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Hello everyone,
After much lurking and reading, I’ve decided to make my own thread. My husband and I have just bought our first block of land in Murwillumbah NSW after much humming and haaa’ing about purchasing an already built property. It’s not the friendliest market to buy in.
So we’ve taken the land/build route.
Our slice of Australiana is 450sqm – 18 wide, 25 long – a particularly fat lot in an estate of 12 or 13m frontages.
We had a little trouble finding a house design that would suit the land dimensions, as home builders seem to like long, narrow builds.
And now the waiting begins.
Timeline So Far
- Land Purchase: 3/03/2017
- Settlement: 03/04/2017
- Design Selection: 01/07/2017 - Adenbrook Homes Ballina Austin Option B
- Initial Quote: 31/07/2017
- Premilinary Agreement Signed: 01/08/2017
- Soil and Contour Tests: 18/08/2017
- Tender Received: 16/09/2017
- Tender Accepted: 20/09/2017
- Next Stage Deposit: 20/09/2017
- Colour Room and Electrical Appointment: 29/09/2017
- Contract: 15/10/2017
- Finance: 26/10/2017
- 5% Deposit Paid: 10/11/2017
- Submitted to Council: 13/11/2017
- Council Approval: 23/02/2018
- Certified Approval: 08/03/2018
- Bank Commencement Notice Served: 12/03/2018
- Start Date: 09/04/2018
- Drains In: 15/05/2018
- Spoil Removal: 16/05/2018
- Slab Down: 22/05/2018
- Frames Started: 23/05/2016
- Frames Finished: 31/05/2016
- Gutters and Fascia: 03/06/2016
- Roof On: 06/06/2016
Any support, advice, words of wisdom appreciated!
Hi GoodeOne,
Hubby and I are building with GJ Gardner. We have modified the Coolum 277 design.
I can't help with the soil testing as GJ had already done soil testing for our land as they had done a house and land package.
The façade is a personal choice really, as we modified our house so that it was more of an acreage style house there wasn't much we could do in the way of upgrading our façade but I would have if we could.
We upgraded our bricks and mortar, stone bench tops, floor to ceiling tiles in our ensuite, garage door to the wood look, the robe doors to sliding mirror doors, the doors in the house to Hag 4 I think, free standing bath in the ensuite, upgraded our basins in our ensuite and main bathroom, changed a wall to wooden slats and they will be stained, corner stacker doors, recessed our sliding doors tracks, upgraded our tap for our kitchen sink, ceiling mounted shower head, shower screens to semi frameless in the ensuite, smart tile wastes, an extra gas point in our family room for a gas heater. That's all I can remember for now but I know we upgraded a whole bunch and spent about $20k in the process just on upgrades.
We have GJ doing our electrical and flooring so cant help you with that one.
Following along.
Hi Charlibear,
What a gorgeous design – sometimes I wish we had a longer lot! What made you go with GJ, if you don’t mind me asking? Would you make a different choice now?
In the time since I wrote this post, GJ Gardner have offered to complete a soil and contour test between land settlement and build loan approval, just so we know what we’re dealing with. So, that’s taken care of.
I think we’ll be upgrading to an Executive Façade from the Classic – as you say, it’s a personal choice, but it’s the only one we agree on 100%. Hopefully the price doesn’t change.
Thanks for listing your upgrades. There are so many things to think about! Hubby is 6’3, so we’ve been discussing a roof mounted shower head. Do you mind letting me know the ballpark cost on the shower head and mirrored robe doors?
Sorry about the questions!
We went with GJ because the customer service was second to none compared to the other builders we spoke to but that all changed once we paid our initial deposit. We had our DA approved in Oct and only started late Jan and since we started we only have a slab down so I'm not particularly happy, 10 weeks in and only have a slab to show for it.
The mirror robe doors cost about $1500 for three bedrooms so not too much but it was $2k to upgrade the internal door from standard to the hag 4, $260 to upgrade the front door lock to a long trilock handle, $5k to upgrade bricks and mortar, $300 to upgrade the shower head, $2k to upgrade floor to ceiling tiles in the ensuite, $600 to change the shower to semi frameless in the ensuite.
All adds up quickly
More than happy to answer any questions you have if I can answer them lol
GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
viewtopic.php?t=83643
Hi GoodeOne,
Hubby and I are building with GJ Gardner. We have modified the Coolum 277 design.
I can't help with the soil testing as GJ had already done soil testing for our land as they had done a house and land package.
The façade is a personal choice really, as we modified our house so that it was more of an acreage style house there wasn't much we could do in the way of upgrading our façade but I would have if we could.
We upgraded our bricks and mortar, stone bench tops, floor to ceiling tiles in our ensuite, garage door to the wood look, the robe doors to sliding mirror doors, the doors in the house to Hag 4 I think, free standing bath in the ensuite, upgraded our basins in our ensuite and main bathroom, changed a wall to wooden slats and they will be stained, corner stacker doors, recessed our sliding doors tracks, upgraded our tap for our kitchen sink, ceiling mounted shower head, shower screens to semi frameless in the ensuite, smart tile wastes, an extra gas point in our family room for a gas heater. That's all I can remember for now but I know we upgraded a whole bunch and spent about $20k in the process just on upgrades.
We have GJ doing our electrical and flooring so cant help you with that one.
Following along.
charlibear ... what bricks did you choose. I really like the eclipse and they are same price as frost online ( which we originally chose) I now want to change to eclipse and holding my breath to see if standard.
Hi GoodeOne,
Hubby and I are building with GJ Gardner. We have modified the Coolum 277 design.
I can't help with the soil testing as GJ had already done soil testing for our land as they had done a house and land package.
The façade is a personal choice really, as we modified our house so that it was more of an acreage style house there wasn't much we could do in the way of upgrading our façade but I would have if we could.
We upgraded our bricks and mortar, stone bench tops, floor to ceiling tiles in our ensuite, garage door to the wood look, the robe doors to sliding mirror doors, the doors in the house to Hag 4 I think, free standing bath in the ensuite, upgraded our basins in our ensuite and main bathroom, changed a wall to wooden slats and they will be stained, corner stacker doors, recessed our sliding doors tracks, upgraded our tap for our kitchen sink, ceiling mounted shower head, shower screens to semi frameless in the ensuite, smart tile wastes, an extra gas point in our family room for a gas heater. That's all I can remember for now but I know we upgraded a whole bunch and spent about $20k in the process just on upgrades.
We have GJ doing our electrical and flooring so cant help you with that one.
Following along.
charlibear ... what bricks did you choose. I really like the eclipse and they are same price as frost online ( which we originally chose) I now want to change to eclipse and holding my breath to see if standard.
We didn't get much to choose from, we chose Boral Blue Rio with white mortar the bricks were $4k and the mortar was $1k. The eclipse bricks seem to be standard with every other builder so I don't see why they wouldn't be standard with GJ
GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
viewtopic.php?t=83643
Hi GoodeOne,
Hubby and I are building with GJ Gardner. We have modified the Coolum 277 design.
I can't help with the soil testing as GJ had already done soil testing for our land as they had done a house and land package.
The façade is a personal choice really, as we modified our house so that it was more of an acreage style house there wasn't much we could do in the way of upgrading our façade but I would have if we could.
We upgraded our bricks and mortar, stone bench tops, floor to ceiling tiles in our ensuite, garage door to the wood look, the robe doors to sliding mirror doors, the doors in the house to Hag 4 I think, free standing bath in the ensuite, upgraded our basins in our ensuite and main bathroom, changed a wall to wooden slats and they will be stained, corner stacker doors, recessed our sliding doors tracks, upgraded our tap for our kitchen sink, ceiling mounted shower head, shower screens to semi frameless in the ensuite, smart tile wastes, an extra gas point in our family room for a gas heater. That's all I can remember for now but I know we upgraded a whole bunch and spent about $20k in the process just on upgrades.
We have GJ doing our electrical and flooring so cant help you with that one.
Following along.
charlibear ... what bricks did you choose. I really like the eclipse and they are same price as frost online ( which we originally chose) I now want to change to eclipse and holding my breath to see if standard.
We didn't get much to choose from, we chose Boral Blue Rio with white mortar the bricks were $4k and the mortar was $1k. The eclipse bricks seem to be standard with every other builder so I don't see why they wouldn't be standard with GJ
GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
viewtopic.php?t=83643 wow the blue rio is stunning but wow what a price ... 1k for mortar ... is it liquid gold. Geez they know how to trap u ! Hoping they ll let us change without charging $500 to change one word on the paperwork that isn't even finalised yet ! Felt so rushed at our colours meeting and left in tears ... certainly not the way it's supposed to be I m sure !
We went with GJ because the customer service was second to none compared to the other builders we spoke to but that all changed once we paid our initial deposit. We had our DA approved in Oct and only started late Jan and since we started we only have a slab down so I'm not particularly happy, 10 weeks in and only have a slab to show for it.
The mirror robe doors cost about $1500 for three bedrooms so not too much but it was $2k to upgrade the internal door from standard to the hag 4, $260 to upgrade the front door lock to a long trilock handle, $5k to upgrade bricks and mortar, $300 to upgrade the shower head, $2k to upgrade floor to ceiling tiles in the ensuite, $600 to change the shower to semi frameless in the ensuite.
All adds up quickly
More than happy to answer any questions you have if I can answer them lol
GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
viewtopic.php?t=83643
But your delays are a bit of a red flag. I’m reading through your thread now, how frustrating for your family! You have such a gorgeous piece of land though. You’ve got to love the Northern Rivers region.
Oh, thanks for all the pricing! Hubby will be happy with the cost of the shower head upgrade. What were they like when it came to cut and fill? Efficient? On-quote? I’ve read so many horror stories…
[quote="charlibear"]Hi GoodeOne,
Hubby and I are building with GJ Gardner. We have modified the Coolum 277 design.
I can't help with the soil testing as GJ had already done soil testing for our land as they had done a house and land package.
The façade is a personal choice really, as we modified our house so that it was more of an acreage style house there wasn't much we could do in the way of upgrading our façade but I would have if we could.
We upgraded our bricks and mortar, stone bench tops, floor to ceiling tiles in our ensuite, garage door to the wood look, the robe doors to sliding mirror doors, the doors in the house to Hag 4 I think, free standing bath in the ensuite, upgraded our basins in our ensuite and main bathroom, changed a wall to wooden slats and they will be stained, corner stacker doors, recessed our sliding doors tracks, upgraded our tap for our kitchen sink, ceiling mounted shower head, shower screens to semi frameless in the ensuite, smart tile wastes, an extra gas point in our family room for a gas heater. That's all I can remember for now but I know we upgraded a whole bunch and spent about $20k in the process just on upgrades.
We have GJ doing our electrical and flooring so cant help you with that one.
Following along.
charlibear ... what bricks did you choose. I really like the eclipse and they are same price as frost online ( which we originally chose) I now want to change to eclipse and holding my breath to see if standard.
We didn't get much to choose from, we chose Boral Blue Rio with white mortar the bricks were $4k and the mortar was $1k. The eclipse bricks seem to be standard with every other builder so I don't see why they wouldn't be standard with GJ
GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
viewtopic.php?t=83643 wow the blue rio is stunning but wow what a price ... 1k for mortar ... is it liquid gold. Geez they know how to trap u ! Hoping they ll let us change without charging $500 to change one word on the paperwork that isn't even finalised yet ! Felt so rushed at our colours meeting and left in tears ... certainly not the way it's supposed to be I m sure !
[/quote]
They shouldn't charge you, I changed a lot of things after selections without being charged. I think they start to charge you once it really starts to inconvenience them, such as they've placed the order with the supplier then you ask to change or it's something major and needs to amended with a few different suppliers resulting in more admin time etc.
Oh no colour day is meant to fun and exciting not resulting in tears, sorry you had that experience!
GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
viewtopic.php?t=83643
We went with GJ because the customer service was second to none compared to the other builders we spoke to but that all changed once we paid our initial deposit. We had our DA approved in Oct and only started late Jan and since we started we only have a slab down so I'm not particularly happy, 10 weeks in and only have a slab to show for it.
The mirror robe doors cost about $1500 for three bedrooms so not too much but it was $2k to upgrade the internal door from standard to the hag 4, $260 to upgrade the front door lock to a long trilock handle, $5k to upgrade bricks and mortar, $300 to upgrade the shower head, $2k to upgrade floor to ceiling tiles in the ensuite, $600 to change the shower to semi frameless in the ensuite.
All adds up quickly
More than happy to answer any questions you have if I can answer them lol
GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
viewtopic.php?t=83643
But your delays are a bit of a red flag. I’m reading through your thread now, how frustrating for your family! You have such a gorgeous piece of land though. You’ve got to love the Northern Rivers region.
Oh, thanks for all the pricing! Hubby will be happy with the cost of the shower head upgrade. What were they like when it came to cut and fill? Efficient? On-quote? I’ve read so many horror stories…Hi GoodOne.
I use to have a friend that lived in Murwillumbah. What a lovely area. Where you are building do you have views of Mt Warning?
We went with GJ because the customer service was second to none compared to the other builders we spoke to but that all changed once we paid our initial deposit. We had our DA approved in Oct and only started late Jan and since we started we only have a slab down so I'm not particularly happy, 10 weeks in and only have a slab to show for it.
The mirror robe doors cost about $1500 for three bedrooms so not too much but it was $2k to upgrade the internal door from standard to the hag 4, $260 to upgrade the front door lock to a long trilock handle, $5k to upgrade bricks and mortar, $300 to upgrade the shower head, $2k to upgrade floor to ceiling tiles in the ensuite, $600 to change the shower to semi frameless in the ensuite.
All adds up quickly
More than happy to answer any questions you have if I can answer them lol
GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
viewtopic.php?t=83643
But your delays are a bit of a red flag. I’m reading through your thread now, how frustrating for your family! You have such a gorgeous piece of land though. You’ve got to love the Northern Rivers region.
Oh, thanks for all the pricing! Hubby will be happy with the cost of the shower head upgrade. What were they like when it came to cut and fill? Efficient? On-quote? I’ve read so many horror stories…Thanks for having a read of my thread, it's a bit of a marathon read lol.
We signed a fixed price contract so if t was less than what GJ allowed it's a bonus for them but if it was more than they allowed than tough luck to GJ. It shouldn't have taken any longer than 4 days but ended up taking a week and a half
GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
viewtopic.php?t=83643
We went with GJ because the customer service was second to none compared to the other builders we spoke to but that all changed once we paid our initial deposit. We had our DA approved in Oct and only started late Jan and since we started we only have a slab down so I'm not particularly happy, 10 weeks in and only have a slab to show for it.
The mirror robe doors cost about $1500 for three bedrooms so not too much but it was $2k to upgrade the internal door from standard to the hag 4, $260 to upgrade the front door lock to a long trilock handle, $5k to upgrade bricks and mortar, $300 to upgrade the shower head, $2k to upgrade floor to ceiling tiles in the ensuite, $600 to change the shower to semi frameless in the ensuite.
All adds up quickly
More than happy to answer any questions you have if I can answer them lol
GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
viewtopic.php?t=83643
But your delays are a bit of a red flag. I’m reading through your thread now, how frustrating for your family! You have such a gorgeous piece of land though. You’ve got to love the Northern Rivers region.
Oh, thanks for all the pricing! Hubby will be happy with the cost of the shower head upgrade. What were they like when it came to cut and fill? Efficient? On-quote? I’ve read so many horror stories…Hi GoodOne.
I use to have a friend that lived in Murwillumbah. What a lovely area. Where you are building do you have views of Mt Warning?
Hi Henry,
It's certainly experiencing a resurgence. I spent a lot of time there as a kid, so it feels right. We're building in Hundred Hills Estate and yes, we have a nice view of Mount Warning
How's things GoodOne after cyclone Debbie?
We drove the long way home from Chinderah (after visiting the mother in law) on the Tuesday before Debbie arrived. It's a lovely scenic drive.
Hope things are ok!
Our land is fine, but for longer grass! It's the top of a hill and quite far from the flood prone areas of Murwillumbah, so that's something.
Hello all.
A bit of an update. Our land has settled and we officially own the 450sqm - it's already titled, so all we need to do is lock down our build loan to get things started properly. We have gone ahead and ordered a soil and contour test through GJ, which will apparently take two weeks - I'll be very interested to see the results.
Congrats GoodeOne
there's nothing like owning a bit of land with grass on it
I look forward to hearing how your soil report goes. Cheers
Congrats on owning your slice of the planet!! Bring on your build
GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=83643
3 months is a long time in build land and a lot can change... including my opinion of certain builders. As a result, we've been speaking with Adenbrook Homes Ballina/Tweed. I'm surprised I don't read more about them on these forums - they've been helpful and informative, giving us five potential houses layouts, opposed to one, answering any and all questions along the way. We will be picking our final design in a matter of days and taking it to the broker to get the build loan ball rolling... finally!
I'm so glad you haven't gone with GJ. We've had so many delays it's just horrible.
Can't wait to see your new design!! I didn't even look at them to be honest, not sure why we didn't... must have a quick quiz at what plans they have
GJ Gardner Modified Coolum 277
http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=83643
Just found your page, I love the Aden room homes display at Ballina. There team are so friendly even though I said we were just looking for colours lol and that we were building with coral. I would love to see your plans?