Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 101May 11, 2013 9:17 pm Hey Carak, Good to see you're moving a long nicely. Hey Unreal, got your email - just responded back About windows, we went Awning wind out and in 5 weeks have not opened one yet, so really not sure how often we will actually open them. had the stackers open today, was so nice! Flyscreens we had stainless mesh for BAL requirements, in surfmist frames to match the windows. Screens sit on the inside of the window just in the groove, but don't notice them. Also Carak, to your earlier post about our outstanding items - all pretty much got done a couple weeks ago. The rest I'm leaving for 3 month maintenance and is really just some paint touch ups etc. Most hand over items all done so happy about that finally! Much faster than most though by the sounds of it having been rectified in the first 4 weeks. Happy building..... as sadistic as it sounds, I am almost missing the process you're going through Although scary and having to make these choices is so daunting, it really is such a fun part of the process..... and don't worry - it will all work out lovely! Good luck in the next steps for each of you Blog: http://cbcbuild.blogspot.com.au/ Building Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=62155 Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 102May 13, 2013 3:31 pm Hi Lilac, so happy that all your outstanding 'issues' have been fixed. How about you come and make all these decisions for us because I don't classify it as being "a fun part". I am REALLY looking forward to the next stage. Please keep coming back and checking on H1 Lilac, because we may need your help. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 103May 13, 2013 10:41 pm Hi Everyone We're new to the forum and after MUCH drama with a big builder starting with MJ we are looking into building with kurmond homes. A little background on us: we put a deposit on a block of land at Jordan Springs in August 2011 expecting registration in June 2012. Lots of issues and delays with that whole process but it finally registered last Friday - YAY! We had our tender, plans, colours chosen, etc. etc. with our previous builder and everything was good to go...we were so excited to finally be moving forward. Our excitement quickly turned to disappointment when our bank valued our home at 25k less than what we were paying for it meaning that we either had to come up with the money to cover the difference, make some changes to the home, or look at building a different home. Coming up with another 25k was going to be too much of a stretch as our tender with the previous builder didn't include flooring, driveway, landscaping, fencing or window coverings, so any 'extra' money we have was needed for these things after handover. We contacted the builder to see if we could change some of the things we upgraded back to standard to bring the cost down a little but despite explaining the whole situation to them they wanted to charge us $1000 to make any changes...the idea was to save money not to spend more!! we are also at the end of our 6 month fixed price contract with them which means that from this month onwards we are paying $1000/mth for any delays. They were not willing to help in any way or compromise on anything. We told them that if we can't bring the cost down at all we will have to move to another builder which didn't seem to phase them at all. I guess what is a lot of money to us is not really a loss to them at all when they are such a big business. Fast forward to now and kurmond seems to be our best option. From what we have seen so far they can build us a bigger home with EVERYTHING included for the same price as what we were paying before and as I said our price before definitely did not include everything. We had a look at some of their display homes on the weekend and so far everyone we have spoken to has been really helpful and friendly. My husband has a meeting with P tomorrow morning (I have to work ) so we will see how that goes and take it from there. We have scribbled some changes to the floorplan we are looking at (the Sierra 27) and written a long list of questions to ask. I have told hubby that if he is happy with how the meeting goes tomorrow to see if they can get the tender started ASAP. I have to say we were so happy to have come across this thread, after reading lots of reviews on Kurmond homes (some good but lots not so good) its nice to find a place where we can read about other peoples journeys with this builder. It seems that they had some hiccups early on but fingers crossed they seem to be a bit more sorted now. As I said, so far our experience has been a positive one I am so sorry for the essay! If you managed to make it to the end, thank you for listening to me raving on lol! We will update after tomorrows meeting. I have to say if all goes ahead I am looking forward to building with a smaller builder and hopefully having a bit more of a personal experience rather than just feeling like a number! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 104May 13, 2013 10:55 pm Hello and welcome kateandben You have come to the right place. Please take seat, grab yourself a cup of your favourite liquid, and rest assured that the good folk who have already started their Kurmond Homes journey stand ready to respond to your concerns. This will be a super quick reply as bed beckons, but I know the good folk here will reply tomorrow, as will I once I get some shut-eye. Suffice to say: 1. yes - been there with MJ and thankfully, we found P at Kurmond 2. yes - your DH will, I'm confident, find P very, very accommodating when they meet tomorrow - he is just a great person to deal with (you are dealing with the owner of the company - and his brother - not just a salesperson). In fact, others may agree, I'm sure, but P is a real down-to-earth guy and a gentleman as well. 3. yes - Kurmond Homes have this knack of generally fitting within your budget - when others say no, they say, well ... yes! Sorry to hear about your terrible experiences so far - delays are awful, especially when you're not getting anything for your money. You will find that you receive some quality personal attention from P and his team - mind you, like most builders, they get busy, so the occasional nudge may be required, but rarely (in my experience) more than a nudge. They respond quickly when you think they've forgotten you. All the gang here : carak, upsize, mars, winton (amongst others), and the "grand-Kurmonder" (just made that up) Lilac (who has built a beautiful home with Kurmond) will be here, ready to walk the journey together with you. So good luck with tomorrow's P meeting - I am confident that your DH will be on the phone to you to say "it's all green lights from here" (well, words to that effect) Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 105May 14, 2013 10:00 am kateandben Welcome, welcome, welcome and a big congratulations on the registration of your land. Sorry to hear you have had a few problems with your MJ build. How ridiculous of them to ask for more money when you want to cut back on things to save money. We have been going through this rollercoaster of building a home for some time now and some of these builders have no idea how upsetting and stressful some of their so called procedures are. Research is the key..... research everything.... read threads about different builders.... read the good the bad and the ugly... it's all there. We had read the reviews about Kurmond as well and of course we were a bit wary but after contacting Lilac and asking many, many questions we contacted P and things have gone really, really well. In fact we are have a meeting with P tomorrow (Wednesday) and will probably sign the tender and pay the deposit to get the final plans drawn for submission to council and then site and wait to start building.... very scary but very, very exciting. I really can't wait to see how your DH goes with the meeting with P today. P has this amazing ability to make you feel that building a home is possible. He will sit their, you tell him what you want and with a quick swipe of his white out, pen & ruler, whamo there is what you want. At our first meeting I was a bit 'unsure' because we had contacted, had meetings etc. with other builders and some had taken weeks if not months to draw plans or get back to us. The meeting lasted no more than 45 minutes and we walked out with a plan with changes that we wanted, costings for site, BAL etc. but most importantly a feeling of 'we can build a home', such a great feeling. What we also loved was when we asked P about something it was (and still is) "yes we can do that", "no problem". If you have any questions just ask either on here or by PM we are all in this together and if someone doesn't know something, someone else will (or they will find out). I am so excited for you, can't wait to see what your next step is. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 106May 14, 2013 11:27 am Welcome to the thread kateandben! I'll just echo the responses by Carak and Unreal. We were also decided between MJ and Kurmond. It was an easy decision as MJ's costs were definitely a lot more for an equivalent house. Having said that I was also concerned about the size of MJ, as I always prefer to deal with smaller reputable companies. Glad to know you're considering the Sierra 27. I've just followed up with Kurmond today about my plans and they have just been completed, just undergoing final checks. So as the others have said, you may need to nudge them a little. What's most important though is the end quality of the home, then the promised timeframe. Good luck with the meeting today! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 107May 14, 2013 11:32 am Hi Mars that's great news about your plans, can't wait to see them. Keep checking the plans, sometimes things are too obvious you don't see them... That sounds a bit silly but we were so excited about the plans and it all looked great but we didn't 'see' the window sizes and now have have to change them but as P says 'not a problem". Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 108May 14, 2013 1:25 pm carak777 Hi Mars that's great news about your plans, can't wait to see them. Keep checking the plans, sometimes things are too obvious you don't see them... That sounds a bit silly but we were so excited about the plans and it all looked great but we didn't 'see' the window sizes and now have have to change them but as P says 'not a problem". Good point Carak, window sizes are very important. The draftsman actually left out a window in the preliminary plans which B pointed out to us before we mentioned it. Can't wait to see the outcome, especially as we're hoping to have a drive-through garage if possible. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 109May 14, 2013 5:34 pm Hi kateandben, What an awful situation to be in, building is stressful enough and at the times things get a bit tough you need them to be there with you. At least this happened now and not with some kind of variation much later on. We have finished with Kurmond, still finalising a few things but handed over early March. Slow start and terrible Council issues with Penrith who lost us 7 months and were very difficult, but came through it in the end (we bought our land 2010 signed our tender with Kurmond in July 2011. We started construction August 2012 and got keys March 2013).... so a long one (thanks to Penrith) but bit like child birth..... stressful, tiring and holy moley never thinking it's going to be over and then..... you have a beautiful house and it's all forgotten. Our build was actually very quick - our home is 53.5sq so quite big and take out Xmas was done in 6 months (tender was 8 months) so well ahead of schedule. We had a few surprises with site costs and BAL but to Kurmonds credit unlike the sounds of MJ, they did everything to support us. A few examples: 1. Big variation came back for deep edge beams as Penrith said no fill (approx $30k) and meant end of building - Kurmond tried to help where they could, fought Council and got it down to $7k (although most of that was me fighting Council and telling them they were being ridiculous) so we continued on.... 2. Our tiler screeded our floor during the build (Kurmond didn't do our floors), so this meant our floor was ready for tiles and would evenly meet the carpet (no lip) in the front foyer (very rare to have a builder allow another trade on site - but very accommodating on this), but once this was done our doors wouldn't go on so all the door architraves/frames across the top needed to be cut and physically raised 30cm each in to the gyprock above - they couldn't shave the bottom off the doors as there was too much to cut and doors would have warped over time and affected quality.... Understood our financial situation and did it at cost price - no margin (was cheap and was eternally grateful) 3. Piering, was afraid our allowance wasn't enough and spoke to P about adding an additional allowance for us in case it was needed - he did - no charge - and guess what we used it all plus an additional 2Lm - so only cost us $180 instead of $4,500. So, I have no doubt they will do everything they can to support you, yes they will probably need follow up but who doesn't, but you will have a lovely quality home. Our build experience was very good and I had no issues with that. A few things post hand over but again, sorted out now so overall I was happy with them. Good Luck....... And I am an essay writer from way back so if you made it to the end of my post - well done! Blog: http://cbcbuild.blogspot.com.au/ Building Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=62155 Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 110May 14, 2013 9:26 pm Wow, thank you all for being so friendly and welcoming!! We are so excited to follow all of your building journeys, and Lilac it is wonderful to hear from someone who had a positive (albeit lengthy) build with Kurmond. I thought I would pop in and update on how the meeting went today with P... Well my husband met with him at 10am this morning (by all of hubbys reports the meeting went well and Peter was able to answer lots of questions we had) and by 3pm we received a draft tender sitting in our email inbox...impressive I must say!! Now I would love to say that everything is perfect and we are going full steam ahead, but there are a couple of bumps that we need to try to sort out first (as we expected there would be). We were really happy with P's flexibility and the ease of making the few changes we wanted to make to the floor plan, but there are two things have made me take a step back. My husband first made contact with Kurmond homes last week, emailing them for a price list which was sent through promptly. He then spoke to P and organised the meeting for today. In the meantime I wanted to go and have a look at some of their homes so headed out to their displays at Jordan Springs last Friday. I chatted to the sales lady there and gave her a little background on our situation, told her that although we would loose the $3000 that we have already paid to MJ we were thinking of cutting our losses and finding another builder. When I mentioned this she happily told me that Kurmond have a policy that if you come to them from another builder, they will reimburse the deposit paid to the previous builder by taking that amount off the price of the home. This was brilliant news, it almost seemed too good to be true! Well, hubby forgot to ask about this in his meeting with P today, so when I spoke to him after he called P to tell him that this is what we had been told by the lady at Jordan Springs. To our surprise his response was that we 'are already getting a really sweet deal so they won't be able to do that' I was a little taken aback when hubby called me back to tell me, but thought okay - maybe he is going to give us a small discount or throw something in when he does the tender...after all, if he's saying that we're getting a sweet deal there must be something we're missing, right? Nope. We received the tender with the changes we wanted to make (adding the hills hub which is compulsory in our estate, rebate for doing our own flooring and a couple of other little changes) but the base price of the house is exactly the same as the original price sent through on the price list. As much as it's only $3000, to me it's the principle of the whole thing...if it's company policy as the lady told me it was, it should be company policy regardless of how good a deal you're getting (although it seems we are getting the same 'deal' as any other Kurmond customer ) The second thing, which I'm desperately hoping that someone here might be able to shed some light on is that in the original email from P with all of the pricing (which I assume is a generic email sent whenever someone esquires via email?) said the following: Please find attached our Kurmond homes complete 2013 price list you will find all pricing of our homes in there including façade pricing, inclusions list, including our Diamond Upgrade package. Our prices are complete fixed-price packages including the following: Coloured Concrete Driveway, Basix, Site costs, internal and external floor coverings and ducted air-conditioning. All our homes are complete fixed prices with all of the before mentioned inclusions and diamond upgrade package incorporated into the total cost. Our understanding of this was that the prices on the price list sent through included the $3500 for the diamond package upgrade - to us it says it there in black and white...but when we received the draft tender the $3500 for the diamond upgrades was added on top of the price of the home. We thought immediately that it was a simple mistake and emailed P to ask, but his response was 'Yes the inclusions are incorporated into the base price – there is a lot of inclusions there, but you still have to pay for the $3500 for the diamond, as per the marketing material that I sent you'. Are we missing something here? I totally understand that the marketing material for the package clearly says $3500, but it says it there in black and white that the diamond upgrade package is incorporated into the total cost on the price list. Did anybody else enquire online and receive this email with the price lists? We are trusting that this is all an honest misunderstanding and I am planning to call P tomorrow morning to try to get to the bottom of it, but I just can't get my head around it. We are trying to stay positive about the whole thing and are overall still happy with our experience so far. Again it isn't as much an issue about the money as it is about the principle of it. I often feel like we are taken for a bit of a ride with this whole building thing because we are young, and our experience with MJ didn't do much to help that...so here's hoping that we can get it all sorted tomorrow and get back on track I feel awful to post something negative in what has so far been such a positive and happy thread, and only on our second day here More than anything we are hoping that one of you may have some insight!! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 111May 14, 2013 11:29 pm Welcome Kate, The way I read this statement... "Please find attached our Kurmond homes complete 2013 price list you will find all pricing of our homes in there including façade pricing, inclusions list, including our Diamond Upgrade package. Our prices are complete fixed-price packages including the following: Coloured Concrete Driveway, Basix, Site costs, internal and external floor coverings and ducted air-conditioning. All our homes are complete fixed prices with all of the before mentioned inclusions and diamond upgrade package incorporated into the total cost." Think like all project home builders there are always extra upgrade prices. It does say upgrade packages. To me upgrade constitutes extra cost. The fixed price does explicitly states what is included (Coloured Concrete Driveway, Basix, Site costs, internal and external floor coverings and ducted air-conditioning.) the email I received had 3 attachments, the price list attachment doesn't detail the cost of diamond package, that was a separate attachment, detailing cost and what it covers. With the area of redeeming you deposit from MJ, that would be nice, worth a shot but I wouldn't be basing my decision if i get that back, that would be a bonus. Why don't you ask what have they costed differently to help in this area. You might find they have not charged for other things. Think you have been burnt badly by MJ, can't believe they tried to charge you more for a delay that was not in your control. I would try not to let that tarnish your view going forward. That is my 2cents worth. Good luck with what you decide. Our update is in he waiting game, hanging out for our plans and tender. Keep thinking about flooring, was keen on the laminated timber but thinking how does that go in the kitchen with water spills. More to think about. Went to a light shop today to buy some bulbs and they had 70% of everything. So wanted to pick my lights, but I have no clue about that yet. Struggling with style, can't think about lights yet. Rang DH to calm my buying impulses (lol) can't have the cart before the horse on this one. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 112May 15, 2013 9:05 am Hi All!! After much anticipation, I have the revised plans and a massive headache to go with it! It's blown out to a massive 35 squares which is clearly out of the budget. The front porch has added to this and I'm sure it is not included in the façade. I'd love to know your thoughts. Here are the plans and some of my thoughts. The main issue for me at the moment is the garage width. We may need to revert to no drive through, instead having side access with the storage moved up alongside the theatre. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ 1. I don’t recall whether the front porch area is part of the Sierra Elite façade or this is additional. If it is additional then we will revert to no porch. 2. The porch area is in the articulation zone (up to 40% allowable) and therefore the 4.5m setback from the road should be to the house boundary (i.e. bedroom) and not the porch / façade. This has resulted in less space in the backyard. 3. The garage width (not including storage) is only 5.3m wide, which is not wide enough for two cars to fit comfortably. I’m not sure how we can achieve the minimum 5.5m width without decreasing the storage room. 4. The door to storage room should be relocated next to the internal access door. 5. The drive-through roller door needs to be the standard 2.44m wide to allow for a vehicle to drive through – suggestion is to reduce the width of the home theatre, increasing the length up until the REF in the kitchen. The bulk head would need to be relocated. 6. The meals area as it is, is too large and therefore the home theatre lining up with the REF space will solve this. 7. Bedroom 2’s length of 3.02 to be increased to 3.22 and the WIR length at the same time reduced from 2.00 to 1.80. 8. Island bench to have increased width as per the preliminary plans. 9. The rainwater tank was to be placed next to the A/C unit. This is currently missing. 10. The non-openable toughened glass window should be for the meals area, not the home theatre. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 113May 15, 2013 11:53 am Hi Kateandben, All project builders work like that. If you had gone from the sales lady to meeting with P (the usual route) then your price would be the same as it is now but it would be worded in such a way that your deposit to MJ was refunded. It is just a gimmick, the same as the diamond package. There is no such thing as a free lunch & the truth is these things are priced into the tender somewhere. We got a tender from a procject builder & they forgot we wanted the upgrade package & when we asked for it to be included they said " Sorry we can't do it now for the 3k" (or whatever it was). This is because they would have covered them selves for the cost elsewhere in the tender in would just be worded differently & would appear you were getting the upgrades for a bargain price of $3k. The thing is in the end you have to compare the bottom line with the other builders & be happy with it. The rest is just marketing hype & they all do it & it can be confusing to wade through & compare apples with apples. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 114May 15, 2013 5:29 pm Ryan, You're absolutely right, it's just all marketing so kate, just compare the bottom lines and what's coming out of your pocket. If your tender is better, then great. This is not just building, this is any promotion or advertising, it's bundled in there somewhere to cover the costs.... Nothing is ever for free. Mars, Plan looks great - it's easy to blow out the measurements isn't it..... I know the feeling very well.... If you need to reduce footprint, if you remove the store out of the garage, can you look at your roof cavity. Before you gyprock, line the roof floor with board so you can put a retractable ladder from the manhole near an adequate area - maybe above your garage, but you can design this so your roof has space without beams running through it. You have the space up there anyway so you can have storage without adding Sqm.... If you plan ahead to get some flooring down beforehand then you will be ok. Obviously won't work post gyprock as you can't fit the big sheets of board through the manhole - get them to put a point up there on your electrical plan and that would work great... Also, what is Bed 4 going to be? If a study, then fine, but at 2.8m I would have a concern about it being a bedroom as that is quite narrow. Aligning your garage and extending your HT to the REF will certainly give your Garage rear access more space, just make sure your windows allow for some kind of feature otherwise you will have a long straight brick wall (unless it's against a fence then that doesn't matter so much, but if it's seen from the street, then keep that in mind ) does that make sense?? Quote: 3. The garage width (not including storage) is only 5.3m wide, which is not wide enough for two cars to fit comfortably. I’m not sure how we can achieve the minimum 5.5m width without decreasing the storage room. If you look to move storage in to the roof, you could then reduce your garage storage making more room for your 2 cars, Just some thoughts.... haven't had a solid look, DS (4yo) wants me to play so I better go - I'll check back in tonite! Blog: http://cbcbuild.blogspot.com.au/ Building Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=62155 Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 115May 15, 2013 7:30 pm Thanks Ryan, Lilac & Upsize for the input. I do understand the whole marketing thing and that nothing is free...what I didn't know was that you could say something and then not follow through at all, so I guess that's what got me. I don't know, I guess I have a lot to learn! I spoke to P today...I won't bore everyone with the details, I'll just say that from now on I'll probably just leave it to my husband to deal with him and I'll watch from the sideline, until we get past this initial stage at least. I assume after the initial meetings we might get a customer service rep who will go through the rest of the process with us. Anyway, going to put it all behind us and onwards and upwards from here (I hope!). Enough about us, how is everybody else's week going so far? Mars, your plans look great! Sorry to hear that you're having a few issues but fingers crossed you can get them sorted out and figure out a way to make everything you WANT and NEED work together. I think Lilac's idea about the roof storage is great and as she said this would free up plenty of space in the garage for two cars. We were thinking of doing some roof storage as we won't have a lot of storage space in the house (other than wardrobes, linen cupboards, etc.) and our garage will just be standard size. Our block is just a baby compared to everyone elses - only 450m2! But it suits us perfectly for the time being Speaking of blocks, all of your blocks look AMAZING!! I will have to post a picture of ours soon. Lilac, I had a peek at your blog today - your house looks simply beautiful! I LOVE the colour of the glass splash back you chose. I only had a quick read through but will definitely be spending some time reading through and looking at every little detail Oh, and on the 'dishwasher debate' - we don't have one in our place at the moment so will definitely be making good use of ours once we move One last question - does anybody know what bricks are in the standard range with Kurmond? I know they use Austral, PHG & Boral but not sure which ranges?? Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 116May 15, 2013 8:41 pm kateandben Thanks Ryan, Lilac & Upsize for the input. I do understand the whole marketing thing and that nothing is free...what I didn't know was that you could say something and then not follow through at all, so I guess that's what got me. I don't know, I guess I have a lot to learn! Totally get it. it doesn't seem right, try and get past this stage. You will have a consultant for your colour serlections and then you will move through to construction. 'M' (P's brother) looks after construction stage, very nice and you will have a consultant and your SS to see you all the way through this stage. I love our splash back colour too (Thankyou) - it's was from Kurmond's standard range - called 'storm', you will see it in their showroom swatches. Not sure about their brick ranges, we asked for our tender to include PGH Nutmeg smoothface as we had seen it and wanted that colour. later saw it in their showroom in the Gold range. Have you gone through their showroom, worth a look, everything is on display so you can actually see the level inclusions, I would reommend this before proceeding, perhaps go for a visit. I got a bit lazy with my blog towards the end, after I started my H1 thread, trying to update both got a bit time consuming so my thread probably has a bit more to it toward the end, I think I only started my thread when we were practically at the end, but just loved the 2-way communication, Blog is great for a record, but very much one way. The bottom of pg10 in my thread will show some photo's after handover once we completed tiles and carpet. I'll try and take some more and post them up, just still so in chaos.... Got part of our drive done today, can't afford the whole lot, blimey... concrete is expensive, got 80sqm down today and probably another 100sqm still to go...... H1 Lotto syndicate anyone????? Also, don't worry about it being all about you - it is about you - free speech here and noone to judge, you say or ask what you feel and keep those essays coming! Good Luck Blog: http://cbcbuild.blogspot.com.au/ Building Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=62155 Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 117May 15, 2013 8:55 pm kateandben I often feel like we are taken for a bit of a ride with this whole building thing because we are young, and our experience with MJ didn't do much to help that...so here's hoping that we can get it all sorted tomorrow and get back on track Hi kateandben - been a busy few days at our end so haven't been able to keep in touch with H1 happenings until now. I hear you! i hear you! I think all the builders build-in so-called sweetners to the price and dangle them like carrots. Not that Kurmond needs my defence, but the only thing I can say is that their inclusions (included in the price ) seem more 'genuine' inclusions - certainly their standard range of inclusions seems (to me) more inclusive than most, and especially MJ. I mean, MJ (and others) won't do driveways or even pour the concrete for an alfresco! I had to chuckle today as I was driving to Canberra and heard an advert on the radio for a "big chain builder". They claim their "Mansion Package" for $5,999 (or thereabouts) is so big, they have had to make 4 separate commercials. Funny thing is, what is in their "mansion package" is mostly included as standard for Kurmond. But Lilac is right - there's no such thing as a free lunch, so it is a great marketing tool and little more. In the end, my advice is to make sure you're happy with the builder, and then ensure you've got regular contact (keeping records) right through the build process. At least, that's the advice I've been told and keep reading here. But, that doesn't mean you shouldn't feel disappointed. I guess in instances such as these you just pick yourself up, dust off the dirt and look at for the rainbow - well, let's hope there's one in there somewhere! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 118May 15, 2013 8:57 pm UpsizeTime Our update is in he waiting game, hanging out for our plans and tender. Keep thinking about flooring, was keen on the laminated timber but thinking how does that go in the kitchen with water spills. More to think about. Went to a light shop today to buy some bulbs and they had 70% of everything. So wanted to pick my lights, but I have no clue about that yet. Struggling with style, can't think about lights yet. Rang DH to calm my buying impulses (lol) can't have the cart before the horse on this one. buying impulses! Gee - I won't start a gender warfare here, but my DW seems to have those same impulses frequently ... with my credit card! oh the confusion ahead for all of us who haven't reached the 'colours' selection stage! Good luck Upsize! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 119May 15, 2013 9:01 pm kateandben Speaking of blocks, all of your blocks look AMAZING!! I will have to post a picture of ours soon ... One last question - does anybody know what bricks are in the standard range with Kurmond? I know they use Austral, PHG & Boral but not sure which ranges?? - can't wait to see your block kateandben ~ as they say, size isn't everything and I'm sure yours will be super amazing, too! As for the bricks : the range is quite broad. When you get to tender stage, you'll receive a booklet from Kurmond that will show their 'bronze' 'silver' and 'gold' range. If you happen to look on the Austral, PGH or Boral website, maybe create a short list of the bricks you like and post them on this thread. Someone who is up to the stage of colour selections will quickly be able to chime in with whether the ones you've nominated are 'standard' or above. Just a thought. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 120May 15, 2013 9:14 pm mars78 After much anticipation, I have the revised plans and a massive headache to go with it! It's blown out to a massive 35 squares which is clearly out of the budget. Hey mars - congrats on getting version 2 of your plans Just remember - that headache is all for a good cause mars78 1. I don’t recall whether the front porch area is part of the Sierra Elite façade or this is additional. If it is additional then we will revert to no porch. - hmm, good point. I'm not sure. What is the façade on their display home? It had a porch with the wooden deck as per my earlier photos. Is that the Elite? mars78 2. The porch area is in the articulation zone (up to 40% allowable) and therefore the 4.5m setback from the road should be to the house boundary (i.e. bedroom) and not the porch / façade. This has resulted in less space in the backyard. - another 'hmmm' - we were in that boat a little (or articulation is only 35%), but decided to pull the design closer to our secondary boundary (being on a corner block) to allow for the larger yard. Coming from acreage, we just want the privacy and the space! mars78 3. The garage width (not including storage) is only 5.3m wide, which is not wide enough for two cars to fit comfortably. I’m not sure how we can achieve the minimum 5.5m width without decreasing the storage room. - as Lilac suggested, I think if you can relocate storage to a loft area, laying what is called duckboards to allow a floor space, that would then alleviate the need for the downstairs storage. Mind you, you may have had a specific reason for having this downstairs, and if you plan to live there well after retirement, perhaps you don't want to climb stairs into the roof! But - I gather retirement is a long way off mars78 5. The drive-through roller door needs to be the standard 2.44m wide to allow for a vehicle to drive through – suggestion is to reduce the width of the home theatre, increasing the length up until the REF in the kitchen. The bulk head would need to be relocated. - I gathered from your earlier posts that the idea of a drive-through garage was something you really wanted. If this is in your top-5 items of 'must haves' then don't give up on it. Like you, we extended the garage from v1 of the drawings to accommodate two cars more comfortably and to create an internal workshop. We have also created a drive-through garage effect, but not sure we will stick with it, as it's not really to drive-though, but more to create a larger space for entertainment if there is spill-over from the alfresco. mars78 6. The meals area as it is, is too large and therefore the home theatre lining up with the REF space will solve this. mars78 9. The rainwater tank was to be placed next to the A/C unit. This is currently missing. mars78 10. The non-openable toughened glass window should be for the meals area, not the home theatre. It's great to see that you've got to the next stage with the plans! Do you think you'll have many more changes for a version 3 before getting the tender put together? Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74218 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 105129 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 23197 |