Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 721Aug 01, 2014 10:43 pm Mars... What colour is your kitchen bench top?... Sounds like things have been a little frustrating, I hope everything gets back on track soon Upsize... So glad to see how great your floor tiles look! I was reading the previous comments about tiles vs wooden floors I have not had tiles throughout the house before and I was starting to think that I had made the wrong choice but I just love the look of tiles and found the perfect one as soon as I walked in to the tile shop. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 722Aug 02, 2014 8:29 am Ses, the bench top is polar white. We could've gone with some darker speckles but we're happy with it. Yes frustrations are a normal part of building. As long as the end product is there. Our supervisor has been fantastic too, so no complaints really. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 723Aug 05, 2014 8:21 am hey guys , been a while... sweet sweet progress everyone, Just some update pics from my build Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 724Aug 05, 2014 5:53 pm So we have just been hit with a $2500 variation to get a stormwater drainage design to get done by a hydraulic engineer. Does anyone know what this is and how do we know if one is actually required? I have seen neighbours plans on the da tracker and no one else seems to have such a plan so I'm sceptical to believe one is needed. Also does anyone have any idea why it would only "pop up" just before we go to council any not anytime in the last 8 months that we have been dealing with Kurmond lol slightly perplexed and annoyed is there a possibility the result of this "design" is going to hit us with more charges? Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 725Aug 05, 2014 9:18 pm Hi hills build, I know exactly how frustrating this is!!! We thought that we were ready to go to council a few months ago when our storm water drainage stuff 'popped up' too. We were told... to avoid any hold ups whilst at council that Kurmond looked into the specifics that OUR council would require and were trying to get all of the necessary things done and submitted all together. It is all extremely frustrating and unfortunately we just have to put our trust in the company knowing what is and isn't needed. I did check my councils website and it did confirm that this was needed maybe you could check your councils website? This did become a huge cost that we were not expecting followed by delays that were also not expecting but hey it's all part of the building process If you check pg 32 (I think) of this thread big muma explains what this is all for, as I also had no idea about any of it Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 726Aug 07, 2014 9:40 am Hi! Ive been trolling for a while as we take our time to jump into the build process. Last year we had tenders done with Beechwood in which they mentioned a cost for hydraulic design. This prompted me to call our council. When you ring your council you want to speak to their hydraulics engineer. We're in an old established area (knock down/rebuild dreams) and discovered that we have a very old pit in our back yard which we would be unable to tap back back into. As our land slopes backwards we were unable to run stormwater to the front street, and behind us is another residence. Their suggestion was to request access through their property and create an easement so that stormwater pipes could be laid through to their front street. From what I've learnt neighbours can refuse, or can agree if you pay whatever money they decide they want to demand. If unable to do this the alternative is to put another pit in our backyard, but council stressed this should not be the first option. Either way this would run into the thousands. We have since built a garage in our backyard and still needed to address stormwater for this. LUCKILY our next door neighbour is a water engineer and he gave us access to his large stormwater pit AND drew up the plans for us, all free of charge. We do now though have to legalise the easement which could cost about $1000. We are now though ready for a future rebuild of our house as the pipes we installed for the garage were put in with the future build in mind. I really wish this kind of information was given to us when we bought our little old house. Surely it should be included in the searches and conveyancing. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 727Aug 07, 2014 12:16 pm Hi all, We visited a number of builders and received quotes from a few. Was by accident we ended up Kurmond, we did like the Sierra but had few must haves and we were looking for a custom design at the time. Had planned to go with Urban Style Homes, and then Hontondo after hearing they brought the design At Glenswood Hills after USH went under and Kurmond was a last minute stop then, we spent 2-3 hours with G modifying a Sapphire 28. We went back the next few weekends and continued the changes. We had already dismissed other builders at this stage due to cost and in modifying the smaller house design we felt we could reduce overcost and have the design we wanted. That started back in Jan/Feb of this year, Land was to be registered in May. We have finislised plans as best we can and tender, there are still a few things not right in the last tender but we paid the deposit and was told we can fix it all up in colour selection appointments. Land registration delayed again, now another 4 weeks away, building down at Bingara Gorge, Highlands area. We took the Sapphire 28 and it's now a Sapphire 35, triple garage, stretched it out through the middle, adding to Main Bedroom and ensuite, wanted a spa bath in there and an island wall and robes behind in the main bedroom. Added area to alfresco and closed in the living room for a study/music room so it will be soundproofed along with the home theatre. Storage at back of garage as well nearly 1.2m depth along the entire rear wall. Completely tiling ensuite and bathroom floor to ceiling and 40mm benchtop in kitchen with waterfall side on the island kitchen bench. We are living with master at front but our original wish was for it at rear but few designs have that arrangement. Hate that we have BAL 12.5 menain no hign 1200mm front door, has to be no pivot and that means standard hight and hinged. Can't wait to have it start building. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 728Aug 07, 2014 2:55 pm Dear everyone, Welcome to the new folks, and the trolls Nice to see the lovely homes progressing. Ses - all the hydraulic stuff was done after DA was lodged with council. We also have to raise our house for the 1 in 100 year flood, adding tens of thousands to the final cost, and await the variation in price from K. Hills - The $2,500 for the design of the stormwater pit is the first step is a huge whack you are about to be hit with. There will be a fee for the stormwater pit itself, and also to connect to it. Councils want all your stormwater to be held within your property boundary and not be connected to the general sewers. We have just been hit with the same fee for designing the pit. I do not have quotes yet but I am expecting the cost for the pit and connection to be around $20,000 extra. As our rainwater run off will be less than 1%, I thought we could avoid the need for the stormwater pit but "council says no." Ah, the joys of building. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 729Aug 07, 2014 4:19 pm Awesome to see the progress pics! Also - noticed a youtube video posted by Kurmond last week showing the construction of their display homes in Kellyville: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhXe5ToIS7k I'd mute the video though - it's their on hold music track and my stress levels seem to rocket when I hear the music for some bizarre reason lol We had gyprock put up this week (was meant to be last week but pigs will fly when a trade actually rocks up on the day the site supervisor tells me they will). Cornices are scheduled for tomorrow, electrician back in early next week to start punching holes in the walls and carpenter later that week. Will advise if any of that actually happens All in all though - other than the delays there's been no major screwups yet.. I did notice today that the plumbing for the ensuite vanities looks way too far to the left. On the plans the vanity is meant to be centered between the bath and the shower but the water and drainage pipes are right hard up against where the shower screen is. Just waiting on a call back from the SS on this. Might be completely normal. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 730Aug 07, 2014 6:14 pm Mckz, yes sometimes it is frustrating, but I found the supervisor is as frustrated with tradies as we are. But, like anything, there are always hiccups. Hope they decrease and things improve. We have our PCI on Monday morning. Ya! Any tips to look out for? We are organising an independent inspect at is stage also, as the things I look at are superficial. Everything is looking good. The only thing rhat I am not 100% happy with is my main wall colours! they look too blue! but if you match it to our selection of crushed ice it is right. I just didn't think it would be so blue. Oh well, hopefully it will grow on me or not look so blue once furniture is in the house. Loving our kitchen and bathrooms and definitely happy I had them in a different colour than the main house, we went with miss universe for the wall colours. Looking forward to the walk through, also think they do the first clean out tomorrow and driveway starts tomorrow. Does anyone know when the carpet happens? Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 731Aug 11, 2014 5:34 pm PCI today, fun going through the house, list a few different things. All on the list to be fixed. Also, planned for our inspector to go through bext Monday, want to have carpets and driveway done prior to inspector. Driveway should get done this week, apparently they have a lot of driveways in the schedule to get done so I guess we are part of that list. Dark clouds might slow down the list. Supervisor is aiming for us to do handover by the end of August, tight squeeze it is only 3wks!!!! Exciting. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 732Aug 11, 2014 8:18 pm Well our application has finally made it onto the council website as of last Friday which is very exciting. Although we are up for another couple of months of waiting, it feels different... There isn't the need for constant chasing of variations and unanswered emails. There is now so much to organise... Packing up the house and moving sometime in September (which I am not looking forward to ) and completing the internal things that have not yet been finalised with Kurmond. Now if only I can stop checking the council website tracking system! Sounds exciting upsize, you are well and truly on the home stretch!!! How do the private building inspections work? Do you just organise it and let Kurmond know? Or was this something that needed to be organised back at the tender stage? How many inspections did you get? And do you feel that they were worthwhile? Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 733Aug 12, 2014 10:46 am Hi all, m new to this forum, but i have been following all of ur posts, v r also building with Kurmond Homes, v have signed our contract last week and had done our external,so far the experience was not soo bad and its all thnks to KJ she is fantastic sales girl, but as v r heading to internal m very stressed as v want to go thru lot of upgrades and at the same time v have very tight budget, if any of u can help us with pricing will b gr8 Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 734Aug 12, 2014 6:30 pm Ses we organised to have additional item in our contract to allow us to have a private inspector at two different stages. That is what our inspector advised us, and also K recommended. An inspection done just before gyprock, so plumbing, electrical & bricks all done. Then one at PCI stage. Should probably be done already but we agreed to epsait until carpet and driveway done. The reason we did it is mainly because of our last build 16 years ago, we had so many issues that we didn't have a clue. Things I pointed out where all superficial items probably not even worth mentioning. The inspector at least have this knowledge and can point out better issues. Fortunately, Kurmond is better builder than our previous builder, reason we chose them over another large chain project home builder. Our inspector was impressed and didn't point out anything if major significance but it was still handy. I expect he'll do the same at this inspection, I'll let you know what comes out of it next week when we get it done. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 735Aug 12, 2014 8:46 pm Upsize..Amazing you're at PCI! How long until handover do you think? dreamhome28.. welcome to the party KJ is absolutely great. If the entire company were as top notch as her then there'd be literally nothing to complain about.. We're at Tuesday and so far the cornices have been completed, the electrician has come through and punched all the holes in the walls & ceiling and the stairs were installed today. Carpenter is scheduled for tomorrow (saw all the skirting boards, internal doors and external door was delivered) and absolutely pumped on the progress this week (compared to prior). So credit where credit is due and the site supervisor has got stuff moving at least. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Edit: Ses, we never organised an inspection in our tender or contract but the SS was happy for one to attend during PCI which we will do. The HIA contract also allows you to as as you're allowed to inspect your property or an agent acting on your behalf can. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 736Aug 16, 2014 8:22 pm Drive done Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Not sure how long the final touches take. Carpet went in on Friday so only a few bits and pieces to be fixed. The biggy is the feature wall painting, the painter did our crossfire wall in the bedroom instead of the lounge...oops!...a bit to bright for a bedroom. Also, the glass splash back needs to be finished. We are getting our inspector on Tuesday to do a through check and then I guess after that we'll find out when hand over is. Guessing 2 weeks. Mars how are you going??? Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 737Aug 16, 2014 8:56 pm Hey Upsize. Your driveway is looking great! I assume Reece did yours also. He does a very good job. He'll come back in a week or so to seal it properly. We were supposed to handover this week (Thursday) but some items were still not finished and the Director M is overseas till next week so we have to wait for his return. A bit of a strange policy. Our pool excavation therefore had to be rearranged till after we get the keys. These last couple of weeks seem like months!!! Here are some pics. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 738Aug 20, 2014 10:45 pm So we received our CDC this week and have sent our final colour corrections for the final plans to be updated. They told us they are just getting a letter of commencement from our broker and then they will book the peg out. I'm not sure what happens at this stage, when do we meet our SS? How long do you think it will be until we actually start i.e. a slab goes down? Any advice on what to expect would be great, it's always easier knowing it might take a while rather than getting my hopes up when there is no chance! Thanks Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 739Aug 21, 2014 8:18 pm Mars handover yet? We are having our final walk through sometime next week, think they are aiming for Monday but no time given as yet. Ihaveaquestion, fingers crossed it will not take long to initiate. Once it starts though you'll see steady progress from beginning to end. We started in Feb and done by August. I'm still impressed. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 740Aug 22, 2014 8:32 am Upsize, Yes we finally got our keys on Wednesday. A bit of an anti climax because of a number of outstanding paint issues still. But we just cannot afford to delay handover, so the painter is coming this morning to do post handover touch ups. There are a couple of other items getting put on the maintenance list. But overall the house looks great and we're looking forward to moving in. The other reason I'm disappointed is that we could've handed over last week, but due to the Construction Mgr and Director not being available, they delayed a week. You'd think they'd fix everything having an extra week up their sleeves, but only cleaning was done. Then finally neither the director or construction manager turned up. And therefore our pool is delayed a week as Phil had to rearrange his schedule. 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 109956 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 26751 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 25922 |