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Building a Home

Building a new home is hell

4 years ago

I have been working through the processes and procedures required to build a new home and have found the process arduous, protracted and expensive. I have been at it for 18 months and have only got as far as nearing the acquisition of a building permit. I have spent a considerable amount of money and more time than I can spare trying to comply with the bureaucratic maze that is the building process these days. Just getting a planing permit took a year with having to try and comply with Heritage overlays, resicode regulations and the council building department. I can see now why most people opt for a builder to do all of this for you, i am doing this as an owner builder and am in the trade as a qualified carpenter. I have done renovations and extensions before and have found them enjoyable and relatively hassle free compared to applying to build a new home.

The project is unusual in that it involves demolishing my half of a maisonette and replacing it with a modern design that has a lot of energy efficient features that were hard to get approved by the heritage officer, which is disappointing as I feel reducing our carbon footprint is far more important than reproducing antiquated architecture that fails to do anything other than satisfy a minorities fetish for Victorian style housing design???

the whole process has disheartened and disillusioned me in relation to using good design to achieve a suite of positive outcomes such as livability, use of natural light and passive heating and cooling as well a unique architecture that promotes change and challenges the prevailing status quo.

I will finish this job and live to enjoy the fruits of my labor and endurance. I just feel that for some the hurdles must seem unconquerable and punitive when they try to deal with due process that serve no one but established systems and outdated stereotypes.

I will post some progress images as the project progresses and leave it to the disaffected building enthusiast to judge me on the merits of the product as it takes form.

Wish me luck if you like??

I am going to need it I think.

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Comments (5)

oklouise
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
after achieving so much the rest should be easy.. look forward to seeing some before and afters including floorplans, best of luck with your ongoing progress and repeating what Paul says, our Heritage challenges resulted in a much better renovation that was only achieved because we were forced to think differently and are very pleased with the results
hradford123 thanked oklouise
hradford123
Original Author
4 years ago
thanks for the support, I might seem like I am winging!!

Its the wasted time and barriers they put up that make it so draining!! The elevations show after (hopefully one day!!!

below is before
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PRO
Paul Di Stefano Design
4 years ago
Sorry to hear about your experience so far. Yes heritage and all the other policies can be tricky and frustrating to deal with. There is however an art to achieving simultaneously aesthetically appealing and sustainable architecture that deftly negotiates planning and building regs. It's actually our bread & butter, and fortunately we see the challenge involved as design opportunity, rather than looking at it as a negative. Flip your thinking and great things can happen. More often than not the constraints push us to design better and go deeper to find alternative ways to achieve a certain design outcomes with different methods within different conditions - typically when we do this we find better and more interesting results are achieved, which would never have been discovered if it weren't for the existence of the design challenges involved. So whilst understand your excitement may have been crushed here, try not to let it overcome the positives as there is clear merit in pursuing the sustainable endeavour. Good things rarely come easy!

Hopefully the construction stage is smoother sailing for you as this should be more familiar territory for you.

All the best with it! PD :)

www.pauldistefanodesign.com

Fitzroy Residence · More Info
hradford123 thanked Paul Di Stefano Design
siriuskey
4 years ago
Heritage restrictions are there to protect our Heritage from being totally destroyed by some that have total disregard for it. I'am always very pleased to see a streetscape that has kept the integrity of the building which can be challenging but pushes you to a better design outcome.

checkout Lunchbox Architect, look forward to seeing your new home which hopefully still has remnants of it's previous life.
hradford123 thanked siriuskey
PRO
The Lead Collective
4 years ago
Depending on your location if you would like to remove some of the additional headaches of finding the right builder one of our building brokers might be able to assist. Feel free to message me

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