Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Provincial Homes 243Feb 21, 2015 10:43 am Building Nu Caprice 35 Accepted Tender 3/14 Construction Cert 11/9/14 Slab poured 19/11/14 Frame completed 21/1/15 Bricks completed 26/3/15 Roof completed 29/5/15 Lockup 15/6/15 Walkthough is NEXT! Re: Provincial Homes 257Apr 09, 2015 12:23 am Welcome niknandy! Such an exciting (& patience-testing....) time! We are building the nu caprice and although everyone's experience & timeframe is different, personally I wouldn't hold your breath to be done by Christmas. Sorry. That being said, we did have a lot of delays during December last year & the excuse we were given was that they had lots of homes to rush to be finished for Christmas so maybe you can push them at the end? Our experience feels like it has been a slow & frustrating one, but understand, we are very happy with Provincial overall & the work that has been done so far. It just seems to be an unnecessarily slow process. We have watched other houses around us go up much faster than ours, and even within this blog - kavehman & us were only a week or 2 apart to start with but there is a huge difference at this stage, months down the track. Perhaps that is to do with being 2storey compared to single storey? Or perhaps we were unlucky with weather at the start? Who knows... But here is our timeline to give you a bit of an idea: Construction cert recd 11/9 (it took them almost 4 weeks after that just to deliver the fill to be levelled) Piering wasn't done til 28/10 (6+ weeks after construction cert) Slab poured 19/11 Bottom floor frame erected 13/12 Top floor frame was delivered on 18/12 (but then sat on our block for the whole Christmas break) Top floor frame erected 17/1 Bricks started ground floor 3/2 Scaffold setup 23/2 Bricks started top floor 24/2 (unbelievably... They had calculated incorrectly and ran out of bricks with one room to go!!) More bricks finally delivered & bricks all finished 26/3 Now we are 2 weeks after bricks finished still waiting for the next thing to happen. We are told roof tiles are to begin Friday - fingers crossed! So it is 7 months since our construction cert was recd. Given a month for Christmas break, I would have still imagined to be further along by the 6 month mark, but I guess, it depends on when they finish, rather than the time in between? I was last told it will be about 10 more weeks. We shall see.... I don't fault the work, nor do I regret choosing a Provincial home. I think it will be wonderful, once we get in there! I found the process up to construction fantastic, but just find the construction process very stop/start, which causes a lot of frustration. Happy days when work is happening, not so happy during the quiet weeks! Even their communication is fine, some have said not so but I've never had a problem communicating with anyone from provincial, but because I don't want to be bothering the SS every day to find out what's going on, there is a lot of thumb twiddling going on instead! I have written like this before & been told that my timeline is not that bad, so as I have said previously perhaps I am just unreasonable with my expectations, but I honestly thought the construction process would flow much more smoothly. Just my opinion, hopefully it's helpful. I wish you a speedy & stress free build. I will be eagerly following as I do with all the other forumers on here Building Nu Caprice 35 Accepted Tender 3/14 Construction Cert 11/9/14 Slab poured 19/11/14 Frame completed 21/1/15 Bricks completed 26/3/15 Roof completed 29/5/15 Lockup 15/6/15 Walkthough is NEXT! Re: Provincial Homes 258Apr 13, 2015 10:07 am Welcome NikNAndy it's fantastic to see someone else with Provincial start a blog, I'm looking forward to watching yours. I think there are only 3 or 4 out there, and half of them don't run through to finishing off the house. I plan to keep mine going through the maintenance phase, landscaping, and fit out phase. Jahasabe there are two double storey provincial homes going up near us, and whilst ours is almost complete those two have moved at a slower pace, and one started at the same time (Nu Caprice), and the other (Wollahra) a month or so before ours. Double storey homes are a lot harder to work on and build from what my site supervisor has told me. It's a lot easier to get trades to come to single storey homes as well for some reason. I stopped by our house over the Easter weekend, Our area is still developing and there is a lot of activity. I found the security fence wide open in 3 spots mainly around the side and back and one of the doors wide open as well. No one was around and my neighbor confirmed it had been like that all day Friday, so rather than risk having any damage done over a long weekend I closed it up myself. Whilst you aren’t supposed to go on a construction site, I couldn’t just walk away and leave it open. They had done a site clean-up and installed the drain pipes which was probably why the gates were open. I did take a peak around and am overall pretty happy with everything on the inside, they aren’t finished yet so I’m not sure if it’s fair to comment on anything on the inside. Having said that the few things I did notice were mainly cosmetic i.e. joins on the ceaserstone where they sandwich 2 x 20mm sheets so obvious in some spots, door that had a hole in it during our original walk through was obviously patched up, scratches on the guttering where they joined the two (not sure why they just didn’t cut the scratched section off and use a nice piece, they had the chance too as I know they ran out of guttering at that exact spot !!), a missed cap on the guttering by the front porch. I do realize a lot of the detail gets sorted out towards the end though . There is a list of things that I’ll be checking come my next walk through, mainly being. 1. If the articulation joint that I think is needed, and plans, and building standards say is needed will be done. 2. If the water that was in the pipe from inside the wall to the underside of the kitchen island was sucked out (at our first walk through it hadn’t been, and I don't want no funky smells 6 months from now, and I don't think it's safe having electrical cables going through water. This is a pretty major concern too me. 3. Down-pipes are in compliance with regulations. I feel they aren't, especially when I run the roof dimensions through the calculator, and judging by one of the downpours we had recently were I watched water overflow over the gutter edge they aren’t. The guttering guys/ downpipe/ plumbing guys so far are the trades I have the least amount of faith in . I’m almost tempted to get someone in with a camera to look through all the pipes and make sure nothing is leaking. Having said all of that the framer, brick layer, tilers, painter, carpenters do seem to be doing a pretty good job. I have received a lot of questions through my blog and via pm on what I would change if I were to do it again, and will put a thorough list together by the end of the build. The one thing I would suggest to anyone going through the motions right now is to consider the following. 1. Sound insulation in between walls. 2. Bricks - Dry Pressed just look so much better than the coated or wire cut bricks, obviously a personal choice though. 3. Tiles - Check out the standard range and get floor to ceiling tiles included at tender/color stage and not when you go to see Di Lorenzo if it’s a desire. 4. Termite Treatment - And this is the biggest thing I wish I was aware of/researched when building. Provincial uses termimesh through the slab to prevent termites coming up the drain pipes etc. But the perimeter is a chemical reticulation system that requires yearly checks, and recharges every 3 to 4 years otherwise the warranty is useless. I would upgrade this to a complete termimesh system or a Kordon system like what Mcdonald jones home uses. I imagine the chemical reticulation system is installed for free, they include one recharge but you will need to recharge it again after your landscaping is done ($3 - $400). I will add that this system is used by a lot of builders because I imagine they can get it installed for free. 5. I would ask and pay extra (if required) for waterproofing to not be done to the minimum standard. Living in a home with a leaky shower (which I have done) is not fun, I'm not so worried in a single, but in a double I would be. 6. Site costs – whilst there is no guarantee that you won’t be hit with additional charges, keep in mind that if you want more certainty then you have to pay for more tests. The tests aren’t going to provide 100% certainty either. So instead of paying $2-$3k for tests set it aside as a buffer. The other key thing is blow outs happen with any builder. Based on my experience Provincial aren’t in the game to wack you with additional costs if they aren’t needed. 7. Be prepared for some additional BASIX costs, or just get upgraded insulation included in the get go in your tender. I have detailed my additional costs before. Again do your own research though, everyone has an opinion on everything. The other question I get a lot is if I would build a second house with them ? At this stage yes I would, definitely. They are a bit slower but I think it will be worth it in the end I'll update when our build is finished but that’s what I can think of off the top of my head. That’s it from me, the wife and I have been drawing up a landscape plan, and are looking forward to finishing off the house. Re: Provincial Homes 259Apr 16, 2015 10:13 pm We have now signed the tender agreement to build a Nu Caprice in Blacktown area as a KDR. As soon as I can work out how to do it I will create a blog and post some plans and pics as we go along the journey ! I feel like I have done so much research already and then I read something else and think oh yeah, good idea ! Re: Provincial Homes 260Apr 17, 2015 8:33 am Congratulations Sarahcraigy, I spoke to my site supervisor yesterday, he said we should be doing a walk through sometime next week to pick up anything that needs attention. The few larger items I raised with him and he is taking care of them which is good to hear. The remaining items that need to be done to make it a home are starting to sink in, I guess that's where all the real fun begins. The Dulux colour consultants are awesome. If you show them the photos they should be able to figure it out for you straight away 1 1683 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 76605 I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 107225 |