Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 121May 15, 2013 10:08 pm Mars love you plan. Don't have much to add re all your points. You are at the hard end trying o get all your wants within that budget. Try and prioritise your list, for it acne I would rate a wider rage as pretty high, above storage area. Is there a reason it has to be a separate room? Maybe without wall space you can fit more in. You might beagle to get one of those cool ladders that pop down from our garage ceiling for storage. All the best. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 122May 16, 2013 8:44 am Thanks for everyone’s inputs on the design. I’ve had some time to digest some of the changes. Lilac you make a good point about Bed 4. It will be too narrow so I’ll add to the length. I’ve been keen on the attic idea, but as Unreal mentioned, we’ll likely be living in this house for a while and most of the items we’ll store are bulky. Most likely we’ll reduce the width of the storage space and remove the door. Getting the measuring tape out last night, I realised it’s a sizeable area! 1.3m wide should be ok as this is what our current WIR. Unreal, the façade on display is the Epic. It’s quite similar however the pillars seem to be larger. Our rainwater tank will be 3000L. Unfortunately as we’re in a recycled water area, Kurmond charge extra for the tank. The large toughened glass window is what they have on display. It was recommended by B if we’re going to have a water feature or nice garden to look out onto. We have the sliding door for ventilation already. I’m not sure how much extra this is. As far as further floorspace reduction I can easily give up the large porch if its not included in the façade, as we’re unlikely to spend a lot of time out the front. We can also reduce space in the master bedroom. I’ve posted here the preliminary plans (note it has been flipped). It allows for side access / double gate of 2.4m (ignore the water tank positioning). Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 123May 16, 2013 10:44 am Wow I’m not on H1 for 1 day and look what happens – comments, comments, comments.... so much to read, so much to catch up on. BenandKate, first off that is amazing that your husband had your first meeting with P at 10am and you had a tender by 3pm, don’t know many other builders that quick (we had to ring up and ask for our tender with a couple of builders). To be honest and to not write an essay – don’t worry about it and don’t think too much (that is my major problem, I think too much). Building is very, very stressful, doesn’t matter what age you are because we all want a better life. So many people have told me on H1 from their own personal building experiences that building is like a rollercoaster, sometimes you are up and sometimes you are down, just hold on tight because you can free fall quickly sometimes. The Diamond Package that Kurmond offers is very good, $3,500 is not much really when you see what you get for that money. I have seen many, many upgrade packages over the time we have been looking to build and trust me, this one is worth it. Yes, it is an upgrade and ALL upgrades cost money but you don’t have to upgrade, you don’t have to have the Diamond Package (but in my opinion you – and I don’t mean to be rude – silly not to). As Lilac & Ryan say it is marketing, as a company they have to market themselves and all builders offer some kind of upgrade package and in the end they have to make a profit somewhere or they wouldn’t have a business. In the end it is what is in the tender and the bottom line of the tender that really counts. Building is all about needs & wants. Is everything in the tender that you need, if yes, then go on to the wants. If you can do things after handover and it will save you money, ask them to be taken out of the tender. The most important thing to do is research, research other builders, research the cost of the things you have in the tender, research, research, research. A few more important things to do are ask questions and keep a record of everything and I mean everything (great advice from Lilac). If you can, ask questions in emails and you will get answers in emails, a great record of things. Oh and write lists, lists of questions, lists of inclusions, lists of prices, boring as it sounds record keeping, research and lists are priceless. You don’t have to watch from the sideline, next time your husband has a meeting with P, go along, P is one of the most approachable people I know, if you have a problem or a question just ask him. In regard to bricks as Unrealhome has mentioned Kurmond us PGH, Austral and Boral. You can check out the bricks on the brick companies websites and you can also go to their display centres, great place to go to see whole walls of bricks to give you a better idea of texture & colour, plus they let you take samples of the bricks, after our trips to the brick places we now have enough samples to build our own letter box . If there are any bricks that you like and you are not sure what range they are in just PM me and I will let you know. Bricks are difficult to choose (or they were for us – we are very fussy) and if you are anything like us, you will fall in love with the gold range. Sorry it was a bit of an essay wasn’t it? Don’t feel that you can’t ask questions here on the forum no matter how small a question or how ‘silly’ you might think it is, we are all going through the same thing, we have probably all had the same questions, we are all here to help each other. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 124May 16, 2013 10:51 am UpsizeTime Our update is in he waiting game, hanging out for our plans and tender. Keep thinking about flooring, was keen on the laminated timber but thinking how does that go in the kitchen with water spills. More to think about. Went to a light shop today to buy some bulbs and they had 70% of everything. So wanted to pick my lights, but I have no clue about that yet. Struggling with style, can't think about lights yet. Rang DH to calm my buying impulses (lol) can't have the cart before the horse on this one. Any idea when you will be getting your updated plans and tender? We were at Kurmond yesterday, they ALL seemed very, very busy. I'm sure it won't be too much longer. Oh dear, I have don't the same thing, gone into light shops and pick out lights and then went, hey wait a minute, I don't even know what lights I need or where the light are going. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 125May 16, 2013 11:14 am mars78 Hi All!! After much anticipation, I have the revised plans and a massive headache to go with it! It's blown out to a massive 35 squares which is clearly out of the budget. The front porch has added to this and I'm sure it is not included in the façade. I'd love to know your thoughts. Here are the plans and some of my thoughts. The main issue for me at the moment is the garage width. We may need to revert to no drive through, instead having side access with the storage moved up alongside the theatre. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ 1. I don’t recall whether the front porch area is part of the Sierra Elite façade or this is additional. If it is additional then we will revert to no porch. 2. The porch area is in the articulation zone (up to 40% allowable) and therefore the 4.5m setback from the road should be to the house boundary (i.e. bedroom) and not the porch / façade. This has resulted in less space in the backyard. 3. The garage width (not including storage) is only 5.3m wide, which is not wide enough for two cars to fit comfortably. I’m not sure how we can achieve the minimum 5.5m width without decreasing the storage room. 4. The door to storage room should be relocated next to the internal access door. 5. The drive-through roller door needs to be the standard 2.44m wide to allow for a vehicle to drive through – suggestion is to reduce the width of the home theatre, increasing the length up until the REF in the kitchen. The bulk head would need to be relocated. 6. The meals area as it is, is too large and therefore the home theatre lining up with the REF space will solve this. 7. Bedroom 2’s length of 3.02 to be increased to 3.22 and the WIR length at the same time reduced from 2.00 to 1.80. 8. Island bench to have increased width as per the preliminary plans. 9. The rainwater tank was to be placed next to the A/C unit. This is currently missing. 10. The non-openable toughened glass window should be for the meals area, not the home theatre. Love your plan Mars and understand completely about plans 'blowing out' our's got bigger as well. You really have added some great changes to the original plan but like you and probably everyone else, a bit concerned about the garage size with the storage area but I noticed in a further post this morning that you are working that out. The best part about reading your post about the changes you are thinking about is you are looking and thinking of different changes and the more times you look at them the more times you will probably change them. Don't worry that's a good thing plus asking other people opinion is always helpful... Just keep changing them until you are absolutely happy with them. I'm just so happy that you have got your plans and it is all coming together for you. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 126May 16, 2013 11:39 am After reading all the updates on this thread and trying to answer 'properly' with my head in the clouds. Drum roll please.... We signed our tender, signed off on the plans and paid the deposit yesterday - we are building with Kurmond Homes. We also had our external colour meeting.... what a day... Thankfully I wrote all the colours down as we were going or I would never had remembered them (they will send all the info via email but I wanted to keep my own personal recored - Lilac rule again) Funny when we were driving home it was "what do you think of the colours", "hope the colours are o.k." big decisions... When we were waiting to have our external colour appointment we started talking to one of the men there, really nice guy and guess what he is going to be our SS, he looks after all the build's in our area, couldn't believe it The first thing that we did though was have a meeting with P and finalise and change a few things on the plan e.g. window sizes and tender. P arranged for B to redo the plan and H to redo the tender and then we went through and checked everything and signed..... scary, scary, scary but very exciting.... When we were in the meeting with P he asked if we had been to look at the new display homes at Kellyville and he told us to go and talk to the builders there and they would let us have a look at the Glenleigh being built. Checked it out on the way home, not upstairs though, only a ladder till Friday when the stairs will be put in, all I can say is - can't wait until we start building, great house and the workmanship is excellent. Oh and I forgot to mention when we had finished our colours, L showed us the colours that are going to be in the new display homes...OMG, OMG, OMG stunning, stunning stunning.... O.K. head is still spinning, think I need a Bex and a quite lie down Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 127May 16, 2013 6:32 pm Carak I love you and your posts!!! I find myself speed reading with excitement in the way that you would be telling it.... my head is spinning now for you and I feel like I need a bex... What a thread this is going to be...... full of accomplished essay writers.... I have found my home. So pleased you have finalised everything - saw your colours on your thread and they look great.... such nice choices.. Blog: http://cbcbuild.blogspot.com.au/ Building Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=62155 Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 128May 16, 2013 9:30 pm Carak, very exciting for you, and how awesome you to to see the new show home. Our plans are due in next week, 21st was the date given so hanging out to that. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 129May 17, 2013 2:05 pm Lilac Carak I love you and your posts!!! I find myself speed reading with excitement in the way that you would be telling it.... my head is spinning now for you and I feel like I need a bex... What a thread this is going to be...... full of accomplished essay writers.... I have found my home. So pleased you have finalised everything - saw your colours on your thread and they look great.... such nice choices.. Thanks Lilac, I am sure you understand the head spinning moments sad to say I think Bex have been discontinued but lie downs are still available but are in very short supply, especially for Mum's. Such a good feeling to have made lots of decisions, still a lot to go but the major one - builder - well all I can say is THANK YOU Lilac for your help, support & recommendation - Kurmond and the people who work there have been brilliant. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 130May 17, 2013 2:11 pm congratulations carak & family - great to hear that you've been hugely successful in coming to this point. Signed contracts are part of the journey and now you can tick that milestone off your books with pleasure!! your colour selections are superb, and that brick is going to be super perfect! I have to agree with you on door handle selection - I'm not sure I am 'moved' by the fangled-dangled omni one (is 'fangle-dangle' the equivalent of a Bex - that is, both are no longer available ) I really like the façade you have settled on. It's anything other than traditional, and will stand the test of time for many decades to come! Well done. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 131May 17, 2013 2:16 pm UpsizeTime Carak, very exciting for you, and how awesome you to to see the new show home. Our plans are due in next week, 21st was the date given so hanging out to that. UpsizeTime you are going to love the new display homes, the colours that have been chosen and the inclusions are stunning, well I think they are. We have been watching these home from the very start, so it is very exciting to see them 'come together', bit like watching your own home being built without the stress. Only a few more days and you get your plans, so exciting . Have you checked out bricks & roof tiles etc. yet? Even though we had checked everything out and had decided on colours for the externals, it still too over an hour, so my advice is to try and have an idea of bricks etc. even though it is only one hour it can be very stressful trying to work out and visualise your future home. Hope you have a great weekend. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 132May 17, 2013 2:26 pm unrealhome :: congratulations carak & family - great to hear that you've been hugely successful in coming to this point. Signed contracts are part of the journey and now you can tick that milestone off your books with pleasure!! your colour selections are superb, and that brick is going to be super perfect! I have to agree with you on door handle selection - I'm not sure I am 'moved' by the fangled-dangled omni one (is 'fangle-dangle' the equivalent of a Bex - that is, both are no longer available ) I really like the façade you have settled on. It's anything other than traditional, and will stand the test of time for many decades to come! Well done. Thanks unrealhome feeling a bit calmer today. Can't wait for the next step. Yes, must admit I was a bit concerned about the Traditional facade, just a bit 'unsure' but with everyone here on H1 and P at Kurmond offering help & advice, how can it be wrong. In fact I don't know what I would do without the help & support of the people on HomeOne, so happy I found this forum and the people on here, just like one big happy family (but without the arguments and the drunken aunt at Christmas time). Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 133May 17, 2013 3:50 pm Congratulations Carak!! I so wish we were already at your stage, however I also wish to enjoy the journey a little. I would love to see your plans and colour selections. Are they on another thread? I enjoy flicking through some of the Kurmond blogs and update photos. Seeing Lilac's blog actually steered me towards Kurmond in the end. Now fingers crossed for Monday, when our house is scheduled to exchange. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 134May 17, 2013 4:07 pm mars78 Congratulations Carak!! I so wish we were already at your stage, however I also wish to enjoy the journey a little. I would love to see your plans and colour selections. Are they on another thread? I enjoy flicking through some of the Kurmond blogs and update photos. Seeing Lilac's blog actually steered me towards Kurmond in the end. Now fingers crossed for Monday, when our house is scheduled to exchange. Mars that is so exciting about the exchange on Monday I'm sure everything will go fine. I think you are going along with finding a builder & floor plan a lot quicker than we did, we took forever. Yes, I do have a another thread, the link is in the bottom signature - there you will find our long and very painful experience, thankfully we finally found Kurmond Homes and with help, support and advice from Lilac.... well here we are, tender signed, plans signed and external colours chosen... scary but exciting. Enjoy the journey but take my advice and research, research and research.. try and have colours chosen before the meetings, work out on the floor plan where you want your light switches etc. all saves time at the colour, electrical etc. meetings. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 135May 17, 2013 5:06 pm Carak, I really like those bricks. I have seen them before, typical they are extra, story of my life. We have to still look at the range of things. Hard to fit it in with sports on weekends and then three young kids. Last thing DH & I want to do is drag them round to look at things. I find I can't concentrate on what we are looking t with them running around. DH & I was think we need to schedule a regular baby sitting time on the weekend so we can do house stuff. Just need organise the babysitters. This weekend is out, maybe we'll organise our selves for net weekend. Kinda hanging out for next week, bit apprehensive with the plans & tender. Hoping it falls inline with what we already have. Did make changes to size of alfresco and rumpus though so waiting, waiting. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 136May 17, 2013 5:42 pm UpsizeTime Carak, I really like those bricks. I have seen them before, typical they are extra, story of my life. We have to still look at the range of things. Hard to fit it in with sports on weekends and then three young kids. Last thing DH & I want to do is drag them round to look at things. I find I can't concentrate on what we are looking t with them running around. DH & I was think we need to schedule a regular baby sitting time on the weekend so we can do house stuff. Just need organise the babysitters. This weekend is out, maybe we'll organise our selves for net weekend. Kinda hanging out for next week, bit apprehensive with the plans & tender. Hoping it falls inline with what we already have. Did make changes to size of alfresco and rumpus though so waiting, waiting. UpsizeTime Understand completely about trying to look at things with small children, don't know why but they just don't seem to be interested in bricks. Not sure if we are lucky or not but our 14 year old won't come with us... too boring.... must agree with her though. Know how you feel about the plans & tender, you want it to come but then your a bit scared that it will be 'just not right' or too expensive... don't worry..it will all work out. Oh dear listen to me saying exactly the same thing to you that people use to say to me.. I never believed them.. never thought it was going to 'work' but it did and just like us you will probably be very surprised when the plan & tender come through next week. Have fun with the children they grow up too quick and get so old they don't want to spend time with you. Have a great weekend and enjoy the sport. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 137May 19, 2013 6:22 pm How was everyone's weekend? Ours actually feels productive. Today we thought maybe we'll make a day of it going out to Windsor with the kids and popping in to see the tile range. But, it seems we are not destined to see the tiles at all. Thankfully I tried to ring up the company and no one answered so we looked up the company before we left and discovered they are not open on Sundays. I am grateful we didn't drive out there to discover this. Tiles are still on the list to do. But, we thought we would brave it and look at some bricks with the kids, nothing major they can break at a brick site, lovely sunny day and fenced brick area = Mummy & Daddy actually being able to look at things. We on,y went to PGH as this wasn't to far away, we ended up spending ages there looking at the different combinations. Try to think and imagine the min brick with the feature brick. Tis is what we came up with... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We have Ironstone for the gutters, fascia and garage, blue steel for the feature and sand for the main brick. Thinking dark stained front door and gunmetal for roof and driveway. This is one selection, we want to go to the other brick places to check out their range and confuse the hell out of us. Also, looked at gas fire places and was very excited to hear that I can leave this to later if we choose an outside wall to place our fire place. With the plan at the moment I think it will be an outside wall, so that is one decision I can leave for later Counting down to Tuesday to see if I receive anything and if I fall over, hopefully it is close to the original tender, as I have been told, but still feel uneasy until I see it. Talk soon Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 138May 20, 2013 1:05 pm UpsizeTime very productive weekend, checking out bricks, even though it can be 'boring' (especially for children) is very, very important and if you are anything like us, you may change your mind a few times. Did you take some samples? Love taking samples, great way to see what the brick looks like in different light's, when it's wet and when it dry etc. Love the colour of the bricks, I checked out the PGH website and the colour of the sand looks so much different on the website, the colour combination is very elegant. Funny we checked out gas fire places on the weekend as well, we went to the Home Show on Saturday, the guy we were talking to said that it is certainly a lot easier to fit the fire place to an outside wall because of the ventilation. You can do it during construction on an inside wall but after construction it is better on the outside wall. Perhaps you can add it to your floor plan before you sign off on the plan because the guy we were talking too has installed fire places for Kurmond, he said just to ask P, which is probably a bit late for us now that we have signed off on the plans. I have my fingers & toes crossed for you for tomorrow, I'm sure it will all be fine and then you can take it to the next step, soooo exciting. Are you doing CDC or DA? We have to do DA through Council because of the Bushfire rating so it will take a bit longer, all depends on Council. It will be really interesting if we are all building at the same stage, at the same time. Looking forward to hearing how the tender goes. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 139May 20, 2013 8:08 pm Upsize sounds like your weekend was as busy as carak's We had a generally house-planning-free weekend (should we call that "we had an HPF" ?!) because we had a combined 60th + 30th birthday to attend ~ feeding 60 people was exhausting and we actually had it catered at a function centre congrats on packing in the kids and heading out for an adventure! Thanks for the advice that the tile company isn't opened on a Sunday! We would have driven up from the Southern Highlands on a Sunday at some stage, I'm sure, and stumbled across the same thing - so thanks for ensuring we avoid that UpsizeTime we thought we would brave it and look at some bricks with the kids, nothing major they can break at a brick site That is so funny - you're right! Mind you, can I just place on public record that when our now 8-year-old golden labrador was a pup, she not only destroyed our corn patch in the vege garden, but she would find little pieces of brick and rock and chew away at them to sharpen her teeth or just to "rock" her insides! I'm not presuming any bricks were put in little mouths whilst you and DH were inspecting, were there Now - I have to agree with carak - your brick selections provide real classic look without doubt! But can you just explain for my tired head - what do you mean by "try to think and imagine the min brick with the feature brick"? Where will the min brick be on the home compared to the feature brick? As for the colours you've selected from gutters, fascia, and garage - and that roof and driveway - yep, you've ticked every box and frankly, it's going to look great We hope to do the brick thing soon - we just found out our local brick company (Bowral Bricks) who provide the bricks to Austral are also open as a display, so we are going to look at the Bowral Blue - a brick we undoubtedly will only ever be able to see at the display centre as it will be too expensive for us - but might as well look locally. Do you think they'll give us a discount if they only have to transport the bricks 10km?! We can wish. Perhaps even a "local" discount Oh - and gas fireplaces - yes, please tell me more! We need one of these. What were you thinking or haven't you got to brand / style stage as yet? Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 140May 20, 2013 8:19 pm carak - we're jealous! We had hoped to get to the Home Show, but birthday parties intervened! Sounds like you collected a lot of ideas! I'm also interested in your comments re: fireplaces. Do you remember the guy you were speaking with? If you have his details can you PM me? I see what you're saying re: placing on external wall for ventilation. Hmm .. ours is on an internal wall only because the living room in which it will be placed is our northern side, and down in the Southern Highlands, wherever there is a northern wall, if you don't let the sun in, you're committing a sin as you need all the sun you can get in winter! Brrrrrrr ... 1 degree when I left for work this morning! Anyway, I'd be interested to know where you stand when you install a gas heater on the internal wall - do they duct it outside somehow? Is everyone (who is getting a gas heater) purchasing themselves and having Kurmond install, or will you get a local gas installer / similar? I presume Kurmond recess the wall for the placement / do we give them the measurements therefore need to know the heater design in advance? Ohhh .. so many questions! Oh - and upszie - how did you go today? I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 109775 Hi there! Putting the feelers out there for those who have (or almost) built with Arli homes! Interested in your experiences who've built from their stock home designs… 0 26695 Wish you all the best. Once you signed the contract, they will find millions excuses to charge you. And have seen their sites unfinished for a long time. 4 25870 |