Advice on building process... and Eden Brae.

Hey there,
My wife and I are new to this site but we were hoping to get some advice from bloggers who have employed project builders to build their home...in particular, Eden Brae.
We are still in the early stages of planning to build a Memphis 31 and will hopefully be moving into the Fixed Tender stage next weekend but are novices in this process and quite nervous about what ****** ahead.
The areas we would be interested in hearing about your experiences and advice are:
1. What items do you suggest we buy ourselves rather than going through builder to save on cost? (eg Gas Log Fireplace)
2. What are your thoughts on kitchen appliances made by Technika and are they any good?
Thank you very much for your time and assistance.

Hi,

We are building with EB.

If you are willing to co-ordinate the extra things yourselves that you want to include and fit in with the builder, then it is OK. That way, you will save on the builders margin that they are going to charge you if they do it.

In relation to appliances, I have heard mixed reports about Technika. We tried to change our appliances and provide our own, but the credit that they where willing to give us back did not make it worthwhile. We are woking on using them until they break and then replace them down the track.

Good luck with the tender process. My only advice is to negotiate as much as you can before signing, as there is little or no negotiation that goes on once you have signed.

What area are you planning on building in?

Cheers,

CMET

Electrical appliances if you can live with EB's pathetic credit & stone benchtops if you dont' mind having your kitchen in upheaval down the track
Glass splashbacks
Upgrading bathroom accessories eg towel rails, toilet paper holders.
Driveway, if you plan on having concrete
AC unit - even the EB sales guy told us it would be cheaper if we got the motor ourselves.


Absolute rubbish !!!
Our rangehood sounds like an airbus You can barely hold a conversation near it
Our gas cooktop is c**p. The wokburner is positively dangerous with its massive flames, the simmer burner doesn't simmer but cooks & the sensitivity of the controls is non-existent. What I mean is that there is barely any difference between low & high settings, no matter which burner.
(If anyone can tell me how we can make adjustments to the burners, I'm all ears)
We decided to do the same as CMET. Wait until this rubbish dies & put in decent appliances.
The oven's controls are ridiculous - that's another story.

As you can see, I am not happy with technica - blah!

Although not with EB, we signed up for a promo package with our builder - this included an "upgrade" of the kitchen appliances to Technika. We moved in only a couple of months ago, and the cooktop has a faulty mechanism in one of the controls. The dual element still works but the method of selecting half or full is compromised. Generally the Technika stuff works OK, but it doesn't give the impression of being premium quality, just average in my opinion. See my thread for the story of the range hood, which isn't faulty by the way.

Thanks for the help and advice everyone.
We really appreciate it and will be doing the extra leg work required to buy some things ourselves such as kitchen appliances, gas log fireplace, bathroom accessories and maybe even AC unit.
We were really surprised at the amount of dis-satisfaction in some Eden Brae services and will be extra vigilant during our process with them.
To answer your question CMET...we are building in Shelly Beach on the central coast of New South Wales. Was there a reason you asked this?
I had my doubts about Technika as soon as I learned they were Eden Braes suppliers and will be looking at more resepected brands.
Thank you all so much for your advice and if you think of anything else in future it would be very much appreciated as well.
Cheers!!!

Hi,

The only reason that I asked was if you where building in Sydney. As you are on the Central Coast, you will just need to check if they will hit you with an area allowance for there tradies, as you are not in the metroploitan area.

Good luck, and hope all goes well.

Cheers,

CMET

I found that I could get a better range of carpet by not going throught the builder. I also got my own AC and eventaully the paving.

Oh yes & carpet of course! Totally forgot about that. The choices on offer by EB are extremely limited

Hey, we are building with EB in the Newcastle area - first hit with the $3,000 region allowance.
re: Technika - i havent been able to find many reviews or reports other than on here, but what p*ssed me off was the internal size of the standard oven. The 600mm reduces to under 500mm internal space due to insulation and whatever else is in the oven walls. I dont think you could fit a decent size baking dish in there. We upgraded to the 900mm and were blown away by the additional $1,000. I called Technika directly and asked for the retail prices. Sure enough there was about $1,000 diferrence between the 600mm and 900mm (100%). I asked why is the price twice as much if there is only an additional 300mm of materials? the rest of the components are already there and it is not like it has that many more functions??? response - extra materials and effort to build the think. A lot of BS - but as has been said before, the credit for not using Technika was a pitance.

Kitchen splashbacks - approx. 300% markup from retail (clear not white). DL quoted $2,500 for a two piece splashback with no penetrations.

Was quoted $2,500 for a few cabinets/cupboards in the laundry - now going to get a flatpack and do it ourselves.

We were completely stuck with the AC. We are building a two storey house - very hard to install any ducting after handover. The quote for installing only the ducting was ridiculous - considering what the ducting is made out of... so we went with Actron.

However, the upgrade price for the Horizon roof tiles was a bargain. The tilers started last week and the tiles look awesome. Completly flat profile including the ridge capping not overlapping.

It is amusing (sic) that the salepeople skite(sp) that they have great deals with the suppliers who offer big discounts - and yet not only do they charge retail price - they then put the customary 15% margin on top of that. The final margin on the PC items must be enormous.

Make sure you try and get retail prices for as many items as possible - that way you can check if the PC items add up. We were priced for 4 toilets instead of 3. the only way i found out was the prices (the HIA Home Ideas centre at Steel River is great for that)

We considered the option of doing a lot of work ourselves, but ultimately we wanted a completed house, so we checked as many prices as possible and did the sums (as best as we could with the information provided by the builders) - made sure everything added up. At the end of the day, the credit for items/materials not being installed is pretty ordinary, and if you doing any work afterwards - you will need to pay labour.

All that being said... our build has been great so far. no issues (only one problem that was fixed promptly).

BTW, for those of you who have finished building a two storey house with EB, how long did it take to finish?

S

9 months, which includes the xmas break.

that is fairly quick for 2 storey home

it sure didn't feel like it