Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 27, 2010 10:52 pm Hi all I was wondering what was the most difficult stage of building your home? Eg. Slab for example, and why? Was there a delay, was it poured incorrectly? Was it Hand over, the builder did not agree to rectify defects you pointed out or Frames stage, the window where too small. I think you get the picture. So, please share what was the best and worst stages of your dream home and why? What you would have done differently & why? Thanks to all The King ................ “It's just as unpleasant to get more than you bargain for as to get less” George Bernard Shaw. Re: What was the most difficult stage of building your home? 2Feb 28, 2010 6:52 am The most difficult stage for us was at the very beginning, the finance. We had a completely useless broker, who caused us so much stress Providing him with paperwork, he'd continually lose it, or incorrectly fill in forms. This went on for weeks until we gave him the flick and went direct to the bank. He phoned me and threw the biggest hissy fit when he found out he'd been given the flick. I've never heard a grown man act like such a grumpy child! It was also the most 'stressful' experience just waiting on the unconditional approval, as it happened around the time the bank's lending criterias changed. I think once the finance was approved and we signed the building contract, a HUGE weight was shifted from our shoulders, and it's been a breeze since. In terms of actual construction, we've only recently hit lock-up, so hoping handover wont be 'difficult' however we've heard our builder has been dragging this stage out for a few people, so we're a little hesitant! Re: What was the most difficult stage of building your home? 3Feb 28, 2010 7:39 am I am hoping we have just completed the most stressful and difficult part - planning! We had to get it architecturally designed to accomodate protected trees, then go through a very stringent council planning approval process that involved neighbours objecting (vexatiously it appears), then trying to organise financing. 8 months it has taken to get to this point. Am hoping the actual building is a breeze after that! Re: What was the most difficult stage of building your home? 4Feb 28, 2010 7:48 am The endless waiting for things to get done on the house. The endless phone calls and emails to the builder trying to find out what is happening when, to be told they don't have a schedule. The most utterly frustrating thing I have ever done!!! Re: What was the most difficult stage of building your home? 5Feb 28, 2010 10:40 am Like Erin, finance was the most stressful and taxing part of the ordeal. The bank lost our paperwork numerous times, switched our finance manager 3 times without telling us (we only found out when we tried to contact them!), over charged us $10,000 for the deposit (which we luckily picked up on), and has generally been a PITA. It took perhaps 11 months to get finance approval, and we both have an income. WTH! The builder on the other hand has been wonderful: top notch customer service, prompt, accommodating, and has always given the impression that they 'are on our side'. Re: What was the most difficult stage of building your home? 6Feb 28, 2010 10:48 am Between deciding on the house and getting the final consolidated tender document listing all modifications, estate's and Council's requirements etc... The experience would have been much easier shouldn't our tender presenter be a clueless idiot. Lots of guess work without much help or consulting from the builder surrounded by far too many mistakes and omissions from them.... Lots of micromanagement... ... built a Promenade with Clarendon. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=25104 20-10-09 - excavation and piering completed ... 12-04-10 - Basins fixed. Connecting to the electrical grid 23-04-10 - PCI 07-05-10 - HANDOVER! Re: What was the most difficult stage of building your home? 7Feb 28, 2010 11:09 am I'd have to say for me the delays in things happening due to the council etc have been the most frustrating. Supposed to be titled in Feb , now its July. I'm sure there's going to be plenty more things to frustrate me as the build progresses. -Juz Re: What was the most difficult stage of building your home? 8Feb 28, 2010 6:56 pm So far I would also say getting finance was the most stressful time. We were both 22 at the time and self employed (I have been since I was 17). All was fine in the end and CBA was great with everything. All that stress over nothing at all (I can say that now as it turned out). *fingers crossed* nothing more stressful happens. Our house thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=18335 Re: What was the most difficult stage of building your home? 9Feb 28, 2010 7:11 pm the options - so far we have spent $40k over the base price. We have a budget to work with but it seems it takes along time to get prices of each option so its hard to figure out where we stand Re: What was the most difficult stage of building your home? 10Feb 28, 2010 7:27 pm Ironically, it's good to hear that the most stressful/difficult part of the entire process was council approval, as we're having heaps of troubles getting things approved due to additional bushfire measures. Our builder isn't making it all that easy either - it feels like we're doing all the work to get things across the line and approved... Stefan Building the M3tr!con Liberty 42 at Stonecutters Ridge. The New Build Blog - "Life, In Progress." Stonecutters Ridge Community Website | My photos Re: What was the most difficult stage of building your home? 11Feb 28, 2010 8:42 pm We're building a custom design in Eynesbury (our design, originally drafted by an independent draftsperson, slightly modified by builder's draftsman). Contract signed 29 Sept 2009. It took 2 months to finalise the working / engineering drawings. Partially due to my pedantic-ness, but also due to repeated mistakes on the part of the draftsman. The worst part so far (and we haven't even had the slab laid yet!) is the countless delays due the builder's slackness. It seems that *we're* supposed to know more about building a house than the builder does! Endless delays due to their lack of attention to detail and process. => Check every detail of your plan, twice! Building permit issued 14 December. Builder applied for the PIC number (plumbing industry commission number, applied for when they apply to connect the sewer point, before they lay the slab), only to be told by Western Water that the sewer point was underneath where our garage would be built, so it had to be moved, at a cost of $3500! (btw, Western Water contacted them 21 Dec, they didn't contact us till mid-Jan. So a delay of 6 weeks!) => Before finalising your plan and contract, request a 'size/depth/offset report' from the local water authority, property services dept. From Western Water, this report costs $11.89 ! The builder should have requested this before we finalised our plans, but they didn't, costing us an unplanned-for $3500. => Make sure your finalised plans take into account all data from the soil report. We didn't realise (and builder didn't tell us) that our block had a 600mm fall, so after we thought our plans were final (and that contracted price was final) the plans had to be revised to add in stairs up from the garage. Delayed applying for building permits by 2 weeks. => If you are building on your own land (ie. land purchased prior to contracting a builder for the house), make sure that at least 3 'official' surveying pegs are there to mark the correct boundaries of your block. You, the land owner, are responsible to ensure they are there. Check this before you buy the land! Even so, the pegs may be removed if a neighbour happens to build a fence along your property's border, or they may get moved, in which case you will have the block re-surveyed. This cost us $700, and delayed our start by 10 days. We weren't informed that they were missing (and of course no one told us to check!) until mid-Feb. I can only take comfort that God is in control! Definitely I'm not. *=> If you're not getting answers, if the dates or details are not firm, NAG your builder. It's the only way (it seems) to keep things moving! Can only hope it gets better from here! Re: What was the most difficult stage of building your home? 12Feb 28, 2010 9:16 pm For us so far it has definitely been the finance - trying to sort through three lots of paperwork to first refinance old house, then have loan approved for land, then a different loan approved for house and land after we sold old house - ARGH! Stressful to say the least Caz & Co ALL MOVED IN!! Now comes all the hard work-decorating.... [b]Blog: http://cazoraz.blogspot.com/ Settling in Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=36993 Re: What was the most difficult stage of building your home? 13Feb 28, 2010 9:32 pm For us getting from picking the house then trying to get to tender and contract signed was the most frustrating experience (so far). Once all the paper work was done things have been much better. Checking and rechecking then repeat checking of the paperwork to make sure they haven't stuff something up yet again and overcharging and missing items We wasted so much time with all the paperwork Re: What was the most difficult stage of building your home? 14Feb 28, 2010 11:48 pm So far the slab stage is the most difficult for us, the workmanship is just plain shocking. Follow by getting the unconditional loan approval from the bank, where the bank wants the building permit before giving the loan approval and the builder wants the unconditional loan approval before applying for the building permit. In the end it worked out somehow. Then follow by one of our sales consultant ran off with our initial deposit, and he didn't submit our file to HQ (that what HQ claimed) so they didn't know we existed. Our builder honoured our initial deposit after providing them with the deposit receipt. The worst thing you can do is sign a building contract without a pre contract review. Over the years many people have come to me with disputes where they just signed… 0 8351 Thank you. That is really helpful. Once we get the place done and passed for OC we can upgrade in the future once we get back on our feet and not paying mortgage and rent. 4 5749 Not unless you have managed to put it as a special condition into the contract somehow. 1 6158 |