Tag: customs house canberra

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When hotel rooms change hands, they change the rules

A guest has been left with more than £50,000 after a hotel room he booked for Christmas has been handed over to his daughter.The man was told by a hotel representative that his room had been sold to his 16-year-old daughter after his son got the wrong room number.His daughter, who was at home at the time, then bought the

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When you think of ‘customs houses’ you might think of big, flashy, high-end homes like those at the centre of a new international copyright dispute.But that doesn’t mean they are any less real, writes Michael Caine in this story. The custom house is the most common form of housebuilding in Australia, and a lot of that building has come down to the simple fact that it’s hard to build a house without building a few custom-built windows, and no one can legally say no to anyone else. That’s why there are thousands of custom-made houses, and some custom-designed ones are quite expensive. But these days, most custom houses are actually quite cheap, and not because they are too small to make sense of the modern building codes. They’re actually cheaper because they’re often built on sites where the owners can afford to buy the materials.The idea of “the custom house” originated in the United States and has since spread to a number of countries, but there are several variations. Here in Australia there are more than 500 different custom-home building styles. Most custom-houses are small. A typical custom house has windows in the centre that you can put in your living room and out to the backyard. In addition, custom houses typically have a front porch that looks like it was built by a person from the 1940s. Custom houses usually have a basement with a deck and kitchenette, and usually have multiple bedrooms. But there are a few exceptions to that rule, as the story below shows.Custom house rules and standardsThe custom-house rules and codes are often quite strict, as many builders have a lot more to learn about building codes than most builders do. One of the rules is that a custom house should be at least two metres wide and two metres deep. The maximum height allowed is three metres, but some custom houses can be much taller. For example, the house that Michael Cain is looking at was designed by one man, but had windows that went down to one metre and one metre deep. So, when Michael Cains’ company, Barchant Architects, bought the property in 2012, they needed to get the building code changed so that the front of the house could be removed to make room for the new kitchen. “We could have had windows down the front, but we didn’t want to go down to that depth,” says Barchent’s head of commercial development, Adam MacLeod. “We decided to get rid of the window and just leave it in.”That’s because windows are not considered to be part of a custom-building building rule, so they can’t be removed without a building permit.”In our case, the windows were removed because it was a standard custom house and we didn of wanted to make it look more traditional,” he says. When Barchart did the job, they noticed that the windows did not meet the standard. The custom building rules are fairly clear, but the custom house codes are much more complex. One of those custom building codes is called the Code of Residential Structures, or CRIS, which defines what type of construction should be used on custom-build structures. There are many different kinds of building codes, including those that apply to any building, including a house. Barchant says that while there are strict codes for the exterior of a house, the interior of the custom- built house is different. Custom houses are usually built on land that is either public or private, and they usually use a variety of different materials, such as timber and stone. If you want to know more about how custom houses have evolved in Australia over the past 50 years, you can read a great

on the subject here.What are the rules for custom houses?Custom house codes differ depending on the type of building that you're building. Some types of custom houses require the building permit to be issued before a house can be built, and others don't. To find out more about building rules and regulations in Australia and abroad, see our Custom House and Residential

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Why is Australia’s new house-building policy so unpopular?

The Turnbull government's new policy to make Australia's building regulations more progressive and responsive to new technologies and new business models has been criticised as too conservative and inhumane by local communities, with some building unions saying they will fight the policy tooth and nail.The new policy was announced in February, just weeks before the federal election, to be rolled

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How to Buy a Custom House in Canberra

Built with love and attention to detail, custom houses in Canberra are a treasure trove of beauty and style.And while you might not be able to afford one right now, you can certainly save some money if you're a local.The key to buying a custom house in Canberra is in the detail.In the past, custom homes were all about cutting

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