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answers upfront. We have gone with the colour boards I prefer less choice! I'm looking fwd to signing the contract and having it done. Upgrades we have added are to extend the kitchen bench, evap cooling, internal garage door, the timber look laminate in the whole living area not half carpet. The alfresco. I love the layout it will be perfect for

Hey arnoldsabode,

I just had my contract appointment And we're due for a start this month! Exciting!

Make sure you check everything! I pre made a checklist with all documents they gave us and properly went over the contract, they did forget to price a few things and we got them to price it on the spot. As well as different pricing than what's on the sales quotation but they we're able to honour it! Phew!

If you have any questions, I'm happy to help!
[/quote]
Thank you for the advice! Will let you know how we go
Holliemc
arnoldsabode
Hi! We are building the 3.1 in mernda. We have out contract signing on June 4th but won't start build until Oct. So far we have had a great experience with them and it has been refreshing to have answers upfront. We have gone with the colour boards I prefer less choice! I'm looking fwd to signing the contract and having it done. Upgrades we have added are to extend the kitchen bench, evap cooling, internal garage door, the timber look laminate in the whole living area not half carpet. The alfresco. I love the layout it will be perfect for us. Would love to be kept up to date with everyone's experiences!!
Thanks Kate


hi arnoldsabode,
oh let me know how your contract appointment goes, are you changing anything at the appointment?
we are wanting to change a few things like adding a walk in pantry.
they have been great with us aswell, was your sales consultant celeste at Mernda? she was ours and has been so helpful.
what boards did you choose? we upgraded pretty much the same and got the 9 foot ceilings and stacker doors in the alfresco, we are also going to add the walk in pantry at contract appointment.

look forward to hearing from you and seeing your build!

Hi thanks for your reply yes Celeste was our consultant she was fantastic! We want to add an internal garage door and change the bench and add a power point at the contract signing. We have the wip too. I can't remember the name of the outside board but it a reddish brick and grey everything else and the inside we chose bamboo hut I think it was called? How about you?
congrats RoseN!

that's so exciting that your starting very soon!
did you make any changes at your contract appointment, i'm wanting to make a few just worried at how it will go!
goodluck with your build!
[/quote]

Thank you!

8homes made it very clear that at the contract appointment would be the last chance you can change anything. They give you the contract, drafted floor plans and post contract variation. We had no issues changing anything. The only real disappointment was that they messed up our floor plan (Lots of white out had been used and was fixable), some of the upgrade pricing (which they've honoured) and telling at last minute that they couldn't do a particular upgrade when they knew a while ago.

Good luck with your appointment! I'd love to hear how it goes!
[/quote]


That makes me feel a lot better, because there's a few things that i want to change!
how long did your contract appointment go for? I delayed ours till august, I will let you know how it goes!
by then hopefully your build is well underway!
arnoldsabode
Holliemc
arnoldsabode
Hi! We are building the 3.1 in mernda. We have out contract signing on June 4th but won't start build until Oct. So far we have had a great experience with them and it has been refreshing to have answers upfront. We have gone with the colour boards I prefer less choice! I'm looking fwd to signing the contract and having it done. Upgrades we have added are to extend the kitchen bench, evap cooling, internal garage door, the timber look laminate in the whole living area not half carpet. The alfresco. I love the layout it will be perfect for us. Would love to be kept up to date with everyone's experiences!!
Thanks Kate


hi arnoldsabode,
oh let me know how your contract appointment goes, are you changing anything at the appointment?
we are wanting to change a few things like adding a walk in pantry.
they have been great with us aswell, was your sales consultant celeste at Mernda? she was ours and has been so helpful.
what boards did you choose? we upgraded pretty much the same and got the 9 foot ceilings and stacker doors in the alfresco, we are also going to add the walk in pantry at contract appointment.

look forward to hearing from you and seeing your build!

Hi thanks for your reply yes Celeste was our consultant she was fantastic! We want to add an internal garage door and change the bench and add a power point at the contract signing. We have the wip too. I can't remember the name of the outside board but it a reddish brick and grey everything else and the inside we chose bamboo hut I think it was called? How about you?



she is fantastic! they should be pretty easy things to change, let me know how it goes!

I'm not certain on which ones i'm choosing but I think it will be from there new boards, email celeste and get her to send you the new ones so you can have a look because we have free pick of old and new colours.
Holliemc
Cl1ck
Holliemc
We were going to sign contract on 26th of may but we delayed till august, we didn't feel ready to sign because our titles are so far off

We are building at the cloverlea estate in chirnside park.

Nice! I love the s.eight, to big for our land though
/quote]


Hi Holliemc,

We are building with 8homes and we are also in Cloverlea Estate stage 2B... such a long wait as we purchased our block of land in April 2013.

Cloverlea seem to be very uninformative of what is going on with titles which gets frustrating at times, but it is by far the best located estate around; If you don't already know Cloverlea is being developed by CSR (the sugar company) and I believe it is their first time developing in Victoria which has partly been the reason as to some of the delays, although the Cloverlea folk won't tell you that. Currently Cloverlea are waiting to receive approval permits from the local council to start on Stage 2... which should concern all of us as they should've had these approvals prior to finishing Stage 1, but once again it comes back to their lack of knowledge of developing in Victoria; Good news is that CSR is a very big company and well will go under but enough about Cloverlea...

The 8homes ride has been very much a roller coaster, as it is our first build also, we expected a certain level of customer service and excitement when it came to spending a lot of money, but after a word with management and 8homes getting their act together we've managed to have settled on a contract with them, we are building the S7.1 (which has had a name change to S4.1) with the E62 Facade and we did the color appointment also and changed a heap of things, redesigned the ensuite, put in the gas fireplace, ran with bamboo floor boards... all in all the upgrades were a lot cheaper than we thought they were going to be.

We can't wait to build but we will visit the site very often whilst they are building just to keep an eye on things as we've already had a lot of communication issues with them. Considering getting an independent builder to look over the finished product too.



hi cl1ck,
I purchased my lot in stage 2c in feb, I couldn't imagine how frustrating the wait would be for you!
I spoke to Rochelle a few weeks ago and she said if we have a really wet winter than most likely will be delayed to 1st quarter next year, and that all of stage 2 will all title at the same time, A third party wanted to title some parts earlier because the blocks needed less engineering. Seems they tell everyone something different though. my best guess is feb/march next year. but I'm hopeful its earlier! yes I agree best location, and will be beautiful once complete!
That's a bit worrying about the permits, they were meant to be sent of the same time that they sent of stage 1's.

My sales consultant was great and very helpful, its a shame that they gave you such bad customer service. where was yours sales located?
I'm worried about the contract signing appointment though because I'm wanting to change a few things, But surely that won't be a problem.
nice I love that floorplan! did you upgrade the ceiling height? we have upgraded ours to 2740, i'm just a bit worried that it will look funny because we havn't made the windows bigger and am considering getting brick infill above windows, there will be a lot of cement sheeting because of the higher ceiling.
I think its a very good idea to get an independent builder to inspect each stage!



Hi Holliemc,

I'm pretty sure we had the same Sales Consultant, Celeste, we didn't get bad service from her, she was great and went out of her way to help us; the issue was/is communications between departments, one department would tell us one thing then the next would tell us another, and in the end it was more money coming out of our pocket, we just didn't feel like there was any 'love' given toward us the customer, it was all based on how much money it would cost us... not how much money they could save us, I just feel like their approach to the sale is completely wrong, the customer needs to feel like they're getting a great deal, like we're winning.

We didn't raise our ceiling height, would have loved to but we couldn't justify it as it does add a fair bit on to the cost and already we have spent almost $100K on upgrades; I think the windows would look fine at the standard size, find out how much it costs to have the brick infill, but bare in mind that the cement sheeting is only to the sides and back of the house as the front should be all brick, and to be honest nobody ever takes notice of the back and sides of a house, it's all about the front... you might be best to keep the cement sheeting and spend your money else where? honestly I think you'd be best to get the cement sheeting infill above the garage door done in brick... that's what I'm thinking about doing.

We've made a heap of changes since signing our contract, we've changed our whole facade and i have to go back in to redo the external color selection... they do charge you for contract variations which is annoying considering how much we've already spent with them.
Hi holliemc
I treated to see the new colour boards I might drop in and look today.

Cl1ck are you saying if you change things at contract signing they charge by way of variation?? Or after the contract is signed?? Thanks
arnoldsabode
Hi holliemc
I treated to see the new colour boards I might drop in and look today.

Cl1ck are you saying if you change things at contract signing they charge by way of variation?? Or after the contract is signed?? Thanks


Hi Arnoldsabode,

They charge a variation fee to change an item/s only after the contract has been signed.
Oops that was meant to say interested not treated!! I went to have a look today I like the old ones better. The reason for the change is a change in brick and carpet suppliers. Which means our rustic manor may have to change bricks because by the time we build they could be out of supply and I don't like the new red brick because it's just flat red the old one has grey through it. The only interior we might have to change is the carpet but that's ok they are the same colours. Off to contract signing tomoz will let you all know how it goes.
Cl1ck

Hi Holliemc,

I'm pretty sure we had the same Sales Consultant, Celeste, we didn't get bad service from her, she was great and went out of her way to help us; the issue was/is communications between departments, one department would tell us one thing then the next would tell us another, and in the end it was more money coming out of our pocket, we just didn't feel like there was any 'love' given toward us the customer, it was all based on how much money it would cost us... not how much money they could save us, I just feel like their approach to the sale is completely wrong, the customer needs to feel like they're getting a great deal, like we're winning.

We didn't raise our ceiling height, would have loved to but we couldn't justify it as it does add a fair bit on to the cost and already we have spent almost $100K on upgrades; I think the windows would look fine at the standard size, find out how much it costs to have the brick infill, but bare in mind that the cement sheeting is only to the sides and back of the house as the front should be all brick, and to be honest nobody ever takes notice of the back and sides of a house, it's all about the front... you might be best to keep the cement sheeting and spend your money else where? honestly I think you'd be best to get the cement sheeting infill above the garage door done in brick... that's what I'm thinking about doing.

We've made a heap of changes since signing our contract, we've changed our whole facade and i have to go back in to redo the external color selection... they do charge you for contract variations which is annoying considering how much we've already spent with them.


oh that's a shame, I feel that good communication is one of the main factors a builder should have. If they don't know what's going on, how are you meant to know.
I agree you should leave knowing you have got a good deal, rather then second guessing whether your money was well spent. really does ruin the excitement of building a new house.

Raising the ceiling height was quite expensive over $6000, but I felt because our house is only 24 squares it will make it feel much larger. The brick infill will cost us an extra $2127 don't really want to spend the extra money but i feel it will look much better. I'm not worrying about the garage because it will all be render so you cant tell it has cement sheeting, it cost an extra 1500 just to get the brick infill above garage which I find very expensive.
arnoldsabode
Oops that was meant to say interested not treated!! I went to have a look today I like the old ones better. The reason for the change is a change in brick and carpet suppliers. Which means our rustic manor may have to change bricks because by the time we build they could be out of supply and I don't like the new red brick because it's just flat red the old one has grey through it. The only interior we might have to change is the carpet but that's ok they are the same colours. Off to contract signing tomoz will let you all know how it goes.



oh ok I didn't know that, I thought that the schemes were quite similar to the old ones.
yea I don't like the new red brick either, the old ones much nicer!

Oh good luck! look forward to hearing how it goes!
just curious, does anyone know how much extra the feature tile in the bathrooms are?
I'm thinking about adding it.
Holliemc
just curious, does anyone know how much extra the feature tile in the bathrooms are?
I'm thinking about adding it.


Depends which category you decide on. I got cat 11 feature tiles in my 300mm x 600mm shower niche and that was $110 each.
Holliemc
just curious, does anyone know how much extra the feature tile in the bathrooms are?
I'm thinking about adding it.



We got feature tiles in our 300x600x90 Niche's same as they had/have in the showroom on display... called 'Porcelain Mosaic Crossover Steel Grey' at $99.00 each.
Hi everyone
All went well. Was given wrong Info on the supplier thy haven't changed, so our brick will not change yay!! Picked up a couple of errors while reading contract, one being charged for cat 2 laminate floors that we hadn't asked for. But there was no issue with changing them back. Also the nbn is an extra $600 than on our sales quote. All in all we came in at budget so we are happy. Just need to wait on soil test and energy rating, fingers crossed. Just need to wait for land to settle now before we can do anything else.
arnoldsabode
Hi everyone
All went well. Was given wrong Info on the supplier thy haven't changed, so our brick will not change yay!! Picked up a couple of errors while reading contract, one being charged for cat 2 laminate floors that we hadn't asked for. But there was no issue with changing them back. Also the nbn is an extra $600 than on our sales quote. All in all we came in at budget so we are happy. Just need to wait on soil test and energy rating, fingers crossed. Just need to wait for land to settle now before we can do anything else.


Congrats arnoldsabode!!!!

Same thing happened with us for the fibre optic. Just that the sales person put it in wrong. It's a different type of package.
arnoldsabode
Hi everyone
All went well. Was given wrong Info on the supplier thy haven't changed, so our brick will not change yay!! Picked up a couple of errors while reading contract, one being charged for cat 2 laminate floors that we hadn't asked for. But there was no issue with changing them back. Also the nbn is an extra $600 than on our sales quote. All in all we came in at budget so we are happy. Just need to wait on soil test and energy rating, fingers crossed. Just need to wait for land to settle now before we can do anything else.


congratulations! I hope it wasn't too stressful.
that's good! I think our package is a bit cheap I think it says $680 on quote so I'm guessing they have made the same mistake

always good when your in budget!
It wasn't stressful at all. Yeh then another $600 added to that so $1200 approx. for the nbn!
Yep all going to plan so far!! We also got a choice of another colour for the blinds that we decided on.
Just reading all the posts in this topic, We have just signed our contract with 8 Homes and will be starting to build shortly. We took the 40mm reconstituted stone option, however there was limited samples available to see the actual stone they would be using... has anyone had this put in their kitchen when building with 8 Homes? Also, we've yet to have our energy assessment done, and at contract they said that because we modified the design, that we may have to pay extra for upgraded insulation, but were not sure... anyone had any experience with this? we didn't upgrade the ceiling height, but did add a larger stacker door to the alfresco and an additional sliding door to the side of the house... so far 8 Homes have been very attentive, but I do get nervous reading some of the more negative posts... would love to hear from people who have gone through the whole process. Thanks
Homeinthewest
Just reading all the posts in this topic, We have just signed our contract with 8 Homes and will be starting to build shortly. We took the 40mm reconstituted stone option, however there was limited samples available to see the actual stone they would be using... has anyone had this put in their kitchen when building with 8 Homes? Also, we've yet to have our energy assessment done, and at contract they said that because we modified the design, that we may have to pay extra for upgraded insulation, but were not sure... anyone had any experience with this? we didn't upgrade the ceiling height, but did add a larger stacker door to the alfresco and an additional sliding door to the side of the house... so far 8 Homes have been very attentive, but I do get nervous reading some of the more negative posts... would love to hear from people who have gone through the whole process. Thanks


Welcome to the post and congratulations on your contract signing! We've upgraded to the 40mm ceasarstone, so wouldn't be able to help you there.
We're starting build tomorrow and we've gotten the energy assessment yesterday! I had to ask for it and they sent it through saying no upgrades are require. We scored 6.2 star rating

We upgraded the ceiling heights, 2 larger stacker doors, extra windows and extra lighting. My administrator is attentive but you just have to poke them an email here and there because they forgot to mention something in particular.
Thanks RoseN, That's encouraging news regarding the energy assessment. Good luck with your build, would love to know you are getting on throughout the process. Cheers
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