Our KDR - Gemmill. Ceilings and lockup! FINALLY

Me again -

I forgot to ask - if anyone can share their prestart costs, I'd really appreciate it. Some of the things I'm considering are:

Internal doors
Deeper bath (if there is one. our lenght is fixed, and pretty small. )
Gloss laminates for kitchen

And tiling - I don't understand how it works. I know we have an amount per m. But if I want larger or rectangular tiles, or a feature? How is that priced?

Obviously it is our first time building, so it is a new science!

Thanks fmac.

Yes, the music room will be a "jamming" room for husband (and his band mates) and the kids, as well as a "home theatre"/rumpus room. And a guest room for parents when they come to visit etc.

Washing line will go somewhere along the side where the laundry is. It's narrow, but should fit ok. (I'm also thinking of a retractable one in the garage for rainy days).

Will have to look again at the laundry door. I hadn't really given it too much thought. THanks!

with the music room you might like to consider soundproofing we have a music room/retreat which hubby has all his guitars we had it soundproofed but on further thinking i would also have had soundcheck board as well(think that is what it is called)
i went with another builder but i upgraded internal doors to give you rough idea ours was $43 per door to upgrade.
bath if you want deeper maybe a freestanding bath i love my freestanding bath.
upgrading to gloss in the kitchen was approx $1200 for my kitchen

Thanks Jilil. I needed to hear something like that.

We signed the PPA 2 weeks ago (deadline 30 June) and have since signed off on costings. However, the initial 10-12 weeks wait for contracts and drawings has now become 16-17 weeks from now! That is nearly 20 weeks or 5 months to get contracts and drawings - does that sound right????

I know it is way too early to get impatient, but it worries me. From being promised the slab should go down in early November, it is now seeming like late December.... which will mean mid-late January, I'm sure. We don't want to have to pay $2500 p/m in rent for any longer than necessary - especially while seeing our house empty, or a vacant block sitting there.

I just wonder if this is the beginning of a slippery slope of issues - I think the negative reading I've done is freaking me out a little. Just trying to focus on my internals, colour decisions and pool plans, and ignore the rest! (Not to mention organising somewhere to live in the meantime.

However it does give me a small window to change the plan, if we really need to!

Hi Darcy27,

I couldn't quite see your plan - my computer is lame but from what I understand if you have a custom house it will take longer to do the paperwork. We signed March last year and got our contracts in July. We had initially signed with another builder earlier and the contracts took just as long.

Tiling -I stuck with standard tiles on the floors of my bathroom 2/3 but for the wall tile I got a rectangle tile as standard but had to pay an extra $230 for the laying (2 x bathrooms) as it was a 200 x 400mm tile and not 200 x 200.

If you don't like the bath go to the Caroma showroom and tell them what you need and see if they have anything that will fit and then get G3mmill to price the difference for you. We didn't like any of the toilets they had so we upgraded with something we saw at Caroma and for 3 x toilets the upgrade cost us $900 altogether - the toilet has no gap at the back so quite streamlined and easier to clean.

Internal doors - Ours cost about $400 each to upgrade BUT our doors are like 2300 high and I specified those doors from the M&B catalogue.

I will say the office has been a nightmare, there have been improvements as it was worse and they are taking steps to make it better but it doesn't happen in a day...the quality of my build has been very good, I have a builder neighbour who is nosy and inspects my place almost daily and he reckons the quality is excellent.

Thanks for the tips, Scotty Dog. I wondered how that part worked. Do you ask them to cost these things at pre-start, or send them the things prior so they can have the changes ready?



We did play around with the robe for bed 2. Can't remember why it didn't stay where you suggest - might have been something to do with the window? That doorway is more of a "back door" than anything, so won't be used too much. Hence have made it as narrow as possible.

Yep - with the studio door and storeroom etc, they can reverse a car into the garage if raining and take gear straight through. Or from driveway, they can go around the outside / left side of the garage and in through the sliding doors there, so don't have to come in front door. Again, we played around with that area, and decided to have the little alcove with all the doors, which can then be closed off from the front entrance.

The little alcove behind the robe in bed 3 will be the computer/study nook. Or for the kids piano. SO they can be near the living area, but not "in" it. (And I can see what they are doing!)

Hi Darcy27

If you need any help with Gemmill pre start costs..please let me know. Happy to help!

Cheers
Jason

Well - we are into the waiting time, for drawings and contracts.

And we got a freebie - Gemmill gave us a lovely iPad mini, so that we can follow our build on their tracker program. Not that anything is happening yet! And with a household of a Mac, a laptop, iPad, 2 x Ipods, and 2 x iPads, another screen isn't what we need - funnily enough, the kids are already fighting over it.

Driving myself a little nutty with the plan. I've decided that our robes in the master are too small, and still not sure about the door at that end of the house, as it has made the kids rooms a little smaller than I wanted them to be. But I just can't see a way around it, and any changes I make now will cost both time and money, so making myself live with it. I keep telling myself that they are all bigger than what we have now!

Also busy getting quotes to put in with our finance application. Our Mortgage broker has said that we can apply for additional things to be added to the loan, as long as we have quotes. So we are putting in for floor coverings, pool, fencing and solar panels. Not sure if it will all get through.

Does anyone know anyone who has had a Modular Wall installed? Or done a fully rendered wall with slats at the top? I've just had a fairly large quote done for the modular wall, and want to compare the price with having brick and rendering.

Darcy

Hi Everyone,

It's been a long time coming, but we are finally ready to go. House was demolished in January, swimming pool is in, and the site was compacted this week. Footings were meant to go in yesterday, but didn't happen, so hopefully today - then slab, and bricks, and on we go!

We've had some issues with a wall between us and the neighbours which is causing some stress. (Long thread here if you are interested...http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=70691&p=1174185&e=1174185) but that is with lawyers now, and doesn't seem to be holding up the build. So we will just have to see how it pans out. That has / is the most stressful thing of the whole build at the moment, but I'm hoping it will be sorted soon, without court!

The pre start and other experiences with Gemmill have been pretty good so far. Prestart lady was wonderful, but there were some issues with our sales guy - who left, after promising us a lot of things that we shouldn't have been promised - after we signed with them, of course.

Anyway, Gemmill were good at sorting most of it out - in our favour - other than an issue with the garage that cost us an additional $10 000. Overall, we are still pretty happy. No regrets. I hope it continues.

Like Speedwaychick68, we are building a house that is not a display, so I still have no real idea what it is going to look like. I'm calling it "the barn", as I'm worried the roof is going to look like a big tin shed. Ah well, no turning back now, since we are pretty much homeless after demolishing our house. We are in a nice rental though. (Nicer than the original home was!)

Looking forward to spending more time here again, now that we've started!!!!
Cheers
Darcy

Congrats!
I'm doing a KDR too, which demo company did you go with, and did you salvage anything from the old place?