Build Your Own House

The photos speak for themselves...

http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff17/a380tri/

Requires a myspace account

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Bruce
Draftie

There is no image store on this forum, but I have used www.flickr.com to post images. Just make sure you set them to be visible to the public. You can embed references to the images in your posts here.

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Bruce
Draftie

Try this link :
http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff17/a380tri/

What an incredible place! Are you building this one?? Do you have plans for the place, it would be so interesting to see the elevations and floor plans.

By the look of it, the place is somewhere near the glasshouse mountains? We visit Mooloolabah once a twice a year (from Adelaide) and would love to drive past next time we are up that way!

Keen to see more pics!! Have you written anything about your experience so far??

I have plans of coarse - difficult to build without them, especially for an airline pilot! Reluctant to put them on the net for security reasons. Suffice to say 5 bedrooms, 5 floor to ceiling marble bathrooms, 4 car garage. Ceilings 2.9 to 5m made from Ritek. 750 square metres including 200m of deck. Views of glasshouse and coast from Caloundra to Redcliffe.
My first attempt at OB - thought we'd start small and work up!

looks great!

were you a builder in a previous life or do you have family that is in the industry? looks like a pretty big job!

You got me - I'm a former fighter pilot now airline jockey but my brother-in-law is a builder from Canberra and he is doing the project management and a lot of the hands on stuff. I have had about 2 months holiday when I've been on the concrete mixer or the nail gun. Mostly I do a great job of nailing frames to the floor before standing them up much to the amusement of the chippies. On the other hand I am an ace at batching mud now. Just wish I could spend more time on site. Have another month's leave coming up in Jan so that should see the house finished off. Then the landscaping begins...

Very lucky!

I am 23.. Have never done much by the way of building as I'm still living at home with mum. Just some paving/minor repairs/landscaping/mountain bike trail work We want to build our first home, but it's just hard to know if we are capable or not.

From the photos it looks as though the walls have been back filled with dirt. How have you sealed the walls? Also, what were the besa blocks like to work with?

Hi Jason. We all have to start somewhere so just go for it. Just be prepared to get a tradesman to bail you out if you get in beyond your depth. Unfortunately that of coarse will mean you need reserve funds just in case.
The concrete blocks are a bear to work with. If we had it over again we would definitely use a concrete casting system like zeggo or similar. As it is you have to lay the brick then core fill with concrete - why not save the expense of the blocks and labor and just pour the concrete that would have gone into the core filling straight into some formwork!
We had to seal the block walls with some sort of paint on tar solution then cover with waterproof cardboard to stop the gravel removing the tar. There is also spaghetti pipe at the base of the wall for drainage.

I'm at a loss to know why you think your hugely magnificent project qualifies as an owner build.

If your brother-in-law the builder is project managing the whole shebang and you are just doing a bit of labouring.....I don't get it.....

That would be because he is not licenced in Queensland thus I had to do the OB course and am the OB on the project...
Is this not the ultimate website for owner builders?

Absolutely. If you have an OB license then you are an OB. If you choose to outsource your project management that is your call, no different to outsourcing concrete work or roof carpentry. If you have access to someone you can trust then this makes good sense, and I would be surprised if your BIL didn't save you more than his wage.

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Bruce
Draftie

Thanks Bruce. The house is top class and will come in at about $1100 per square metre.
Best quote we got was close to $2000 per!!!!