G.J Gardner build - Week 20 - Fitoff

BrentandAllison · Oct 16, 2017 3:12 pm

Hello one and all!
Long time watcher, first time thread maker...

We have purchased a sweet block of land in Bray Park - North Bris which sits at - 607m2, with a 20m frontage and 30m depth. Cool I know right!

This is due to settle on the 19th of October - fingers crossed.

I'm creating this thread as more of a journal to keep track of the process, so we can look back on our experience as well as get valuable advice from others who have gone through the process of building.

We have decided on the "Twin Waters 330" (now the Iluka) with minor adjustments.
3 car garage
Removed the lower level bedrooms and bathroom that come off the kitchen
Moved the whole kitchen over to where those bedrooms were.

So it ends up being a 357m2 house. The budget is tight, so we are going express on most things so we can have the space. Express is the base range for those playing at home. So the basic toilets, basins, door handles etc..

Upgrading a few items, such as cooktop, oven, flick mixers and a couple of doors.

Seems the common thing to do is get flooring done after handover which is cool, I know a tiler and possibly someone that can lay carpet.

I'm looking forward to it all, I say that now...

OK - Now the progress. We have had a few meetings with Blake from G.J Gardner at North Harbour. What an awesome dude he is, young and super friendly and so eager to help. Blake, if your reading this man, your doing an awesome job.
We have hit him with so many questions, and if he couldn't answer them, he notes them down and gets back to us.

I dare say we'll need a few more appointments with him until we get a rough plan sorted, but we are pretty close.

I've read through the "things I forgot when building" thread.... oh geez, how good is that thing! We printed off a copy of the list, sat down and went through it line by line.

I feel confident that we are armed with enough information, balls and support not to be bullied, talked into something we don't want/need or being ripped off.

I'll keep this up to date with progress of events as they happen.

TIMELINE!

25 OCTOBER 17 - Signed to start initial soil tests and contour survey
01 NOVEMBER 17 - Signed quote to start soil tests
06 DECEMBER 17 - First prelim Drawings
10 DECEMBER 17 - Resubmitted changes on first prelim drawings
11 FEBRUARY 18 - Submitted 3rd revision of prelim drawings and proposal
26 FEBRUARY 18 - Final set of prelim drawing received
4 MARCH 18 - Signed off on the final plan
21 March 18 - Signed contract
21 March 18 - Tile selection completed
23 March 18 - Bank appointment sorting finance
27 March 18 - Electrical appointment completed
04 April 18 - Submitted to council for building approval
06 April 18 - Colour selection completed
13 April 18 - Seeking finance approval/valuation
01 June 18 - Council approval complete
08 June 18 - Letter of Commencement
09 July 18 - Site Scrape
13 July 18 - Site visit - house location

PROGRESS PICS:
I know people love to just look at the progress pics. So I'm editing this first post with the full list of photos as the process continues.

Blank canvas

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House plan

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These are our main floor tile - Timber look.
The smaller sample is the benchtop - Snow
The larger tile is a semi gloss 450 x 300 soft marble for splash backs

Yes, in the picture they look identical, but as everyone says, they look very different in real life.
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There are our bathroom tiles. We went with very minimal visual offerings as our tastes in colours tend to change very often. So with a natural colour selection, we can add our own colours with towels and floor coverings.
The large tile is a satin finish 400 x 400 soft flake type of tile. Looks amazing when up in the natural light. The difference in colour between it being laid on the floor to the wall is suttle but very nice. It almost has a gold flake through it. Sound gawdy, but its actually really nice.
The timber book leaf style tile will be the feature tile for the ensutie and bathrooms. The front on the bath will be tiled in this as well as the wall behind the free standing bath. The shower in the ensuite will have one wall (shower head end) as a feature also.

Uptiles in Strathpine were soooo nice and took their time to go over everything. Great experience.

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Cheers
Brent and Allison

BrentandAllison · Oct 19, 2017 9:21 am

We were fortunate enough to have a viewing of a "Twin Waters" that is currently being built close by. The plans and layout of that particular house is quite different to the one we plan to build, but was great to get a rough idea of space and finish of a G.J Gardner build.

Now just waiting on 2pm for further notification on the land settlement - then move forward with getting plans drawn up.

Popped into Beaumont tiles and checked out their "Silver" range which is what is included in the express package of the build. We were unable to find a tile we were happy with... Maybe a chat with the colour consultant will produce some visions that we as noobs cannot see..

I'm leaning more toward timber floors, as we want a darker colour floor, and love timber finish. The only thing is, pets - dogs... I'm wondering if the timber floors will hold up to dogs nails and scratch easily?

There are a few trees that I want removed from the block - got a quote for $1250 for the removal of 4 trees and 5 stump grindings. To me, that sounds like a good deal. The trees are over 4m - 5m tall.

Anyway, one step at a time..

Brent & Allison

galleriamad · Oct 19, 2017 2:11 pm

We are currently building with GJG at Newport and it was a long hard process to get to where we are finally starting the build . Our main problems were we felt we were not fully informed of finishes etc at the start and it led too much upset . You absolutely need to go into your colour consultation at GJG fully prepared , we had not thought about external and internal colours as figured we would be guided and would see examples say on a 3D computer program. Nope literally some swatches and bricks etc so be prepared , drive round displays and know what colours you want. Also check your contract CAREFULLY, we were told verbally and in an email that we had the beautiful cladding of the display home , we were distraught at literally the last hour to find that we had FC SHEETS , which are basically those ugly cement flat sheets around our entire home and courtyard , it would have looked terrible !!! Thank fully I kept ALL communications and a compromise was reached. Do not rely on word of mouth , get everything in writing and really understand what you are getting. Once we reached contract stage we met our lovely consultant that must have literally spent hours answering the many questions , whilst I feel that much of the problems were a result of an inexperienced sales guy , I do now feel confident we will get the home of our dreams. GJG certainly seem to build beautiful homes so even tho I wanted to throw the towel in many times I am glad we stuck it out. Get quotes on EVERYTHING at colour meeting as some upgrades won't cost as much as you think and remember getting extra in the homeloan for flooring etc is always going to be easier than trying to find the money yourself when u are paying rent/ homeloan/ rates / landscaping etc etc during build.

BrentandAllison · Oct 19, 2017 2:33 pm

Cheers for the info - we are confident so far with the dealings, though not at contract stage yet. So *Looking forward to that?*. I'll have quite a few people look over the contract - even a solicitor if we feel at all not confident understanding anything.

Who is your SS on the build?
Cheers

galleriamad · Oct 19, 2017 5:59 pm

BrentandAllison

Cheers for the info - we are confident so far with the dealings, though not at contract stage yet. So *Looking forward to that?*. I'll have quite a few people look over the contract - even a solicitor if we feel at all not confident understanding anything.

Who is your SS on the build?
Cheers

We meet our supervisor next week and it's John , he sounds great over phone and really helpful. Amy at Strathpine has babysat us through everything from contract signing and she is an absolute gem , GJG definitely have her to thank for us not throwing the towel in , she truely goes above and beyond. We were just absolute amateurs with no idea of building terms and basic inclusions despite thinking we d been walked thru it at display home , but unfortunately our sales guy was new in the role and I think we both learnt a lot from the experience ! I now just want my house already !!!!

BrentandAllison · Oct 20, 2017 9:43 am

Got conformation that our land has settled! It was nice that I got a call from the bank congratulating us too. Have an appointment today to go over the build loan details, so we get to see the budget we are working with.

BrentandAllison · Oct 20, 2017 12:58 pm

Good news everyone! Chat with the bank results are favourable

Capacity to budget within our means, so everything we have pre-decided on seems to be affordable

I guess the next step is chatting with the sales team again to get the plans into draft.

BrentandAllison · Oct 20, 2017 1:02 pm

Some land pics!

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BrentandAllison · Oct 23, 2017 4:18 pm

Future post

BrentandAllison · Oct 26, 2017 6:38 pm

UPDATE: Paid the initial deposit to start soil tests and what not

So now the waiting game.....

Meanwhile :-

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Timber look tiles!

BrentandAllison · Nov 02, 2017 9:57 am

Well - it seems I have changed my mind on the style of house I want to build... Yep...

No longer building the Twin Waters 330 - but now the Iluka (modified)
Single storey, still a largish house.

The gloss has worn off - well after spending over 20 hours sitting down with now 2 different builders and 4 plans.....

Allison seems really happy with this design, I still get everything I want, and she get everything she wants in a house that hopefully will be 70 - 100k less.

Just waiting on a final price from G J Gardner to move forward,

BrentandAllison · Nov 08, 2017 10:07 am

Sat down with Blake and worked out a final quote - very happy with the final number. A saving of 100k off our original price and we get even more stuff - upgrades than originally planned.

Now its a waiting game.... this is the hardest part so far, just waiting...I know there will be lots more waiting to come.

Anyway, we have been looking at tiles and what not to pass the time.

marz1983 · Nov 14, 2017 4:48 pm

Looking forward to following along the Illuka was one we looked at too.

BrentandAllison · Nov 14, 2017 4:55 pm

I’ll pop up the plan once it comes back from the draftsman

BrentandAllison · Nov 15, 2017 12:20 pm

Seems things are progressing in the background.. Had a call from MBCC to get a mailing address as they can't send stuff to a vacant lot

I'm keen to follow the neighbours build who bought the vacant lot next to us. They are building with Stroud. I know it's going to be single level which is good.

The only thing I'm worried about is the builders using my land as a dumping ground for rubbish and what not while they build. I'll be doing regular trips past it and have a spy on the payroll to keep an eye on things...

No update on the plans just yet, but responding to Marz - we did change the layout a fair bit from the Iluka.

Hoping to have the plans/drawings back in a week or so.

Thanks for checking out my thread,

marz1983 · Nov 16, 2017 8:27 pm

Hopefully the couple weeks goes quick and you've got your plans

BrentandAllison · Nov 27, 2017 3:05 pm

Update - .... Nothing... lol.

Still waiting on the drawings from G J G office. We were told they may be finished by the 20th of November.. Starting to chase up Blake for answers, but still haven't heard back as yet.

I understand its all processing and waiting, so I'm not going to stress just yet.

Cheers
B&A

BrentandAllison · Nov 29, 2017 2:31 pm

So a recent email from the sales guy is that we are still waiting on drafting. He explained that conformation had to be sought from council for the 4.5m front relaxation.

Fair enough, it still doesn't explain the ZERO communication we had since giving them $1500....

I'd rather a weekly update on the no progress than not hearing anything at all.

We ended up ringing the head office to get an update, no clue from them and was advised to chase up the sales guy.

So another week and we should get something back.

Cheers
B&A

iTool · Dec 06, 2017 12:09 am

We dealt with Blake at GJG North Brisbane earlier this year. All I can say is that I hope your experience goes better than ours. I won't elaborate too much here, but document every verbal conversation you have with him - or even better, stipulate that all communication between them and you is to be in writing/email.

After wasting months of time with them we ended up forfeiting our $1.5k deposit and signing a contract with another builder.

BrentandAllison · Dec 06, 2017 8:05 am

Sorry to hear. Yeah, I’m struggling with the lack of communication from him now. We have another builder in reserve with a plan that we like, so if they continue to delay, I’ll have no worries in leaving them.
Who did you end up building with? And how is it all going?
Thanks for checking out my thread.
Brent&Allison