First Home Build with Commodore Homes in Honeywood

Hi All,

I’ve been thinking about starting up my own thread for ages now and have always thought that I’m going so bloody slow there’s almost no point until my build gets somewhere!

Well - it’s still going nowhere fast so I may as well start now!!

My hubby and I are building our first home in the Honeywood Estate in Wandi with Commodore Homes. We initially signed a deal with another builder but pulled out due to some conflict (we figured if we were having issues at the PWA stage, what were we going to deal with later on?). Did a bit of research and it seemed that despite CH seeming to have a bit of a reputation for slow builds, their build quality sounded good. Being that we weren’t in a huge rush to get into the home, we decided to go for quality over time. We also really liked the changes that the sales guy made for us (the option to make changes wasn’t really available to us with the previous builder) so we bit the bullet and signed with CH.

I know I’d read about slow builds, but I definitely didn’t expect this level of slowness!!!

My hubby and I wanted to get onto anything to do with the build as soon as we had to, so whenever we were asked for forms to sign, plans to confirm etc, I can safely say that we responded straight away. At no point did we want any delays to be attributed to slackness on our part. Despite this, we are as of today, one of the two blocks on our street that currently have dirt, sand, and the neighbour’s rubbish on our block. The funny thing is our next door neighbour is with the builder we'd initially signed up with and it is almost completed. Not badly built either. *frustration* (Realistically speaking though, we wouldn’t have been happy with the plan that we had – well that's what we're trying to console ourselves with anyway!)

Here’s the timeline so far:
11/10/13 – Signed PWA with Commodore Homes
31/03/14 – Preliminary works commences
30/04/14 – Land Settlement
19/05/14 – First Meeting with builder
19/06/14 – Initial Drafting begins
17/07/14 – Contract signed with builder
18/08/14 – Pre-start
15/09/14 – Final Plans received
31/10/14 – Scheduling completed

Reading between the timelines were delays after delays! I think we’ve changed contract administrators about 4 times – the first time causing a huge delay because apparently our file was left sitting there doing nothing as there was no handover. Funny that reading through my initial emails with the sales guy, we were told that we’d be in by Winter 2014. Instead, it’s taken us over a year to go from signing the PWA to completing the scheduling!

Onto a bit of good news – we received a call from our new Construction Consultant to let us know that it would take approximately 3 weeks for slab to go down. Received a pretty generic letter to also advise us of the beginning of the construction process, so fingers crossed we will see something finally going on, on our block!!

I’ll post up our plan tonight – a bit too late now to ask for any recommendations on changes(!!) but it would be great if anyone knows of a similar build going up somewhere. Hubby and I have driven through Honeywood and a few other estates and have yet to see one of the same elevation despite it being one of the plans CH advertised with specials! (God I hope it’s not because it’s actually a really ugly elevation that no-one likes!) lol!! Anyway, it is the Villa, with some changes to the plan (i.e. changed it from 4 to 3 BR, moved Master BR to the back, etc).

Posting to follow.

We are also "building" with Commodore so I feel your pain with the slowness.

I have just finished building with Commodore in Honeywood estate. I signed up in January13, titles were issued in July 13 however nothing really started on my build until March this year, and finally, I got my keys yesterday. Even though it has been a VERY long process with some administration staff who left much to be desired - the final outcome has been better than I could have ever imagined. My site supervisor was absolutely amazing and didn't make me feel like the buildzilla that I actually was. I built a variation of the Ava, a 3-bed with the master at the rear and changed the elevation completely. Can't wait to see your plans

Congratulations on getting your keys! I can only imagine how exciting that must be!
I'm so glad to hear that your site supervisor was so good - fingers crossed we get the same one (maybe the timing is right for him to move onto our build!!)
Whereabouts in Honeywood are you located? wow, you'll be in your new home for Christmas you lucky thing!!

So here is what our final plan looks like!

Thanks, it felt so surreal - it was like it was never going to happen! Hopefully you do get him! I'm in stage 4 and my house backs onto Honeywood avenue, I'm happy to PM you the address if you want to have a drive by , there are 3 Commodore houses in a row on Ewens pass, they are about 4 or 5 houses up on the left hand side if your driving up away from the freeway. I remember when I first built, I would drive around and around looking for other BCG houses checking how mine was progressing compared to theirs.

Wow your plans look amazing. The sliding doors from the master onto the alfresco is a great idea. Im a big fan of having the master at the back of the house.

I am the same as you IheartParis13, except we are hoping to get keys by Christmas.

Fingers crossed pzzldmind for your build to go quickly!

Hi pzzldmind, posting to follow!

Work computer blocks images, so I'll check your plans tonight!

Looks like you're on the same painfully slow timeline that I am!

Congratulations!! Very happy for you (and ok, very jealous too!! lol) that you're at the tail end of your build! How do you find the quality of the build?



It seems like everyone building with CH is on a horribly slow timeline! I have to admit though that it feels good to know there’s this little CH community and I’m not the only one!!

There's a few of us on here. From the top of my head there's myself, sinurt, Di Nosaur, fullmoon I believe, mjbigo, mash2292... that's all I can think of for the moment.

Has anyone actually had a CH build complete within a decent timeframe or does that just not happen?

I am really happy with it. The only things that I am not happy with, are that they ordered the wrong bricks for under the front windows and when they reordered, they were from another batch and therefore a different colour. They did offer a fix, but I wasn't too keen on it (rendering those bricks to make a windowsill) so I am waiting to hear whether I can have a decorative cornice looking thing instead... and that my sliding door glass is kind of bubbly and instead of looking into the glass and having it be a mirror, it makes me look like a jellyfish under the sea (siteguy is going to talk to a rep about it). So really, two very minor things.

One thing I can say, is keep everything in writing. EVERYTHING. I have had them say, "we have no record of any conversations about that" three times, and I have had to prove it. Also keep on top of the build. They haven't paid much attention to my prestart variations, which luckily I have picked up early and had it fixed (having to prove things, every step of the way, even though they are clearly written in my prestart variations). It has been stressful.



Read the posts to page on Facebook for all of their companies. It doesn't happen often, although one of my friends is also with them and is almost at my stage and got a slab in August (mine was April). She is also gorgeous and blonde

I'm interested

LOL!

Can we borrow her as our liaison?

I was very happy with the quality of my build. I brought through a friend of mine during PCI who had recently finished building with Highbury, she said that there was a huge difference in the things that required attention/fixing at PCI. I only had a list and a half and hers was 3 pages long. My things were pretty minor, rough doors needing sanding a repainting, a very small chip in my laminex bench in my kitchen, the plasterers didn't take the plaster right down to the slab - there is about a 2 cm gap however this varies throughout the house, it will all be covered with my flooring. with my windows they seem so ?sag a little in the middle - there is a gap between the top and the window and I'm very happy with how my site supervisor managed this and affinity is coming out to put a cap across the top of all the windows to hide this. My front render colours were wrong, however this was quickly rectified. Everything was sorted out very quickly and I am so thankful for my site supervisor

Agreed with Di in that any variation you make you need to make sure they are onto it. I changed the laundry door from a sliding door and it seemed to cause issues with trying to get a glass panel to fit - it was one of the last things they did!

Im building with commodore too but haven't been on here for a while due to feeling depressed with the whole process.. I will update my thread soon...

Im sure LeanneR built with them and they did it really quick, something like 18/20 weeks if I remember right

Update: Went to check out the block on Saturday and - siteworks done!!



Not sure how long it usually takes between siteworks and slab.... do they usually tell you before or after it's been laid?

Shouldn't be long at all! Mine was a couple of days

You'll be notified after, with a photo posted in your portal.

That is so exciting!!!
From what i've heard though, the stage after that is where the hold up will be.....?
How is your build going BS12, any further progress?

Yep, the bricky was our main delay. After that it seems to go quickly
YAY! Congrats on the siteworks!