Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 163May 21, 2010 10:24 pm Hi there Lee75, at signup there is a clause that states that they 'the builder" must be "onsite" within 90 days and they reserve the right to review the quote/costings if they are not. We said at the time that it was not going to happen within 90 days, we are are building in the Mitcham council area we got dev app two days before the 90 days elapsed. We tried to do everything within our power to push it along. It's a long story but in the end it was all about timing and banks, we can cope with a penalty but 4.4k is 4.4k regardless. I still don't know what the breakdown is yet, I sent back the signed variation doc this morning as all I want is to get the damn thing started. HS have been good so far, I am very happy with their communications and they don't miss a thing, Nicolette is our planning rep/ assistant/ contact point and she is doing a good job. Thumbs up. Thanks for following the blog, it will get a little more exciting from now on. Cheers PS yes electrical IS done at selections along with kitchen colour choices. It's a big day, I still have a small regret that I did not do more homework prior. http://ourlamontbuild-allydandmei.blogspot.com/ Initial signing and deposit done Soil test done Contract signed Demolition of old house done All finance approved Building approval from council Site prep done Trenching done Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 164May 21, 2010 11:08 pm Lee75 Howie - house is looking great, love those solar panels! Everyone else - pics / progress updates? This thread has been sooooo quiet.. Thanks Lee! Yeah very happy that Homestead were accommodating by letting us use our own solar guys. They really did a neat job with it. Everything has been really smooth with homestead, they've been super organised and all the contractors i've spoken to have said Homestead is real joy to do work for which makes their lives easier. Next step for us is gyprocking, and i've been told our lockup date is 6th June, we might even get our keys in early August but they won't commit to a handover date until about two weeks before completion. And yep, as allyd said selections day is when you do electrical and it's a whole day affair. Re: electrical, during construction we had to add a few additional points we didn't think of during selections.. such as for the island in case we want a dishwasher there, in the pantry for the alarm, etc. Was just a matter of telling our site supervisor where we wanted them and he organised it the next day. Blog : http://ournewhaven.blogspot.com/ (Modified Newhaven - Homestead Homes) Status : DA - Dec 09. Slabbed - Jan 10. Handover - Aug 10 Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 165May 22, 2010 8:55 am Thanks guys, I'm really pleased with HS so far too, and it is nice to hear that all the way along they seem to be great. Helps that the tradies like working for them too, I think that is sometimes the problem with other builders. Does the 90 day thing still count if they have been the hold up? We signed and then basically waited for ages for engineering and about 40 days after contract was signed the application has gone to council - there is every chance council will take more than 50 days to approve... and even if they take less than that, the likelihood of the builder getting to the site before the 90 days is up is slim.. are we still liable? And I know how these things work, it won't be "oh no increase".. I think I have "please send me a $4000 variation" written on my forehead!! Its happened twice already, would really love to avoid a third!! Can't wait to be at your stage Howie, I'm sure its still stressful, just a different kind of stress.. a happy joyful 'we are nearly there' type stress.. Am loving watching both of your progress - thanks for having your blogs! Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 166May 24, 2010 10:41 am Lee75 Welcome Rockabilly kid, would love to hear how things are going with you.. We are at a similar stage I think, plans have only just been lodged with council so we are now just waiting waiting waiting (again!) Thanks Lee. You're a step in front of us by the sound of things. We were told last week that our Engineer Reports were in and we'll be contacted again soon to find out where to go from here. The plans should also be just about done. Exciting! Homestead Homes SA: The Lamont Bayswood Estate; Aldinga Beach Preliminary Signing: April 2010 Floorplans: 13 June 2010 Building Contract: 19 June 2010 Selections: 28 Sept 2010 Scraped; Trenching: 21 Jan 2011 Slab Poured: 28 Jan 2011 Framing: 17 Feb 2011 | Completed 24 Feb 2011 Roof & Gutters: 02 Mar 2011 Bricks: 03 Mar 2011 Wire-up: 12 Mar 2011 Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 167May 24, 2010 4:01 pm Sorry I didn't reply to those people that gave me infromation about demolishing, it was appreciated. We still have not signed up anyone to do it, got delayed as waited several weeks for a quote from one that I thought might be good but turned out not to be worth the wait. For any one interested we are building, or hope to be as homestead dragging their feet with the plans, a modified windara at Hawthorndene. We are starting to get a little disenchated we signed prelim in feb then waited almost 2 months excactly before being able to review and make changes with consultant now over month later get reviewed plans still not correct. Not sure how I will feel if they increase costs again as well as shed 10k and ended back to original amount and there was some comment about cost of steel. Can but wait and see. Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 168May 24, 2010 8:16 pm Hi Kyma, I was exactly like you about a month ago.. we signed end of January and found that everything took sooooooooo long.. now our plans are with council so we are just waiting to hear. Apparently it goes fast after this bit, even now I am just happy it is with council and after that we will hopefully have all of the exciting stuff happening. So hang in there, it won't be long for you hopefully! Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 169May 25, 2010 2:48 pm I hope it doesn't take 2 months for us to get the plans in. I don't forsee us having to make any shanges, but we might...and we're banking on as much of the process going to plan as possible in order to meet out deadline. EEK! Homestead Homes SA: The Lamont Bayswood Estate; Aldinga Beach Preliminary Signing: April 2010 Floorplans: 13 June 2010 Building Contract: 19 June 2010 Selections: 28 Sept 2010 Scraped; Trenching: 21 Jan 2011 Slab Poured: 28 Jan 2011 Framing: 17 Feb 2011 | Completed 24 Feb 2011 Roof & Gutters: 02 Mar 2011 Bricks: 03 Mar 2011 Wire-up: 12 Mar 2011 Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 170May 28, 2010 3:46 pm Thanks Lee appreciate your optimism. Unfortunately I do not see our building starting before August as we are in the Mitcham council area and everyone that I know that are building in council area have long waits. Friends had theirs in 2 months ago and have got development approval and awaiting planning approval and others having to undertake further engineering reports and possibly not be able to afford their build because of the cost involved. With the changes to the planning rules it should speed things up in most council areas but becuase we are in the hills area the council has excemption because of bushfire risk so approval will take longer. Rockabilly kid I can not imagine that you would have many problems with the council as it is Onkaparinga and hopefully Homestead are not too slow if you have not made too many changes to the plan. As you are building in a new subdivision the new planning laws should make it easy and the deadline issue only applies from signing the building contract not the prelim. We have not made too many changes ourselves, only internal, but it appears that they were enough to have them class it as owner design and are going to charge for it. My issue is that there seems to be lack of communication between the building consultant and the drafting company that we have to get the plans done again and it takes three weeks to move a door and cupboard and they have got it wrong. There is some good to come out of the delay and that is that once building starts it should be finer weather, we are not having to rush getting the demolition done and we have more time to sort out the finance. Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 171May 28, 2010 4:19 pm Hi Kyma, I totally understand where you are coming from - we had a few small changes to make like moving a breakfast bar 10cm and a door or something like that (ie nothing structural) and I think we waited 3-4 weeks for redrawing. Have you had an engineers report yet? That takes a while too.. but then when that comes through it gets sent to council straight away. We were told they had a heap of people sign up in January and February and this is why there are such delays. We have had our plans in at council now for nearly 3 weeks and just heard today that we need an arborist report to clarify that our build wont affect the neighbours significant tree. My frustration is that it feels like 2 steps forward and 3 steps back all the time.. and again we are delayed by a couple of weeks (and extra $$$) for what seems like nothing. I feel like the universe is against me building this house for some reason. I too have decided to look on the bright side and (like you) thought to myself it is possibly a good thing that it probably wont be the coldest and wettest part of winter when our slab is laid. And I cant complain when I hear some of the nightmare stories on here! Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 172May 28, 2010 5:20 pm Lee75 Hi Kyma, I totally understand where you are coming from - we had a few small changes to make like moving a breakfast bar 10cm and a door or something like that (ie nothing structural) and I think we waited 3-4 weeks for redrawing. Have you had an engineers report yet? That takes a while too.. but then when that comes through it gets sent to council straight away. We were told they had a heap of people sign up in January and February and this is why there are such delays. We had contours, soil reports and engineering report for footings done and when we met to review the plans they had revised the cost of footings and had details regarding the need for retaining and fill. As far as I undrestand it is just getting the plans finalised so they can do the building contract that we are waiting on. Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 173May 28, 2010 6:44 pm Hi Guys, we had our HS sign planted in front of our block today, it's too dark or too wet to take any pictures yet. We also recieved our first progress payment invoice ??, damn they are quick. Our site will be scrapped on Monday weather permitting, however I think the weather will win. http://ourlamontbuild-allydandmei.blogspot.com/ Initial signing and deposit done Soil test done Contract signed Demolition of old house done All finance approved Building approval from council Site prep done Trenching done Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 174May 31, 2010 11:46 am kyma Rockabilly kid I can not imagine that you would have many problems with the council as it is Onkaparinga and hopefully Homestead are not too slow if you have not made too many changes to the plan. As you are building in a new subdivision the new planning laws should make it easy and the deadline issue only applies from signing the building contract not the prelim. I sure hope so. I must admit that the council have been quite good at answering some of my questions regarding an easement on our property and some of the circumstances with that. The deadline i'm talking about is our personal deadline which is in jeopardy. I'm not worried about contractual deadlines, i'm quietly confident there. But for us to move in when we need to, everything's going to have to go swimmingly. Yeah right! Homestead Homes SA: The Lamont Bayswood Estate; Aldinga Beach Preliminary Signing: April 2010 Floorplans: 13 June 2010 Building Contract: 19 June 2010 Selections: 28 Sept 2010 Scraped; Trenching: 21 Jan 2011 Slab Poured: 28 Jan 2011 Framing: 17 Feb 2011 | Completed 24 Feb 2011 Roof & Gutters: 02 Mar 2011 Bricks: 03 Mar 2011 Wire-up: 12 Mar 2011 Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 175Jun 03, 2010 2:19 am Rockabilly kid I understand what you mean about personal deadline. I think that ours is most going to blow out by 2 months. At first it didn't seem to be an issue because we were secure where we were living but now it appears that we may have to move into another poperty that we were going to sell and instead sell the one we are in. That would mean 2 moves in short period and having to find some storage for belongings although there are some positives like cash flow and being closer to the babysitters/inlaws. On a positive note we seem to have finally got the plans sorted just have to finalise a decision on the alfresco and some windows then the yellows will be complete and then it is just the begining of all the fun. Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 176Jun 04, 2010 1:20 pm Exactly. That's pretty much our situation, except throw in the fact that we're coming back to Adelaide after a stint 4 hours away in Whyalla and the logistics end up being scary. Plus we'll be looking for work etc., so doing a double move rather than settling in isn't going to make life easy! Homestead Homes SA: The Lamont Bayswood Estate; Aldinga Beach Preliminary Signing: April 2010 Floorplans: 13 June 2010 Building Contract: 19 June 2010 Selections: 28 Sept 2010 Scraped; Trenching: 21 Jan 2011 Slab Poured: 28 Jan 2011 Framing: 17 Feb 2011 | Completed 24 Feb 2011 Roof & Gutters: 02 Mar 2011 Bricks: 03 Mar 2011 Wire-up: 12 Mar 2011 Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 177Jun 06, 2010 9:08 pm Just a quick update, our stairs went in yesterday and they're beautiful! Can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Blog : http://ournewhaven.blogspot.com/ (Modified Newhaven - Homestead Homes) Status : DA - Dec 09. Slabbed - Jan 10. Handover - Aug 10 Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 178Jun 07, 2010 3:21 pm Don't die now! Your house is nearly finished! :p Homestead Homes SA: The Lamont Bayswood Estate; Aldinga Beach Preliminary Signing: April 2010 Floorplans: 13 June 2010 Building Contract: 19 June 2010 Selections: 28 Sept 2010 Scraped; Trenching: 21 Jan 2011 Slab Poured: 28 Jan 2011 Framing: 17 Feb 2011 | Completed 24 Feb 2011 Roof & Gutters: 02 Mar 2011 Bricks: 03 Mar 2011 Wire-up: 12 Mar 2011 Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 179Jun 07, 2010 4:49 pm Woot!! Foundations started today, was meant to be this coming Friday. One week in front, muuhhaahhaaa. http://ourlamontbuild-allydandmei.blogspot.com/ Initial signing and deposit done Soil test done Contract signed Demolition of old house done All finance approved Building approval from council Site prep done Trenching done Re: Homestead Homes (SA)? Any opinion? 180Jun 09, 2010 12:11 pm Floorplans and Elevations in this week. Signing contract on the 19th. Homestead Homes SA: The Lamont Bayswood Estate; Aldinga Beach Preliminary Signing: April 2010 Floorplans: 13 June 2010 Building Contract: 19 June 2010 Selections: 28 Sept 2010 Scraped; Trenching: 21 Jan 2011 Slab Poured: 28 Jan 2011 Framing: 17 Feb 2011 | Completed 24 Feb 2011 Roof & Gutters: 02 Mar 2011 Bricks: 03 Mar 2011 Wire-up: 12 Mar 2011 these look like missing batts. Go up and take a look. But yeah moisure meter is a completely different tool 4 9628 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 108982 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 26346 |