Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 31, 2013 11:48 pm One of our friends recommended us to start a thread in H1 for our home building journey. So here it is. The story so far: We put a deposit on our land at The Ponds back in March 2012. After looking out for builder from Sekisui, Eden Brae and Metr1c0n, we decided to build with Wisdom Homes. We particularly like the designs by Wisdom. After many2 visits to the display homes, we decided to go ahead with Aspiration 35, While waiting for our land to be registered, we started the process with WH while hoping then the land finally registered we can start the building. Our land was finally registered in September 2012, we also just finalised the tender and requested the contract. Currently we're back and forth with DRP to get approval of our plan. Below are the ground floor and first floor plan. As you can see that we made quite a a few changes with the ground floor and the first floor when you compare with original WH design. We have a walk in pantry (not available in standard Aspiration design), larger living area, larger walk in robe and few other changes. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 2Feb 01, 2013 5:29 am hi and welcome your pantry looks huge and love the design of your house. looking forward to seeing pics as the house progresses Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 3Feb 01, 2013 6:55 am Hi cpaces Welcome to H1 and good luck with your build! We are also building the Aspiration but the 29 with a slight increase in size to the original plan,and similar modification to the ground floor as you ( remove study,create WIP).Did you remove robes from the 2 bedrooms upstairs? Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 4Feb 01, 2013 12:35 pm Thanks 1rocky. Yes Aheron, we removed the 2 bedrooms built in wardrobe because it's too small. We plan to custom build the warddrobe ourselves to safe some money. I'm interested how you modified your kitchen to get WIP under aspiration 29. I was trying the same too until we decided on aspiration 35 then we have more space to redesign the kitchen. Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 5Feb 01, 2013 12:58 pm Hi cpaces We changed our plan to the 2013 version of the aspiration, which is actually now incorporated into their brochures.we swapped the upper lounge and bed 2 around upstairs as well. http://www.wisdomhomes.com.au/system/fi ... 1357617344 Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 6Feb 01, 2013 1:32 pm Ah didn't realise that there's a new 2013 design for Aspiration. We like a kitchen island so much so we redesign the whole kitchen. So you must be early in the building stage then I assume. Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 7Feb 01, 2013 1:36 pm We are waiting on council approval and have already signed off on all selections. Hoping to start by end of march... The 2013 version was being offered as an alternative for the last few months of 2012. Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 8Feb 01, 2013 7:21 pm Hi cpaces, congratulations on starting your home building journey. We are building the Majestic 40, the original design which I believe has changed now. We started the process in Oct 2011 when we first paid our deposit with Wisdom. We are nearing completion now, hopefully end of March/ early April. I have to say our SS is great and the build has been going well and now we are at the finishing stages, just loving how the house is looking now and the quality of work looks good. We really like the aspiration design, your plans look great. Look forward to following your build. We built the Wisdom Majestic 40 - moved in! Our blog - http://ourwisdommajestic40.blogspot.com.au/ Our H1 thread - viewtopic.php?t=54156 Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 9Feb 01, 2013 8:38 pm Welcome cpaces ! We are building the Aspiration 35 as well, and have also made quite a few changes. I love seeing the different ideas people have to make their chosen design work perfectly for their lifestyle. Loving the walk-in pantry you have, we still have the old style as we used that extra space to add a shower to the powder room, but wish we could have had both ! We are due to start gyprocking next week, and I have to say I have really enjoyed the actual building side of the journey so far (the admin side not so much - just painfully slow ..), and watching your house come to life in front of you is amazing. It helps that we have a fantastic SS as well. Really looking forward to following your build from here on Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 10Feb 01, 2013 9:07 pm Thanks for the welcoming words. H1 communities are very nice indeed. I myself couldn't wait to get approval from DA and start on the building. Love hearing from others that they have good experiences during the build. @Onewheel: Wow. You paid deposit to Wisdom since Oct 2011.. That's been a long process. I've just briefly following your blog and love how you choose the colours selections. Now I guess I have to share mine in return. @Gentoo: Our admin side is actually quite good and quick. She even email us almost every week to let us know the progress. Yes I have to admit that some process do take a long time but generally has been great. Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 11Feb 01, 2013 9:46 pm Yeah, I think we just got caught during a particularly busy time for them. They were in the process of putting new systems in place to deal with that, and though our admin lady was lovely, the processes themselves felt like they took forever. But now that construction has begun, things have being progressing steadily, and each stage is so exciting. It's really rewarding to see it all coming together. I'm sure you are going to love the Aspiration, it's a great design Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 12Feb 01, 2013 11:25 pm I've added our colour selections to our blog. Having a corner lot has proven to be a challenge to build. Specially for the corner facade and the landscape design. @Gentoo: do you have any blog I can follow your progress too? Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 13Feb 02, 2013 9:35 am Hi cpaces Do you have the link to your blog?would like to watch your progress especially with both of us building the Aspiration. With the corner facade,is this a ponds requirement for all corner blocks? Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 14Feb 02, 2013 10:18 am The link to my blog is http://aspirationtheponds.blogspot.com.au It's also on my signature. Yes.. The ponds has a strict requirements on the corner treatment. Basically it's showing that you have 2 facades facing both streets and both have to look good. I guess this is one of the reason why people rather not having corner lot and also, then more setback on the side of the house means more lawn to mow. But I'm seeing as more positives than negatives. More windows towards the North (my left side of the house is facing North) means more natural lights, more sun lights during winter, only 2 adjacent neighbours instead of 3, more outdoor space instead just a backyard. Once finalise, I'll share the house facade images for everyone to see. Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 15Feb 02, 2013 11:15 am Thanks cpaces, I agree with you that corner blocks definitely have a lot of advantages to them.I guess it's up to each individuals taste in the end. We also are on a corner block but in an older area so no need for a corner facade....but living on this block for the last 6 years I think your observations about corner blocks are definitely correct. Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 16Feb 03, 2013 9:17 pm No cpaces, never quite got round to starting a blog or thread. Had always meant to but now we are half way through the build it just seems a little late to start ... Bit selfish I know as I'm quite happy to follow everyone elses ! By the way, checked out your colours on your blog - very nice And VERY similar to ours - except that we have tiles downstairs instead of wooden floors. Great minds I guess Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 17Feb 16, 2013 1:45 pm Finally we got Developer Approval last week. After that WH would start ordering Search & Admin as my land was unregistered when we started with WH, then DA pack will be ordered which will take 5 - 10 working days. Once received then we will be lodged to council. I read Onewheel took 14 weeks after DA approval to start. That's still long way to go. Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 18Feb 16, 2013 3:49 pm cpaces Finally we got Developer Approval last week. After that WH would start ordering Search & Admin as my land was unregistered when we started with WH, then DA pack will be ordered which will take 5 - 10 working days. Once received then we will be lodged to council. I read Onewheel took 14 weeks after DA approval to start. That's still long way to go. I think we were a special case!!!!! On top on the 14 weeks, council took 12 weeks - so 24 weeks waiting to start!!! I can laugh now because we are nearly finished building, but at the time waiting and waiting was so frustrating and felt like forever as you just want to get started. Hopefully yours will not take that long. They say after your DA approval it takes 3 weeks to finalise your variations, get construction plans, apply for your construction certificate and then your file goes to construction, you should start within 20 work days after that. All in theory!! As long as no issues were raised during this time. Congratulations on developer approval, one step closer. Check when WH get your land info that they get info on the sewer location. That was one of things we did not have at contract signing and we had no provision in our tender. It was one of our delays in the 14 weeks start time, new plans had to be drawn and extra cost to us. Hopefully your council won't take too long to approve your plans We built the Wisdom Majestic 40 - moved in! Our blog - http://ourwisdommajestic40.blogspot.com.au/ Our H1 thread - viewtopic.php?t=54156 Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 19Feb 18, 2013 2:58 pm Thanks for the kind words. 24 WEEKS!!! I guess I have to learn to be more patient about any of these. Re: Building Aspiration 35 Wisdom Homes at the Ponds 20Feb 21, 2013 3:17 pm Welcome Cspaces!! Glad to see another Aspiration being build. Look forward to following your progress. Hopefully Wisdom have improved their Admin time. like everyone else we too were caught up in admin. We signed off on final documents on 6 Feb so just waiting for things to start. Its been 11 days so far nothing as yet... Can someone please offer some advice? Im DESPERATE. Because I'm completely and utterly exhausted. How long are variations taking with other companies at the moment? 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