Browse Forums Building A New House Re: dvestate's Build - Raked or Rolled joints? 21May 30, 2012 4:21 pm Re: dvestate's Build - Plans FINALLY correct! 22May 30, 2012 4:45 pm oooh congratulations! nice big spaces, bathroom is nice and big Re: dvestate's Build - Plans FINALLY correct! 23May 30, 2012 10:40 pm We can't wait for it to be built..... it can be a bit squeeze at our current home when its bath time and we only have 1 at the moment Re: dvestate's Build - Plans FINALLY correct! 24Jul 23, 2012 4:12 pm Well no updates for a while.... Land FINALLY Registered on the 15th June 2012 so we had to settle on 29th June 2012 Missed a call from the builder on the 28th June.... Called them on the 29th June and they received the s149 Cert from council and my land is in the bushfire "Buffer Zone" (No trees for quite a distance) so either had to prepare my own report or pay someone $350 to do one..... Figured it would take me all weekend to do it so $350 spend was easier and turned around within 1 business day. Allworth submitted the plans to the Private Certifier on the 29th June Called on the 13th July to find out if everything was approved yet - Nope still waiting Called on the 18th July and told that everything was approved, so I asked how long till contracts and told about a week. Said I would organise a day off and let them know so I could get an appointment. Emailed I had the 27th July of work and get a phone call that the CSO had read the computer wrong and that the Waterboard Approval had been submitted that day and it takes upto 2 weeks to be completed..... NOT HAPPY with this and could see the slim hope of Xmas in the new house GONE!!! Got an email this morning, everything approved as of today so now trying to pump them for the paperwork to be done for Friday as I still have that day off work Re: dvestate's Build - Plans Full Approved!!! Waiting to sig 25Jul 24, 2012 8:45 am Congrats! Good luck for the 27th. Building tip No. 3: A raft slab will not get you down a river. A waffle pod slab does not go with maple syrup. My building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=53000 Re: dvestate's Build - Plans Full Approved!!! Waiting to sig 26Jul 24, 2012 4:38 pm Thanks mate, will be chasing them up tomorrow afternoon to find out if it is a chance. Sent a couple of emails but had not confirmation on that while they have passed back some other info asked at the same time. I am guessing they don't want to commit to it and not have it done but really should have worked on it while all my Approval's were happening. Also the quicker they get it done the quicker they can start to get cash out of me Re: dvestate's Build - Plans Full Approved!!! Waiting to sig 27Jul 26, 2012 6:05 pm Not a good day today...... Due to go in to sign the Building Agreement tomorrow, called to ask if they had onsite parking and my CSO asked if she had sent the final variation stuff i said no so through it came. First variation was Left side setback changed to 1.5m to meet complying development guidelines....... Now i had been told early Allworth required 1.2m even though i wanted 900mm. I let that go but to lose now a total of 600mm from the side has got my blood boiling. On the phone to the CSO spewing about it, asking why I was not told about this 3 weeks ago before it was submitted. To make matters worse if it went through council i would not be having the issue, or if my block was 17.99m not 18m exactly it would not be an issue under complying development. The wife is upset as much as I am, CSO said we can go back through council but when we go past our tender period in 2 weeks we will be up for a $3600 increase and we would have to pay the costs to send it to council (no idea how much). The final option would be lose our deposit and walk away......... Not happy campers today and really do not want to front in there tomorrow and sign..... 2 Re: dvestate's Build - Plans Full Approved!!! Waiting to sig 28Jul 26, 2012 9:32 pm Ouch! Definitely not a good day today. I have to say communication prior to commencing the build was not their strong point (usually I liaised directly with the companies and tradesman that they contract to to get my answers and I was lucky enough that they would call me with questions). However, things do seem to go smoothly after. So does the 600mm mean rooms will be smaller or the house is pushed further to the other side? Building tip No. 3: A raft slab will not get you down a river. A waffle pod slab does not go with maple syrup. My building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=53000 Re: dvestate's Build - Plans Full Approved!!! Waiting to sig 29Jul 26, 2012 10:15 pm House pushed across to one side so down to 4.2m to the fence on the usable side. This was where stuff like swings, trampolines, and other kids stuff is going so want as much room as possible when they are little. If we had been told about this 4 weeks ago and could have made the call to go via council if we wanted 2 Re: dvestate's Build - Plans Full Approved!!! Waiting to sig 30Jul 27, 2012 10:37 am So not exactly what you want, but is a 12.5% reduction in backyard width a deal breaker or worth the extra $3600? I understand the frustration you must be feeling (although I don't understand the ruling for the complying development...it sounds pretty stupid). Building tip No. 3: A raft slab will not get you down a river. A waffle pod slab does not go with maple syrup. My building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=53000 Re: dvestate's Build - Plans Full Approved!!! Waiting to sig 31Jul 27, 2012 1:00 pm Well it will end up almost 6K by the time we would have to pay for council. We may have accepted it if we were consulted or informed of the required change rather than hide it until less than 24 hours before we go in. Sent an email to them this morning with all our concerns and trying to work out if someone was meant to contact us and why they did not know about the regulations. 2 Re: dvestate's Build - Plans Full Approved!!! Waiting to sig 32Jul 28, 2012 4:10 pm Got a call late yesterday from the General Manager, did not think my email would head that high. He was very embarrassed it had been missed at the start and also apologised after a member of the drafting team did not follow up on a voicemail that was left on my desk phone to contact them a few weeks back (i really should check them more often) Basically told us they had no issue if we decided to send it back through council, it will cost them money to do so but not sure what would happen with the tender period as they have yet to work that out. We have been offered some compensation if we go forward with the change to 1.5m which is better than nothing. So my current backyard is all spray painted to show the difference on both sides of the house so we can make a decision for Monday. 2 Re: dvestate's Build - Plans Full Approved!!! Waiting to sig 33Jul 31, 2012 7:24 am Hey dv what was the outcome? Building tip No. 3: A raft slab will not get you down a river. A waffle pod slab does not go with maple syrup. My building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=53000 Re: dvestate's Build - Plans Full Approved!!! Waiting to sig 34Aug 01, 2012 4:26 pm Well I call up Monday and spoke to the GM again and questioned a couple of other things that were on the last variation letter that I thought should have been previously costed into the build of the house. He agreed and organised for those to be removed. We decided on Sunday that we would move forward how it is, take the compensation, and get everything happening. We are pretty much over the whole paperwork side of it and really did not want to deal with anymore head against the brick wall moments. They allowed my to go into the Office on Monday go through it to find out where we had to sign and initial and then take it home to my wife to do the same that evening. The only issue was that I didn't know that the signature had to be witnessed so with no JP available after 6pm at such short noticed meant either a trip to the Courthouse or the local Display Home the next day. When I got home we went through the Colour selections booklet as the CSO had just put a post-it on the front to tell us to initial and date each page. As we went through it we noticed that there was a post-it on the page for the Laundry Benchtop saying we had to change the finish of it as that finish was not offered in that Brand Really not happy that we were not contacted about this earlier as it meant that on Tuesday my wife was at the display home deciding on either changing the finish or the brand/colour with me on the phone looking at the colours she wanted help with online (not ideal) She had to leave the Contract's there and they were delivered to Head Office 9am today. Around 10:30am I walked down to the office and grabbed my copy and headed back to work to scan everything to send to the lender. Got to the Contract page and no copy of our signatures, thought this was strange, called up to ask for a copy that we had signed and told no that will be fine for your lender.... Called the lender, nope need FULLY SIGNED and Witnessed contact (could be a photocopy or scan). Called back Allworth and was told that they had "Gone out of their way to help me get them signed" and that "If you had come into the office with my wife then I would have full signatures". This pretty much got me very upset due to the fact we had not come in on the Friday due to an issue we had not been told about. Rather than go NUTS down the phone I was a little short and ended the conversation. After having a vent to a work mate I decided it was time to call the GM again to try to get exactly what I needed, I didn't want the full 40 pages all I needed was 1 page........ Spoke to him on the phone, explained that I needed that one or I was going to have to stuff around getting signatures certified etc and basically waste time. He told me he would sort it out and within 20 minutes I had an email with the scanned page I was after. In that conversation he told me that he had noticed that I was an active member on the HomeOne forum, which I had a bit of a chuckle about as I have been pretty straight about everything I have posted here and knew what he has viewed and could view in the future. He did agree with me that the worst part of the journey is usually the Office stage. I personally hope they ALL builders read this types of Forums and very Product Review sites and use them to improve the aspects of the business that customers complain about. Personally I think there would more than likely only be 2-3 small things that could have been done through the Head Office paper work stage that would have kept me happy and no venting required. I have my fingers crossed that as soon as we start down the construction phase of the build we will have mostly happy things to report. I know that my 3 year old son is looking forward to seeing Concrete Trucks and "Diggers" at our site, so am hoping we can all have fun from here on in Soory about all the text, should have some pics to post up in a few weeks Re: dvestate's Build - All signed, now for the bank.... 35Aug 02, 2012 9:59 am hey mate how has everything proceeded with allworth ?? how would you rate your over all experience .. any issues in particular.. thanks heaps for your help Re: dvestate's Build - All signed, now for the bank.... 36Aug 02, 2012 10:02 am I am considering them for the harmony entertainer Re: dvestate's Build - All signed, now for the bank.... 37Aug 02, 2012 2:10 pm I'm not going to pull any punches here so here we go..... I would rate my experience with the Sales Team at the Display Home a 9 out of 10, I only had a few minor issues but I was told that was due to Allworth policy etc. All the information I was given prior to going for the Tender (which gave me a base price) as on the money. Also Peter from the Oran Park office has gone above and beyond on 2-3 occassions for me, this included coming to my house on his day of to pick something up and personally chasing up something at the Oran Park land sales office that saved me $3,500 so you have to be happy with that!! The Head Office experience I would rate a 6 out of 10, to me it has seemed like the onus has been on me to obtain things and there was really no pro-active communication's with me the whole time. When there were issues a couple of times the communication from staff seemed to be that I was asking for something out of the ordinary or I was annoying them so would get some attitude. Unfortuatly when ever I questioned something I was pretty much told that was the way things work and that was it with no flexability, a few of those things turned out not to be the case and I got a solution that I was happy with and the builder could accomodate. Obviously at this stage the overall would be a 7.5 out of 10 with both scores combined. I would have rated the Head Office about a point higher if I did not have the issue a week ago dropped in my lap just before signing and then all the mucking around this week. I am hoping that as the build begins this experience will sink out of my mind and I will have nothing but praise for the whole process. The Head Office experience could also have been different if I was not so invloved in the process, I am not the kind of person that can just sit back and wait for things to happen. If it is not happening in a timely manner then I will make a call to find out what is happening. One tip I will give and this is for ANYONE building a home, if you make a change to the floorplans make sure you check it carefully each change. Appart from that there really should not be much that can be stuffed up or cost you time Re: dvestate's Build - All signed, now for the bank.... 38Aug 02, 2012 2:14 pm On a side note I have been told by a couple of people that the Site Supervisor for my area is a great guy and is very easy to deal with an puts out a quality product. Lets hope so as I'm sure my father (ex industry) will be telling me if anything does not seem right Re: dvestate's Build - Bank Green Light, 20 Days begin!! 39Aug 07, 2012 10:35 am Well the Letter giving the Green Light to begin by my Lender arrived in my inbox at 4:25pm yesterday afternoon so emailed it my CSO at the builder. Gave her a call to advise I had emailed it through and told me they will now begin within the next 20 days....... YAY Happy to be at the point we are not long away from something happening at the block Re: dvestate's Build - Bank Green Light, 20 Days begin!! 40Aug 07, 2012 12:31 pm Congrats DV, ours started before the 20 days was up, so check the block! Building tip No. 3: A raft slab will not get you down a river. A waffle pod slab does not go with maple syrup. My building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=53000 0 4976 Thank you so much everyone. This all makes a lot of sense. I guess when you talk to a builder who butters up everything to look very polished, you get to start believing… 7 17588 Hi, did you get any money from insurance? if you did, does it match what you've already paid the builders? 3 9565 |