Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1422Dec 22, 2015 10:45 am Congratulation for move in.. any pics .... Big Mama Hey guys, It is still such a surreal feeling......... We keep looking around at everything in the house in absolute amazement but it hasn't sunk in yet that this beautiful home is ours. Feels like a holiday rental we have booked for two weeks. Every day there have been deliveries of new furniture and goodies to play with. I turned my oven on pretty high and left it for an hour or two to let that stinky smell dissipate. After six nights of eating out and not wanting to ruin the new oven, I had to bite the bullet and start cooking like a real housewife. Was hubby's birthday so made a huge roast of two chooks but put them into oven bags so nothing splattered Tonight I had a go of the grill and had some shallow frying on the stove top so after this post I have to go clean off all the splatters of oil everywhere Want to keep everything as tidy as possible. We managed to avoid the cheesy hand shake cos the owner of the company was too scared to show his face on that final walk through. I know that some of you are having building woes, and you are all very well aware that my build took soooooo much longer than it should have, but I really want to say to all that the horrors will eventually be gone and you will be astounded at how beautiful and luxurious your new homes will be. The finish is absolutely wonderful and top notch They have honestly done a fabulous job. How are all you "handovers" settling in? Any probs? Enjoy your Christmas break everyone. I will post pics once my boxes are empty (which may take a while). Don't fret kids, Big Mama will still hang around following your builds. Best of luck and low levels of stress to all Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1423Jan 03, 2016 12:43 pm Hi all, Happy New Year, I hope Loks and Big Mama you have enjoyed your first Christmas in your new homes! I have a question on bricks. We are currently in the process of picking our external colours and have decided on Pepper from Austral Bricks in the Urban Range. I was reading in another thread that the URBAN Range was not good quality and was to be discontinued ( this was in 2009!). Have any of you got any feedback/ advice on brick choices before we lock them in? Also any advice/lessons learnt from external colour choices would be much appreciated thanks! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1424Jan 13, 2016 10:03 am mishbut Hi all, Happy New Year, I hope Loks and Big Mama you have enjoyed your first Christmas in your new homes! I have a question on bricks. We are currently in the process of picking our external colours and have decided on Pepper from Austral Bricks in the Urban Range. I was reading in another thread that the URBAN Range was not good quality and was to be discontinued ( this was in 2009!). Have any of you got any feedback/ advice on brick choices before we lock them in? Also any advice/lessons learnt from external colour choices would be much appreciated thanks! Hi mishbut, how are u? we have choice chiffon from Urban One Range. and u can go to Austral Brick ask for the address who have use the pepper colour brick, that will help u. Pepper colour brick is very popular colour I see a lots of people using it. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1425Jan 21, 2016 8:54 am Can't wait for builders to get back from their Christmas shutdown next week. It's been a bit boring not having any progress to look at!! Hoping I will be in by beginning of April! Contract day states Australia Day - 26/1/16 - lol. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1426Jan 21, 2016 10:23 am Victoria_gill mishbut Hi all, Happy New Year, I hope Loks and Big Mama you have enjoyed your first Christmas in your new homes! I have a question on bricks. We are currently in the process of picking our external colours and have decided on Pepper from Austral Bricks in the Urban Range. I was reading in another thread that the URBAN Range was not good quality and was to be discontinued ( this was in 2009!). Have any of you got any feedback/ advice on brick choices before we lock them in? Also any advice/lessons learnt from external colour choices would be much appreciated thanks! Hi mishbut, how are u? we have choice chiffon from Urban One Range. and u can go to Austral Brick ask for the address who have use the pepper colour brick, that will help u. Pepper colour brick is very popular colour I see a lots of people using it. We also liked pepper at Austral but changed to Chiffon once we saw it on fully built properties. It's essential to scope out a couple of examples of each in your shortlist, don't just rely on the Austral walls. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1428Jan 25, 2016 3:47 pm Hi all, hope y'all had a good break, and for those who have moved in already - I hope it's turned out as good as you'd hoped. My build has resumed as of 11th Jan 2016, we've had the gyprockers complete, lower roof completed, staircase in, waterproofing in, and the doors and architraves delivered today for the carpenters to start on Wednesday. Things are moving along again at normal speed. I've just come out of a near 1 1/2 month delay on our timber frame being fixed. So I hope the hard stuff is all behind us now and it's just the internals and detailing now which isn't as major. Our SS thinks handover by April 2016. We should be in lockup by end of next week. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1429Jan 26, 2016 8:35 pm Hi everyone! Well we have a roof!!!, but sadly things so far are travelling as slowly as they were before Xmas. We have had many days of no one onsite over the past two weeks, hopefully this will change during the weeks to come as we are approaching lock up. We should have a site clean up this week and have a private inspector booked to attend our first inspection (frames). Fingers crossed as the need for different kinds of tradies changes as we move to the interior work they will be more readily available as the availability of the external tradies have really held this up. Quach, things seem to be moving along well at your place which is a fantastic start to the year!!!!, send some luck this way....the race is on Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1430Jan 27, 2016 7:59 am Hey Quach, it seems like you have overtaken me again. I'm only due to get my staircase in next week, although I've had tillers in since last Thursday. Next issue found though - the columns & wooden posts in the façade are all wrong!! The required articulations are not there, columns are not symmetrical and don't line up above and below the balcony. Wooden posts are not complete length!! I just don't know this could've been done - someone just can't read a plan!!! First the back wall needing the window to be moved, now the façade balcony. AAHHH!!! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1431Jan 28, 2016 7:56 am Hi all, hope everyone built is going well. I been following your guys post for the last 12months. Every one comments and posts has been very helpful in these stressful times. Quach we enjoyed your blog and pictures. Keep them coming. Big mama congratulations.Returntoshire hope your issues gets resolved. After 12months of paperwork we finally got a slab. Hopefully things starts to move along now Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1432Jan 28, 2016 8:44 am Hi team. Great thread, I've enjoyed the photos. I'm going to head to the kurmond office in Windsor tomorrow to plan our new build. We have chosen the design, inclusions upgrades etc. Any advice or warnings? We have never built before. The pamphlets and sales advice make it seem too straightforward to be true. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1433Jan 28, 2016 9:43 pm Update, we have a front door ! And seems the rest of the internal doors have been installed as well. Im now contemplating the landscaping design and tossing up whether to install a pool or just spend the cash on decking out the landscape around the house. Anyone know any good reputable landscapers that can do a deck as well ? Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1434Jan 28, 2016 9:50 pm greg1985 Hi team. Great thread, I've enjoyed the photos. I'm going to head to the kurmond office in Windsor tomorrow to plan our new build. We have chosen the design, inclusions upgrades etc. Any advice or warnings? We have never built before. The pamphlets and sales advice make it seem too straightforward to be true. Hi Greg, all I can say is buckle up and enjoy the long roller coaster ride. Because your going to be in for 2 years at least. Any dreams of moving in one year, drop it all now. If your doing a KDR, and have tenants renting, don't kick them out till you get council approval and final construction plans. I made that mistake by kicking tenants out too early and lost 6 months rent, they basically moved out as soon as notified. Kurmond take 1 year to plan, and 10 - 12 months to build. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1435Jan 29, 2016 4:08 pm Did anyone had to do their own steps for the alfresco or front porch area? Did u had to get them done before they provide you with the interim occupation certificate? Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1436Jan 30, 2016 5:34 pm Welcome to the newbies
Greg1985, my advice.... Do your research, don't get talked into anything that you are unsure of, keep a diary of everything as it progresses and get EVERYTHING in writing. There is a huge turnover of staff at K and it's hard to keep track of what has been discussed with whom. Mr karaoke, I will need to get stairs after handover. I read on another post that they have to be built before the interim occ cert will be issued. I'm not sure if this correct but I Will let you know if I find out anything when (if) we get to the end of our build. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1438Feb 06, 2016 10:10 am Happy 2016 Everyone! Welcome to the newcomers. Feel free to ask away and read through all the pages of this forum for invaluable advice. Well the bubble still has not burst yet. The house still feels like a holiday rental and I keep looking at every corner of it telling myself this is where we live now. Will take a while to get used to. We thought builder provides occupancy certificate but they don't. You must contact your council and they will tell you what needs to be done before they will issue interim occupancy certificate and final occupancy certificate. Be prepared for a mad rush at the end to get all the necessary stuff done. Lucky we booked our removalist for one week later than planned as there were delays. We needed steps at the rear from alfresco level to ground level. We got K to do those. They were incredibly expensive (thousands of dollars) for three steps and it took K about three months to get them done . I don't think you will need them for interim occupancy (check with your council) but from public liability insurance perspective you are liable if someone falls and you didn't have steps there. Also if the height is 1 metre or higher you WILL need balustrade and retaining perimeter fence. If you're thinking about a pool then you may have access problems. Pools should be considered before any construction starts as they are generally dug out first, then covered and fenced for safety during construction. You need safety fencing and think of the expense for upkeep. We decided from the beginning to have a hot tub. It is fantastic Besides, unless you have 30-40 metres length you can't do much in a pool except sit around so you might as well sit in the spa, with a nice drink, looking at the stars and water feature and coloured lights...ooooooo our new toy is so much fun. Highly recommended (especially after the stress of building). Just agreed on a landscaping quote so they will hit us with multiple sprays of weed killer over the next 6 weeks then create the new gardens front and back. Also need side gates and some extra fencing. That's when we will take photos and share. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1439Feb 11, 2016 11:15 am I asked the question today, 'how long do you reckon we've got to completion?' Answer: 'about 6 weeks' Love the standard '6 week' response!! I'm not holding them to it, but wouldn't it be nice!!! Quach, have you asked? We are kind of neck & neck in the process! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1440Feb 11, 2016 8:53 pm returntoshire I asked the question today, 'how long do you reckon we've got to completion?' Answer: 'about 6 weeks' Love the standard '6 week' response!! I'm not holding them to it, but wouldn't it be nice!!! Quach, have you asked? We are kind of neck & neck in the process! We had the kitchen cabinets delivered today and install tomorrow, our SS thinks we will hand over end of March. I think maybe early April... Btw our wet area tiles are complete, so there's still painting, electrical, flooring, driveway and cleanup. Almost there !! Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74701 I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 105533 Hi there! Putting the feelers out there for those who have (or almost) built with Arli homes! Interested in your experiences who've built from their stock home designs… 0 23481 |