Dale Alcock Build in Kensington - Moved In

justlearning · Feb 19, 2014 1:53 am

Oh and we finally found a rental that would have our two big dogs. Move out this weekend so hopefully demo can happen as scheduled around the 24th March.

Still waiting on council approval, and DAH is still waiting on us to finalise our pre-start decisions. Hopefully neither delay the build too long.

justlearning · Feb 19, 2014 2:09 am

This pantry makeover looks like a neat project when we move in...how cool is it.

http://www.everydayenchanting.com/project-pantry-reveal-10-tips-for-an-organized-pantry/

justlearning · Mar 11, 2014 10:37 am

We'd like to get solid wood floors installed after handover. I've recently found out that we should consider raising the wet area tiling to match the height of the wood floor. Has anybody who has built with Dale alcock done that?

KiwiGalAbroad · Mar 11, 2014 1:06 pm

No sorry, but i guess that makes sense.

The Delailes · Mar 15, 2014 8:49 am

Hi, your house looks amazing! I was just wondering if you ever went ahead with the cavity sliding door on the theatre and how much it cost if you don't mind me asking? we have just signed to build the Archipelago 1 and am super excited, but I am getting stressed about all the extra charges. Our consultant has been amazing and he has been so helpful and patient, but after getting on here and people saying after you sign your contract there prices are "less competitive", I am getting worried- shouldn't the price just be the price, not what they decide to charge you on the day?? I'm looking at over $4300 to enclose the theatre on one side (the width of about a normal door, then add a cavity slider on the other, I know they are expensive (the one in my ensuite is $1100) but this sounds excessive! Then if this is overcharged do I have to questions all the other charges??? I have brought this up with my consultant and am waiting for a call back, but any input anyone has on this would be greatly appreciated!

justlearning · Mar 15, 2014 10:31 am

Hi delails

We never did get the cavity sliders. Yes some of their prices have been crazy (eg 4k for border tiles in ensuite and bathroom...we took those out). But other prices are more than reasonable. It seems anything that is a little non standard is more expensive than it should be, but run of the mill things seem competitive.

We made loads of changes before we signed the contract but I suspect the prices would have cost about the same if we'd made them after signing.

justlearning · Mar 15, 2014 10:40 am

Some disappointing news yesterday. The council won't pass our design. There's a policy that was introduced 18 months ago that applies to Kensington that overrides some parts of the r codes. Basically we have to set the house back another 1.5m and stagger our parapet walls by 6m. Means we'll lose more out of the back yard.

The alternative to changing the design would be to take it to a Council meeting but we can't get on one until May! Considering we're now paying rent and the old house is getting demolished next week we're just going to change the design.

Back to the drawing board...

AKB · Mar 15, 2014 10:55 am

Oh JL that must be so disappointing :-(

CountryHome · Mar 15, 2014 11:15 am

I've just read your thread. How disappointing

and I don't envy you doing all this whilst also going through moving into a rental, demolishing your old place and with a newborn and toddler! I hope you're ok.

justlearning · Apr 15, 2014 10:59 am

Yay, we finally got council approval. I ended up redrawing the plans and justifying it to Council - they were willing to compromise thank goodness. But we still had to set the house back about 1m. I took it off a couple of the internal rooms.

However, now we're stuck on the building approval for our brick boundary fence. My brickie has said that I should be signing the BA20 form as an 'owner builder'. But I didn't think I needed an owner builder permit to build a brick fence. And unbelievably, the City of South Perth won't even answer any building questions until the 28th April (as they are short staffed)!!!!

Can somebody tell me if I need to have an owner builder permit to get a contractor to construct a brick boundary fence? My brickie does not have a builder's registration number.

thanks

justlearning · May 14, 2014 10:51 am

So it feels like something is actually happening. Brickie started today to build our boundary\retaining wall.

We've finally signed off prestart and the builder has submitted the building permit. I'm hoping it won't take them too long to get to site.

The DA Crew · Jun 03, 2014 6:13 pm

Hi justlearning,
So glad everything got through & is up and running now. You'll get there in the end, promise

Shannon

justlearning · Jun 03, 2014 6:57 pm

I hope we get there sooner rather than later Shannon. I just got a call from South Perth saying the building application didn't meet the planning requirements. I've honestly been quite disappointed with the DAH planning/approvals process to date.

justlearning · Jun 19, 2014 7:06 pm

Well we're still having issues that are delaying us getting to site. Dale Alcock are not good at the planning and approvals side of things. They completely forgot to modify the building application to drop the level of the rear part of the house which was a condition of planning approval. I don't know how they could miss something so fundamental, but they did. The only reason I found out as early as I did was because I rang the council to check that it was all okay...I don't trust DAH much anymore. Anyway, it was redrafted and how we finally have a building permit. It took DAH almost six months to get us to that point!!!

Now we've found out that our 5 panel bifold needs to be changed to 7 panels for that width, which really isn't acceptable as it would act as the main door to the outdoors and the single opening panel would be too narrow. So now we've asked them to reduce the size of it to keep it at 5 panels and swap the sliding door for another four panel bifold. Now we're waiting on the quote from Jason Windows which is going to take 2 weeks!!! That door has been on the plan for almost 12 months and we only find out about this now?

I also had a meeting with our neighbours regarding rendering our boundary wall....again, something the builder should have resolved months ago. They don't want their side disturbed so we're going with exposed brick on their side.

I'm really hoping this build doesn't turn out like FancyPants'!

D_rail · Jun 19, 2014 9:49 pm

Sorry to hear JL. We've had very similar issues with the planning process and we were over six months between PWC and being finally ready for site (and we'd already completed site surveys). I found I accomplished more and found out more dealing directly with council. Perhaps they've either had a turnover of personnel or have simply taken on more jobs than they can handle. It makes you wonder how they can have run a promotion at the same time with a guaranteed start date. Fingers crossed you end up with a quality build!

Althom · Jun 20, 2014 10:42 am

Planning and getting approvals is certainly not a strength DAH have. Our sales guy didn't bother to read the DAP for the subdivision we gave him so screwed up the plans and then wanted to argue that we couldn't put the garage wall on the boundary when about 90% of the previously built houses in the street had done so.

justlearning · Jun 23, 2014 10:43 pm

Well the dramas continue and we haven't even started building.

So I informed Dale Alcock of the outcome of the meeting with my neighbours...that we agreed to leave exposed brickwork on their boundary wall side and leave the fence alone. The wall is actually 12cm from the boundary, so not really on the boundary. We then concluded between us that no form was needed to be signed as the work wasn't affecting their property or the existing fence. I cc'd our DAH contact so she could cancel their site supervisor visiting them. But yet another communication breakdown on DAH's part led them to go and see the neighbour anyway. And apparently the neighbours changed their mind (for about the 4th time mind you) and insisted that the brick wall be rendered to match the colour of the 60 year old asbestos fence that they've painted dark green...and our house is light grey! Seriously! They have a signed BA20 form to prove it.

My understanding is that we don't need the neighbour to sign anything as we're not impacting their property at all. I've asked DAH to advise...they couldn't get back to me today (not sure why...I'm sure I'll find the answer in about 10 minutes of googling).

The other really annoying issue today is the response I've received to one of the queries on our final plans. At prestart we requested to increase the height of our kitchen cupboards to 30c (our ceilings are 33c). They quoted on that and we signed off on it. When the final plans came back I noticed the change wasn't updated on the elevations. I queried it, and was advised only today, that the pantry door would be too high for one piece of laminate, so we would have to pay an additional $1400!!! How is that even possible? We've already paid for 30c doors...how in the world could it cost $1400 to cut the doors in half and add a couple of extra hinges!!! When we queried this, we were advised that if it wasn't picked up now it would have been a variation at build time. From my point of view, we signed a variation that stated that all kitchen cupboards would be 30c. It should be their responsibility to cover any costs that they haven't factored in.

Are there any cabinet makers reading this that can give me an estimate on the following in laminex gloss white:
- 30c pantry doors (2.5m x 0.6 x 2)
- four doors to fit the same space.

The scary part is that if they said they would have charged a variation for something like this during the build, what other surprises will there be at build time.

All of these delays are so upsetting as we had a perfectly good house that we demolished months ago based on the timelines that DAH was confidently feeding us at the time. We could be living there rent free and wouldn't have had to move with a 10 week old baby and an 18 month old toddler!

justlearning · Jun 23, 2014 10:49 pm

PS. Looking for feedback on our landscape design here...http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=71784

Mr Wolf · Jun 24, 2014 1:30 am

Posting to follow, and hoping your build with DAH goes on okay.

justlearning · Jun 24, 2014 9:01 am

I was just thinking about our pantry. I think a more elegant solution would be to put a large deep drawer under the pantry anyway. Let's see what the builder says.