Building with Wisdom Homes

Tender/drafting stage is the most frustrating part of the process for most of us. Once you have signed contracts and get assigned a CSR you’ll feel much more in the loop and your file will progress faster. The house will be worth it in the end.

Cladding is Tabby and the render is going to be Oil Shale which is a darker grey. It was hard finding greys that sat well with the brown bricks. Most looked really blue and clashed but I didn’t want anything really beige or brown.




Building Wisdom Aspiration 31 at Willowdale
https://ourwillowdalehome.wordpress.com/

Obviously hard for you to comment and it seems like things have improved recently but if we have one redraft and give them a leeway of 4weeks for that, then whatever needs to occur for DA, I am imagining that the build will start in 6mo (best case).

So, do you think we will be spending Xmas in our new home or remain in our rental?

[quote="becks81"]Obviously hard for you to comment and it seems like things have improved recently but if we have one redraft and give them a leeway of 4weeks for that, then whatever needs to occur for DA, I am imagining that the build will start in 6mo (best case).

So, do you think we will be spending Xmas in our new home or remain in our rental? /quote]

Very hard to say as depends on size of your house and also council. Personally I would say no and if you happen to be then that’s a nice surprise.

We are nearing 14months on our Wisdom journey and hoping to submit for CDC approval this week. But we would be an example of worst case scenario and to be honest even though it has dragged out for different reasons I believe I have the best team working on my job so it is what it is. Hopefully though we get to site soon as it’s costing us $14k a month rent!

becks81 what council are you in? That’s what’s going to take the longest in my opinion

If the office downstairs is a part time guest room you might want to rethink the doorway and shift it further into to house (in line with the hometheatre wall) to allow for a bit more privacy, either one or two pocket doors to allow for openness when its an office without taking up the”real estate” of standard hinged doors.
Also consider built in understair cupboards for coats etc (kitchen appointment), which will allow you to use that other storage room on the backside of the stairs as a linen cupboard.

[quote="becks81"]Obviously hard for you to comment and it seems like things have improved recently but if we have one redraft and give them a leeway of 4weeks for that, then whatever needs to occur for DA, I am imagining that the build will start in 6mo (best case).

So, do you think we will be spending Xmas in our new home or remain in our rental? /quote]
We signed our contract in June 2016 (after signing the tender in March 2016) and they scraped our site in December 2016 and the slab went down in February 2017. The build finished in September 2017.

Whether timelines are similar these days, best to ask those more involved now - appears like admin is still the same, and construction period is longer these days. The longer construction period is not a bad thing in my view (yep frustrating during the process), but our build was super quick and now we are dealing with a number of ongoing issues post build. We are 9 months living in the house and still dealing with maintenance. Whether these issues (which are mainly installation errors) would have happened if the build wasn't as rushed, I don't know, but you would like to think they are less likely to happen if there is more time to do the job.

Hopefully Wisdom can keep on top of their trades and SS's and keep the end product high moving forward.

How much extra did you have to pay for your timber stairs and glass frame, looks great

Per 2016 Tender: (Package 3 Upgrade 1 from Staircase Allowance sheet)


Provide Stainless steel posts, Stainless steel D clamps, glass balustrade, Maple handrail including clear finish returning to tread and Maple sawtooth capping including clear finish. $5,420.00

Provide 30mm Maple tread and 18mm Maple riser including clear finish in lieu of standard. $4,390.00

Provide stain finish to treads, risers, sawtooth capping and handrail in lieu of clear finish. $1,710.00

Thank you all for your help so far. Sorry for the heavy postage to come.

What does everyone think of the ILVE appliances that are supplied with the package and if I wanted to source my own appliances, how does this work in terms of installation eg we already have a fridge and will have a cold water point installed, do we connect or can they?

Regardless of who supplies your appliances they are installed after handover anyway.

If you wish to source your own appliances you have to have the specs prior to your electrical and kitchen appointments.

Electrical will charge you to provision for these if the electrical needs are above what’s included

Wisdom won’t install any of your own applinaces

The included appliances are really good, can’t fault them. I think the credits are quite small so changing them is over-capitalising. That said, my kitchen would have looked so sleek with inbuilt ovens and an induction hob

We kept most of the appliances, swapped the included microwave for a convection oven and added a few of our own ones after handover.
Agreed, the included ones we kept we can't fault with their operation.
Any that you wish to install after handover, ensure that they are provisioned during your appointments as M52 said above.

We sourced our own appliances because we didnt want an upright cooker and wanted two wall ovens including a steam oven. Yes the credit we got back was small in comparison to the RRP if the items, but we got quite a good deal on our appliances.

Also keep in mind that Wisdom probably get good prices for buying in bulk/volume and so the credit they give will be no where near the RRP for the same items.

The included microwave is 25litres I think so depending on your needs, it may be on the smaller size compared to some large family ones.

Hi All, a question for those that have recently competed or close to it. Who did you use for window furnishings? Does Wisdom allow you to measure/quote so that they can be installed on handover? Any advise on your experience is much appreciated, Thanks

If you want to change any of the package inclusions you can choose something else from the Winning Appliances website and Wisdom will install it for you.

No, we weren’t able to let any external contractors in, but it depends on your site supervisor, we didn’t ask for anything apart from measuring up for blinds and were told no.
FYI for any W reps reading, although I understand there is no vested interest for W to have site supervisors hang around while blinds are measured up, it would simply be good customer service. They took 20 minutes at the most to measure up but take about 8 weeks to come in, which is a long time to live without window furnishings.

We went with Fusion blinds and they’re being installed on wednesday. They have a good reputation and the best prices we found.

Hi all,
Currently building a Wisdom with the prestige package. Have a quick question with respect to the front door. We have an XS24 door with rosewood stain. Is a timber door frame in the same stain as the front door an upgrade or is this included as part of the prestige package. TIA

Is there any issue to use sharknose on Laminex?