Building the Monaco by Dechellis

Monaco Build · May 01, 2012 6:40 pm

This is the darker floor tile with the grey walls from the display home we looked at

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wildorchid · May 01, 2012 6:41 pm

we have exposed agg, it was around $84 ish a sqm, all up, around our whole house 1m path and driveway, and extra in the corner of the back rollerdoor and laundry, it was around $11k.
i have seen way too many paved driveways all buckled up, i much prefer concrete.

fekish · May 02, 2012 4:18 am

Monaco Build

Hi Fekish, As DingoD64 mentioned the best place to get your power outlets will probably be on the end of the island bench. We are getting a double power point on the 'window end' of our island bench. However we are not having slab ends so it will probably be a little easier. We like the look of the thinner essa stone with a floating edge and no ends-it looks good in my head but only time will tell :::

Thanks for the tip.

However we are thinking ofhaving the sink on one side and cooking on the other, in order to have the space to work in the middle...

Thus through this we cannot put plugs at ends, since the wires would go above either sink or hot pans!

Mclaren · May 02, 2012 10:51 am

LynneY

BTW- are you happy with the home that you have built?

Ah the $64,000 question .... no we are not happy. We had a 6 month stress free build due to the fact that we didn't have any contact with our SS and from what we could see all looked fine ... until it came to the PCI - luckily we had an independent inspector - as the alarm bells went off as soon as we started walking through and checking everything. It was obvious that the SS hadn't checked before PCI as we found so many things wrong that should have been fixed prior and once we moved in we found so much poor quality work we couldn't believe it. One of the worse things (among many) is the window sill in the family room is not square - this would have been like it since the window was installed ... nobody said or did anything about it and of course once we moved in it was a huge job to replace the window so we said it wasn't worth it but it's still there ...

Overall, we were disappointed in the poor quality and lack of attention to detail from a builder who reputes to be "an Adelaide based home builder, who specialises in quality craftsmanship & timeless design. Our objective is for sustainable growth, attention to detail, unquestionable quality and maintaining customer satisfaction, by listening to what our client's requirements are and following through with a home that reflects their dreams and exceeds their expectations."

Communication is poor throughout the company - we wrote to Rick Dechellis about three weeks after we moved in but he never acknowledged the letter - he sent his Operations Manager to have a look - and it took 6 months to get everything fixed, some things from hadover. There has never been an apology - luckily my hubby doesn't work otherwise one of us would have had to take quite a lot of time off work to meet with tradies etc.

Hopefully you will get a good SS who will keep you informed throughout the build - our SS even made changes without telling us - fortunately they turned out to be good changes but why not talk to us about them??

Sorry for the long answer but I do believe we should share our experiences and hope that improves things for others. We love our home but the "shine" has been taken off somewhat ...

LynneY · May 02, 2012 12:47 pm

Mclaren

LynneY

BTW- are you happy with the home that you have built?

Sorry for the long answer but I do believe we should share our experiences and hope that improves things for others. We love our home but the "shine" has been taken off somewhat ...

Hi Annette (I have been following- looking over your thread- it has been an interesting read)

I really appreciate your honesty. I guess it means that my hubby and I have to be on the ball and keep hassling the SS perhaps when it comes to our build. I am sorry to hear that you are not completely happy - if it is any consolation though - based on the photos in your thread, your home still looks gorgeous and geez, I would be happy to move into a place like yours any day!! I am so jealous of that retreat.... and your colour selections are beautiful.

Sure I will be PMing you to ask you other questions! Only if you don't mind.....

Cheers
L

Mclaren · May 02, 2012 12:53 pm

Hi Lynne,

Please do PM me - only too happy to help. Thanks for your kind comments .. it is a lovely house, great design ... let me know if you are having a hot water system and I'll pm you ...

cheers
Annette

LynneY · May 02, 2012 1:34 pm

Monaco Build

Hi LinneY we have been dealing with Sebastian at Aldinga, so far so good. Did Dechellis give you a new consultant when Virginia left? The as displayed is 'basically' a grande spec but there are a few more inclusions that you would not get otherwise. You can ask your consultant to explain the main differences. We felt that the as displayed option gave us more bang for our buck and will hopefully help us to spend less at selctions as we already have a pretty good idea of what we are getting-basically what u see is what u get (minus downlighting, carpets, tiles curtains etc).

The house that had the darker and really nice grey tiles was the APS homes display at StClair.....if I was rolling in the $$ that would be my first choice home!! The tiles are really not much darkest barely a few shades but I do think it makes a bit of a difference. We are also having grey walls and white sittings and architraves so I think it should flow nicely with the tiles.

In regards to the fencing we will get that done ASAP, we have a big dog so we really need it done. We will also have some retaining to do on one side so will probably get fences and retaining done at the same time. We already have a rear fence as our block backs onto a council reserve so it has been fenced by them (one small saving). Not sure on the paving yet. We are really liking the look of exposed aggregate for the driveway and paths around the house but it's pretty expensive? Is there anyone else in SA that has exposed aggregate? Who did you use and were the prices insane?

We ended up going with the 900 appliances, very last minute decision but glad we went with it-I just wanna start cooking up a storm in my new kitchen!

We r loving the splash back colour too, my Dad has so many to choose from....sometimes I think it's makes life harder having too much choice.

Please keep me posted on all your ideas/decisions....looks like we have very similar taste.

Hi there,

Those tiles at the APS home are great. Your house is going to look so good - I love your choice of grey and neutral tones. We will be going with similar tones too. We do have similar tastes! Ifn an ideal world I would not mind living in a house like the APS one too. I heard on the grapevine that they were asking 1.5mil for the house. Hopefully the lottery ticket I bought yesterday is the winning ticket and will cover that for me.. LOL :-)

as if.

We are dealing with Kym now. Have you dealt with him before? Probably not as you have Sebastian?

We never thought of the double power point at the end of the island bench - cudos to you, thanks for the idea. :-)

We are looking at going for 900mm wide appliances but have asked for The SC to quote SMeg (if we can afford it) and he said he can only credit $2K (in lieu of the existing Euro). I love cooking and am a bit of a foodie. I have 100 cookbooks and we love entertaining! so 900mm wide appliances will make things easier!!

We are a bit nervous about signing any paperwork at this stage - I think I am a bit of a chicken. This whole building thing is so new to us. When you say you have your first draft, I assume that is the 1st drawing after you signed the preliminary service agreement and paid $2K? I assume you haven't signed any build contracts as yet as you are still waiting on council approval etc? I can't wait to be at your stage.... I will let you know when I finally stop sitting on the fence and do something about it. We are still sorting out finances and so that is why we have not committed at this stage but when we do I can't wait to let you know! :-)

Cheers,
L

Monaco Build · May 15, 2012 6:59 pm

Thanks for the info on the exposed aggregate wildorchid, we are still really loving it but it will be quite expensive if we do decide to go that way as our house is over 12m from the road. We figure closer to $20k for the driveway and the paths around the front of the house....YIKES!!

Thats a real shame that you had to go through all of that McLaren - I hope its some consolation that everything you have posted will help the rest of us to be on our toes and hopefully avoid a few of the problems you have come up against.

Hi LinneY, sorry about the slow reply, I haven't been receiving the notifications fro some reason.
How awesome is the ASP house - I don't think I could stretch the budget that far though!! BUMMER!! no luck with the XLOTTO win I take it?

I have met Kym when we have been out at the display home but not dealt with him in regards to our build. Keep us posted on how things go with him. The SMEG appliances you are thinking of will be awesome - im a bit of a keen cooker as well, im glad we upgraded to 900 appliances but wish we could go even more fancy with the SMEG. That is one thing I love about the Monaco, is that the entertaining area is awesome and it so open and inviting.

We have paid the $2k for the 1st draft (which we made some changes to) and just signed off on the 2nd draft. It went to council last week so just waiting to hear something now - I presume we will be waiting for a fair while though. The changes we made on the 1st draft were minor so didn't take to long to get the updated draft. We added a sink to the garage, updated to 900 appliances changed the glass in the bathroom to obscure and moved the position of the house slightly. Do you think you will pay the $2k to have the initial testing done?

Keep me posted on how you go.
MB

wildorchid · May 17, 2012 10:10 am

12m...wow!!! yes, that will be more $ lol

LynneY · May 17, 2012 10:41 am

Hi Monaco,

Yes, unfortunately I only won $15 or so in the tax lotto. When I scanned the ticket it said I was a winner and my heart was thumping whilst waiting in queue.... bit silly really, then I went to the counter and the guy goes... $15..... so I just bought another ticket with it! what an anti climax LOL :-)

I really hope the council does not take too long to approve the plans. You know what they say about councils. Once you get all the approvals and everything it will be exciting times. I can't wait till you start. It is a bit sad when I get so excited about other peoples builds! BTW - are you going with dark brick facade with light mortar? I like that look.

We plan to meet with Kym again. We'd had to put it on the backburner as we had a few other things we had to sort out. Things are back on track now. We have received a quote from another builder and just finally deciding which way to go (they have a house very similar to the Monaco and have been able to do a bit of a custom plan for us.....see how Kym goes with his negotiation... and what he can do for us..but as I said I just love the Monaco....

Keep you posted
L

Monaco Build · May 17, 2012 10:57 am

Haha oh well - we didn't win anything either! I had a ticket at work and we won a few $$ but we 'reinvested' with no luck!

I get super excited every time I see people's updates on here as well - I just think about how exciting they must be to see it all coming together. We haven't thought about the bricks much at all, ideally a lighter/mid grey colour and maybe a darker grey roof - I have a fee pics of other houses that I quite like so I will see if I can find a few of those to post. Do you have any pics of the style you like?

Who is the other builder you have been speaking to? If you don't want to write it on here feel free to PM me. Are you happy with them so far as well? We spoke to another builder as well, and their price worked out around the same so in the end we decided to just go with Dechellis as they were the one we had always fancied!

Mclaren · May 17, 2012 11:03 am

Monaco Build

I get super excited every time I see people's updates on here as well - I just think about how exciting they must be to see it all coming together.

Do you know it is a really strange feeling to be living in a "display home" .... it was very exciting to watch it grow though!! Most exciting day was seeing the vanities and kitchen had been installed, peering through the dirty windows - DH told me to stop squealing!! :lol:

LynneY · May 21, 2012 11:51 pm

Hey MB,

Did Dechellis mention anything regarding the carbon tax and any cost variations when this kicks in in July? It seems everyone is pretty vague on the whole thing?

L

Mclaren · May 22, 2012 8:57 am

LynneY

Hey MB,
Did Dechellis mention anything regarding the carbon tax and any cost variations when this kicks in in July? It seems everyone is pretty vague on the whole thing?
L

Hi Linh, No - but we did our final sign offs last January but you can imagine everything will be going up in price! We just had to pay an extra $1200 for insulation though to meet 6 star regs ... house is nice and cosy now!! ::lol::

LynneY · May 22, 2012 9:35 am

Cheers Annette. :-)

LynneY · May 28, 2012 11:32 am

Hi Monaco Build,

I know it is early days but have you heard back from council yet??? I am getting anxious for you... how sad!! LOL :-)

Cheers,
L

jessie87 · Jun 03, 2012 7:26 pm

Hi Lynne, we were initially dealing with Dechellis and pulled out a week before the build. All I can say is be very careful of Kym. Not meaning to scare you but the nice smile that he has reels people in but he isnt as nice as what you think. When we were speaking to other people at the display home that he was in, they were having issues with him as well. We wanted to do some stuff ourselves like wardrobes etc. I asked him how much credit we would get if we don't have it, and he would give us X amount. I know you dont get the full money back but it seems very very low. One time we were at the display village at went through the Dechellis display home. We asked the sales consultant how much credit back would be if we didnt have the wardrobes and the credit back was $200 more. That got me questioning everything else.

I found that the costings varied from one consultant to the next. I have heard that they have improved. But thats my experience on him!

LynneY · Jun 03, 2012 9:50 pm

Hi Jessie (Sorry Monaco Build for using your thread! LOL :-)

)

Thanks for the heads up - I am a very pedantic person and to be honest I am also a major cynic (I'm starting to sound like I have trust issues... LOL :-)

. I think a lot of sales reps try to reel you in so that you can sign up and I have picked up on this. And you are right - the price variations are quite substantital sometimes depending on which rep you talk to!! And the credits you get back vary too..... but for heavens sake... all the stuff is the same so they should just have a set price to credit you back...not tell you what they think they can get away with!! Sorry to hear that things did not go at all well with Dechellis. At least you are happy in your new home!?

Thanks again. BTW - I had a look at your thread... I think I have the right person... I love the vaulted ceiling in the entrance and the chandelier!! Sexy!! How embarrassing if I am thinking of someone elses house! You built in GG? So young yet so determined and so driven. You go girl.

Monaco Build - we are missing you.... hope you have had some news.. but councils can take months so we might not see you for months??!

wildorchid · Jun 04, 2012 11:08 am

in my experience, the sales reps dont know alot at all about finer details of costings.
Its best to check with the office, and either way, if its from the sales or office, i always emailed so i had the reply in writing, so if they told you something different in the final meeting, you can say, no, its this price, and whip out your email

jessie87 · Jun 05, 2012 10:10 pm

Yep, that frustrated me to no end with the costings. When we moved to fairmont, they have a book with a set price so you definitely know where you stand

you think they would be able to get their act together and be able to do that so customers know where they stand. I think thats good customer service, but honestly we received none of that. Although Emma was brilliant.

Yeh we are the one with the vaulted ceiling and funky chandelier hahahaha

Honestly, we had a few weird looks when we said we are going from Dechellis (boutique builder) to Fairmont which is a mainstream builder. But honestly I have felt that we have not compromised at all and if not we have received a better product, in the way where we were able to speak that extra money on better taps and showerhead etc. I really think a house is what you put in it regarding selections etc. We had hardly anything to put in for PCI and trust me I am really picky

and we have an inspector at each stage and we didnt really get a massive list. So overall, I am over the moon with the house and would definitely build with Fairmont again

yes.... lots of people think because I am a lady and very young..... I am going to be a pushover! They messed with the wrong bunny

We haven't got where we are without determination

LynneY

Hi Jessie (Sorry Monaco Build for using your thread! LOL :-)

)

Thanks for the heads up - I am a very pedantic person and to be honest I am also a major cynic (I'm starting to sound like I have trust issues... LOL :-)

. I think a lot of sales reps try to reel you in so that you can sign up and I have picked up on this. And you are right - the price variations are quite substantital sometimes depending on which rep you talk to!! And the credits you get back vary too..... but for heavens sake... all the stuff is the same so they should just have a set price to credit you back...not tell you what they think they can get away with!! Sorry to hear that things did not go at all well with Dechellis. At least you are happy in your new home!?

Thanks again. BTW - I had a look at your thread... I think I have the right person... I love the vaulted ceiling in the entrance and the chandelier!! Sexy!! How embarrassing if I am thinking of someone elses house! You built in GG? So young yet so determined and so driven. You go girl.

Monaco Build - we are missing you.... hope you have had some news.. but councils can take months so we might not see you for months??!