Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 13, 2012 9:14 pm hi, we are building our first home in south east melbourne suburbia. we would like to hear from others who have recently built their homes with simonds in melbourne's south east and how they found the experience / were you happy with the service provided / are you happy with your new home etc etc we're looking to take in any feedback you may have both positive and negative (however keep any negative feedback constructive as we don't want to see this thread descend into a slander fest) we hope your feedback / advice / experiences may be able to help us to avoid common pitfalls / mistakes and get exactly what we wanted as an end result. we'd be more than happy to pay that advice forward once our build completes. our build is moving along much faster than we expected and we are a little stressed that it is may even be moving too fast. we understand the market has slowed therefore houses are being built quicker we just hope they are being built to the same degree of quality and workmanship. what's the average time frame for completing a build on a standard size 2 storey 3 bedroom house at the moment and how would you break that timeframe into the relevant stages e.g slab / frame / roof / electrical / bricks so on and so on? thanks in advance for any useful input / advice you may have for us and thanks for taking the time to share it. happy home building! Re: building with simonds - south east melbourne 2Jul 14, 2012 9:31 am We're right at the end of our build with simonds in Melbourne - more east than south east. Our timeline was very fast at the start of the build, but the last stage has taken a lot longer than expected. In terms of quality it has been very good so far. We'll probably find out more after we've lived in it though. The only gripe I have is the lack of communication - we have to ask for every update. I have a detailed timeline on my blog if you want more info. Re: building with simonds - south east melbourne 3Jul 14, 2012 10:04 am We are building with Simmons in the north, been going since October/November I think (banks and land titles not Simmons). So far Simmons has been good, they told us our street name was changed by the developer, not the developer! Our only problem so far was we asked (almost from day one) if the central heating had a filter in the return air and promised it did, until we checked the display again and friend who recently built with Simmons and found none, our csc then said their was none and issued a variation minus the variation fee! As for our friend, she had problems, but I don't know the specifics to get into it! But she has ended up with a nice looking home! 2 Re: building with simonds - south east melbourne 4Jul 14, 2012 10:55 am The best quality house we have had was built in 3 months. Much better than the house that took 6 months. Its the tradies and the specification that make the quality, not the time. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: building with simonds - south east melbourne 5Jul 22, 2012 5:26 am bronj - cheers for the link to your blog. that gives us a pretty good indication of where we are at and what we can expect from here on. while we definitely would not want them to rush the build at all, we are hoping build will complete by early december at latest as we are getting married mid-december and have relatives flying in from interstate who would like somewhere to stay. we had dramas with the land vendor delaying settlement by approx 8 months so had everything gone according to plan there would be no issue but nothing we can do now. just hope we don't end up moving in and getting married at the same time. simonds were really good throughout the whole delayed settlement in fact they were probably the only party involved that kept in regular contact. we've had nothing but good experience so far overall really. you read some of these horror stories online and hope it doesn't happen to you and i guess that is asll you can do. am completely dumbfounded as to how i overlooked solar panels. i don't remember them being offered as an option at any stage during the consultation process but it is too far down the track for variations now i would say. i have a mate who is a builder. he is going to help me with a few things post build so that might be something we will look at. would be curious to know what saving we would have made (if any?) had we organised solar panels as part of build rather than adding post build. anyone shed any light on potential cost difference? cheers for all your responses. much appreciated. Re: building with simonds - south east melbourne 6Jul 22, 2012 8:37 am Monkeemagic - we saw the banner at our colour consultation saying ask them about solar panels, we asked our electrical consultant who said to ask our CSC she came back with we don't need any more panels on the hot water, we said no, electricity and where told they don't offer it! And solar panels have to be installed by a solar accredited electrician! 2 Re: building with simonds - south east melbourne 7Jul 23, 2012 10:53 pm i find this really difficult to comprehend. in a situation whereby climate change is a hot topic, electricty prices are going through the roof thanks to the carbon tax and carbon neutral living is promoted by everyone down to your flight bookings, why would a builder not encourage solar panel take up let alone discourage it when it is requested by the buyer? i guess i will just organise it post build.... Keen to hear from people in the area who have got KDRB done on whom they got the build from? Looking for recommendations. Thanks 0 21107 Hi, can anyone recommend a custom home builder who can build in north east area? Looking to build a custom 4-br energy-efficient home with a max budget of 750k. If they… 0 22815 May I ask why you chose not to use GJ Gardiner? I'm actually meeting with one of the sales guys tomorrow for an appointment. Definitely not signing anything yet… 3 13254 |