Building with Wisdom Homes

Hi Funk52,

In regards to the rendering job, my advice is to avoid the render.

It will look nice in the beginning but no matter who does the job for you, it will ALWAYS crack.
Even the acrylic render will still crack.

My house is being done with the brick work all the way because it always looks good and it requires low maintenance.

With the swimming pool job, I can't advise you because I am not having a pool on my property

I don't think Wisdom would do the pool DA as they aren't building it. Have you considered getting them to do it? they are doing ours and i think the result would be a more seamless finish and quite frankly less I have to chase and coordinate prior of after.

in regards to render i would also suggest getting it done with the build. Its a messy job and you don't want trades dropping render all over your new house after handover.

we are doing the diplomat facade on a Manhattan 52 with the front being rendered for $20k

Wisdom will not touch anything to do with your pool if not doing it with them, you are better off with BASIX putting the DA through separately anyway. We got our pool put in before the build as we don’t have the side access for machinery after the house has been built, and wisdoms pools are out of budget.
Render is super expensive with W, we decided to just get them to render our portico and that was $3.5k. I was worried if we didn’t, we’d never do it as there always something we want to buy that takes priority over that lol. It’s definitely worth considering doing after handover.

We built a Windsor 46 with Eden Brae Homes about 8 years ago.. The house was fully rendered, as will our Manhattan 52 be. When we sold our house 2 years ago as a 6 year old house, there was no cracks and nothing needed painting or touching up. It was like a brand new house.

Hi. Could someone pm me the alarm code wisdom put in when you move in?
I’ve accidentally armed the alarm and can’t find the code to stop it!!
SOS if anyone is on lol

Oh no! I have no idea what it was? Maybe just 0000?


Building Majestic 40 - wisdom homes

Thanks for that Mrsllamas2016.
What is your view on freestanding oven/cooktop vs underbench oven? My only concern is abt cleaning the food crumbs that may fall from the sides and back of freestanding cooktop. do you see that as an issue, or may be I am being overly pedantic.

I love the free standing and the bench actually runs behind the back of mine so no problems there, but who knows what ends up down the sides but it’s honestly not much I don’t think. I suppose you could try removing the bottom plate to get under it, but I haven’t tried. My old one was open at the bottom so never had a problem... personal preference I guess!


Building Majestic 40 - wisdom homes

We are of the same opinion too. We opted to include the Daintree Landscaping Package worth $20,500 (take $5,500 Landscaping voucher from Live Boldly Promo) and we have landscaping including driveway, back and front turf, maillbox, plants etc for $15k. It saves me finding landscapers after handover and organising quotes etc etc. We just want as much as possible move in ready and be able to enjoy the new home as well - the driving factor really is not only cost but timing - we are hoping to move in before our daughter's 16th Birthday and hubby's 40th and have the house party ready! Haha!

I guess if you must do it after handover, so important (with anything really!) to do your research and background checks on landscaping companies and tradies and you don't get "rotten" ones because unfortunately there are ones out there - i had a friend who paid a landscaper (lots of $$$) and he did a runner!

PS had to change the word d o d g y to "rotten" as admin didn't like! Woops!

MrsLlamas2016, thank you for posting the pics in regards to the CSD! We managed to make the changes just before our consultant submitted the variations! Thank goodness! How are you feeling? Your due date must be around the corner! I hope you are feeling great! I was actually thinking of PM'ing you about your black feature tiles in your bathroom (but i didn't want to disturb you in case you were busy with newborn bub!) I remember you posting pics of your bathroom with the black feature tiles in your shower ensuite and really like it!

No probs!
11 days to go! Eek so yes I’m about to find out how un-Baby friendly my house is hahaha

I’m on mat leave so feel free to message me any questions


Building Majestic 40 - wisdom homes

I guess I am lucky in that I don't need to move in ASAP.

I would probably draw the line at sourcing internal tiles and carpeting myself which sounds like too much of a hassle. But when I am getting pool quotes which are all $15k+ less than what Wisdom is quoting (even after using the gift voucher) there is no way I would pay Wisdom that kind of premium.

With the landscaping I have been recommended the Eden package due to the size of my block ($33.5k less $5.5k voucher). This seems quite expensive for what is very basic looking landscaping which I will most likely need to upgrade, then on top I will need tiling for the alfresco plus glass fencing and tiling for the pool area. To get all that with Wisdom and end up with something half decent is not going to be cheap. There are definitely sizeable savings to be made.

Totally get what you mean! I thought the Landscaping was hefty as well - until i asked the forum and a few friends whether the $15,500 was reasonable for what i'm getting in the package. Driveways alone can cost $8-9k already. The package also includes fencing and the 2 side gates amongst other things. Are you getting a pool from Wisdom? That was the only thing i was going to do after handover... in the future though. I dread to even ask how much Wisdom charge for pools I only want a smallish one (5m x 3m) and if i'm not mistaken, a pool this size is from 50k plus - as per the Wisdom landscaping brochure

Has anyone got info on these landscaping packages?
Maybe they aren’t applicable to my block (645sqm) as we’ve never been offered a package.
We just wrote up a very long list of things we want to do before we move in, plus the landscaping and furniture and appliances we want to buy. Going to have no money again ever lol

Hi MandM+4, the landscaping package is from the Live Boldly Promo. I took a photo of the Eden package for you - it's applicable to 600sqm block. For a bigger block than the 600sqm, you just pay the difference for what you need (ie turf etc)

I just did my list today too... it all adds up, doesn't it! I have a list from appliances to furniture and down to the nitty gritty like habedashery and lighting! Lol!

Thanks!

This prices in the brochure are based on a flat block of land. I have two landscaping quotes for land of 450-480m2 come up to be around $55k excluding pool of course

Thank you Psur2357! That is good to know. We have Tender Presentation coming up in 2 weeks and i will clarify the details then.

Happy New Year folks!

In my opinion landscaping is the biggest waste of money to pay wisdom. The Eden package if u were to do yourself, it wouldn't cost much. Colored concrete driveway is about $100sqm and so that's about 5.5k but let's just round it up to 6k. Then add a fence which is about $65 lineal mtre x 50 = 3.25k + grass which cost bout $10lineal metre and is so easy to lay 3.2k based off their 320sqm provision, letterbox - 500 max, clothesline - 300 and other items are also minor so the value if u want to include labour should be no more than 20k. Do some yourself like laying grass and clothesline, letterbox and you'll probably have change with that 20k so to pay 33k to wisdom is just overpaying.

With render, wisdom are expensive. I remember them saying it was like 50k to render the Manhattan 39 we are building so we only rendered our whole front facade only which was about 9k. Lately ive been quite turned off by render as I've seen so many rendered houses with cracks but the sales consultant did say the renderers wisdom have are excellent so fingers crossed we don't get cracks