Rawson build in Cameron Park

Hello all,
We're building a Stroud 30 with Rawson Homes in Cameron Park. I've been reading homeone for awhile leading up to our build and now there's finally something happening.

We started the process in April 2017 with the tender, and we were really confident with the sales person we met at the Thornton office, Steve. He was great and answered all our questions.

A few things we requested at the sales meeting didn't get included in the initial tender, but we got there eventually. After waiting for the land to register in September, we did our tile/colours/electrical/externals and finally signed the contract in October.

Our bank, S, was abysmal and took weeks to complete the final approval, so we missed starting before the Christmas shut down. However, the site cut is underway, and we're finally starting to think this might actually happen!

I hope this thread is useful to anyone considering building with Rawson, and I am sure I'll be asking for your tips and tricks as we go too.

Hooray! Your own thread, and another Rawson build around Lake Macquarie.

Very exciting! I will follow your progress

We are hoping to build at Adamstown with Rawson. We were also impressed with Steve, so will be watching your progress. 🍺

We just sold in Adamstown! Small world.

So a bit of progress:

Cut finished
Piers in
Plumbing rough in done

I have no idea when the slab is happening. Our site supervisor seems great at his job but not so great at calling. We only live a couple of kmd away from the block so we go see it all the time anyway.

hello CG, Congratulations on your build. Is this in Cameron Grove that you are building. We just bought land in the 2C stage in Cameron Grove.
Cheers

Hi janus911,

Yes we are in Cameron Grove! You'll be able to pick our block driving in - the one with the Rawson sign next to the blue steel framed one. Very exciting!

So the slab was poured! We have had the frames delivered but the rain - and I suspect availability of carpenters - has stopped them going up yet. Not a big deal, it's not even a week since they were delivered! I can't wait to see the skeleton of the house though.

I can imagine the excitement. 😀. We are building in stage 2c. How smooth was the land contracts exchange? Are there any developer guidelines. The other estates were quite strict. Pat has been quite elusive about it.
Good luck and congratulations.

We are thinking of building with Eden Brae.

We had no trouble with the contract exchange and there were no estate covenants in our bit. I wouldn't imagine they'd put covenants into the other stages and not ours, but stranger things have happened.

We were merrily told "we didn't strike any rock at all doing the civil works for the land!" Well, they must have been very lucky - have a drive around and check out all the rocks in the sites under construction! Ours has been extremely weathered rock which you can break up with your hand, but there were 4 or so boulders that I can't lift. Make sure you get a provision or fix the costs for rock!

We've had a look at some Eden Brae houses, they are lovely. We were sold on Rawson because of the inclusions they had at the time, and we have been happy with the customer service we've got from them so far.

I was also told about no rocks on the estate but the builders around have mentioned about the rock. We maybe going with EB because of the fixed price contract. We are also considering Coral homes. The only builders we are thinking are the ones offering fixed price contracts. For some reason Rawson was not great with thier sales. We asked for a quote and they haven't replied as yet.

Was that through the Thornton office?

We looked at Coral and they laughed when we said we had a sloping block (1.5m across the building envelope). Funny how the person you meet on the day can make or break it for a while company.

Haha true. This was at Thornton. Coral was very keen but they want only a certain style of house which we didn't like.

Hi guys! Finally found a Rawson thread that is actually active/recent. My partner and I are building with Rawson in the Lake Macquarie area also (Watagan Park Estate). We had our tender appointment on Sunday and are still waiting for it to come back. How different was everyones tender price in comparison to the guestimation the sales consultant gave?

We are going through Steve as well he is amazing and has so much patience! I rocked up at the tender appointment with a double sided sheet of things I wanted to change/modify.. appointment started at 10:30am we left at 2:00pm. Didn't complain or try to rush us once. As soon as we left he got his lunch out of the fridge god love him!

Steve is a huge asset for Rawson. Lovely bloke and really knows his stuff. He was very close to his numbers compared to the tender for our build and we have a sloping block so a little more complicated. He is part of the reason we went with them. Good old customer service goes a long way in our minds.

He's great isn't he!

Sorry about the lack of updates, I lost my own thread

Things are progressing well. We have bricks and a roof! We also have done front steps which are a bit odd - the first step is 5 courses of bricks off the ground, so it's very difficult to step up. Our SS knows about it and I'm sure they'll sort it out. I think it breaches the code for steps so they really have to.

It feels like things are going quickly, but there's still quite a bit to go. We got a landscaper out to have a look at the retaining walls and the yard, and I'm waiting for his quote. How long does it normally take to get a quote? It's been about 3 weeks since we saw him. He's a great guy, I think he's pretty busy though.

Bricks: pgh truffle, off white mortar
Roof/gutter/fascia: Colorbond monument

There is good amount of slope across the lot(?). Any specific plans for the landscape in backyard (it seems heavily cut down) and the front slope ? I have something similar, hence asking.

There is good amount of slope across the lot(?). Any specific plans for the landscape in backyard (it seems heavily cut down) and the front slope ? I have something similar, hence asking.[/quote]I think the slope was 3m across the whole block, 1.5m across the building envelope. The cut at the back is about 1m, and we are going to retain it along the back and level off the top bit of yard so the kids can put their swing set etc in. At the front, we're doing some terraced retaining walls, one of which will form a garden bed. Nothing super fancy or inventive at this stage - well nothing at all if the landscaper has disappeared!

We had no idea how much landscaping/retaining would be and we probably should have just gone with a split level, but i was more keen on keeping it flat inside to stop kids falling down stairs, and to help us as we get old.

We have more action! The eaves are being done now and the render is done on the front of the house. Looks like waterproofing has begun inside, and the electrical rough in too. We're waiting for word from the SS to let us know when we should do the independent pre-lining inspection - I'm hoping they don't identify too many defects. My untrained eyes haven't seen much to worry about, at least.

Have some pretty terrible photos of the eaves and the front of the house:

Btw I just discovered that my thread was muted, no wonder I can't ever find it!

Great to hear you've had a good experience with Rawson so far, and I'm sure it's exciting seeing your house start coming to shape on the exterior side of things anyhow

Were looking to build the Balmoral Mk1 38 in Lake Macquarie, still waiting on our tender to come back (usually 3-4 weeks, it's week 6 for us now) but since our land won't be ready for a few more months not the end of the world I guess!

It's all action this week. After the downpipes were put on yesterday, the timber feature was done today along with the last of the eaves. I love it and I can't wait to see it stained.