NBG Windsor 43E - Our dream home build by the beach

8isenough · Sep 05, 2011 11:29 am

jnny123

8isenough

I passed by my site twice a day as the house is just around the corner from where my son's school, so before I drop him off at school, he wants to see if there are anyone onsite. He's as excited as we are.

Same with my kids. They say regularly that they want to fire the tradies and get faster ones. I think the kids thought the house would be built in a couple of months - I wish!

I'm not sure how long our flooring was exposed for. Does your builder communicate well? Aside from delays, we have found lack of builder communication extremely frustrating, although it has improved recently. There is nothing worse than being left wondering what is happening next and when it is going to happen. We were told plastering would start last week, but nothing happened & no answer from the builder :roll:

Hopefully they will get your roof on shortly and you will reach lock up stage soon.

equineaffair · Sep 05, 2011 9:16 pm

We built our barn with similar colours and was expecting alot more contrast and was a bit disappointed which is why we went for black this time, but it still looks great and you are right it still has the coastal look to it. At least its moving along even if its slow. At least you have your roof finished and the plumbing rough in we have not even had that yet. Its starting to drive me up the wall.

jnny123 · Sep 05, 2011 10:26 pm

8isenough

Does your builder communicate well? Aside from delays, we have found lack of builder communication extremely frustrating, although it has improved recently. There is nothing worse than being left wondering what is happening next and when it is going to happen. We were told plastering would start last week, but nothing happened & no answer from the builder :roll:

Hopefully they will get your roof on shortly and you will reach lock up stage soon.

Like yours, my builder is no better. No communication at all. Occasionaly I get a weekly update saying that "Frame is under construction". That short of words. I don't mind if frame is under construction but when there's no one onsite for 2 weeks when the weather is beautiful, at least he could update to let me know that his carpenters are busy on another job, I wouldn't mind. But no, no whatever so. It does get on my nerves to be honest.
For the last two days, we've got one brickie doing our bricks. Would be nice to get a team in so it can be faster, but I guess I'm happy at least someone's there

The building process makes me feel like I'm on drugs, days when I see progress, I feel high and on days when I see no one show up, it feel so low.

mike- · Sep 05, 2011 10:38 pm

Hi 8isenough. I am following your build with interest. Really like your design and also your external colours. It's great to see the cladding on top of the double. We are going the same way and yours has given us hope as it looks great!

Your contract signing, colourworld etc dates were only weeks apart from ours. We have just finished frame only at this stage so your not doing too bad. I'm 45 mins from the build so at least I can see the upside of this now from your comments about going past every day and seeing little progress! I bet your builder probably wishes he never mentioned a finish date now! If anything like our contract (through NBG) then they probably have until at least xmas to finish under contract.

Would love to hear about your cabinetry and so forth in regard to colours and benchtops etc as its interesting to see what people have chosen from the NBG range.

Best of luck for plaster soon!

8isenough · Sep 06, 2011 10:42 am

Agree totally jnny123. According to our builder the weather is to blame for just about every single delay......we know that it has held up the build significantly but not as much as they have made out. Mistakes during the build and lack of tradies are to blame as well IMO. Yesterday we received some bad news and this lengthy build now has us at the point of complete stress - we received notice to vacate our rental property in 60 days. OMG what will we do ::cry::

There is NO WAY we will find a temporary rental property in our area especially one that accommodates our large family. We have phoned the builder, texted and emailed and no response so far.

Hi Mike,
Had a quick look at your thread and love your home (or the beginnings of

). We tossed up between yours and the Windsor but in the end we went with the latter due to the plan suiting our large family a little better. We checked out the new Vaucluse display at Waurn Ponds recently and it is just beautiful.

The building time line is frustrating but even more so is that it is rare for anything to actually happen when they say it will. If they were straight with us (give & take allowances for weather and things that cannot be helped) it wouldn't be so bad. Now we are left with a situation that we really don't know how to deal with. I don't want to be homeless in 60 days! And the prospect of putting all our stuff in storage only to move again in a short space of time makes me feel ill. If they hadn't given us the 'absolute worst case' time frame we would have looked at new rental accommodation much earlier and tried to take out another 6 month lease. Sorry I am venting now :oops:

Not 100% sure about when the contract is actually up and have tried to contact them several times to find out. My mum is building with J#G King - her house began the same date as ours, is not finished and they have to start paying her compensation from the 13th Sept as the contract began from the day the site was pegged out. I don't know if ours starts from that point or not but we have signed around 4-5 variations each with a 7 day extension and one an extra 21 days.....sigh. Our home could be completed in 60 days if they worked consistently but I just don't see this happening. Anyway I hope the builder gets back to us today so we can have a conversation with them & see where we truly stand.

Our kitchen is white with a semi gloss laminate, the benches are coco stone and we chose a green splash back 'Moray'. All just standard picks. All the pictures of our colours are on my blog, you just have to skip past all the non-house stuff haha (I think colours were listed in December). The interior paint is the only thing that was chosen outside NBG range.

jnny123 · Sep 06, 2011 3:23 pm

8isenough

Agree totally jnny123. According to our builder the weather is to blame for just about every single delay......we know that it has held up the build significantly but not as much as they have made out. Mistakes during the build and lack of tradies are to blame as well IMO.

I'm with you too. They can't blame on the weather and my retired neighbours can prove that too. There were so many weeks with full of sunshine and no single souls at my site. We had a period of 8 weeks with no one. I was getting annoy so I call my builder up to ask him, then I found out that his group of tradies no longer working for him, and now he has to look for someone else and then had to wait for another 3 weeks for someone else to work up. They only spent 3 days completing the job.
My builder also blame for the delay because he said I have too many variations. And these variations was raised with NBG was way before we got our building permit. So it doesn't make sense. He put down the commencement date 3 months after the building permit approved and when I questioned him, he put the blame on my because it was my fault that my site has no pegs. Shouldn't this have been worked out during quotaton period and it was missed and now he blamed me.
His tradies has to rotate around his other 49 houses that he's also building at the same time, therefore we just had to wait for our turn. Sorry I'm venting it out on your thread

I wonder if we both have the same builder, because mine doesnt' return my calls too.

I'm sorry to hear about you had to look for another house. It would be so hard to find short term accommodation for a big family. I wish you all the best. I hope your builder will be touch with your situation and he'll speed up faster for you.

8isenough · Sep 20, 2011 12:46 pm

A bit of an update on ours - happy to say that for once we are really pleased with the progress. Builder is committed to completing our home before our eviction date. Cannot fault them really atm - they have worked every day incl. the weekends, some days from dawn to dusk. It's amazing how quickly things can change when work is consistent. Such a transformation on the inside, this time last week we had bare frame now the place is fully plastered with cornices due to go up tommorow. Builder has nutted out a strict schedule with other employees and went through it with us last week. Painter who is apparently much sort after couldn't be booked until Oct 3rd. Kitchen is all measured up. Home theatre wiring has been done. Spa & other bath are in. Stairs are ordered. Plus plenty of other things I can't quite remember. All sounds pretty good although some things are out of the builders control I guess. Will put up inside pics soon..

buildingwest · Sep 20, 2011 2:42 pm

Wow what a relief that the builders will make sure your home is completed prior to the eviction.
That must be a huge stress that has now gone.

Glad to see things are progressing now. Hope that the builders will be able to keep to the scheduled timetable and you can move in at the right time as planned.

Good luck!

jnny123 · Sep 20, 2011 3:14 pm

Congratulations 8isenough. I had a look at your pictures from your blog. Looking great. Lots of progress. I can't wait to see more pictures. Keep us post on the progress ok.

8isenough · Sep 23, 2011 9:16 pm

Thanks building west & jnny123 - yeah I've only had time to put pics on the blog so far.
We are meeting with the supervisor tmrw so it will be good to get the latest update & will take some more pics. I see that the paint has been delivered & sitting in one of the rooms. Can't wait for all the good stuff on the inside to start so we can see all our picks at Colourworld finally come together. Looking forward to the end of this epic journey!

8isenough · Oct 04, 2011 11:11 am

An update on ours.....coming along quickly with something happening onsite just about everyday

Fix should be completed today, would have been earlier but our interior doors with extra height had to be specially made and the company went on strike for a few days. Not to worry, the doors are all onsite now and they look fantastic - so glad we went with the upgrade option. The plasterers have done a top job so we are very happy with it. The stairs went in last week and we are in love with them ::kiss::

, we just need to choose a stain. Kitchen is in production - I'm still nervous about the colours though :th:

. Stegbar has kindly made our wardrobe fit-outs a priority job. Wet proofing is taking place now and then the builder is bringing in either the tiler or painter later this week, but hadn't decided which one. Everything seems to be on track & builder hopes to have it finished by Nov 3rd, 4 days before we are to due to vacate our rental. Talk about cutting it fine - hopefully nothing comes undone between now & then....

Some pics...

Stairs

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Kids bedroom with wir
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Main bedroom
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Ensuite
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Front door delivered
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Kitchen
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Meals area
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Upstairs rumpus
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buildingwest · Oct 04, 2011 12:42 pm

Wow. Things are really progressing and everything is looking great.

jnny123 · Oct 04, 2011 1:10 pm

Looking great. Is that 2700mm for downstairs?

equineaffair · Oct 04, 2011 4:51 pm

wow looking really good. What doors did you have downstairs. We have the taller doors as well, and we upgraded the door, and they apparently didnt make them, so we ended up finding another door that they made. One got delivered with the front doors and its completely the wrong style. We are still struggling to get rough ins done which is very frustrating. I think in the last month we have had about 3 days work done. You would think they would be getting a move on given the contracted date is up already.

Love the stairs, we are getting hardwood stairs as well.

jnny123 · Oct 04, 2011 10:37 pm

equineaffair

I think in the last month we have had about 3 days work done. Love the stairs, we are getting hardwood stairs as well.

We asked for hardwood stairs but the consultant at National Builder told us that they don't do it. So we ended up having carpet but I would love to have it hardwood. May I ask how much did you girls pay to upgrade your stairs?

equineaffair · Oct 05, 2011 12:05 pm

it cost us $2700 to upgrade to Hardwood stairs including staining. I think you had a dud consultant, I think it was a standard upgrade.

8isenough · Oct 05, 2011 12:22 pm

We have the taller doors both up & downstairs. The extra ceiling height to the bottom floor came as standard and we upgraded the top floor ceiling to match, then decided to do all the doors as well to keep with the style. Even though the doors are completely plain the extra height adds to the feeling of space.

Had a peek last night and see that all the interior & balcony tiles are delivered. Excited about the tiling getting started!

jnny123 - that doesn't sound right about the stairs. It was just a standard upgrade for us. At Colourworld there are a few on display from memory. If you want to take issue with it I would ring National and tell them what you were originally told - they may still be able to do the variation for you or take it up with the builder on your behalf, especially since what they told you was incorrect. The stair upgrade cost us around $2700.

Equine that is rough. How frustrating, that's just not good enough

What is their plan/timeline? I'm gathering you've had a good whinge to them?

8isenough · Oct 09, 2011 5:54 pm

It's still going along nicely. Our last visit we were pleasantly surprised to see the kitchen & other cabinetry started as it went in earlier than scheduled. We are thrilled with the size, especially after cooking in our can't-swing-a-cat rental kitchen for so long. Laundry, bathroom, powder room cabinetry has also started. Ensuite is slightly delayed. All the bench top templates are being dropped off tommorow for the stone to be cut to size.
Painters went through last week & have finished their prep work, they are due to start painting tommorow. Very exciting!

The schedule is still looking good & builder has told us he will be getting in a couple of trades at a time. Although he prefers not to this he is committed to getting us in asap. He expects completion to be the end of October (fingers crossed). The end is near :z:

Kitchen pic

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buildingwest · Oct 09, 2011 7:09 pm

Wow! The kitchen looks huge.
Won't be too long before you are cooking up a storm in there.

Deemaree · Oct 09, 2011 8:05 pm

Love it!