Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 20, 2009 9:18 pm Hi We are new to building and currently been looking at Alliance designs, Ausbuild and Metriocon has anyone built with these builders before. We are building on Brisbane southside at Parkwood estate. Any info or advice would be hlepful thankyou. Re: Has anyone built with Ausbuild or Allaince homes? 2Apr 21, 2009 8:14 am Hi Olivetree, We are building around the corner from Heathwood, and are building a M3tric0n home. The sales guys up at the displays have been fantastic! We just started building last month. We are building the Grandview, as I just fell in love with it and knew as soon as I stepped foot in the house. The admin side was a little stressful, but saying that, we are building a granny flat too, so it wasn't straight forward. I think it depends who you get as your Customer Service person though too. But I have a good relationship with the sales guy, and he has been so helpful along the way. Now that we are at construction stage, our new customer service person is lovely, and I have to say I am extremely impressed with M and their tradies! I hope they keep up this momentum the whole way through!! We started the last week of March, and to give you an idea, the frame was completed last Weds, Thursday the gutters went up, Friday the roof ! Today the windows & doors were delivered. So we are very happy. Our site supervisor has been great also. Friends of mine built with @lliance over on the North side and they were happy with them. I have seen the house, and was very impressed, it has a nice finish, nicer than what I thought it was going to be actually. I don't think they had any major problems, and I think they might have gotten in a week or 2 earlier than anticipated. I haven't heard anything about Ausbuild so sorry I can't help you there! We looked at one of the displays at Heathwood, the sales guy there was very helpful, and the package they have was very tempting, moreso even than the M one, but I didn't love the house like I loved the Grandview, and it was a little too big for our building envelope. Hope this helps - good luck with your decision! Building in Brisbane SW Suburbs Started on site with plumbing on 30/3 - Lock up 2/5 - 15/6 Recd Fixing Invoice - 18/6 Painter to start ! Re: Has anyone built with Ausbuild or Allaince homes? 3Apr 21, 2009 8:36 am Hi Thankyou that was helpful! Its funny as I have the same experience with the Grandview and fell in love with it and nothing else measured up. As we have a budget of around $250 I wasnt sure if things would blow out as the sales guy did a walkthourgh and he did not put anything we discussd in the walk through on the quote just the basics like promo package driveway (no facade no airconditioning on other extras) which I wasnt sure was done so that I would stay interested and put my $1500 down (as there are price rises every six weeks). I need to go back and chat with him. The other funny thing is I had the same expereince with Ausuild as he was a great guy but the homes on display dont have have the spacious feel or wow factor . I have had some good chnats with the Alliance homes and finding that there are alot of extras and upgrades included. Certain above standard inclusions are alot cheaper to do. He is also willing to maake changes to the house plans. I am very happy to hear the progress of your home...would love to stay informed how your journey goes. hopefully it all beocomes less confusing as the time goes on for us. thanyou again olivia Re: Has anyone built with Ausbuild or Allaince homes? 4Apr 21, 2009 10:10 am Glad I could be of some help! Just to give you an idea, for us not including the granny flat - we built the Grandview 27 not 30 as per display - I think it is costing around $260k. Thats not including driveway, landscaping, letter box etc. But, saying that, we have gone with quite a few of the upgrades, ducted aircon, fully tiled ensuite, extended the outdoor room and a few of the display options. So naturally that all adds up too. It does get easier in my experience so far. Just make sure you tell them everything that you do want, make sure you have it in writing, make sure they know what you want & that they write it down so you have proof. I would ask for copies of all that too, just so you don't get charged variation fees. Our sales guy as wonderful as he is, missed off a couple of things, which in turn cost us $1500 in variations cos we couldn't prove it as he forgot to write it down. I can understand it was overwhelming for them having to deal with us 4 people plus design the flat, but he forgot & we still had to pay...... Also, check the prelim contract thoroughly before signing. If I was to do it again, I would take pen & paper with me, and everything I wanted & said I wanted I would write down, as it is so easy to forget later on as there is so much to go through. Looking forward to hearing more as to where you go from here! Crissy Building in Brisbane SW Suburbs Started on site with plumbing on 30/3 - Lock up 2/5 - 15/6 Recd Fixing Invoice - 18/6 Painter to start ! Re: Has anyone built with Ausbuild or Allaince homes? 5Apr 21, 2009 12:30 pm Hi i will take your advise on that at the signing Thanks for the costing and that is for the grandiew 27...that really gives me a good indication. Hey what are the main differences between the 27 and 30 I here the kitchen is smaller is that the case? thanks olivetree Re: Has anyone built with Ausbuild or Allaince homes? 6Apr 22, 2009 9:08 am Hi again! The 27 is exactly the same as the 30 - only a little shrunken ! I have not actually seen the 27, only from what we are building by walking thru the frame at this stage. The kitchen is slightly smaller, everything is slightly smaller. I don't think we'll notice too much of a huge difference (I'm hoping anyways!), from the frame stage so far it still does look quite big. The kitchen bench is one cupboard length shorter (for the island bench). I think everything else is pretty much the same. If you go on to the website, you can look at the floor plans and compare, thats what we had to do. We couldn't fit the 30 so it wasn't an option. I would have loved the 36 if that fit, but naturally it didn't so we went with what would fit, and thats the 27. Its such an open spacious house, that I'm hoping we won't notice it too much. Have a look through the pics on my thread if you haven't already done so, will give you an idea of size. Cheers, Crissy Building in Brisbane SW Suburbs Started on site with plumbing on 30/3 - Lock up 2/5 - 15/6 Recd Fixing Invoice - 18/6 Painter to start ! Re: Has anyone built with Ausbuild or Allaince homes? 7Apr 22, 2009 1:14 pm Hi I tried to find your photos and found your thread. Not sure how to open the photos as could not find the link. But what you shared gave me an understanding of your journey. Your Block sounds really nice and thankgoodness you had a company that is willing to make it work. It was great to read about the downlights so I will look into this. Its all very exciting. I went up to Northlakes yesterday to do some more research on the cosmo with A***** homes and it still did not quite have the impact of the grandview. I did like the the double door entry though.....I think M**** have got some great designs and ofcourse their marketing is very well done. It has given me peace of mind that its going well with the Grandview for you and this is a huge help in us making our final decision. The Guy at M is good but Im hoping he really goes into detail with all the costing with us. Anyway I will look forward to see your progress of your house as it really gives us hope in uncertain waters. Do you just have the one thread and where to a click on for the photos (sorry new to this) thanks olivetreee Re: Has anyone built with Ausbuild or Allaince homes? 8Apr 23, 2009 9:07 am Hi again, Not sure why the photos aren't working...... if you start at the later pages, they should be attached so you should see them straight away. They always work for me, so I don't know why they're not working ?!?! Might have to go have a look. I don't think you should have to click on them, they should just be there on the page. I think it might have been the Cosmo that my friends built actually as the display was up at North Lakes too. And when I had a look on the Alli@nce website, the cosmo plan seemed closest to theirs. Don't think they have a double door entry though...... Yep, I agree, M has very good marketing & they finish their homes so well. The first thing I noticed with the grandview at heathwood was the feeling as soon as I walked in the door, all those months ago!! When we did the walkthru with our salesman, he had a list there of all the extra options in the house, when I said to him "I like this" and asked him how much, he told me, then I said "Tick It, or Leave it". Then we sat down while he worked everything out for us. We thought it would have been so much more expensive than what it was actually, we were pleasantly surprised ! We didn't go overboard though, but we do have a few of the display options, quite a few actually, like upgrading the garage door, cut outs, the square bath instead of the standard, recess in shower, little things like that! Have you bought the land at Heathwood already ? When are you hoping to make your decision? Crissy Building in Brisbane SW Suburbs Started on site with plumbing on 30/3 - Lock up 2/5 - 15/6 Recd Fixing Invoice - 18/6 Painter to start ! Re: Has anyone built with Ausbuild or Allaince homes? 9Apr 23, 2009 9:31 am Hi yes I will be back later today so I will try your photos. When I did my walkthrough they guy did not a afolder with him he told me the prices but when it came to the quote it had the basics in it. I will meet with him again soon to do another walkthrough. Yes we have a block I have taken the kids there often to play. Its nice to hear what options you chose.....how did you do to the facade? how much do we leave for electriacal again.....some downlights in the lounge and kitchen The Guy at A was so hlepful and will willing to change so much to accomadate our block hmmmmits going to be hard thankyou again olivetree Re: Has anyone built with Ausbuild or Allaince homes? 10Apr 23, 2009 10:46 am Maybe you had the other guy, he might be different. But we did tell him that we want to walk through and get a quote so we can see if its in our price range or not, before we went any further and wasted their time. Luckily for us, it was ! We went the traditional facade as we couldn't fit any other on the block Would have loved a portico, but couldn't do it. Oh well - next one! Our sales guy was very helpful too, he was so patient & so willing to help us, especially with the granny flat, nothing was too much trouble for him. It was a nice change to have him be so positive, unlike another builder we had seen that day who said no house would fit on our block. Grrr... It is a hard decision, but luckily it was quite simple for us - I just loved the Grandview, nothing else compared, no matter how many homes I walked in to, they just weren't the Grandview! Building in Brisbane SW Suburbs Started on site with plumbing on 30/3 - Lock up 2/5 - 15/6 Recd Fixing Invoice - 18/6 Painter to start ! Hi we are looking to talk to people who have built with them recently. 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