Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Hallmark Homes Edge 188 Queensland 19Nov 15, 2020 3:44 pm What we are doing post handover Mainly to save money and reduce our mortgage we will be doing a few things our selves after handover. The house will be ready to move in and functional but we will do a few things first before moving in. Fencing We asked our builder to quote for fencing just to see what they would charge and oh boy, no surprise here. They charge a premium we got quotes $7k .... so we chose to find someone to do that for us after handover and it will only cost us about $4k. We will have to have this done straight away since we have a dog and can't move in without fencing. Hallmark were nice enough to allow the fencer to start before handover. Landscaping As both our neighbours are still building we will only be turfing our back yard at the beginning, this way nothing out the front will get destroyed by tradies and their utes etc. We have opted for Buffalo turf and a premium top soil as our soil is very clay heavy, which will be delivered and we will do the landscaping our selves to reduce cost with the help of family. This will cost another $2k, it could have been cheaper if we chose cheaper lawn (which the builder probably would have done) Blinds and Curtains We never entertained the idea of the builder installing our blinds as everyone always says how expensive it is. Instead we went to spotlight last week because they had a 50% member sale on select blinds and curtains including day/night blinds which we will use in all the bedrooms except the master where because the window is so large we will have to use a traditional blackout curtain with a rod. We spent $500 instead of $1000 or more if the builder did it for all the bedrooms. Because the bathrooms have privacy glass i don't think we will need curtains there and I have never really seen the point in blinds in the living areas. Wardrobes As mentioned before we deleted all wardrobes from the house and saved about $2200. We have ordered Ikea PAX wardrobes for the master walk-in and bedroom 4 which we designed specifically for us at a price of $1400. This includes having them delivered and installed by ikea. rooms 2 and 3 wont have wardrobes for now as they will be a guest room/study and our media room. Re: Hallmark Homes Edge 188 Queensland 20Nov 29, 2020 4:49 pm PCI and handover kinda We had our PCI date Thursday last week. Nothing out of the ordinary, we had the right tap installed and the oven arrived also. However aircon and front door was still missing. We went through the PCI process, it took about two hours. Builder explained the various warranties and what not and then we marked all the defects. Honestly there wasn't a huge amount, bigger things included a scratch on the hallway closet sliding door which was very obvious, en-suite shower door doesn't close properly and one of the kitchen over head cupboards didn't open properly. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Our supervisor also explained that our door most likely will arrive in January and the aircon unit shouldn't be too far away. Our Bank then did a valuation a week later (they hadn't booked one in and didn't show up to PCI so we had to remind them...) this slowed handover down a bit. We were supposed to get keys Thursday thats just gone but since the payment hadn't arrived with the builder they didnt want to settle. Our site supervisor took pity on us and gave us access to have a few things delivered that were previously booked and we couldn't change. We also put our blinds up (which wasn't painful at all....) and installed the dishwasher. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And then we spent most of friday afternoon and saturday filling our back yard with 12 cubic meters of under turf to flatten the back yard and allow turf to grow. Saturday evening we laid turf and now we are regularly watering it in so it survives the heat. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I'm hoping we get keys monday or tuesday so that the internet can be connected and we can properly move in on friday. 1 10485 Building Standards; Getting It Right! We bought a house in 2015 advertised as a 7/2/2, 4br up, 3br down (7br), and to date, it’s a great house. However, we’ve just had it valued and it’s come in as a… 0 11988 I think you are getting different numbers because they all just based them on "other jobs" even though each job is unique. Often, with builders, unless you're speaking to… 3 3233 |