That sucks I know how disappointing it is - our builder has a promotion running at the moment for $5000 of electrical goods but even thou we haven't actually signed the building contract yet, the promotion is based on signing the PPA which we did a couple of months ago so we miss out

Yeah only thing that get's me is that its not like we don't have a package at all - it's that we got the last package which is the same as this package with a few more includes at the same price...

Hmm I think I'm going to lose this battle but I still think it's definately worth asking.

Formal finance approval by end of this week and our plans with Stockland for their approval too - woohoo

Bugger wrethm01

DAH continually change their monthly packages, and i think what they have on now is awesome (you get two packages for free and then every package you want there after is at a cheap rate). Sounds great!
But we got a fairly decent package worth aa fair bit too. So I didn't complain. From memory we got an upgraded door, extended benchtop to laundry, upgraded door lock/handle, upgraded shower rose in ensuite and bathroom and 900mm blanco rangehood/oven/hotplates. They were originally 600mm westinghouse. We then upgraded our blanco range to a double oven and electric hotplates but reduced the upgrade immensely!
The next months upgrade (after we signed) had everything except the blanco upgrade, so we go in at the right time . Swings and roundabouts.

Not good for you though. Doesn't hurt to ask, but at the end of the day, you have already signed with them so they don't need to attract you anymore! And I would think Nov/Dec would be sloooow time for signing up, with Christmas coming up, so they need to do everything they can!
Just think, there are some people out there that don't get any bonuses in their build, and if they do, the price has already been added onto the base house price so they aren't exactly bonuses!




I don't think it is a matter of what company you have, but who your tradies and supervisor are.
But we were told our earthworks would start last tuesday and they did. so we have good tradies!
It is hard to say how long the build has been. From when? We have been held up due to titles, so we took our time with signing our documents. While our plans were at council, we had prestart. From memory it took 5 weeks in at council, maybe 6 weeks. Then we had to wait for unconditional loan which couldn't be granted until the plans were council approved.
Paperwork! that takes the longest amount of time!!!

I think once the paper trail was finally finished, it took about 2 weeks for a porta loo, then 3 weeks for the earthworks. We would like to think we will be in by june or july next year. but i can't remember it all now! it seemed like it took forever! But I don't think it really has! Just me being impatient!

The house across the road from us got their earthworks and footings done within a day of each other, and the slab down by the end of the same week. Two weeks later they had bricks and 2 days later 1/3 of the house was up! That is HB who are also part of the same group. They don't cure their pad as along as DAH do...they wont lay bricks for 4 weeks after slab poured. So same company doesn't mean much at all!

But i love seeing where they are up to across the road...it is going sooo fast! And compared to their house, our house looks so big! about 3m wider, and our house isn't even that big! i am sure once the pad is down it will look smaller!

Yeah that DAH Package at the moment is awesome!

I'd just like to get them to at least meet us half way or something - but I guess they don't want to open up a can of worms by saying yes to one I guess... Still disappointing though, that Clipsal upgrade wasn't even mentioned to us until I found it then (and it's something we'd actually really use alot!)

I can't wait until our pad goes down - I'll be on that pad with a pair of tap shoes and a bottle of moet so fast hahaha!

So I've taken my grumpy pants off now - Can't get the upgrade but its all good as we're actually a lot further in than I thought so it'd involve a redraw fee and a fair amount of work to get the clipsal package put in at this stage - ah well .

Apparently it's all go there - I've got plans with Stockland for approval already, finance is signing off this week and settlement date TBC but in a few weeks, and apparently should hear back from the developer really soon and it'll go to council before we even settle on the land!!

Hopefully it'll all line up for us and we could start before the new year.. Haha I know, I'm a bit optimistic but it's all optimism and sunlight this early in the build right!

Hi wrethm01

Loving your colour choices! Partner and I also going for the red brick cottage style - we're still not sure what colour to choose for our render across the front though. Are you able to post a pic of your sketch which shows your front elevation? Is the 6c London Fog render on the top or bottom half of your front elevation? Needing a bit of inspiration right now...and you have quite good taste

Hi
We built with Celebration Homes and moved in March 2011 and we are happy with our place. The build quality is great. We built the Regal (it was a display now closed). As far as build times ours worked out to be about 7 months. Good Luck.

Hey JJ's,

I'll post the facia when I get home but we've got render on the front of our place up to 7 courses (to just below the front windows) which is the london fog, then the remainder of the front of the house is the Pumphouse bricks. Rest of our features match the roof which is surfmist, so surfmist planter and surfmist door, with white pearl window frames .

Love the red brick houses - the light brick is being overdone at the moment - so many houses in Aveley are that light grey, dark grey render... Want something a little bit different with a bit of bang.. If you want our inspiration have a look at his display home from plunkett http://www.plunketthomes.com.au/avon-lodge.aspx ... it's amazing, we're basically building a mini one of these!

Just got our unconditional finance approval from Bluebay / Resolve!! Woohoo!! roll on settlement.. In the mean time, plans are with developers then going to shire - Might have approval before settlement.. LOL I'm just being optimistic but it could happen! haha

Congrats! That's another box you can tick off now

Thanks for the link to that display home - I used to live in Ellenbrook very recently and remember driving past that home, it's lovely. Had a bit of a drive around Mt Lawley today for some Federation inspiration...not sure how I'm going to make my place look like one of those houses with only a fraction of the budget though, hahah.

When is your settlement date? Hopefully City of Swan don't hang on to your building licence application for too long...there is new legislation effective from Jan 1, 2012 which will mean the local govts have to process building licence applications in 14days...will be interesting to see how this "fast-tracking" actually works.

Our settlement should be in a few weeks just waiting to hear from our agent .

I know what you mean! I live in Wembley and look at the federation houses all the time - it was our inspiration but I didn't think we could realistically mimic the old federation houses as its obvious its a brand new build - thats why we went for the modern greys set off against the white roof and red brick - I call it modern federation haha!

Our pre-starter thought it was a great choice though - and we love the pumphouse brick - here's to something a little bit different

Have you got your block sorted in Aubin Grove yet? TBH I haven't been out that way but looks like it's not too far out which is good! How far into the process are you?

We've been playing the waiting game for a while now, had our 5th finance extension because building contract is still not ready (we first put our offer on the block way back in June)...our sales consultant left the building company a couple of weeks ago, so our broker had to push for another 5 week extension for our finance whilst our file was handed over. We've had conditional approval for ages now, the only thing we're waiting for is the building contract. We're building with SPH - we've been told we can't do anything with pre-start until we get unconditional finance approval. It's definitely the beginning of what is likely to be the ultimate test of our patience!

In a way, I'm sort of glad that it's being put off a bit longer....I've got uni exams on at the moment and I'm a problem procrastinator when it comes to studying, so it's just as well I'm not picking out tiles, bricks and benchtops right now I'm also doing our own settlement, so that's another thing I have to look forward to :/...so each time we've had the finance extension, I've breathed a sigh of relief because I'm pretty nervous about potentially stuffing up the settlement.

We'll probably be a couple of months behind you guys - pretty keen to see how you progress, we've got quite similar design ideas I think! Are the bricks you've chosen from Austral?

Ah that seem's like so long though! Have you thought about changing builder or are you happy with SPH? Seem's like huge delays - I would have been raging by now! Though I've had a reasonably quick turn around with all my stuff!

We've got settlement on the 6th December! Woohoo.

And yeah they are Austral Pumphouse I believe - it's one of celebration homes standard brick choices

Quick update,

We got our letter from City of Swan stating our plans have been submitted to council! woot.

Looking at others applications in our street, we are one of three currently applying and one of us already has approval after like 2 weeks - hoping they are nice and approve us before XMAS .

We have settlement planned in a week - just waiting for a few forms from council then hopefully we will get a build commence date - FINGERS CROSSED

I'm already impatient and we've had a pretty painless and very quick process so far... haha

Things are definitely moving along for you now! I'm quite certain that you'll have your approval before Xmas.

Our plans are probably another month away from being submitted to council...I keep having nightmares about them being rejected (we have our alfresco area in a different location than the 'preferred' location on the DAP).

We finally signed our building contract last week! Baby steps...hahah.

All the best for your settlement

Hi wrethm01

We moved into our Celebration Home 7 weeks ago. The build time for us was 6 months from start of siteworks to handover. We had a great supervisor and fantastic tradies and all the office staff were nice and helpful. The great service continued after handover too, we had a plumbing issue and they sent someone out the very same day I rang.

We also went for red brick and chose New Graphite for our bathroom and laundry cabinets. We love our home and hope you have a great build experience too.

If you are interested in timelines, I kept a blog and updated our build progress weekly (see signiture). You will probably have a quicker build time, but it may give you a rough idea of when and what to expect next

Good luck with the rest of your paperwork stage...it sounds like you are almost done with that tedious stage and onto the fun stuff

Did settlement all run smooth? I hope all is going well, and the council give you a nice christmas present!

Just checked on city of swan applications online...

and we have council approval!!!

Woohoo! Can't wait til we get a start date

Settlement went without a hitch - everything has been really easy for us to be honest! Just told to transfer money to Axiom so we did and then yeah it's all done!

And yeah as I said above - council were so quick for us in swan!! We'll have walls in no time!!! (fingers crossed!)

Your feature tile is amazing...

Love the surfmist roof too! Just think of all the heat reflected off... We are having that too (I decided a long time ago!), I don't understand why people go dark rooves!!

Hopefully not too long until starting!!

Good Luck!