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Building a Kit Home: The Tech Guy – Dr Al
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This article was kindly written for the SDC by member @Doctor Alan.
Background:
When my wife and I arrived in Australia in 1969, we put our names on the ‘Housing Commission’ list in NSW as a standby – we really hoped to save enough money to buy our house without any Government help. My reluctance to move into a Housing Commission home stemmed from my experience in Australia in the 50s when I emigrated here with my parents. These homes were all built of fibro and had a small toilet hut in the back garden that was ‘emptied’ by the ‘honey-pot man’ about twice a week, I believe. We never had to live in one of those houses because we lived in a migrant Hostel at Bradfield Park, and all the huts were connected to plumbing, having been RAAF accommodation previously.
When I saw how the years had improved Housing Commission dwellings – different designs, brick veneer, weatherboard and so on – I realised I’d be stupid not to put our name down to buy one. It took a bit under four years, but we finally had a home in Mt Druitt in 1973 that cost $14,750, and the repayments were a constant $73.40 per month – an unchangeable 5% ‘mortgage’. (Funny how I can remember figures – I’m hopeless with names!) The house was quite small, though, and I made an office in the loft with a homemade ladder for access that folded against the wall of the laundry (where the manhole was).
After about seven years in Mt Druitt, we decided we had enough money to move to a larger home in McGraths Hill. We designed the home ourselves, based on several criteria: The children’s bedrooms had to be the same size; their rooms had to be at the opposite end of the house; it had to have a double carport (since my wife and I both had cars); and I had to be able to get out of the car in the dry and walk into the kitchen with any shopping.
The idea of actually having a house built to our own specifications whetted our appetite for a ‘kit home’ when we moved to Western Australia some years later (which my wife and I fell in love with when I had to visit WA on business for Canon, where I was employed). They all seemed quite expensive – but the overall cost was still substantially less than that of a ‘normal’ home. We bought a new (Jennings) home in Armadale in 1991 and lived there for some years while spending weekends driving North and South hoping to find ‘5 acres by the sea!’
My occupation as a teacher, first at TAFE, then at a secondary school, evolved while we lived in WA, and in 2001, we found our 5 acres at a little place called Dandaragan, about two hours North of Perth. The sign read: $18000 – SECWA to boundary’. It wasn’t near the sea, though, and electricity was supplied via a transformer on a pole that served several homes with a maximum capability of 32A single phase. (Any technical people reading this will realise that 32A was really not enough for a modern home!). I was able to get ‘allocated’ to a school in Moora as a maths and science teacher.
The kit.
The First Kit Home:
We’d carried out a lot of research into various kit homes over the years – it seemed a wonderful idea to actually build our own house. We looked at mud-brick homes, where each brick was homemade; homes made of ‘recycled’ material; log-cabin homes, and so on.
At Dandaragan, we found we could have a kit home built by a company called ‘Bradford Buildings’ in North Perth. The walls, external and internal, were made of concrete slabs, designed so they could be bolted together on flanges that were part of the moulding. It was then only necessary to make the inside surface of gyprock or laminated wood – the cavity formed would make it quite well insulated. Not having to have any horizontal noggins meant that it was really easy to run electrical wiring around the house, even after it was built. The roof, of course, was made from Colorbond steel. The external walls were rendered, hiding the joins in the panels.
Ground floor.
I saved money by completing all the internal work myself, including painting all the internal parts of the house. My wife and I shared the load of tiling all the floors. I built a huge work shed, a carport to house a caravan, and another carport for our two cars.
We also bought a second-hand games room and erected it close to the house. Of course, the water supply was from a rainwater tank. To eliminate what we thought was a field of ‘beautiful purple flowers’ that turned out to be ‘Patterson’s Curse’ – a noxious weed – we made an agreement with a local farmer to use our 5 acres to plant wheat.
It has to be level!
The distance from Perth made us feel very isolated, and I really wasn’t happy at the teaching job, so we decided to sell up after a couple of years and move closer to Perth. The house sold within four days of listing it, and we moved down to Gingin – a lot closer to Perth.
Our Second Kit Home:
Our home in Dandaragan had taught us a lot about country living, the size of the water tank we’d need, the best ‘automatic’ pump to use, and so on. We found a block for sale in Gingin in 2003 for $40,000 – we offered $36,000, and this was accepted. We found a better company with whom to deal regarding the quality of kit homes, called ‘Component Homes’ and chose a 2-storey home with external walls made of horizontal green Colorbond. We re-designed the interior of the 8m square house to give us three bedrooms, a shower and toilet in the laundry and an en-suite bathroom adjacent to the upstairs main bedroom.
Second floor and roof.
The kitchen and living/dining room were also upstairs to take advantage of the 20km views we had from the balconies that ran along both sides of the house.
The whole kit was $38000, the slab was about $5000, and the internal gyprock ceilings and walls cost around $9000 – we’d received advice that it was a really good idea to have the gyprock professionally installed, as it was not an easy job! We also had to pay around $4000 for a rather magnificent recycled Jarrah staircase made by a local craftsman.
Verandas and all!
Despite slipping over on the sand and slicing my leg badly on the sharp steel framing, ending up in the ER at Midland Hospital, I’d completed a lot of the work myself. This included plumbing, tiling, laying retaining walls and assembling yet another second-hand games room with the addition of an en-suite bathroom to make it a ‘granny flat’.
Back of house.
As well as split-system air-conditioners in every room, a huge rainwater tank and an enclosed area for a spa and games activities, the price of land had quadrupled over the intervening years, and we were able to sell the house for a price that allowed us to move straight into our present home in Brisbane in 2015.
Conclusion:
A ‘kit home’ is an excellent idea for anybody fit enough – and brave enough, I suppose – for the challenge. The savings are huge, and depending upon the construction materials, building them is not rocket science. We were given a huge (A3) book with detailed instructions – just like ‘big boys’ Meccano’. Although there are some aspects of home building for which there is a legal requirement to be ‘licenced’, there is a lot an owner-builder can do to save money – and we did. It was hard work at times, especially in the summer, but very satisfying in the end.
Front of house.
About the author: Having spent three years living in Australia in his youth, Alan returned to Australia in 1969 with his wife and young child. Holding a Bachelor of Engineering degree and a Doctor of Science Education degree, Alan has experience in flight simulations, Einsteinian physics, and inventing an ‘eye blink’ device that allows cerebral palsy patients to communicate. He even took a turn at acting, starring in a TV advert and landing supporting and lead roles in his local dramatic society plays. His short stories have been published in WA’s The Gingin Buzz for ten years, and his novel The Magic Hourglass is a work in progress. He and his wife have a lovely life in Brisbane and regularly visit their two children in Sydney’s West. You can read Alan’s full-length bio here.
Note from the Editor:
Love Alan’s writing and want to read more? You might also like to read:
Alan G.’s Member Spotlight: ‘Almost Famous’
The Ice Cream Job: The Tech Guy – Dr Al
The Lucky Man: The Tech Guy – Dr Al
‘Ten Pound Pom’ Hostel Living: The Tech Guy – Dr Al
Many Happy Returns of the Day!
Reaching for the Stars!
Sportsmanship, Manners, and Respect
My great-grandfather’s journal of 1908: The Tech Guy – Dr Al
Christmases I’ve Had
