Building with Ideal Homes in Baldivis WA

Hi everyone

Long time reader, first time poster! just wanted to get involved in the site now we have ACTUALLY started our build.
We are building the Aston (with heaps of variations) http://www.idealhomes.com.au/brochure/Aston.pdf

We put our first deposit down on the 1/5/12
land was supposed to be titled in October 2012, didnt get titles til the 14/1/13
here are some time-lapse photos of my boyfriend on our land!

My Block (581m2) (2/3/13)


site works started on the 23/3/13


Slab down on the 6/4/13


3/5/13


11/5/13


17/5/13


24/5/13


1/6/13


22/7/13


26/7/13 - Lock up


30/8/13


5/9/13 - PAINTED THE WRONG COLOUR!


13/9/13 - fixed the paint job


20/9/13


Its been a year now since we decided on the house we wanted to build and the land we wanted to build it on, its been a long process but im excited now to see it all come together.

Ideal homes have been both good and bad to deal with up to this point. We had a few issues with our pre-start lady, she was very opinionated and even added things to the plans that we did not tell her we wanted (my boyfriend is an electrician so we left alot of the electrical work bare to cut costs because he can do them later, but she added power points and other electrical things we didnt want to pay $80 for something that cost $5 and 10min to install!) we also had some issues with her not sending out a variation, we signed off on all the paperwork in december then she slaps us with a $1000 variation back dated to october. after emailing her from my work email (which is from a law firm!) with my problems she backed down and we got half the costs removed from that variation. She was a bully so don't let them push you around!
i can highly recommend our new homes consultant Aaron W. he got us what we wanted, where we wanted it and within budget. he has great customer service skills and didnt try to make us sign anything we were not comfortable with (unlike a few others we saw before him)

it has been stressful at times up to this point but now that its becoming a reality, it all seems worth it.

Photos of the Slab.

i was warned several times from my partner to expect the slab to look much much smaller then the house will feel.
still shocked me at just how small it looked hahaha!!



a bit of an idea of how big the backyard will be

Hey Aston.. good to see you in the forum

would love to see your final plan..

we are going to lock up this week with ideal finally.. would be interested to know who your pre-start person was

thanks Col

ill work on posting the final plans at some point

just checked out your build thread! actually learnt a lot from your build, especially with the roof problems and bringing in an inspector! this isnt just my first build but my first actual home, so im a beyond clueless with all this which is a recipe for disaster. Hence why i spend so much time on the net researching and educating myself!

cant believe you had slab down in november and only going into lock up now! i guess the perk would be that your slab had a lot of time to cure!
we were originally told we would be in our house by the end of april but the slab only just went down so i guess patience is a bit of a virtue with this stuff!!!

Yeah Aston we were told April when we signed up back in may and our blocks were already titled.. the job has been speeding up since I got on to them, I met the supervisor last week for the first time and he said he had 44 jobs on his books which explains why it has been taking so long

Which estate are you in?

Hi Aston,

Congrats on your build. Cool time lapse pics ... Creative !!

I can't believe your prestart lady, and $1000 for a variation change ...whoa...and backdating it...what the?!! So glad you stood up to her. I think sometimes they think because your first home owners they can take advantage, plus your the customer who's spending the most money that your ever going to spend in your life!! Where's the love!! Lol


Bonus that your boyfriend is an electrician too, save some money for sure!!
It pays to visit your house regularly. We visited ours on the weekend to discover they had a double hinged frame ready to go instead of a tripled hinged. Our brickwork has just started so it probably wouldn't have been picked up on until it was too late!! So just check every little thing

Good luck with your build. So many people building in Baldivis, so many slabs going down too.

Belle

woah! col, 44 jobs on his book! i guess that explains a bit!

LeanneR, we are in avalon where are you?

Belle22, thats scary to think about since i literally have no idea about anything and rely on my very unobservant laid back partner to pick up on those types of things. i guess ill have to really sit down and double check everything to make sure its being built correctly :S
baldivis is crazy at the moment, 5 of our neighbours slabs went down last week along with ours! insane! where are you building?

Thought area looked familiar. My current house is in Avalon. New house will be parkland heights

do you like it in avalon? we've heard some mixed reviews about baldivis (obviously after we signed the paperwork) about the crime rate and such. if your building in baldivis again i guess i could assume you like the area?

I like Baldivis but I don't really like this estate too much. We built when estate started and what they proposed for estate seemed much better than it has turned out. A lot of renters and no one seems take pride in their house.

In saying that I haven't experienced any crime myself

Yes Aston, I never would of picked up on the door frame. I didnt even remember upgrading it to a triple hinged so a double fail on my behalf!! Hubby is pretty onto all that stuff, so I'm lucky in that way.

Don't stress too much, just make sure you visit regularly which I'm sure you will do anyway cos its pretty exciting watching your house go up. Just take your house plans along every now and again to check things.

Every area has good and bad things about it. That's the thing when you build, you really don't have any idea who or what is going to be built around you. It's a bit of a leap of faith for sure, but I'm sure you'll love where you are. Good decent neighbours is all you need.
Belle

Hi Aston,

My husband & I are building with Ideal Homes in Baldivis as well. We live in the Avalon estate currently (renting) but we're building in The Dales. We've lived here for 18 months now and haven't had any issues except with the occasional loud party. Alot of FIFO people live here which could explain some of the unkept gardens around the place.

I think I walk my dog past your block because I remember thinking I should keep an eye on it to see how it goes. We're building The Bellucci which is the display home down at Settlers. Never built before, know nothing about it but am learning quickly! So make sure you keep posting here

I thought I would give you our view so far, having been in Baldivis for the last 9 months.

I wouldn't say crime is a problem, the only issues we have had are the occasional loud party or cars that sound like jet engines hooning around the back of Nairn Drive.

Otherwise we have found it a really nice place to live. We are renting in The Ridge and Building in Evermore Heights.

We went for a walk around Avalon last night and did not see anything that would prevent us from living there.

sorry i havent posted lately! im also an elite athlete and have been out of the state for a few weeks!

thanks so much everyone for your view on baldivis!
If an unkept garden and the odd loud party and a few hoon is the only complaint then thats great!
Alot worse to deal with in other suburbs then that!

tj2000 the bellucci is beautiful, we looked at that design before deciding on the aston! do you have a page where i can follow your build?

We went a visited the house on the weekend, sad to see the house behind us had started brick work and our slabs went down at the same time. we havent had our bricks delivered yet but we have our windows! the delay was probs our own fault tho, it took a few days for us to put the payment through because we werent home!!

hopefully bricks will start this week! so excited to actually see the house and not trying to imagine it from looking at a blank slab for the last month!

here's the latest photo!
[img][img=http://s11.postimg.org/j0xgcm0jz/photo.jpg][/img]

Good to see your back Aston. How annoying the house behind you has started their brickwork. It's hard not to compare, there's a few slabs that went down after us, yet we are all at plate high, they've caught up we've slowed down...but that's building. If your frames are there, bricks shouldn't be far away. Maybe Ideal Homes are one of those builders (there's a few ) who like the slab to sit there and cure with nothing placed on it for 4 weeks. It's actually better for the slab apparently.

I haven't created a thread yet because our *insert naughty words* land title keeps getting delayed If it ever gets released and something happens on our patch of sand, I'll post about it and let you know.

we got bricks delivered today!!

Yay!

Yay!! Hopefully the weather will clear up to allow brickies on site