Browse Forums Building A New House Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Colour Appointment done 22Mar 23, 2014 9:32 pm Thanks. It's pretty exciting. We're doing a CDC (Complying development which should be a lot quicker) but yes reading it seems inclusive. We just need to find a good demolition person now and then most of it is in the hands of Sekisui! Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 23Mar 23, 2014 9:44 pm Ah of course, CDC. If it all complies the certifier has 10 days to approve it once Sekisui give it to him, so yep, it's pretty quick. That's lucky you can do that, we have to go through Council. Did you get any further great deals with them in your contract? Were there many things you argued the price on? I want to argue the price on a fair few things, but not sure if it's worth it. I feel they'll just say 'well too bad, that's how much it is'. Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 24Mar 23, 2014 9:51 pm For example I've spoken to two sales guys, and I was so sure the second said everything on the display house was included in the facade upgrade (that is, bricks, mortar, doors and windows). Whereas through the other sales guy now we have to pay extra for the bricks, off white mortar, fancier front door. Adding to that, he suggested we change from the 2 roller doors of the upgrade, back to the one roller door of the standard, and said it would cost MORE to do. Which means only the larger patio and gable to the roof equal the nearly $10k price. But interestingly is 9m2 worth... compared to 10k to do an 18m2 alfresco! Double the size!! Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 25Mar 23, 2014 9:55 pm Anyways I've just asked the first guy who we're now dealing with to provide a breakdown of what totals the $9,800 for the facade, and have emailed my folks who were with me when I spoke to the second to see what they remember him saying. Be interesting to see what he says! Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 26Mar 23, 2014 9:59 pm We didn't haggle too much... we got some 'freebies' but they were fairly minor. There were a few things they didn't move on which seemed a bit strange, in particular the flyscreens. We got a flyer when we first went through saying that flyscreens were included but they aren't. So a fee of $350 applies. However there were items which were 'waived' as a freebie on things like a different tap fitting. I suspect it's stuff where they actually get a really good deal on and only pay say $50 extra for rather than an explicit cost for things like flyscreens. All in all I don't think they are a rip off for most standard things. But anything out of the norm, watch out. So we removed anything we could do post handover including gutter guard. We didn't get the retractable flyscreens for the doors but went with sliding ones so we could actually take advantage of opening doors/windows without being eaten alive by mosquitoes. There were just a couple of things which were mistakes (e.g. the double vanity in the ensuite) which I would suggest you just watch out for otherwise I don't think there is much in the way of haggle room Interestingly enough I did a quick breakdown of the cost and there were about $60k in upgrades, but $25k was in windows/glazing/door upgrades and flyscreens!! $8k was in the increased garage, $7k was the slab for the alfresco, $5k was the increase in ceiling height so all up we didn't spend TOO much on 'luxuries' (if you call them that). Thank goodness for the promotion we had with the air cond and the bathroom/kitchen upgrades. I think that has saved us heaps. Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 27Mar 23, 2014 10:15 pm cat_dunc Anyways I've just asked the first guy who we're now dealing with to provide a breakdown of what totals the $9,800 for the facade, and have emailed my folks who were with me when I spoke to the second to see what they remember him saying. Be interesting to see what he says! Good idea to to this, sometimes it jogs their knowledge as they ask the right question of the estimator so you get the right answer. It still boggles me that they don't have a list of standard prices for some things. They use their 'upgrade' sheet for the houses on display as an indication but even that is so inaccurate it's quite unbelievable. However it does all come together. Just stand your ground. Worse case scenario see if you can handle going back to 'standard' and then building back up from there. The chopping and changing does confuse them and at the end we just went through everything very thoroughly as I had a spreadsheet tracking the things we asked for as between each 'version' things would get missed or changed around just because there is a lot of tooing and froing. There is definitely a lot they could do to improve their processes but given the number of departments and people who need to get involved in estimating things I can understand why they get to where they are Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 28Mar 26, 2014 9:40 pm We got emailed estimate prices for the facade upgrade, seems fair but not entirely in line with what he said the other day. I'm not going to question it much more, I'm not sure there's much point, just going to get *everything* in writing from now on.
We were considering paying the deposit to go through to the next stage, though our sales person said someone was meant to come inspect our property today - the THIRD time it was supposedly 'booked' in to happen. I was home all day and I didn't notice anyone and have just emailed the sales person to check. If they didn't come I'm going to be peeved... not a good indication of what's to come. I can't believe you'll be in your new home by Christmas! Hopefully we'll be started building by then as well. Fingers crossed. Ah man where to stop with the upgrades... So many things i want to do to the place. Each day i think of a new thing, today was "hmm not sure the walk in robe is big enough. Where will I put my shoes??" :/ Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 29Mar 26, 2014 9:56 pm cat_dunc Ah man where to stop with the upgrades... So many things i want to do to the place. Each day i think of a new thing, today was "hmm not sure the walk in robe is big enough. Where will I put my shoes??" :/ Love it. I think when I got my sticker shock was when we started pulling out all the 'extras'. I keep thinking about a few things: 1. would I miss it if I didn't have it e.g. double vanity... I never had one previously so do I really need it? No... 2. can I do it cheaper after handover? e.g. robe will probably work out more expensive to 'alter' it to make it bigger. However you could probably build a real groovy bespoke shoe cabinet after handover... 3. Do I seriously need *all* my shoes In the end I feel we left very little in for 'nice' stuff. It was mostly structural stuff we left. Just the 3 in 1 heater things which theoretically we could have added in later... but we also said that if we went with the stock standard house (no upgrades) we would probably still be pretty happy with it. Seriously it's a first world problem all these choices Getting it in writing doesn't really help as it's not 'solid' until it's in the contract... People coming out on site... we had all sorts of people 'pop in' without our sales person knowing. Gas person to check availability, electrician to check if we could have 3 phase power on site. The only one she did know about was that initial site person and they didn't quite turn up the same time she indicated they would. But it was in the ballpark. From what I have derived the orders go in from head office and then people just get notified as part of their connection with Sekisui... I'm not holding my breath that we'll be in by Xmas. It'd be nice as I'd like to take advantage of the post xmas sales for things like floors and carpets and lights in Jan... but then I'll have to wait till Jan to have floors... so who knows!? Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 30Mar 26, 2014 11:04 pm Oh he's just replied to my email, looks like the person got postponed and should be popping over tomorrow. Maybe he is reading this blog after all...! (hi there) Yeah you're right, we were near perfectly happy with the standard house too but just cant help but think if we'll wonder later "ohh if we just spent that $___". But all those things add up!! Priorities are definitely structural things, garage size, room spaces (we're taking out a wall), eave depth, upgrading insulation.. Hey how much have you allowed per m2 for floor coverings? Ours is included so far, but wondering if we should take it out and put A/C in instead. Im going to send the drawings off to get quotes for AC to see how much it'd cost after the fact. Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 31Mar 27, 2014 6:58 am Eave depth? What are you changing yours to? I found the standard 450+gutter should be enough for us. Ditto with their standard insulation although we're putting in some acoustic insulation around the home theatre (which is in the middle of the house so works well for the whole house... For floor coverings I've allowed $15k because we want to get floorboards (laminate) and carpet. We're actually very picky about our floors so thought it would be better in terms of choice if we did it ourselves. Our sales consultant indicated it would be more economical for us to get it done after handover... For our a/c we have to had all this special stuff done including trusses (structural) so I would think that it would be better done by Sekisui? That is assuming you are going for ducting. If we didn't have it included in the promo, I'm not sure we would have gone ducting as we have had in the past just split systems which work fine and in some ways better as you can control them individually (rather than just by zones). Ducting is more luxurious though! Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 32Mar 27, 2014 11:17 am Ducting is definitely luxurious!! I've just sent the drawings off to get quoted by a local air con company, AND the sekisui guy just came over. Woo! We're getting 600mm eaves for the extra bit of shading it provides, and upgrading the wall and ceiling insulation to help regulate the temp as much as possible. Not sure what to yet though Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 33Mar 28, 2014 6:52 pm Sounds like you may need to upgrade your windows too as they leak heat / gain heat easily... Very jealous of the extended eaves! The insulation provided is actually not too bad. R3.0 for the roof and R2.0 for the walls from memory. using a phone so please excuse any typos and abruptness Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 36Mar 28, 2014 11:26 pm sorry you are correct! R1.5 in the walls and R3.0 in the ceiling... Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 37Mar 28, 2014 11:31 pm Based on this link http://www.choice.com.au/reviews-and-tests/household/heating-and-cooling/home-heating/home-insulation-buying-guide/page/r-value-what-is-it.aspx the R3.0 for ceilings and R1.5 for walls should be OK... Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 38Mar 29, 2014 12:14 am Looking forward to following your build. Are you able to put a picture up of the plans? I don't think I'd miss a double vanity and then you get more bench space. One thing I would think about is the 3 coats of paint though. I don't know if you have kids in the house but if you ever need to wipe a mark off our old house with Crapo paint was just awful. I upgraded to 3 coats of wash and wear paint. Maybe you are good at painting as I noticed you said you could do it post handover. Plus I know you face so many upgrade costs you have my to draw the line somewhere. Good luck with your build. Look forward to reading all about it. Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 39Mar 29, 2014 12:27 am Here's a copy of the plans as lifted off the signed contract so it's pretty much there other than awning windows have been incorrectly drawn as sliding ones.
Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Another minor thing that needs to change is the Roof Access (to be in the garage) With the 3 coats of paint... it was way too much I think an extra $4k (I'd have to check but it was so much we just didn't think it was necessary since every other time we painted ourselves for way less than that). We're hoping it's not crapo paint... as we have done that too! Wattyl and Dulux and Bristol are our 'go tos'. Everything else... we're steering well away from. --- I had totally overinflated the price of the 3rd coat of paint... it was $1974. Still enough for us to pull it out and think about doing later. Re: KDR with Sekisui House (Sydney): Contract signed 40Mar 29, 2014 8:44 am Plan looks good, what's your base price of house and how much you end up with sekisui? We were lucky in that our old house was so small (86 square metres) compared to the new house, they were able to take enough readings around the old backyard house before… 8 24824 The biggest challenge will be if you take out a loan and then run out of money - you'll have an incomplete security and lenders do not like this so you can get stuck.… 2 13506 Hi, I am looking into doing a KDR in Melbourne and am contemplating using Kialla Homes. I am looking for feedback on them from others who have built with them. 0 8188 |