@Pippa: Congratulations Pippa, how exciting!!! Between I like your main door, is that an upgrade? Do you know how much was it? Also what glass have you used? translucent or clear?
@Suranga: Congrats mate...
Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Boutique Homes 544Sep 18, 2014 6:14 pm Sanjay the front door is a standard design but the height and the glazing was an upgrade. No idea how much the front door was as we got it thrown in due to our sales persons stuffing up. The glazing in the door is the frosted glass and from memory was $300-$400 for the front door and side light. Re: Boutique Homes 545Sep 18, 2014 7:06 pm Hey guys quick question, did any of you choose the security system which boutique provides? In our PwC they have put 'Argus security system Basic' for $1300. Any idea how good or bad this is? Re: Boutique Homes 546Sep 18, 2014 7:13 pm I didn't even see this option, perhaps it's something fairly new? Argus are the contractors for Boutiques electrical work. I also got the Brivis pamplets and wish they had discussed the options for the different remote controls for heating & cooling - another one of those details that slips by on Colours day unless you've thought about if beforehand. Re: Boutique Homes 547Sep 20, 2014 12:34 am Nice floorplan Suranga. It's a very spacious house. I see you made some changes with closing off walls and adding sliding doors, great idea! Love how you have extended your island bench and provisioned for butler's pantry and niches for both showers. We could only fit one in the ensuite as we didn't have enough room for the bathroom. How big is your front door, it looks huge. Is it 1020? Re: Boutique Homes 548Sep 20, 2014 8:33 am We've had vandals break in during the week and kick in some walls and graffiti walls looks like we'll be delayed now. Not sure for how long..I just want to cry! Re: Boutique Homes 549Sep 20, 2014 10:44 am Oh no, Fruitlubes. So sorry to hear that! Hope everything is replaced & made secure as soon as possible for you. @ Suranga - Congratulations! Boutique do seem to move along pretty quick once you get to site. I know it was a shock to receive the extra site costs at the end unexpectedly when you have a budget to maintain but it doesn't sound too bad to me for 60 + piers. If it will make you feel any better our site costs ended up being just a sniff under $30,000 & we have 45 piers. We did know our costs up front as our land was already titled when we bought it & we had soil tests done straight away. So we paid for a fixed price before we committed with Boutique, but it was more than we were expecting/hoping it to be. Re: Boutique Homes 550Sep 22, 2014 2:17 pm Theon Nice floorplan Suranga. It's a very spacious house. I see you made some changes with closing off walls and adding sliding doors, great idea! Love how you have extended your island bench and provisioned for butler's pantry and niches for both showers. We could only fit one in the ensuite as we didn't have enough room for the bathroom. How big is your front door, it looks huge. Is it 1020? thanks Theon, yea the front door is 1020mm. because we needed to have the side light. otherwise 1200mm size is the one i prefer. i am a big door fan. lol by the way, are you building riviera as well? then how come you did not have enough room in the bathroom? Re: Boutique Homes 551Sep 22, 2014 2:33 pm Shalee Oh no, Fruitlubes. So sorry to hear that! Hope everything is replaced & made secure as soon as possible for you. @ Suranga - Congratulations! Boutique do seem to move along pretty quick once you get to site. I know it was a shock to receive the extra site costs at the end unexpectedly when you have a budget to maintain but it doesn't sound too bad to me for 60 + piers. If it will make you feel any better our site costs ended up being just a sniff under $30,000 & we have 45 piers. We did know our costs up front as our land was already titled when we bought it & we had soil tests done straight away. So we paid for a fixed price before we committed with Boutique, but it was more than we were expecting/hoping it to be. thanks shalee, yea it was pain for me since it came in last minute. but i can understand other ppl have paid huge sum of money as site cost like it is in your case, compare to what i have paid. yours is way too high for me. it got to do with the area and land condition i think. i guess your land is from northern suburbs? i heard site costs there are ridiculously high. anyway i know other factors need to be considered so site cost itself is just a factor when you buying a land. but at the end of day we got to compromise something since we are not millionaires so we have very limited options. Re: Boutique Homes 552Sep 22, 2014 2:47 pm Thanks shalee, my ss is on the ball and said it should only delay us a couple of days.. Re: Boutique Homes 553Sep 22, 2014 5:27 pm Fruitlubes - sorry to hear about that. All too common these days, hope it's all quickly recoverable. My neighbours on one side moved into their house on Friday, so that provides some measure of comfort in deterring these idiots from hitting our street (which now has over a dozen homes going up in the one block). Last week my brickwork completed & plasterboard is going up inside. First time I've been unable to get inside, so peering through the window to see the progress. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Interesting problem - my site level is lower than the neighbours and my garage is up to the fenceline. The weepholes on my garage wall are below their soil level, so would be blocked if they just went straight ahear with it. Fortunately they picked it up & are discussing solutions - I would never have noticed. Is anyone else in the Geelong area going to this Boutique launch ('VIP Night') of their new display homes next week? Re: Boutique Homes 554Sep 22, 2014 7:45 pm suranga7667 thanks Theon, yea the front door is 1020mm. because we needed to have the side light. otherwise 1200mm size is the one i prefer. i am a big door fan. lol by the way, are you building riviera as well? then how come you did not have enough room in the bathroom? We needed a sidelight too Suranga hence I could only go up to 1020mm or else I would also go 1200mm!! We had to settle for a 1020mm wide 2340mm high pivot instead. I love big front doors too!!! We are building the Oslo 29 and it was too much hassle to fit a a niche in the bathroom so we forfeited it. Great that your build has started - so exciting. Can't wait for ours to start but we have to wait for our title which seems to be taking forever as when we call the developer they keep telling us that it will be titled in a few weeks and that's been going on for a few months? Re: Boutique Homes 555Sep 23, 2014 7:57 pm hi theon yea i know it is so frustrating to that developers are keep changing their predictions and giving false promises all the time just to stay away from inquiries from the customers rather than telling the true story ab the situation. any way hope it is not too far away for you. oslo is nice flan too. i like it, did you do any changes to it? Re: Boutique Homes 556Sep 24, 2014 8:50 am Suranga: very disappointed in our developers as our paperwork states titles around May 2014 so I understand delays with smaller developers but to be 5-6 months out? Sometimes you don't mind the delays if they just tell us the truth. I remember talking to the developer and the man in charge who is practically the owner said "there's no way it will be titled as late as October, it will be August/September at the very latest". Oh well...... I know you have waited for quite some time too. We put a deposit on our land late last year roughly around the same time as yourself. I made some changes to the Oslo: increased the size a little, moved kitchen around, add all bulkheads, shower niche, increased garage width, raised ceiling height to 2700, square set cornice, add powder room, made the hallway bigger, upgraded the pantry, made island bench bigger and some other things but not as structural as you have done as our house is smaller. Re: Boutique Homes 557Sep 24, 2014 3:58 pm hi theon, yea i understand your pain. lets hope it not gonna delay any further, one more thing, be mindful and careful with fixed site cost thing since your land is not titled yet. i hope you know what happened to me with that right? i mentioned it in one of my earlier post, refer it if you need to. you have done quite upgrades to your home and that is very nice. i am always in favour of adding few nice features to the house irrespective of the cost since that is the place we live in and that is the our house. i dont get that some people buy big blocks of land by spending the bulk of their money and then build a basic house and living like peasants claiming the land value is the one that goes up. i am not that type and i can see you are the same. your home is not that small mate. oslo 29 is a quite big house too. not much differ from mine Re: Boutique Homes 558Sep 25, 2014 2:21 pm Hi Suranga, I saw what happened to you regarding the extra variation costs involved with the leveling of your site. As Shalee said that for that amount of piers that it's quite reasonable but still hard to accept that you had to fork out an additional 8k. Glad to see your progress is going so well! Very nice home you've got there. Thanks to everyone else for posting photos and keeping us updated as they all look great! Re: Boutique Homes 559Oct 01, 2014 5:03 pm So, one of the things I had asked a number of times when signing up with Boutique was "how long after the land settles do you usually start the build?" and was assured that it was usualyl a couple of weeks afterward as they would have everything good to go - submit plans to council and the build could commence. So, my land settled 2 weeks ago and now.. silence. I just e-mailed Boutique and they are now claiming about 12 weeks, then another 6-8 weeks for Property Service Evaluations which puts the build commencing sometime next year. Is it normal for it to take so long after the land settles? and if so, they why would they have given me the impression it'd be around a month (2-4 weeks or so) after settlement *sigh* It's almost like, any time I want to feel more depressed I'll just flick them an e-mail. Also, as I had assumed - now incorrectly, that it wouldn't take longer than 6 months post land settlement for the thing to be built, and now it looks like it will take the better part of a year, should I be updating the forms I filled out that goto council for my rebates that asked for an estimated move in date? Re: Boutique Homes 560Oct 01, 2014 5:12 pm @QuarumNibblet You'll find the contracted build time will be very generous and allowing about a year is probably a good idea. Knockdown and Build - Boutique Homes Airlie 38 10/12/2013 PreWork Contract (PWC) 27/05/2014 Contract 04/07/2014 Site prep 28/07/2014 Slab 30/07/2014 Frame 03/10/2014 Roof 08/12/2014 Lockup 10 15745 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74708 |