We’re painting our whole house and with the bedroom pod all but completed inside, we decided to lock in our paint so we can pull out the paint trays and rollers over the weekend. On The Block NZ I got to know the Dulux team and their awesome range of paints really well, so we were always going to use Dulux products to paint our house. But what about the colours?
We’ve always wanted a natural and neutral palette to suit our surroundings. Plus some of the rooms have limited direct sunlight due to the bush, so we knew we needed a base colour that was light and bright.
One of the cool things about the Dulux brand is the Dulux Colours of New Zealand – a huge range of colours inspired by locations from around the country. Kylie and I trawled through the fan deck and eventually settled on a really warm white called Little Manly Half. Maybe you could call it a coincidence but Little Manly Beach isn’t far up the road from our house, so we took it as a sign.
We were pretty tempted to paint the whole house in Little Manly Half, but were scared the house would look a bit stark. A little overwhelmed by the colour options out there, we decided to book a home consultation with a Dulux Colour Specialist to help give us some inspiration. (You can book an appointment here at dulux.co.nz).
It’s such an awesome service, opening your eyes to colours and combinations you may have never considered yourself. And it’s really reasonable, costing $140 for the first hour, then $70 for every hour after that. Fiona Small, our consultant met with us on site, listened to our desired aesthetic, took away samples of our flooring and other interior finishes and then came back a week later with some options for us.
Working with our Little Manly Half base, Fiona suggested some lovely muted tones that create a personality for each space. Some we liked, some we didn’t and some we loved, settling on a stunning combo. Down one side of our hallway we’re going with a light grey called Ohai Quarter to create warmth and impact. Then behind the beds in our spare bedrooms we’re using Sugarloaf Island Half – its subtle greeny-grey hues bringing a tranquil feel to each room. While in our entrance foyer a sense of drama will be created by the smokey-grey tones of Pukaki Double.
Now it’s over to us to bring this pod to life with our glorious suite of natural colours!
Picking up our paint!
Our awesome Dulux Colours of New Zealand – from left to right – Little Manly Half, Sugarloaf Island Half, Ohai Quarter and Pukaki Double.
Let’s do this – all ready to go!!
Hi Ben and Kylie
what’s your take on working out the cost of building a House? Is it true it can become a very complex procedure and I been told it can take builders easy over 150 hours to do one quote for one House. Did you use a quantity surveyor as they will give you a very accurate assessment of the cost of building prior to starting?
These days the least expensive rule of thumb costing for building work is around $2000+ per square meter, $3500+ per meter for more up market versions would you like to share where your House fits in. Did you allow % for overruns, unforeseen costs or changes to the plan.
Love you work keep it up, Dream House well done to you two.
Hey Werner, thanks for getting in touch.
This is how we went about it, but to be honest, the main factor has been how much the bank will loan us, then working backwards from that.
I had a great past relationship with our builders at Haven Renovations, so when we were looking at the section, we shared very cosmetic plans with them, and got a sense of feasibility. i.e. could we kind of build something like we wanted on the site. The answer was yes, but really, how long is a piece of string! You could build the same floor plan with completely different materials and sub floor structure, and the cost could double!
So next step was to get our actual plans drawn up, including the smallest of details and finishes, which were eventually submitted to Council for our building consent. It wasn’t until these were approved that our builders could give us a fixed price, as it wasn’t till then that all the elements were confirmed and could be scoped out. However along the way we had met regularly and kept a running budget estimate as the plans evolved. We have also been sourcing materials ourselves.
Luckily we scraped in just on budget for what the bank was willing to loan. But they then requested we get a QS involved, to validate everything and manage our monthly draw down requests. Initially I thought this was an unnecessary bit of red tape and cost, but in hindsight it gave us peace of mind that everything was ok and the monthly draw downs have been very simple with this level of assurance provided to the bank. I’d highly recommend the QS we have been using, Emmitt Consultants http://www.emmittcostmanagement.co.nz
So long story short, for us it was an evolving beast, that is still changing right now, as we make savings in one area, to be offset in others. We had a small contingency budget which will be used up, mainly from the earthworks stage where we needed to do some extra piling. As we have prefabricated, the opportunity to change plans is not really possible, so no cost blow outs there!
I’m not sure how a group home builder does this process, but then you get a cookie cutter type solution so I guess there are trade offs there between ease and design.
Then re your cost question, we’ve gone all out on the finishes and structural elements. It’s our dream home that we plan to live in for years. So we’re at that very top end per sqm for construction costs, with another $50k or so on top for all our resource and building consent costs, reports etc.
Hope that helps. Are you about to start building?
Hey Ben & Kylie it’s been a while since I checked in to see how you’re progressing. (Not receiving updates for some reason). Things are coming along nicely. We too are building with sips but are at the planning stage. Every time it starts feeling too hard we take a gander at your place. Seems to boost the enthusiasm levels. Just a quick question, where did you source your veneer doors? They look pretty cool.
All the best guys
Richard
Hey Richard, cheers for checking back in. Sorry, the no updates thing would be because I haven’t set up the mail-out! It’s on my to-do list
That’s so cool to hear we’ve been able to boost your enthusiasm levels. Trust us, there have been times when our energy has been pretty low along the way, but now we’re onto the home stairght, it all seems well worth the effort. Where about are you building? Who is your SIP manufacturer out of interest?
Our doors have been custom made by our cabinet maker DL Cabinetmaking who is also doing our kitchen, laundry, wardrobes, vanities and other storage areas. Highly recommend them.
The doors are solid Gaboon plywood, with the actual ply detail hidden as we don’t want to show that and give off a bach like vibe. We spent ages trying to find a pale timber with a straight grain and this was the best solution hands down, and very cost effective. We’re going to give the wood a light white wash to pull the pink tones back a bit, but they do look awesome. Can’t wait to see all the bits made from it too.
Hi Ben
Cheers. I did think about gaboon. Will certainly investigate it. I think our tastes are pretty similar. We have been talking with formance. We are bases in hawkes bay which at times feels like miles away from anywhere. Lots of phone calls & emails. We have encountered a bit of resistance to the panels but fortunately a local engineer has done the compliance work for formance so will be a great asset. Will certainly keep an eye on your final dash to the finish line. Am happy to share our story when we have one if you’re interested.
Cheers Richard
Classic, sounds like they are very similar. We’ve sourced a lot of our materials remotely over phone and email too – geography isn’t nearly the issue it once was! We worked with Bryan at Create too, was very good. That’s interesting re your local council’s skepticism, the Auckland Council didn’t ask one question specific to SIPs. Love to see your progress updates as you start building, feel free to send them through.
Hi Ben,
With your build or just in general, do you know how much one can save $$$ in % by project managing yourself vs group home builder?
Hi Karan
That’s a hard one, our builders are doing the majority of the PM, but even with the aspects I’ve been doing, it is so time intensive – luckily I’m flexible with my time as run my own business. However you’d need to weigh up savings against lost time working etc. And all the stress involved! In saying that, I love being involved and wouldn’t want to do it any other way. Best bet would be to get itemised quotes from builders and see what they are charging for PM. It’s a crucial role though, so you’d want to be confident you can manage it, otherwise the build will inevitably go severely over time and budget.
Good luck!
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Hi Ben and Kylie
Really enjoying your progress! I love the colour palette you have chosen and am using similar colours in my reno in Rothesay Bay.
Are you using any feature colours with your Little Manly half in the Main bedroom and also Kitchen/Living area.
Thanks so much
Robyn
Thanks Robyn! No we’re not, in our master bedroom we have built a full height wall from American Oak, so that is the feature, then in the living area, 80% of the walls are either glass or kitchen, so those act as the focal points in there.
Hope the reno is going well!
Hey guys!
The house looks fab I am jaw-dropping jelly! Gorgeous seriously you should be so proud
I just wanted to ask not specifically how much you spent but what percentages of the budget were spent on certain areas? Just from looking through the photos the foundations, poles and block work look like they took up a large portion also from looking at the photos was the block work used to encase the parking area?
Krista
Cheers Krista, thanks for taking the time to comment. Yes, we are very proud, and happy to be living in the house now. It’s magic!
To be honest, the foundations weren’t that crazy – around $20k for all the poles and thumping them into place (about 60 odd from memory) for the lot. And since we are on poles, there was really minimal earthworks. Most excavation as you note is in the parking area under the house, which is retained by the block work, and that also acts as a foundation to the house above. All up, I’d say foundations, earthworks and block work would have been about 10% of the build cost. That excludes the sub floor on the poles – we opted to use a lot of steel to create cantilevered sections, which was more expensive than the foundations themselves.
Hope that helps!
How deep were the piles Ben?
Just curious as I’m waiting for the tenders to come back and we have about 30 piles. Our section doesn’t look as problematic as yours does – stream, etc but still on a slope!
They varied depending on the area of the section, some were up to about 7/8m deep, others only 2-3m. Amazing the variance. If you haven’t already, contact the guys at Ground and Pound. They were great. http://www.groundandpound.co.nz/
I will – $20k for that is an awesome price.
Just spent an hour going through your posts – your home is simply stunning
Yeah we thought they were very reasonable, especially given the difficulty they had in one spot and extra time they had to spend on site.
Thank you, we’re stoked with how it has turned out.
Feel free to keep in touch with updates on your build – hope it’s an easy process from here on out!