Building a Home

You could take a screw gun and a pocket of screws, knock on his door and politely ask if they mind you fixing their fence….

We have just made an offer on a nice little house with old fences and huge retaining walls.
The rules are generally that the person who mainly benefits from the walls retention.. is responsible.
I told my son a new wall could cost him up to 100k… that slowed him up….
An engineers report on the wall that will be our responsibility is an inspection period priority.


The back fence is interesting.. on our side it has been tarted up but some iphone pics from the top of the fence show a 200mm gap and a new steel fence on the neighbours side.
When our falls down we will use his...
 
It is very noticeable around here, southern suburb of Perth about 12K from the CBD, that the Federal and State Govt. schemes to encourage building activity are really starting to have an effect. Within about 600 - 800 metres of us 5 houses have been bulldozed in the last few weeks. The pattern stays the same as you move further away. This area mostly consists on mid 1980's - 90's houses. It would seem that at least a few of these will involve rebuilding by the owners or their families as there have been no "For Sale" signs on the properties.

There are also continuing reports in the local papers of builders unable to keep up with the demand.
 
We discussed it about 3 years ago and he volunteered and assured me it would be done. I do not intend to embarrasses him as maintenance is not his forte. I'll just use cable ties.

tgh said:
You could take a screw gun and a pocket of screws, knock on his door and politely ask if they mind you fixing their fence….
Click to expand...
 
I can't see any second stories in any of the recent pics, at least. Are they permitted? I'm thinking of course of the trade-off between building footprint and having some greenspace outside.
 
RooFlyer said:
I can't see any second stories in any of the recent pics, at least. Are they permitted? I'm thinking of course of the trade-off between building footprint and having some greenspace outside.
Click to expand...
Second storeys are allowed in the area – and there are many, however we chose to go for a single level for a few reasons, in no particular order:
  • Green space wasn't an issue, we currently have what I'd call a jungle because I'm lazy and it's just not something I enjoy maintaining. I also grew up in Hong Kong, in an apartment, so a large to huge outdoor entertaining area – while it sounded great for where I am living now – just hasn't worked out for me. I've discovered I can admire others gardens.
  • We have two ageing rescue greyhounds and stairs will slowly become an issue, as they did for Chilli – my avatar – when she hit her mid-teens.
  • We also just really loved the design we found and I noted at the time that double storeys increased in price quite substantially. We're still very close to our original budget.
 
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RooFlyer said:
I can't see any second stories in any of the recent pics, at least. Are they permitted? I'm thinking of course of the trade-off between building footprint and having some greenspace outside.
Click to expand...

Urban heating effect is really high because of this now in all these new outer suburbs as well - so many are concrete jungles with very little green space or cover because people build to all the 4 edges of their block.

@samh004 maybe consider getting some mature trees (as many and expensive as you can afford) in the ground as soon as you can around your perimeter for shade and aesthetics. Get some trees that even the worst gardener can't kill :) You will probably only need to water them for 1.5 year or so until they get established and then forget them but they will break up all the concrete and buildings. Great for eventual resell as well.
 
jakeseven7 said:
Urban heating effect is really high because of this now in all these new outer suburbs as well - so many are concrete jungles with very little green space or cover because people build to all the 4 edges of their block.

@samh004 maybe consider getting some mature trees (as many and expensive as you can afford) in the ground as soon as you can around your perimeter for shade and aesthetics. Get some trees that even the worst gardener can't kill :) You will probably only need to water them for 1.5 year or so until they get established and then forget them but they will break up all the concrete and buildings. Great for eventual resell as well.
Click to expand...
We will have some ground for a lawn and outdoor space, just no where near as much as we have now. Part of the package we got when we bought the land was free landscaping that included trees, once the house was complete. So that will be done out the front. I have some ideas for plants out the back too.

I obviously don't want too many trees around my perimeter, as myself and all neighbours have solar systems in the 6.5kW range and I would be upset as they would be if significant shading was thrown on them.

The area we are building in actually has a park down the road and a bigger park/playground a few blocks away. There's also forest surrounding, so it's not as tightly packed as it would seem. Sure, on the street it is, but the street is probably much less than 1KM long.
 
On a couple of our builds, we engaged a landscaper who advised a particular colour to spray paint the fence (the name of which I can't recall). The colour (sort of greyish) tricks the eyes (he called it infinity effect or something similar) where the fence seems to disappear and the back yard looked significantly larger than it actually was. The fence (regardless if double paled or not) was totally unobtrusive unless you walked up to it with a deliberate view to inspect it.
 
p--and--t said:
On a couple of our builds, we engaged a landscaper who advised a particular colour to spray paint the fence (the name of which I can't recall). The colour (sort of greyish) tricks the eyes (he called it infinity effect or something similar) where the fence seems to disappear and the back yard looked significantly larger than it actually was. The fence (regardless if double paled or not) was totally unobtrusive unless you walked up to it with a deliberate view to inspect it.
Click to expand...
That could be something we do. I can't recall where I might be repeating myself as I provide updates to family as well, but we have found a fencer that also does really nice decks and are weighing up the possibility to have a deck out the back instead of tiles. At the same time, a deck out the front door instead of tiles. Everything costs money of course, so just got to work out what look we want. It wont look like this, but to give an idea.


We'll certainly have some lawn around two sides of the house and keen to add some sort of water feature for our current resident green treee frog who we hope makes the journey to our new home with us. Of course, no point taking him if we can't provide a suitable habitat (he lives in a self watering planter outside the current kitchen window – no doubt enjoying the light that comes on every night).

IMG_2453.jpeg
 
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