Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 11, 2013 12:51 pm Hi everyone, Thought I would start my own thread, have only been on here a few times and commented here and there Bought our block 3 years ago now but only signed in Feb this year. We had a little boy so that delayed things a bit! Our block is in Balhannah, 724sqm. Our house design is the Myrtle Alfresco but we have made some changes like made the pantry even bigger, put a door on the study, made our walk in robe & ensuite bigger, added a sliding door at the back of the family room - think that's about it. We are at the stage where we are waiting for final approval from council, we have had one letter already asking for details on colours and our fences and also a revised site plan showing alternate drainage for stormwater. Builders will do site plan and get colour details and I have forwarded details of what fence we were thinking. I guess next step is waiting for final approval from bank and council then hopefully slab?! I just want to get it going - it's been going on way too long! We had our colour choices 2 weeks ago but changed our minds about a few things a few days later. So our selections are:- Bricks: Austral Grange with natural grey mortar Render Colour: Taubmans Grey Cast Roof: Shingle tiles, shadow grey Windows: Woodland grey for front windows only, silver for remainder Gutters: Monument Front door: XN5 - stained timber, frosted windows Garage door: Panel lift, stained timber look steel Internal Paint Colour: Taubmans Tundra Mist Skirtings & architraves: White Internal doors, skirtings & architraves: standard Door handles: Satin stainless steel sentinel series 15 (I think) Built in Robes: Ended up going with mirror finish (wanted frosted but way too $$$) Cupboard doors: White gloss, plain Cupboard handles: Don’t have code with me but just wide silver squarish style Having push latches to all cupboards up top then pull out drawers on bottom with handles Kitchen benchtop: Essastone New Crystal Salt Kitchen splashback: Nothing – getting glass put in after handover (in either black or metallic grey) Oven, cooktop, pull out rangehood: 900mm Kitchen mixer: Irwell pin square Hand basins: Above counter round (I wanted semi recessed square but they only did them half sticking out from bench and didn’t want that) Bathroom mixers: stylus pin Bathroom accessories: bronze Bathroom splashbacks: Gloss stream super white (will post pic below) Bathroom floor tiles: Charcoal grey square Bathroom wall tiles: White gloss 300x600 Bathroom bench tops: Diamond gloss natural mineralstone Laundry bench tops: Diamond gloss natural mineralstone Floors: Timber floors, on the darker side but haven’t picked yet (will post pic below) Carpet: Grey (will post pic below) Then we did a few extra things like flushmount smoke alarm in entrance as we have a dropped ceiling feature, an extra TV point, 3 more double power points, upgraded toilets Few things I would have liked but couldn’t get/afford: 2 pac/pvc wrap to cupboards, waterfall island bench with wood front (will post pic of what I mean) We were lucky we got the 25k extras promotion so got some good things included like 2.7 ceilings, essastone, semi frameless shower screens , dishwasher etc Photos:- Our house plan http://m1331.photobucket.com/albumview/ ... KJFB9LM%3D Colour choices http://m1331.photobucket.com/albumview/ ... KJFB9LM%3D Bathroom splashback tile http://m1331.photobucket.com/albumview/ ... KJFB9LM%3D Carpet something similar to this in grey http://m1331.photobucket.com/albumview/ ... KJFB9LM%3D Flooring something similar coloured to this http://m1331.photobucket.com/albumview/ ... KJFB9LM%3D Waterfall island bench with wood front look that would have liked http://m1331.photobucket.com/albumview/ ... KJFB9LM%3D Hopefully that all worked?! Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 2Jul 11, 2013 2:29 pm All sounds great!! (your pics worked too! ) Balhannah is a beautiful spot... Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=66299 Slab: 16/6/14 Frame: 4/7/14 Roof: 22/7/14 Lock Up: 20/8/14 Fixing: 26/8/14 PCI: 9/10/14 Handover: 20/10/14 Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 3Jul 11, 2013 4:15 pm great to see you have a thread nice selections. Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 4Jul 11, 2013 6:32 pm Selections look good. Balhannah should be a great spot to live. Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 5Jul 12, 2013 3:35 pm We have just bought a property in the hills too and are about to sign up with Statem@n. We are also building the Myrtle Alfresco so will be very keen to hear how you get on and see what you have chosen for your home : ) Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 6Jul 12, 2013 3:46 pm I'm so jealous that your building in Balhannah! Such a beautiful area Good luck with the build Siteworks 8/11 Slabbed 19/11 Our Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65703 Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 7Jul 15, 2013 6:35 pm Thanks all. Wow hills_kiwi that is exciting to know someone else is building the Myrtle Alfresco too. Are you making any changes? Did you see it at Mt Barker or Lightsview? What kind of frontage are you going for? Got an email from our builder today saying that they have to remove soil because there is nowhere for them to keep it on site? My neighbour built with them and he removed it himself? I have sent them an email to say what if someone is there standing by once they dig trenches to remove it. I found someone up in that area that said he can do it for us at a better rate - not that keen to pay the $5k plus they are saying it will be! Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 8Jul 15, 2013 10:47 pm Hey Hills_lisa, We love the plan of the Myrtle and every plan we look at with other builders makes us come back to the Myrtle. We want to check out another builder for a comparison and the good people here on the Forum are suggesting Fairmont so will look in to them before signing on the dotted line. The Myrtle plan works well for us and the only changes we have asked to make are to make the study into a bedroom by adding a door/doors and where the Alfresco meets the dining, having two doors that open back rather than the three so we can do away with the pillar. The laundry we want a bench that runs the length of the wall and fits a front loader under as we had this arrangement in our last home and with kids, the bench space is invaluable. We have only seen the house at Mt Barker as we live up this way and haven't seen any other show homes outside of the Mt Barker area. We haven't got to the point of making any selections or even talking over a preference between each other as I think it all feels too good to be true! What choices did you go for? I see you are building in Balhannah - Fantastic spot, I spend a bit of time there each week : ) How have you found Statesman to deal with? I see the soil costs are an unpleasant suprise : ( did you end up spending way over the original quote or have they been pretty good with that?? We got a preliminary soil report, it's generic for our whole subdivision and not site specific but it looks like H2 - D soil and so probably higher footing costs. Argghh, it starts already! Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 9Jul 15, 2013 10:52 pm sorry, I just reviewed your post and see all of the selections you have made! Oh dear, my brain is a bit frazzled tonight. Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 10Jul 17, 2013 9:44 pm Hey! We are building the Myrtle Alfresco also! We have made a few changes too, like flipping bed 1 and the home theatre around so our bedroom is more in the middle of house rather than at the front. We have also extended the family room out to the edge of the alfresco (like in the Frewville) and added some massive sliding doors that open into one gigantic space (with no piller in the middle! Like triple sliding doors) at the back of the house instead of the sliding door on the side. The alfresco sliding doors we are just having the 2 standard with a pillar like at mount barker (or was it northgate with only the 2? Confused they are both so different!) We had our colour selections on the 9th July and are still in the process of emailing back and forth with our colour consultant about our choices. Bricks: Austral Vintage Grey with natural grey mortar Roof: Woodland Grey Colourbond Windows: Paperbark Gutters: Woodland Grey colourbond Fascias: Paperbark colourbond Front door: XN5 - paperbark, frosted windows Garage door: Roller door, paperbark Internal Paint Colour: Taubmans Ashwood Skirtings & architraves: Ashwood Internal doors, skirtings & architraves: ASC Smooth door and Colonial S and A Cornice: Trio (called Jazz in selections book) Door handles: Satin stainless steel Manor series 1 Built in Robes: Vinyl White birch Cupboard doors: Barossa Profile Cupboard handles: 046-203 round silver (the ones we reaaaaally wanted were discontinued ) Kitchen benchtop: Essastone Crystal Chalk gloss finish Kitchen splashback: Splashback in sparkley light browny colour Oven, cooktop, pull out rangehood: 900mm Gas cooktop electric oven Kitchen mixer: Oasis sink mixer with veggiw sprayer Hand basins: Cosmo vanity basin. Semi recessed in ensuite Bathroom mixers: stylus pin Bathroom floor tiles: Light grey square 300x300 182030P slate grey grout Bathroom wall tiles: Light beige stone look 182035P 300x600 mudberry 285 grout Bathroom bench tops: Laminex Lunar Stone natural finish Floors: Laminate timber floors in bluegum or Jarrah red tones after handover Carpet: eco+ carpet sunrise in Mushroom (brown) after handover Got extras also like double powerpoints, extra tv point and 2.7m ceiliings etc as part of the 26k of extras promotion. Cavity sliders to the study and home theatre room also and an extra door put on the kitchen to hallway and also walk in robe. So excited to find a thread also building the Myrtle alfresco! We went to mount barker twice and northgate about 5 times! We loved the colours in the house at northgate so that’s what we went with for a general theme! Our footings report came back heaps worse then we are expecting. About 15k extra I think it was! 6k extra in removing soil! But oh well, what can ya do!? So now we are just waiting to finalise colours and then waiting on council approval! (was submitted about 6 weeks ago) Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 11Jul 18, 2013 11:31 am Hi hills_kiwi, will be very exciting if you do end up going with the Myrtle, you'll have to let me know so we can chat about the process and your colour choices etc. Yeah it is a great plan, we also looked at heaps of designs but I loved the huge family/living area and big pantry - think that's what did it for me! We also put a door on the study and we pushed our bedroom back to make ensuite/walk in robe bigger and lost some space off the alfresco. We have a benchtop in the laundry too, think it's a great feature to have. Where abouts is your land? I have found them quite good to deal with I guess, apart from our sales guy - if I did it again or could turn back I would have asked for someone else. He really held us up - wouldn't return our calls, didn't send us our plan to sign off on for a long time etc, not great. I'm just really over the waiting because you do one thing then wait a month then it's something else and more waiting - just want to start building! We went quite a bit over on the quote - close to $100k and that is with us doing the carpet, flooring & air conditioning ourselves. The footings was a big part of that amount and then we spent a fair bit on the frontage. Footings & excess soil removal are about 40k, we were quoted about 31k. We also had the same soil, highly reactive which is obviously why the footings cost goes up, yep it starts already!! Hi Tens88, yay another myrtle builder - so excited! Thanks for posting all your colour choices, great to hear about what you went for. They all sound great and will all look really nice. Yeah the colours in the lightsview one were really nice so I can see why you went that way - they make the display homes look pretty nice don't they! They sucked us in with the frontage so ours is going to look very similar to display at lightsview with the stackstone pillars. Didn't think to flip the theatre & bedroom 1, what a great idea - this is why it is so good to hear about what everyone does it differently! Yes we also have the sliding doors at the back of the house and got rid of the ones on the side. Sounds like you had the same promotions deal as us. When did you sign? How has the process been for you, have you had any problems or delays? Haha yes I know, we have been to northgate display about 6 times probably! Our excess soil came back at $5k and we were also quoted $1,500 - sucks doesn't it!! Sounds like we are pretty much on par, also waiting for council. We have finalised colour stuff but got it in the mail Monday night and they have made 2 mistakes, my sales consultant is on holidays this week so it means more waiting for them to fix it then send again! Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 12Aug 05, 2013 11:42 pm Hi I forgot to reply to this sorry We signed our first contracts back in march maybe the 18th. Process has been ok so far its just a been a pain waiting a few weeks for plans and footings reports etc etc and now we just want work to get started! We didnt look over our colour stuff too thoroughly as we watched her enter it all etc so we just read over the further changes we made after our appointment to make sure they were entered correctly. We are getting our floors done after handover and statesman are leaving the skirtings off for us so we can lay the floor first and then do the skirtings yippee! Hopefully we will be able to move in a couple of weeks after handover! The stage we are at now is waiting for the final and 3rd stage of council approval. All our stuff has been submitted to the bank a few days ago and we are waiting to hear about final approval for that. Tomorrow I am posting to statesman all our signed final master plans. I guess after that once everything has come together we find out when they start work? What stage are you up to now hills_lisa81? hills_kiwi have you decided to go with the myrtle? Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 13Aug 07, 2013 12:27 pm Hello fellow Myrtle builders. We are 95% sure we will be joining you. We have been getting a really close comparison with another building company but the Myrtle plan wins on just about every point and the price is so competitive. Our sales guy so far has been super helpful, I wonder if they are different people?? We are off to see him today for some more questiosn before we talk about hte contract. I wanted to ask, did you guys include flooring and paving works etc with Statesman or find an independant contractor for that? Also, I what allowance for footings did you have in your contract? We have soil that needs a H2 slab and have hopefully adjusted accordingly but don't want to get hit with a budget blowout on foundations. Eeek! We looked at the Lightsview Myrtle on the weekend after seeing your comment about there being a version there to look at at. I walked in after seeing a number of other homes at Blakesview and Lightsview that day and thought "My husband will definitely want this". He is keen on the Myrtle but wanted timber floors so after seeing that, I knew it would cement his decision. I am trying to compare quotes and ensure we are comparing apples with apples and he is trying to play along but I can see all over his face he just wants to build our Myrtle. Will keep you posted but I think today will be the day that we decide to go for it!!! Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 14Aug 07, 2013 5:07 pm That's great tens88, sounds like you are ahead of us if you are in final stages of council approval and all your stuff has been submitted to council. You'll have to let me know when it all starts for you! Council only received our revised stormwater site plan on Tuesday, builders took over a month to get it to them so once again frustrated as that has held us up. Not sure if that means council will then come back reasonably quickly with approval as they sent letter 2 weeks after initial submission to ask for this plan so not sure what stage that means we are at. After that I guess bank approval & final sign off. Hi hills_kiwi, that's very exciting. Good luck with whatever you decide on going with! We are getting our flooring done ourselves and the paving so didnt even ask Statesman to quote us on that. Our footings allowance was originally $25k then they put it up to $30k then it came back another $3k and another $5k for soil removal so close to $40k all up. Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 15Aug 07, 2013 11:50 pm I can see how the extras on footings/soil removal etc would be a very unpleasant suprise. I think these parts are the bits that scare the pants off me about building. I am still trying to get our head around how we get our own quotes for the PC items but still get the mortgage to cover it. Hills_Lisa, the delays sound very frustrating. Did they apologise for the delay?? Tens88, where abouts are you building?? It's interesting to hear what everyone else is doing with the plan and the way you are making a few small changes to make it your own. Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 16Aug 08, 2013 11:29 am We have signed on to build the Frewville Alfresco, which is almost identical to the Myrtle, just bigger and the alfresco is instead on the same side as the garage. I am looking forward to reading about everyone's choices and experiences. Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 17Aug 08, 2013 11:42 pm Hi egn2013 Welcome : ) I will have to check out the plan of the Frewville. Whereabouts are you building?? Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 18Aug 08, 2013 11:48 pm I had a look at the plan and the way the living area off the kitchen is extended with doors to the alfresco is perfect! I would love that if our block allowed but I think we are pushing it with council to get the myrtle through consents. It's such a liveable plan I believe, especially for indoor/outdoor living. Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 19Aug 12, 2013 1:31 pm we are all signed up! Eeeeeek! Re: New house build with Statesman - Adelaide Hills 20Aug 12, 2013 1:40 pm Congratulations, hills_kiwi. Do you have a thread? What house plan and builder did you choose? Even if it's not being sub-divided and you want to keep it as Torrens title, you will still need to talk to a town planner or Council themselves, to see if they will allow… 1 6834 Thanks again Simeon for being so elaborate. Appreciate it. Its gives us a very idea. Kind Regards 4 1998 Building a new home, and looking for a garage builder (home builder not contracted to do this). Someone to build steel garage (double), colorbond, including supply and… 0 1935 |