Author Archive: Brian Ashworth
Tree Selection – Fail
The sight of this Norfolk pine towering over this single storey house caused me to stop the car! And the tree is only half grown. It breaks RULE 2 of suburban tree selection – “Don’t get a tree that grows…
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Post Contract Variations
The best advice I can give is: “Avoid making Post Contract Variations” The reasons are: Cost Basically the builder holds all the cards once the contract is signed. They can quote you the top price for the change…..plus a percentage…
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Subdivision Costs
Are you thinking about splitting an existing house block to get a 2nd house block for free?………..Well it might be cheap compared with an existing block in the same area, but it won’t be free! The costs can easily exceed…
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Post Number 300 – Most Popular Posts
Welcome to this the 300th Post on the anewhouse Web Site. The site is currently getting around 4,900 visits a month with over 14,500 pages viewed each month. Of those page visits the top 5 most popular pages (apart from…
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Roller Shutters – Fail
Sorry if you like them……….. but I just don’t get roller shutters! To me they just say someone has got it wrong. You have a house built with nice big windows and then you install shutters. Either the orientation is…
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Charged Drainage System
Thanks to SaveH2O, of Supadiverta This diagram indicates a charged drainage system. These are sometimes called either a “wet” or a “pressure” system. With this type of system a section of the pipe always remains full unlike a Conventional System. As the…
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No Lawn, No Water Garden
Lots of people seem to think……. You have to have a lawn in your new house. You need a full scale watering system. Here are some pictures of the last garden we developed that has neither. We planted the garden…
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Parcel Furniture – Fail
Do you like getting parcels?…..then this furniture could be for you! The photo is from the design site Dornob.com To quote from their site “The ‘Soft Parcel’ furniture series by TAF Arkitekter is incredibly simple, covering blocks of foam with…
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Conventional Drainage
The vast majority of new houses will have a conventional (sometimes called a Gravity, or Open system) storm water drainage system discharging to either: Public Surface Water Drain – Typically in Eastern States Soakwells on Sandy Sites – Mainly in…
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Final Cost – When Do You Find Out?
Some people think that when they pay an initial deposit, and leave the Builders Sales Office they know how much their house will cost…………..If you are unlucky, and/or don’t know how the system works you could be hit for unexpected…
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