Exterior selections

We met with PGH to select all exterior finishings, including roof (Boral tiles), window frames, wall render, panel door and of course bricks/mortar.

Exterior selections

Picking white

We went into the exercise thinking we wanted our home painted in Dulux Whisper White. 

Homestead quickly put a stop to this, mentioning that isn't a standard colour, as it does not cover the walls with the builders standard paint application and would require extra costs.  A suggestion of either a ‘Homestead Whisper’ (a greyer custom version of Whisper White) or Antique White U.S.A. was made. Looking through some example rooms painted with Antique White U.S.A, we were very happy with the choice.

Note - Dulux Antique White is not the same as Dulux Antique White U.S.A. A mix up of a sample pot at Bunnings quickly taught us this! Also, the Bunnings paint mix system cannot find Antique White U.S.A. without the '.' between the USA.

Test pot of Antique White U.S.A. with painted gyprock and Super White tile from bathroom

Antique White U.S.A. vs Whisper White (extracted from http://www.dulux.com.au/ColourWallFB/252438/Inbound.aspx)

Meeting our electrician

As we decided to use a Clipsal C-Bus system for our lighting, Homestead allowed us to organise a meeting with the contracted electrician for our site.

We were introduced to Steve from Lidd Electrical to assist us with any specifications other than the standard allowance, so that cabling could suit C-Bus.

We went to the meeting quite prepared and with a strong understanding of C-Bus. We had a rough lighting plan (below), as well as an associated spreadsheet containing group addresses, cable run from C-Bus cabinet to load, plus allowance for lighting load circuit (e.g. extra cable length for down light installation post handover). Steve took a pragmatic view and was able to price the gaps (compared to the standard Homestead contract) required for installing the 240v portion of the installation.

The design of our system involves 4x 8 channel dimmer packs and 1x 12 channel relay module.

Lighting plan

C-Bus data network layout

Council planning consent

Our consultant had advised the residential code council approval would take approximately 1 month, but if our development had to go through a normal approval process 2-3 months.  To our surprise, we received a phone call only 2 weeks after to inform us planning consent approval had been granted!

Following this we received the final engineer's report, bank pack and selections documentation.  Amanda contacted the contracted selections companies and booked appointments for us to discuss all things colourful and shiny.

Final plans and contract

After quite a few iterations of our contract, pre-selections and plans, we had settled on the decision for our new home!  It took quite a while longer than normal, but wanted to make sure the contract contained detail for any upgrades or non-standard selections we were likely to make. One last meeting with our sales consultant and we were set for the journey.

The next step was application to council and to commence our final selections process. The application for council was made using the residential code method, which we were told as long as we met approximately 40 criteria outlined by the council, the approval would be granted much quicker.

Final house plan

Soil test and initial site work

To give us more certainty, we performed a soil test through Homestead.  Unfortunately the site is common Adelaide soil and came back as a soil type H2-D - lots of clay and extra footing requirements to build a solid foundation for our home.  Fortunately our Homestead consultant had been able to prepare this cost for us in early pricing estimates and wasn’t too much of a surprise!

It's a hole!

On further inspection, we also noticed some termite activity in the tree stumps of the Japanese plums.  A quick call and discussion with Trent from Pest and Tree Solutions and a diagnosis was performed and a recommendation for baits.  They may not be present after we remove the stumps, but at least we can sleep easy knowing we have done all we can for our build and the neighbours.  Thanks Trent!

Green painted tree stumps with termite bait

Tender Process

We started visiting more display homes and builders and settled on tendering our build with three: Metricon, Homestead Homes and Rossdale.

By the end of the tendering process, Homestead eventuated as the best option for us, based on the flexibility they provide and the can-do attitude of their consultant, backing it up with real examples.  Homestead were also happy for us to include options usually selected at selections time so that we had a  real cost as possible for our build.

We settled on a rough house plan (Homestead Sandridge), but as can be seen from the picture, a lot of modifications were made before we settled on what we wanted!

Rough changes made to Sandridge design