Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 13, 2010 9:38 am Hi Guys,
I found this forum today after looking for some reviews on BluePrint Homes. This is my first post, so Hello to all, and good luck with your builds! I've had some fairly awful experiences with builders in the past, but I've been fortunate enough that I haven't signed contracts with any of them. I'm still pre contract with BluePrint and I'm also dealing with Dale Alcock, again pre contract. I've got a similar plan from each builder, and I'm waiting to see which house is better for my budget. I've been dealing with the Sales Manager at BluePrint, Kevin Enright. He's great. He listened to my past experiences with multiple builders and when I said to him that I wouldn't sign anything until I was 100% happy he was fine with that. Unlike some of the sales guys I've dealt with in the past he thinks about things from my point of view. He hasn't made a single suggestion to me that isn't beneficial, and nothing he's advised has been expensive (in the grand scheme of things). He's not out to line his pockets, he's genuinely trying to help me achieve what I want. I decided on the Florentine design, which is a 4x2, with a home theatre. It's a rear loaded cottage lot design. I've made a lot of changes to suit me and it's going to look "Hollywood" if I decide to build it. Overall cost of the above house with a whole heap of changes (floor and window treatments excluded), has come out way budget. Watch out for builder who will ask your budget and work you up to spending it all. I've also been dealing with a Senior Sales Consultant at Dale Alcock called Glenn Smith. I have previous experience with Glenn, as I was going to build a house with him last year, but my circumstances changed and I pulled out post contract. His outlook is very much the same as Kevin's. At this stage, I'm waiting on costs to come back for the variations on the Picollo design. But with my changes to the structure of the house, I'm not at all happy with the front elevation, and to make this more appealing it's going to cost more money. So far my experiences with both builders have been great. Once I've received the costs, I can make a decision on who I'm going to build with. And hopefully that experience won't change. I'll keep you posted. Cheers, Re: My experience so far... (BluePrint & Dale Alcock) 3May 27, 2011 12:10 am I finally decided to build with BluePrint, largely because the house design was more to my liking at the price I wanted to pay. And to get a similar thing out of Dale Alcock was about $10,000 more. And as I previously mentioned the sales guy was very helpful and offered a lot of friendly, and useful advice. After numerous meetings and discussions, I was advised that my plans wouldn't be submitted to drafting until I'd paid a $2000 (non refundable) deposit, which I paid at the end of October. My land was due to title on December 6th 2010. It actually titled December 9th 2010. My finance was contractually due 30 days after that. I wanted my final plans (prior to prestart) to be ready for me at the very start of December so I could get my own tiling, carpet and blind quotes for the mortgage application. I didn't get any plans until a couple of days before Christmas. They were first draft. I had to take the first week of the New Year as annual leave in order to get quotes. The first revision drawings were submitted to the bank with the quotes I got the week before finance was due. And my loan was unconditionally approved. I later discovered that the plans I had been provided to get quotes with weren't to scale and the window sizes weren't correct either. Finance settled on the block mid February. Amanda at Floreat Settlements was very helpful and processed all paperwork quickly and efficiently and I even got a very reasonable refund at the end! I raised the issue of incorrectly scaled plans with the sales guy, he said he'd have it amended. Of course, with the cost of tiling/carpeting and blinds costing extra, I said that they'd have to do something to assist with that. I was told that something would be done for me (nothing has ever been offered) and that I'd received amended plans the following week. A week later I hadn't heard anything, I was then told he fell ill and hadn't managed to pass my amendments to the drafting team. I was promised calls, but received text messages with excuses for an entire week. Before giving up and assuming that the correct plans would be ready for prestart. Prestart was done two weeks later (early to mid march) with plans that weren't correct. I was this close to walking out. But I convinced myself that things would get better. I had to engage the pre start lady to make changes to the plans, she was reluctant and very hard to deal with. In dealing with her, I discovered things that needed to be done as part of the covenants that weren't in the documents submitted to the bank and cost a fortune. I'd need to get them done at my own cost outside of the mortgage. Mid April, I got a call from the Selections (Prestart) Manager to advise that the pre start lady I was dealing with is no longer working with them and she wasn't really sure how my file was proceeding. I laid all my concerns on the Selections Manager, which she said she'd try to fix. I am now dealing with the Selections Manager, Clare Wesley. Clare has been the light at the end of the tunnel that I have been waiting so long to see. She's patient, friendly and willing to help EVERY step of the way. This week my plans have gone to site! My block was leveled on Monday, and pegged today. My slab should pour on Monday... I'm very exicted, things are really happening now... But in hindsight, I wish I'd worked with Dale Alcock. In my past dealings with them, when I gave them a deadline, they met it. I've now been working with Blueprint for about 9 months and we're only just going to site... I've owned the block for three and a half months and we're only just going to site. I'm positive that had I been working with Dale Alcock we'd have gone to site weeks after I'd paid for the block, not months. Still, I'm sure I'll be happy with the final result Re: Blueprint... My experience so far... 4Aug 16, 2011 11:17 pm So it's been a few weeks since I last posted... And though I'd post a progress update... Works commenced - 23rd May 2011 Slab - 31st May 2011 (1 week) Plate Height - 4th July 2011 (6 weeks) Roof Cover - 18th July 2011 (8 weeks) Lock Up - 6th August 2011 (11 weeks) Final completion - There were only two issues worth mentioning prior to lock up: The bricky managed to brick up a number of windows. Easily rectified with an angle grinder I had a couple of walls fall over in a storm. After lock up, it's been pretty smooth sailing really. A few minor issues... One thing has really caught my attention though... I've noticed that the door stop on my ensuite door has had a modification to make the top section of the door stop thicker. I'm pretty sure that this has been done by the tradey as a cheap fix to an incorrect measure and cut. I posted about this in the Doors and Windows forum Otherwise, it's all been very quick and painless (aside from the progress payments)! Just really looking forward to getting the keys so I can get my tiler/carpet layer/blind fitter in so it's livable! The OP has gone The latch and striker are definitely not aligned but there was no point trying to help the OP understand that. Hence the reason they are no longer with us. 12 5678 I apologise for any confusion, but your understanding is correct. We approached our situation differently based on advice from… 11 53212 |