Browse Forums Building A New House Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - %^#*ing mortgage brokers 21Oct 18, 2009 12:57 pm urgh ours was a bit like that too - we rang to find out what the hold up was and they needed more paperwork from us but hadn't requested it! Hopefully it all goes through quickly for you "The Blackwood" WA Country Builders Land Offer & Acceptance 15th Oct Pre-Start in about 10 days *EEK* Diary of my build https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=24876 Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - %^#*ing mortgage brokers 22Oct 18, 2009 1:10 pm What a giant PITA mortgage brokers can be!!! I hope this doesn't slow you down too much viewtopic.php?f=31&t=22766 - my build thread! Time waits for no man. Unless that man is Chuck Norris. Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - %^#*ing mortgage brokers 23Oct 18, 2009 8:32 pm I will be seriously peeved if this holds us up. I really have to wonder what planet this woman is on sometimes cos its not the first time she's forgotten to tell me I need to give her more info. As soon as we've finished building I'll be approaching the bank and dealing direct with them. Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - %^#*ing mortgage brokers 24Oct 18, 2009 10:11 pm Hi Mrs Kaz, Welcome to homeone. Your plans look great, look forward to following your build. Ugghhhh to your broker, this brings back some awful, awful memories I would love to try and forget about, all I can say is if there was ONE decent broker in Australia, just ONE, they would be very rich and very busy, most brokers I have heard about/know are fuc*ing useless, it's unbelievable how many of them there are, it must be awfully easy to become a finance broker these days. I hope you get things sorted soon. Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=13002 Site start: 8th July 2009 Handover: 11/12/2009! 5 months total build time. 40 sqs of luxuary...Bliss! Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - Thanks bank! 25Oct 22, 2009 6:26 pm just when I thought everything was not going according to plan, we get unconditional approval for finance! Weird. The mortgage broker said the bank wouldn't issue approval until I had got a copy of the extra income info (the stuff she forgot to ask me for), but she's just phoned me now and said the construction loan has been approved. She thinks someone at the bank may've stuffed up, but she's not going to question them. So now all I need is a building license and we'll be underway. And I spoke to my CLO today who told me her last day is tomorrow bit disappointed about that, she was a nice girl and was really quick to answer queries n stuff. so fingers crossed we'll have a slab before xmas. Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - tile colours n stuff 26Oct 26, 2009 2:35 pm I finally managed to get a pic of my tiles. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ so I thought I'd add pics of the other colours as well bathroom laminates Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ kitchen laminates Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ bricks and roof Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Still waiting on the building license... The builder kind of dragged their feet a bit on getting the details of the soakwells through to the council (took them nearly 3 weeks), so if I haven't heard anything by Wed, I'll give the council a call. Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - tile colours n stuff 27Nov 01, 2009 12:47 pm Mrs kaz, Just a note of caution, as I built with Highbury Homes (aka MyGen). I had a similar experience in that they are very pleasant prior to building and were happy to change things. However, once the building starts it is a completely different story. Based on my experience I would suggest the following: ensure that laminex is the material to be used, not just a name for a colour. Highbury charged me an extra $3000 for laminex gloss vinly kitchen doors, then supplied them in a chinese knock off that was not the same colour - entire kitchen had to be redone, 8 week delay. The only reason we got it redone, is Laminex was kind enough to lend use a large sample, after we told them our story. Jim Be Baugh a director of Highbury Homes insisted it was the lighting that was causing the colour difference but backed down when Patricia produced the real product. In terms of Jason windows - every last one leaked because the bricklayers installed them incorrectly, and Highbury's supervisor (Mr Jim Be Baughn) was apparently unware of how window frames are supposed to be installed - bricklayers forgot to tie the window frame into the lintel, and they were so out of square that the rubber seals at the frame corners leaked. Have had Jason windows out 4 times to fix them. Some of the roof tiles supplied were seconds, and about 1000 out 6000 had to be repalced by Bristile, due to cracking and poor finishing. I had to go to the regional manager of Bristile and threaten a law suit for him to come to site (he of course used the old arguement that our contract is not with you but with Highbury - my reply was both companies will be sued). Once he saw the state of the tiles he readily agreed that some should never been laid, and arranged to replace the substandard ones. Note the Highbury Homes insisted that the roof tiles were completely adequate and would not replace any of them. A owner of another Highbury built house has water issuing from his electrical receptacles during heavy rainfalls, when he complained was told that he was not cleaning the eaves regularily enough by Highbury Homes. Be aware that Highbury Homes marks up everything you have them do by 30%, consequently it is generally cheaper to do it yourself. My experience is that anything Highbury does has a poor finish, and will sustain some damage during installation or later by other trades. The tiler managed to damage a vanity top I supplied, to which I had to where the cost. Also be aware that any costs for tiling do not include cutting charges or non standard sizes. The tiler we had, who lives in Byford, ended up costing us on average $75/sq m (constract allowance was $45). To add insult to injury he was unfamilar on how to correctly cut or lay polished porcellin tiles, and consistently laid chipped/damaged tiles, which he then grudgingly removed when pointed out to him. Don't be to discouraged by the above, I have managed to fix everything with an additinal expenditure of $20000, over a two year period. Still some outstanding issues that will be taken to the Builder's Registration Board. Best of luck with your new home. Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - tile colours n stuff 28Nov 01, 2009 6:54 pm Thanks for the heads up Neil. I'm going to be hiring an independant building inspector to check each stage of the build, and I'm keeping a detailed record of any correspondence I have with them. I'm sorry to hear that you had such a rough time with your build, I hope everything is ok with your house now? Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - tile colours n stuff 29Nov 02, 2009 9:33 am A very good idea to have an independent building inspector - I used weo and they were excellent, they were the ones who pointed out the problems with the windows, and also caught problems on interior brick work - a number of the interior wall had to be redone as they were in the wrong position. They also caught Highbury incorrectly constructing the roof, where they were missing and were not toe nailing in supporting struts. However, I recommend keeping an eye on the build yourself. Just to give you an idea of the time involved, I visited the site every second day (1 hour round trip), took about 3500 digital pictures, wrote more than 100 emails and sent maybe 20 letters. The pictures were indispensible, as everytime someone in the office argued with me, I sent them a picture, and the case was closed. In my case they did almost everything twice, as I caught almost everything once I started visiting the site regularily. I did miss the sump and retaining wall errors, as I paid Highbury to supervise the site works, but NLG (site contractor) told me that they never showed up once, thats what I got for $12,000. I realized my mistake on not visiting the site at least 1 every two days, when NLG forgot to dig the hole for the pool, so I immediately hired an inspector and starting going to site. By the way Highbury Homes did stick to the contract price (interestingly they were $100,000 less than the nearest other bid), and actually paid me for all the contract breaches. Still, given all my time (estimated 500 hours spent on site, compared to Highbury's supervisor on site, 20 hours over 20 months), it would have been cheaper for me to hire a competent builder in the first place. Patricia loves the house, I like it too, but am constantly reminded of all the trouble we had. The Managing Director Chris Bishop of Highbury Homes actually told me to "Get in my car and F@@k off" when I went to their offices to complain about all the contract breaches - an interesting way to be treated when you have a signed contract and are spending $500,000. He also repudiated the contract and told me "Highbury did not want to finish the house", but retracted the statement as Highbury would have worn all the costs to get another builder to finish the job. Some of the unauthoized changes and mistakes in the house were - used plastic pipe instead of copper, tried to change the roof design to save money, put the wrong number of brick courses on my workshop, poured a 80 mm pad in workshop instead of 100 mm (saved $100), incorrectly sized the storm water sumps (error on their part, forgot to include the workshop roff runoff), which had to be replaced after the pool fence was damaged due to ground subsidence, failed to rock pitch the pad to council requirements (told me it was not necessary), put a foundation for a retaining wall in the wrong location, (and tried to charge me for redoing it), wrong bathtub, wrong oven, wrong range hood, wrong robe drawers, wrong shower sceens, stove did not fit the benchtop, void for the bathroom vanities were too small (I now have two brand new vanities I can not seem to sell). I am sure that if you are diligent and observant the house will come out fine. As I said, I have fixed up most everything and we are happy. I will probable build another house, just to get out of this one, as I find it hard to enjoy it given all the problems I had, every room has a story. Needless to say I would never use Highbury Homes, Metro strata or MyGen, or any other of names Highbury goes by even if the priced is $100,000 less than the competetion, nor can I recommend them to anyone. That said - are there really any good builders in Perth, and can you fix up the builder's mistakes for less than $100,00? If the answers are no and yes then I came out on top at the end of the day. Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - has a slab :) 30Dec 14, 2009 12:42 pm a fe pics of our slab Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ sad thing is, we weren't even excited about it. It's been such a headache getting to this point that we both had kind of given up hope that it would ever happen. We got there on saturday, looked at it, looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, then took a few pics and left! I'm sure as things progress I'll get a bit more enthusiastic. Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - has a slab :) 31Dec 14, 2009 1:23 pm i cant believe you werent excited! im sure things will get better! we have been waiting extra long too and im excitied just over a sand pad!! Building the Pegasus New Generation Bletchley Pk, Southern River Land purchased 03/2009 Contract 06/2009 Prestart 09/2009 Land cleared/sand Pad 10-12-09 Fittings done 17-12-09 SLAB!! 18-12-09 Brickies started 27-1-10 Roof Started 2-3-10 Lock Up 13-5-10 Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - has a slab :) 32Dec 14, 2009 2:01 pm a wet mix that one... the bleed water in the middle and the wetness of the setdown removal Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - has a slab :) 33Dec 14, 2009 2:17 pm onc - is that a good thing or a bad thing? I went there this morning and noticed a few fairly large cracks.... Also, slab hasn't been covered which worried me as it was pretty hot over the weekend. Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - has a slab :) 34Dec 14, 2009 2:29 pm Yep I expect that... Do you have the site plans at all Mrs Kaz? Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - has a slab :) 36Jan 01, 2010 1:24 pm Mrs Kaz, A wet concrete tends not to have the strength of a drier one. However, cracks are to be expected, and are not a huge problem, unless they are displaced (one side of the crack is higher than the other side of the crack). All pads crack, but this should not occur immediately after pouring (some small cracks formed in my last house about 1 to 2 months after pouring, after the 9t brick tractor and bobcat operator drove over the pad numerous times). Highbury Homes seems to use wet concrete, did it on the next door neighboors house which was built by Highbury. Lack of cover in hot weather causes the concrete to dry quickly and shrink, resulting in more cracks. Did you get an inspector - they usually show up for the slab pouring and probably would have made note if this was an issue. Happy New Year Neil Milligan Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - has a slab :) 37Jan 01, 2010 1:56 pm neilhm Mrs Kaz, A wet concrete tends not to have the strength of a drier one. However, cracks are to be expected, Neil Milligan I hate to disagree Neil but I have too. 'If' the engineers directions regarding cure methods are followed, minimal if any cracks happen. No concrete should be more than 80 slump. If the grano p!sses it up (grano terminology for extra slump) because he wants an easy job, he is being lazy. He should be the one to wear the cost of repairing cracks and it will crack. Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: mrs kaz's house in Byford - has a slab :) 38Jan 02, 2010 9:16 am Onc I agree with you, you should be able to pour a concrete slab with mininal cracking in Perth, but is ever done the way it should be. Highbury poured my pad, and it had very few cracks even when the tiler finished tiling a year and half later. Given the conditions under which this pad was poured, I guess the best you can hope for is no displacement cracks, and repair the existing pad if required. My observation of my neighbour's pour (by Highbury) was exactly as you suggest, two really young guys who wanted an easy/lazy job or were afraid it would set to quickly. Unfornutately, on that job the drain guys put the ensuite and shower drain partially in the family room and they (grano guys) consequently put the shower recess in the wrong place - where is the supervisor when you need him (showed up around lunch to see the almost final product). I have looked at a lot of pads in my area (the usual walk through) and have almost always seen some hairline cracks in the pad. I have only once seen a displacement crack - which the builder did actually try and fix. The question for Ms Kaz it how bad does a pad have to be cracked before you need to go back to the builder? Best regards Neil Hi all, Trying to workout the minimum stepdown required between slab for my house and the outdoor alfresco area. Garage is 100mm lower than rest of the house and plan was… 0 3663 13 4651 I would suggest get legal representation. Sorry but the fact is QBCC is not anyone's friend, other than their own! Further by lodging a complaint (subject to which… 10 15018 |