Building with Gemmill Homes - The Nevada

henfry · Jan 15, 2010 1:33 am

Hi All

Wife and I finally signed the final contract with Gemmill Homes to build the Nevada. Been living in a 3x1 villa for the past 3 years and thought it is time to upgrade as we are running out of room being a family of 4.

So far the experience has been quite pleasant and exciting. Made an offer on a land in Aug 09 and started our hunt for a good house design and builder. Sold our house within 2 weeks and signed the initial contract with Gemmill Homes in September 09. From then till now, we scrambled frantically to get our finances sorted. We got our unconditional finance approval just last week.

We nearly signed a contract with CL on one of their designs but decided to pull out last minute after we came across Gemmill Homes. Although the base value is $13k more, we are getting 30m2 more and the nevada has a nicer layout. The nevada also includes an additional activity room, alfresco and eaves which the CL design didn't. The CL design is also so wide that the garage wall need to be on the boundary and that jacked up the base price by around $3k for a "fire barrier?". They have also left out a few standard inclusions which GH has in their base package. The finishing and workmanship at their display homes are also noticeably different.

The sales consultant from Gemmill Homes is excellent and very helpful. Everything went very smoothly until the final contract which includes the variations which we had to sign. There were at least 25 mistakes! Nonetheless, it was rectified. Today, we received the username and password to the progress watcher on their website which keeps track of the building progress at each stage. Very impressed!

Now we are just waiting for site start. Very excited.

This is our first time building. Any tips, advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great day.

henfry · Jan 15, 2010 2:22 am

House Final Plans!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46561135@N07/4273780379/

Jax&Trav · Jan 15, 2010 6:44 pm

30 extra square metres, additions to the spec etc for 13k... sounds like you did a great thing changing your mind about builders.

How exciting!

henfry · Jan 16, 2010 1:27 am

Thanks, Jax&Trav

After we include the standard inclusions by Gemmill homes like eaves, shelves, doors to robes, etc into the CL design, it worked out to be only $8-9k more if we went with Gemmill homes, and the CL is still 30m2 smaller.

We also found that the nevada design by Gemmill homes is just right and the rooms and sections are sized just right and there are very little "dead space" (for our family size). So they manage to include an additional activity room and alfresco.

Does anyone know how Gemmill homes rate compared to the larger building companies?

henfry · Feb 15, 2010 12:26 am

Went to site today. Was shocked to see that the slab is already down!!
The last time we've heard from Gemmill Homes was contract signing.

Extremely thrilled that it took them less than a month to slab down. However, I'm really surprised that they haven't asked us for any progress payment yet. Guess it would be any day now.

Does anyone know why the concrete at the bathrooms are scarified? Is this normal?

Pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46561135@N07/4355669373/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46561135@N07/4356415054/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46561135@N07/4355669573/

Perth-1st Timer · Feb 15, 2010 10:10 am

Congrats on the slab Henfry! Now the exciting part begins!

miss_petepie · Feb 15, 2010 10:27 am

congrats on the build! its always nice to get suprises

from memory outs was rough around the bathroom but that was only around where the bathtub was...

house plans look great!! very open plan and will be heaps of space.

what area are you building in?

KrustyBaldivis · Feb 15, 2010 12:54 pm

Wow that is quick! Our bathrooms were the same not sure why but it was the same when we built before too. Good luck for the rest of your build it will probably go really quickly.

henfry · Feb 17, 2010 1:58 am

Thanks everyone.

I'm building down at Aubin Grove. Land size 576m2.

Received a call from Gemmill Homes yesterday. They said they've made an error in contract on the progress payment section. They didn't include the initial deposit we paid. Surprised this slipped pass us.

I'm still surprised no one from GH called us to chase up on progress payment for initial contract deposit and slab down. When we mention this to the CLO, she didn't know what was going on and said she'll follow up with the accounts section. Their loss I guess (while we save on loan interest repayment). In a way their short fall in administration does have some benefits afterall. hehehhe....

Have a good day all.

henfry · May 03, 2010 12:47 am

Brickwork finally done. It took more than 2 months to finish just the brickwork.

Quite slow compared to other builders but our independent supervisor says the workmanship is very good compared to other builders. Everything is according to specifications.

Roofing beams and materials are already on site. Can't wait for it to start. Still can't fully picture how the house will look like when it is all done.

Didn't expect the living areas to be so big. However, the master bedroom is smaller than what we expected. Would have extended it by a tad if we knew it's that small.

Love the kitchen space and the theater. And the entry hallway definitely feels better with double entry doors.

Pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46561135@N07/sets/72157623850605631/

Didn't expect the activity to be sooo big as well. This will be the home office...

Overall, we are very satisfied with the design and how the functional space is maximised.

The only regret so far is the size of the master bedroom, however, it is still bigger than our current bedroom and we won't be spending much time in there anyways.

Anyone has a Gemmill Homes Nevada? care to share your pics?

Cheers.

henfry · May 04, 2010 10:39 pm

Does anyone know if it is common to just leave roofing timber out uncovered and not properly layout out flat? The roofing timber has been out on site for more than 2 weeks and it is exposed to rain and the sun. Am a little concern that the timber will bend and becomes deformed and affects the roofing structure later on.

jonesby · May 12, 2010 2:58 pm

Hi Henfry - we're about to start building the Nevada in Hammond Park so I'll be very interested to see how your build goes! So it only took a month from signing the contract to getting the slab down?

henfry · May 13, 2010 12:31 am

Hi Jonesby

We signed the contract on 9 September 2009. It did take them a while before they Job start which is the siteworks.

After signing the contract, we met up with the interior designer a few weeks after. Then comes prestart. Unfortunately, the paperwork was very bad and had quite alot of inconsistencies. After going back and forth a few times, they had to amend the main contract because the progress payment breakdown was incorrect.

It's around 4 months from contract signing to them doing something on site.

I've uploaded a few pics of the finished brickwork on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46561135@N07/sets/72157623850605631/

I've been onsite just this week and the roofing frame is nearly finished.

Hope it goes well with your new home.

Henry

henfry · Jun 11, 2010 12:29 am

Still waiting for the roofing tiles to be laid. Been nearly 1 month still not much progress. Just seems a little slow when the house next to us slab down after us and they were at lock up stage 1 month ago.

Hope they will meet the 12 months timeframe as agreed in the contract which will be early September. Less than 3 months to go... hopefully.

somewoman · Jun 11, 2010 12:54 am

gorgeous plan! Those spaces look so large and wonderful - I'm sure it will be a wonderful family home. Can't wait to see the roof on and the interior looking more finished =)

That's the awesome thing about full brick builds - you get a real idea for the space that wood frame just doesn't give. Awesome =)

Fi_Lars · Jun 11, 2010 6:10 pm

Hi Henfry

I think we are building up the road from you in Aubin Grove. Lot 316. We have also been waiting for weeks for our roof. Have they given you any reason why your tiles haven't been laid yet? Its been about 4 weeks since our frame was finished and we only had our tiles delivered this week. I know what you mean about other houses starting after yours that are now further ahead. We had the majority of our brickwork finished when our neighbours slab went down and they are getting their plaster done this week. Very frustrating. I hope you get your tiles on soon and the rest of your build goes quicker.

starlight · Jun 23, 2010 12:38 pm

Hi Henfry,

We are building the Nevada with Gemmill also. Our build is due to start this week with the siteworks/earthworks. Sounds like you had similar issues regarding the administration to us. I've also found Gemmill are not the best at sticking to timeframes. From all reports their actual construction work is good but their downfall is in the administration. Have you found this to be the case?

jonesby · Jun 23, 2010 2:09 pm

Henfry and Starlight, how long did scheduling take for you? We're just waiting on our final plans (we got them last week but they had a couple of mistakes naturally!) and then they reckon 6 weeks for scheduling,

KellyKay · Jun 23, 2010 9:36 pm

Hi everyone,
We are thinking to build our first home with Gemmill. Would you recommend this builder or not?

starlight · Jun 24, 2010 12:24 pm

Jonesby, our scheduling took all of the 6 weeks with few phone calls along the way to encourage them to get it done. There is then another 2 weeks on top of this where trades are booked in... I received a call to say the scheduling was completed around 10 June and was told yesterday that hopefully some form of work would start today.