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Things you wish you knew before building


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Hey guys just about to embark on purchasing our forever home in Perth WA. We are seriously considering building but it seems daunting and much more difficult that buying. also we want a pool so that seems to push the price up alot. However thinking of getting the house and then pool in a year or two?  Would love some tips and things you wish u knew before starting. Also did u use a broker or go through the builder for finance? 

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20 hours ago, Newmigrant said:

Hey guys just about to embark on purchasing our forever home in Perth WA. We are seriously considering building but it seems daunting and much more difficult that buying. also we want a pool so that seems to push the price up alot. However thinking of getting the house and then pool in a year or two?  Would love some tips and things you wish u knew before starting. Also did u use a broker or go through the builder for finance? 

I don't think I would ever do a new build. Everyone seems to think they will make their perfect forever home, but there are always compromises mistakes you make. My parents did several and were never happy. At least when you buy pre existing you get to choose, and you can modify things if you don't like them. It's often easier to improve something someone else has done rather than create from scratch.

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It really depends a lot of the existing properties in some areas are expensive to renovate and have asbestos to factor in. It was widely used here.  With a new build you can save on stamp duty and build in better insulation etc.  we built and do not regret it. Look at lots and lots of display homes and work out what your priorities are. 
Would build again. Not sure I would do anything differently. 

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At the moment a lot of plots for new builds are so small you wouldn't fit a pool in.   I rented new builds previously in Melbourne and I would say be careful who your builder is!  The show houses may look good but a lot of houses are very poor quality.  

Just depends what you are looking for as well, I like having a bit of space rather than just having a colourbond fence and 6 inches of ground between us and the neighbours. Now in Perth to get land that is affordable you would be looking a good bit out from the city, so consider travel time as well if you are working in the CBD.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 03/04/2021 at 13:40, newjez said:

I don't think I would ever do a new build. Everyone seems to think they will make their perfect forever home, but there are always compromises mistakes you make. My parents did several and were never happy. At least when you buy pre existing you get to choose, and you can modify things if you don't like them. It's often easier to improve something someone else has done rather than create from scratch.

I disagree! I've designed our new home just as I want it. Would not have found all of those features for the same price in the same location. True there's compromises along the way but if you plan well, take your time and have reasonable expectations (champagne tsste/beer money) you can end up with something you're very pleased with. 

Never thought we'd build but here we are. 

 

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54 minutes ago, HappyHeart said:

I disagree! I've designed our new home just as I want it. Would not have found all of those features for the same price in the same location. True there's compromises along the way but if you plan well, take your time and have reasonable expectations (champagne tsste/beer money) you can end up with something you're very pleased with. 

Never thought we'd build but here we are. 

 

You're not living in it yet are you?

Give it a year. 

There's not much we regret in our current house. But we should have put solar panels on the roof and air conditioning upstairs. 

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On 02/05/2021 at 10:40, newjez said:

You're not living in it yet are you?

Give it a year. 

There's not much we regret in our current house. But we should have put solar panels on the roof and air conditioning upstairs. 

Oh ye of little faith. Negative Nelly! As one of my friends said, whatever you choose you will want something else. She knows me so well. 

I think having lived in a home without all mod cons for most of my life I will be happy as a pig in muck with my own little designer pad 😂 I've incorporated some of the things I've coveted over the years in other peoples homes. A real thrill once the nerves settled. My only regret so far is the lack of timber doors and no feature stained glass window. I expect we can look at those things in the future if we decide it's worthwhile. 

As long as the outside areas are on point (they should be after all my planning) and the place doesn't fall down after a year she'll be right....

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1 hour ago, HappyHeart said:

Oh ye of little faith. Negative Nelly! As one of my friends said, whatever you choose you will want something else. She knows me so well. 

I think having lived in a home without all mod cons for most of my life I will be happy as a pig in muck with my own little designer pad 😂 I've incorporated some of the things I've coveted over the years in other peoples homes. A real thrill once the nerves settled. My only regret so far is the lack of timber doors and no feature stained glass window. I expect we can look at those things in the future if we decide it's worthwhile. 

As long as the outside areas are on point (they should be after all my planning) and the place doesn't fall down after a year she'll be right....

When I was having a new kitchen installed I asked friends what one thing they would recommend as being the best extra thing in their kitchen.You always need more plugs than you think, but on advice I added a double plug at the side of the unit edge. and an extra pull out ledge next to the oven, as it is away from a work surface. I’ll post a photo later.

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1 hour ago, HappyHeart said:

Oh ye of little faith. Negative Nelly! As one of my friends said, whatever you choose you will want something else. She knows me so well. 

I think having lived in a home without all mod cons for most of my life I will be happy as a pig in muck with my own little designer pad 😂 I've incorporated some of the things I've coveted over the years in other peoples homes. A real thrill once the nerves settled. My only regret so far is the lack of timber doors and no feature stained glass window. I expect we can look at those things in the future if we decide it's worthwhile. 

As long as the outside areas are on point (they should be after all my planning) and the place doesn't fall down after a year she'll be right....

You can get stained glass stick ons. Not sure how effective they are but they look good. Storage is always the klller. You can never have enough storage. We have oak veneer doors. They are cheaper and you wouldn't know the difference. Plug points are important too. You can't have too many, and getting usb ones is so useful. I would have liked a smart house, but sadly that wasn't in the budget. We did get the water right though. You can run two showers, have the washing machine on and water the garden without loss of heat or pressure. Worth the money.

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3 minutes ago, ramot said:

When I was having a new kitchen installed I asked friends what one thing they would recommend as being the best extra thing in their kitchen.You always need more plugs than you think, but on advice I added a double plug at the side of the unit edge. and an extra pull out ledge next to the oven, as it is away from a work surface. I’ll post a photo later.

Yes we've done our elecrrical plan and thought out what to put where. Sound advice. You always need more than they include. 

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3 minutes ago, ramot said:

When I was having a new kitchen installed I asked friends what one thing they would recommend as being the best extra thing in their kitchen.You always need more plugs than you think, but on advice I added a double plug at the side of the unit edge. and an extra pull out ledge next to the oven, as it is away from a work surface. I’ll post a photo later.

We wanted a pop up plug in our island unit, but apparently you can't have one with drawers, so we opted for power on the side of the unit. I think it actually works better. 

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12 hours ago, newjez said:

We wanted a pop up plug in our island unit, but apparently you can't have one with drawers, so we opted for power on the side of the unit. I think it actually works better. 

Sorry photos a bit late, just back from a trip, bit tired yesterday.

Yes I meant the same as you. Was advised against a pop up plug. Obviously other photo small pull our drawer under oven

61268D70-F4A2-4F38-990C-7AC96EDB63A0.jpeg

3FC8D00A-6AD0-46ED-8499-49C11E8DA7F0.jpeg

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2 hours ago, ramot said:

Sorry photos a bit late, just back from a trip, bit tired yesterday.

Yes I meant the same as you. Was advised against a pop up plug. Obviously other photo small pull our drawer under oven

61268D70-F4A2-4F38-990C-7AC96EDB63A0.jpeg

3FC8D00A-6AD0-46ED-8499-49C11E8DA7F0.jpeg

I like that. Do you have one of those ovens where the door slides under like in bakeoff?

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15 hours ago, HappyHeart said:

Yes we've done our elecrrical plan and thought out what to put where. Sound advice. You always need more than they include. 

Gas or induction? We went induction. My wife loves it, but I think I prefer gas. You can't leave anything with induction. It burns if you don't stir, whereas you have a bit more leaway with gas. Plus induction doesn't seem to do pancakes. But maybe that's our frying pan.

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3 hours ago, newjez said:

Gas or induction? We went induction. My wife loves it, but I think I prefer gas. You can't leave anything with induction. It burns if you don't stir, whereas you have a bit more leaway with gas. Plus induction doesn't seem to do pancakes. But maybe that's our frying pan.

There is advice apparently to keep a 2ft distance from an induction hob if you have a pacemaker? Not sure if that is the same advice for an ordinary electric stove top? 

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6 minutes ago, ramot said:

There is advice apparently to keep a 2ft distance from an induction hob if you have a pacemaker? Not sure if that is the same advice for an ordinary electric stove top? 

Induction is different because it uses magnet. I still think it's weird the way it heats the pot, but the stove top doesn't get hot.

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1 hour ago, ramot said:

There is advice apparently to keep a 2ft distance from an induction hob if you have a pacemaker? Not sure if that is the same advice for an ordinary electric stove top? 

I heard this from my father in law (who has a pacemaker but a gas hob!). I think he said it was related to the magnetic field with induction hobs + the special pans.

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We have induction. I was always a gas girl until my sister got induction.  Wouldn’t go back now,  so quick, easy to control and easy to clean. I cook a lot and love it!

The only pan I had to change was my wok as it had no iron (aluminium) all my other stainless steel and Dutch ovens work just fine.  It does suck power mind!

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33 minutes ago, HappyHeart said:

Never considered induction. We'll have electric oven and gas cook top. 900mm which will be a luxury compared to what we have now. 

Are you having a range? You do get more to choose from for 1000mm, but it's whether you can fit it in. Our last house had 900mm, and we couldn't find a decent one to replace it with, (not one that was on sale anyway), so we got it fixed, which worked out ok actually.

Gas/electric does give you options if you have a blackout. I find it easier to see what's happening with gas.

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