Wisdom Majestic - our home is SOLD....

Please enjoy our journey of building with Wisdom Homes - the Majestic 35 at Glenmore Ridge

Our Timeline

Deposit paid/exchanged on Land 23/12/10
Land out of council 4/5/11 - submitted to Land Titles Office for registration
Settlement on Land 20/6/11
Tender Appointment with Wisdom Homes 8/7/11
Signed of revised Tender 22/7/11
Prelim Plans 4/8/2011
Contract Signed 15/8/2011
Colour appointment 20/8/11
Lodged with Stockland for developer approval 22/8/11
Council approval 13/10/11
Construction Plans and Final Variation Signed off 28/10/11
Plans submitted to estimating for construction 31/10/11

CONSTRUCTION TIMELINE...

02/11/11 - Site peg out
03/11/11 - Porta-loo, rubble, signage
04/11/11 - Excavation
05/11/11 - Site fence erected
09/11/11 - Piering and Formwork
10/11/11 - Drainage in - steel delivered
11/11/11 - Waffle pads ready for slab
13/11/11 - Slab poured
22/11/11 - External Drainage
01/12/11 - Ground floor frame complete
02/12/11 - Second floor installed
06/12/11 - 3rd garage frame installed
07/12/11 - Frame 99% completed
07/12/11 - Meter box and windows delivered
09/12/11 - Windows Installed
13/12/11 - Plumbing completed
20/12/11 - Brickwork has commenced
24/12/11 - Christmas Shutdown commenced
09/01/12 - Christmas break finished - builders back!
24/01/12 - Brickwork 99% complete
Lots of Rain!!!!
06/02/12 - Top Storey Roof tiling complete
06/03/12 - Scaffolding pulled down
20/03/12 - Electrical and Air con rough-in
21/03/12 - Lower roof tiling 80% done
22/03/12 - Front cladding completed
22/03/12 - Rear cladding started
24/03/12 – Cladding and Eaves completed
28/03/12 – Site cleanup
02/04/12 - Extra Electrical Work
03/04/12 – Insulation installed
04/04/12 - Gas Fire Installed
07/04/12 – Whole house sheeted
10/04/12 - Joints Set
11/04/12 - Cornice Started, Ridge Capping completed on Garage and rear part of home
12/04/12 - Cornice Completed, Porch Roof tiles Completed
18/04/12 - Bricks cleaned 3rd time
23/04/12 - Bricks cleaned 4th time
24/04/12 - Stairs, front door, internal garage door - locked out!
30/04/12 - Start of Kitchen Installation
02/05/12 - Kitchen cupboards installation complete
03/05/12 - Carpenter starts internal fixout
09/05/12 - Mini site clean
10/05/12 - Internal carpentry completed
11/12/05 - Gas Meter Installed
11/12/05 - Pool peg-out
12/05/12 - Bathroom Foor tiles started
15/06/12 - Rainwater tank installed
16/05/12 - Downstairs bathroom tiled
16/05/12 - Pool excavated
19/05/12 - Kitchen benches installed
19/05/12 - Bathroom Vanity tops and sinks installed
21/05/12 - Bathroom tiling completed
23/05/12 - Pool concreted... we have a shell! Time to cure now.
26/05/12 - Sanding of walls
30/05/12 - Downpipes installed
31/05/12 - Scaffolding removed (Finally!)
01/06/12 - Painting Started
02/06/12 - Toilets/taps etc
07/06/12 - Electrical work completed
08/06/12 - Main floor tiling started
14/06/12 - Main floor tiling completed
16/06/12 - Shower Screens and mirrors installed.
18/06/12 - Garage doors installed
25/06/12 - Painters are in!
27/06/12 - Driveway formed up!

Hi Lot927, I am also going to build Lincoln 35 but just waiting for land to be regsitered. nice house! show us some pics when building begins!

Hi... where are you building your lincoln? have you made any changes... we have our tender meeting in 2 weeks... what stage are you at... I am unsure if any lincoln designs have been built yet... please share your pics too!

We have not started yet we are waiting for the land to be registered but hoping to start by the next few months. We have decided to change where the desk is in the bedroom/study downstairs and put the shower there as suggested by the builder. Also making garage a little wider and adding in all the packages. It was a toss up between the Lincoln and entertainer, both nice houses but just loved the layout of the Lincoln. Saw it out at one of the display centres and was sold. We will be building in Spring Farm. Can not wait to start.!

Hi... does that mean you have swapped the WIR placement with the shower/powder room.. that seems like a good idea. Did it cost much more? Have you made any other mods. We have asked for the alfresco to be extended. We have our tender meeting this week. Where are you at with your tender and colour process... its great to hear someone else loves the design as much as we do. Also what did you do with the kitchen and the range hood?

We will be swapping the desk area and moving the shower and toilet along so it can be used as a spare room as apparently with the original design the outer hallway wall in that area is straight not curved out as shown in the display home. So the shower will be in place of the desk area bit, still keeping walk in wardrobe. We got a quote for it and it was something like $1300. Other mods will be the packages, and we will be getting them to do the tiling and outdoor alfresco tiling. Also going for those round silver light switches for downstairs and in the bedrooms. We will be getting the garage extended a little and have a roller door on the otherside (to the backyard). Still unsure what to do with the walk in pantry (extra storage room) next to the kitchen. We have sat down to work out the prices and what it will look like on the block but havnt signed anything yet as need to save a little more. Love the style its actually a bit more than we wanted to spend but just love it! think that downstairs bedroom will get some good use when we have people over, or when we have a baby (no up and down stairs all day! ) The range hood we want is not like the display home one we want the different shape one not the flat one with glass on top also want the kitchen all white with caeserstone benchtop though a different colour splashback though still havnt decided on that.Want to keep in the neutral colours. I cant wait to go and sign everything and get started!

We had our first tender meeting which did not go as well as we expected. Our sales guy has not done a very good job conveying information and it took 3 months for our tender to be ready, when it should take only 2-3 weeks. I think our sales guy must have buried it under the tonne of paperwork that he has on his desk I reckon and forgotten to send it it.. we lost 3 months on the fixed price of the house so we negotiated with EB to extend it. So far we still love the design but I am starting to rethink EB as a builder. We have asked now for a quote from Wisdom Homes. There is a whole list of other things that just don't add up so far. They made drop-edge beam and extra drop in the garage assumptions without siting our land or doing any measurements.. and wanted us to sign off a tender that had nearly 20K in extra provisional site costs, without any recourse for refund if not needed down the track. There are a few other things so I was not too happy about that. I understand that if we need drop edge beams etc then we pay for it.. but an assumption and provisional cost forget it.. so i have asked them to go back and rework the tender.

From the base price of 230K for the house.. we are so far up to 320K, and that is without any kitchen and bathroom upgrades.

Just reading your comments here and i have also been stuffed around by edenbrae. I have approched Wisdom Homes but they just dont seem to want to get back to me with all the changes i wanted to make, which i think are pretty minimal. I have been speaking to a few other people here on this site and they have refered me to Zen Homes. So far the process has been great with them and nothing seems to hard. They have customed designed everything i have wanted to date and still not even charged me a cent. I understand they are one of stocklands preferred builders in your estate at Glenmore Ridge also. Maybe you should try those guys out. Also Elderton Homes were pretty good but there finishes are not as inclusive as Zen Homes.

Hi guys,

We have also just started talking to Zen Homes and have been pretty impressed, but understand these guys are builders, not salesman and at this stage they dont have a display home, so it is a big leap of faith.
In regards too Wisdom, I dealt with Andrew at Oran Park and he was great, also i believe Colt at the Ponds is also very good, if you are interested in Wisdom give one of those guys a go.
I can also recommend Kurmond Homes, they have some great designs and excellent inclusions, they give you a good idea of costs with yoru preliminary tender.
Remember though, until they have done a contour survey and soil tests all site costs would be provisional, Once you sign final contract then will have more idea on site costs.
Both Kurmond and Zen have a prelim deposit of between $5000-$6000 unlike EB and Wisdom which is around $1000-$1500, however this includes soil test, contour survey and full plans.
Hoep that helps

Update...

Well after a few ups and downs and also some apologies from Eden Brae, things are looking positive.

The sales manager has listened to our concerns regarding the sales guys, plus they have given us an extended 3 month no price increase on the home so that should get us to our site start date without an increase.

They have also given us the new package promotion at the same cost of the old promo as an act of good faith because of the problems we have had with them. So that will give a few extras that we would have had to pay upgrades for.

So our timeline now stands at a tender almost ready for signing so then we can move onto contract stage.

Our land came out of council today, so that means its off to the land titles office, but that is taking over 3 weeks atm, as the LTO have a back log.

So we should hopefully settle on our land in about 4 weeks.

Our house settles in 16 days time, so the funds are ready to buy our land.

I need to work out how to put a picture in so I can show some floor plans and siting on our land...

Well its a change of builder as of today. We have just paid $700 with Wisdom Homes to do up a tender for us.....we are now looking at the Majestic 35 which is a really nice design.

Our land registered last thursday so we should be settling in the next 2 weeks. Our home settled and we are now homeless living in our caravan....

So a few changes around here...

Here is an updated of the floor plans for the home..




And the home sited on our land...


And our land....it is to the right of the light pole.. the light pole is basically in the same spot as one of our pegs...

Our Land registered on Monday... we settle in 2 weeks. Finally we will be able to get this build process underway.

Our Land settled on Monday...

A few pics..

Our first shot of our street


As it is today...


Then...before road and gutter



Now..


Plenty more on my blog...

We are just waiting on our Tender from Wisdom so we can get building!!!

We had our Tender meeting last week. Our Tender presenter was excellent. He explained everything to us, was able to get information on the spot. The best part, Eden Brae wanted to charge us over 9k for extra site costs for drop edge beams etc. We have zero additional site costs with Wisdom. They will give us a 170mm drop down without any additional costs unlike EB who wanted to charge us a fortune. We have only 20cm cut and 20cm fill. which is nothing really. So one step closer. The only boo boo so to speak was in our tender they quoted us for a 1200 wide double sided pebble gas fire but we wanted a 700 single sided pebble fire... so they are fixing that up plus one or two minor adjustments. We should sign it off this week and we are on our way!!!!!!

Hi Cass,

Why would you need drop edge beams when you only have a 20cut and 20fill? sounds like a pretty flat block to me? I thought, and hey i'm no builder that drop edge beams were used when there was more of a slope on a block? We are also considering Eden Brae to build on our block in Glenmore Ridge but if they are going to hit us up for huge site costs then I will eliminate them off our short list of builders. Our block has a 50cm fall across our block.

Your house plans look great by the way. Love the layout and all the storage!

Annette

Hi Annette

I think with all builders you can have a good run and and not so good run. For us we have from front to back 1m of fall but when it comes to the building envelope there is less than 1/2 a metre of of fall. Still to this day I cannot understand why they could have justified this extra cost, however the Wisdom home is a little more expensive when comparing package to package so the costs may have been hidden Wisdoms package cost, I really dont know. I think at the end of the day the main things was that for us it took 5 months for a tender, and then when requesting explanation of items they were not consistent and we had to call and continually follow them up. I am sure it was more to do with the sales person and the tender person than the company themselves as many have had a great run with Eden Brae as have those who have had a poor run with Wisdom. I think its just the building game.

We built with Masterton Homes 12 years ago and we had a smooth run. Yes there were a few hiccups but at the end of the day they built us a great home.

I dont expect a smooth run but as long as the way the builder manages any hiccups is more important, and unfortunately EB let us down there. But I still think they build very nice homes and lovely floor plans.

What has come out of this for us is that a new design popped up, and it works better with our block, and gives us more side access for our caravan so things happen for a reason and of course I will not be complaining of storage space lots of ++++'s there. Plus we are also putting a door under the stairs for a little more storage.... can never have too much!

cass

We signed off our revised Tender. I must say I was impressed that our changes all came through, nothing was missed. I so we only had the one revision from our initial tender presentation.

Extras in the tender:

Swap the back part of the house around $250
Third Garage with rear roller door 9K
Inbuilt Jetmaster Heat and Glo 550TRSI Gas fire $7890
Upgrade all internal doors
Upgrade Front door
Grand Portico Facade
Changed a few doors to cavity slider doors
Added another stacker door
Put 2 more front windows in the front of the home

That was pretty much it for now.

We still are yet to add any kitchen upgrades or bathroom or electrical.

We are happy with the tender and we were really happy not to have any additional site costs.

NEXT STEP - drafting of formal plans and the contract

Congrats, Cass!

Good to see another "Grand Portico" Facade....

Btw, how much is to add a window and a stacker door? thks.

Hi

For another 2 windows it was 986
Stacker door around $950

We decided on the Grand Portico mainly because we don't have views so why bother, as we probably would never sit up there. Would be nice to have large doors open for air flow but that would be it.

Who are you building with?