Browse Forums Building A New House Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 141Aug 02, 2010 10:34 pm Hi Well we have more progress - yipee!!! Our pipes have been laid today - I will post photos this week (I have been flat chat and haven't had time as yet). Just wondering about the next stage - I assume piers. Did the builder contact all of you to to supervise the piers? I know that woodduck went along and I am wondering if this is standard. Also, how communicative is your customer liason consultant? Thus far I am just seeing the progress from my regular site visits (thankfully I live close by) but I haven't received a single email about expected progress. Thanks in advance Building the Monte Carlo with McD Jones View my building thread @ viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37255 Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 142Aug 03, 2010 7:24 am bon Hi Well we have more progress - yipee!!! Our pipes have been laid today - I will post photos this week (I have been flat chat and haven't had time as yet). Just wondering about the next stage - I assume piers. Did the builder contact all of you to to supervise the piers? I know that woodduck went along and I am wondering if this is standard. Also, how communicative is your customer liason consultant? Thus far I am just seeing the progress from my regular site visits (thankfully I live close by) but I haven't received a single email about expected progress. Thanks in advance Bon, isnt it finally good to see some action. I think you may be asked to attend the piers if there is any chance that they may need to go over the contract amount. That way you can give an approval on the spot for them. Our communication with our "CLO" has almost stopped, I guess the "site super" takes over at this stage, we have been getting text messages after major stages, eg last night we received a text saying the frames stage was finished. Good luck, post those pics. Woodduck. Building The Chesterfield Grande with McDonald Jones https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=33587 Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 143Aug 03, 2010 12:03 pm hi all, We have council approval, YIPEE!! Now we wait for the next step.. its getting closer.... Riccathome Building:Bronte Grand Manor Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 144Aug 03, 2010 3:00 pm riccathome hi all, We have council approval, YIPEE!! Now we wait for the next step.. its getting closer.... Riccathome Excellent, cant wait to see any progress photos! Building The Chesterfield Grande with McDonald Jones https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=33587 Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 145Aug 03, 2010 3:59 pm woodduck eg last night we received a text saying the frames stage was finished. Lucky you, our messages seemed to be late, and then 2 or 3 come through together. Hopefully this improves during the construction phase. Building with McDonald Jones - Bordeaux 14m @ the ponds in sydney's north-west Build Blog => http://damianandannasabode.blogspot.com/ Construction status - DONE. Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 146Aug 03, 2010 4:04 pm danana woodduck eg last night we received a text saying the frames stage was finished. Lucky you, our messages seemed to be late, and then 2 or 3 come through together. Hopefully this improves during the construction phase. Mind you it came through at 10:45pm. Building The Chesterfield Grande with McDonald Jones https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=33587 Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 147Aug 03, 2010 11:53 pm Hi everyone, it's good to see you all making progress I finally arranged site access with a blind/shutter mob and the site super so we can get shutters and blinds measured and made. They take up to 6-8 weeks to be made so I'm hoping the timing is right. Not looking forward to the damage that 15 windows and 2 large sliding doors is going to do but it wasn't unexpected. I think we'll end up with a combination of Plantation shutters (vinyl not timber) and sheer verticals - depending on the budget of course. I asked them to give me a rough idea of the cost and they quoted me over $2K for shutters for ONE window! Our tiling is finished and we are at painting stage so there's not much to see from outside. The good thing is that they are spraying on Wed so I will get to see inside on Thurs with the blinds/shutter people and maybe take some more pics. bon - We weren't asked to be present when they poured the piers, but we have a relatively level block. Our communication with the Customer Liaison person basically ceased once construction commenced and switched to the site supervisor. He also calls us every fortnight to let us know where we are at - what's finished and what's planned for the next fortnight. Riccathome - Congratulations on your Council approval. You should get moving in the next few weeks! Danana - We got a lot of texts at first when major stages were complete such as slab, frame, roof etc. Once they reached lock up stage I don't think I have received one since. The fortnightly phone calls from the site supervisor keep us updated though. Not long now! Jen Building Bordeaux 13m Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 148Aug 04, 2010 8:20 pm Our piering was done today! Allowance of 45m turned into an actual piering of 90.2m. I knew we were going to go over, so not that much of a shock to us. If the weather remains good, the plumbing should be done tomorrow and then our slab poured between friday and monday. Were holding thumbs... Lots of pics on our blog Building with McDonald Jones - Bordeaux 14m @ the ponds in sydney's north-west Build Blog => http://damianandannasabode.blogspot.com/ Construction status - DONE. Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 149Aug 05, 2010 8:31 am Hey all, great to see lots of progress going on. Riccat: Congrats...the fun really starts now! Bon: My greatest criticism of MJH has been the comms. Our experience has not been great (close to open warfare with our first CL! ). Our SS has been good with letting us know when things will be happening, but a few things have disappointed. Overall, situation is good, but there is a lot of room for improvement (IMHO). And our piering happened without us there (we needed just over 100m, but we have a slight slope on the site). Jennie: Seems to be a long wait for your shutters?!? We have gone with Horimber for the shutters, they have said 4 weeks for delivery/installation and the pricing seems to be similar....yes they can be expensive! Our budget has taken a hit by choosing them (the shutters that is....). We are still waiting on the final connections for the sewerage and the water tank. Fingers crossed we are in by the end of the month. Building the Bronte Manor in Lake Macquarie Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 150Aug 05, 2010 8:56 am Hey all, Its great to see that so much is going on!! It kind of depresses me a little that you are so far ahead of me We have our colour appt in 2 weeks and finally have most of our scheme decided on. The 1 point i am curious about is the brick selection. I couldnt decide on the standard range and have taken a liking to the Bowral range of bricks. More expensive but am curious to know if anyone has upgraded bricks and how much it cost? As a general note, how did you all find the colour selection??? Did they have much to choose from?? Thanks all!!!! Building the Monte Carlo with side activities in Mt Annan MY BLOG: http://gavsfirstbuild.blogspot.com/ Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 151Aug 05, 2010 10:33 am gavmer1 Hey all, Its great to see that so much is going on!! It kind of depresses me a little that you are so far ahead of me We have our colour appt in 2 weeks and finally have most of our scheme decided on. The 1 point i am curious about is the brick selection. I couldnt decide on the standard range and have taken a liking to the Bowral range of bricks. More expensive but am curious to know if anyone has upgraded bricks and how much it cost? As a general note, how did you all find the colour selection??? Did they have much to choose from?? Thanks all!!!! Congrats! going prepared to the colour selection is a smart move I guess it all depends on the brick and brick company, but for our single story house, we were quoted $3000 for a brick upgrade from PGH. We decided against it in the end and chose a standard brick. Building with McDonald Jones - Bordeaux 14m @ the ponds in sydney's north-west Build Blog => http://damianandannasabode.blogspot.com/ Construction status - DONE. Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 152Aug 05, 2010 1:46 pm gavmer1 Hey all, Its great to see that so much is going on!! It kind of depresses me a little that you are so far ahead of me We have our colour appt in 2 weeks and finally have most of our scheme decided on. The 1 point i am curious about is the brick selection. I couldnt decide on the standard range and have taken a liking to the Bowral range of bricks. More expensive but am curious to know if anyone has upgraded bricks and how much it cost? As a general note, how did you all find the colour selection??? Did they have much to choose from?? Thanks all!!!! We upgrade our bricks from the Bowral range and the cost was $2300 found the standard selection not that good. Cheers Jacko Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 153Aug 05, 2010 3:11 pm danana Our piering was done today! Allowance of 45m turned into an actual piering of 90.2m. I knew we were going to go over, so not that much of a shock to us. If the weather remains good, the plumbing should be done tomorrow and then our slab poured between friday and monday. Were holding thumbs... Lots of pics on our blog Congrats on the start, nice pics on your blog, same tradies did ours. We are only a few weeks ahead of you guys. Woodduck Building The Chesterfield Grande with McDonald Jones https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=33587 Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 154Aug 05, 2010 3:43 pm gavmer1 The 1 point i am curious about is the brick selection. I couldnt decide on the standard range and have taken a liking to the Bowral range of bricks. More expensive but am curious to know if anyone has upgraded bricks and how much it cost? Be careful with the bricks that only have colouring on external of the brick, our neighbors bricks you can see on the edges where the clay colour is showing. Also, the extra cost of some ranges for cleaning. Building The Chesterfield Grande with McDonald Jones https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=33587 Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 155Aug 05, 2010 5:45 pm Hi All Riccathome - congrats on the approval . Now you get to wait... and wait. I hope everything starts moving quickly for you! Danana - congrats on the start You are absolutely flying along!!! Bugger about the piers - I am starting to worry a bit on that issue. Jen - I soo love plantation shutters - let us know how your quote turns out. I am thinking of getting them in our dining/kitchen room but we made some changes to have lots more windows so the budget may not extend that far They would be on our north side though so that might block too much sun (the reason we got the windows in the first place). X69 - good luck with end of August - my fingers are crossed for you. You must post photos! Gavmer - we upgraded some bricks to our frontage (with ironed mortar) which cost about $1600. I'm not sure if that helps given we have two brick selections and the mortar change? My advice on colours would be to tr and choose most of your external selections prior to the day and the bigger things like benches and cupboards. There are lots of things that you don't get any info on and therefore need to make lots of decisions on the day (or soon after) such as bathrooms, handles etc. Make the decisions that you can now. As far as our progress is concerned, today they put up our security fence. Nothing else done since Monday and no timeline for further works. I am curious though - we haven't been appointed a site supervisor (my CLO says this happens after the slab) and no one contacts me to let me know when things are happening. I haven't had any contact about the site scrape, pipes etc and haven't been given any timeline for piering or our slab. Is this usual? The only reason I am aware of what's going on is because I drive past the block at least twice a day (is close to existing home so I don't see it as stalking ). Bon Building the Monte Carlo with McD Jones View my building thread @ viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37255 Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 156Aug 05, 2010 9:56 pm Wow there has been a lot of progress for everyone lately. Our house is still being bricked at the moment. Today they did more of the eastern wall. I'm surprised at the number of people that needed more piers, we didn't. We couldn't be on site for piering but a family member was there for us. We have gotten a few sms from our SS to say what had been done but at least 2 or 3 said the same thing! We just go and check on the progress every day to see what is happening ourselves. I guess we when the house is at lock up we won't be able to do that anymore. Woodduck - Saw the photos of your frame it looks great. Danana - Great to hear see you have finally started. Jennie - Plantation shutters are soooo exxy! But they look great and give the house a different feel. We will be ordering some and have been told it will take 6-8 weeks as they are all made in China. We have been quoted about $1500 for the biggest window in the rumpus and it is huge. We shopped around for prices and found the company through someone we knew. McDonald Jones Homes - The Parklane http://ashobuild.blogspot.com/ https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34426 Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 157Aug 06, 2010 12:25 pm Good to hear that lots of poeple are progressing on their builds. We are still waiting for our final tender and contract. Its so frustrating, playing the waiting game. We got our plans 2 weeks ago but they were wrong so we had to change them and send them back, I really hope that the contract plans are right this time! Current timeframe is to be in Council by the end of August, I hope we make it! Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 158Aug 06, 2010 10:32 pm veepee - we are at similar stage - received prelim plans last week and wrote all over them before signing and sending back! It's now gone to Engineering stage - so hopefully wont be at that stage for too long before we see the next lot of plans! I must admit I did get pretty excited when we studied the plans. We are building a design that is not on display anywhere, so we are building off the plan. I made my husband get out the tape measure and show me how big the Alfresco is actually going to be - and how big is the kitchen and stuff. We walk past our block most days (weather permitting) and we are starting to see progess on blocks that were registered the same time as ours and I'm starting to go "ohhh, I wish that excavator was on our block!!" I cant imagine what it's going to be like when something is actually going on at our block - we seem to be there quite alot now considering nothing is happening (or meant to be happening) just yet! We met one of our neighbours today while we were there. Gavmer - I"m with you - everyone else's progress depress' me! No seriously - congrats to everyone else who is seeing progress on site! Gavmer - we just have to think, everyone else has already done the hard yards, and are now seeing the results - we have a few more hardyards to go thru before we reap the rewards!! It's quite overwhelming - we meet random people thru friends of friends or in shops or thru work or just random places and it's amazing at how many people are currently building with McJones!! The number of McJones starting to pop up in our estate alone is incredible!! Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 159Aug 07, 2010 9:12 am riccathome hi all, We have council approval, YIPEE!! Now we wait for the next step.. its getting closer.... Riccathome Congrats on the approvals Riccathome!!! We got ours on 19 July, and then all the info was received from McDJH on 23 Jul...unfortunately as we are not building in a prepared estate we had some extra things to do after approvals, ie. clearing the land of some 10 trees and connecting water to the block...but that is all done...unfortunately it is the bank that has held us up now!! My contact at the bank went on Holidays and she passed my stuff to the manager who just doesn't have the same drive...after annoying him constantly for the past 2 weeks, I finally got an email yesterday stating the Letter of Commencement has been sent to the builder....unfortunately McDJH don't seem to have received it yet! Hopefully Monday will bring the start of our 20 days for them to start construction!! A bit sad really, after reading about a couple of people building with McDJH in our area, I had hoped we might be in before Christmas...but now I think it's cutting it a bit fine..... The 5 weeks close of the Building Trade over Xmas & Jan is going to stretch us, so it is going to be a lean New Year! One good thing though...we finally have an electrical appointment booked!!! Something solid to look forward to...you never know they might decide to start breaking ground early! Building the Chesterfield Grande in East Maitland Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 160Aug 07, 2010 10:23 pm Bizzie Mummy Jennie - Plantation shutters are soooo exxy! But they look great and give the house a different feel. We will be ordering some and have been told it will take 6-8 weeks as they are all made in China. We have been quoted about $1500 for the biggest window in the rumpus and it is huge. We shopped around for prices and found the company through someone we knew. Yeah, too Exxy for me! Actually I could have had them if I really wanted but I couldn't justify $20K - $30K to do the whole house. That's the price of a brand new car! I just didn't have it in me to spend that much on window coverings. What we got set us back $7K and I'm happy with that. I got 50mm vinyl venetians through the bedrooms & home theatre and sheer verticals through all the living areas and the big sliding door in our bedroom. The vinyl venetians have a 'shutter' look about them because the slats are 50mm and I'm happy with them. I can dress them up with curtains later if I really want but at least for now we will have some privacy. They only take 3 weeks instead of 8 so I know they will be ready when the house is finished. I must say it was quite difficult to pic colours by 'imagining' what the flooring will look like. I hope it all comes together. The tiling is finished, vanities in and they were getting stuck into the painting when I was there, but everything was covered in dropsheets so no new pics. Jen Building Bordeaux 13m Hi AKG, We had a base tender of $592 for 31 squares from MC Donald Jones. It looks relatively cheaper than other builders. But I assume there are many hidden things that… 1 16834 Hi, Apologies - I know there is plenty out there on this but struggling to put together the puzzle. We're planning our garage/external laundry to master bedroom and… 0 11117 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 23483 |