Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 08, 2012 7:31 pm Hello everyone there comes the time when you gotta start your own thread rather than hijacking everyone elses thread This thread will be detailed from start to finish of my build extras, qoutes, etc, It will give a realistic insight of my building experience.
Always being a North of the river close to the beach boy, growing up, I should of been more inclined to building in Butler or even Alkimos like many of our friends have done. Sometimes you just gotta break the trend and pick an area that you think will grow in value the most and also a place a bit more central to CBD, aswell as best value for money land. We choose Whiteman Edge because it has so much future potential and a less than 2 minute drive to the duckstein brewery, whiteman park, and other great restaurants and cafes. It's a great place for a young family, My wife and I our both 27 with a 18 month lil girl. This will be our first time building and second morgage. We looked at St. Lenards, Caversham, Avonlee, Aveley, worked out all the pros and cons in depth and Whiteman Edge came out on top. We're very realistic at where we want to be and want to afford to live within our means and work towards that dream home by the time we're 35-40. That's why we have selected Commodore Homes. We're currently living in a small 3-1 and with the baby we have simply outgrown and forced to upgrade. Commodore Homes I don't think have the greatest reputation on productreview website, when you think about it only like 8 or so reviews on the website, and people normally only feel the need to complain if they're having problems, while we have had a few dramas and small problems so far. I am hoping that this thread will be a overall a good experience. We decided to build the Challenger through Commodore Homes on our 450m block. We have made a few modifications to the original designs. Original Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Modified Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ So the changes we made are increased length of back of house by 1200mm so bedroom3/4 activity and alfresco are all longer. I originally wanted the alfresco longer by about 3 metres, however looking at the roof design that looked like an expensive ordeal so I decided just to extend the whole back of the house out. This cost roughly around $4500 We added the feature wall to the activity room that it's cousin's house the bathurst has this cost just over $650 We sunk the floor recessed the ceiling, change the windows to a 8 x 11 awning from 25 x 9 in the Theatre room this all up cost around $2800 We extended the WIR out by 1.2 metres to be in line with the house to give us waldrobe space. This was just under $600 Increase Vanity cupboard by 560mm just over $450 All up around 9k in changes. just as I thought I have been happy with them I am starting to think for bedroom 3 and 4, need double wardrobes might have to email are rep tommorrow to see if we can still add those changes. Our land has been titled and I think we're just waiting for our drawings of our house to be drawn up fully to be submitted to shire. Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 2Jul 09, 2012 11:20 am Hi AC27, I think your plans look great! I would definitely go with doubles in the back beds if you can, and maybe think about moving the doors into them to be in line with the doors of the wardrobes, so you have larger space outside the rooms and toilet, and the wardrobes will appear built in when your in the rooms!?! Just an idea. Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 3Jul 09, 2012 11:30 am Hi AC27 , good looking plans. WE built with Commodore Homes in Ellenbrook 12 months ago. Hope things go well. Any colour choices we can have a look at The road to success is always under construction House completed April 2011 - slowly making it a home... Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 4Jul 09, 2012 7:56 pm cheers folks, Leighlou I like you idea of aligning the doors in the bedroom I have just written a email and a drawing of the change desired. I am not sure if it will be too late now but I guess it's worth a shot. Zarli We haven't reallly decided only colours yet for the house. We ain't really white type of people though, So it could be something left field. Our Bathroom Tiles are gonna be dark. I will upload most stuff come prestart. At the moment I have done stuff like buy my home theatre speakers system and getting qoutes for Air Conditioning once the house is finished to be installed, and looking at making a visit to Intelligent homes to discuss my datapoints and wiring for the speakers. So I know where to add all the conduit in to single brick internal walls, eg. bedroom control panel for Air con beside WIR and bed. Getting ideas where too put the Aircon unit so I have an outside weatherproof power point outside installed etc. All the little bits and pieces ready for pre start. Whenever that may be now. Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 5Jul 12, 2012 8:24 pm Ok so today we found out that the final drawings too our house should be ready next week then we can arrange a prestart date. The banker we're with (Commonwealth) has got valex to get in contact with us they want to evaulate our house so gotta give them all qoutes and drawings etc. We're already paying the morgage on the land just gotta get the building morgage approved now. It's a bit of a hassel but oh well. Also got a call back from Intelligent homes about install NBN points into our house, I said can we come in on a Saturday however they're booked out on Saturdays until the 4th of August so might book an appointment with them couple of hours before on the date of our prestart when ever that maybe. Got a qoute from Season Makers Got qouted $13729 for a 14.4KW Actron system with 10 ducts throughout the house. This Saturday gonna pay a visit to Jeff Mouritz Gas and Air see if they can beat it. Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 6Jul 13, 2012 10:19 am congrats ac on ur build thread and the floor plan looks awesome - very similar to ours infact just the activity room placement is a bit different hope the build goes smoothly for you future neighbour Oct 10 - Council Approval Oct 23 - Site scrape Oct 29 - Footings and Prelay OCT 30 - Slabbed Nov 6 - Bricks Delivered Nov 13 - Brickwork started Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 7Jul 22, 2012 3:45 pm Didn't hear back from our builder this week about final drawings will contact them this week to chase it up. Went and visited our vacant lot of dirt yesterday found that the builder has put a sign up on our land over our lot number Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Had a quick drive around the suburb could only see 1 other of the builders sign in the estate. On another note looks like the first house (that's non display home) will built on my street a couple of blocks up looks like it's ready for slab down sometime this week. Wish we were close to dropping slab. . Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 8Jul 23, 2012 10:51 am Cool stuff. The sign makes it all real. Any word on when you will get final drawings?? The road to success is always under construction House completed April 2011 - slowly making it a home... Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 9Jul 23, 2012 9:17 pm Hopefully will find out tommorrow, what the G.O is I emailed tonight saying It will be 6 weeks on Wednesday since the drawings had been started upon and I was told it would take between 4-6 weeks. On the 17th (last Wednesday) my wife emailed and the response was "As soon as the Energy Requirement Checks are completed I will send the remaining documents including the working drawings". Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 11Jul 27, 2012 6:24 pm yeah had a bit of trouble with the contract administrator had to write her an email telling her what I thought lol. But the contracts are done now, and a lady will becoming around tommorrow afternoon for us to sign them. So will update tommorrow what time frames we're looking out for are next step. Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 12Jul 28, 2012 4:01 pm Ok signed the contracts today Siteworks came to $11,285 3. Provide Concrete Pump/Tank Track hire / hand borrow E/O costs due to access requirements and site conditions. $2500 5. Hard & Hand digging to site : including but not limited to hard, soft or collapsing typw soild (including service items) Plus any additional concrete required as a result of rock/rubble removal increasing required size of excavations. $1500 These 2 seem to be pending but I doubt they would remove them if they don't require them. If anyone in Avonlee/whiteman edge/ st lenonards has had siteworks it would be interesting to see how much you were charged and if you got the 2 qouted as per above. Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 14Jul 28, 2012 9:37 pm I'm pretty sure provisional sums for concrete pumps and hard digging are fairly standard. In the case of hard digging, the builder can never be 100% sure what they will find until they start so they put those sums in there to cover themselves. We got costings from 4 builders when deciding who to build with and all of the quotes included pretty similar amounts for concrete pumps and hard digging. Our custom Gemmill Home in Bedfordale WA Build thread:https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=53788 Timeline on page 1 Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 15Jul 28, 2012 10:10 pm Hey Soakedblond, well I sorta expected it to be covered in the costs now that I think about it. As I had a friend that built with Scott Park Homes about 5 years ago now and that wasn't included in the qoute and they tried asking him for the money after the contract had already been signed... have you found out if they used concrete pumps and hard digging with your siteworks as of yet? I just hope the companies are honest in whether or not they have to use them or not and will credit it back if they don't require. Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 16Jul 29, 2012 2:33 pm Our build hasn't started yet so I can't be much help there sorry. I know someone that has recently built and they got the full amount back for hard digging and over half of the provisional sum for the concrete pump back. Our custom Gemmill Home in Bedfordale WA Build thread:https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=53788 Timeline on page 1 Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 17Jul 31, 2012 7:57 pm Another issue that was brought up during the signing of final contracts is the new 6 Star energy requirements. We were told that are Gas points will be installed but not connected "they will be capped" to meet the 6 star energy requirement it sounds like a load of crap! They said I will have to get a plumber out after handover to connect it. Has anyone else heard of anything similar to this?
Also emailed them yesterday asking them to remove the soakwells from the qoute as we would do them ourselves they said they replied back qoute "Sorry, no you are not permitted to do your soakwells as stormwater disposal is part of the building licence." The next day we get an email asking to sign a variation to show soakwells on our site plan which is required for shire requirement and Building permit approval. So I'm guessing we will have to wait a few more weeks now for them to draw it on to our plans now before it gets submitted. Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 18Jul 31, 2012 8:03 pm Yeah I've been going through specs and some builders don't supply any part of the gas point! And then in brackets next to it says due to 6 star energy rating.....its just them making a bit more money...couple hundred bucks times a few hundred homes! Im amazed they are even installing part of it though?! Sounds like a good deal in a twisted sort.of way... Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 19Jul 31, 2012 11:51 pm We didn't get gas point when we built , they wanted around $650 extra to install it...so we politely declined lol! There's a guy in ellenbrook who installs them in established homea for $400 if you want rough price. We also couldn't do our own soak wells thru commodore homes - they did all that. But a couple of friends building at same time thru different builder did their own. The road to success is always under construction House completed April 2011 - slowly making it a home... Re: Commodore Homes The Whiteman Edge experience. 20Aug 01, 2012 2:46 pm Zarli one came on the plan in the dining room I am only interested in one at in the Alfresco to be honest. But if they're gonna charge $650 and it not be connected I might aswell remove it and get it installed afterwards. Ok found out today pre start date is August 14th 9am Thank you again Simeon.. I will call my certifier for that. Have a good day 4 5191 Thanks for the insights, that makes perfect sense, and yeah, I will be leaning on the experience of the excavator operator entirely. 6 16148 Hi All, I engaged a tradie to install concrete retaining wall 600-800mm high over 32 meters in Victoria. Sleepers are 200*75*2000 mm installed over 17 steel posts. I… 0 6917 |