Kitting out a 4 bed new build house

Contessa

This thread has made me think back to when we bought a new build house, from a small local builder, over thirty years ago. In some ways we had less choice, but more choice. We were able to choose the bathroom suites and the fully tiled walls. Also, the kitchen units and fully tiled walls. We bought the kitchen appliances ourselves and the builders supplied the kitchen units to house them, so we had the kitchen we wanted. The floors were all left bare. Turf was laid to the front garden but not the back.
One other thing that was different was that the house was wallpapered and we could choose the paper from a limited range.

bclark

Contessa wrote: »

This thread has made me think back to when we bought a new build house, from a small local builder, over thirty years ago. In some ways we had less choice, but more choice. We were able to choose the bathroom suites and the fully tiled walls. Also, the kitchen units and fully tiled walls. We bought the kitchen appliances ourselves and the builders supplied the kitchen units to house them, so we had the kitchen we wanted. The floors were all left bare. Turf was laid to the front garden but not the back.
One other thing that was different was that the house was wallpapered and we could choose the paper from a limited range.

That sounds exactly the same as buying a new build nowadays. If you reserve early enough you can select your kitchen and bathroom, the tiling arrangements, lighting layouts etc.

If you don't negotiate flooring in the deal then again you will get bare floors to sort out yourselves.

The only difference now is that they wouldn't wallpaper for you as you shouldn't really do that for 6-12 months really as the house would still be settling and drying out.

Contessa

The new build developments I've looked at with a view to buying seemed to offer more limited choice in that the kitchens all included integral appliances (though perhaps if I were to order at an early enough stage I could avoid this). We provided the appliances and the builders fitted the appropriate units to house them.

We were given the names of the shops that supplied the bathrooms and tiles and simply told to go along and choose what we wanted.

A big difference I've noticed is that with modern new developments internal walls are not solid, lofts aren't for storage and plots are much smaller.

And yes, the wallpaper was a big mistake!

bclark

Contessa wrote: »

The new build developments I've looked at with a view to buying seemed to offer more limited choice in that the kitchens all included integral appliances (though perhaps if I were to order at an early enough stage I could avoid this). We provided the appliances and the builders fitted the appropriate units to house them.

We were given the names of the shops that supplied the bathrooms and tiles and simply told to go along and choose what we wanted.

A big difference I've noticed is that with modern new developments internal walls are not solid, lofts aren't for storage and plots are much smaller.

And yes, the wallpaper was a big mistake!

The internal walls in mine are almost all solid but they also stud and board them for insulation purposes. Knock on them and they sound hollow and plasterboard but as I saw for myself when it was being built there is brick work in there between each room.

Raggie

Have you made friends with the site manager yet?

If not do so...

When we purchased our new build we found the sales office did a good price on carpets (1800 sq ft house £1200 fitted carpet) but were not so good on other aspects, tiles and oak floors...

But the site manager knew all the correct trades to get what we wanted... Although he could not of course interfere with his employer he knew our car and would tell us when to be on site.. Consequently parking on site at the correct time meant that the trades we wanted would come over to introduce themselves after the nod from the site manager.

Yes we felt like drug dealers at times but we were able to a deal with the exact same guys who the developer would use at a price we preferred.

Made it a very easy way to get our house the way wanted.

Rags

Ky-An

I purchased a new build. I paid extra for under cupboard lighting in the kitchen, spot lights in the bathroom and fitted wardrobes in the main bedroom. The builders should have a spec in which you can purchase additional items. These items look better if put in by the builders during the build.

Building_Surveyor

Certain items you are better off getting done to your taste during the build stage e.g Lighting, spotlights etc unless you want to be ripping plaster off the walls/ceiling when you move in.

Although the property might not be built yet you should enquire about this now. If you have absolutely no furniture, flooring etc and are looking to kit the house with mod cons from top to bottom 20k will be dwindled quicker than you think.

I_have_spoken

On a new build, you should get network cables dropped into all the rooms.

MoneySaverLog

I_have_spoken wrote: »

On a new build, you should get network cables dropped into all the rooms.

Will probably go wireless :-)

pawlala

I_have_spoken wrote: »

On a new build, you should get network cables dropped into all the rooms.

pretty much pointless when you can use half a dozen powerline adaptors on the ringmain.