With not too long to go until handover, we went out to see their home at their tiler meeting.  We used this opportunity to have a chat with James and Melissa about their journey – watch the videos below to see what they had to say. Enjoy!

One of the many exciting, tiring, and time consuming parts of moving into a new house is selecting and decorating the different rooms.

In our previous house, I decorated our little boy’s room in a jungle theme (all inspired by a boy’s onsie I saw).

James and I had discussed transitioning S man from the cot to a single bed while we were renting, so that when the time came to move house he only had to adjust to a new room not a new room and new bed at the same time.

We ended up buying S man his new bedroom furniture from Ikea.  This was because I just couldn’t find any boy style bedroom furniture that I liked.  I also figure that he is going to be tall like his dad and before I know it, I will have to buy him a king single bed (which he can choose himself when the time comes).  Anyway back to the S man’s new bedroom.

I was trying to find a boy’s theme that will grow with him, and not require to many room make overs.  You will notice from the pictures below that we have gone for a neutral wall colour in his room (well throughout the house actually).  It allows us the freedom to change the kids rooms around without having to re-paint every time, hence neutral walls.

When the little guy was born we had tried out a number of nick names but the only one that really stuck was S man (Spencer Mandy).  So I decided to run with that and selected super hero’s as his bedroom theme (Superman mostly).  I based the room decorations on red, blue and white and stars.

The staff at the Adairs store in Rockingham were a great help with the selecting bedding. They didn’t have any super hero themed bedding, but we were able to work with the colours.

Our best friends had the name wall art made for S man’s recent birthday, and works perfectly with the room.  I am thinking of making my own canavas art for his room, based on this idea from Pinterest.

It was really great fun and quite an experience. Tod is a top bloke, really relaxed and just generally great to be around. He arrived early, introduced himself (mate I watched you back in the Kenny Kidna days!) and had a chat.

I wont go in to detail, some of the questions included “how did the blog end up on the Dale Alcock web site” and other builder and building questions. I believe the show air’s on Sunday the 26th Feb at approx 5pm on Channel 7 or 7two (will be before the news). It’s a pilot so there may or may not be ongoing shows.

Here’s a pic I snapped on the day!

Render tomorrow and Friday, then driveway, then paint! Lots of work ahead! How much will we get done in this heat wave of 40C + days?

If anyone south of the river is looking for a quality brickie team, get in touch!

Below is an insightful Q&A with design manager, Darren Grunwald.

He has some lovely design ideas and useful tips for anyone thinking about building, or for those who are in the very early stages and haven’t yet chosen their home’s design.

What do you think is the most common item(s) people want to change, or change their mind about at the design and drawing of their home?

Firstly, try to find a home that is as close as possible to your requirements. Think about how you live in your current home – are you someone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen – or perhaps your outside space is very important to you?

Some clients find a home design that they love, and don’t want to change anything at all – but other clients might find a design that suits them, but they want to incorporate a few other features. Some common changes that might be made are as follows:

1. The elevation – using another elevation to the home design you’ve chosen
2. Enclosing of home theatre and games room – having dedicated spaces
3. Storage areas & garages – lack of storage is sometimes one of the reasons people want to build
4. Size of the alfresco – this of course depends on the size of your block
5. Ceiling heights – increasing the height of the ceiling gives a room depth and space

We find it useful to know what our clients do and don’t like – for example, one client recently went out to a series of our display homes and took photos of features he wanted to include. This sort of thing can help us when it comes to the drawing of their plans and ensuring the home is designed to the way the client likes to live in it.

What, in your opinion, are some important design tips for easy living?

1. When imagining your home’s design, try to visualise your furniture and where it will go
2. How are you going to use a room? Consider flow of traffic – do you want your living room to be out of the way, or are you happy for it to part of a walk-through to another area?
3. How are you going to live in and move around your home?
4. What is your overall outlook – do you like a light and airy feel? If the answer is yes, then window placement and size is important
5. Think about where your outdoor space is going to be and what you want to address in this area
6. Consider location of doors when moving rooms around, for example, one door opening straight onto another door, such as the toilet is not the best look – it is far better to open out onto a blank wall

If you had some advice to give regarding what people should consider when their plans are being drawn, what would it be?

1. In a kitchen consider the size of empty bench tops – a preparation area is important
2. Consider ceiling heights and widths
3. Also think about window heights and widths – consider how you can use natural light to your advantage to brighten up your rooms
4. If overhead cupboards do not go all the way to the ceiling, consider incorporating Bulkhead’s, creating a seamless transition from cupboards to ceiling and doing away with dust catching and empty space
5. Add a door to the back of your garage for side access to your home

What is the most important thing to consider when choosing the design for your home?

Think about how you and your family really use your house. For example, are you planning to have a home theatre and a games room? Consider if you need both – are you going to actually use them?

What would be the three must haves if you were to design your own home?

1. High ceilings
2. Dedicated living spaces – i.e., away from traffic flow
3. Large preparation area in the kitchen

If you have any further questions about the design of your home or have some handy tips of your own, please feel free to post a comment, or you can get in touch via email: thedacrew@dalealcock.com.au – or just write on our Facebook page!

Here is what we are working on at the moment. Not finished yet, but getting there!

The pre-handover session you have with your Site Manager is an important time to highlight any items that need addressing in your home. The Site Manager will walk through your home with you and mark any issues with a little red sticker, so they are easy to spot when someone comes to fix them.

All these items are recorded and then fixed within a 10 day period, after which you’ll head back to check all is complete with your Site Manager, before coming into the office for your key handover!

Your Site Manager is of course specialised in spotting things to be addressed and will be very meticulous, but just to give you an idea of what to lookout for, we’ve outlined seven simple things to check – you can do this with your Site Manager during your meeting – they allocate a few hours for the meeting, so there’s plenty of time. Also, it might be helpful to make a note yourself of the items so you can double check everything is fixed at your handover meeting.

1. Make sure all your power points are working and are where they should be
2. Check all windows and doors for damage and that they function properly
3. Note any cornice cracking, although your Site Manager will also check this with you
4. Do all the lights work?
5. Check for any damaged tiles
6. Check all appliances function as they should
7. Take your time with your inspection and take note of points highlighted to be fixed before you move in

If you have any questions or other helpful tips just get in touch – you can email thedacrew@dalealcock.com.au or just post a comment here!

Last night I ran around drilling holes in the walls for curtain rods, fan remotes, and bookshelf brackets. Should be safer for the kids now!

Front landscaping has commenced, we’re doing ‘hard’ landscaping at this stage, with some concrete footings poured ready for some rendered brick retaining walls. Prior to starting out, I checked our site plan for the boundaries to ensure that we were doing everything right. I also phoned the council for additional information and learned that we are a ‘road’ not a ‘street’! Handy.

What’s the plan? A tiered front landscape, so two brick walls or planters, split in the centre for stairs to the front door / park, and a small brick planter on the other side of the driveway where the utilities are. Pier/pillars for the mailbox right at the stairs. Brick work starts this weekend! Lots going on!

Out the back I’ve started removing some earth and levelling the dirt ready for lawn prep. I’ll be digging in about 5cm of good ‘lawn mix’ soil before even thinking about rolling lawn down. Then digging the retic trenches, compacting with a plate compactor, and then laying down the lawn (with more compacting!). It’s not difficult, but it can be hard work, especially the digging and levelling. It needs to be right!

Earlier this week I had a quick meeting with the landscaping company who provide front landscaping to land buyers in our estate. Not for our plant selection consult, but just to make sure that I was doing everything right out the front with the concrete and bricks. Some direction on where they would like conduit to run retic and wiring, etc. It’s worth being prepared to save effort and money later through mistakes!

I’ll have some more online this weekend or early next week as I get some photos of the progress. We have some really neat plans for our letterbox too, which I’ll write more about also.

We continually strive to develop and improve our business and so winning this award means rather a lot to all of us.

One of the reasons it means so much is because it really highlights the Dale Alcock Difference. It takes into consideration all of the things we do as a business that make building with us different to other builders.

It shows that value for money is more than just a price per square metre – it’s peace of mind – it’s the knowledge that when you build with us you will have a good experience and more than that – it illustrates our commitment to the highest level of professionalism to help you through every step of your home building journey.  We genuinely love what we do and we do whatever we can to ensure our clients love it too.

There is and will always be room for improvement in what we do, we aren’t perfect – but one thing we can say with certainty is that we’re a bunch of passionate folks who genuinely love what we do. Thanks to the HIA for recognising us with this prestigious award. We’re excited about what 2012 will bring and hope to take out the national award later this year!

A lot of people think that if you want to demolish a home before building, it takes a lot longer to get into your new home because of the lengthy approvals process; however this is not the case. In order to build a new home you have to apply for planning approval, and the demolition aspect will be incorporated into your planning application.

Demolition itself only takes a couple of days (give or take), so it really won’t take much more time at all.  Also bear in mind that if you arrange your finance through a mortgage broker, they can ensure the planning phase occurs at the same time as the finance approval period, saving yet more time.

Another consideration is the cost of demolition. Whilst this can obviously vary, a straightforward demolition is around $20K. If you’re thinking of selling and buying another property instead, remember you have to pay stamp duty on whatever you buy. You won’t pay this when rebuilding an existing property.

Arranging finance for a demolition project is also very straightforward – it’s really no different to setting up a normal construction loan, and if you use a licensed mortgage broker, they can assist you along the way.

A good mortgage broker will ensure your existing mortgage is refinanced to incorporate both the demolition and construction costs into your new home loan. And if you need to rent during the construction period, this will also be taken into consideration when setting up your loan.

Dale Alcock Homes have access to a Home Loan Specialist from Resolve Finance who has specific knowledge in this area. If you have any questions about demo and build finance, contact Phil Johnson on 9340 4616 or 0438 979 528 and he’ll be happy to help.

Author: Don Crellin, General Manager of Resolve Finance.

Resolve Finance Australian Credit License No. 385487