Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Elderton Homes - experiences & reviews 47Jul 16, 2014 5:41 am Hi Newbie The brickwork was finished a couple of months ago. I can't remember how long it took. Our site is a bit difficult in that the house is only 900mm from one side fence and little more from the other. That makes bricklaying on the upper floor difficult. One thing that holds up the brickwork is the scaffolding. It has to be changed as the walls get higher. Hence the bricklaying seemed to progress in fits and starts, nothing seems to happen for some days and then a lot more wall appears. The bricklayers have only a narrow plank to stand on whilst they work on the sides of the house. When the roof was on, the people installing the guttering, barge board, eaves lining had an even worse time. The eaves were 45cm, so the workers only had 45cm from the boundary to work on. I used to visit the house almost every evening to see what had been done during the day. But now I visit it during working hours as the house has been locked up and work is now hidden from view from the street. Most tradespeople are friendly but some don't speak English well. But beware the stony glare of the carpenter/joiner who will not allow you to put your foot through the door. The SS said this was because of a previous incident caused by an visiting owner. I don't mind as his work seems very good. I have looked at the display houses and the work there is excellent and I think this is the person who did those houses. I can't fault the work quality of the tradespeople working on our house. A couple of times I have been looking at the house and noticed something seems odd. At the same time one tradesperson is on the phone to the SS and I have borrowed his phone for a short time to ask a question and get reassurance that all is well. The tiling of the wet areas has been completed this week, and inspected by the Tiles Direct supervisor. The painting of the walls has started and the tilers are coming back later to finish the main parts of the floor. It is actually quite exciting to see the work in progress. I can get messages to the SS through Lisa so that is not a problem. Overall I am impressed by the quality of the work done. I feel fortunate in choosing Elderton as our builder. Do I assume that your brickwork is currently in progress? Newbuilderbill Re: Elderton Homes - experiences & reviews 48Jul 17, 2014 11:57 pm Hi Newbuilderbill, Thanks for your sharing your experience in details. It gives me some insight into this phase and overall experience. Yes, our brickwork is in progress. I can relate to your experience in terms of visiting the site regularly. I live less than 10 mins drive from the site and go there couple of times a week. Based on your explanation, I suppose my lot is not so bad for bricklaying as it's flat and the house would be away from the fences by upto 1.5 meters in 1 side and 2.6 meters on the other. That's probably why the progress is not so bad, they have done nearly 1 full wall (garage side) and basic scaffolding around the house in 2 days!! Communication is not very bad, but can improve. I got a new Client Service Officer - Jessica as of last week. She seems very efficient and helpful. I was told Elderton is considering the practice whereby the SS can be contacted directly. But they did not say if that will happen soon or not. Anyway, keep us updated on your progress and any warnings!! (I hope there wouldn't be any) Now that more tangible progress is being made, I feel really excited. Up until the slab stage, it was all imaginary and conceptual. Now I can actually see the house taking shape...exciting stuff. Re: Elderton Homes - experiences & reviews 49Jul 18, 2014 9:36 am Hi Newbie Our building site is not only narrow, it is in a street with 2 hour parking, and the house is quite close to the footpath. Hence deliveries have to be made in batches, and rubbish has to be collected at regular intervals. I was amused to look at a street view on Google Earth and found that our house has been immortalised as it shows a large crane blocking half the street as the frame is being erected. If you have thought of anything else, now is the time to request any more variations before Elderton starts to order the materials. It is too late for us to make any changes. We have not had any problems with communication with Elderton staff. We started the whole process before Elderton expanded so much and now know several staff members who have been invariably helpful. We have so many variations that it is a chore to read the contract and variations. I recently realised we are getting 5 lights in the porch and one on the living room (our fault). That had better be a decent light! Or we will rely on floor lamps. We are going to employ an electrician later to install our lights, and until we can afford them and have chosen them, we will do with batten fixes. We are learning about the differences in the quality of stainless steel, and the IP values of outdoor lights. What house are you building? We are only to happy to show you through our house when we get access. But we will have to find a way to contact you so the rest of the world is not also invited. Newbuilderbill Re: Elderton Homes - experiences & reviews 50Jul 20, 2014 8:49 am Hi We are also considering to build the Carrington Grange 29 at Caddens. I've looked at the upgrades and suggestions made here for it, and like most At the moment we are considering the flwg- WIP adding a shower to the powder room downstairs changing window to ASSD in the living room, so that will make it 2 ASSD's I'm looking for suggestions for the kitchen, what more can be done to get more bench space I am thinking of either extending the house out by 0.7 to 1M thereby getting a U shaped kitchen or extending the kitchen sideways so it goes out to where the laundry door is. The laundry door can then come out to the side rather than facing aft I see many here have done the Carrington Grange so please give me your suggestions Thx a lot Re: Elderton Homes - experiences & reviews 51Jul 20, 2014 12:33 pm The Carrington Grange has some similarity to the Mitcham that we are building. We did not have enough space for a double garage so we cut the side off the garage and the resulting building is exactly the same width as yours is on the top floor. Because of its location near transport, we will not miss the second garage and the council is happy as we do have room to park a car in front of the garage. I thought about your kitchen. You can't make space unfortunately, if you want more bench space, then something else has to go. My first thought was for a U-shaped kitchen, but that adds little to the usable bench space and corner cupboards are useless. It might make the living area look less open. Do you need the back door where it is? Could you go outside via the Al Fresco (if you are getting one) or use the sliding door from the laundry to the outside? Then use that extra space for the kitchen bench? That would give you an extra 900mm of bench space. We have got rid of the door to the exterior from our laundry, there was not enough room on the side of the house for that. After the handover, we will get a set of steps, maybe 2 or 3 leading up to the Al Fresco. until then, we will have to use the front door to go outside. You could use the sliding door into the laundry as your back door. We have a powder room to which we added a shower recess to to make it into a bathroom. The Mitcham plan had a space at the back of the garage we used for the Powder Room. Where would you put your shower? Could it fit under the staircase? Could it use the space where the door to the garage is and then put that door into the laundry? The Carrington Grange plan allows you to rearrange the Powder Room and the laundry and the doors into that area to suit yourself without adding too much to the overall cost. All the plumbing is nearby. Our Powder Room/bathroom is currently a dark hole with no external window, but it does have ventilation to the exterior. Elderton supply a small fan/light/ventilator in our bathroom as standard, but I have one of these at home and I don't think that is adequate light. So I have added a pair of wall lights on either side of the mirror so we can see our faces in the mirror. We also turned the Home Theatre into a bedroom, and added a wardrobe to that room. That made the adjoining room (a study in the Mitcham) smaller. Hence the need for a downstairs bathroom. Maybe if you don't really want another bedroom downstairs you could just make the door into the Home Theatre normal size so you could convert it later if required. Why would you need such a big doorway into a Home Theatre? Two things I am glad I requested were drawers to the the bathroom vanities. Check to see if the vanities you get have them They cost an extra $100 each. The other is extra storage space under the stairs with a door for access. We have a staircase that turns around and comes back for the top flight. I have added extra storage space by closing off the area under the stairs and putting a door there. But maybe you could use that space for the shower recess. The disadvantage of this is that it takes away the open look of the stairway. I also had the slab lowered under bathroom and laundry on the ground floor. That means that the finished level will not have a step-up that you can trip on in the dark. What are ASSD's? Newbuilderbill Re: Elderton Homes - experiences & reviews 52Jul 20, 2014 12:48 pm hello again Bluemviews I just found the Elderton design options for the Carrington Grange. I like the Walk in Pantry Option. The kitchen in the standard Carrington Grange House has little room for storage and the Walk in Pantry Option would be so useful. Change the entry to the garage from that little hallway, using that for the shower recess and put the new entry to the garage through the laundry. That plan already has changed the back door to the house from the kitchen to the laundry, so that gives you the extra bench and cupboard space. That is the way I would go. If you felt really affluent, you could combine the three options together, having a Rumpus Room and a Grand Alfresco as well. Newbuilderbill Re: Elderton Homes - experiences & reviews 53Oct 08, 2014 12:37 pm I don't know why others were disappointed with the tile range for the silver range? There was plenty to choose from, we just went in for a pre-selection appointment so we can do a little more research prior to our actual selection and we are more than happy with the range! We opted to upgrade the wet area floor tile as we wanted a specific look and we have also decided to add a feature wall to the shower so naturally we will pay for stylish tile there, but other than that, everything from the silver range suits us! Re: Elderton Homes - experiences & reviews 54Jan 04, 2015 5:09 pm Went into the display home again today and they're changed everything. Different ways of doing packages, air con and alfrescos are not included but have a similar set up to other companies that offer them for a reduced cost etc. So glad we brought when we did! Re: Elderton Homes - experiences & reviews 55Jan 07, 2015 1:14 pm @ Emma1906 - Oh my!!! Elderton used to be the most affordable builder!! With a price hike of 15k, less those inclusions - Guess they dont want to wear that crown any more!!!! Firstbuildlucky Re: Elderton Homes - experiences & reviews 56Jan 28, 2015 6:02 pm hi! we are building with elderton as well! we are still at tender stage. so far, adam and john have been really helpful! Re: Elderton Homes - experiences & reviews 58Feb 14, 2015 10:17 am christinas hi! we are building with elderton as well! we are still at tender stage. so far, adam and john have been really helpful! Congrats! We are also in the tender stage with Elderton. Where are you building? We are looking to do a KDR with fairhaven homes, Have seen plenty of good reviews about them pre construction and plenty of negative reviews about them during contruction… 0 18013 Hi starting the process of looking around for Dual Occ builders. 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