Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1401Nov 27, 2015 6:58 am Hi all, We also have our first round of appointments next week and reading all your posts and tips feel somewhat prepared! Everything has gone pretty smoothly so far, with the exception of a few initial delays, but our tender presenter has been great and quick to get back to us on any issues we needed clarified. We only accepted tender 3 weeks ago so this is all starting to happen really quickly now! We have visited Reece and DiLorenzo to do some recon and we're going to all the brick places tomorrow to select our brick. The info sent to us says we need to bring our selected brick to the colour appointment, so we're assuming this means we need to visit all the brick supplieers beforehand to choose? Is this the process? I have another question about the kitchen appointment - are the bathroom vanity colours decided then too? And are we able to pick more than one stone colour for the kitchen and bathrooms or does it have to be the same? As we want to upgrade the kitchen stone but not the bathroom stone. I honestly don't know how we are going to fit all this in in a 2 hour appointment as Knebel is also doing our laundry, media, leisure and walk in waldrobe fit out, plus 4 bathroom vanities. Really hope we can go overtime if need be. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1402Nov 27, 2015 7:05 am It seems that they have changed the process. Only accepted the tender 3 weeks ago and doing colours? Don't be surprised if you have to reselect tiles/carpet due to no stock or discontinuation. You get 2 colours for stone/laminate. 1 colour for kitchen and 1 colour for all bathrooms and laundry. Changing vanity colours between bathrooms comes as an extra cost. But yes, all your vanitys etc is picked at your kitchen appointment. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1403Nov 27, 2015 7:18 am Hi msjovi, Yep you will need to visit the brick places beforehand and make your selection. Do you require exposure grade bricks? If so we found that PGH had the biggest selection in the included range so we just went there and found one we liked. Otherwise you should be able to have an initial look online and then narrow it down. Quick update on our build, the excavation was done 2 weeks ago, the slab was laid a week ago and we should have the drainage done early next week with the frame expected to go up the week after. We had been hoping to get the frame up before Christmas and it looks like that is going to happen - they definitely move a lot faster in construction than the admin phase. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1404Nov 27, 2015 7:28 am Hi msjovi, hubby and I have been to the brick places and you can pick up samples of ones you like. That was a lot harder for us that we thought it would be.... One brick looks so different to a whole wall and a whole house of it. We have a few samples sitting at home so we can look at them in different light... We are tossing up on 2, Whitsunday Orpheus (austral brick) and Brahman Granite (Bowral Brick - on display at Austral). The Brahman is an upgade and will need to be priced on application and the Orpheus is included...will all come down to budget! But it's not something you can change so we want to get it right!! We plan on accepting tender next week so hopefully we can get our appt's starting to happen early Jan. Has anyone done their flooring externally after handover? We're building the Serenity 31 and plan on doing all but the bedrooms, theatre, office and wet area's after handover. We are adamant on the timber look tiles and cannot justify Di Lorenzo's pricing on them (when some of the tile outlet places have them for half the price!!). I'm worried how the skirtings and kitchen etc all get put in without the flooring being there?! Building Wisdom Homes Serenity 31 Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1405Nov 27, 2015 8:18 am Hi Reading all the posts it seems like we should be ready beforehand with our selection. Not enough time if we do it just on our appointment days? Couldn't find an exact list of places to go to or wisdom uses. Just picked up names from previous posts. So its: Knebel -- for kitchen Reece - For Bathroom De Lorenzo -- for tiles PGH -- For Bricks Anywhere else we can go or options? Building Washington 29, Avanti Facade. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1407Nov 27, 2015 9:28 am Thanks everyone. We really like the brick used in the Ambassador display at the ponds, which is the house we're building, but it is an upgrade brick from Boral (blackstone) so will depend on pricing. We have picked a brick called Espresso from PGH which looks similar but need to see it first. We were told during our tender presentation that they had changed the process to make the admin stage quicker, so we will be going to all our appointments and still haven't received our final plans. Apparently they go off the draft plans for tiles, kitchen etc - hope it all works out ok. So Kirst10 you may end up going to all your appointments in Dec! It actually suits us fine as we are hoping to start building in April! Wishful thinking maybe?? We were considering doing our own flooring as we love the timber look tiles as well, but the laying costs through DiLorenzo are exorbitant! We've decided to go 600x600 which will be a slight upgrade as we want it all done before we move in.. Its going to be a loong appointment day on Tuesday! Hashem2k3 bricks can also be selected from Boral, kitchens are alternated between Timpelle and Knebel so could be either one. We were given a Wise pack usb stick with all the selections at our tender presentation which has been great to go through. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1408Nov 27, 2015 2:42 pm Good to know msjovi!! If we can get the appt's out of the way before chrissy that would be great - but getting time for the appt before chrissy with a busy calendar could be challenging! We are hoping to start our house in May, but am wondering if that is wishful thinking too... all we can do is go in with a strong idea of what we want to the appts. What appts do you have on Tuesday? Our Tender presenter has been great also - very quick to reply and was even chasing me at one stage! Building Wisdom Homes Serenity 31 Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1409Nov 27, 2015 4:52 pm We have kitchen/cabinetry in the morning at Timpelle and then tiles in the afternoon at DiLorenzo. Not too worried about the kitchen as we have want it to be as it was in the display home and have a provisional allowance for it. It's the bathrooms I'm stressing over although I think we'll probably just keep the same theme for all but the master ensuite. The tile appointment is another story.. Think we may just blow our budget there. They have some really beautiful tiles but at quite a cost! Hopefully we can find what we like in the standard ranges for all the wet areas. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1410Nov 29, 2015 9:22 pm msjovi We have kitchen/cabinetry in the morning at Timpelle and then tiles in the afternoon at DiLorenzo. Not too worried about the kitchen as we have want it to be as it was in the display home and have a provisional allowance for it. It's the bathrooms I'm stressing over although I think we'll probably just keep the same theme for all but the master ensuite. The tile appointment is another story.. Think we may just blow our budget there. They have some really beautiful tiles but at quite a cost! Hopefully we can find what we like in the standard ranges for all the wet areas. Hi msjovi So after tender acceptance you were asked to do the appointments? It seems different for everyone. We were told we have to sign the contract first before we can do the appointments. We're finalising contracts and plan this coming week and then selections after that. Plans have been issued last week but still have errors after 5 revisions. So i'm guessing that there will be more to come after selection. Good luck on your appointment on Tuesday. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1411Nov 29, 2015 9:24 pm Greg_K Hi msjovi, Yep you will need to visit the brick places beforehand and make your selection. Do you require exposure grade bricks? If so we found that PGH had the biggest selection in the included range so we just went there and found one we liked. Otherwise you should be able to have an initial look online and then narrow it down. Quick update on our build, the excavation was done 2 weeks ago, the slab was laid a week ago and we should have the drainage done early next week with the frame expected to go up the week after. We had been hoping to get the frame up before Christmas and it looks like that is going to happen - they definitely move a lot faster in construction than the admin phase. Congrats Greg! Hopefully there will be no delays on your one. We're signing contract this week and hopefully can start the selection. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1412Nov 29, 2015 9:57 pm addie 1231 msjovi We have kitchen/cabinetry in the morning at Timpelle and then tiles in the afternoon at DiLorenzo. Not too worried about the kitchen as we have want it to be as it was in the display home and have a provisional allowance for it. It's the bathrooms I'm stressing over although I think we'll probably just keep the same theme for all but the master ensuite. The tile appointment is another story.. Think we may just blow our budget there. They have some really beautiful tiles but at quite a cost! Hopefully we can find what we like in the standard ranges for all the wet areas. Hi msjovi So after tender acceptance you were asked to do the appointments? It seems different for everyone. We were told we have to sign the contract first before we can do the appointments. We're finalising contracts and plan this coming week and then selections after that. Plans have been issued last week but still have errors after 5 revisions. So i'm guessing that there will be more to come after selection. Good luck on your appointment on Tuesday. Thanks Addie. Yes, we only accepted tender 4 weeks ago now but having said that it was accepted 'with revisions'. 2 weeks later we received the revised tender which seemed ok except for one point which was not stated correctly. We should have plans this week - really hoping they will be correct but having read the issues everyone else has with their plans I am now doubting it! We were told by our sales consultant early on that we could expect to go to selection appointments at the same time as the working drawings being prepared and this seems to be the process that is happening for us. On another note, we went to the brick selection centres this week and decided on PGH Espresso as we want a dark brick to go with the grey render - similar to the Ambasssador display. Now I am reading negative reviews about the paint chipping off the bricks and I'm starting to worry. The other, smoother faced dark bricks are all so much more expensive. Has anyone had issues with dark bricks and chipping? And has anyone upgraded to a different darker brick and remember what the cost was to do so? Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1413Dec 02, 2015 11:55 am Holy hell, just got told to extend our front porch step from 1500mm to 3000mm (the width of the porch) will be an additional $3650. Making the total cost of 2-3steps well over $7000 (we've already been costed $3650 for the 1500mm ones). Am I right in thinking this is an insane cost? I know we can do them after handover...would be good to have them laid with the slab though. Building Wisdom Homes Serenity 31 Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1414Dec 03, 2015 4:00 pm Msjovi, I really wouldn't recommend a slurry brick. We used pgh truffle and had excessive lime pitting, which wasn't apparent until after the brick cleaning was done. There are heaps of chips all over the brickwork. PGH admitted fault. Their solution to fix them, was to use exterior house paint mixed with bondcrete to paint the chips. It's noticeable, but not as bad as it was. Kirst10, for that price, I'd do it after handover. Alternatively try and get on site when the concreters are there and ask them if they'll do it for you at the same time. Wisdom use star concrete for their slabs. Maybe even give them a call and see if they'll be willing to help you out in having it done at the same time as the slab. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1415Dec 03, 2015 4:32 pm Hi Extreme, thanks for the advice. What would you have chosen in hindsight? We really want a dark brick but the ones coloured all the way through are very expensive. It may work out cheaper to just get a moroka finish.. Building with Wisdom Homes 1416Dec 03, 2015 8:32 pm Msjovi, We built with Espresso and were also concerned with chipping. In the end I think it turned out pretty good. Yes there are chips and you can notice them up close (within a few metres) but the effect is what we were after and I think I can live with it. If I change my mind later I'll try touching the more noticeable chips up with paint and if it really bothers me then we can always Moroka or Render it later. There are some pics in my thread if you want to see what they look like. Matt Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1417Dec 06, 2015 9:50 am Just wondering, For those in the know, is it standard practice to place insulation batts in the joists separating ground floor from first floor. SS said that the insulation is complete but there is no insulation in these areas. Tender says that - insulation: R3.0 to ceiling (except for garage and alfresco), Well the ground floor ceiling does not have much at all in the way of insulation because of the joists. Also even if there are metal straps holding timber studs in place, the insulators did not bother putting insulation batts (see pic below). One would think that they would cut it up and try to work around the metal straps and other obstacles. They simply just discarded the additional batts in the ceiling cavity. A lot of the smaller areas around the aircon duct system in the roof is not insulated at all. Is there a reason for all of this? what has been the experience of others building double storeys when it comes to the placement of insulation batts? http://i1377.photobucket.com/albums/ah80/paadthai25b/IMG_1084_zpsdkxagget.jpg http://i1377.photobucket.com/albums/ah80/paadthai25b/IMG_1090_zps4mhws6hk.jpg http://i1377.photobucket.com/albums/ah80/paadthai25b/IMG_1095_zps3lhkgnm5.jpg Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1418Dec 06, 2015 12:38 pm Hi imtellinya, We didn't get any insulation in the GF ceiling except where we had upgraded to it in our contract. We had also added insulation to the interior GF walls as well. They did put it in our GF leisure ceiling as standard as that is single storey so that ceiling is under a roof: http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx82/lunar62/GR%2020-08-15%20026_zpsdassjsmb.jpg Upstairs we had plenty of insulation on the ceiling and external walls and none on any internal walls: http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx82/lunar62/GR%2020-08-15%20072_zpsqqp8olua.jpg ps Our insulation was put in mid August and we have handover this coming Friday 11th. Building a Wisdom Majestic 40 at Gardener's Ridge My blog: http://majestic40atgardenersridge.wordpress.com/ Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1419Dec 06, 2015 3:22 pm Lunar Hi imtellinya, We didn't get any insulation in the GF ceiling except where we had upgraded to it in our contract. We had also added insulation to the interior GF walls as well. Thanks, lunar. This is why it is all so confusing. The tender and 'smart' inclusions list (2013) clearly states - R3.0 to ceilings (except for Alfresco and garage). If that means no insulation to ground floor ceiling as standard, then the builder needs to add ground floor ceiling to the exception list! Alternatively, they should reword it to say 'R3.0 - to roof ceiling'. At least this way people can think of the option of upgrading. I did not know until I checked out my home the other day. Which parts of the ground floor ceiling did you add insulation to and how did you know that they will not be adding insulation in the first place? So it is roughly 3-4 months of work from insulation to handover for a double storey? That seems a bit long! Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 1420Dec 06, 2015 4:06 pm imtellinya Lunar Hi imtellinya, We didn't get any insulation in the GF ceiling except where we had upgraded to it in our contract. We had also added insulation to the interior GF walls as well. Thanks, lunar. This is why it is all so confusing. The tender and 'smart' inclusions list (2013) clearly states - R3.0 to ceilings (except for Alfresco and garage). If that means no insulation to ground floor ceiling as standard, then the builder needs to add ground floor ceiling to the exception list! Alternatively, they should reword it to say 'R3.0 - to roof ceiling'. At least this way people can think of the option of upgrading. I did not know until I checked out my home the other day. Which parts of the ground floor ceiling did you add insulation to and how did you know that they will not be adding insulation in the first place? So it is roughly 3-4 months of work from insulation to handover for a double storey? That seems a bit long! I agree about rewording it to make it clearer, I only found out by reading different blogs and threads. We chose to put sound insulation in the study ceiling so no one would be disturbed at night if hubby was working late. I would have liked it in all the GF ceilings but it came down to what upgrades did we want to spend the money on. As to time taken to build, yes it has been a long slog - 8.5 months : April Fool's Day - portaloo May 2nd - slab laid Dec 1st - PCI Dec 11th - Handover Building a Wisdom Majestic 40 at Gardener's Ridge My blog: http://majestic40atgardenersridge.wordpress.com/ Can someone please offer some advice? Im DESPERATE. Because I'm completely and utterly exhausted. How long are variations taking with other companies at the moment? We… 0 18470 In fairness nobody gave a crap about the ACCC and the gag clauses continued in the pro forma templates of a few other builders after the ACCC took on Wisdom, and more… 19 73496 Hi Everyone, I am exploring builder in NSW and received a very tempting quote from Wisdom home for their momentum series. I just want to know experience of building… 0 8240 |