Arden Developments

Sounds great Illibug! Rest assured when it comes to building with Arden you are definitely in good hands! My wife and I have never been more happier since our of the plan Votivo!

After purchasing land around the Easter weekend, my wife and I had spent a few months researching and visiting a lot of display homes and getting quotes for homes that we liked that were closest to the layout and finish that we wanted. Arden Homes were one of the few (maybe only one) willing to make substantial changes to their existing layout and also their base inclusions were already of decent quality, I believe their guideline is that once you move the staircase, then it becomes bespoke (full custom), which is a more expensive category. Most of the larger volume builders only let you select pre-drawn optional changes to the layout and not customise changes to customers spec - however small they may be.

We really liked the Votivo 43, but we changed quite a few things to make it 100% perfect for us. We extended the garage by 3m and added a single roller door to the back, swapped around the laundry and butlers kitchen, flipped the rumpus room to the dining/living room side of the house, a free standing tub to the ensuite, swapped around bedroom 2 and the adjacent WIL with the ensuite & activity area so we could create a "Grand Master Suite" for the wifey (happy wife happy life as they say ). Our sales consultant believes the biggest cost increase was extending the garage and adding the back roller door which added an extra 2 squares to the house. It costs $500 to get them to do the revised drawings and it locks the price for 12 months, which is fair, and it also counts towards your initial deposit if you decide to proceed to tender stage.

I will upload the customised drawings once I get them if people are interested.

Hi laijer... Exciting times ahead!!! Rest assured as one of Arden Homes first domestic builds of the 'Votivo' you know you will be definitely in great hands from start to finish!!!

The service that comes from Arden and their staff is impeccable, they really do treat you like a person and not a number. The build quality is perfect, and yes, if required to make changes they are more than happy to assist with that as well without the huge dint in your pocket.

From the initial sales enquiry, to the site manager and even the lovely office staff at Arden Homes; I know it may be hard to believe.... but they all are one awesome bunch to deal with and I have not hesitated to recommend a build with them.. [in fact my wife and I have managed to entice 3 others to build with Arden!!!

So In short laijer... welcome to the Arden family.... I am sure your build will go well.... and yes I know I would be interested to see your plan layout to compare differences made from our build!!

Take care

Thats Great Laijer. Based on good feedback, we are also keen to work with Arden for our first home. We have selected Votivo 43 as our plan and intend to make some changes to it.

I would be keen to understand your changes and see how your plan looks.

In relation to changes, did Arden charge a lot for making those changes? What is the process from start to finish with Arden? Am I in safe hands? Would the build quality be as good as volume builders?? Keen to hear your thoughts.

Thanks Vellas, yeah, I sensed that when we had our first interaction with the Arden sales at their display house. Quite genuine and not pushy. I know it's just the start of a long process, but I am 100% satisfied with the service thus far.

Yep, I will upload the changed plans as i get them. Initially, it was just $500 to get them to start working on the redraw and they will give you an indicative price of what the changes will cost. They've said that generally, if your just moving rooms around within the floor plan, then there really is no change of price to the house, but if you're adding extra stuff like a bath tub, extra robes and shelving, extra windows etc, or increasing the size of the house; then that will attract extra cost. I don't know what those extra costs will be yet, but I will let you know once I hear back from Arden.

Cool! Great stuff and as I said before... I'm almost convinced Arden will do their utmost best to make sure you enjoy your build as we did!

I want to share my experience with Arden, which was very disappointing! We were working well with them to build a custom Votivo, and we had everything locked in, until they backed out at the last minute just a day before our colour selection appointment sighting a cow manure reason that they could not build on my new block due to the amount of fill. (~3m)

From my point of view, this entire thing happened not because of any technical difficulty in building on the block, but because I had questioned them in terms of why their quoted site costs (~72,000) was more than twice (~26,000) of what my adjacent neighbours paid with other builders like Metricon and Henley. For the record, my adjacent neighbours have almost completed their build and other builders are more than happy to take my business.

They even had our soil tests results from day one, and in my view should not have wasted my time if they had any apprehensions to build on my block and should have made this clear upfront rather than waste 3 months in a design process. The last minute pull out has left me starting the design process from scratch with another builder and many $$$$ out of pocket as my land is already titled and ready to start build.

Keep this in mind if building with them, and ensure that you all don't go through the same hell as I did - especially when looking at a custom build!

Sounds frustrating, sinbox
Hope you can find a builder to create your dream.

We've just broken ground with Arden and have had mostly smooth sailing so far. Being able to flex their standard plans to make basically a custom build was what sold us on Arden. And value for money too. We couldn't find another builder with so many inclusions. Hebel included was a bonus too. Hopefully they build us a gorgeous home.

BigRedDoor I am convinced that you will have an absolute dream building with Arden as we did. From start to finish and even after sales service Arden are superior in customer service and do a awesome build!

Hi
I too am looking at building votivo 37. Anybody has built 37

Hi pEast we built the Votivo 42. However apart from size difference I'm sure if you have any questions related to our build experience I'm sure we can help.

has anybody used cavity sliding doors to wir, theatre - any idea regarding price - thought cavity sliders would save space

still new to this posting stuff - trying to figure out how to reply to a particular person or post some photos

How exciting ZZj!!! Congratulations and I am sure once you do your walk through you will absolutely love it as we love our home.

Hi sinbox. If you don't mind me asking, what suburb are you building in? 3m of fill is not the issue, it may be the soil type under the fill layer which is causing the issue. $72k is a massive amount of coin for site costs.....good luck!

Hi pEast, We made a lot of changes to our Votivo and added two cavity sliders. The extra costs was around $400. We made a host of design changes, pretty much wiped the ground floor and restarted again to make the house more open and suit our blocks orientation. No charge and the process was quick, easy and simple.

3PEAT sounds like you are completely remodelling the Votivo! How exciting!

I would refuse to build with this company as when they built the house next door the damage they did to our property was a joke!! and to get it fixed was a bloody hard task! One of the worst ran companies I know!!! They refused to take ownership of the damages!!

I would never ever consider this horrible excuse for a company

Hi 3Peat
r u building 37

Yes we are. Found the 37 living too narrow, so moved some of the walls out and rearranged the kitchen, laundry and WIP to make it a little larger overall than the 43 display. We also removed the study, widened the external wall and made the theatre bigger. Garage was also widened. Overall the house went to 41 squares in the end. Upstairs was minor, just moved the bedroom and lounge area around to cluster the kids room all on one side of the house. Removed wall as you walk up the stairs to open the first floor up with some light. Overall the changes were well priced and the drawings were done in a quick and efficient manner!