soil test of the proposed house site had been established. This relatively inexpensive task (a few hundred dollars usually) provides a full report on the soil types down to where they hit rock (which is important to footing design), changes in the slope of the land (important to determine exact positioning and stump heights) and the recommended 'wind-rating' for the house (affects engineering aspects of design). The houses in this area are required to be able to withstand cyclonic wind forces in Queensland, and the positioning of the house and the natural lie of the land can all have an effect. Don’t worry – it can get
very windy here but it’s not Florida, we don’t generally expect to get hit by hurricanes! To give you an example, our block sits high over-looking a large lake with a valley leading up to the house site.
It has a higher wind rating than a nice flat protected site adding to the overall cost of the house build, the standard wind rating our
builder uses in it’s pricing off plan is N2, our block will probably require the house to be built to N3 or N4 wind rating meaning some upgrade to the structural design of the house will be required e.g. they’ll use a few more screws to hold the roof on – no joke! It's a reality that you ought to be aware of when choosing a block of land – a flat block in a protected location i.e. not on top of a hill or directly on the sea front, will be much cheaper to build on than a sloping block with an open aspect. But boy does that view make my heart sing every time I stand where I imagine the verandah will be (see photo) and we’ll be another 2m or so
higher – should be fantastic. Generally, builders can give you only a very rough estimate of the build costs until a contour survey, soil test and wind rating has been completed.
It all sounds easy doesn’t it? We worked with Colonial’s design/sales consultant Grant Davis who was based at the Buderim display home to come up with a design. We wanted 4 bedrooms, an open plan kitchen-dining-living area, separate lounge, verandah to sit on and look at that lake view, all positioned so that we could take advantage of the lower winter sun to warm up the living areas and with a solar hot water system – with so much sun over here it is scandalous that the majority of houses don’t have one. We put pencil to graph paper and came up with a first shot at our plan. Grant took that and turned it into a more technically correct one, advising on subtle changes here and there which would improve practicality and suggested some niceties for styling etc. Once we liked what we saw it was sent off to head office for a preliminary estimate of build cost. It is considered a preliminary estimate until all aspects of the design have been
agreed including fittings and the contract is signed. Unlike with project builders in the UK such as Barratt etc. you have much more choice from builders here in how things are fitted out, which of course affects the price. Well, the first quote for the house came back higher than we were hoping for so we’ve been working with them to cost specific aspects of the plan to see whether we can modify things and bring it back into our planned budget. Before we talk prices let me point out that in this part of the Blackall Range we do not have access to mains water or drainage/sewerage. Rather water comes straight from the sky and is collected in big tanks - sometimes concrete, sometimes plastic, and waste is either collected in septic tanks or is treated on site by mini effluent treatment systems. We have an average of 1700mm of rain here a year which is usually plenty for a family’s use when collected off the roof. Ironically the lake that we'll be looking at is in fact the water
supply reservoir for the coastal side of the Sunshine Coast! How annoying is that going to be if we did ever run dry – it’s a bit too far away for us to hook up a hose-line. Should that situation arise it is possible to buy a tanker-load of water for a few hundred dollars and that was necessary for some households up here last year as there was a very unusual period of 5 months without significant rain between May and October. You get to consider water as a valuable resource in this area, which is what the scientists actually keep telling us it is and I feel we are becoming more environmentally considerate which can’t be a bad thing. So there's a 10,000 gallon water tank to pay for, an effluent treatment system, some seriously long underground power and telecommunication lines (70 m to house site from junction box) and of course the initial earth works to create a level base for an under-house open-air garage environment. Hence, the cost of the house was, with all these other
considerations, too high. A few metres were cut out here and there in the floor plan, an ensuite to the guest room disappeared, lined verandah ceilings went and hopefully, when the quote comes through, we'll be in the ball park. We’ve also had to adjust our initial budget upwards a bit but what do you expect this is the first time we’ve done this and we’re still learning!
Mar '05
Well it's all coming together. Plan looks good, we’ve reassessed what we are willing to compromise on in terms of size and design and adjusted our budget (out goes the swimming pool for a year or two and we’ll both be dieting). The costs that really hit us more than we anticipated were the extra engineering costs associated with the wind rating – it was assessed as N4 in the end, the cost of the
solar hot water system which will take around
4-5 years to pay for itself by our calculations but which we feel strongly about installing, extra costs associated with an in-ground concrete water tank and treatment system and we’ve also decided to include bi-fold timber doors to both sides of the dining area which are going to be a significantly more expensive option than aluminium framed sliding doors – but they will be worth every penny (cent). Here's the front and RHS elevation as supplied by Colonial Building Company with a few annotations by us in orange and green:
Where the earth has been dug away, a large flat area will enable under-house parking with the option of enclosing to form a more secure garage/workshop area. Don't be fooled into thinking there's a huge amount of useable space under the house - there is, but the "stumps" need cross-bracing to form a less-than-wobbly foundation onto which to build the house so it is not possible to drive straight through in all directions. Not all stumps need bracing - just enough and in the right place. Tell the builder where you want the garage and he'll work around the problem. This means that our under house area will accommodate 4 cars in two equal length rows. We’ll also probably put a small storage shed under there for gardening stuff.
The water tank build is something we will be organising with a local company, although its approximate positioning in relation to the house has to be included in the plans that are sent for council approval. The effluent treatment system - a proper treatment system you'll note - will be installed by the builders. There is part of a system already installed, being a necessity demanded by council at the time the blocks were made available for purchase. Power is available at the entrance to the block and is a requirement for building to commence.
Another cost increase that has just come to light is as a result of a change to council policy where they now require a minimum of 75mm insulation in the roof for properties being built 300m above sea level. It was 50 mm before. We are also going to have the external walls insulated to help keep us cool in summer and toasty in winter. We’ve decided not to install, air conditioning, ceiling fans or a fire (yes - many properties up here in the hills have wood burning stoves) until after we move in so we can really assess how effective the insulation is and where exactly we need to put them. Hopefully we won’t need any of them but I think that is just wishful thinking.
Apr '05 - May '05
The official contract with final costing was signed on the 13th of April, which is just as well as 13's our lucky number! We then had what's called a 5 day "cooling off" period - statutory for contracts like these where we can change our minds and back out. After the 5 days, you're bound by what you've read and signed. Gulp! There was also the small matter of a deposit to pay - 5% of the contract price. This is probably a good point to talk about stage payments we’ve made to date and those we are yet to make for the build - it is similar with most project builders.
Preliminary Stages
1. Complimentary preliminary estimate, concept floor plan and one concept floor plan change - NIL
2. Contour survey and soil test, design amendments as necessary and update to preliminary estimate - $1500
3. Prepare working drawings, undertake engineer’s footing design, overflow flood search and site drainage plan and prepare preliminary specs - $2950
4. For non-sewered sites percolation test, soil evaluation and hydraulic engineer’s design - $1000
5. Finalise drawings, specifications, engineering and associated requirements, contact documentation, and most importantly of all contract price
Build Stages
1. Sign contract documents – 5% of contract price less monies already paid
2. Base (earthworks, footings, stumps or slab) – 10%
3. Bearers and Joists – 12%
4. Frame – 15%
5. Enclosed or Lock-Up – 28%
6. Fixing – 20%
7. Completion – 10%
That should all add up to 100%. As mentioned before, only a very rough estimate could be given prior to soil test, contour survey and wind rating being established and assumed all those aspects would be “standard”. We knew our block was not standard but this first stage gave us an indication as to whether we were in cloud cuckoo land or not and the confidence to stump (forgive the pun) up some money for Colonial to get the soil test etc. undertaken. You could arrange for this yourself prior to seeing any builders but we didn’t know which company to use and thought it would be easier to let the builders arrange it. Also, note that after the contract to build is signed, any major changes to the floor plan layout incur costs in the region of $500. It pays to get it right before the contract is signed!
The final design is close to the plan shown above, with the inclusion of a third set of steps and some juggling around of doors, amongst other smaller details. They were submitted for approval by Council on April 22nd.
Jun '05 - Jul '05
It’s at this stage that you feel like you’ve done all the hard work, can visualise the house now really clearly and want to actually move in within the next two weeks. Of course this is really only just the start of the build process which we’ve been told by Colonial is expected to take 5-6 months, not accounting for any unforseen delaying circumstances. There is a deadline of 9 months from Council Approval date to handover included in the contract and of course the builders want to get it finished to get their money so hopefully we will be in by Christmas, Colonial have suggested this isn’t unrealistic. However, although there is a penalty clause in the contract for each day beyond the 9 months to completion, it is only for $15 a day which is hardly enough to pay the extra rent you’ll be forking out for or the inconvenience but we do not expect to need to worry about that – we’ve been assured it’s just a standard part of the contract. The
contract builders use in Queensland is based on a standard one produced by the Housing Industry Association. You probably could negotiate a higher penalty but I expect the builder would reflect this is the contract price.
Whilst plans are with Council the fun parts really start. Over here it is called Colour Selection. This is the time when you will be poring over the plans deciding on where and how many lights, plug points and switches you will require, colour of bathroom vanities, tap-ware, cabinet and work surfaces, paint colours, roof colour etc. Our house will have a Colorbond metal roof – more popular over here than tiles and timber-board cladding in the traditional style. You can choose any colour you like, that’s the best and worst thing about building your own home here. There is so much choice – with the house layout, fitments and colours: if you don’t like it when it’s done there is no-one to blame except yourself! My needs seemed to include doubling the number of power points in every room and Paul had just one – a strip light under the house where we would park the car. He says I’m so extravagant but how often have you cursed that there were not enough plug points in a house to give you options where to put lamps and TVs and Hi-fis etc. Of course there are only a number of standard inclusions from the builder, extras you will pay for but at least you have the option here to really fit the house out to suit your own needs, and they don’t try to sting you for the extras – in fact we got a few included free of charge – thanks Pauline.
We've opted to fit a
solar hot water system to the house in place of the standard electric system (not much natural gas piped around Queensland so electricity is most common). Our preference is to have the two panels on the roof and the tank on the ground. Alternatively you can position the tank on the roof as well but this may require additional roof strengthening to support the weight. There are pros and cons to each approach. There is currently a system of government rebates in place to encourage buyers of hot water systems to go solar, although every new build must have a solar hot water system installed beginning March 2006 in Queensland and rebates are expected to be phased out.
Aug '05
It’s a Wednesday morning, August the 3rd, and perhaps the biggest day of our Aussie adventure so far.
Today’s the day they start to build our house!
From a beautiful green hillside to a carved section of red soil in a couple of days. Such is the quality of the volcanic earth that virtually anything will grow here, and with a 22 tonne Komatsu digger chasing you down, you’d not want to be rooted to the spot to long yourself. The bloke in charge of levelling the site and creating all the necessary holes, channels and drains is Ron Sommer of Sommer Bros. Earthworks & Roadworks (mobile 0412 713330) - seen here in the yellow and blue jacket. He comes highly recommended. The big square hole (see later pics) is where the 10,000 gallon concrete water tank is going to be sunk. It’s 8 foot from the top to the bottom at the highest point and about 19 foot square. It’ll stand just a little bit above natural ground level one side and we hope to put a gazebo on it in due course. A little of the excess excavated earth remains close to the hole to act as back-fill once the tank
has been cast onsite. The remainder, including that generally excavated has been dumped around the perimeter of the site to extend the level foot-print and hopefully create a small flat garden area.
At this point let's introduce Wayne and Philip. Wayne, on the left, owns Colonial Building Company. Phil, on the right, will be our first point of contact for the whole job – he's the Project Manager. Whilst some of the external jobs like the water tank and solar hot water purchase and installation will be organised by us (organised, but not actually fitted), the organisation of the rest of the house build is Phil’s responsibility, although when on site he will liaise with whoever is also there, of course.
Day One began with a marking out of the house perimeter. It is vital (read mandatory) that the owners are on site for this; any views or potential after-thoughts like the location of a swimming pool for example, need to be addressed at this stage. We already knew where we intended to have the water-tank placed (although this was to change slightly after a day…only by a metre or two) and to take advantage of the view over Lake Baroon it was important to position the house such that the view from the imaginary deck was not obscured by the un-imaginary tree. Also, we had always taken into account the fact that the house was going to be on stumps so it soon became clear that we were going to be a little higher still, once Ron had turned a gently downward sloping curve (think of a banana on its side) into a small flat football pitch. There was also the concern of the driveway which would lead under the house. Thinking in virtual 3-D may not be your best
attribute, and it certainly isn’t ours. It’s here where both Wayne and Phil excelled by describing to us where the necessary cuts and earth platforms were going to be constructed and how it would all come together.
With the perimeter of the house finally marked – we only moved it once! - level readings were taken and the scalping of the ground began. The grassy soil was carefully positioned away from any other excavated soil and used to finish the new embankment that marked the perimeter of the building block. The vegetation will then help to bind the soil, maybe take root and ensure the stability to the gently sloping sides.
Then we hit our first dilemma. As the top soil was removed, Ron uncovered part of the pre-laid water treatment system. It’s time to discuss the system that’s already in place.
Two tanks (one septic and one grey-water - kitchen and bathroom) are planned to be sunk into the land adjacent to, or partially below, the house. Both tanks will flow into a de-nitrification tank (removing the nitrogen from the water) which was installed when the block of land was first put on the market years ago as part of the sub-division ruling. The septic route has a sand-filter between it and the de-nitrification tank. Leading from the de-nitrification tank there are two 20 metre trenches that let the treated water seep into the land (also pre-installed prior to purchase).
See the blue markings in the picture? That’s the sand-filter, and unfortunately it’s slap-bang where the house is to sit. We therefore have no choice but to put in place a new sand-filter. And as I type this we’re looking at alternative water treatment systems that are currently available – with close emphasis on environmental issues and the depth of our pockets. It’ll be a slow process, hurried along by the fact that there’s a house to be built and the surveyor’s arriving on Monday!
For a movie of the build-site, click on the digger photo. It's just over 4MB. For the second movie, which shows the water-tank hole and surrounding area click here.
Our second hiccup involved a bit of down-time with the digger when one of the tracks decided to undo itself. Murphy’s law, eh? And finally the driveway was reckoned to be too steep and possibly too slippery for some of the delivery and concreting guys, so an impromptu scrape of the earth with the Komatsu got rid of 70 metres of grass through to a layer of crushed rock below which had originally been put in place at sub-division time. However, the driveway did not extend around the side of the house where the garage would eventually be and where the builder’s delivery trucks would drop their load, so two road-base deliveries were ordered. It’s almost time to get the cheque book out. (When the bill finally arrived it came to $1320 - that's for all the digging, levelling, building-up, road-base fetching and spreading and even re-planting three trees. Good value and a superb job.)
Now the majority of ‘bull-dozer landscaping’ had been achieved it was time to gather our thoughts on the next stage and ponder on the difficulties that we’d just uncovered – the partial septic system.
Talking to our neighbours it soon became clear that we were not alone in this, for their builders had also uncovered a sand-filter and for them it was too late as the builder’s had drilled straight through it to locate footings for a post support for the house. Now it was our turn. Both of us agreed it was a silly place to install the sand-filter and that’s all we could say. It was going to cost us a few extra dollars and we might as well just get on with it. C’est la bleedin’ vie.
The surveyor proved us right a couple of days later when armed with all the tools of a surveyor he calculated an x point directly within the filter, and one close enough to it that it completely demolished any thoughts of using the system. It was either change the positioning of the house and all the costs that that would incur, or simply have a new filter put in. Common sense prevailed.
North Coast Tanks (0438 665113) arrived later that week to begin installation of the 10,000 gallon fresh-water tank. Like so many Australians, we’ll be collecting water off the roof of our house and using it to wash, flush and drink. The lake that we’ll be able to see from the deck feeds the coast region of the Sunshine Coast, and the water is said to taste better from the sky than it does from the lake! The tank took a mere couple of days to build – no sooner had we seen the concrete mould in place than the structure was complete. It has been reinforced to take a gazebo and a gathering of barbecuers, although now the landscape has changed so much from our original concept perhaps it won’t carry anything other than a Hill’s Hoist (robust Aussie iconic washing line contraption for those that don’t know). The cost of the tank was $5350. A considerable amount of money but absolutely necessary. Plastic tanks are available
but not to 10,000 gallon specification - so 2 x 5000 gallon tanks would have to be bought and these would have to sit above ground and there wouldn't have been much difference in the price.
 With the surveyor’s pegs all over it was time to dig some bloomin’ big holes. These vary in length – a pre-determined minimum must be passed until decent rock is located. 52 holes in total. Like fallen trees the ‘stumps’ lay adjacent to their bored holes, each ready to be set in concrete and aligned perfectly to carry the frame that will carry the floor. Each stump was pre-fabricated by an engineering company to our builder’s specification – lengths varied, as did the top bracket section – and was made of galvanised mild steel. Cross-bracing between some of the stumps will be put in place later on, improving the rigidity of the overall structure. Where cross-bracing has been left out is generally where we asked for there to be none – enabling us to move about under the house to access the garage area at speed without the need for Colin Jackson’s athletic prowess.
Finally, as far as this early stage is concerned, a channel was dug from the road to where the electric meter cabinet will finally sit on the wall of the house and a cable laid. A telecommunications cable was also laid in the trench. Incidentally, the blokes that bolted down the on-site ‘dunny’ are NOT building this house!
August is nearly over and the weather’s taken a bit of a dive. So far the daily winter temperatures have been in the low twenties with the occasional blip into the high twenties. Winters have never been so good since leaving the UK. But today the weather’s been a mixture of heavy rain and showers with 18 degrees showing on the car’s thermometer. Phil assured me that the floor will be completed by the end of the week. Surely they won’t have even bothered starting the floor yet.
Well, we were surprised to say the least. The last time we paid the site a visit we were excited by the alignment of the stumps. Now, for the first time, we were able to see some flooring! Christmas had come early and the rain had stopped too. It’s a good day.
The two carpenters you see on the floor, Martin (standing) and Glen, are living locally in rented accommodation. They actually live in NSW, just across the border with Queensland, and being more than a two hour drive to get here they have decided to stay locally to increase their working hours. This means the house gets done sooner and there is every chance that we’ll be in by the time the real Christmas comes around. Let’s hope they don’t get home sick…
 Here’s the view from down below. It looks huge, but I have to keep telling myself that there will be cross-bracing between some of the stumps and unsightly cables and plumbing drains – you see the beauty of a house like this is that if you need to add more wiring or plumbing its so much easier than having to dig down under the house or climb into the roof space. Plus, and this is the biggest bonus of all, if the house isn’t as big as you’d hoped or you need more room, there’s always the easy option of concreting downstairs and enclosing parts or all of the under house space – and the work can be done whilst you continue to live under the same roof. The format for building a house of this design is to build upon the floor up to the roof without placing wall sections in until the roof is on. Smart thinking. Whether you’re building in the rain or the sun at least
you’re able to work undercover – the rains can be torrential and the sun truly scorching – welcome to Australia!
Sep '05
As each day passes the project quickly begins to take shape. From a house owner’s point of view, when the ‘big’ things are finished (and it’s the big things that as owners we see) the whole build process moves dramatically onwards at an unfathomable pace. Blimey, the floors are on! The earthworks, for example, were done in a matter of days and the results were there to see – no more weeds and flat earth where there was once sloped. Our garden design ideas were forgotten in an instance. The stumps, shooting out of the ground with their galvanised glare, filled the flattened red terrain. This was real happening stuff. Soon, when the frame is fixed and the roof is raised, there would be little big progress to see – other than the septic system being installed. Ok, we’ll see some windows and some doors, but it’s the smaller items like wiring, plumbing, tiling and internal fixings that’s we’ll not be able to see progress on because they are hiddeninternal skills – any anyway, who wants photos of bare wires? I’ll do my best!
The rains had eased and once again it was time to pay the site a visit. By now the timber decking was in situ – well almost. We’re waiting on a few extra bits to complete the job but you can get an idea from the pictures. Excited? You could say that. The decking is a hardwood material that will need regular maintenance if it is to stay looking good. Linseed oil has been recommended.
Not knowing the build process means that you aren’t aware of what happens when, apart from the common sense approach of the floor coming before the roof. We’re planning on having wooden flooring – either mixed Australian hardwood or bamboo (technically bamboo is a grass, not a wood, but you get my drift) and we weren’t too sure when this would need to be done. It’s the sort of thing that means you’ve got to show your stupidity to the carpenter on site and get the simplest of answers in return. There’s me thinking that I’m going to hold the whole process up whilst I put down a flashy floor and save a few dollars in the fitting cost but cause all sorts of grief to the team at Colonial and now there’s Martin telling me that he’ll raise the skirting board by an appropriate amount in advance of the floor going down so that I can take my time after the build is complete. Why do I worry?
Choosing a type of floor has led to some research on the format of the floor – i.e. a floating floor or a nailed floor and the complications of each. The floating floor approach can either be strips of timber or laminated (thick veneer on plywood) timber which rest on a layer of insulating material that doubles as a moisture barrier. This is quite a common approach over concrete flooring. The ability for the wood to expand and contract is a headache overcome with expansion joints of cork, about a centimetre thick laid in a line every 6 metres or so of timber flooring and sometimes around the perimeter where there is no skirting – say at the base of a floor-to-ceiling window or simply a door frame. With skirting an air-gap is sufficient under the skirting. No expansion joints have resulted in door frames being forced out! The other route is to do away with the floating floor technique and nail (and glue) the timber strips to the already installed particle board flooring. Incidentally, this is called ‘yellow tongue’ boarding and has a central core which is a termite barrier. A moisture barrier is also built into the material. All of the timbers used in the construction are termite proof – termites (white ants) being things you simply don’t want eating your house. Yes, they do munch their way through concrete too and a fine stainless steel mesh is recommended be put in place within the concrete flooring to block their path. Being on metal stumps provides a good barrier, but one should always be aware that termites can be carried into the house – so beware old furniture, etc.
So it looks like I’m buying a bundle of flooring timber and nailing it to the yellow tongue. That’s all rooms except lounge, laundry, wcs and bedrooms. Well, that’s the plan this week…
You’ll have noticed the steel steps at the back of the house. These were an extravagant last-minute detail that helped balance the house design at the back but, more importantly, also perform a decent fire escape (and of course they’re termite proof). With the option to design a house to your own specification with Colonial – with their guidance of course – there are important features that you need to keep reminding yourself of, like fire escapes or adequate internal and external lighting. At the colours stage with Pauline, we rubber-stamped the electrical requirements of the house and her advice on the positioning of lighting and electrical components and their performance, spoke volumes. Just because you can do it yourself doesn’t mean it is always good to do so. There are some important differences between what we know from a build culture in the UK – our first house was a Barratt house and you soon learn a lot with a Barratt house… – to what can be done over here. For
example, you can have real plug points in the bathroom, and not just the shaver type as in the UK – mad, bizarre or sensible? I guess my point is this. If you chose something off a plan, all the hard work is done for you. If like us you can’t find something to suit the land contour (although I’m not too sure what happened to the contours Ron!), the orientation (maximising the winter sun’s warmth or a view) or you just don’t like the layout, bear in mind the extras that need to be put on the agenda if you design something yourself. Most builders are happy to adapt their designs. We found Colonial happy to persevere with our own designs until we felt we got it right. That’s one of their strengths. Of course the alternative is to employ the services of an architect but since the fee is generally a percentage of the overall cost of the house (and it’s not a small percentage either) and there’s no guarantee that what’s drawn up will satisfy the builder’s requirements
anyway – I’ve heard the evidence – it could turn out to be a long, drawn out and expensive route to take.
Now comes the fun. Life gets a little complicated when you're trying to capture the processes of house building. For a start nail guns are used on site and therefore we're not allowed near the build whilst anything building related is going on, unless we're accompanied by the site manager or have the approval of the building company. Of course, when no one's around... but don't expect to sue if you tread on an up-turned nail or a stack of timber falls on you. We're not telling you to trespass on your own building block.
Within a week the frame stage was complete. It took us by surprise too! From an elevated chip-board floor to, well, you could almost call it a house, and it wasn't long after that the roof was plonked on, together with 75mm glass-wool reflective insulation sandwiched between the frame and the roof trusses. Council insisted on 75mm over the standard 50mm (at the time - it may change in the future) due to the possible extra cold at a higher elevation. The lake that you see in the pics is not at sea level - it's an artificial lake that feeds the coastal towns and cities. We're about 400m above sea-level, and despite winter daytime temperatures rarely going into single figures, it's a good idea to have as much insulation as you can possibly afford - as well as the heat to keep in (in winter) you've also got the heat to keep out (in summer). Relying on an air-conditioner is something we'd like to do without, although they are reckoned to be a good source of heat too.
 And as quick as the frame appeared, so did the roof... and then, not a lot happened.
 If you haven't quite worked it out, that's scaffolding at roof height. This is placed above the floor of the house and is used by the roofers to lay the steel roofing sheets. These sheets are known as 'Colorbond' in Australia. They come in a variety of colours, bonded to the steel surface. Whilst tiling is favoured by some, sheeting it favoured by more. The advantages seem to be the durability and cleaness of line. Similarly, the guttering is also steel; a choice of colours being made avaiable. It's different, looks nice and can withstand some of the biggest hail stones you're ever likely to want to avoid. The 'H' shaped object on the grass is part of the septic system that we recovered from the top of the septic sand filter. That's saved a few bob.
Oct '05 - Dec '05
 October sees the start of spring and already temperatures are rising beyond that of an English summer. News from 'home' suggests that summer's been great and the Poms have won the Ashes. We know. We watched it live on terrestial tv, between the shower breaks. And the temperatures have kept rising. At 8.30am it was a 'mild' 27 degrees. Parts of Brisbane are on fire as temps reach about 39 degrees and a warm wind fans the flames. In the house that we're renting the inside temperature was 'just' 30. This house has no insulation. Summer's not here yet and last year the inside temperature was a cool 36 degrees. Insulation? Who needs it? There endeth the lesson.
What you can't see here is that the electrician's been and left strands of power cable, telecommunications cable and tv co-axial cable all over the place. Cables criss-cross throughout the roof space - a 'no go' area for storage. There is going to be a hatch through which to gain access (in the laundry) but the roof space is minimal and cluttered with the afore-mentioned. The closeness of the roof structure also restricts movement in the roof space. I guess any empty boxes will have to live 'downstairs'.
With the fall of some much needed heavy rains it was no surprise to see the plumber on site. The traditional method of plumbing with a conventional house is to bury all the nasty pipe-work, and although in part that is true here, all of the pipe-work that carries the waste from the house is clearly visible under the house, above head level. This is where things can look really ugly; a criss-cross of white plastic waste and sewage pipe leads down into the two black plastic tanks.
 These two tanks (kitchen and toilet waste is one, laundry and shower waste the other) are buried in the ground with just the top part protruding above ground level for access or maintenance. Next in line is the concrete overflow tank, known as the pump well. The liquid overflow from the kitchen and toilet waste tank emerges to flow into the pump well where it is pumped electrically towards the sand filter (a 6m long trough full of sand and rock through which the liquid passes under the force of gravity and is slowly filtered – yet to be installed). From here it flows into a denitrification tank (already installed on the block of land) and finally all liquids pour out into two rock and gravel trenches to be dispersed into the surrounding earth. Waste from the laundry and shower by-passes the sand-filter and heads straight for the denitrification tank.
 There were also the connections to the 10,000 gallon water tank to consider at this point and I’m pleased to say the plumbing for that is now in place and buried neatly under ground. Only the down-pipes from the gutter need attaching to the various inlets protruding upwards from the ground at intervals around the house perimeter. The supply feed from the water tank to the house is also buried, although as yet the water-pump is not connected.
In order to keep the waste water tanks in situ and prevent them from floating after a heavy rain storm, down-pipes were connected as temporary feeds for the rain that falls on the house roof. Just in case you were wondering!
A phone call last week also announced the arrival of the solar hot water system. However, the week of rain that we’ve been having meant that installation couldn’t go ahead, but it did give us a chance to discuss exactly where the panels would be placed on the roof – northward facing, or as close as possible to achieve. The house design took into account many important considerations – liveability, view, space, view. Did I mention the view? Ok, so we swung the house around as much as we dared in order to create a very private deck with a fantastic view and so we’re not quite facing north. But I’m assured, despite this tiny set-back, the efficiency of the solar hot water system will be more than up to the task of producing free hot water.
The battle to get this far hasn’t been at all tiring – yeh right. It’s like it always was for Steve Cram, long legs cruising behind Steve Ovett or Sebastian Coe, using some energy but really making them do most of the hard work so that he could pounce at the last moment. Only that’s when it really got tough. So the builders have been doing most of the hard work and we’ve been sitting on our… not quite. There have been a lot of trips to and from suppliers establishing costs and making sure all is within budget. That is easier said than done. For example, your builder will give you a budget for your tiles; an amount per square metre for the bathroom floor and walls, the kitchen walls, perhaps even the kitchen floor and they will recommend where you go because they have deals with certain suppliers. The choice of exterior colours – roof, walls, guttering, etc. was done at the early stage over a cup of coffee and a bite to eat together with the placement of lights and switches, etc. This stage is often referred to as “colours” and it’s such a long time ago now that I may have referred to it earlier, so forgive me if I’m repeating myself. With Colonial, the floor – tiles, timber and/or carpet – was not included in the build other than bathroom tiles. The kitchen appliances were and a designated sum has been allocated for these items, just like the bathroom tiles. If you don’t choose from their kitchen range (oven and cook-top (hob in the old slang)), which we did not, then you buy your own goods and the overall cost of the house is reduced by an appropriate amount from the moment the contract is prepared. For the tiles, on the other hand, we will receive a rebate simply because these were included in the original build contract price and we chose not to travel to the Gold Coast to purchase tiles from the builder’s preferred supplier. Instead, a couple of Sunshine Coast tile suppliers helped out and since this task was completed late on in the build, we will be reimbursed accordingly. If you found that difficult to understand, try writing it! Of course, every builder is different.
 
The wooden floor scenario has been especially fun. The house comes with special particle board flooring laid over timber joists. It’s up to you to decide how you want the floor finished – tile, timber and/or carpet – or chipboard if you’re feeling like a cheap-skate. We have chosen timber – strips of Australian Grey Gum covering the entrance hallway, family/dining area, kitchen and small hall. The method is to nail this down after the walls are in place and either before or after the kitchen has been fitted, but before the skirting has been joined to the walls. This, it is fair to say, has been a headache – for us. The choice is over-whelming and the costs almost prohibitive. We chose timber flooring over tile because of the style of the house and it’s fair to say that tiling reigns supreme in Australia as most houses are built on a concrete slab with tiles as their preferred tread. Tiles are also cheaper. In my experience the main flooring area is not included in the cheapest price you will see advertised by a building company so start asking questions – lots of them!
 We also spent time choosing lights and bathroom extraction fans. Lights for the breakfast bar, lights for upstairs and lights for underneath. There’s even an electric water pump sitting beside me still waiting to be plumbed in – not included in the cost of the build by the way. Choosing the right pump was a complicated process of going to a pump sales place and believing what the salesman says and laying down about $750. Well, it would be if that’s how my brain worked. I think I visited two or three suppliers plus spoke to countless companies at a couple of home shows – one in Brisbane and one on the Sunshine Coast before making a decision. Have I got it right? It depends who you talk to! We’ll see.
 So now we’re on the home straight. Cram, Coe and Ovett are busy hammering and plastering away, and it is the windows and insulation that are the next items to go in. The roof insulation went in some time ago when the roof was put in place. Now as the powder-coated aluminium single glazed sliders are literally stapled in place the empty shell is beginning to look like an empty shell with windows. The insulating glass-wool bats (our choice to have wall insulation) fill the void between the wall studs as at long last the cladding finally makes it into place. It really is coming together and you can almost see the finishing line. Only there’s an outsider jostling our three heroes as they approach the final 100 metres and it’s called “that bloody sand-filter”.
 Council approval of the plumbing system – did I mention the bath we also chose that now sits in situ? – was another item recently ticked off on the checking list, only with no sand-filter in place, the approval was a little premature. It now falls on a company called Envirotech to install our sand-filter at council’s insistence (Envirotech invented and installed the original system so it comes as no surprise) – and we hope they don’t delay our plans to be in before the year’s out. I’m sure they’re a very nice company and will do their best to make us happy…
 Still no solar hot water system on the roof due to a couple of weeks of inclement weather (it’s all so British… the panels did finally get put on though - see picture below) but the good news is the wooden bi-fold doors (double set opening out on to the rear deck - see above) arrived just in time for the camera to come out!
 With the vast majority of the external work completed, other than some plumbing and painting, front steps and hand rails, we must turn our attention to inside. Fitment of the wall and ceiling plasterboard is next, and the skirting and door-jambs. There has been a little confusion about when the timber flooring is going to be fitted by an external contractor but that looks like it has resolved itself to be done after the house is handed over to us from the builder. If you are to learn anything from this house build process please let it be that when external contractors are to be used, that they are introduced to the builder at the earliest opportunity and each knows what the other is doing, or wants, as clearly and as quickly as possible. It's fair to say that as an individual who knows little about the process of house building, I have been wholly reliant upon what the builders or external contractors have said, and have acted in a capacity as a go-between for both - transferring packets of information between the various parties as I have understood them, whilst listening to the opinions and needs of both parties. It hasn't been as rewarding as I had hoped it would be, and to say that there has been a mis-understanding or three is probably an understatement.
The to-ing and fro-ing in my mind couldn't have come at a more inappropriate time as the desire to take ownership of the house before Christmas is at its strongest, yet the reality that it will actually happen is at its weakest. To me, at least, there simply doesn't appear to be enough days left before the Christmas holidays (and new year's), and when you consider the obligations of major external contractors like the company sorting out the sand-filter, I really cannot see us moving in this year. The house build is on track - we just set the ambitious personal deadline of Christmas and it simply isn't going to happen. We're over it. C'est la bleedin' vie!
 A recent trip to the house put a smile on our faces when we netted a photo of the pasterboard in place on both the walls and the ceilings. It wasn't long before the board had a skim of plaster on the joins and the internal door frames were in place. The final approval of the kitchen design has now been signed off and we're awaiting fitment of the kitchen in the next week. The handles have been ordered and delivered to site. It's December 1st. Ho! Ho! Ho!
 The year is almost over and the house is really beginning to take shape now. You can almost sense we're on the home straight, although in reality there seems to be a mountain of things still left to do. Here's the kitchen after completion of the units. There's still the oven, gas cook top and dishwasher to install.
 Tiling in the bathroom with unit, tiled shower base and bath. The bath was fitted some time ago and left in a wooden frame. It's good to see the tiles in place and covering the frame. The plug hole of the bath still needs to be plumbed - and by that I mean a hole has still to be cut in the floor and the drain connected to the main drainage system plumbed below the floor. The floor tiles lay on a mix of concrete, about 20 mm thick. This concrete mix lies on top of a glass-fibre coating that was applied to the fibre-board floor sheets and up the sides of the walls by a height of one skirting tile. Application of the glass-fibre mix is the building process of "water-proofing" and threw us a bit when Phil, our site manager, said the next stage in the build is "water-proofing", which as you can imagine is enough to throw anyone without one iota of building common sense. My immediate thoughts were: "But don't we already have a roof and exterior walls?" Back on track now, the system allows for the floor drains to be put in place and seals the particle floorboards and plasterboard walls from water. The concrete mix laid on top is done so that the tile joins do not crack as the house moves with the heat and humidity. All clear now?
 
The laundry is also taking shape now with tiling to the floor and wall, plus fitment of the basin cabinet. The main bedroom ensuite has the shower area tiled and basin cabinet in place. All that hard work of choosing the right tiles and kitchen work surface and cabinet surfaces is all paying off. And speaking of pay-offs, we've just received a demand for another stage payment, the penultimate one. Only $51,000. Merry Christmas!
And Into 2006
Happy New Year. Let’s hope it’s great for all of us!
I would have to say that this new stage that we now face is probably the most frustrating. It’s like restoring a classic car, something of which I have had plenty of experience. We’ve rebuilt the chassis, beaten and smoothed the panels and all the tiny bits have just returned from the chrome platers. The engine’s rebuilt and fitted and the paint’s just been sprayed. Suspension’s in place and the wiring loom awaits the gauges, lights and horn. All that’s left is to throw on the chrome and the wheels and we’re off, right? Hardly! As anyone building up a car from scratch will testify, patience leads to some serious long days but the reward is overwhelming. Well, we hope the reward is here too, and talking of spraying…
 Incredibly, the house has been sprayed, both inside and outside, just after the new year celebrations. As if balancing on a plank 30 feet up in the air strung between two giant A-frames on uneven ground wasn’t enough with a paint brush and pot, these guys literally walked the plank with a spray gun and dangling air hose! And it’s probably going to be no different when your house is built. They sprayed the outside and they sprayed the inside. Seeing a whole house masked in readiness for painting was peculiar to the uninitiated. Where there was risk of over-spray the painters opted for a brush. The result is a smooth, brush free finish on all the walls and interior doors. The front doors and big sliders on the rear deck also got a good coating of stain – applied by brush I would imagine – and the pale blue and white combination is looking almost how we imagined it would. Well, I say almost because no matter how long you plan choosing the most desirable colours by the time the canvas gets a big dollop and the bright Aussie sun beats down on it you’re going to be seeing it through sun-glasses anyway! Let’s just say that we’re happy.
 And like the classic car, the classic build project now gets some of its chrome goodies. But first it was the electrics that were wired into place. Switches and dimmers to be precise, together with lamps and sensors both inside and outside. We had chosen all the lighting in advance so a box of goodies had to be delivered pronto. And now it was time to have the oven and cook top delivered. If you’re thinking ‘cook top?’, yes I do mean ‘hob’, but then a ‘hob’ in Oz speak is the flat end of the bath where you bung your soap. So, like I was saying, the oven and the hob arrived direct from the retailers who had kindly stored them for a few months whilst the build continued – they’re good like that. Things seemed to be moving at a pace. Then the chrome taps went in, shower screens, over basin mirrors and toilets, and of course the oven and cook top.
Underneath the house the hot water tank was delivered and connected to the solar hot water panels on the roof, the gas lines from the cook top found there way downward in anticipation of a delivery of bottled gas (two bottles) and the water-pump we’d purchased eons ago finally made contact with the pipe from the 10,000 gallon water tank. The shower screens were fitted too, and the toilets and you'd almost think the house was ready to moving in to, when...
OK. So I’m thinking that you’ve got this far because you’re really thinking one day you’d like to have your own house built upon your own block of land. If there’s one piece of advice I can give anybody from all this it’s going to be the following.
We bought this block of land with a partial septic system in place. We bought at a fair price and thought no more about it. What we didn’t realise was that the system already installed was a system requiring more and more components and that we had no choice in the matter, and that it would redesign our garden at the last minute, and lead to an increase in the landscaping requirements (funds) AND it would be a financial bombshell.
Lake Baroon, which we overlook, is in fact man made and serves as a water catchment for the population of the Sunshine Coast and a boating, fishing and swimming lake. Consequently, people like us who wish to live up in the hills have to look after our septic systems that ultimately flow into the lake and as a result of that, when the sub-division of the land was granted, a condition was imposed upon the developer that a suitable septic system for each block should be pre-installed before any sales could commence. Now this was done and by that I mean a small sand-filter was installed and connected to a de-nitrification tank that then fed two trenches per individual block.
Move on approximately ten years and no one knows where the trenches are, or the sand-filter. They were probably placed in such a position that it was thought they would never be built on. The guiding light is the position of the de-nitrification tank that is the only component that can be located, and, working back from that, if you want to you can hire a digger for a weekend and rip up your block before proper earthworks can take place. No. You don't really want to do that, do you? So you take a guess, position the house where you feel is right and dig away and do what we did – discover the sand-filter directly where you want the house to be built. Not a problem, we’ll just get another sand-filter installed.
Then you’ve got the purchase and installation of three extra tanks (two big black plastic ones and a small concrete pump-well). These sit around ground level and don’t excite anyone. A power cable must run to the pump-well and the pump inside feeds from one of the big tanks to the sand-filter where it trickles through specific layers of sand and gravel before passing out on its way to the de-nitrification tank and then onto the trenches. The other holding tank feeds directly into the de-nitrifcation tank. Please, don't ask me to explain that again!
The first big financial blow was the installation of the new sand-filter, one that saw us with no choice other than to stump up the cash - almost $5700. We hadn’t planned for that. The council had insisted that the original septic supplier was to install the sand-filter. That was followed by the council’s insistence that the trenches were located and then adequate soil removed from the surface. Once again, a hefty bill and despite our meticulous accounting for the whole project we were now $6000 over budget, and as if that didn’t hurt enough, our back garden had just been turned into the most tragic garden ever.
There are simpler septic systems on today’s market that cost about half of what our system has overall. I’m reliably informed that the system we have is relatively maintenance free and very good, but at twice the price it ought to be more than that! The system is an Envirotech system. Please be aware of the cost implications of buying a block of land with this system partially installed.
Hmmmmm. Can you see raised beds above the tanks, mulch, planted plants and potted ones. Perhaps a rock wall and a pool? :-) Now it's time for the Grey Gum timber floors to be laid.
But before we go any further I have to tell you that today, Friday March 31st 2006, is a very special day because today we've just been given the keys. The house is officially ours!!!
|
