Building with 8Homes??

Hi,

Just seeing who is building with 8homes. I've chosen 8Homes as my builder after much research from other builders, I'm just waiting for my land to title before it all begins.

Had some minor issues here and there with the initial plans, variations and contract signing, other than that so far so good.

I am also building with 8homes

Noticed you mentioned u had minor issues with 8homes, can you advise what were the issues?

We are trying to decided on the external colours, what did you chose & any reason why you chose those colour?

Hi all,
Where are you building with 8homes?

We are considering them too. At Armstrong Creek - Warralily Development.

Happy to exchange notes.

We're likely building with them too. We're looking at the sthree with a couple of minor modifications.

Been trying to figure out colours for a week now, theres something I don't like on each of the exterior boards!

Hi All.

My husband and I are building with 8 Homes too They have been absolutely SENSATIONAL with everything. We have had no issues at all... What issues have you had so far? We had the most wonderful streamlined, no stress process. Though we liked everything about the plan as it was, so really didn't need to make any changes - just the odd upgrade here and there

We are building at Armstrong Creek too What stage are you in?

Does anyone know if you can actually view some of the upgrades and get an idea of how much it is all going to cost you? I know you have to pay for the colour consultant to go through that process.

Meowsy, have you been to any of their display homes? They are fairly upgraded so you can see what most things look like and maybe just ask the sales consultant to go through the upgrades on display for you, just so you know what's standard and what's not! Are you building with them as well?

Hi Sunnie, not sure yet. I have had a look. I see what you are saying, but I guess they work on a bit of a different model (with colours being preselected) than some other builders.

We're having some troubles now, they have tried to more than double the site costs on us, unless we shift the house more towards the centre of our block in which case they are only adding an extra 50%. They also haven't been able to even provide a good explanation as to why to the sales rep either.

The should explain to you why the cost has increased by so much ? What is the Site classification, is it H?
At what stage are you at, did you pay the inital deposit of 888? when did they tell you that the site cost has inceased, is it at the cotract stage?
Did you check with other builders how much would be the site cost? what about the the energy rating, does the house comply with 6 star rating?

I thought I'd update - Site costs are back down close to the original amount and the house is back to being sited on the boundary. We weren't able to get any answers except that the computer automatically calculated it because of a batter at the front of our property. Pays to double check things!

They are still claiming it needs a retaining wall, however we are yet to see a pic showing where this would go - hopefully today.

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are also building with 8homes down at Warralily (Geelong) - we are building the D-Three and are locked in to start building in 3 weeks time - super exciting, we can not wait!

Things have gone nice and smoothly so far with 8homes and hopefully things stay that way through out the build

As this is our first time building but also our 'forever home' we did a colour appointment and upgraded a few items and the colour consultant we met with was lovely and very helpful

It would be great to keep in touch with other people also building with 8 so we can go through the process together, i notice the bigger name builders seem to have tons of people on their forums sharing their build stories and asking/answering each others questions so it would be great if we can get a few of us building with 8 on here so we can touch base with eachother throughout the process

Hi Everyone,

Had problems trying to log back into this site.

Firstly, I've purchased the d-three and made some minor changes such as separating the toilet and bathroom upstairs and adding internal access for the garage. Putting a few doors in like to block the pantry from the laundry and from the ensuite upstairs from the WIR.

I've also signed a NSV during my sales consult that I wanted to extend the kitchen bench but not as long as the display in Mernda. I just want it slightly shorter but still able to place the island bench in the middle as oppose attached to the wall like the display. Weeks later when I went to meet and sign the contract, I noticed that my kitchen bench extension upgrade was not included in my tender. I asked about it and they seem to have lost and didn't add it in and found it later when I told them that I did sign the NSV. So, that was fine and they added it in. So I re-read the contract and noticed that it says 'to attach against the wall' and I told the consultant at head office that was not what I wanted as I wanted as a standalone in the middle of the kitchen area. But she didn't want to hear what I had to say and just said that's impossible and cannot be done even though my sales consultant back at the sales office said I could if I didn't do the full extension.

Long story short, I went home upset knowing that I'll be getting a kitchen I didn't want..went back to look at the display home again to see how it looks but wasn't happy in getting it. I checked their other display homes and noticed that you can extend the kitchen bench but not to the full length which allows you to place the island bench in the middle as a standalone. I took pictures and measurements and sent it to headoffice and asked them to look at this again and re-do my drawings etc. At the end they allowed me to do it...phew.

So all good now! =)

I actually decided to pay the $350 colour appointment fee and went to do a colour selection as I wanted to choose a colour for a glass splashback for the kitchen and get high gloss tiles. The appointment allows you to choose everything and switch things around, so the colour schemes they have at the sales office, you were able to mix and match. You literally go through everything and pick what you wanted. I tried to keep everything to a minimum to avoid upgrading everything. Certain things were reasonable price and I was happy with it.

Hi,

Yea during the appointment, you see everything that you can upgrade and they'll tell you the cost of it all, so by the end you'll know how much you're spending which is good. You'll be able to take samples home too.

Any idea what you wanted to upgrade?

Oh, btw I'm building in Oak Gardens, Keysborough =D

Hi purple_le24,

It's so exciting to see someone else is building the D-Three, we will have to keep in touch during our builds and compare notes

It sounds like we upgraded similar things, we added the internal entry door from garage also, a sliding door between the kitchen and WIP, a large sliding door to the theartre room and also a sliding door between the main bedroom and WIR as well as upgrading the alfresco sliding door to a stacker door. We also upgraded both WIR's to mimic the Mernda display. Hubby is a chef so we upgraded to the full length of the kitchen bench in the Mernda display, I did like the idea of an island bench and only doing a partial upgrade to make it longer like yourself but hubby wanted the whole 9 yards so i let him win that battle Being a chef he also wanted pot draws so that was another upgrade and the kitchen/bathroom cabinetry we upgraded to a semi gloss also which was Category 3 i think. We added a split system to the meals/family area, added overhead cupboards to the laundry and after much umming and arghing we decided for the sake of our forever home we would cough up a little extra cash and upgrade the stairs as well. We upgraded to the open cut stairs like the Mernda display, but instead of the glass we have just gone for stainless steel barristades which was much cheaper!

Upstairs we upgraded to a double vanity in the ensuite and extended the shower to 900x900, we would have loved a seperate toilet but unfortunately it then wouldn't fit. Also in the main bathroom, we had added the seperate toilet with our sales guy BUT when we got to our contract appointment we were told that we couldn't have it as it wouldn't fit due to a void being located in the bathroom corner where the sales guy had drawn the seperate toilet. Damn...i wish i had fought for it more as from reading your post it seems you have been given the green light...

Have you started building yet? We are locked in to start on Friday but that seems wishful thinking as the last thing i heard they didn't quite have the building permits yet either :s Once they get them they still need to pass this onto our bank to approve the first payment prior to Friday - seems unlikely??? Hopefully if we don't start on Friday it should only be a few days later - we can not wait to start

Hi Hutchy13,

Firstly, wow...you did a fair bit extra upgrade which is great. I tried to keep costs to a minimum lol but great idea with the stair case upgrade. I really loved the Mernda glass stair case but it was going to cost approx. $20k for that stair case so I thought, I'll keep it standard and change it myself later down the track via private builder/tradie.

Good on the hubby for wanting the extra bench space which is so worth the upgrade! I didn't need all that space so I just wanted the partial upgrade and took me a lot of heartache to do.

I can't believe they didn't allow you to do the separate toilet/bathroom. My sales person said it was do-able and that the architecture will do drawings to meet it somehow. So the new drawings just shows the bathtub extra moved around to cater for the toilet.

You've mentioned you upgraded the sliding door to the alfresco area to a stacker...as in like the display at Mernda? French doors right? I was told we couldn't do that or I think it was quite dear, I forgot. But yes, that will be very nice =)

OK, next thing I want to mention to all 8Homes purchaser, not sure when you guys signed up and what base price it was at that time BUT have you noticed lately that the base price have gone down $8000 across most of their homes? I was so shocked, upset etc so I emailed headoffice on Thursday to ask whether they can give me the new base price deal. I went to a sales office today to see what the current promo is which is still the lifestyle pack which just gone up by $1,000 totally to $12,990 now as oppose to the $11,990 previosly but since the base price gone down $8,000 it would still be better off to transfer over or cancel and start again. I signed my contract late last year but still waiting for my land to title so haven't started anything as yet so I'm seeing if I can transfer over. Hopefully good news next week when I hear something. It's so hard to communicate with 8homes when it's all via email and they take a couple of days to reply.

That's it from me, thought I'll mention that cause it's now even more of a bargain to purchase and build with 8homes.

Good luck with your site start Hutchy13 and definitely keep in touch!

Wow, i am glad i came across your post regarding your upgrades purple_le24 because i then questioned 8homes about why we couldn't have the seperate WC to the main bathroom and they have now decided we can It will mean the upstairs WIL will be smaller to accommodate for having the void in there instead of the bathroom but that's a small sacrifice for the sake of a little toilet privacy

I loved the Mernda staircase too but ours already cost about $7500 and i couldn't justify another $10000 just the glass so we sacrificed there. It is a good idea you have though about changing it down the track - it will probably work out cheaper for you too. Our alfresco door isn't quite as grand as the Mernda display, it's still just a sliding door but we have paid like an extra $800 to turn it into a stacker door. So instead of having the 1 panel that slides back into the other, it will have 3 panels which 2 of them will slide back into the remaining 1 meaning when we open the door it will be wider. Definitely the french doors would have been well and trully out of our price range so we didn't even bother.

Thankfully we just signed up in April and at that stage the D-Three already had the promotional $8,000 off it (probably helped us justify spending extra on the upgrades?) I'm sure they should be able to transfer you across to the new deal though, it seems only fair and if you were to cancel and start again (saving you money still) it will create more work for 8homes, re-doing paperwork etc, so it makes sense that they just allow you to switch to the current pricing. Let me know how you go though and my fingers are crossed for you

Our new site start is scheduled for Friday, yup this Friday coming - EXCITING! Can you tell i can't wait? I can't wait to start seeing the progress of the build, hopefully they stay on schedule because i would love to be in by Christmas When is your land due to title? Hopefully it's not too far away for you!

Hi Hutchy13,

So happy for you that managed to get the separate bathroom/toilet, which is great.

I did the same upgrade with the sliding doors too for the alfresco.

That's good that you were able to get the new promo, I think its a great bargain at the moment with 8Homes, price drop across most of their houses plus they have the lifestyle package which is pretty much all you need. Well, I'll update you on how it goes whether I'll be able to benefit in the new price changes...

Wow, so jealous that ur site start is this Friday! Good luck and all the best. It will be great if you can move in by Christmas, how exciting indeed!!

Keep in touch and update me on your progress as you go =)
Love hearing all these stories...