Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1503May 03, 2016 8:26 pm Hey guys! Hopefully it will all be over soon for some of you and then you can actually start enjoying your beautiful new homes. Quach How is everything? Any problems you discovered since moving in? Ses78 We have interim occupancy certificate. The council will grant final certificate after they inspect our completed landscaping - which was only completed on the weekend. I suggest to everyone to seriously consider using a professional landscaping company. We spend all that money on building our homes and we wouldn't want the front facades ruined by a tacky DIY job. Our professionals did a GREAT job! Everything looks so fantastic and fits in so well that it looks like it was always there. We got good advice on planning, design, correct species to choose, etc. I suggest you seek one in your local area as otherwise a company out of area will add quite a bit to their quote for travel time. It is sooooooo worth it. It looks fabulous! We are very happy. When hubby has stained the timber privacy screens on the alfresco then I will post photos. Been waiting a while for the little maintenance jobs to be finished. Most of these minor jobs should have been dealt with prior to handover. They have booked tradies to be at our place for a whole day in two weeks time to fix everything on the same day. It is mainly re-painting touch ups and they need to replace a few broken shutters. So, 4 months on and still absolutely loving the new home. No weird stuff, no problems, no leaks, everything is really great. We might all wait A G E S to get into our homes but they are certainly top notch quality and you will love living in them. I watch people walking down the street and everyone stops for a while outside to have a good look at our house (way jelly ) Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1504May 03, 2016 9:33 pm Hi everyone, We are still travelling fairly well. Our kitchen, bathroom vanities and laundry cabinetry went in this week and they are amazing. Wet area tiles finished last week and are also wonderful! It's starting to look like the home we have been dreaming about for 2 years haha! I must say I have been very happy overall since construction started for us in the first week of November 2015. Having said that, I would never ever want to go through this again! (especially the pre-construction). I'm really hoping to be in at the end of June but I won't hold my breath and SS hasn't given an approx finish date yet. It does make it quite hard to plan. It's a shame that some people seem to be having such terrible experiences. I hope your homes are beautiful and worth all this heartache! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1505May 04, 2016 7:13 pm My roof finally completely. However i notice they haven't installed the private power pole yet. When do they normally install the power pole? My bricks and roof has just completed. Just waiting for frame inspection Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1506May 04, 2016 8:41 pm Thank you for answer me in straight. I did not mean to trick you in anyways. Sorry to hear what you have been through. It is something that we don't want to see but it happens. For me I have been working on the building matters with the company for the past eight months, I think I had to keep my dream a live. I will keep you guys posted for my progress. And ask your valuable opinions and advices in here. It is what we are in this forum for. Good luck everyone! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1507May 04, 2016 9:33 pm Mr karaoke, the power gets done towards the end of the build. We have are getting wet area tiles done and kitchen etc installed next and our trades are getting power from a generator still. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1508May 05, 2016 6:56 am Hi All, Sorry to hear some of you are still going, fortunately for us we have got our keys. Though we haven't moved in yet - moving this weekend. Still a couple of outstanding annoyances which should of been fixed prior to handover but still aren't- the major one being the plumbers having to cut a hole in the garage to fix a leaking gas pipe !!. The rest is cosmetic fixes which personally I can do myself, but seriously shouldn't have to, so I'm leaving it up to KH-still no date on a fix. The landscapers have been working hard onsite for the last week and were nearly finished, FYI $35k in landscaping. I won't get an interim OC until some of it is completed and won't get a final OC until all of it is completed. Interim OC is required from our bank to settle the construction loan, if this spills over past 12months the interest rate goes up. Just so you know. It's also required to legally live in the house. Other than that, I love the new house, it's turned out exactly how I imagined it and the build quality is very good. When you do handover and pick up your keys they will get you to fill out a survey. Out of 10 "would you recommend KH to a friend?" - my answer "4" Hope y'all make it through ! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1509May 05, 2016 6:13 pm Quach..$35k in landscaping? I dont think i can afford that...is that just for grass and front brick fence? Or is that included other major items u did eg water features, plants, deck or pergola? Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1510May 05, 2016 7:47 pm I was going to ask the same question Quach128, I have only had two landscapers in so far to do quotes. One is waiting on some further info (he seemed also sounded a bit OTT) and the other has given me a very blazay quote of $25k. I will be getting some more companies through in the next couple of weeks hopefully. I hope to get the basics done and add to it down the track. We will need fencing done too so hopefully we can afford to get landscaping, fencing and decking done. What size is your property, what things did you get done and how long has it taken? Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1511May 05, 2016 8:16 pm Hi guys, My 35k does not consist of any vegetation whatsoever, purely structural. See my block is not level and it needed to be cut and fill in some areas especially at the front of the property. I had 3 quotes, the one I ended up with was the middle and I liked his ideas and experience. Mind you the most expensive one was 45k for the same thing, and the cheapest was 29k, though he was more of a jims mowing type rather than a professional landscaper. Our guy (and I'd be more then happy to share his details) is excellent, if KH built like this guy my house would be complete in 4 months. Anyway I had the land completely levelled, 1m double brick retaining walls, double brick piered fence. Garden beds with timber retaining sleepers, coloured through concrete on both sides and rear. That's about it. I also have a 50sqm deck which is gunna cost another 12k. Landscaping should be budgeted for 10% of your final build cost. I am around there once completed. I was planning on DIY, but the time and effort was not worth me even taking annual leave for. So in the end - leave it up to the pros ! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1513May 05, 2016 9:35 pm Thanks for sharing quach128 I have searched many different topics on this forum but most people don't add too much info after they have reached handover, which is totally understandable. I would really appreciate you sharing your landscapers website/details, you can pm me if you don't want to put it up on here. I need some similar work to what you needed...Did they need much notice before starting Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1514May 05, 2016 9:59 pm Yes quach, please share your landscaper's detail. I will need to built a front brick fence, concrete the side and back, and leveling the back too. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1515May 05, 2016 10:03 pm Also to get interim occupation certificate. Will kh provide the exact details that's needed to be done or will u need to chase up the certifier yourself to obtain what is needed? Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1516May 06, 2016 8:38 am mr_karaoke Also to get interim occupation certificate. Will kh provide the exact details that's needed to be done or will u need to chase up the certifier yourself to obtain what is needed? I went though CDC, so KH will tell you what you need completed prior to obtaining your interim OC , then it's up to you to deal with the private certifier for your final OC. I'm not sure how the council process works but I'd say it be similar. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1517May 09, 2016 4:40 pm We were not allowed to go through CDC so had to go through council. Builder did not give much detail at all re interim OC and said "check with council". Council said "check with builder, they should have given you info about what is required".... sound familiar? If going through council best to check with them as they are the ones who have to approve OC. We did have to pay quite a few hundred $$ for the engineer who designed all the stormwater retention pits to come out, inspect, and write a report for council confirming the pits were made exactly as per plans. There was also a small amount of landscaping required before council would allow us to move into the house. Of course we only found all this out after receiving the shiny keys and already booking the removalists. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1518May 09, 2016 5:44 pm Thanks big mama and quach. Did your bank required an interim occup cert before they provided final payment? And if they did, how did u get keys from kh if you haven't received interim occup cert? Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 1519May 10, 2016 5:08 pm Mr Karaoke Our bank, at the last minute, said they had to inspect the inside of the house… get this… "to make sure the builder hasn't just built 4 walls with nothing on the inside." After bank inspected, they released funds. Bank had nothing to do with interim OC. Builder doesn't care about interim OC. Once they get their final payment, you get the keys. Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74717 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 105617 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 23503 |