Western Sydney Duplex Development Online Diary

Very much in the ballpark.

I would allow around 15k each though. It really depends on your concreter, how busy he is and what mood he is in the day he quotes you. It can be done within the 30k range for both.

 

*Update*

We have received the signed documents for easement from property A last week so we now just have to register it. Property B have dragged their heels as expected their solicitor likes to play hard to get but we have posted them the documents last week and I emailed them today. Hopefully we get that sorted out very soon as well.

I also met with a few friends as well as the engineer and one of the builders I had in mind for lunch on the weekend. He appears to be available and hopefully negotiable. Plan is for me to send him the tender and he will get back to me. He is a small builder who I know but have not seen his work as yet, so have to ask him if I can see one of his sites. He knows my engineer very well which makes things a bit easier. We are starting the CC process as well. Hopefully by early Feb we will be all set to go ahead and initiate works in March.

I am also budgeting for electricals which will be done outside of the tender by a person that I know. I will be buying all the PC items, flooring and tiles myself. I know a good kitchen maker so plan is, apart from electricals I want to see if I can do the kitchen and landscape as well although I will be flexible if the builder wants to do it himself.

Currently I am narrowing down on the brick that I will be using and I am kind of on the fence whether I should go with a nicer brick and pay more given where I am building and that my previous build sold for a good price or whether I should go a bit cheaper on the brick.

Any suggestions on whats the trend for brick would be great.

 

I quite like a mix of materials like this.

 

Thanks mate. They look nice and modern but I am planning full brick face for this one rather than any cladding.

Austral has a nicer and bigger range than pgh / boral. But obviously I have to be mindful of pricing.

What makes me think twice is that nicer duplexes in the area do attract better pricing so question is whether to pay the extra money or not. We are talking about the difference of roughly 15k to 20k between a rough finished but color through brick vs a smooth finish one. I stay away from glazing as I have a theory that it might get washed off when they wash the brick.

 

Bowral Blue - Austral Bricks....

bowral blue bricks - Google Search:

 

Does the site have any special aspects to it? Is it on a good road? elevated land? If there are no great hindrances to getting a top price for the site location then I would think it's worth spending the little but extra and hope to get a premium for it.

 

It's in a cul-de-sac which in turn is off a pretty good street, land is reasonably flat, it is east facing so that means sunlight will bounce off the facade in the morning till just after lunch. It will be taller than all other building's in its vicinity as most of them are houses. If I am lucky I may get part view of Sydney Olympic park and part view of blue-mountains in one or both of them but thats just a thought for now and may not happen.

I have gone to Austral this morning with my wife, we had a good look at a few bricks and I think we have narrowed down to one particular brick. For now I am not going to mention which until I know my other colors

I was also thinking of doing just the facade with one more expensive brick and from the sides of the garage use a different brick which is still nice and similar in color but you could tell the difference. The opinions on this method has been mixed so I am kind of thinking about ditching the idea.

What are your thoughts?

 

I actually think its a good idea, use the more expensive brick for front facade and cheaper one for sides. I think if you can get the look to be very similar then it may be worth considering. What's the cost difference for both options?

I'm assuming its all brick veneer too.

 

I am very interested in this diary! I appreciate your descriptiveness.
I currently own (Mortgage) a property in Cumberland Council (formerly Parramatta) that I have had for years and am considering knock-down and doing a duplex.
You said your site faces east, One concern I have is getting the sun into the property on the southern side during the day, have you done anything special to mitigate this?

 

I came up with the idea but everyone thought it may not be a good idea as it indicates we ran out of brick or changed our mind.

I think while to me it will make sense, it may not make sense to all the buyers and I have to be mindful of that. In any case the cheaper brick we are using will be pretty nice any way. Before discount we are talking about around $900 price difference per 1000 brick but generally they give more discount on more expensive brick.

Yes it will be brick veneer, wont make sense to do double brick, too much cost and no return

 

My biggest issue was overshadowing neighboring properties which will be a big issue when you have a 2 storey east facing duplex. In fact this was part of the reason I thought I may not even get approved if the neighbour put up a big fight. I wasn't too concerned about getting the sunlight into the actual duplex.

However if you are concerned then I would recommend you use skylights on both ground floor where possible depending on your design and also first floor.

You can also use a particular transparent ceiling cover in alfresco that lets the light in. I havnt used this myself but I have heard of it. It is more expensive but you will have light in the back of your house.

Appropriate location of windows will also ber very helpful.

 

I have discussed this with the Council and because a duplex requires a 1.5m setback from the side and a single dwelling (which has the same height restriction 9m) only requires 900mm, any objection regarding overshadowning will be satisfied as inherently it will be a better situation than if I constructed a standalone alone McMansion.
I went through a corner lot subbie down the road which also faces east, and it appeared they just maximized the windows.

 

Alright alright alright [insert Matthew Mcconaughey voice], time for an update. We faced some adversity and delays in getting the second property signed up as my solicitor had to deal with health related matters and then their solicitor delayed things but I had a phone a call from my lawyer today that second property has signed the paperwork and it is now in mail and he expects to have it by the end of this week.

Meanwhile I have reached out to some builders, obviously December and January is the slowest time to get anything out of builders.

I have written the tender with some very high-end finishes deliberately and sent it out to leave room for negotiation.

One builder came back with a price that worked out to be 950k and I decided not to pursue.

However one builder came back with 760k to 780k finished plus some things that I will be doing which works out to be over 800k but still well below 900k.

There is a third builder that was introduced to me recently, I have sent him the material and will know more in the coming weeks.

At this point we are basically about 6 weeks away from doing any works as I need to register both easements, give notice to tenants and have them vacate and initiate the building of the easement part before we start the actual building.

I will also update my costing and margin as soon as I have a bit more information.

Properties seem to be moving relatively faster in the area with some of them selling for a decent price.

 

Thanks for the update. How long do you anticipate it will take you to register the easements? Council already signed off on it?

 

The actual registration of it is reasonably fast from what I understand. May take around 3 weeks or so from the time you present all the titles to the LPI, maybe longer depending on LPI. I will update here once its all done.

Council doesnt sign off on it, they just look at the registered title as proof so they can finalize the DA and stamp the plans.

 

I was thinking of a different type of easement. Traumatized by my one it just stuck.

 

I bet you still have nightmares about it I actually did my due diligence about this one and didnt think it will need easement but anyway still happy with the purchase. Really want to register it and get on with the works now.

 

Looking forward to some internal pics as it gets built. Are you having and LDs in your contract?

 

Great update and to hear its progressing. Would be interesting to see the flexibility of your builder. I also buy all my own PC items, tiles, architectural hardware, feature lighting etc (and quite often online) and some days my builder just wants to strangle me

I get him to make basic allowances in the contract for all the items I'm organising myself anyway, just so I can see how I'm tracking and cover all areas.

 

Do you find you're saving much?