Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building own design with Format SA 121Sep 05, 2011 2:36 pm coming along nicely Did you sort out the taps query? https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43937&start=0 Bought a block in Golden Grove - Jan 2011 Finally finished our design, Mar 2012, *yay* Signed with ADH council consent June 12 Re: Building own design with Format SA 122Sep 05, 2011 9:33 pm PCI today - went realy well. Only 2 majorish things - one being one of the slab ends of our benchtop doesnt line up with the bench, so have asked that to be fixed, and the other is the lay/fall of the alfresco. It only falls one way not two, so the tiles may need to be pulled up and relayed. Further testing to be done on that this week. I would definately recommend getting an inspector - thanks McLaren, we used the same guy as you and he was really on the mark - picked up lots of things (80% i would say were minor such as the painting near the cornices - which i am not really concerned about). He picked up the alfresco problem, and he also picked up that our gas pipes in the ceiling handnt been anchored which is against regulations. Soooooooooo, handover is now booked for 28 September However the SS has indicated if we can get the bank cheque organised sooner, we will bring it forward . HillsCass - not too much to go. roller doors were installed today while we were doing the PCI. Insulation needs to be laid in the ceiling, 2 powerpoints that were missed need to be installed, appliances and tv aerial, and some final touches, such as some mortor fixed up, the flashing above our front windows and rear sliding door, all of the silicon throughout needs to be put in and some corner rounds at the front door and in the garage. Thanks Theresa, i am really happy with the render colour, glad we chose the darker grey. Our panel lift and 2 roller doors are the same colour. was a little concerned that it might be too dark, but i think with our large roofline, that to have the light grey would look too washed out. I actually read somewhere that it is good to have 3 different colours, hince why we chose the bricks and the 2 different greys. Busting to see the doors down tho' they are left up for now. Thanks DCT On the weekend we reinstated the first part of the fence up to the garage. This weekend we will start on the fence behind the garage - this is going to be a lot of work as our fence is in the wrong position, so we are moving it into its proper position, so lots of digging to do Once thats done, we need to start on the paving asap to be sure we stabilize the ground around our slab. Cant believe we are soooooooooooooooo close now. Re: Building own design with Format SA 123Sep 07, 2011 7:23 pm DCT - apprarently they are taps for automatic washing machines - go figure So, ordinary taps. I asked the SS on monday. Theresa, my DH is VERY particular about the down pipes, likes to blend them as much as possible, so he was very particular about their colours Having said that, i am really glad, as they do blend in as much as is possible. Re: Building own design with Format SA 124Sep 23, 2011 7:57 pm Hi Drayto and Building sa I am considering format to build our house. Can you tell me if you are happy so far with your build and if you had any hidden pitfalls and or extras? I am not sure about the standard range of fittings and if you thinks most things needed to be upgraded - like taps, toilet, tiles, kitchen sink. I am new to all this and dont want to sign for a house that I think will be xxx amount to find I need an extra ? 40k ? Thank you for any advise. Re: Building own design with Format SA 125Sep 23, 2011 11:32 pm Hi Beach Build We are pretty happy so far ( even though our build has been much slower than Drayto's ) We had a huge delay / extra cost at the start with having to go through council 3 times and all the changes to the plan but wasn't Format's fault and they were excellent at helping us all through it and came up with something council would finally approve. We did upgrade quite a few things in the bathroom and kitchen but thought there was a lot of choices in the standard ranges anyway . The amount of tiles we could choose from was HUGE . Re: Building own design with Format SA 126Sep 25, 2011 9:42 pm Very very close to hand over Drayto ???? Need a update and pictures !! Hope all is well and you are just very busy packing and moving Re: Building own design with Format SA 127Sep 26, 2011 8:04 pm sorry guys, think i have broken my wrist, so have avoided typing as its enough typing at work. Beach build, we are fairly happy with FH, although we dont have anyone to compare with, having never built before. The major downfall has been the kitchen company. Their attention to detail is very poor. Drawers that dont close properly, benchtop and cupboards not lining up. i think the wrong size slides have been fitted to our laundry drawers. they dont work that well now let alone when we fill them with dirty clothes. We were happy with selections, heaps of tiles, bricks, paint colours etc to choose from. We upgraded the following: door handles light switches front door roller door to panel lift splashback tiles to 600x600 niche tiles stove and canopy to 900 cupboards to silk benchtops to sqyareform bathroom sinks if i had my time again, would upgrade the toilet now that i have sat on it. wish i could have afforded higher ceilings - wish the sales person told me there was an in between height that i could have selected. I had an extra cost for my footings($58,000), but this was known prior to us accepting the contract - so worth having your soil test done early, so you know where you stand, particularly if you are building in an area known for bad soil - we knew ours was really bad. I truly think you can build a fairly nice house with FH's without having to upgrade anything too significant. However, having said all of that, i am pretty cranky atm. We are 1.5 days out from handover and they havent completed any of the things picked up at the PCI 3 weeks ago Building SA, i will post some pics later next week once the fence is down. Re: Building own design with Format SA 128Sep 26, 2011 9:33 pm Sorry about your wrist and FH not following up on issues quickly enough Very worrying about the kitchen company too its such a big part of the build !! Hope your week improves with some good news soon. Re: Building own design with Format SA 129Sep 26, 2011 10:27 pm thanks for all that info, it helps to know what I could be up for. Wow your footings price was pretty hefty! Our salesman has quotes for 30k for our area but I think we may need lots of fill. Best of luck with handover - and that the kitchen errors are corrected. Hope your wrist improves quickly Re: Building own design with Format SA 130Sep 27, 2011 2:33 pm Hi Drayto, Sorry to hear about your wrist - hope it's not too painful. We had issues with our kitchen too but after contacting the people who made the kitchen they came and fixed it up prior to handover ... we shouldn't have needed to get involved though. That's not good news about jobs still outstanding. I never thought we would get our keys a week after PCI as there was so much to do but most of it got done so we handed over the cheque and said we didn't mind getting a few things done afterwards and my DH offered to do a couple of the little things himself. Once we moved in though we found lots of things wrong which I have written to the builder about (no reponse yet) ... and guess what..... we are still waiting for a tile to be fixed which was broken when they replaced the breakfast bar just before handover. It was replaced but not very well and is proud and then the fool who caulked it used white mastic instead of grey to match the grout It's a hard decision though whether to hang out till everything's done or hand over the money and get on with your life .... hope yours all turns out okay! For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: Building own design with Format SA 131Oct 11, 2011 12:45 pm Thanks for the kind wishes re my wrist everyone, which is broken by the way. Well we are in and have been for a week. I hate living on concrete floors - so dusty and the cheap vacuum we purchased only lasts a bit before it overheats At least i am not trashing my good one. We managed to start on the floor boards on the weekend - what a slow process it will be - at least we have some carpet already. Most things were completed the morning of handover, but still some things to be done. We went a week without our TV antenna because they forgot about it. Tomorrow i have all the kitchen things getting fixed and my rangehood going in - there were none in the country for handover! Not bad considering we picked it in December last year! Since moving in have noticed chip in floor tile in ensuit and chip in benchtop in ensuite - not sure if we can do anything about it - they will probably say it was us that did it Yeah, it was a hard decision like you said McLaren as to whether to hand the cheque over or not. However FH have insisted they will fix everything. I agree in terms of some of those silly tradies - you could wring their necks some of them - they just dont care. Havent taken anymore pics - waiting for the floor to be finished, rangehood in etc. Re: Building own design with Format SA 132Oct 11, 2011 12:48 pm Thanks for the update - hope your wrist isn't too painful. I bet those concrete floors are though ... For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: Building own design with Format SA 133Oct 11, 2011 10:02 pm Great to hear from you , I was wondering how things were going . Ouch on the wrist !!! So they put the tv ariel in then ??? DH and I were discussing that the other day Very annoying about little chips do they still seem interested even after getting that last cheque ? Good luck on getting your flooring down and getting rid of the concrete Re: Building own design with Format SA 134Oct 12, 2011 8:42 pm Drayto, since you have only been in for a week, maybe take photos of the chips and email to let them know. The quicker they know about them, the more likely they are to fix them (one would think ) Glad to hear most of the things were able to be fixed at handover https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43937&start=0 Bought a block in Golden Grove - Jan 2011 Finally finished our design, Mar 2012, *yay* Signed with ADH council consent June 12 Hi Mofflepop, I would recommend finding a building designer to prepare plans, they should design to your specified budget. The benefit is you can tender the project out… 9 20401 From a pure legal perspective, if you've signed the variation, it is a very high bar to have it set aside. No-one can give you legal advice on a forum, but you would need… 3 5477 Thank you so much for the effort. We will use it to talk with builder. We also had idea of building duplex instead and seeking suggest ions. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=106744 11 13830 |