Somerfield Estate Keysborough

I think you might mean 339k.. which is 3k since Stage 12 release and 8k since Stage 11 release which was on 5 June- less than 6 weeks ago!

Nice to see our land is going up!!!

What abt the station at Mordialloc? It's a straight road along Green/Hutton/Governor Rd to the station from Somerfield, maybe abt 4 redlights? Think that may be faster than the Springvale station or the Hungtingdale station. Any thoughts?

folks who are bulding with PD access, lifestyle and prestige,
I saw a few PD homes being build in somerfield and just wondeirng if can help out. I know what my contract says abt building time + variation, but in your case, do you know if the houses are built on time or earlier than what's stated on contract? If earlier, roughly how much earlier based on your experience? ... thanks!

oh ok i thought last release was 446k.. they went for $449k though i know that for sure as i asked myself.

so that means they up 13k since last? whoah!

Hi all. Thought I'd join in since I have also put down a deposit and waiting for land to be titled. Purchased in 1L (not sure what stage that was) in early/mid April. Managed to get the block I wanted. 16x32 for $354K
Land release for the same size on the weekend was $394K

Thats what ill be doing. 8 min drive then 40 mins on the train from Mordialloc to the city.

Perhaps, if there is a few people who go to town each day there could be a car pool? It would be cheaper than the train ticket.. most likely.. $12 per day for parking where i am in Southbank and petrol costs would surely come out cheaper the the train fares if divided by a few people.... train fares are around $10 per day because it is Zone 1&2 from mordialloc..

Cheers

Amy

That's a much better idea. I forgot about that line. Is there much parking there though?

i'll have to do with driving in to work
i work in richmond and so driving is much easier than catching 3 different train&trams. already it takes me 45 minutes (on the road) to get to work from oakleigh south (on a good day). so i wonder what it will be like going from eastlink down the monash freeway until toorak road exit. i am pretty sure eastlink will be a pretty smooth run no matter what time of the day. but monash freeway gets clogged. hopefully once they finish all the roadworks for monash it will be smooth sailing all the way. and if that is the case it will probably take me the same amount of time from somerfield as it does now.

mstickle

My land at the moment currently has temporary fence around it. The land seems to look level and yesterday i drove passed and i saw two people using a excavator to dig some soil and place underground cables. We also have been delay by 2 months and if you dont mind, can i ask you when you bought your land? and when you got your HIA contract. Ive already signed the HIA contract (4/1/10) also, ive received my first soil test report which consist of a HD class. However, the second soil test report indicated a MD class. I know that yours and my neighbour (right side) has a M class aswell. When do you think ill get the slab started ?

cheers

Hi Fullhouse,

Good to hear that they start work on your land, looks like it won't be long until they start on the slab since they've modified our soil let's just hope that there won't be any rain. Looks like your house will be ready before mine and I think you'll have 3 months to complete the fence once your house has been built, I'm happy to pay my 1/2 once you've got the fence up.

I've also had a lot delays, I signed the HIA contract since early May and now my CS is slowing me down on the last variation. I found out that she * to me about lodging in my building design with Somerfield DAP, the worse part is she doesn't return my calls and when she does she would always make up excuses (i wonder if she was trained only to make excuses rather than doing her job). As for my land I've put the deposit in Sept 09, settled on March 10 (I imagine it would've been the same as yours). Once they start work on my land I'll be driving down there to check out the progress, hope to see you then.

I have a friend who built with PD, he said to be careful and double/triple check your contract and any variations you've asked/paid (eg. they didn't move the overhead cupboards to where he wanted it), also just before they lay the bricks they told him that the bricks he picked was out of stock and he had to pick something else however the new range they have were more expensive which he was very upset about, so in the end they agreed to upgrade his bricks without the extra charges.

REfL3ct, currently it takes me about 45-50 minutes to get from home near Stud Road in Dandenong to work in Richmond on the Monash, thats door to door. I figure from Somerfield it will add less than 10 minutes to the trip. I can get home in under half an hour most days.

Has anyone here bought land in Stage 11? We have not heard anything about when we should expect our land contract to be ready. It's been over 2 months now, how long is the usual wait?

hi peterkip

yeah coming home is always quicker for me too. we have the exact same timeframes to and from work. and you live in dandenong and i live in oakleigh.. that is wierd. i guess by the time i cut through traffic to get onto the freeway is what delays me.

as for your land contract. i can't rmemeber how long i had to wait but i am sure it wasn't as long as you. i think within a month we got ours. difference now is that we bought at a less busy time as what it seems to be now.

Hi peterkip,

We acquired land in 1F and the contract wasn't ready until two and half months from the initial deposit. So it does take a while before your contract is ready. You may need to just wait a little longer.

Hi everyone.

We are in the process of selecting all of our house colours and choices, while trying to fulfill all of the DAP requirements. We have emailed DAP several times but the emails keep bouncing back - maybe their email is too full at the moment! We have a few questions and were hoping someone could help us -
- in terms of the roof tiles and having to have a 'flat profile', has anyone got approval from DAP by using Monier 'traditional' style roof tiles?
- is rendering compulsory or can cladding replace rendering as it means no surface with be used for over 70% of the front facade?

Thanks so much for your help and happy building!!

Hello ourplace,
Be very carefull,in what you choose because DAP is quite strict with their guidelines. Your roof has to be off a flat profile and not the high gloss one. As for your facade it has to be off 2 different materials eg, 30% percent render and 70% brick. Get your builder to work out your percentages. We where rejected for a roof tiles failing to pick up on the flat roof requirement, but now we have finally have DAP approval, and submitted into council now.
Good luck with it...
Seeya,
Evonne

Hi mstickle and fairie,
We finally recieved our final plans and variations to sign off on today! lets just say we are extremely unhappy!! M has slapped us with an additional $2520 site cost to relocate sewer tie away from our outdoor room pier( with no prior mention of this at all). Thought fixed site costs means exactly that, so we are disputing this cost. Did anyone else experience this or any other additional sudden site costs from their builder after signing thier contract??

Glad to hear you got the final plans to sign!

If you check in your contract, it will only say provisional sum from when you signed. Once this last variation is signed its locked in. Its a bit *** if you ask me. Lucky for us we didnt get hit with any additional site costs. Good luck with trying to dispute it. I managed to dispute our engineers test, so theres no harm in trying.

Oh Metr1con is building the Santorini as 1 of their displays in Somerfield. They hope to be completed by November. I might have some hope for my place after all.

I drove through the estate a couple of days ago and noticed on the the Clarendon drive bend, there seems to be a house that looks to be fully rendered at the front but unfinished has anyone noticed that?

hi ourplace. i don't think it "has" to be part render and part brick. it can be a mixture of other materials I THINK. (not 100% sure) not sure about cladding though as it is like weatherboard isn't it? unless you can get a more modern looking cladding.