Welcome to the blog. This blog chronicles the entire design and construction process, from picking out granite and watching the building go up. And when the house is finished, this blog follows us as we begin to furnish it, decorate it and make it home.

This is an unbiased account of the build process, the Good, Bad and Ugly. We hope that others will learn something through our experience and be able to use the information to make their home building dreams come true. Please enjoy our Blog and feel free to provide us your feedback and comments.

Pics: The Chateau as built by NextHome

Chateau in Ile Oluji: Project Description

The Chateau is NextHome’s newest project and will consist of 2 floors and 4 luxurious bedrooms, featuring balcony terraces with panoramic hillside views.

Completion Date: December 2013
Ground breaking: July 2013
Main Contractor: NEXTHOME BUILDERS
Architect: MASTERS' TOUCH STUDIO
Interiors/Finishes: NEXTHOME BUILDERS

Nestling in the hillside at the foot of a historic hilltop village in Ile-Oluji, The Chateau lies on a hand-picked plot perfectly situated close to a stream.


BUILDING SPECIFICATION

The concept was designed by Bosun Davies of NextHome Builders. It is a four bedroom, five bathroom house with three large living areas. The entry level; from the front door through the hall is a large living room of 28sqm and a dining area of 25sqm. The front dining room wall consists of 3.5 meters of windows opening onto a deep terrace. Also on the entry level is a kitchen with French doors opening to a terrace, one guest bedroom with en-suite bathroom and a separate powder room.
The upper first floor level features the master bedroom suite with a bedroom of 32sqm with a double walk-in robe and a spectacular en-suite bathroom. The master suite leads to an enormous terrace of 16sqm.
The upper floor also features a large third living area of 25sqm opening through to a covered terrace and a further two bedrooms with en-suite bathroom. The lower level also features a utility/laundry room and a double volume main lounge of nearly 40sqm which will double as the home cinema and entertainment space for the kinsmen and a spiral staircase leading to the upstairs living area and the dining on the lower level.

The outside area will feature landscaped gardens, terraces and a spectacular swimming pool with a diving board. There is also secure off street parking area for two cars and a two-bedroom bungalow which doubles as servant's quarters and the home office.

After tons of planning and going through about 8 months worth of design and revisions we have finally come up with a design which meets most of our requirements – the building footprint is about 320sqm.

I can't wait to get started. However, we still have a number of things to do before we start construction, including trenching in utilities, establishing the long driveway, and clearing the future house site. We also need to identify a whole slew of subcontractors and material suppliers since we are the general contractor on this project.

Pic: Site Plan

Pictures from The Chateau

Pic 1: Earth road sand-filled about 6 months ago.
Pic 2: The long driveway now covered with bushes.

Pictures fom The Chateau

Pic 3: The Plot (We will be clearing the trees and brush to make room for the house and a decent sized work area, but will be leaving the majority of the land wooded)

8 DAYS UNTIL CONSTRUCTION BEGINS!

The NextHome team has been working the past weeks on preparing for our first home construction project in Ile Oluji. There are a lot of preliminary planning works to be completed by the team while we await the ground breaking day: topographic surveying, obtaining permits, purchasing materials, familiarization tour, securing accommodation for the full-time crew, earth road, site store construction and build site preparation. With the beginning of construction only 1 week away, the pre-works has officially begun!

We’ll be updating this thread regularly with new photos as the project takes shape.

brabus: 8 DAYS UNTIL CONSTRUCTION BEGINS!

We’ll be updating this thread regularly with new photos as the project takes shape.

Well done my Oga Brabus. Keep up the good work and furnish us with update pictures.. Joined the thread.
I get one Doctor friend wey get one Mansion for Ile-Oluji also.


Hajji Mufutau

weldone Oga Brabus.....

Success is yours... stay focus

When we start out to build a house the first thing we do is to undertake a full site assessment. Today, we're standing on the block of land and discussing the possible challenges we will experience and what solutions can be implemented.

The most difficult part of this construction project is getting the building out of the ground. Site clearing has been started and it seems we are clearing the site for a stadium. 43,000sqft is such a big land and it desperately needed a good machete-whacking in this case.

Today, we were able to establish the following:

1. The set backs
2. Distance of the main building (the front, side and rear part of the building) from the boundary
3. Position of trees and roots on the land
4. Site Accessibility (a nissan pathfinder was able to make it to the far end of the site)
5. Site Identification: Survey Pillars
6. Visible Topsoil Quality

Below are a few pictures from our day today activities. The pineapple, the farm trap and survey pillar are my favorite picture so far. It's so good to be here in the first place.

Pic 4: Site clearing in progress
Pic 5: The red arrow is showing the boundary.
Pic 6: Farm Trap found in the bush. So, lucky no one was injured.
Pic 7: Lovely Pineapple. We got about 8 of them

MORE PICTURES

Pic 8: Survey Pillar Rear LHS
Pic 9: Scenic view of a beautiful landscape (our closest neighbour)
Pic 10: Site clearing in progress

Brabus can you ship me that fresh pineapple by fedex, Do they have snail there too.

kopell: Brabus can you ship me that fresh pineapple by fedex, Do they have snail there too.

Pineapple already in transit before I got your snail. However, you can have the snail here!

Picture updates later tonight. I've got some last minute preparations to make

kopell: Brabus can you ship me that fresh pineapple by fedex, Do they have snail there too.

Yeah! That is Ondo area, they have plenty of snails there.

Hajji Mufutau

Thanks man. Hunnnnn am loving it Oooooo!!!

Update

Clearing is almost done and now we can get a rough idea of what our plot will look like and mark out the building area. As you can see the ground is still littered with roots and other brush. We intend to grub this to make it nice and even.

Pic 11: Site Clearing work in progress
Pic 12: Site Store Construction (from afar)

If I can make it, You can make it

Another major hurdle scaled. The site is now accessible to all. What that means to us is that the suppliers can now deliver materials to the site - no excuse whatsoever can be given.

Pic 13: My small ride on the driveway
Pic 14: A mini bus delivering planks on the site and a block delivery truck leaving the site.

brabus: If I can make it, You can make it
Pic 13: My small ride on the driveway

What happended to your Hummer? You need a rough terain, all wheels drive vehicle.
Heh! Fhemmmy, where are you.. you have a rich future customer here.

Hajji Mufutau

Site Store Construction Completed

The construction of the site store started today has been completed. Another major preliminary task hurled out of the way. It drenched a bit today but we were under the shed while it was raining.

Pic 15: Very solid woods fro Ile Oluji used for the site construction. Ile Oluji got nice wood and the price is c l
Pic 16: Shed construction in progress

mufutau55:

What happended to your Hummer? You need a rough terain, all wheels drive vehicle.
Heh! Fhemmmy, where are you.. you have a rich client here.

Hajji Mufutau

We're still testing the waters. If my small ride can make it, then my ... will do stunts on the football stadia. Oh sorry, on the land.

brabus:

We're still testing the waters. If my small ride can make it, then my ... will do stunts on the football stadia. Oh sorry, on the land.

Keep the low profile moving, Brother. I hear you.

Hajji Mufutau

And then, the roots of the trees are grubbed

Sixty-nine trees, including two large oaks and "who-knows-its-name" wood, on the 43000sqft land will be cut down to make way for our multi-million naira building project.

Pic 17: Uprooting the trees
Pic 18: Getting them out of the way

Greetings from Chekitaut good job bros keep it up.

Unloading the roots and shrubs continues...

Pic 18: Work in progress
Pic 19: Checking the roots
Pic 20: Setting at the corner is a massive deep-rooted kolanut wood. To be unloaded soon

Roots to be unloaded and their position

Pic 22: The trees in the picture attached needs to be unloaded prior to setting out to avoid collateral damage in the future. They're sitting on the boundary wall of the property and stands at 23m high which is very dangerous for the proposed development.

weldon weldone


can u send that snail accross?

delicious with vegetable soup

Will your new home still be standing in 50 years?

I do hear people say that houses aren't built the way they used to be, that true craftsmanship is a thing of the past. Is it true? I asked my team members — a bricklayer, an engineer and a soil scientists — if new homes today match up to those built by our grandfathers. Their answers were surprising. Share your view

Pic 23: A House with a Pent built by more than 40 years ago. (Who says our forefathers are not stylish back then? Who's copying who?)

Yesterday we cleared more of our plot! I'm pretty sure we're 65% done clearing it now and might take a little more off in the backyard and the frontyard close to the stream. Two other beacons were spotted, the building area has been carved out, the roots and trees within the building area are been grubbed, the shed has been installed, the driveway has been tested and now it seems to me that we're good to go.

Milestones Achieved

1. Accommodation secured for the full-time crew
2. Driveway/Accessibility established
3. Site Cleared
4. Shed Installed
5. Suppliers identified
6. Water source established and 2000l water tank purchased
7. Beacons established
8. Building area staked out

Pic 24: The long driveway into the site seriously eroded by the time we got in.
Pic 25: Cleared portion of the site
Pic 26: Water from the stream
Pic 27: Beacon found near the stream

This is what the house will look like when we are done. Here are the elevation plans. Our plot slopes towards the stream, so we’re going to have a grande entry.


Pic 28: Front Elevation
Pic 29: Back Elevation
Pic 30: Right Side Elevation
Pic 31: Left Side Elevation

Inspiration

I've never designed or built a house without secretly stalking the fabulous ideas of other houses within the locality of the proposed development. It took a lot of driving around Ile Oluji in November 2012 to get the requisite amount of inspiration to build The Chateau from scratch. In this regards, I think it's fair to share the picture of the development that inspired me most. Here's another Chateau in Ile Oluji.
I love this house because of the way the yard was landscaped. It's so beautiful viewing a golf-course-like landscape from the front of the porch. Ile-Oluji has got some good taste, so do we.

Pic 32: Another Chateau in the neighbourhood
Pic 33: Parked in the driveway to take a shot of the beautiful landscape.

Just the way I want it

I really want to see the ground. Packing of the dirts in progress.

Pic 34: View from the shed down the road
Pic 35: Cleared portion

Unloading the roots continue

Almost all the roots shown above sitting in the building area have been unloaded.

Pic 36: Another tree unloaded
Pic 37: Tree fellers at work
Pic 38: The building area (most of the roots standing in the way are gone)