Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1261Nov 05, 2012 2:30 pm Jen - Since the last update, the tiler came in and tiled 1 splashback in the bathroom, and a small part of our feature wall... still more tiling to be done! The tiler started on the 8th of October!! Our front door has been delivered, sitting inside the front room. This can't be fitted until bricks are knocked out. The carpenter was there today starting work on the front porch... he is pretty slow, so not sure how long it will take him. So whilst there is action on our place, it's one slow trade at a time, they start a job and take ages to finish and of the things the SS said would be done last week (bulkheads to kitchen, fix bulkhead to stairs, front door in, knock bricks out to front entry and first coat of paint) none of these have been started. The only thing done were tiles. Built the Seaview 36 with Rawson Homes - Read about it on my blog http://lamaisondemorgan.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1262Nov 05, 2012 2:35 pm That is pretty pathetic movement. Have you been given a reason why? Seeing your DH is a builder what does he say? Modified Fernside 38 Rawson Homes Blog: http://www.thehousethatmatandjenbuilt.blogspot.com Build Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60501 Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1263Nov 05, 2012 2:42 pm No reason at all. My DH is not impressed and extremely frustrated, unfortunately with the contract, we have no rights. HIA contract is all in the builders favour. We have tried a few different approaches, and it does nothing. He believes that they have a trade shortage (or they are all working on FC Estate) and that it's not necessarily the SS fault. If DH went days without trades on his jobs, he wouldn't have a job. Built the Seaview 36 with Rawson Homes - Read about it on my blog http://lamaisondemorgan.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1264Nov 05, 2012 3:10 pm Smorgzzz I am sorry. How is your DH by the way? I think what makes it the most frustrating is that you were given a date and now they have taken that back and now you are paying the majority of your payments, where there is not that much work to go and they could have you handed over and onto the next job. It probably wont get your far, but I would speak to the construction manager and voice your concerns. Modified Fernside 38 Rawson Homes Blog: http://www.thehousethatmatandjenbuilt.blogspot.com Build Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60501 Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1265Nov 05, 2012 3:16 pm Jen - I think that will be the next step, the last time we spoke to the SS was last Monday, so I'll give him until Friday to see how much is done and then reassess. DH is still really sore, he has gone back to work today as he was bored sitting at home. He can't do anything physical, so just supervising. Built the Seaview 36 with Rawson Homes - Read about it on my blog http://lamaisondemorgan.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1266Nov 05, 2012 5:59 pm Hi everyone, am loving hearing all if your progress. Building is definitely a slow and frustrating process but I guess you just have to keep looking at the big picture and how it will all be worth it in the end. We got our check plans last Friday and surprise surprise they only took 21 days!! I wasn't expecting them for a couple of weeks seen as though Rawson don't appear to be sticking to their time frames!! We went through them with our sales guy and made a few changes but all in all they weren't too bad. I have sent them back to Rawson today to be amended. I was told they would take around 2 weeks to be amended, has this been the case with everyone else? Also I need to supply external colors. I'm building the Benham 29 and we want the same facade colours as the benham 33 at Waterford county Chisholm. I have the colour sheets but the paint colours used are Dulux. How do I go about converting these to Taubmans? Has anyone had to do this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as our cso has been far from helpful in this matter!! Thanks in advance Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1267Nov 05, 2012 6:11 pm Hi bailey I can't remember how long our plan changes took but as far as paint goes I would take the colours to a taubmans store.. They might be able to match them for you.. Who's your CSO? Where are you building? Smorgzzz that sounds really frustrating.. Checked in with our SS today and he says scaffolding should be down by next week provided no rain but I'm not gonna get my hopes up. He was saying he was annoyed because the plumber is behind at the moment.. Yay lol Jen they seem to do those things really quick like in a few hours. I've only seen tradies at our place once in the whole time It's been building its like magic lol Capital that's really slow.. What were the delays? My very first blog http://benham33.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1268Nov 05, 2012 6:20 pm Thanks for that Tarsha, great idea I will definitely go and do that. We are building @ Lake Macquarie (KDRB). Our CSO is Christine. The problem is we signed up with Paul and he was so wonderful he makes it hard for anyone else to even come close!! Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1269Nov 05, 2012 6:21 pm That is very true lol they just need more Paul's!! My very first blog http://benham33.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1270Nov 05, 2012 6:23 pm Bailey our check plans changes took 3 weeks. Before they could do the changes to the check plans we had to sign off on the variations that needed to be costed - we had moved windows around and added doors etc. Once these were done they took 3 weeks. Give them the Dulux paint colours and they do the colour, but using a Taubmans paint. It should basically be the same colour. Our external colours we have one Taubmans and one Dulux. Our feature wall inside is Dulux. Bailey Christine is new, so I dont think she is much help at all. Duesseldorf had her and now he has Maree. Another Paul fan here - every sales person needs to be like him I will check tomorrow morning if the block has been pegged out, but I am not holding my breath. Only a couple of hours at work tomorrow. DS has to go to the fracture clinic to get his arm checked out. Hopefully it is still in place, I really dont want to have him go through the whole setting process again. Modified Fernside 38 Rawson Homes Blog: http://www.thehousethatmatandjenbuilt.blogspot.com Build Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60501 Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1271Nov 05, 2012 7:07 pm Thanks for the info Jen. Hope DS is ok, as if you didn't have enough to worry about!! Hope you get some action in your block ASAP!! Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1272Nov 05, 2012 7:35 pm Hi Everyone, I have been reading through trying to catch up on all the goss.. So many newbies on here... WOW... By the sounds of it i must have scraped through with our build before the rush happened. Even though my paperwork side was slow and like drawing teeth the build was so quick for us. No proper internet or phone line in the street - Thanks again TELSTRA.. they advised works to be completed by the 1 December. So hard trying to work at home on a prepaid mobile and a 4g mobile internet that runs slower than DIAL UP. Hence no updated photos. I think it would take over an hour 1 get one photo up on here. All is good - can't believe I am putting the final touches on our 3 month maintenance, should be sent through by mid this week. Major problem and literally the only problem is with the Gyprocking/ patching/ Sanding an painting mostly down the 3 sections of the front hallway. And a few little spots elsewhere that are noticeable. This was completed while SS was on his 2 week leave but it was really hard to see these during the inspections and handover I was so excited I really didn't look very hard. A water leak issue on the main sink underneath, still waiting for paint to be removed from the brick at the front.So lets see how there maintenance department handle our list. We finally got Nawkaw last month - they came around and repaired the bricks externally that needed to be recoloured after the brick cleaner killed them. Very good job.. You cannot see a difference , he took his time and was told by PGH to do more than he usually would on a job. External stone arrived late last week from Italy, going to check them out this week , if all good tiler should be able to start the pool and externals done by late November.. Working towards Xmas deadline for the pool.. Jen - I am keeping an eye on your thread as well waiting for the start of your home... Look forward to watching it go up.. Tarsha - Hope you had fun on your relaxing holiday.... and hoping they keep on moving . If scaffoldings coming down that mean you have a roof ???? Watching the R going up next to us.... it was pegged out after the Claren accross the road. Claren still waiting for waffle pod and R has nearly completed lower level bricks.. My culdesac is full on at the moment I am currently living in a construction site and the dust is driving me nuts.. 2 completed homes and 9 under construction - makes it very hard to try and get out in a hurry ... Hoping to get some new pics up soon X Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1273Nov 06, 2012 12:30 am Hi Everyone! We had our electrical appointment yesterday. Couple of things: If you are at tender stage or just before deciding to sign, try and negotiate a larger electrical allowance. Every builder seems to be exactly the same, so where you are going to spend the money no matter what is the electrical. The allowance with Rawson is for one double power point per room and one lightpoint per room, as per tender/contract. Obviously you can't survive on that in any house, so you add, add, add because it is extremely stressful and difficult and expensive to add things later in a completed double storey home. Thanks to the wonderful experienced regulars on here such as Jen and Tarsha and Mrs Big Ted etc, we were well prepared, in fact we spent days/weeks, drawing up plans, working out where /how/ why we wanted to put power/lights everywhere (and we still forgot stuff). My suggestion is: Be prepared. We were told by Megan at Emu Plains (which is where the main Sydney office is located) that some people take 4+ hours. We did everything in 90minutes, well, 120 incl. quoting and finalisation. Also, know that when you get the confirmation of the appointment and they email you a price list, many of the things you will need are not on the price list, so you really have no way of working out a definete total pre-appointment. After speaking at length with a local electrician in The Ponds, we decided to get almost everything done in the one go. Saving say $500-$1000 on getting just some pre-wiring done and then getting an electrician to come in after handover to put in , say the downlights, is just not worth it for us. Firstly, we will have to get an electrician to come in anyway as Rawson only pre-wire outdoor lightpoints/the lightpoint in the staircase etc and we want lights hung etc. God knows how much that will be. I know our guy will charge $55 an hour but how long do things take? No idea! Secondly, considering we need to do everything from some landscaping incl. letterbox to driveway and roof antenna etc done after handover, the less I have to coordinate/book/argue about timing/turning up and get stressed about tradespeople reliability, workmanship and hoping they will do a good job overall (considering anything THEY do after handover will not be covered by Rawson warranty or workmanship for the 90 day maintanance period) , the happier I will be. It's frustrating enough being forced to be patient even during the admin stage. We added lots of lights to the Benham 29 and still ended up not needing an additional light circuit, but need 2 extra power circuits, which is fine by me as I don't want to lose power to a tv when I turn a toaster on. All up, I am extremely happy that (apart from the fact I decided not to go with the 3 low lights inside in the staircase in the end) we didn't compromise anywhere. We are getting exactly what we wanted incl. a powerpoint out the front for Christmas Lights, a pre-wire for a Video Intercom, the alarm sensors in the perfect spots, lots of well-positioned 2 and 3 way switches, 10x LED downlights incl. the kitchen and hallway, a power point to the Island Bench that my wife is thrilled about when she mixes cake dough and front facade light points. Where it was dissapointing: Megan wasn't sent our latest plans by Maree/Rawson, but we figured it all out together and it went like clockwork because we had figured out where we wanted most of the extra bits and had thought about positioning. Megan was quite helpful whenever we asked, where would you put this and that, what do you recommend? She gave us pro's and cons with some things and made it much easier to reach a decision. But I say again: Be prepared and be prepared needing to spend money. You're not going to get through this with 'just a few extra power points and a couple of extra lights'. The thing no builder has in their well-advertised upgrade packs is an upgraded electrical allowance. So, annoyed about being forced to pay extra for lots, but ultimately happy with what we are getting. Building The Benham 29 in The Ponds With Rawson Homes http://buildingwithrawson.blogspot.com.au/ Site Start 13/2/13 Handover 7/8/13 Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1274Nov 06, 2012 4:43 am Duesseldorf - It would be nice for builders to be honest with electrical pricing & also tiling allowances for that matter. We would have definitely would have upgraded to a "package" if it was offered at tender to allocate X amount of downlight provision etc and X amount extra for tiles, as we had to find $4500 cash to pay for our tile upgrades (thanks taxman!) TheRise - Fantastic news about the NawKaw! Shame about Telstra, I hope they get it installed soon, only because I want to see photos... oh and I'm sure you'd like a phone & internet! Built the Seaview 36 with Rawson Homes - Read about it on my blog http://lamaisondemorgan.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1275Nov 06, 2012 6:41 am Hi everyone Could you please tell me the pros and cons of Scycon stria/matrix cladding and also Fully glazed bricks?(such as Apollo). We sent our plans with changes marked and waiting for the variations and second issue of plans. Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1276Nov 06, 2012 7:26 am tarsha678 Capital that's really slow.. What were the delays? Our bricks took a few weeks to arrive, and then when they did there must have only been one bricklayer laying them as it took a couple of weeks to brick the house. Hopefully the guy laying them had a keen eye for detail. Dusseldorf, I agree about everything you said about the electrical. Some good tips there, I didnt think about Christmas lights, damn! Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1277Nov 06, 2012 8:21 am Bailey, Sounds like we're at the exact same point as you with our Benham 33. I just sent the check plans back to the CSO this morning. I wasn't particularly impressed when I recieved them, we only had about 4 variations in the tender and they missed 2 of them! What a joke! There was a couple at an appointment with Paul just before us last time we were at Chisholm and they had like 45 variations - if they can't get my 4 right that poor couple has NO CHANCE lol. I think we have finally settled on our exterior colours . Now I just need a price estimate back from our CSO about getting Austral lite stone on our feature pillar and we're good to go. So glad we had a look at Austral last weekend. Loved their blackstone brick, it's much nicer than the Boral Domino and we save $1000 (wooo more $$$ for my feature pillar ). As for render and weatherboard colours, we're going to stick to the colourbond colour palate as Taubmans has about 1000 shades of grey and I really can't be bothered finding one that doesn't have a green or blue undertone. Anyway here is what we're thinking: Main render - shale grey Roof, windows and smaller front pillars - windspray 2nd floor weatherboard - surfmist Feature pillar - Austral Valley Coal Brick - Austral Blackstone Hopefully having a fully black bricked home doesn't cause an argument with the local council.. fingers crossed! Dusseldorf - thanks for the spiel on the electricals, very helpful. Hubby and I spent 2 hours in the benham display marking out extra powerpoints and downlights etc after the tender was signed so hopefully this should be a good starting point when we get to the electrical appointment. Smorgzzz - I understand your frustration about them not being transparent with their allowances. I have asked our CSO a few time to give me flooring allowances and she won't give me any information. I already know that the floors I want will be an upgrade, I just want to estimate it! So frustrating. I think the tile allowance in the gold is $27.50 if that helps anyone (it was written in our tender when we requested that the study wasn't carpeted). Also, I'm another Paul fan! He's a brilliant salesman and super helpful. He certainly knows the tricks of the trade! Helps that he's an ex-builder though I suppose. Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1278Nov 06, 2012 8:30 am Quote: Our bricks took a few weeks to arrive, and then when they did there must have only been one bricklayer laying them as it took a couple of weeks to brick the house. Hopefully the guy laying them had a keen eye for detail. I work for a builder so I could only assume the following Bricks are scheduled in to be made. Sometimes when we order bricks which a client has chosen we are told that they are out of stock and they are not scheduled to be made for X amount of weeks as that is when they are scheduled in. Unfortunately we have to wait. That may have been the case for you. With the brick layers I find one brickie working on a house very frustrating, however, we had two brickies working for us, they were two old boys - we nicked named them bill and ben the flower pot men - and they were slow - I mean SLOW, but they were great brickies, did a fantastic job. Hopefully your brickie is just like them. I would love those two old boys working on my house, but I still think in 40 weeks we would be bricking! Quote: Could you please tell me the pros and cons of Scycon stria/matrix cladding Sycon and matrix cladding are just brands/style of cladding. We use it at work and it is hard wearing. I have both sycon and matrix cladding going up on my house. Ideally i wouldnt have any cladding at all and would like it fully bricked, but how we have changed our house, I think it would be a lot more expensive and we would need quite a bit more steel to hold the back of the house up. Munchi - Great idea about going through the display home and marking up extra powerpoints. Their downlight usage is massive and I think you would need a second mortgage to pay for all of those. We have a total of 78 variations and I think that is pretty standard. Paul told us that the variations that we wrote up with Paul would not come back right on the check plans and he was right, they didnt put them in. So they were all done when we sent our check plans back. I think we had 27 changes at that time and they got them all right on the revised plans. Went to the block this morning - no pegs, but we do have a sign - very exciting Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Modified Fernside 38 Rawson Homes Blog: http://www.thehousethatmatandjenbuilt.blogspot.com Build Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60501 Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1279Nov 06, 2012 8:34 am That's good that they got them all right the second time Jen - could make for a very slow process having a 3 week turn around time for every new set of changes! Re: Our Benham 33 journey 1280Nov 06, 2012 8:42 am Quote: That's good that they got them all right the second time Jen - could make for a very slow process having a 3 week turn around time for every new set of changes! That was my concern that they would get them wrong the second time, but they were very good. Paul was excellent at wording the changes as well so they couldn't make a mistake. I made sure that all the changes - we had more than your 4 went back on an excel spreadsheet with them all numbered and then the changes were numbered on the plans - fool proof Modified Fernside 38 Rawson Homes Blog: http://www.thehousethatmatandjenbuilt.blogspot.com Build Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60501 Any advice on how to ensure the kit home granny flat that im thinking of buying will get council approval. The kit home companys wont release plans without a deposit and… 0 7231 of course there are legal avenues. You've already mentioned it. Sue them. I find it odd that lawyers wouldnt be willing to take on the case, given CCT evidence and… 1 23802 "Losers" "humanity" "off time" "your" "top notch" "love symbol" Sounds like ponzo is done using other people's toilets 36 23927 |