Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Boutique Homes 1541Nov 24, 2015 6:50 am If Hynes/UTF is still their supplier then you can def get timber top floors - here's a link to the brochure that used to be on their website before it changed to 'under construction'... http://web.archive.org/web/201401252032 ... er2012.pdf Re: Boutique Homes 1542Nov 25, 2015 10:38 am I had walk through of Seville last week and the Sales guy asked us to meet again at the Docklands showroom. He said signing a document (i don't remember if he said PwC) can confirm I won't be affected with the future price rise, supposed to happen in December. What are the advantages of signing the rough estimate at an early date. My land title is still 12 months away.. What are the different stages after the house walk through by Sales? Do the stages differ between the builders? Re: Boutique Homes 1543Nov 25, 2015 2:26 pm Signing the PWC isn't something you should rush into. After that is signed they will charge you to make ANY structural changes. Eg add a door, square set cornicing, change Windows. Has he said how long the price protection lasts from the date you sign the document? We signed our PWC 6 months before our land was due to title. We had a nine month price protection period worked into ours (I know the price protection process has since changed) Our land ended up being delayed by 10 months and boutique charged us an extra 5K because of this. You have to ensure there is enough time to cover you from when you land titles to when you go to construction. From titles to construction boutique say to allow roughly 12 weeks. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Also if your interested swap details and do refer a friend through their website. It will get you a 750 voucher to use at your colours appointment (if you end up going with Boutique of course) Re: Boutique Homes 1544Nov 25, 2015 5:17 pm @Geeman, I couldn't put it in a better way as Baneshouse. With settlement being 12 months away, I do not think it is a good idea to sign the PWC. I was given 9 months price protection as well and my land was titled within 6 months. I know what is like to try save every cent in the process, but one way of guaranteeing that you won't be charged additional fees is by not signing anything until you are 100% sure. As Baneshouse put it, as soon as you sign the PWC, you won't be allowed structural changes. I know for a fact that Boutique did not allow us to make any structural changes even though we offered to pay for it. Things might have changed now but always get the new homes consultant to check with the pre-sales consultant, as new homes consultant normally don't know much compared to pre-sales consultant. pre-sales consultant are assigned to you once you have signed the PWC and ready for the colour/electrical appointment process. As for me, I thought I had covered everything I wanted for the house prior to signing the PWC, but similarly to other ppl out there, I forgot a few things - luckily, nothing major - but things I still I would have liked to have for the house. I went through the whole process this year and house now just started building! Exciting time. Good luck Geeman! Re: Boutique Homes 1545Nov 26, 2015 6:12 am Hi guys - just thought I'd give you an update and some tips for post-handover. Some of the problems we've had in the last 2 months: - Blocked sewerage drains (toilets wouldn't drain at all!) - this was fixed fairly quickly by boutique (next morning) - so happy with that. - Garage light fixture not working (we didn't test it at handover and should have) - Leaking kitchen tap (fixed this one myself) - External plumbing (rainwater drainage). I've had guys in replacing pretty much everything Boutique put in. They've shown me some pretty terrible bits of work. Broken pipes with gaping holes - check. Drainage pipes running uphill, making it impossible to drain - check. Un-level pits - check. Re-laying the external pipes has cost me $2,000. Regarding Landscapers - I've been through 2 - both terrible. The last one we thought was OK at the start, paid a $10,000 deposit to - and then never did anything! We're still trying to get that deposit back and may look at VCAT if it's not paid back soon. My advice - DO NOT get one landscaper to project manage or do everything for you. You can manage the contractors yourself, just so long as you know what you want and what needs to be done first - I thought it would be difficult (why I wanted one guy to manage it all for me) - but it's really not. You just need to ring around, get quotes, figure out the good guys from the unreliable pack. Generally, you want your hard landscaping (walls/concrete etc) done before soft landscaping (grass/trees etc). Here is my plan for reference: - Get the retaining wall in - without that, any other work may be disrupted. You need solid boundaries. - Get plumbers to correctly align external rainwater pipes to where I want drainage points in the concrete path going around the house. Most concreters will not do the underground plumbing, and will only do the final fit-off. So, you need to know where your concrete is going before this step. And remember, your contract says you need to do this (or similar, to protect the slab). You can't put a garden bed up against the house. Also think about getting the plumbers to put in conduit from any external power points, so that it will run under the concrete (in case you later want electricity/garden lights detached from the house) - Get the concreters to lay a path around the house, supply and fit the grated drains that I think will look best. (our concreters are coming next week!) After that, we'll have all the solid bits in place to then think about where the trees, plants and grass will go. If you're in the outer east of Melbourne like us (Ringwood / Croydon etc) - I can *highly* recommend "Your Property Improvments" for retaining walls. Craig Francis was the guy there - fantastic. Not only did they do a great job, on time etc - BUT - after the job was complete, they reduced the price on the quote (since they used less materials than they first thought). I have NEVER had a trade do that, and I was pretty blown away. Extremely honest, and I can't recommend them enough. I'm using a small crew for plumbing that I found in the local paper - Airvolution Plumbing. They're great too. Re: Boutique Homes 1546Nov 26, 2015 9:52 am kdring Hi Boutique Homes owner, I am about to build with Boutique. Anyone use independent building inspector? How is the build quality/workmanship? Their display home definitely stand out of the rest. Thanks Been a long time since I have been on this but yes I'm about to start the build too. Our block settled last month and whilst every surrounding block has got their temporary fence up, slab down and some even have frames up...ours is just an empty block. I somehow feel as though Boutique are just constantly taking their time and it's driving me up the wall, but they're saying "Boutique’s Preconstruction timeframe from Title date to handover to Construction is 10-12 weeks". We have engaged in Darbecca Pty Ltd (People know the company as Darren Love) for an independent inspection - Most builders hate them that's probably why Boutique still cannot provide me everything I require to send to inspector. However on the good side....our file is due to be handed over to construction next Wednesday. Re: Boutique Homes 1547Nov 26, 2015 8:35 pm Hi All, Its great to see everyone's builds progressing and the misc updates from those on the forum over the last couple years. We've been in the our house for almost 5 weeks now and overall we love the house. That said, I must say that this part of building is far more time consuming that the actual build itself. Boutique are really slow in their warrantee and final fixes for the house and trades are incredibly unreliable. In fact, most of the items identified at our final inspection, haven't yet been addressed. That said, I'm happy we moved in when we did as I think it would be worse waiting on these items to be fixed before we could move in! Just out of curiosity, how have people found the paint that is used, we can't seem to get any marks off.... any suggestions? We had the 3 coat upgraded system..... Re: Boutique Homes 1548Nov 26, 2015 9:03 pm During the whole build how many times should we get a building inspector to check? Or is it not worth it, recently we heard bad comment about our site manager, even though we haven't even met him yet. Lol. what point @ slab stage?, frame, fixing, or just hand over? Around $400 a pop, sounds right? Re: Boutique Homes 1549Nov 26, 2015 10:02 pm Hey guys, Just a quick question for those who had gone through the whole build process already. I'm having pre-pour, slab/frame and pre-plaster inspections done by Darbecca. What I wanted to know is, once provided with the inspection report and passed it to Boutique Homes for rectifications. What happens if the builder says otherwise, contrary to what's been detailed in the report. I have received the report for the pre-pour and I really don't want to spend time figuring out what all the jibberish means. Some of it can seem pretty straight forward while others can be a bit technical. Any advice on how I should deal with those kinds of things? I know some inspectors out there, like Peter Limburg, provide advice on whether or not to provide payment if rectifications had not been done, but when I asked the inspector from Darbecca about whether I should provide payment if Boutique doesn't want to rectify any of the items listed, I got a reply saying that it is not their place. Any thoughts on how I should a situation where the inspector found a defect but the builder says otherwise? FYI Peter Limburg charge and arm and a leg, but I think they provide a more comprehensive service (provide advice post inspection) based from their website. If I had the money, I might have gone with Peter Limburg. Cheers guys! Re: Boutique Homes 1550Nov 30, 2015 9:14 am baneshouse Has he said how long the price protection lasts from the date you sign the document? Thanks baneshouse Currently the price lock for Boutique is 6 months from the title date. Works well for me as my title date is far away.. Re: Boutique Homes 1551Nov 30, 2015 9:21 am frenchwontons always get the new homes consultant to check with the pre-sales consultant, as new homes consultant normally don't know much compared to pre-sales consultant. pre-sales consultant are assigned to you once you have signed the PWC and ready for the colour/electrical appointment process. As for me, I thought I had covered everything I wanted for the house prior to signing the PWC, but similarly to other ppl out there, I forgot a few things - luckily, nothing major - but things I still I would have liked to have for the house. I went through the whole process this year and house now just started building! Exciting time. Good luck Geeman! The New home consultant we are dealing with is so confident of cost for any upgrade. But the moment, we ask for the price to be included in PwC, it will always come out as double of what he has quoted.. I'm not sure if he's doing this intentionally. If it was not for the design I liked, I would never have gone with this new home consultant.. Re: Boutique Homes 1552Nov 30, 2015 1:34 pm People who upgraded the laminate to timber top (category 4 to 8 ) how much did you have to pay for the upgrade.. I won't get the exact amount unless I sign the PwC.. The new homes consultant said Cat4 upgrade is about 3200$ ($48 per sqm) & the cat 7 upgrade about 5700$ (86 per sqm) Is this the same range you all have paid for floor upgrades? Re: Boutique Homes 1553Nov 30, 2015 3:32 pm Hi Jeeman - we are building an Airlie 38 and our timber top floors were CAT 4. I don't have our contract on me as I'm at swimming lessons with the kids. But I'm sure it was a little bit over $6k (I'll check when I get home) Blog: www.dapplegrey.com.au Re: Boutique Homes 1554Nov 30, 2015 3:39 pm Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ This was the CAT 4 selection at the time of our colour appointment (July last year) Speaking about floors - we need to decide between gloss or matt finish - any tips from anyone. Our colour is Spotted Gum. Blog: www.dapplegrey.com.au Re: Boutique Homes 1555Nov 30, 2015 3:43 pm Oh and Jeeman - I would maybe call head office or speak with another consultant as we knew the cost prior to signing. We weren't signing anything until we knew exactly what we were in for. We had almost all our selections included. We went to the showroom twice so we knew all of our extras prior to fully committing. So on the day of our colour appointment the extras (and thus extra cost) was minimal. Just a few things we hadn't thought of. So unless rules have changed - I believe you should be able to get the cost. Blog: www.dapplegrey.com.au Re: Boutique Homes 1556Nov 30, 2015 3:55 pm We took the flooring out of our PWC and are doing it through an external supplier after handover. Might be worth getting a few quotes to see what you can get. For us the credit back for the inclusions will cover us to do it ourselves with higher quality product. Just another option to consider if you haven't already Re: Boutique Homes 1557Nov 30, 2015 8:35 pm baneshouse We took the flooring out of our PWC and are doing it through an external supplier after handover. Might be worth getting a few quotes to see what you can get. For us the credit back for the inclusions will cover us to do it ourselves with higher quality product. Just another option to consider if you haven't already Sounds like a good option.. Do you remember how much credit back was received per sq metre for laminate and carpet? Re: Boutique Homes 1558Nov 30, 2015 8:38 pm I don't think they broke it down per sq metre but from memory we are building 26 square house and the credit was around the 6-7K mark. That was removing all flooring except for the wet areas. We will end up spending roughly the same amount but will get higher quality product. Our pre start consultant gave us a copy of floor plan which included sq metre of flooring we would require which we took to flooring companies to obtain quotes. Re: Boutique Homes 1559Dec 01, 2015 8:21 pm Hi Jeeman, We were able to do a lot of changes after the PWC, as they wanted us to make all the selections at the colours apt. That said, I think the process has significantly changed now. I'd make sure you budget and make all the changes you need before the PWC as I think they are really not flexible at all. When we went through the process, they had a sheet of costs and possible upgrades. I'd ask for that to help you out. Also, try to negotiate the price lock. They gave us extra..... 10 15745 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74708 |