dont go plunkett.. the rental we had was the worst.. all i can say is lucky it wasnt our home.. just built with Homebuyers and only 1 thing was left out which was our fault.. but was a dream and from pad down 31 july was finished 10th dec keys picked up

and if you go affordable living be very careful what you sign, dude at work who signed up at the same time as me has had nothing but dramas!

There will never be even one ounce of cement in your cavities, unless of course you have pissed the brickie off and he has physically opened a bag up and poured it down there (I hear fish emulsions are too better effect when using this method). Fact of the matter is your cavity will always have mortar in it even with careful brickies. Best way to alleviate any concerns is to ask the supervisor to tell the brickies (don't do it yourself brickies are usually a temperamental lot) to leave the first course of perps empty, as most of the build up will happen in the first two courses below the slab. Even then if the cavity fills up with enough water to be a problem mud in there is not your cause but the hole in your roof. Rest assured if you get rising damp on your interior walls it's usually not because of full cavities. 99% of the time you'll find that the dampness is on the interior corners of your cavity walls, this is caused because some wally put too many wall ties in the corners (where they are not needed) and bridged the cavity with falling mud .

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Omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina.

i built with Affordable Living, never had a single problem. every case is different i guess. put extra powerpoints, down lights,etc.

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back on the road. woo hoo

Also...

Electrically, move all the standard power points to interior walls at prestart therefore later when you want more done (at a cheaper price than the builders) the sparky can easily do them on the exterior walls through the cavity. Also have condute put down to light switches/or anywhere else you may be running cables later i.e: double/triple switching/foxtel/exterior speakers to your inside stereo etc...

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....slow and steady wins the race....fark that!!

heheh.. they are good if you're spending 150-160k joel. He is looking at 250k, more along the lines of higbury homes, ross north etc. Much better spec, a lot less hassles and much better inclusions/options. [DYOR though, that is the best thing]
Out of your stuff joe, W&N is fantastic for two storey though, if that's an option.

my budget is only 220 max on house building cost (including site works, upgrades etc) with a further 25 on extras (flooring, window treatments, air con, alarm)

What sort of aircon and floors you thinking about becuase 25k wont go far. Id maybe find a house just under the 200 mark.

depends on what you plan on doing i guess, but
here is a few estimates well going off what i paid i guess.

Aircon 11k
Floors 16k (timber)
carpet 3k
Concrete 10k
tints 2k

plus so much more gardens etc etc

ross north have some terrific designs under the 200k mark.. use them as a base then modify, it'll fit comfortably within the 220k mark...

and as much as everyone has a good or bad story about every builder...ross north are pretty solid as a 1st or 2nd house builder in terms of reputation.

most importantly.. visit the displays, do your due dilligence..

don't spend too much with the builder as 'in general' there's a 40% markup on all addons.. so DYOR is important there too...

Thanks for headsup.. anyone exp with Residential Building WA

I have just finished building with redink homes, they done an awesome job!
They had one of the best display homes that I could find, although they did look at me a bit funny when I wlked through telling them that the display house was not big enough and needed to be improved.

The brickies were great, gave them a hand and had a few beers with them.

Electrician had a bit of a winge every now and again but he was OK, just had a lot of extra work to do as cashies on the side, ended up with 50 odd downlights.

I spent a total of ~ 350K on the house I think, budget about $1000 / square meter, that price worked out for me plus floor coverings etc on top.